Enabling gauges crashed (null-this, illegal 0x478). Root cause was NOT video:
the MUNGA main heap (fixed 6MB default) exhausted loading gauge images. The
heap size comes from getenv("HEAPSIZE") (BTL4OPT.EXE @0x401076; default
0x600000); the pod's PARAMETR.BAT sets it (:POD=15MB, :REVIEW/:LOOP=32MB) but
our minimal setenv launch never did. memsize is irrelevant (it's the game's
own heap, not DOS memory -- verified memsize=127 still gave 6MB). Pods have
32MB RAM so 15MB fits.
Fix (no binary patch): set HEAPSIZE=15000000 + L4GAUGE=640x480x16 in
gauge.conf. Game now runs sustained with gauges on (500+ frames); the VESA
640x480x16 mode switches fine on our emulated S3 and the cockpit instrument
panels draw (DISPLAY/PROGRAM/ENG DATA/TRIGGER CONFIG...).
patch_btl4opt.py also gained Verify_Failed (DEBUG-build assertion) neutral-
ization -- release-equivalent robustness, separate from the heap fix.
Known-open (GAUGE-NOTES.md): the framebuffer renders only a top strip,
garbled -- the game bank-switches via a hardcoded far pointer in L4GAUGE.INI
(C000:2616, the STB Horizon+ card's VESA WinFuncPtr) that isn't valid on our
emulated S3, so only the first bank(s) page in. Fixing bank-switching (or an
LFB mode) is next; then the full buffer can be split into the six displays.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Lighting: stride-8/9 vertices carry a normal (floats 3-5, uv at 6-7). The
backend transforms normals by the instance rotation and lights with a single
directional sun (GL_LIGHT0, smooth, two-sided, GL_COLOR_MATERIAL). Terrain
and hulls shade instead of reading flat.
LOD: the lod flush has no switch distances -- the host keeps the active LOD
at the child-list head and re-orders over the wire, so children[0] is right
and LOD changes come through as the sim runs.
The crash that halted the game once the RIO drove the sim was not ours: fault
at 0047E1D1 writing 0xFFFFFFFF is the RIO driver's DISABLE_AND_DIE debug
macro (PCSPAK.ASM, DIE_ON_ERROR=1), which deliberately faults on a serial-tx
anomaly -- error 3 = body char >0x7F during a RIO packet, i.e. a glitch on a
board reset. Release build (DIE_ON_ERROR=0) compiles it out and recovers
(and al,07Fh). patch_btl4opt.py NOPs all 12 sites by signature (with .orig
backup) = release behavior; game then survives RIO resets (1200+ frames).
(ALPHA_1 is git-ignored, so the tool ships, not the patched binary.)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
CydandClaude Opus 4.8