Real-NE2000 semantics: accept only own-MAC unicast + broadcast (multicast
excluded -- the guest stack is unicast+ARP only), and drop npcap's loopback
of our own injected frames. Without it, a live-LAN host download floods the
emulated NIC at wire rate (65k+ frames/min) and wedges netnub before boot
("discarding..."). Filter failure is non-fatal: logs and runs unfiltered.
Also log the first 12 unicast accepts/drops with the live PAR registers.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Complete arg surface of the single installed entry-point -- mode selector
(bt/rp + recognized-unsupported), feature toggles, window placement, path
overrides, diagnostics, and the exit codes the console reads back (game
ExitCodeID passed through; 2=bad args; 3=mode not yet wired).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- net-boot/loop_rp.bat: GO.BAT-style netnub loop for RP (mirror of loop.bat,
retargeted to rpl4opt). deploy/net_rp.conf.tmpl now calls it instead of the
single-shot netnub + DOS pause -- the deployable runs in a loop until the
supervisor kills DOSBox (per operator: no single-shot in the product).
- DLL closure resolved: dosbox-x.exe is a 182MB STATIC build -- import table is
only Windows system DLLs, delay-import table empty, libpng/SDL/zlib embedded.
Nothing to bundle; wpcap.dll comes from the Npcap install. package.ps1's "no
DLLs" case is now informational, and the plan/README note the static build.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Network-agnostic, air-gapped pod install for the two DOSBox titles (BT/RP 4.10),
fitting the existing TeslaConsole/TeslaLauncher pod-bay architecture.
emulator/DEPLOYMENT-PLAN.md
Full design: bridge on the one NIC (pods form a source-proven P2P TCP mesh, so
NAT/slirp is out); launcher keeps the bay IP, the DOSBox guest bridges at
bayIP+100 (egg/mesh/game endpoint); two-edit +100 convention (postinstall +
console DOSBox flag); static, air-gapped, <=32 pods.
emulator/pod-launch/ (C# net8 supervising entry-point)
Creates a Job Object (KILL_ON_JOB_CLOSE), launches DOSBox-X + the render bridge
into it and blocks -- kill this process and both die (kernel-enforced, even on
a hard TerminateProcess of a hung session; verified). Mode dispatch: bt/rp
wired (also serve camera + live mission-review via egg hostType); review +
diagnostics recognized but fail clean until their DOS launch args are known.
emulator/deploy/ (install side)
postinstall.bat (thin elevated wrapper) + configure.ps1 (NIC detect, realnic
bind as a contiguous letter-leading GUID fragment, game IP = bayIP+100, stable
MAC, render net_*.conf templates, stamp WATTCP.CFG my_ip) + tokenized conf
templates + package.ps1 (assemble the zip). Render/bind/stamp + packaging
verified against a scratch tree.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Real-pod deployment launcher for the original VDB + octopus 4-head wiring:
VPX_COCKPIT borderless head windows (radar/win0 800,0; 3-color MFD/win4 1440,0;
2-color MFD/win3 2080,0; all 640x480) + the GL bridge as the main out-the-window
view (0,0, 800x600 via new BRIDGE_W/BRIDGE_H in live_bridge.py). Editable RECTS
at the top of the script for other rigs.
focus_dosbox.ps1 restores the deployment window state: renderer -> always-on-top
(WS_EX_TOPMOST, game view never covered) + DOSBox-X -> 10,10 with foreground
focus (keeps the emu thread at foreground priority so the RIO doesn't starve).
Coexist cleanly: topmost renderer stays above the focused-but-non-topmost DOSBox.
pod_deploy calls it last; re-run anytime the stack is disturbed. LAUNCH.md
documents both.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Documents L4VIDEO/VIDEOFORMAT/L4GAUGE/L4PLASMA/L4TIMER/L4SOUND/L4CONTROLS/L4DPLCFG/L4EYES/DPLARG (values, meanings, which are getenv-read vs batch-only, the L4VIDEO two-script gotcha) + the VPX_/VWE_/VDB_/VRVIEW_ host vars.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
RP's cockpit displays decoded near-empty (top-strip only, a copy off-screen at
VRAM 0x100000) while BT's were full. Root cause was NOT the VDB decode (byte
split/palettes/stride all correct, proven by BT) but an SVGA bank-switch
GRANULARITY mismatch: RP's REL410/RP/GAUGE/L4GAUGE.INI [640x480x16] used
granularityInKB=4 vs BT's 64 on the same STB Horizon+ (CL-GD5434). DOSBox-X's
CL-GD5434 bank emulation handles 64KB granularity (BT full) but mishandles the
4KB-granular paged gauge writes, scattering them off-screen.
FIX (config, no rebuild): RP L4GAUGE.INI granularityInKB 4->64 (matches BT,
same card). VERIFIED live: VRAM content scan went from 0x0+0x100000 (top-strip
+ off-screen) to the FULL framebuffer 0x0..0x90000 populated; radar +
upper-center MFD confirmed correct, rest under reference check.
Also commits the VDB diagnostic tooling that found it (vpxlog.cpp, all
default-off): VDB_SCAN (VRAM content locator -- decisive), VDB_PALDUMP,
pixel-mask value logging, VDB_REALSTRIDE + live mode/stride/start logging,
VDB_BASE read-base override, VDB_APPLYMASK DAC-mask honoring. Full writeup in
VDB-NOTES.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Operator documented the physical VDB + companion card: Jaton KY2-JAX-CVGA54PCI
(Cirrus CL-GD5434) feeds a 26-pin feature-connector ribbon to an AMD/Lattice
MACH130-15JC CPLD (the ISA 0x300-0x31A port decoder + hardwired byte-lane
splitter), which drives 3x Brooktree Bt477KPJ80 RAMDACs -> one VGA stream to
the color radar + a DB25 fan-out to the 5 mono MFDs. Confirms the RE (3 DACs =
3 palette groups; Bt477 6-bit DAC = the driver's shr al,2). A component tied in
parallel to the PC front-panel reset (remote reboot or VDB known-state on
reset) is under operator research. Also: RP uses the FULL 640x480 on all 6
displays (so our top-strip decode = a framebuffer READ bug, stride/page, not
sparse RP content).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Comprehensive VWE Video Display/splitter Board writeup: what it is (dumb ISA
splitter tapping the companion Cirrus Logic SVGA feature connector), the
definitive I/O register map from L4SVGA16.ASM (Secondary 0x302 / Aux1 0x30A /
Aux2 0x312, each +0 mask/+1 read/+2 write/+3 data, 6-bit DAC; clock divider
0x319 off / 0x31A on), the byte-lane split (low byte->Secondary, high
byte->Aux1/Aux2 -> separate VGA heads -> octopus cable -> 5 mono MFDs + color
radar), the driver's bitMask+channelEnable CLUT-build trick that packs multiple
displays into one framebuffer, the pixel-mask flash + Secondary-only fade, our
emulation, the OPEN RP decode problem, and a physical-sample verification
checklist (port-decoder PAL, 3 RAMDACs, octopus pinout, Cirrus chip id).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
RP's high-frequency checkerboard track floor aliases/moires without mipmaps
(reads as "flashing geometry" in motion; user's texture-interpolation call).
vrview_gl _tex() now builds mipmaps + trilinear/anisotropic filtering under
VRVIEW_MIPMAP=1 (keeps point-sample look up close; off by default = authentic
i860, BT-identical). launch_pod.ps1 gains -Mipmap so it's set at BOOT -- never
restart the bridge mid-mission (GL-context churn starves the RIO ACK deadline).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
RP experiment finding: RP runs on the BT pod emulator (shared MUNGA stack) but
its cockpit VDB heads mis-decode. Root causes captured live (VDB_PALDUMP +
vpxresp log): (1) framebuffer identical to BT (mode 0x111, 640x480); (2) RP
loads pal0 (BT's dynamic color-radar palette) as ALL ZEROS -> radar head black;
(3) RP actively drives the VGA-DAC pixel-mask register that BT leaves at 0xFF,
and pal_draw ignored it -> likely the MFD garble.
Device change: pixel-mask writes now log their VALUE on change
("# VDB pixel-mask[gN] = 0xXX"); pal_draw ANDs the palette index with the
group mask under VDB_APPLYMASK=1 (default off = BT-identical); masks default to
0xFF in vdb_reset so an un-driven group still decodes. Built clean under MINGW64.
Also: Mac Console 4.10 retired from regular use (host .NET console is the daily
driver); tap2_mirror.py PARKED with revive notes for console A/B only. The
SendToRxAdapters registry stays set (serves the .NET host console).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Red Planet 4.10 checks in to the console, accepts the egg, launches, RIO drives it, AWE sound plays -- the whole BT pod stack (VPX board, netnub, RIO, sound, plasma, IRQ10 NIC) carries over unchanged. Main out-the-window render is flyable; VDB secondary heads black/frozen (RP inits the VDB differently) and the renderer needs RP-specific work.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Answering "why doesn't the binary honor the 30s -- it exits in a few seconds":
disassembled the StopMission close in all four BTL4OPT builds (BTLIVE May-96,
BTRAVINE Sep-96, BTDAVE, Rel410) -- BYTE-IDENTICAL, so nothing regressed. The
dispatched (outer) handler is a re-entrant two-stage close: first StopMission
schedules itself +~3s (3.0f) and returns; the +3s re-entry runs cleanup then
calls the inner L4Application handler which lights the egress lamps and
schedules a +30s LightsOut/exit (30.0f). The 30s is scheduled after teardown
begins, so the exe is recycled by GO.BAT before it fires -- observed egress
window = ~3.4s = the 3.0f stage. The operator's remembered ~20-30s "lights on"
is entry lighting (floor lamp on game-ready->drop, 21s measured) + the
between-games boot gap, not a post-mission hold. Corrects my earlier
"authentic 30s hold" note. Tools: scratchpad btdis2.py + stopmission_cmp3.py.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Disassembled BTL4OPT.EXE StopMissionMessageHandler (@0x47b864): it turns
the RIO egress lamps on (the "LightsOut"-named routine, flag=1) and
schedules the lights-out/exit for now + 30.0*timebase + 0.5 (30.0f const
@0x47b8e4). So the customer-egress window is a hardcoded ~30s timer in
the GAME, not the console and not any INI/env value -- exactly matching
the operator's memory (StopMission -> floor lights on -> ~30s hold ->
lights off -> exit -> BAT restart). Answers "the delay must be somewhere":
it is compiled in. Noted the reconcile-with-3.4s-measured task (the
tapped 154.9s sweep was likely teardown; a 90s+ tap past mission end
settles wall-time). Disasm helper: scratchpad btdis2.py.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Measured Console 4.10 through the mirror: mission end to lights-off is
3.4s, identical to the TeslaConsole, with the Mac printer spooling to a
file. No egress-delay key exists in any console INI. Best explanation
for the remembered venue window: the console closes after spooling the
score sheet, and on period hardware that was a 9600-baud serial print
taking tens of seconds -- the floor lights stayed on for the print
duration. The hold itself is genuinely console-gated (pod holds
indefinitely when no close arrives).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
With SendToRxAdapters serving the host .NET console, the SheepShaver Mac
console was deaf (pod frames go up instead of out to TAP members). The
mirror daemon turns TAP2's free application side into a userspace bridge
port: pod frames destined for the Mac are written into TAP2 (bridge
forwards them to TAP1/SheepShaver), and a reader thread drains the
unicasts the bridge's poisoned MAC table steers into TAP2 and re-injects
them where the pod's pcap hears them. Loop guards: no pod-sourced
re-injection + short frame-hash dedup. Verified live: Console 4.10
readied the pod through the mirror while the .NET console path stayed
intact -- operator can now alternate between the 1996 Mac console and
the modern one without touching the driver config.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
RIO tap capture of a full TeslaConsole mission cycle: LampFloor 0x3E +
entry cluster (0x16/0x17/0x1e) bright at game-ready (customer entry),
off at mission drop, bright again at mission end (the state=2 hold),
all swept off the moment StopMission arrives, then game exit. The
egress window is purely the gap between mission end and the console's
StopMission send (measured 3.4s with TeslaConsole vs Console 4.10's
proper customer-exit delay) -- not a game timer, not the exit code.
Confirms the operator's remembered sequence byte for byte and pins the
TeslaSuite fix: a configurable delay before StopMission.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Wire + source answer to "what happens after the mission ends": the game
fades to the black hold, commands the RIO egress lamps (T 84 LampRequest
caught on the serial tap), and holds while its StateResponse to the
console's 1/s StateQuery flips to state 2. The hold ends only when the
console sends Application__StopMissionMessage with an ExitCodeID -- a
full remote-operations menu (run game/test patterns/ResetRIO/Norton/
SoftwareReset/camera/mission review) that the game hands to netnub as
its exit code for the pod loop to dispatch. The egress-hold length is
entirely the console's decision. Also documented the seat-trim-inside-
hull z-fighting lookalike (not a render bug).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The TeslaSuite console connected near-instantly over the new host
bridge, queued and ran a real 2-minute mission on the DOSBox pod, and
the mission exited on time. Wire-logged recycle: clean FIN/RST teardown
at mission end, console SYN-retrying 11s later, riding through dead-air
and connection-refused (pre-TCP_LISTEN) phases, reconnected 54s after
teardown with zero operator interaction. Modern console + net_loop.conf
pod = fully autonomous mission loop.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Windows host apps can now talk to the pod directly: static 200.0.0.1/24
on the Network Bridge adapter plus the Npcap SendToRxAdapters registry
value for the bridge GUID (driver-start read, so bounce the npcap
service and relaunch the pod). Verified with a host TCP connect to
200.0.0.113:1501. Documented the trade (pod frames go up to the host
stack INSTEAD of out to the TAP members -- SheepShaver console is deaf
while set), the revert, and the future both-at-once fix (Npcap >=1.83
user-mode DLLs + a second per-handle MODE_SENDTORX send handle in the
fork's pcap backend). Groundwork for the TeslaSuite .NET console
driving the DOSBox pod.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three-mission live session on net_loop.conf: the pod side is fully
retail-faithful (netnub auto-relaunches on mission end AND console
disconnect, ~60s cycle). Console 4.10's between-missions dead-end is
app-level: its TCP receives FIN+RST from the fresh netnub yet the app
never re-queries; only an app relaunch (endpoints rebuilt from the INI)
recovers it. Selecting a printer in the Chooser makes the app launch
much faster (Printing Manager stalls without one) but does not change
the dead-end. Documented the working operator rhythm and the plan for
bridging the host-side .NET console onto the pod LAN (bridge adapter
IP 200.0.0.1/24, possible Npcap SendToRx for pod->host hairpin).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Pilot sees the escape-pod/wreck interior at death instead of the portal
ride. Findings (DEATH-SEQUENCE-NOTES.md): two death variants exist --
respawn deaths transit the chain camera to the portal at the origin
(fp_cam's <100m vehicle-distance guard rejects exactly that ride = the
fix target); mission-end deaths (tonight's capture) have no transit on
the wire at all, just the fog fade at the wreck. At death the 0x1f
articulation batches switch to driving origin-anchored nodes = the
portal diorama animating; type-3 view flushes decode as projection+fog
only (hither/yon at floats 12/13). Reference capture
captures/netdeath-20260708.fifodump (full networked mission incl. death)
+ replay probes in probes/.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The main loop rendered EVERY draw_scene in arrival order, so any render
slowdown played the mission slower than real time and the view drifted
seconds behind the game (user: "renderer fell way out of sync"); the
backpressure hides in the socket, so backlog= stayed 0. Now each pass
slices all complete records, applies every state record in order, and
presents only the newest frame; superseded presents are counted in the
new skipped= report field. Live verdict over a full mission:
frames=10169 skipped=3 backlog=0B -- locked to the wire.
Also from the tuner session: seat trim granularity 0.1 (0.5 was too
jumpy) and a HUD size trim (vrview_gl u_scale + VRVIEW_HUDSCALE env,
live +/- keys) -- tuners stay enabled for pilot feedback; seat trim
turns out to be per-mech (Mad Cat vs Thor want different values).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The plasma serial2 addition put COM2 (IRQ 3) in conflict with nicirq=3:
netnub phase worked, then BTL4OPT opened the plasma port and NIC RX died,
so the pod never checked in to the console. NIC now on IRQ 10 in all net
confs + NET.CFG INT 10 (both sides must agree). Verified live: two full
console missions with plasma running.
Also: launch_pod.ps1 prepends the Npcap dir to PATH itself (a bare shell
gave "NO PACKET DRIVER FOUND"); net_diag.conf = packet-stack-only boot
with the NCSA Telnet suite on E: for DOS-side TCP tests; net_loop.conf
promoted to full production parity (sound + plasma + IRQ 10) -- the
GO.BAT-style instant netnub relaunch is also what lets the console
recover its zombie TCP session between missions (see NET-NOTES).
NET-NOTES: full 7/08-09 forensics writeup (TAP RX counter lie, console
IP .10, SBK re-upload measured, zombie-session mechanics).
LAST.EGG = the operator's missions from tonight's runs.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Instance body word 9 is the INTERSECT mask (verified live: terrain,
sky, buildings and enemy replicant mechs carry 0xffffffff; the player's
own mech parts, laser beams, missiles and effects carry 0). The raycast
now ANDs it against the query mask from the 0x26 arm -- exactly the
real board's exclusion. The min-range and hidden-until-armed gates
retire: point-blank enemy hulls are targetable again, and own-ordnance
exclusion is authored by the game itself.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Fog was computed per VERTEX; vertices behind the eye clamped to factor
zero, and the terrain/cloud triangles are large enough to span the
camera, so interpolation dragged the whole ground to unfogged (bright
terrain through the pre-drop blackout and the respawn reveal). The
eye-space depth now rides the varying (perspective-correct) and the
factor is computed per fragment, where clipping guarantees valid depth.
Verified offline: pre-drop hold renders solid black + HUD only (matches
the period screenshot exactly); the respawn fade shows the authentic
near-first reveal from the operator's VHS (ground clear, fog wall at
distance, sky still white).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The death sequence re-flushes the view with hither=1/yon=2 -- a thin
render shell that reveals geometry parked around the camera: the
escape-pod interior and the "blue swirly" ring dome (period VHS stills
of a 4.10 death match: violet concentric ripples, drifting center,
static canopy silhouette at the frame edge). Normal play clips the
shroud via the standard hither plane, so nothing leaks; the cull was
only masking authentic content. VRVIEW_NEARCULL=1 re-enables it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Period VHS footage of a 4.10 game (operator's capture) shows the twist
dial UNDER the reticle and the range bar filling top-to-bottom; our
mapping of dpl2d Y straight onto GL's Y-up NDC (and the software path's
"y up" projection) rendered the entire HUD vertically flipped.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- fp_cam works before the first vehicle articulation (a freshly dropped
mech sends no 0x1f until it moves; bailing out left the raw chain
convention showing the inside of the mech at every drop)
- The FLYK stand-in +90-deg yaw correction no longer applies to munga
content (it yawed the player's own mech -- and every animated model --
90 degrees: "looking through the right shoulder")
- With fog on, the clear colour saturates to the fog colour (background
at infinite distance); the pre-drop hold is FULLY black, as period
pilots confirm
- net_full.conf: COM2 plasma passthrough + setenv plasma flag
Networked console session verified live: black hold at ready, flash +
fade on console launch, drop-bay doors present, own mech visible, and
the full death sequence captured on the wire (fade-to-black, escape-pod
interior via near-fog exemption, world reload, white flash, blue-violet
respawn fade = the blue swirly's home).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The first-person canopy cull can now be disabled (VRVIEW_NEARCULL=0)
to study the always-armed cockpit/bay assembly from the true chain
eye -- part of the pilot-view attachment investigation.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Device raycast/scene parser (vpxlog.cpp):
- Connection lists: accumulate the WHOLE batch before slicing (records
straddling burst boundaries were dropped + misaligned the rest), do
not wipe polys per batch header (floor ships tri batch + quad batch;
only the last survived), keep every loop index (closing-dup drop
halved each quad). Together these were the "holey ground" the
range-finder fell through.
- Own-mech exclusion by minimum pick range (15) instead of the
dcs_parent ancestry walk: sibling link edges made the FLOOR and SKY
read as the player's subtree, so ground/sky aims never resolved.
Measured: own barrels/flash live within ~8 of the eye; sky/ground
are real pickable entities (sky.mod, afloor) -- firing into them
fires and misses, per the operator's arcade experience.
EMU8000 core (emu8k.cpp): clamp the oscillator output after cubic
interpolation. Crest overshoot on UNFILTERED voices overflowed int32
in the volume multiply and wrapped the crest negative for 1-3 samples
-- the speech/effects crackle (recorded signature: +0.7 flipping to
-0.7 at crests, random phase vs the chunk grid). Filter paths already
clamped; the bypass path now matches.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The stale-aim saga, root-caused live with the operator:
- The device raycast walked only lod[0] of each object; BT content is
authored ADDITIVE_LODS (arena wall = posts lod + panel lod), so the
aim ray flew BETWEEN the skeleton pieces of whatever was targeted --
94% miss rate (pick stats now log this).
- Misses fell back to a plain frame ack carrying no sect data, so the
game kept a seconds-old target: "aim updates every few seconds",
stationary shots stale. The pick is now answered EVERY armed frame;
a miss is a valid all-zero reply that clears targetEntity (aiming at
open sky un-targets -- authentic misfire, not stale fire).
- Raycast walks ALL lod children; own-articulation exclusion via the
CAM backchannel 7th field (vehicle root DCS) stops mid-volley picks
of the player's own muzzle flash / arms.
Renderer: same ADDITIVE_LODS fix -- when every LOD switch window is
the degenerate (0,1e9) fallback, draw the union of all lods. The
arena wall ring (user-confirmed live) went from floating post slivers
to the full textured wall. Bridge reports its wire backlog.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three WAVs written from the render thread: per-card PRE-limiter
streams as float32 (clipping baked in upstream shows as flat tops
above full scale) and the POST-limiter int16 mix (what the user
hears). Headers re-patched every second so files survive a hard
kill. launch_pod.ps1 arms it into the work dir by default.
Diagnosis logic: flat tops in a card tap = per-voice clipping inside
the EMU8000 core; clean cards + dirty mix = limiter artifact; all
clean = winmm path.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
BT411's mapscan (full RES container format) run against our RES settles
the walls question: arena1/arenall and arena2/arenall2 place the open
city set only; the wall1/2/3 segments belong to the RAV map (18+8+5
placements: a canyon maze), and cavern/grass/dbase carry the wall10k
outer ring. Nothing was ever dropped by the renderer.
TESTRAV.EGG = TESTARN.EGG with map=rav; gauge_rav_sound.conf boots it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Researched from the readable RP MUNGA source (BT shares the engine):
host roles are assigned per-IP in the mission egg (hostType= on each
pilot page); a CameraShip/MissionReview host gets a CameraDirector
player that auto-cuts to the top-ranked pilot every 10s, with manual
flight via the same cockpit hardware as pods (CameraRIOMapper) and
fixed clamped trackside cameras authored in-game into MAPS/<map>.cam.
Mission Review records raw NetworkPackets (SpoolFile -> last.spl) and
replays them through a networkless playback app with timestamp bias --
the replay re-simulates the battle from replication traffic.
Same BTL4OPT.EXE serves every role; standing up Live Cam on the
emulated pod LAN is an egg edit, not a build.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
L4TIMER selects the game clock (L4TIME.CPP): FAST = HMI SOS interrupt
clock at 28 Hz, unset = polled 18.2 Hz BIOS tick. Not a speed switch --
finer time quantum, smoother sim dt and timing cadences.
Per the operator: the flag tracked the deployed fleet's hardware --
original Tesla pods ran Pentium Pro 90s (SLOW), later fleets Pentium
Pro 200s (FAST). The emulated pod has no ISR-headroom constraint, so
FAST is our default from here on.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The 4.10 operations-console archive and the BattleTech-port hand-off
spec now live in C:\VWE\TeslaSuite\410console, alongside the
modernized .NET TeslaConsole they feed into.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Renderer (dpl3-revive/patha):
- Instance visibility honored at DRAW time (stored word 4 = live
dpl_SetInstanceVisibility field): laser beams (4-frame pulses) and
missile models now render; cache tags w3 0/1 instances 'gated'
- PSFX world bursts (dcs=0 muzzle/impact/explosion) rendered; psfx
storage list-based so one-shot bursts stop collapsing onto one key
- fix_degenerate applied to INSTANCE chains (was camera-only): the
beam chain rides four rank-2 rig DCSs; composed rank-2 drew beams
away from the guns. Offline f1635 now shows both arm beams
converging on the aim point
- First-person canopy cull: the always-armed cockpit model at the
head drew as a vertical line down screen center (user-confirmed
fixed live)
Device (vpx-device/vpxlog.cpp):
- CAM backchannel on the fifosock: bridge streams its validated
camera (+ vehicle root DCS); raycast_pick aims along the player's
real look instead of the static view-node pose, which had locked
every missile/beam onto one fixed wrong world point
- raycast_pick skips hidden-until-armed instances and the player's
own articulation subtree: picking own beams created a target
feedback loop, picking own missiles retargeted salvos mid-flight,
and a picked missile's deleted DCS froze the game (arena2 crash)
Sound (vpx-device/vweawe.cpp): stereo-linked peak limiter replaces
the hard output clamp (the "generator out" crackle); VWE_AWE_LOG
reports pre-limit peaks + duck counts, enabled in launch_pod.ps1.
Missile-fire crackle persists: per-voice EMU8000 clamp suspected.
Eggs/confs: TESTAR2.EGG + gauge_arena2_sound.conf (map=arena2 city
variant); cavern.egg (console-era reference); plasma display on COM2
in the gauge confs; gauge_arena_net_sound.conf (slirp net stack).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
vpx-device/vpxlog.cpp -- WEAPONS FIRE. The game's fire gate is
targetReticle.targetEntity (mech+0x388), filled every frame by a Division-board
reticle pick (dpl_RapidSectPixel) our HLE never answered, so every shot
misfired. The device now casts the camera centre ray against the live scene
(Moller-Trumbore) and returns the full hit -- instance + DCS + geogroup +
geometry -- piggybacked on the draw_scene reply; terrain is a valid target so
you can fire and miss. Sending geogroup=0 was hanging the game (GetAppSpecific
on a null); returning the real geogroup fixed it. Pick is default-on with a
single VPX_NO_PICK escape hatch. Also swaps the upper-left/right MFD explode
windows (screen location only -- decode untouched, real cause TBD on a pod).
dpl3-revive/patha/vrview.py -- HAT-GLANCE fix at the source. One cockpit DCS
(0xa2c) flushes a rank-2 rotation (shifted body -> wrong read window) that
collapsed the camera chain to rank 2 and smeared the head glance onto the wrong
axis (left/right hat read as pitch). chain_matrix(fix_degenerate) treats a
degenerate chain DCS as identity: preserves the look exactly and keeps stick-Y
torso pitch working (an earlier bridge-level yaw/pitch swap broke stick-Y and
was reverted). User-verified live: hat all 4 dirs + stick-Y both correct.
render-bridge/launch_pod.ps1 -- launch the bridge with pyw (windowless) so no
console window parks over the cockpit displays (Start-Process ignores
-WindowStyle once stdout/stderr are redirected).
render-bridge/live_bridge.py -- surface bridge render errors, flush the status
line; reverted glance-swap note.
Also vendored HUD (dpl2d) renderer work in vrboard/vrview_gl and RENDERER-COLLAB
/ RIO notes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Decoded from L4RIO.CPP/HPP and verified byte-for-byte against a real
v4.2 board tap: CheckRequest 80 -> board must send TestModeChange ENTER
(8C 01 0D), self-test status stream (85 <status> <unit> <ck>), EXIT
(8C 00 0C), then answer VersionRequest 81 with 86 <maj> <min> <ck>.
Full command map 80-8C both directions, ACK/retransmit rules, and the
~1ms/byte 9600-baud pacing requirement. This is the implementation spec
for the user's vRIO (virtual RIO on COM1): its missing 8C packets are
exactly why the game logs 'RIO never came back from check request!'.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- rt_draw shading replaced with the dpl3-revive software-rasterizer model
(vrview.py draw(), proven on our own arena captures): lit = sceneAmb +
sum |N.L|*col double-sided; c = emis + diff*lit (tex*base*1.275 when
textured); Division 10-bit-DAC gamma 1/1.25 on output. Default light rig
matches theirs (ambient 0.35 + one 0.65 sun) until wire lights arrive.
- Real wire lights decoded per their SceneCache.rebuild(): lmodel type-6 /
light type-0xe bodies (dcs @d+12, type @d+16: 2=ambient 3=directional,
rgb @d+20), directional aim = light DCS +Z row, sanity-clamped; frame
carries summed ambient + up to 2 suns.
- Projection: the hardcoded post-projection X flip (SMPTE-era) made the
game view steer mirrored (turn right, view swings left). Game path
(ydown) now projects without it -- matches dpl3-revive, which has no
lateral mirror; demo/test path keeps the flip. User-verified: native
window steering now correct.
Fork source (emulator/src/src/hardware/vpxlog.cpp) in sync; rebuilt.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- emulator/render-bridge/: the pod->Dave's-renderer live bridge (rescued
from session scratchpad): live_bridge.py (first-person cam from the 0x1f
pose, arrow-key eye-height trim), fp/chase offline renders, fifobridge,
diagnostics, gauge_arena[_sound].conf, and launch_pod.ps1 (one-command
pod+bridge restart: pentapus VPX_EXPLODE + AWE32 sound + GL bridge).
- _backend.py: renderer selection -- vrview_gl.GLRenderer (moderngl) by
default, VRVIEW_SOFT=1 for the software reference; backend-agnostic
frame save via last_frame.
- GPU backend runs on side-by-side CPython 3.13 (moderngl/glcontext cp313
wheels; no MSVC needed): 63fps headless / 60.7 windowed vs 21fps software
on the same scene, and the GL path also draws the vertex-alpha cloud dome.
- vrview.py: VRVIEW_GAMMA env selects DAC gamma (1.25 live-renderer legacy
vs 1.7 per the original GAMMA.C) for A/B against the real pod.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Bring the graphics-dev collaborator's dpl3-revive into the repo as first-class
project code (they've handed it off; it's ours now). This is the proven
Division renderer that our in-process rt_draw has been trying to be.
What's here:
- parser/ B2Z/V2Z/SVT/SCN/SPL/BGF/BMF/BSL decoders (pure Python).
- spec/ reverse-engineered format + the definitive VelociRender wire
protocol (from the original DIVISION source, matches our live
VPX node/action tables exactly).
- source-ref/ read-only copies of the original DIVISION C (BIZREAD.C,
DPLTYPES.H, DPL.H) that define the formats.
- patha/ the "virtual VelociRender board": vrboard.py (24-action protocol
server), vrview.py (numpy software rasterizer, the reference),
vrview_gl.py (moderngl GPU backend, 832x512@60Hz), plus the
run/replay/regress tooling and evidence renders. Drives FLYK/BLADE/
Star Trek demos AND our btl4opt/rpl4opt game binaries.
- viewer/ WebGL archive generators (.py); prebuilt HTML/data regeneratable.
- samples/ small test models/textures.
- bt*.raw.bin real BTL4OPT arena wire captures (kept for offline renderer
testing/regression against OUR game).
.gitignore keeps the multi-hundred-MB demo capture dumps + debug logs +
regeneratable viewer bundles out of history (they stay on disk).
Phase 0 of the integration is validated: their board decodes our bt8 capture
with zero errors (3748 nodes, 507 instances, 4 mechs) and renders our arena
(terrain/dome/sky, correct Division DAC gamma). Plan + status in memory;
integration continues in emulator/RENDERER-COLLAB.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Console queues a mission -> egg over the wire -> pod loads + runs it -> all
cockpit heads render -> mission ends on the console timer. Four fixes:
1. ne2000.cpp: don't BX_PANIC on the TCR inhibit-CRC / auto-tx-disable bits.
A full production boot runs the packet driver's internal loopback
self-test, which sets those bits; Bochs' NE2000 aborted the whole
emulator. Record them in TCR state instead (harmless for an emulated NIC;
pcap/host does framing+CRC). Also fixes a latent coll_prio bit-4 vs bit-3
round-trip bug. Committed copy in vpx-device/.
2. Confirmed the mission-load page fault (00FF:219D) was RIO-OFF; booting
with the RIO live (net_full.conf) loads and runs the mission cleanly.
3. net_loop.conf + net-boot/loop.bat: GO.BAT-style loop so the pod stays
connected to the console and picks up missions as they're queued (the
real pod relaunches netnub after each mission/idle disconnect).
4. HEADLINE: blank MFD/radar heads were an I/O port collision. The VDB
video splitter is hardwired at 0x300-0x31A (palettes 0x300/0x308/0x310);
the NE2000 at nicbase=300 swallowed the game's VDB palette writes ->
vdb_pal stayed zero -> pal_draw decoded every head to black. Same VDB
spam corrupted NIC RX, dropping the console EndMission (mission overran
its timer). Fix: move the NIC to 0x340 (DOSBox nicbase=340 + DOS NET.CFG
PORT 340; must agree). VDB keeps 0x300. Config-only, no rebuild.
Adds: net_full.conf, net_loop.conf, net-boot/ (ODI drivers, NET.CFG@340,
loop.bat, README), vpx-device/{ne2000,ethernet_pcap}.cpp; updates NET-NOTES.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Captured a real mission egg delivered from the SheepShaver console to the
DOSBox pod on TCP 1501, no -egg bypass: 8x ReceiveEggFileMessage chunks,
7514 bytes, reassembled byte-perfect (declared notationFileLength=7514).
The egg is the operator's own mission (BattleTech / cavern / night /
freeforall, pilot "cyd", vehicle madcat). This closes the networking
workstream end to end.
- net-tools/decode_egg.py: reassemble an egg from a captured console->pod
TCP payload hex dump (skips interleaved StateQuery polls).
- net-tools/captured_cavern_mission.egg: the delivered egg.
- NET-NOTES.md: milestone writeup + the pod's mission-LOAD crash. The pod
faults loading the mission (page fault, wild ptr 0xFF008B5B, exception
000E at game 00FF:219D, NetNub Munga exit 14) -- a game-side bug in the
mission-load path, separate from networking. Leading suspect: RIO was
disabled for this run and the player vehicle/control setup derefs null.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The emulated SheepShaver console and DOSBox pod now exchange the live
console protocol on TCP 1501. Required chain: rebuild the DOSBox pcap
backend + launch with C:\Windows\System32\Npcap on PATH (npcap DLL
location); a two-TAP Windows bridge (single shared TAP fails); TAP2
MediaStatus=Always-Connected; and binding the pod's pcap to the BRIDGE
MINIPORT (not a member TAP -- member-injected frames aren't re-forwarded),
via realnic=DB5521D (letter-leading GUID fragment; leading-digit is parsed
as an interface index). Captured + decoded the real protocol values
(StateResponse clientID=5/flags=1/host=0/state=1/app=1=BattleTech), which
corrects the earlier synthetic guesses. Full writeup in NET-NOTES.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Listens on TCP 1501 as a stand-in pod, logs the console's egg-delivery
bytes, and auto-decodes each NetworkPacket in both byte orders to pin the
framing + PPC/x86 endianness (the two open caveats). Works whether the
console reaches it via a slirp gateway redirect or a bridged segment.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Records that Router mode is NAT (won't reach the pod) and the console<->pod
link needs bridged TAP on both ends: console TCP/IP manual 200.0.0.1, pod
DOSBox-X switched from slirp to pcap on the same segment.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
PEF imports (InterfaceLib/MathLib/ObjectSupportLib only; no AppearanceLib,
no Open Transport libs) plus the resource-fork "MacTCP or OpenTransport"
Gestalt check show it is a classic PPC PowerPlant app: runs System 7.1.2
through Mac OS 9 (practical floor 7.5), classic MacTCP API but happy with
either stack. Recommended SheepShaver target: System 7.5.5/7.6.1 with a
7100/7500/8500 old-world ROM, TCP/IP set to 200.0.0.1.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Decoded the console<->pod message layout from the MUNGA framework headers
(the send/recv impl did not survive -- only headers + a test harness):
NetworkPacket = 16B NetworkPacketHeader + a Receiver::Message; the egg is
delivered as ReceiveEggFileMessage chunks (seq/totalLen/thisLen +
notationData[1000]), a full egg packet = 1040B (matches the VPX nb<=1040
cap). Console splits the mission notation file into <=1000B chunks; pod
reassembles + ACKs. Two bytes-on-the-wire details (stream framing +
PPC/x86 endianness) flagged for the first live capture. Full byte tables
in NET-NOTES.md.
Also moves the extracted console software (Console 4.10 PPC app + per-venue
Console.ini + fonts/logs, resource forks preserved) into
410console/4_10-console-extracted/.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Console 4.10 (PowerPC PEF/CodeWarrior) + Console.ini extracted from the
.sit. Console.ini answers the open protocol question: the console<->pod
TCP port is 1501. Full cockpit endpoint roster recorded; our emulated pod
200.0.0.113 is the cockpit Puck. The real 6100 does not boot but is no
longer needed -- run Console 4.10 under SheepShaver. Only remaining
protocol unknown is the on-stream message framing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The ops console is a Power Macintosh 6100/66 (PowerPC) -> SheepShaver, with
the caveat that the 6100 ROM is incompatible (use a 7100/7500/8500 old-world
ROM; PPC apps are ROM-agnostic). Plan to leverage the real 6100: image its
drive for a faithful SheepShaver console and/or bridge it live to the
pcap-pod to capture the real egg protocol.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
NE2000 + Novell ODI chain (lsl/NE2000 MLID/odipkt) works against the
emulated card (odipkt at SINT 0x60, Ethernet_II). netnub -f btl4opt spawns
the game as btl4opt
The pods do TCP/IP over Ethernet (WATTCP + NetNub real-mode server;
ops console is master, pushes mission eggs to pods over TCP). Pod is a
static host on an isolated 200.0.0.0/24 LAN (200.0.0.113, console
200.0.0.1); -egg is the dev bypass of this path. Fork already has NE2000
+ pcap/slirp backends; since the emulated card is NE2000 not PCI Lance we
skip the Novell ODI chain and load a Crynwr NE2000 packet driver directly.
NET-NOTES.md has the full architecture + milestone plan (headline goal:
host-side stand-in console pushes an egg over the wire, no -egg bypass).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
make_patch.py applies the two-site fix to RIOv4_2.bin (asserting original
bytes first) -> RIOv4_2_patched.bin (23 bytes changed). Re-disassembling
and diffing confirms the change is confined to $D9DD, $DA21-$DA2E, and the
$DFF0 stub with no downstream desync. Clears the reply-in-progress latch
$2521 on every teardown so a stress collision no longer leaves the board
mute to analog. Flash directly to the DIP-28 W27C512; static verification
only -- dynamic RIO_TAP mash test pending the burned chip.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
68HC11 recursive-descent disassembler (disasm_6811.py, follows the
pointer-based RX/TX state dispatch) + full disassembly + analysis doc.
Root cause of the stress wedge: an orphaned reply-in-progress latch
($2521). It gates every analog request ($D758); it is set when a reply is
generated ($D84C) but the 4-retry give-up path ($D9DD -> $DA2F) tears down
reply state without clearing it, and the success teardown ($DA00) clears
it only conditionally on $2522. Once leaked, all analog requests are
dropped -> board mute, while RX/event stays alive; only the game-start
host-reset command ($C686) clears it -- matching the field button-resync
ritual exactly. Proposed minimal in-place fix (clear $2521 on every
teardown) documented with byte patches and a hardware validation plan;
untested pending a spare EPROM. RIOv4_2-ANALYSIS.md has the details.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
RIOv4_2.bin dumped from our own board EPROM (64KB, code $C000-$FFFF).
Vector table confirms 68HC11: RESET->$C000, SCI serial interrupt->$D630 =
the protocol state machine entry for the planned disassembly. Board patch
plan steps 1-2 done (RIO-NOTES.md updated); next: disassemble from the
SCI handler, find the reply-path wedge (button/event path survives it),
patch, burn to a fresh EPROM, preserve the original.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Un-ignored: the dev drive is the ground truth the restoration and
emulator work constantly reference (DPL3/LIBDPL + VRENDER i860 renderer
source, BT/RP live+dev game trees, VGL_LABS pod boot, scene/audio
content). Kept in-repo for the pod-owner community.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Un-ignored: this is the working copy the emulator actually boots (patched
BTL4OPT.EXE v4 lineage + .orig/.nop14/.pre_idle/.pre_limit backups,
TESTARN.EGG arena1 test egg, REL410 BT+RP trees, VGL_LABS pod boot bats,
VWETEST factory test suites, SB16 Creative utilities). The pristine
untouched image remains ALPHA_1.zip.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Vendored 86Box EMU8000 core (GPL-2, emu8k.cpp/.h + shim) plus vweawe.cpp:
two cards at the production addresses (0x620/0x640 register triplets),
rear-card DSP/mixer stub at 0x240, synthesis on an autonomous render
thread with direct winmm output so sustained voices ride through
emulation-thread stalls (RIO staging retries) like the real silicon did.
WC sample-counter interpolation between render chunks keeps HMI SOS
busy-waits fast. VWE_AWE32/VWE_AWE_ROM/VWE_AWE_RAM_KB/VWE_AWE_SHIFT/
VWE_AWE_LEAD_MS/VWE_AWE_DUMP/VWE_AWE_LOG env knobs.
emulator/roms: the AWE32 1MGM GM ROM dumped from our own pod card (SF2)
plus the reconstructed raw image the emulated EMU8000 loads. The HMI
driver refuses the AUDIO*.RES SoundFont upload without it (banks declare
irom=1MGM) -- that was the root cause of the first silent runs; full
debug chain in SOUND-NOTES.md. Repo serves the pod-owner community only.
.gitignore: drop the ROM excludes and un-ignore ALPHA_1/ and sda4/
(committed separately).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Device renderer (vpxlog.cpp, commit-copy of the fork source):
- View-flush fog decode (enable/near/far/rgb at d+72.., mode 5 linear,
garbage-guarded; VPX_NOFOG=1 diagnostic) applied per fragment.
- Full dpl_MATERIAL parse: emissive/ambient/diffuse/opacity/specular/
shininess (opacity+specular parsed, not yet applied); fixed-offset
texture/ramp refs with lazy resolution, rebake on material/ramp reflush.
- Gallery shading model (restoration/gallery_template.html) as a GLSL 1.10
program over the existing immediate-mode path, fixed-function fallback:
c = (matAmb*sceneAmb + matDiff*mix(ramp.lo,ramp.hi,acc))*tex + matEmis,
linear fog with immunity knob. Textured polys use an identity light-ramp
(texels already baked through the material ramp). Newell flat normals for
polys without wire normals. Interim sun/ambient until the light node is
decoded: VPX_AMBIENT / VPX_SUN env overrides.
RENDERER-COLLAB.md: shared working doc with the external-renderer team --
verified FIFO action/node tables, struct offsets, scene assembly and
coordinate conventions, available data taps, open questions (incl. the
type-7 object-vs-light flush conflict).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
highest,highest (HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS) starved the host desktop; with the
v3 idle-window and v4 retry patches a rare dropout self-recovers, so
ABOVE_NORMAL both ways is the better trade.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
New layout mode showing every cockpit display as its own desktop
window -- the two MFD heads split into their individual color wires,
which is what the pentapus cable does on the real pod:
- wins 5-9 = the five mono MFDs (win5 LL = HEAD A red, win6 LR =
HEAD A green, win7 UL = HEAD B red, win8 UC = HEAD B green,
win9 UR = HEAD B blue), each decoding framebuffer bits 8-15 through
its head's palette and rendering its single wire as green-phosphor
brightness (G=v, R=B=v/8).
- Radar (win0) rotated 90 degrees clockwise and shown portrait
480x640 -- the pod's radar CRT is mounted sideways -- centered
between the two lower MFDs.
- All displays at native size: MFDs 640x480, uppers at
(20,20)/(680,20)/(1340,20), lowers at (20,560)/(1340,560) aligned
under the outer uppers; radar at (760,560); Division main 800x600
at (2020,20).
- The DOSBox SDL main screen is auto-parked centered under the
Division window (one-shot EnumWindows by title + SetWindowPos).
- Geometry overridable per window via VPX_WIN<g>/VPX_MAIN as usual;
win<g>.bmp dumps cover g=5-9, radar dumps rotated as displayed.
VPX_COCKPIT takes precedence if both modes are set; cockpit and
debug layouts unchanged (regression-checked).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The RIO cockpit board now runs sustained sessions with button mashing;
dropouts self-heal in ~1-3s. Documented in RIO-NOTES.md:
- directserial RIO_TAP=<path> (host env): logs every TX/RX byte with
host-us + emu-ms timestamps, plus config/RTS/DTR/break lines. This
instrument found every root cause below.
- Confs: rxburst:16 restored (no-burst reply pacing made the game ACK
~14ms late -> board dropped on the first long analog stream; the old
'rxburst corrupts boot' belief was the then-unpatched PCSPAK crash).
priority=highest,highest (unfocused DOSBox was demoted and blew the
ACK deadline).
- BTL4OPT.EXE patch lineage (in ALPHA_1/, zip left pristine):
v2 full DISABLE_AND_DIE NOPs (v1 left the IRQ/RTS-retract prologue
live -> first protocol error deafened the driver), v3 TXMAXIDLE 4->32
(kills the button-press ACK-window livelock), v4 analog retry limit
15s->0.5s (dev value was 0.2s; recovery now near-instant).
- Board firmware patch plan recorded for the EPROM-dump route.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
410consoleArchive.sit is the StuffIt archive of the 4.10 operations
console that ran the show floor for both BattleTech and Red Planet on a
classic Mac. Preserved as-is; extraction/porting comes later.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
ALPHA_1.zip is the archived resource behind the git-ignored ALPHA_1/
working directory (the patched production hard-drive image the
emulator mounts). Also ignore Python __pycache__/ dirs.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
On each palette reload, diff against the previous captured palette and log how
many of the 256 entries changed plus the first few index:old->new. Confirms
the static/dynamic split: pal1/pal2 load once (static base structure -- red in
odd entries, etc.), pal0 is rewritten ~28x. In this capture pal0 is doing the
intro FadeToWhite -- ~216/256 entries ramping in lockstep from 0 to ~60/63 --
i.e. animating the whole display brightness via the palette without redrawing
the framebuffer. Selective per-element flashing (targeted small deltas) would
need an active mission to observe; this probe is the instrument for it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Refine the display decode for pairing: window 0 renders the color radar from
bits 0-7 (3:3:2 RGB); windows 1-8 each render a single bit (8..15) as
white/black. Each bit turns out to be a recognizable display plane -- e.g.
bits 8 & 12 are both the weapons panel, bits 9/11/13 the systems panel -- so
the mono displays' 2-bit fields are scattered (out of order) across the word.
This fan-out lets the bits be re-paired into their six displays by eye.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The gauge framebuffer is an encoded stream: each 16bpp pixel packs all six
cockpit displays. Decoded live into per-display windows:
bits 0-5 = the COLOR radar/tactical display, as 6-bit RGB (2 bits/channel)
bits 6-7 = mono display 1 (nav scope)
bits 8-9 = mono display 2 (weapons/systems)
bits 10-11 = mono display 3 (sensor cluster)
bits 12-13 = mono display 4
bits 14-15 = mono display 5
That's 6 + 5x2 = 16 bits exactly -> six displays (1 color + 5 mono), matching
the pod hardware. A 7th window (bits 16-17) confirms the budget: it's black.
Each display now renders in its own 640x480 window from the shared framebuffer
(vga.mem.linear). Mono screens show as brightness; the three VDB palettes are
the per-display color maps (next: apply them).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replace the palette-swatch windows with ones that render DOSBox's live gauge
framebuffer -- the M_LIN16 16bpp video memory (vga.mem.linear, 640x480, 5:6:5,
start=vga.config.real_start) via glDrawPixels. Each window now shows the real
gauge image, matching the DOSBox screen ("similar output"), confirmed live.
Diagnostic: the VDB splitter-on log now prints the framebuffer mode
(0x111 / M_LIN16 / 640x480) -- confirming direct color, so the palettes are
not index LUTs.
All three windows currently show the shared framebuffer identically; the
per-display palette decode (how the VDB carves the encoded 16bpp stream into
the six monitor outputs) is the next step.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replace the in-render-window palette strips with three separate 640x480
windows, one per VDB display palette (secondary/aux1/aux2). Each has its own
GL context (rt_main wglMakeCurrent-s each per tick) and shows the palette as a
16x16 color grid, redrawn every 50ms so it animates live regardless of the VPX
render cadence. make_gl_window() factored out; strips + VPX_VDBSTRIP removed.
Confirmed live: aux1 = red/green/olive/black status checkerboard, aux2 = a
4-region color map (green/blue/red/purple, 64 entries each), secondary = the
animated one (black between flashes).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Draw the three VDB display palettes as 256-color bars along the bottom of the
GL render window, updated every frame straight from the VDB storage -- a live
view (like the Division output) instead of static snapshots. This matters
because pal0 (secondary) animates and the earlier file dumps caught pal0/pal2
at their SVGAZeroPalette init (all black); live, pal2 is actually a rich
4-region color map (green/blue/red/gray-purple, 64 entries each) and pal1 the
red/green/olive status palette. Toggle with VPX_VDBSTRIP=0.
Also: VDB_PALDUMP now keeps the most-lit snapshot per group (max non-black
bytes) so file dumps no longer capture the zero-init. VDBPalette storage moved
above the render thread so rt_draw can read it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
VDB_PALDUMP=<prefix> writes each completed 768-byte palette load to
<prefix>N.rgb (256 RGB entries per VDB display group). render_vdb_palettes.py
renders each as a 16x16 swatch grid + linear ramp.
First capture: pal1 (aux1) is a structured red/green/olive/black color map
(2-bit R x 2-bit G) -- likely the color display's status coloring; pal0
(secondary, dynamic ~29 reloads) and pal2 (aux2) are grayscale, sampled black
mid-animation. Palettes are the per-display color maps the VDB applies when
splitting the framebuffer to the six monitors.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The VDB device was only logging the splitter-clock strobe; the gauge code's
palette writes were hitting the handler but being dropped. Cause: I mapped the
palette register groups at Adam's base offsets (0x300/0x308/0x310, sub 0-3),
but per L4VB16.CPP's "+2" convention and L4SVGA16.ASM SVGAWriteFullPalette
(mov dx,base; add dx,2 -> write-addr; inc dx -> data) the real registers are
at base+2: secondary 0x302-0x305, aux1 0x30A-0x30D, aux2 0x312-0x315, VGA-DAC
layout within each (0 mask, 1 read-addr, 2 write-addr, 3 data).
With the offsets corrected the device now captures the full palettes -- e.g.
"VDB pal0 loaded 768 data bytes" (256 RGB) + pal1 -- the per-display color
maps the VDB uses to colorize each of the six monitors. Foundation for
reconstructing the individual displays.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The garbled top-strip render was a paging bug, not the video mode. The
pageFcnPtr in L4GAUGE.INI (C000:2616) is a red herring -- the driver's direct-
pointer path is commented out ("THIS DOES NOT WORK"); it pages via portable
VESA int 10h/4F05, which our S3 handles.
Real cause: window granularity. SVGASetPage passes the bank in granularity
units; the blit advances by pageDelta = pageSize/granularity per 64KB window
crossed. The INI's granularityInKB=4 is the Cirrus CL-GD5434's 4KB window
granularity (the pod's actual video card; the "STB Horizon+" board was
Cirrus-based). Our emulated S3 uses 64KB banks, so pageDelta=16 -> every bank
landed 16x too far -> the smear.
Fix (config only): L4GAUGE.INI [640x480x16] granularityInKB=64 (=sizeInKB, so
pageDelta=1, matching the S3's 64KB banks). Full framebuffer now pages
correctly -- 315+ frames, VDB splitter stays ON, display renders as expected
(blank between missions; user confirmed "that is the screen I expect").
ALPHA_1 is git-ignored so the INI edit isn't committed; reproduction + backup
(L4GAUGE.INI.orig) documented in GAUGE-NOTES.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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>
Texturing (validated live -- game-live-textured.png, the ravine's brown dirt
terrain): the wire model is Division's intensity+ramp scheme. action 26
uploads 8-bit intensity texels ([node][nbytes][w][h] + rows; type 13 =
texture); texmap (12) references the texture; material (11) references its
texmap and a ramp (14: lo/hi RGB); texel color = lerp(lo, hi, i/255). The
backend bakes RGBA per material, uploads to GL, maps with wire UVs
(stride-5: floats 3-4; stride-8/9: floats 6-7).
Serial (directserial fork options, tracked in vpx-device/serialport/):
- rxpollus:<us> -- receive poll tick (stock 1ms); 100us discovers inbound
bytes ~10x sooner. Validated: sim advanced, camera moved with real RIO.
- rxburst:<n> -- stock DOSBox re-serializes received bytes at emulated wire
speed (~1ms/byte at 9600) though they already paid wire time on the real
cable; a 15-byte analog reply gained ~14ms, blowing the RIO's few-ms ACK
window and dropping the game into its 15-second retry fallback
(L4CTRL.CPP limit=15.0 //0.2). rxburst:16 delivers buffered bytes 16x
faster. game_rio.conf: realport:COM1 rxpollus:100 rxburst:16.
Crash-on-advance fixed: *_TSHD.BGF terrain shadows live only in arena
subdirs the search path misses; null shadow renderable was dereferenced once
the sim moved. All 11 copied into VIDEO/GEO in the working image; game now
runs sustained (560+ frames, textured, no crash). Details in RIO-NOTES.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The full DPL hierarchy the game uses (vs flyk's flat scene) is now decoded
and rendered:
- stride-aware set_geom_verts (header word 3 = floats/vertex: 3/4/5/8/9;
mech meshes carry normals + UVs)
- instances are list_add children of DCS nodes; instance flush field 4 ->
object; object->lod->geogroup->geometry; dcs_link builds the articulation
tree of 4x4s (payload floats 4..19, row-major, row 3 = translation)
- game world is y-down (DCS matrices carry a reflection); projection flips
x (Division mirror) and y
render_game.py reconstructs a captured game stream offline: the mission
arena (10km, 246 instances, 330 geometries), the player's Thor at the
camera, six enemy mechs 1.5km north -- game-mech-decoded.png shows one with
real hull/armor/glass materials; game-cockpit-decoded.png the cockpit view.
The live backend (vpxlog.cpp) gained the same traversal and now draws the
game's out-the-window view in real time (game-live-gl.png): sky, arena
floor to the horizon, own gun barrels at frame bottom.
Next: texturing (action-26 texel maps + UVs), lighting from wire normals,
per-frame articulation once the RIO drives the sim.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The VDB is the ISA card that fans the PC's Cirrus Logic framebuffer to the six
secondary cockpit displays (5 mono + 1 color), dividing the pixel clock. From
the driver (CODE/RP/MUNGA_L4/L4SVGA16.ASM, L4VB16.CPP; "Adam's port decoder
design" -- Adam G., VWE hardware):
0x300/0x308/0x310 three VGA-DAC-style palette groups
0x31A / 0x319 splitter high-color clock divider ON / OFF
New emulated VDB device in vpxlog.cpp at I/O 0x300-0x31A (active when logging,
disable with VDB=0): decodes palette write-address/data/mask/read-address and
the clock strobes, recording palette contents + splitter state so the six-
display encoding can be decoded later. Validated: with gauges enabled
(gauge.conf, setenv arg4=g) the game issues "splitter clock ON (0x31A)" ->
captured. The board is write-only (game never reads it, per driver + owner),
so its absence is not the crash.
Crash diagnosis (BTL4OPT.EXE CODE+0x123B): the faulting routine is a heap
free() with boundary-tag coalescing; it was handed a garbage block pointer
(value 2). Symptom of upstream corruption, reached only when the RIO is in
sync and the sim advances. HISTORY.md gains a "Cockpit display hardware -- the
VDB" section with the attribution.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The RIO drops comms if the analog-reply ACK is late by more than a few ms.
Empirically a slower CPU failed sooner, so the latency was dominated by how
fast the game processes the RIO packet and ACKs -- core=dynamic (recompiler)
+ cycles=max keeps the board in sync (user-confirmed). game_rio.conf passes
the real RIO through serial1=directserial realport:COM1.
With real control input the sim advances and then faults (null-ptr deref at
BTL4OPT.EXE CODE+0x123B) -- downstream of the minimal test.egg not setting the
arena objectpath, so VIDEO/GEO/ARENA/thr_tshd.bgf isn't found. That is content
config, separate from the now-working VPX protocol / renderer / RIO. Details
in RIO-NOTES.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Root cause: vpx_max_postboot_acks=200, a Phase-2 bring-up guard, capped how
many post-boot replies the device would ever feed. A real BattleTech session
issues an unbounded stream of sync/frame/render replies and aborted with
"velocirender_receive timed out - sends_wo_rcv" at exactly the 200th ack
(143 sync + 55 frame-ack + 2 render). Cap is now effectively unlimited
(0x7fffffff; override VPX_MAX_ACKS for diagnostics).
After the fix the full game (game.conf, RIO disabled, cycles=max) runs
indefinitely: 2500+ syncs, 1264+ frame-acks, no abort, into L4VIDEO content
load (Thor mech + terrain from ALPHA_1/REL410/BT/VIDEO/GEO -- 841 real .bgf
models; test.egg is only mission params). Window still shows background:
the game uses the full DPL hierarchy (instance/object/lod/geogroup + DCS
transforms) which the flat flyk-tuned scene walk doesn't traverse yet -- that
is Phase 3d, documented in PHASE3-PROGRESS.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The emulated VPX board now draws frames in real time. The FIFO burst
assembler feeds an in-process DPL scene store; each vr_draw_scene publishes a
frame snapshot to a dedicated WGL window thread that renders it fixed-function.
- vpxlog.cpp: scene_burst() decode + VScene store + rt_main GL window thread;
glFrustum from the view-node window rect, glScalef(-1,1,1) for Division's
mirrored screen-x, action-31 camera as modelview. No build change (opengl32
already linked).
- Validated: flyk divrgb.scn opens the "VPX VelociRender (emulated)" window
and draws the SMPTE bars live via the real camera.spl spline camera
(divrgb-live-gl.png), matching the offline render_capture.py decode.
- Game path (alpha1.conf) opens the window + draws background but hits the
pre-existing production btdpl.ini vr_sync timeout (sends_wo_rcv) -- not a 3b
issue. Remaining work tracked in PHASE3-PROGRESS.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- vpxlog.cpp: VPX_FIFODUMP=<path> records every FIFO burst ('VPXM' records)
- decode_fifodump.py: action census + payload dumps of a capture
- render_capture.py: reconstruct the DPL scene graph from a capture and
software-render each draw_scene frame (camera, view, materials, geometry
all taken from the wire)
- divrgb.conf + divrgb.fifodump: flyk divrgb.scn capture fixture
- divrgb-decoded.png / divrgb-frame0.png: first images ever produced from
the Rel 4.10 VPX protocol without a real board -- the textbook SMPTE
color-bar pattern, validating verts/conns/materials/camera in one shot
- PHASE3-PROGRESS.md: the established Rel 4.10 wire protocol (action map,
node types, message layouts); RENDER-HARNESS.md updated
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The production image's VWETEST diagnostic suite provides a clean,
game-independent render harness. FLYK (VGLTEST, 32rtm build, newer
token-based sync) + clear.scn drives the ENTIRE VPX protocol through
the emulated board with zero errors: boot, iserver handshake, i860
download, token sync, scene build, draw_scene, frame-ack, clean exit
('Exiting rendering'). This validates the VPX emulation for an
arbitrary DPL renderer, not just the game.
Notes: the CYCLE flyk is a DOS/4GW build using the OLDER DPL3-style
velocirender_sync (action-check) and needs separate handling; the
VPX/DBE0151 iserver board test + reference TGAs are a future
golden-image validation avenue.
Adds RENDER-HARNESS.md and harness configs (flyk/cycle/alpha1).
Next (Phase 3): flyk DIVRGB.SCN color bars -> decode FIFO geometry
(same DIV-BIZ2 formats as restoration/divformats.py) -> OpenGL.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Disassembled BTL4OPT.EXE (PE-in-DOS32RTM) to crack the last unknowns:
- velocirender_sync (@0x48D220): sends action 0x2D with a data token and
checks cmp token, reply.node[0] (the 'unexpected action' text only prints
the action; the real check is the echoed token). Device now echoes the
token in node[0]. Sync passes.
- Speculative-poll gating: only feed a reply after consecutive empty polls
(a blocking inRecord spin), not single handle_iserver_stuff() checks.
- Frame-ack: velocirender_frameack expects action 9 (vr_draw_scene); device
tracks outstanding draw_scene and replies 9. Frame-ack passes.
The game now passes sync, loads renderer config, builds the scene
(create/flush/list_add/draw_scene), completes frame-ack, and enters its own
content loader (L4VIDEO.cpp) loading BattleTech models. Remaining issues are
content packaging/paths and an empty DPL config -- not VPX protocol. The
board emulation is functionally complete for boot + scene setup + frame-ack.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
RIO (Phase 5) validated with real hardware: with a physical RIO on
COM1 and serial1=directserial realport:COM1, the game's 1996 RIO
driver talks to the board — the 'RIO never came back' error is gone
and expected activity was seen on the RIO board.
VPX FIFO fast path decoded (OUTSW.ASM + capture): after i860 boot the
render protocol pumps 16-bit words to a FIFO data port seen as
0x154/0x155 byte writes, payload starting with the 4-byte action. The
device now extracts FIFO message actions (confirmed vr_init=0 with the
args string, vr_create=1 with node type 0x2D) and echoes replies with
handler-specific overrides from board source VR_REMOT.C (init/statistics
reply action = 1).
Blocked on one unknown: velocirender_sync checks the init reply against
a constant that is neither 0 nor 1, so the Rel 4.10 board differs from
the DPL3 dev source. Needs the Rel 4.10 LIBDPL source or disassembly of
BTL4OPT.EXE at the format string (file offset 0x107772). Device has a
VPX_INIT_REPLY experiment hook for candidate values.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The VPX responder device now drives production BattleTech v4.10
through the full transputer/i860 boot, far past the Phase 1 wall:
- iserver boot handshake solved: feeds 3 well-formed 'version' (tag 42)
iserver requests, satisfying startup_handshake()'s 3 transactions.
- i860 download solved: parses the outbound framed renderer messages
(vr_860args/code/data/bss) and absorbs them, staying byte-aligned.
- echo-action reply model validated against board source
(VRENDER/VR_REMOT.C reply() echoes the received action); device
tracks and echoes the last outbound action generally.
Remaining sub-protocol identified and characterized: after i860 boot
the host switches to a FIFO fast path (OUTSW.ASM: 0x40 tag + REP OUTSW
16-bit words to FIFO port 0x154/0x155, gated by ok_to_fifo at 0x160).
The current build stops at velocirender_sync because the device only
implements the slow byte path. PHASE2-PROGRESS.md documents the exact
next steps (FIFO transport + render loop -> Phase 3 OpenGL backend).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
CydandClaude Fable 5