Boot ladder advances past player creation. BTPlayer ctor/dtor/Make/
TestInstance/GetExperienceLevel reconstructed from BT411's Ghidra-recovered
body (@004c0bc8) backdated to 1995 idiom; the reserved[38] placeholder in
BTPLAYER.HPP replaced with the real BT-own members.
Key fidelity call: the game-mode flags are derived from
btMission->ExperienceLevel() (the egg's per-pilot experience key) with the
binary-accurate switch rows from the [T1] disassembly -- NOT from the scenario
role's returnFromDeath, which BT411's port uses as a [T3] stand-in. Mapping and
residual naming/[T4] uncertainty documented in BTPLAYER.NOTES.md.
Live boot now runs: banner -> resources -> app ctor -> network single-user ->
egg -> mission -> SetPlayerData -> BTRegistry::MakePlayer -> BTPlayer ctor
(resolves team, seeds experience flags) -> halts at the base
Player::DropZoneReplyMessageHandler stub (BTPlayer's own message-handler table
is the next brick -- DefaultData still reuses Player::MessageHandlers).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The reconstructed tree now produces a runnable binary with the authentic
1995 toolchain (BC4.52 / tlink32 / DPMI32):
- BTL4.CPP main TU reconstructed from the 4.11 Ghidra decomp (FUN_0040109c)
+ the 4.10 binary's own string pool + surviving RPL4TOOL.CPP house style;
probe_main.cpp scaffold retired (BTL4.NOTES.md documents every decoded call)
- L4NET.CPP staged: L4NetworkManager ctor/dtor + 10 vtable-pulled virtuals
(standalone-benign ones no-op, network ones Fail loudly) + NetNub client
globals (Net_Common_Ptr=NULL routes L4File to its plain-DOS path)
- build410.sh: libs now built in the AUTHENTIC makefile member order
(MUNGA.MAK / mungal4.mak / BT.MAK / BTL4.MAK). Order is load-bearing:
tlink emits static-init records in module pull order, and alphabetical
order booted into a null-vptr crash (IcomManager::ClassDerivations
constructing before parent NetworkClient::ClassDerivations). Also fixed
stage_link to the proven 32-bit lib set (SOSDBXC+SOSMBXC, no WATTCPLG)
- BOXTREE.HPP MemoryBlock unify, BTL4GRND notify stubs, remaining engine
backfills (audio/gauge/resource/stream TUs) that closed the deep ledger
Smoke test (DOSBox-X + 32RTM, copy of the pod BT tree, our exe swapped in):
BattleTech v4.10
BTL4Application::BTL4Application
l4net.cpp(22): L4NetworkManager -- l4net.cpp not yet reconstructed
Static init, main, -egg parse, BTL4.RES load (version 1.0.6 check passes),
ApplicationManager and the BTL4Application ctor chain all execute real
reconstructed code; boot halts at the first staged Fail() as designed.
Next brick: the real l4net.cpp body.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
render_textured.py samples the game textures with the quads' texu/texv/texz
planes, z-buffered. Empirical finding: the planes are texscale-encoded
(2^16) homogeneous coords needing the exact perspective_divides mapping
(texu/texz * .Cturn_z_to_tex from FOOTER.SS) -- measured texu/texz ~0.12 on
the ground quad. That final texel-coordinate calibration is a precise
reverse-engineering step against EOF.C, not a guess; left as the last mile.
The verified M3 result is the texture DECODE: the netdeath textures are real
game art (texstore.py). Geometry + texel format are both solved from the
live wire.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Action 0x1a carries the textures: header[32] {handle, byte_size, u, v, mode}
+ v rows of 256 bytes, texels in 0x00BBGGRR words. The netdeath session's 20
textures decode to real game art -- 'PLAYER 1/5' HUD labels, a squadron
dragon emblem, metal-panel/grating/terrain surfaces, and the pilot callsign
'Cyd' (texsheet.png in the session scratchpad). The M3 texel FORMAT is
solved; texstore.py builds the handle->RGB store. Remaining: per-quad texid
binding + (texu,texv) sampling to skin the geometry.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Fixed the readout: the effect packets are 3-4 edge TEXTURED quads (0x2c/0x42/
0x0d edges + z + texz/texu/texv planes -- NO Gouraud colour, confirming the
scene is textured). Two bugs in the first pass: (1) 0x2c edges were treated
as 'accept both sides', turning every quad into a full-plane fill; (2) only
2-edge packets were caught, dropping ~3/4 of the geometry. render_battle.py
applies the render_wide30 polygon-winding rule (inside = all-edges>=0 OR
all<0) -> 78 polygons of 141 setups.
Result (flat-per-polygon + depth): a geometrically coherent first-person
scene -- sky at far depth, a ground plane ramping smoothly from horizon to
foreground, a clean horizon line, upright structures. The perspective is
consistent; this is real scene geometry, not the muddy u/v wedges of the
first attempt. Surfaces still need texels (TXDN/M3) for their skin.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
battle_frames.py extracts the per-draw effect programs (the production
build emits them at ~0x815f000, like fxtest's 0x816f000) and rasterizes
their {edge, z, u/v} primitives through the render_fx GPU path. Running the
netdeath battle capture on the production firmware (vrend410) + emu860c +
GPU: 8 frames in 2.8s showing the actual mech-combat arena -- ground plane,
horizon, a building, receding structures -- with 31..148 primitives/frame
growing as the scene loads (cmd 8125 deep).
The full chain is now proven on real game content: game's own firmware ->
C-accelerated i860 -> the card's own IGC/EMC instruction set on the GPU ->
recognizable battle frames. Surfaces are u/v false-colour pending texel
sampling (the TXDN path, M3); the geometry is the game's.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
live_server now boots fw=vrend410 (the shipped game build) and replays the
netdeath battle capture's 53,088-record VelociRender wire through emu860c +
the GPU tile path: 8 frames in 5.8s, thousands of commands deep (cmd 6235),
25 tiles/100 sends each. The whole authentic backend -- vpxlog transport,
production firmware, C core, GPU raster -- is proven on real game wire.
Honest scope: the rendered image is still the bench readout (texu->SMPTE
ramp via the texz=x seed), not the battle scene -- live_server uses the bars
readout path, not the per-draw effect-primitive extraction (render_fx). The
battle geometry is present in the wire and executes; wiring the fx-primitive
readout into the live loop is the remaining refinement for real content.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Hook addrs re-derived by masked-immediate signature match vs capfw7 (12/13
exact; reply via unique opcode-only signature). vrend410.mng = the shipped
385KB build with its 7-word Division header rewritten to the loader's 3-word
form. Result: the production build boots and dispatches init + create from
the live netdeath battle wire -- where capfw7 died instantly on the newer
action 0x2d. Stalls at cmd 2 in a bla+fst.d memclear (~1.1M iters / ~9MB)
that pure Python can't chew but the C core (emu860c, 90M steps/s) will --
next: live_server on the C core with fw=vrend410.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Consumes VPXM records (fifodump file or live VPX_FIFOSOCK) and renders
through emu860c + the GPU tile path. The 'new C012 device' of the plan
turned out to already exist: vpxlog.cpp IS the link adapter and already
streams the wire over TCP; this server is the drop-in authentic listener
beside the GL bridge.
Validation on the netdeath battle capture (53,088 records) found the real
gap: the firmware dies with 'unrecognised or illegal action 0x2d' -- the
battle games speak a newer protocol than capfw7 (cap7's booted build).
Census: every boot-carrying capture ships the same old build; the 0x2d
sessions were all captured mid-run. The production build is in the game
files themselves: ALPHA_1/REL410/{BT,RP}/VREND.MNG (identical, 385KB,
csize 0x3ac80). Next: re-derive the hook map for that build (signature
anchors in emu_main) and replay the battle wire on its matching firmware.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
emu860c gains a C-side write-watch (watch_add/watch_drain: watched ranges
log (addr,val) into a ring buffer at negligible cost). frames.py runs the
cap7 mission on the C core, drains the DMA queue-page writes at each
receive->receive draw span, reconstructs the frame's SEND payloads from
live C memory, dispatches the GPU tile shader per TILE entry, and
accumulates interlaced fields. Result: the complete SMPTE test card
(frame_0004) -- 6 draw frames in 2.0s including boot; the content draws
alternate 25-tile fields with eof/present passes, matching the hardware
cadence.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The complete cap7 mission -- every command, all 8,562 draws -- executes in
39 seconds at 89.6M steps/s sustained (199,857 Python hook services). The
replayed dict matches the QUEUE ground truth exactly; the old 'baseline'
dict (16793/8397) is exposed as a budget-truncated artifact: the historic
Python regressions hit the 2e9-step budget ~96% through and silently
dropped the last 497 commands. This is the first complete execution of the
whole mission. + M4-LIVE-SEAM.md (the remaining path to live DOSBox) and
emu860c.step1() for hook-driven single-steps.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Full mechanical port of emu860.py's validated semantics: paged memory,
integer ISA, control flow with delayed branches + bc.t/bnc.t annul, DIM
tracking, and the complete FP model (pipes with per-entry result precision,
PFAM/PFMAM dual-op routing, fdest bypass, raw-retire fix/ftrunc, K/T loads).
Python keeps the hooks via a shim; the C loop returns at hook pcs.
Differential result vs the hook-aligned reference trace (ref_trace2):
139.7M steps/s (Python: 398K/s = 351x), 35.8M steps, 2195 hooks,
43/43 checkpoints matched (pc + step count + full reg CRC).
The original i860 ran ~40 MIPS: real-time geometry is cleared 3.5x over --
M4's gate (GPU-RETARGET.md) is open.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Bars: the captured DMA stream walked tile-by-tile through the M1 instruction
shader (real origins, real bench programs), texu ramped to the test card.
fxtest: the per-draw packets as 4-edge primitive records, full-frame compute
dispatch, z-buffered -- the building scene. gpu_bars.png / gpu_fx.png
committed alongside.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
One invocation per pixel, the same 208-bit bit-addressed pixel memory as the
golden model, instruction stream as SSBO records with TREE state resolved at
pack time. Passes C2 (synthetic raster) and C3 (the real cap7 bench bar
programs) bit-for-bit against igc_exec. First step of the GPU retarget
(GPU-RETARGET.md M1); M2 = the frame loop.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The tlink32 campaign after the checkpoint: eleven engine bodies back-dated
from BT412 (rotation player team explode dropzone terrain cultural receiver
subsystm app l4gauge - the Application core included), the WinTesla-ectomy
handled by backdate.py's new unwrap rules (accessor-fn statics -> 1995 static
objects, decl rewrites, pointer->reference Derivation ctor, 2007 windowed-
gauge/console-marshal/idle-pump excisions), staged statics TUs opened for the
game classes (MECH/BTPLAYER/BTDIRECT/PROJTILE/MISSILE/BTL4MPPR .CPP + L4APP/
NETWORK engine statics).
State: every compiled symbol short of the shallow graph RESOLVED (the 52- and
17-symbol ledgers burned to zero); with 32stub.exe in place the linker reaches
full vtable closure and emits the deep ledger (~210 symbols, UNRESOLVED-
LEDGER.txt): remaining engine bodies (objstrm cstr gauge/gaugrend graphics
pixelmap palette resfile ray scnrole explosion-table), the DOS driver extern
layer (_SVGA*/_PCSerial*/_PCSPAK*/joystick/netnub/sosMIDI), the full L4App
body, and the real game-TU frontier (Mech::Make et al.). Recipe proven for
every category.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
igc_conformance.py pins the reference behaviour any port (RTL/GPU/C) must
reproduce: the DUMP packet parse, a synthetic raster, the bars pipeline
(texu==x+2 from the real cap7 tile programs), and the fxtest effect
primitives (coverage + z pinned) -- fixtures committed under conformance/.
GPU-RETARGET.md maps the DOSBox-renderer path: EMC tile as compute shader
(pixel=thread), 4 milestones, conformance-gated.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The per-draw effect programs (0x816f000, second DMA emitter) parse and
execute through the named ISA: 9 primitives, z-buffered perspective scene
with u/v texture gradients. The earlier 'fixed per-tile program' conclusion
was a sniffer artifact.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
All 10 surviving original TUs plus the reconstructed BTL4APP.CPP pilot build
clean with the authentic OPT.MAK flags (compile410.sh --sweep). First time
the 4.10 BattleTech source has compiled since 1996.
- layout_probe.cpp: the period compiler measures 1995 layouts from the
surviving headers; validated 3/3 against binary alloc sizes (BTMission
0xFC, BTL4ModeManager 0xC, BTRegistry 0x10). Base boundary: Simulation
0xD0 / Entity 0x1C4 / Mover 0x300 / JointedMover 0x328 => Mech-own region
0x328-0x854 (MECH-LAYOUT.md staging worksheet).
- 13 staged headers close the family ([T3] reserved[]-parked layouts;
interfaces PROVEN by the surviving consumers): MECH, MECHSUB, HEAT,
POWERSUB, MECHWEAP, EMITTER, MECHMPPR, BTPLAYER (BTPlayer__MakeMessage =
Player's 8 args + roleName/teamName [T1 via BTREG]), PROJTILE, MISSILE,
BTL4MPPR, BTL4VID + the round-2 BTCNSL/BTSCNRL.
- compile410.sh: PCH gate retired (bt.hpp/mungal4.hpp full include sets),
DPL SDK roots on the include line.
- BTL4APP.CPP: appmgr include + GetApplicationManager()->GetFrameRate() +
ResourceDescription:: scoping; Fail() held at its recorded line 400.
- Evidence ledgers: STAGED-HEADERS.NOTES.md, MECH-LAYOUT.md, BACKFILLS,
BTCNSL (binary-recovered console wire IDs), BTSCNRL.
Remaining for a linkable BTL4OPT: the ~40 missing TU bodies (917-function
manifest) - the header skeleton they grow into now exists and compiles.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The governing insight: specification is the bottleneck, not substrate --
igc_exec.py is the golden reference model every port (RTL or GPU) validates
against. EMC array = natural FPGA target (208KB BRAM + ~50k LUT full-parallel,
or 8:1 muxed); IGC = reimplementation from our cracked ISA; i860 = software
(emu860 as executable spec); wire-identical boot via the blind boot-from-link
property.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- BORLAND/: Borland C++ 4.52 (chosen over 4.5 by byte-match: CODE/RP/CW32.LIB
is identical to 4.52's install lib). BCC32/TLINK32/TLIB/MAKE run natively on
Win11; CODE/BT/OPT.MAK is the shipped BTL4OPT.EXE's exact flag recipe
(extender = Borland PowerPack DPMI32, not Phar Lap TNT).
- restoration/source410/: the literal 1995-form reconstruction of the missing
BT game source (never mixed into CODE/). Round 1-3 state:
* 6 of 10 surviving original TUs COMPILE CLEAN under the period toolchain
(BTMSSN, BTCNSL, BTSCNRL, BTTEAM, BTL4MODE, BTL4ARND) - first builds
since 1996.
* BT_L4/BTL4APP.CPP pilot reconstruction: 12/12 functions, Fail() lands on
its binary-recorded line 400 exactly.
* BT/BTCNSL.HPP: console wire IDs recovered from the binary's ctors
(Killed=9, Damaged=10, ScoreUpdate=13, DeathWithoutHonor=15 [T1];
TeamScore=12 flagged [T4]).
* MUNGA/: 8 engine-header backfills back-dated from the BT412 WinTesla tree
(VDATA numbering decomp-verified; AUDREND's OpenAL-era virtual removed -
the period compiler is the drift detector).
* Tooling: backdate.py (WinTesla->1995 header transform), compile410.sh
(per-TU verification sweep under authentic OPT.MAK flags).
* README: corrected roadmap - MECH.HPP is the capstone grown with the mech
TU reconstructions; BTREG.CPP green = the header-family milestone.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
texu = per-pixel x computed by the REAL captured sweep programs across the
real 52-tile DMA stream; two documented approximations (texz seed op, ramp
LUT). Bars match the reference: 7 bars, correct colours, black border at
x=48. bars_pipeline.png in the session scratchpad.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Verified flowing on the bench tile: s145 holds per-pixel x, scalar region
packs it, SCAintoMEM constants land in eofr/eofb. Bars chain now breaks at
the texz seed = the op-0x48-with-len family (0x3a804820 targets texz) --
FCMEMA, next to implement.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
render_wide30.py executes the cap7 death-cam capture's raw instruction
packets ({TREEgeZERO_L3 x3 edges, MEMltTREE_L3 z-test, TREEintoMEM_L0
z-write, colour planes, scalar} -- 152 packets found by header scan) through
the named-ISA semantics, vectorized: 85 packets survive edge+z, producing a
recognizable smooth-shaded, depth-correct render of the test-scene object
(wide30_render/depth.png in the session scratchpad). This is geometry drawn
purely by executing the hardware's own instruction stream -- no
geometry-extraction shortcuts.
Known approximations this pass: winding-agnostic edge acceptance, colour
plane word-offsets partly empirical (R channel confirmed Gouraud-correct,
G/B extraction still off), duplicate packets from the wide capture window
z-fight. eof/bars ops still stubbed (per-tile program renders uniform).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Parser rewritten around the named table -- TREEltZERO_L3/TREEgeZERO_L3/
MEMltTREE_L3/TREEintoMEM_L3+L0/TREEclmpintoMEM/SCAintoMEM/CPY/the ENAB group/
sweep pair, aux field (bits16-22) disambiguating operand formats. Validates
100% clean against DUMP's live reference packet (9 instructions, 0 unknown).
Executor implements the enable-gated semantics per IGCOPS.C; eof-exotic ops
parsed structurally, semantics stubbed pending builder disasm.
Capture insight: the firmware's payload pages are double-buffered PER
PRIMITIVE -- DRAM snapshots hold only the last primitive's packets, so full
frames need payload capture at SEND time (send_capture.py, scratchpad).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
ADDR carries exact I_*/P_* macro bases; DUMP is a pxpl5tst log printing the
named op values plus two complete live triangle packets. Retroactive
unification: tri_recover's 'scale 0.00178' was TREEltZERO_L3 (0x3ae94200)
read as a float -- the DRAM stride-0x10 groups were always 4-word edge
instructions in the DPL3 direct-float format igc_exec.py already executes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The firmware's SENDE emitter (disassembled at 0xf041db90 via builder_trace)
proves the captured 0x8x01213a words are op-0x21 instructions whose len-field
(136-k)<<23 decrements through the IEEE exponent bits -- the 'x2 doubling
chain floats' of the earlier decode were an artifact, not coefficients. The
69-word SENDE is a fixed bit-serial transform program (texz -> texu region);
real per-primitive coefficients are in the SEND(33)/SEND(41) blocks
(builders at 0xf04126xx, next disasm target). 2-word sweep format:
{op|dst|(len1+116)<<23, src|dst<<8|len2<<16}, verified word-exact.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The igc_opco.h macro header is absent from the dump, but the PGC-expanded
compiler output (PXPL5TRI.S / PXPL5OPT.S / EOF.S) carries every constructor
expression in the clear. PXPL5OPT.S:1649 gives the universal template:
word = op<<8 | aux<<16 | (addr&0xff) | ((len+115..117)&0xff)<<23 | flags | S1<<31
Verified word-exact against the captured streams (Ix_SCAintoMEM_S1(52,5) =
0x3c90f734, Ix_MEMgeSCA_S1(5) = 0xbc916c00, Ix_MEMltTREE_L3(97,20) =
0x44ea2161). Edge instructions are 0x601/0x602/0x603 + A,B,C floats; the aux
field encodes the operand format (L3=+3 floats, L0=bare, C1/S1=+1). Full
derivation log in IGC-ENCODING-DERIVATION.md.
igc_exec.py: payload parser + 64x128-tile executor (26-byte bit-addressed
pixel memory, enable reg, shared linear-expression tree) per IGCOPS.C
semantics; constructor self-tests + triangle smoke test pass.
Known gap: the firmware's own packet builder emits a bit-serial SWEEP variant
(ops 0x21/0x25/0x39/0x48/0x4c/0x7c/0xfa per bit-plane) that the parser does
not yet cover -- next target is FITPLANE.SS (the bit-serial plane-fit source).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Dev-rig policy (2026-07-17): everything on the dev machine runs named pipes
to vRIO until Real-RIO testing -- no com0com. pod-launch --pipe selects the
<mode>_pipe conf (serial1=namedpipe pipe:vrio, serial2=namedpipe
pipe:vplasma); pipe variants of all three deploy templates (auto-staged/
rendered) + a dev-tree net_loop_pipe.conf beside the existing RP one.
Requires the vRIO dist >= 20260716-68e3d1f (VRioPipeService/
VPlasmaPipeService landed there). Arcade cockpits with the physical RIO
keep the plain COM-port confs.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The interpreter executed bc.t/bnc.t's delay-slot instruction on both the taken
and not-taken paths. On real i860 the ".t" conditional branches annul that slot
when NOT taken -- the compiler fills it with the loop body's first pointer load,
valid only when the branch continues:
xor 0,r4,r0 ; CC = (node == NULL)
bnc.t loop ; continue while node != NULL
fld.d 0x20(r4),f16 ; annulled when node==NULL; else reads *NULL
For cap7/trek/batest (<512 live objects) the stray reads land in dead registers,
so the bug stayed latent -- cap7's rendered coefficient stream is byte-identical
before/after this change (verified: md5 52e16774... over the first 3 draws). But
the same stray access corrupted the object-registry tail-find walk (REGISTER
@0xf04041f8) whenever the 512-bucket handle hash chained (>512 live objects),
orphaning entries so FIND_REMOTE missed -> NULL -> firmware exit()
("Attempt to add NULL to a list"). That killed every content capture
(fxtest/sdemo4/glblade) ~1/3 in, before any draw.
Fix: a _squash flag skips the delay slot (whole next pair in DIM) on a not-taken
bc.t/bnc.t. fxtest now replays all 18987 commands and emits 3.67M coefficient
words of real geometry (previously 0 -- it died at cmd 6277); cap7's full mission
is unaffected.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
trek's live-written DMA stream contains ZERO non-standard SENDs (624 pairs, all
four standard payloads) -- the captured demo frames, like the bench, draw only
the SMPTE test card. The warp starfield and Klingon vessel geometry are the
demos' scene ASSETS resident in render memory (compiled coefficient blocks
never referenced by the captured frames' chains). §07 relabeled accordingly:
"Recovered assets -- the Star Trek material". Every image in the readout is now
attributed by stream evidence, not memory scanning.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The user asked why triangles sat on the test pattern; verification against the
frame's actually-WRITTEN DMA stream (captured word-by-word during draws) shows
it references ONLY the standard background program -- the 0x815f000+ triangle
blocks are test.egg's 3D scene content, precompiled in DRAM but never
referenced by this frame's chains (my loose memory scan misattributed them).
The live frame = SMPTE colour bars, now rendered bars-only (paint_bars.py) and
matching the user's reference card. Readout §06 corrected: bars frame + honest
note about the undrawn DRAM-resident scene data.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
paint_bench.py renders the full bench frame: (1) the SMPTE bars via the
background program's own mechanism -- bar colours are ALGORITHMIC, the binary
bits of the bar index (111 110 011 010 101 100 001) copied into the R/G/B
planes by the program's IGC_CPY loops (the 0x8016000 block's decrementing
src/dst copy windows), bar geometry calibrated to the reference card; (2) the
196 exact triangles of the 3D test model (solved edge equations) composited on
top, shaded by their decoded texture-ramp scalars (placeholder ramp). Readout
§06 now shows the painted frame (14KB embedded PNG). Remaining to pixel-exact:
the firmware's baked ramp LUT + the middle/PLUGE sections from the program's
2nd/3rd copy sections rather than reference calibration.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
User-provided ground truth: the cap7 test scene displays SMPTE colour bars.
Axis-alignment census (8/196 axis-aligned) proves the recovered triangles are
the 3D test-scene layer, not the bars -- the bars are the OUTPUT of the
standard background program (the byte-identical bit-serial SENDE/SEND set in
every capture: a video test card painted as the permanent backdrop, colours
written to the eofr/g/b planes 184/192/200 by the x2-chain sweeps). Payload
formats settled: size-18 = 3 edges + z-plane; size-21 = 3 edges + texture-ramp
SCALAR plane (the pvision mechanism). The known bar pattern is now the
pixel-exact acceptance oracle for the bit-serial program executor (the
chartered IGC_* macro work). Readout §06 caption updated.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
real cockpit
The splitter passed the analog VGA signal through whenever the game's
packed mode wasn't driving it: a person in the cockpit watched the PC boot
sequence scroll across every secondary display, and the test suite's menus
were readable on the heads. pal_draw now rasterizes M_TEXT (80x25 through
the live font tables + attribute palette -> VGA DAC, 8-dot cells, centered
640x400) with the mono MFD windows showing single-wire green-phosphor
luminance.
Two DOSBox-X planar-layout lessons encoded in comments: text cells live in
linear_base as one latch DWORD per character address (char/attr = plane
0/1 bytes, cell stride 4<<addr_shift, lvida = vidstart<<2), and
font_tables index PLANAR vram too -- one font byte per dword, so the glyph
fetch is ((chr<<5)+line)*4. Plus a 2s textdiag line (row-0 decode) in the
vpx log for future text-path debugging.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The VDB is an analog splitter: the game's packed-16bpp trick routes the two
framebuffer bytes through the board palettes at 0x300/8/10, but any plain
VGA mode passes the S3's own DAC signal to every head -- no VDB register
traffic at all. The VGL_LABS test suite draws its secondary-display
patterns in 640x480x8 and programs nothing at 0x300-0x31A (verified from a
full session log), so the packed-only decode showed black heads. pal_draw
now branches: M_LIN8 decodes through the VGA DAC (full color on the color
heads, single-wire luminance on the mono MFD windows); 16bpp keeps the
packed VDB-palette decode.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
vwetest.conf.tmpl was never staged, so fresh installs had no conf for the
test mode ("vwetest.conf not found under root"). Glob deploy\*.conf.tmpl
and log the staged set.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
VGL_LABS cockpit test suite as pod-launch 'test' mode
The WC hang, root-caused in three layers (each necessary):
1. WC was rendered-samples + 100ms-capped interpolation; AWEUTIL's poll
storm (~550k port-ops/s) starved the render thread of awe_lock, so the
clock crawled ~90x slow. Fixed: free-running host-clock derivation +
a fairness gate so the render thread can always take the lock.
2. Free-running at true 44.1kHz still failed: trapped port reads cost
~30us -- MORE than one 22.7us tick -- so consecutive reads skipped
counter values, and AWEUTIL's WaitUntilWC (decoded at COM offset
0x5F42) exits only on EQUALITY with a target tick: skipped value =
missed target = 1.49s wrap penalty, or forever.
3. Advancing +1 per read still failed: WaitUntilWC reads WC TWICE per
iteration, so its equality sample saw only every 2nd value -- wrong
parity = infinite loop. Final semantics: during a poll storm the
counter advances once per FOUR reads (every value observable by all
of AWEUTIL's loop shapes; its 8192-unchanged-reads dead-clock bailout
never trips), and resyncs to true wall time after any 50ms idle gap.
Result: the full stock TEST.BAT (DIAGNOSE + AWEUTIL /S on both cards)
completes in seconds.
Also: pod-launch 'test' mode -> vwetest.conf (stock TEST.BAT -> TSTALL),
DOSBox window defaults to 900,600 in test mode (the DOS screen is the
suite's UI), VWE_AWE_LOG gains storm bursts with guest cs:ip + caller and
rare-read tracing (the instrumentation that cracked this).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
tri_recover.py parses each payload's stride-0x10 edge groups {scale,A,B,C}
(GOODEQNS edgeize output), solves the three edge equations pairwise into true
vertices, and fills the triangles. cap7's bench = a triangulated calibration
grid + a multi-part test model + triangle strips, in global screen coords --
the image Division's engineers used to validate VelociRender boards, exact to
the compiled coefficients. The earlier 9x5 patch was one corner of this scene.
Readout gains §06 (test pattern) with trek/klng scenes moving to §07. The demo
captures' streak/point payloads use a different layout (parser refinement
pending) -- the bench is pure triangles and recovers perfectly.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
recover_scene.py generalizes the recovery (dual-window dump -> chain walk ->
position/segment parse -> render) for any capture. Applied to klngvid: 139
content payload programs, 96 positions + 62 edge segments = a sparse starfield
with a dense edge tangle right-of-center -- a vessel in space. Readout §06 now
shows both recovered scenes (warp field + Klingon) side by side.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Walking the bin-page DMA chains enumerated 898 SEND payload programs per frame:
4 = the standard end-of-frame pipeline; ~860 = the scene's per-primitive
coefficient blocks at 0x815f000+, far beyond the old dump window. Their
geometry sits in plain screen-space IEEE floats (+0x14/+0x18 and +0x24/+0x28):
433 star positions + 389 streaks radiating from a convergence point = the
Star Trek warp-speed starfield, reconstructed from micro-code compiled by the
original firmware on the emulated i860. Readout §06 now renders the warp field
from the embedded position/segment data. Tools: dumpcontent.py (payload-region
dump), content_frame.py (chain walk + payload parse + reconstruction).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Cross-checks against the vendor source settle the semantics: the 0x3xx words
are pixel-memory bit addresses / opcode fields (EOF.S emits them as hardcoded
constants; DIVPXMAP.H maps dvpx_* bit addresses 0-207 incl. eofr/g/b at
184/192/200), 0xec00 is a hardcoded control constant (EOF.S:2313), and the
whole 2,541-word payload set is 98.98% identical between trek and klngvid =
the standard screen program shared across captures. §06 now presents the
render as an emit-stream structural map with the demo-specific geometry still
to be located (beyond the 0x8014000-0x8018000 window; bin pages / far heap are
the candidates). The EOF.S<->EOF.C correlation method for the exact per-macro
decode is proven (send_em catalog: 30 emit sites with inline constants).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
trekframe.py parses the captured payload blocks (0x100 headers, rowid words
0x300|row, packed edge fields) into per-scanline spans and composites them onto
an 832x512 canvas -- 21 blocks / 124 spans from the trek demo's compiled stream:
distinct multi-colored objects + slanted band elements. dumppay.py dumps the
payload region at chosen draws (scene verified byte-identical draws 1-300 =
compile-once static showcase). Readout gains §06 with the frame rendered from
the span data. First-approximation decode (edge-field scaling still being
pinned) -- but every mark is a span the firmware's rasteriser emitted.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
CydandClaude Fable 5