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T

CydandClaude Opus 4.8 4b6d910f7b Phase 3a: decode captured VPX render stream to pixels (SMPTE bars)

- 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>

2026-07-03 14:13:02 -05:00

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Render harness — FLYK + the VWETEST diagnostic suite

The production cockpit image ALPHA_1/VWETEST/ contains VWE's hardware diagnostic suite, which turns out to be an excellent, minimal harness for developing and validating the VPX board emulation — far simpler than driving the full game.

What's in VWETEST

VGLTEST/FLYK.EXE — Division's standalone scene flyer (flyk <scene.scn> <camera.spl>). Boots the VPX renderer and draws a scene along a camera spline. No game logic, no RIO, no NetNub. Uses the Borland 32RTM extender and the newer token-based velocirender_sync (the one this device already handles). This is the primary harness.
VGLTEST/*.SCN — calibration scenes of increasing complexity: CLEAR.SCN (black, no geometry), DIVRGB.SCN / DIVBRT.SCN / DIVPA.SCN (color-bar / brightness / RGB calibration geometry from DIVISION/*.BGF), DIVCAL.SCN.
CYCLE/ — a full render-cycle test: flyk yip.scn camera.spl rendering real Red Planet geometry (REDPLANT.BGF) with dynamic objects and events. NOTE: this FLYK is a DOS/4GW build using the older DPL3-style velocirender_sync (action-check, not token) — it currently hits unexpected action 1 in velocirender_sync against this device. Two sync protocol variants exist; the device implements the newer one.
VPX/DBE0151, VPX/DBI0152 — low-level board diagnostics that use the actual INMOS ISERVER.EXE to boot a TEST.BTL onto the board (RR 0 TEST.BTL), plus 65 reference TST00xx.TGA images. A future avenue for validating the raw iserver/link emulation and for golden-image comparison.

Validated: full render loop, clean

emulator\src\src\dosbox-x.exe -conf emulator\flyk.conf
# (VPXLOG + VPX_RESPOND=1 in the environment)

flyk.conf mounts C: at ALPHA_1, runs flyk clear.scn ..\cycle\camera.spl from \VWETEST\VGLTEST. Result — the game-independent DPL app drives the entire protocol through the emulated board with no errors:

flyk.exe clear.scn ..\cycle\camera.spl
load scene, zone=0x1307a0
fog ... / set background ... / Starting position ...
added . to USER geometry/material/texture search path
set tracking to KEYBOARD ...
hey, read the scene
Exiting rendering          <- rendered, frame-ack fired, clean exit

The device log shows the expected sync reply token handshake and a frame ack (action 9). This confirms the VPX emulation (boot → iserver handshake → i860 download → token sync → scene build → draw_scene → frame-ack → clean shutdown) is correct for an arbitrary DPL renderer, not just the game.

Configs (this directory)

flyk.conf — FLYK + clear.scn (minimal render loop). Works.
cycle.conf — CYCLE yip.scn real geometry (DOS/4GW FLYK; older sync — WIP).
alpha1.conf — full game rooted at the production image (btdpl.ini config).
rio.conf — game with the real RIO on COM1 (Phase 5, validated).
respond.conf — game with the minimal test image.

Phase 3a: pixels (DONE — see PHASE3-PROGRESS.md)

flyk DIVRGB.SCN was captured with VPX_FIFODUMP (divrgb.conf → divrgb.fifodump), the full Rel 4.10 FIFO message set was decoded (decode_fifodump.py), and the captured frame was reconstructed to pixels (render_capture.py → divrgb-decoded.png): the textbook SMPTE color-bar pattern, drawn entirely from the wire protocol. Phase 3b is the live OpenGL backend inside DOSBox-X.

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