CydandClaude Fable 5
50341b4a66
PlayerStatus (dirty-gated, blits an 8-bit pixmap -- but the widget map for a DIRTY run contains no playerStatus at all; it belongs to cameraInit and never exists in a mech cockpit) and heat-driven redraw (a BT_FORCE_FIRE run came back clean). Seven hypotheses killed by measurement so far. It is a heisenbug: dirty on ~3 runs in 25, and every run since instrumenting has been clean. The pattern tracks STARTUP LOG VOLUME -- the three dirty runs all had the lighter conf, and a chatty trace slows init enough to suppress it. The blit trace is therefore narrowed to fire only for pixmaps landing on a non-palette port, which is near-silent when nothing is wrong. That narrowed trace caught real traffic: 17x17 PixelMap8 blits onto Mfd1/2/3 -- 8-bit pixmaps on single-bit planes. They render correctly, so the library thresholds them; not the culprit but the right bug class. Also banked a hunting recipe, because two detector traps cost runs: Eng1 == 0 means the cockpit is not up (not dirty), and an early capture during mission start caught a full 3-D cockpit frame with the gauges at pod positions (Eng1 62927) that did not recur over the next minute. BTDPL.INI is in the mount and DPLRenderer is linked, so the dPL path may emit a frame during launch even with L4VIDEO=OFF -- first evidence the 3-D path produces anything, and explicitly NOT a claim that btl4vid works. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
source410 — literal reconstruction of the missing BT 4.10 game source
Everything in this directory is RECONSTRUCTED, not recovered. The authentic surviving
source lives in CODE/ and is never mixed with this tree. The goal here is an
archival-grade recreation of the d:\tesla_bt\ translation units that exist only inside
BTL4OPT.EXE (the shipped 4.10 binary), written in the 1995 VWE house style against the
1995 MUNGA/MUNGA_L4 engine headers that DID survive.
Ground rules
- Never copy a reconstructed file into
CODE/— the assembled buildable tree (originals + reconstructions) is produced by a script into a build directory, so provenance stays unambiguous file-by-file. - Every
.CPPhere has a.NOTES.mdsidecar carrying the evidence: the binary address map, decomp references, which sibling sources supplied each idiom, and every judgment call with its tier ([T1] decomp-proven … [T4] style guess). The.CPPitself stays clean 1995 style — no modern annotations inside. - Assert line numbers are constraints. The binary's
Fail()sites record the original file+line (BTL4APP.CPP:400etc.); reconstructed files are shaped so those calls land on their recorded lines. A file that can't meet its line constraints yet says so in the sidecar. - Layout mirrors the original tree:
BT/(bt.lib, 36 TUs) andBT_L4/(btl4.lib, 13 TUs + BTL4.CPP), matching the survivingBT.MAK/BTL4.MAK.
What drives the work
- The per-TU manifest:
C:\VWE\BT411\reference\BT410_SOURCE_MANIFEST.md(tooltools/manifest410.py; method logphases/phase-03-bt410-source-manifest.md). - The decomp:
C:\VWE\BT411\reference\decomp\all\part_*.c(+section_dump.txtstrings). - The port's semantic reconstructions:
C:\VWE\BT411\game\reconstructed\(WinTesla-hosted; each literal file here re-hosts one back onto the 1995 engine APIs). - Style/idiom exemplars: surviving
CODE/BT/*.CPP,CODE/RP/RP_L4/*.CPP,CODE/RP/MUNGA*/**(the 1995 engine source itself).
Status (2026-07-19)
Compile verification is LIVE: ./compile410.sh --sweep (BC4.52 + the authentic OPT.MAK
flags; the period compiler is the reviewer). backdate.py mechanizes WinTesla→1995 header
back-dating (donors: C:\VWE\BT412\engine\MUNGA\*.h).
| item | state |
|---|---|
| THE WHOLE TREE COMPILES (2026-07-19) | ✅ 11/11: all 10 surviving originals + the BTL4APP.CPP pilot build clean under BC4.52 + authentic OPT flags (./compile410.sh --sweep) |
| BT/BTCNSL.HPP + BT/BTSCNRL.HPP | ✅ reconstructed — console wire IDs recovered from the binary (Killed=9, Damaged=10, ScoreUpdate=13, DeathWithoutHonor=15 [T1]; TeamScore=12 [T4 GUESS — verify]); see BTCNSL.NOTES.md |
| BT_L4/BTL4APP.CPP (pilot reconstruction) | ✅ compiles (18.5KB obj); 12/12 functions, Fail() at recorded line 400 |
| Staged header family (13: mech/mechsub/heat/powersub/mechweap/emitter/mechmppr/btplayer/projtile/missile + btl4mppr/btl4vid) | ✅ [T3] interface-proven by every surviving consumer; layouts parked in reserved[] blocks — see STAGED-HEADERS.NOTES.md + MECH-LAYOUT.md |
| MUNGA backfills (VDATA, ROTATION, VECTOR2D, AUDREND, APP, LAMP, GAUGREND, GAUGE) | ✅ compile-proven (BACKFILLS.NOTES.md) |
Next work package — the mech-family, REVISED (round-3 finding, 2026-07-19): the plan to "reconstruct mech.hpp first" was the wrong order. A full read of the port's mech.hpp shows it is a hybrid (1995 skeleton + Recon proxies + port-only members + relocated fields), and substantial regions of the binary's 0x854-byte Mech object remain UNMAPPED — the port declares "the remaining members up to sizeof==0x854" in its mech2-4 slices. A literal MECH.HPP that precedes those TU reconstructions would be fiction. Corrected order:
- MECH.HPP is the CAPSTONE, grown incrementally with each mech-family TU
reconstruction (mech.cpp → mech2-4 → subsystem TUs), starting as an interface +
known-ordered members with explicit
reserved[]filler for unmapped regions (sidecar-tracked), tightened as each TU pins its slice. - The dependent headers (
mechsub,mechmppr,btl4mppr,emitter+mechweap,btplayer,projtile,missile) ship WITH their TUs against the staged MECH.HPP. - The blocked originals (BTTOOL, GAUSS, PPC, BTREG) and the BTL4APP pilot compile green as those land — BTREG last (it includes the whole game-header world). Offset oracles for every stage: BT411 CLASSMAP.md, decomp-reference.md §3, and the port headers' static_assert-locked members.
Toolchain — IN HAND (2026-07-19)
Borland C++ 4.52, archived at ../../BORLAND/BC45/, chosen by byte-match: the fleet's own
CODE/RP/CW32.LIB is identical to 4.52's (and not 4.5's). BCC32/TLINK32/TLIB/MAKE run natively
on Win11. The shipped BTL4OPT.EXE recipe is CODE/BT/OPT.MAK (plain bcc32,
-DLBE4;DEBUG_LEVEL=0;DEBUG_STREAM=cout, -5 -a4 -ff -k- -V -Jg -x- -RT- + the full -O set,
PCH btopt.csm; link -Tpe -ax with c0x32.obj + dpmi32.lib + cw32.lib = Borland PowerPack
DPMI32, not Phar Lap TNT). Compile verification of reconstructed TUs is therefore possible
file-by-file; the current blocker for full closure is the 1995 engine header gap (vdata.hpp
first — only the drifted WinTesla VDATA.h survives, in BT412/engine). Include order for
builds: CODE/BT/* over CODE/RP/*, -DNO_PRECOMPILED_HEADERS until the mech-family headers
are reconstructed. Remaining gap: TASM32 (JOYSTICK.ASM only).
Link campaign (build410, 2026-07-19)
source410/build410.sh assembles BTL4OPT.EXE: merged-engine mass compile (152/152 green
— the ENTIRE surviving engine compiles), BT TUs (11/11), tlib libs (munga 1.25MB / mungal4
with the prebuilt-1995 objs / bt / btl4), then the authentic tlink32 link rooted by a probe
main (build scaffold). First true link run: 52 unresolved externals
(UNRESOLVED-LEDGER.txt) = the measured remaining gap. Kill-lists: l4gauge.cpp back-date
(14 widget statics), the missing-engine-body back-date wave (~24: rotation, player, team,
l4app, explode, dropzone, terrain, cultural, subsystm-statics, netclient...), the prebuilt
RANDOM.obj fold, and the staged game-TU statics blocks (MECH.CPP et al. — each TU file opens
with its binary-evidenced Derivation/SharedData statics and grows into the full body).
Link-lib arbitration: SOS = SOSDBXC+SOSMBXC (the 32-bit Borland-flat variants; SOSMW*=16-bit),
WATTCP excluded (it belongs to the 16-bit NetNub TSR — the game talks to it via shared
memory), filestrm = the RP-era pair (BT-tree pair is post-4.10 drift; override layer).