CydandClaude Fable 5
b01db52d43
Twenty-two Fail sites in L4NET.CPP -- the whole console/mesh transport -- replaced with decomp-verified bodies (part_007.c @004501d4..@00452378), every error string extracted byte-for-byte from the shipped exe, every magic number resolved to a macro from the AUTHENTIC 1995 NETNUB.HPP that survives in the archive (NETCOM_VERSION 11; 0x63c == MAX_SEND_DATA_SIZE). The real-mode bridge came free: the 1995 netshare.OBJ has been linking into mungal4.lib all along via the prebuilt fallback -- this file only had to define the six globals it imports and call it. NetNub::SendCommand is the gateway (setRMBuff, DPMI int 31h/0300h on the TSR's vector, getRMBuff); BC4.52's <dos.h> really has int386x -- the binary's own "int386x():ERROR=" text named the RTL call. The topology, decomp-proven: console listens on 1501, the pod mesh on 1502; hosts before ours in the egg get an OPEN, ours becomes the local host by address match, hosts after ours get a LISTEN -- and CheckBuffers heals the ordering race by SWAPPING sockets when a peer lands on the wrong listen. The console's listen is a wildcard that learns its address; the console connection SURVIVES mission teardown (Shutdown zeroes both counters anyway -- reproduced faithfully). Send discipline: direct while the retry buffer is empty, everything queues behind a backlog in per-host FIFO, one round-robin drain per idle slot; only a dumped-to-avoid-blocking send is retried, and RemovePacket is empty in the binary because delivery already compacted the pad buffer. Internal connect/disconnect events ride the GetNetworkClientPointer(0)->ReceiveNetworkPacket self-dispatch (the decomp's FUN_0041d7f0 resolves to the ClientID-0-is-me idiom). Ghidra had dropped register and trailing arguments at half a dozen call sites (GetRemoteHost's HostID among them) -- the surviving HPP signatures arbitrated each. Stubs: 8 across 8 files -- ALL RUNTIME STUBS ARE NOW CLEAR; what remains is the authoring-side CreateStreamedSubsystem family, which missions never call. Single-user regression clean on the rig; the networked path awaits its console + NetNub-TSR live session (two-agreeing-runs). 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 (2026-08-03)
The census is 98% covered (897 of 917 binary-attributed functions):
manifest410.py's 50-TU missing-source census now splits RECONSTRUCTED /
SURVIVES / MISSING — an audit found NINE census TUs (btmssn, btcnsl, btreg,
btteam, bttool, gauss, ppc, btl4arnd, btl4mode) had surviving source in
CODE/ all along (attribution noise: the binary file-tags covered only part
of each TU's functions). Remaining MISSING:
| TU | fns | note |
|---|---|---|
bt/mech3.cpp |
3 | the resource STREAM BUILDERS (authoring-side) |
bt/mech4.cpp |
17 | master perf / IntegrateMotion / ReplicantPerformance — large parts already re-hosted in Mech::Simulate at STAGED seams (see MECH4.NOTES.md) |
bt/gnrator.cpp |
0 | GNRATOR.TCP is an 18-line test fragment; both its methods live in POWERSUB.CPP |
bt_l4/btl4galm.cpp |
0 | zero attributed functions; header survives |
The honest completion metric is the Fail() stub count: 22 stubs across 15
files (down from 26/18 at the start of the gait arc). SEQCTL.CPP and
BTL4.CPP are stub-free.
Playable-systems status: the mech WALKS (two-channel clip gait, all 12 mech2 functions, interior+exterior clip sets), LIMPS from real leg damage (two-stage leg death), TURNS IN PLACE by stepping, walks REAL TERRAIN (the gravity-less ground snap), and collides authentically (frame rejection, knockdown stagger, the collision-damage economy, crushable props, rams). MISSION REVIEW links end to end (BTL4PB + L4SPLR + the review/camera launch in main) — runtime test pending a recorded spool. The engine tree gained L4SPLR.CPP (182 TUs).
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).