Tesla Release 4.10 — Tesla:BattleTech & Tesla:Red Planet

Source code and game content for Tesla:BattleTech and Tesla:Red Planet, the two games that ran on the Tesla-generation simulator cockpits built by Virtual World Entertainment, Inc. (VWE). Source file headers are dated 1994–1996; this tree corresponds to release 4.10 of the Tesla software.

This repository is an archival snapshot. The tree is preserved byte-for-byte as found (see .gitattributes — no line-ending conversion is applied).

Target hardware

Each Tesla cockpit was driven by a server-class Pentium Pro machine running Novell DOS. Graphics were split across two adapters:

• The main (out-the-window) display was rendered by one of the first pixel-pipeline 3D accelerator cards ever made, driven through Division Ltd.'s dVS/DPL libraries (libDPL — DPL, dsys, dvs, and the VPX headers; Division copyright 1995).
• An S3 video adapter drove the other six cockpit displays (instrument and gauge screens — see the GAUGE content directories and the PCPIC.INC / L4GAU* gauge code).

Other hardware/OS interfaces:

• Audio: HMI SOS (Sound Operating System) — sos/ libraries, with variants for Borland (bc4) and Watcom (wc).
• Networking: pods were networked over Ethernet using WATTCP (DOS TCP/IP, with BOOTP) via VWE's NetNub layer.
• Input: joystick/pedal/panel I/O in assembly (JOYSTICK.ASM) and the L4CTRL* control modules.

Toolchain

• Borland C++ 5.0 (BCC) with TASM32 for assembly — see the .MAK makefiles (original build tree lived at D:\TESLA_RP\ and D:\BC5\).
• Precompiled-header discipline throughout (.CSM headers, #pragma hdrstop).
• VSSVER.SCC / MSSCCPRJ.SCC files are remnants of the original Visual SourceSafe source control.
• File extensions: .CPP/.HPP C++ source/headers, .TCP/.THP C++ template source/headers, .MAK Borland makefiles.

Repository layout

ARTTOOLS/   (empty placeholder — art tools were not included in this snapshot)
BORLAND/    (empty placeholder — compiler was not included in this snapshot)
CODE/       Game and engine source (~200k lines of C++/asm)
CONTENT/    Game data: models, animations, audio, maps, textures, gauges
HEADOFF/    Head/camera offset calibration configs for the cockpit displays

CODE/

Both games share the same architecture: a portable simulation engine (MUNGA, VWE's in-house engine) plus a hardware layer (MUNGA_L4, the "L4" Tesla pod platform layer), with game-specific code and a game-specific L4 layer on top.

CODE/BT/                Tesla:BattleTech
  BT/                   Game logic: mechs, weapons (PPC, Gauss, missiles),
                        damage tables, teams, missions, scenario rules
  BT_L4/                BattleTech pod application layer (app modes, arena,
                        radar, playback, version)
  MUNGA/                Engine bricks: math (matrices, angles, splines),
                        containers, file streams, audio manager, events
  MUNGA_L4/             Pod hardware layer: video renderer manager, keyboard,
                        mouse, audio hardware, warehouse (resource loading)
    LIBDPL/             Division Ltd. dVS/DPL graphics library (headers +
                        LIBDPL.LIB + VREND*.BTL renderer modules)
    NETNUB/             WATTCP-based pod networking (headers + WATTCPLG.LIB)
    SOS/                HMI Sound Operating System libraries + drivers

CODE/RP/                Tesla:Red Planet (same structure)
  RP/                   Game logic: VTV (hover racer) power/subsystems,
                        pickups (booster, blocker, crusher, thruster)
  RP_L4/                Red Planet pod application layer
  MUNGA/                Engine (fullest copy — 351 files incl. all .CPP)
  MUNGA_L4/             Pod hardware layer (fullest copy, incl. JOYSTICK.ASM)
    libDPL/, NetNub/, sos/   as above
  */opt/                Compiled Borland C++ 5.0 object files from the
                        original build (preserved as found)

Note: the BT copies of MUNGA/MUNGA_L4 are partial (69/68 files) while the RP copies are complete (351/231 files) — the BT tree appears to hold only the files that diverged from the shared engine.

CONTENT/

CONTENT/BT/             Tesla:BattleTech content
CONTENT/BT3025/         Parallel BattleTech content set (3025-era variant;
                        mostly identical to BT/ with a different mech roster)
CONTENT/RP/             Tesla:Red Planet content

Per-game content directories:

Dir	Contents
MODELS	.MOD/.SUB/.DMG/.TBL — vehicle/mech models, subsystems, damage tables
ANIMS	.ANI — animations (BT only)
AUDIO	.MID MIDI music, .SCP audio scripts, .BNK/.BLD banks
GAUGE	.GIM — gauge images for the six S3-driven cockpit displays
MAPS	.MAP/.ZNE — arena/terrain maps and zones
SOLIDS	.SLD — collision solids
VIDEO	Division renderer data: GEO/ geometry, MAT/ materials, and TEX/ textures per environment (ARENA, DAY, NIGHT, DESERT, POLAR, CAVERN, …), .DZM skins, .BMF/.BGF binary geometry, BUILD/ sources
SCENES	Scene definitions (RP only)
BTCAM	Camera batch setups (BT only)

DIVISION.SAV subdirectories inside VIDEO/ are backup saves written by Division's tools. MTMCDAI.SYS (Mitsumi) and TAISATAP.SYS are DOS CD-ROM device drivers used on the pod machines.

HEADOFF/

INI-style calibration files (.XST/.CAM/.BAK) defining viewing extents and camera offsets ("head offset") for the cockpit's main display, including a [LAB_ONLY] configuration.

Provenance

• Copyright (C) 1994–1996 Virtual World Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Original headers mark the source as proprietary and confidential.
• Third-party components retain their own copyrights: Division Ltd. (dVS/DPL), Human Machine Interfaces (SOS), Erick Engelke / University of Waterloo (WATTCP).