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CydandClaude Fable 5 fd0c8c5196 vPOD: pod power controls, end-mission restart cycle, egg viewer polish

Adds pod-lifecycle controls to the vPOD window:

- Power Off / Power On: Power Off closes the TCP listener so the console can no
  longer connect, mimicking a pod with no game client running; Power On reopens
  it. The listener close/open is the faithful signal a console sees.
- End-mission graceful-exit + watchdog restart: on the end-mission command
  (StopMission) the game exits gracefully (listener closes, connection drops)
  and a watchdog relaunches it about 1.5 s later, coming back up in
  WaitingForEgg - the real pod's per-game cycle. A "Restart game after mission
  ends (watchdog)" checkbox (default on) toggles it; unchecked, the pod just
  returns to WaitingForEgg without exiting.
- Egg viewer: the last egg is kept across missions/restarts (no auto-clear) so
  it can be copied for dev use; a Clear button empties it on demand.
- Log pane defaults to half the window (egg lines are rarely wide); the split
  is set at load once the control has its real width.

Verified over real TCP: driving egg -> run -> end-mission makes the listener
drop then reopen with the pod back in WaitingForEgg (confirmed in vPOD's own
log: "Game exited gracefully" then "Watchdog restarted the game").

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-07-08 10:43:44 -05:00

3.5 KiB

Raw Blame History

vPOD — virtual pod / game-client stand-in

A test tool that impersonates a Tesla game client (Red Planet's rpl4opt.exe or BattleTech's btl4.exe) so the operator consoles can be exercised without real cockpit hardware. It speaks the Munga command/control protocol as a server on TCP 1501 — the console connects to it exactly as it would a real pod — emulates the pod ApplicationState machine, reassembles the streamed egg, and shows everything on a live display.

What it does

Listens on TCP 1501 (configurable) and answers the console's StateQuery with a StateResponse, reporting the game (ApplicationID) and the current ApplicationState.
Walks the mission lifecycle the console drives it through: WaitingForEgg → LoadingMission → WaitingForLaunch → LaunchingMission → RunningMission → …, reacting to the egg stream and to Run / Stop / Abort / Suspend / Resume messages, and acknowledging the egg.
End-mission graceful exit + watchdog restart — on the console's end-mission command the "game exe" exits (the listener closes, the console's connection drops), then a watchdog relaunches it a moment later and it comes back up in WaitingForEgg. This is the real pod's per-game cycle (autoRestart); the Restart game after mission ends (watchdog) checkbox (on by default) toggles it — unchecked, the pod just returns to WaitingForEgg without exiting.
Power On / Power Off — Power Off closes the TCP listener so the console cannot connect, mimicking a pod with no game client running; Power On reopens it. Reset returns a live pod to WaitingForEgg.
Reassembles and shows the egg the console streams (the EggFileMessage chunks), one field per line, with a summary line (adventure / map / scenario / pilot count). The last egg is kept across missions/restarts (so it can be copied for dev use) until the Clear button empties the viewer.
Game toggle — a Red Planet ⇄ BattleTech switch on the window changes which ApplicationID the pod reports, live, so one vPOD can stand in for either game. (-app rp|bt sets the initial choice.)
A newest-first protocol log of the traffic.

Running it

vPOD.exe [-net <port>] [-app rp|bt] [-lc|-mr] [-host <id>] [-res W H]

-net <port> Munga control port (default 1501).
-app rp|bt which game to report initially (also switchable in the UI).
-lc / -mr live-camera / mission-review role (cosmetic; the state model is identical to a game machine).
-host <id> responding host id reported in state responses (default 1).
-res W H accepted and ignored (real clients take it; kept for drop-in launch compatibility).

Deploying from the console (Manage Site → Install Product)

vPOD is a catalog product (RedPlanet\Apps.xml, id 0041C870-…) with Game Client / Live Camera / Mission Review entries, so it appears in Manage Site → Install Product like any game. Build the deployable package first:

pwsh -File pack.ps1        # produces dist\vPOD.zip

The zip lays out vPOD\vPOD.exe (+ Munga Net.dll) so the launcher extracts it to C:\Games\vPOD and the catalog entry launches C:\Games\vPOD\vPOD.exe.

Testing locally against the console

The default site ships a local pod at 127.0.0.1. Run vPOD on the console machine, open a game window (e.g. Games → Red Planet: Death Race), and enable the local pod — the console connects to 127.0.0.1:1501 (vPOD), and you can drive Load → Run → Stop and watch vPOD's state and egg viewer follow along.

3.5 KiB Raw Blame History