findings: log D173–D178 from QA playtest reports

New observed-but-not-investigated entries from user QA:
- D173 third-person Bond model spawns too high (level start + Cuba credits)
- D174 no visible blood effect (likely unverified D120 decal fix)
- D175 in-game stutter/brief hang on door open (Runway, Surface)
- D176 skybox broken on Surface
- D177 ladders non-functional — progression blocker, high priority
- D178 pre-mission briefing objectives listed incorrectly

Cross-referenced to the nearest known finding families; next-step
pattern-match notes in GRAPHICS-BACKLOG.md.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01GULf6knbsqfsnW39tMr9WT

docs/dev/findings.md

@@ -389,6 +389,12 @@ covers D24–D69; the log continues in §H (D32 procedure, D70–D121).
 | RC3 · D167 | **Non-power-of-two texture wrap period (`docs/dev/TEXTURE-GLITCH-ANALYSIS.md` §6 RC3 — "textures repeat oddly", residual Depot-ceiling noise after D161).** The N64 RDP masks the texel coordinate of a wrapping render tile at `1<<mask`, and GE sets `mask = texDimensionToMask(dim) = ceil(log2(dim))` (`src/game/tex.c:361`), so a non-PoT tile (Depot's 65×65 / 96×48 / 56×56 room surfaces) repeats at the **next power of two**, not at its image size the way GL `GL_REPEAT` does → the pattern is squashed/stretched and the seam lands in the wrong place. fast3d never stored `masks`/`maskt` at all (`gfx_dp_set_tile` dropped them) and wrapped purely at the uploaded image dimension. **Fix (`port/fast3d/gfx_pc.cpp`, behind the existing `Video.WrapFix` knob, default OFF):** store `masks`/`maskt` on the tile; in the hoisted per-texunit pre-wrap block in `gfx_sp_tri1` (D74 block — already lifted out of the vertex loop, indexed by texunit `t` not vertex `i`), when the tile is WRAP (no CLAMP/MIRROR bit) and `1<<mask != tex_width`, fold the UV at the N64 period `1<<mask` and clamp the `[dim, 1<<mask)` overflow band (which is a TMEM smear on console, no real texels) to the last texel so it reads as an edge streak instead of a bogus early image restart. `GE_WRAPFIX=0/1` env override added (env wins over the ini, matching `Debug.FrameDump`). **Per-level captures (`-level_09`/`-30`/`-34`/`-20`, WrapFix OFF vs ON, `GE_PCDUMP` 6-frame windows):** no crashes, 6/6 frames each; on settled/comparable frames Silo is ~pixel-identical (phash 0–11), Facility 180–260 pixel-identical, Depot shows small localized texel changes on ceiling/wall cells (dmean 5–9, no structural break); the large per-run deltas are all the D117 intro-camera-pan nondeterminism, not the fix. Default kept **OFF** — no regression, but a headless structural diff can't confirm the Depot ceiling actually looks *better*; needs a human eyeball with `Video.WrapFix=1`. Default-off is byte-identical to golden (all new behaviour is inside `if (g_wrap_fix)`). D74's dead in-vertex-loop wrap block was already reworked/hoisted at M-30; this only adds the mask-period trigger. Confidence: **medium** (mechanism correct; overflow-band handling is an approximation, not exact TMEM-smear emulation; visual win unconfirmed). porting-notes.md §D. | KNOB ADDED, default OFF (`port/fast3d/gfx_pc.cpp`). Needs user visual check on Depot. |
 | D168 | **`GE_PCDUMP` / F12 PPM captures were vertically flipped — the entire source of the bogus D114/D116 "HUD/text X-mirror" (M-33, developer-confirmed).** `gfx_opengl_dump_bound_fbo` (`port/fast3d/gfx_opengl.cpp`) wrote `glReadPixels` output straight to a P6 PPM. GL framebuffer origin is bottom-left; PPM P6 is top-row-first — so every capture (and the `tools_pc/golden/` set, and every screenshot pasted into the finding log since M-6) was upside-down. On real hardware / an actual screen the game renders correctly (developer confirmed). The successive D114→D116 "shared fast3d mirror" investigations — each of which found *every probed stage clean yet the output "mirrored"* — were reading an inverted capture and pattern-matching upside-down asymmetric content (text, guards, the Nintendo logo) as "mirrored". Fix: emit PPM rows bottom-to-top. `tools_pc/golden/*.png` flipped in place to match (see `tools_pc/golden/README.md`); regenerate from a real run when convenient. **Not runtime-verified this session** (no ROM / toolchain in the migrated tree — see the migration note) — needs a fresh capture to confirm text reads normally. Confidence: **high** (mechanism is unambiguous; developer has hardware confirmation the screen is correct). porting-notes.md §D2. | FIXED (`port/fast3d/gfx_opengl.cpp`); D114 / D116 reclassified as capture-orientation artifacts (below). |
 | D169 | **Front-end mouse pointer can't reach the outer cells of the mission/level-select grid — only an inner ~3×3 selectable (M-33, developer bug report).** The D165 pointer P-controller in `port/src/input.c` is hard-coded to a **320×240** virtual field (`MENU_CURSOR_HI_H`/`_HI_V` = 300/220, `MENU_CURSOR_MID_H`/`_MID_V` = 160/120, `input.c:145-149`), but GE's front end runs at **440×330** (`front.c:8570` `viSetViewSize(440,330)`; default cursor home 220/165 `front.c:285`). `frontUpdateControlStickPosition` clamps the real cursor to `[20,420]×[20,310]` (`front.c:1195-1217`); the mission-select hit-test grid spans x 73…352 / y 62…270 with outer split points 317 / 235.5 (`front.c:516,519,3180,3194`). The port clamps its pointer *target* and *estimate* to 300/220 (`input.c:553-564`) → the stick zeroes out once both saturate → the game's `cursor_h_pos`/`cursor_v_pos` park at ≈300/220, short of the two outer columns and the bottom row. File-select / mode-select / main-menu are unaffected because their hit targets (centred folder boxes, the `x=126` mode list, the `x=106` difficulty list) all sit inside the 320×240 sub-box. Not the D118d `joyGetStickY`-threshold class — this is a virtual-resolution constant mismatch, closer to D164 (a front-end layout constant wrong on the PC path). Also note: the "re-syncs whenever the target is held at a screen edge" comment at `input.c:141-143` describes behaviour the code doesn't implement — the only estimator reset is the activation re-home (`input.c:545-549`), so once pinned at the clamp the estimate never recovers. Confidence: **medium-high** (constants + clamp math unambiguous in source; static-only, no build/run this session; exact reachable block "~4×3" vs the reported "3×3" within tolerance). | **FIXED (M-33, `port/src/input.c`, port-only, no `#ifdef PORT`).** The `menuMode` pointer branch now derives its clamp bounds from the live virtual screen — `[screenleft+20, screenleft+screenwidth-20] × [screentop+20, screentop+screenheight-20]` via `getPlayer_c_screenwidth/height/left/top()` (`src/game/bondview.c:880-895`) — falling back to the old 320×240 constants when the front-end screen isn't set (`sw` outside 200…2000). The estimator seed on activation is now the real `cursor_h_pos`/`cursor_v_pos` (`front.c:285`, externed in `front.h`) instead of the 160/120 centre guess. `MENU_CURSOR_HI_H/_V` / `MID_H/_V` kept only as the fallback. **Verified:** builds + links clean (`getPlayer_c_screen*` and `cursor_[hv]_pos` all resolve — non-static engine symbols, as expected); `GE_STARTMENU=7` mission-select boots crash-free 600+ frames; `-level_09` unregressed (framediff 3/3 within threshold, 91.6% nonclear). The in-level path is untouched (menu-only branch). **Interactive feel-check still owed** — headless input can't drive the mouse pointer, so "every grid tile is now reachable" is inferred from the corrected clamp math, not observed. `Input.MenuPointerMode=0` (legacy velocity) and the constant fallback remain as escape hatches. |
+| D178 | **Objectives not listed correctly on the pre-mission briefing screen** (user QA report) — the mission overview shown before starting a level. Symptom unspecified (wrong objectives / wrong order / blank lines). Distinct surface from the in-level watch: D151's type-35/23 `text`-slot fix and its pending interactive re-verify don't necessarily cover it; D143 (`langGet` NULL → silent blank) and D157 (difficulty byte offset → wrong objectives shown for a difficulty) are the leading relatives. See `GRAPHICS-BACKLOG.md` D178 for next steps (compare vs `docs/dev/LEVEL-OBJECTIVES.md`). | Observed, not investigated |
+| D175 | **In-game stutter / brief hang during normal play** (user QA report): opening a door on Runway (`-level_35`, mission 3) and also observed on Surface. Self-recovered; no backtrace captured. Likely one of the known transient-hang classes (D155 catch-up spiral / D156 anim NaN loop / D134 task-done event / D147-D152 audio-lock steal) or a benign new-room texture-import frame spike on door open. See `GRAPHICS-BACKLOG.md` D175 for the gdb pattern-match sheet. | Observed, not investigated |
+| D176 | **Skybox broken on Surface** (user QA report; which of `-level_36`/`-level_43` unconfirmed). Symptom unspecified — missing/black sky, bad transform (D75 family), or sky-tile texture import. See `GRAPHICS-BACKLOG.md` D176. | Observed, not investigated |
+| D177 | **Ladders don't work** (user QA report): climbing is non-functional and **blocks progression on some levels**. FUNCTIONAL bug, not cosmetic — ranks above the graphics backlog. Untested by every harness so far (level sweep is boot-only; no scripted ladder input). Suspects: player ladder state machine in `bondview2.c`/chr physics (struct-offset family D100/D140), or the climb input mapping (A-button hold?) not reaching the game on the PC input path. **Next:** repro on a level with a mandatory ladder, check whether the player's ladder state ever changes (probe) vs the input never registering (`GE_INPUTLOG`). | Observed, NOT investigated — high priority (progression blocker) |
+| D174 | **"No blood effect" (user QA report).** Likely the unverified D120 decal fix: `d43_emit.py` now emits the opcode-0x18 `PointUsage[]` chain, but it was never interactively verified and requires a full sidecar regen to take effect (`debug.ps1` does not regen). Spray path is D172 (draws, wrong colour) — total absence would be new. See `GRAPHICS-BACKLOG.md` D174. | Observed; first step = BUNKER1 firefight with regenerated sidecars |
+| D173 | **Third-person Bond model spawns too high** (user QA report): the player-representing figure at level start floats well above the ground "a lot of the time" while the actual player spawn is correct; same on the Cuba end credits — JB ~6 ft in the air above Natalya. D75 animated-model family but a *position* defect, not absence (M-33: gun-barrel Bond renders fine). Suspects: intro/credits puppet chr spawn position vs model base transform; anim root-motion accumulation (`modelSetAnimFrame2WithChrStuff`, cf. D156); packed-float `coord3d` decode in intro setup. "Player spawning OK" localises it to the render-side model, not `g_CurrentPlayer`. See `GRAPHICS-BACKLOG.md` D173. | Observed, not investigated |
 | D85 | room primary/secondary DL → `texLoadFromGdl` garbage | OPEN (safety-netted; widen/pool fixes landed, geometry now renders) |
 | D86 · D87 | modelInitRwData truncated ptr · attract-demo BE `ramromfilestructure` | resolved |
 | D88.1–D88.3 · D88.5–D88.6 | `Usetup*Z` header + sub-table width/endian conversion (`d88_emit.py`) | resolved |