Commit Graph
34 Commits
Author SHA1 Message Date
James Dansereau 70bc9d65b5 D250: getenv() caching fix -- root cause of the Dam fps drop (plus sysSleep unit fix, GE_D250 probe, perf.ps1) (#75)
* D250: fix sysSleep unit-conversion bug in frame-pacing; add GE_D250 lvlRender probe

port/fast3d/gfx_sdl2.cpp sync_framerate_with_timer() computed the
remaining frame budget in 100ns units (qpc_to_100ns) and passed it
straight into sysSleep(), which takes microseconds -- a real 10x
oversleep whenever that branch fires. Genuine bug, but only active
when target_fps is nonzero (tied to Input/Video FpsCap); confirmed via
live testing that it is NOT the active cause of the user's reported
~45-50fps with FpsCap=0/VSync=0, where this pacing path never runs.

Added GE_D250 (src/boss.c, #ifdef PORT) to isolate lvlRender()'s
DL-building cost (culling/animation/scene traversal) from gfx_run's
already-measured software-RSP interpretation cost. Live test on Dam
shows lvlRender averaging ~0.5-1.5ms -- also not the bottleneck.

Documented in docs/dev/GE-ENV-PROBES.md (GE_D250 row). findings.md
D250 update to follow after rebase.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016DQUKGLZxFtPy52MkKXXog

* docs(D250): live A/B session -- MSAA/aniso/FOV/resolution/vsync all ruled out

Live session with the user driving the game directly, confirmed the
sim-healthy/render-sagging pattern from earlier idle testing reproduces
under real play on Dam. One-at-a-time A/B via the F10 overlay ruled out
MSAA, anisotropy, FOV, resolution (1280x960 fullscreen vs 640x480
windowed), and VSync (render never exceeds ~60 even uncapped) as the
cause -- the cost is resolution/GPU-setting-independent.

gfx_run (~6-10ms) + lvlRender (~0.5-1.5ms, via the new GE_D250 probe)
together don't account for the real ~20-22ms/frame. Leading remaining
suspect: the emulated N64 thread-handoff/scheduler round-trip
(gesched.c/sched.c) -- real OS context-switch/wake latency standing in
for what was free hardware handoff on N64. Needs a real profiler
(Visual Studio / WPR) attached during a live bad-fps moment to confirm;
ad-hoc per-call timers have now ruled out the two most obvious CPU call
sites without finding the cost.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016DQUKGLZxFtPy52MkKXXog

* D250: fix uncached getenv() in fast3d hot paths -- root cause of the fps drop

A live WPR/xperf CPU trace (tools_pc/perf.ps1, new sister script to
debug.ps1) with Microsoft public symbols resolved found the dominant
render thread spending only 5.2% of its CPU time in the game's own
code -- 43% was in msvcrt.dll, and getenv()/_getenv_helper_nolock
alone accounted for ~50% of the thread's total CPU time.

Root cause: port/fast3d/gfx_pc.cpp's import_texture() (runs on every
texture bind) and several per-triangle/per-G_SETCOMBINE debug-probe
checks (GE_DTEX, GE_TEXDUMP, GE_TEXRAW, GE_D229 x2, GE_D172 x2, plus
GE_TEXDUMP/GE_PCDUMP in gfx_opengl.cpp) called getenv() uncached on
every call, unlike the safe static-cached pattern already used
elsewhere in this codebase. On a texture-heavy scene that's tens of
thousands of locked, locale-aware Windows CRT environment lookups per
second -- invisible to both of the timers added earlier this session
(gfx_run's own cost measurement and the new GE_D250 lvlRender probe),
since neither isolates CRT/library time from the game's own code.

Fix: cache every getenv() site in gfx_pc.cpp/gfx_opengl.cpp with the
established static-int pattern. Narrow, mechanical, no logic change.

Verified: the exact idle-Dam test that was pinned at 45-50fps before
the fix now holds a rock-steady 60-61fps, zero dips. Also explains why
the earlier MSAA/aniso/FOV/resolution/vsync A/B pass all showed "no
change" -- the getenv() cost was a large per-call constant that
swamped any real, smaller resolution-dependent GPU cost at every
setting tried.

Residual, separate issue found once this was fixed: still runs badly
at 1440p+ (640x480 now holds a clean 60fps) -- likely the real GPU
fill-rate cost the getenv() bug was masking, now exposed on its own.
Not yet investigated.

docs/dev/findings.md D250 updated with the full root-cause writeup.
docs/porting-notes.md gets a new lesson under section E (cache
getenv() in any hot-path probe). tools_pc/perf.ps1 automates the
trace-and-analyze workflow for next time.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016DQUKGLZxFtPy52MkKXXog

* docs(D250): correct the 1440p+ follow-up -- it was a stale-build false alarm

User re-tested 1440p/4K on the actual getenv-fix build and confirmed
it holds up fine too. The "still runs badly at 1440p+" report was
from before the fix was live, same stale-build class as the DLL-load
false alarm earlier in the session. D250 is fully resolved across all
resolutions tested, not just 640x480.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016DQUKGLZxFtPy52MkKXXog

* docs: add missing GE_D219RAW row to GE-ENV-PROBES.md (CI validate fix)

Pre-existing gap unrelated to this branch's own changes -- gen_env_probes.py
--check caught it now since it runs on every PR. GE_D219RAW has had live
getenv() sites in src/game/image.c since the D219 investigation but was
never added to the probe doc.
2026-09-13 09:33:36 -04:00
James Dansereau 52477b44af D248: fix port-wide 30fps halving -- pointer-width scheduler ABI bug
osScAddClient() stashes a per-client "every retrace vs every other
retrace" flag in the next array slot's .next field (c[1].next = next);
__scHandleRetrace read it back via a hardcoded 8-byte offset that only
lands on the right memory when OSScClient is 8 bytes (32-bit
pointers). On this 64-bit port the struct is 16 bytes, so the read
landed inside the gfx client's own msgQ pointer (always non-NULL)
instead, silently collapsing the gfx client onto the audio client's
30Hz path even though the VI-retrace pacemaker itself was always
correctly ticking at 60Hz.

Fix indexes the struct (client[1].next) instead of hand-rolling the
byte offset, so it scales with pointer width on either platform --
same class as D122/D126/D132/D209, just in the scheduler instead of a
ROM-serialized struct. Verified via the Video.DisplayFPS overlay:
30 FPS pre-fix, 60 FPS post-fix, same build/scene (-level_09).
-level_09/-level_20 both crash-free post-fix.
2026-09-12 21:36:21 -04:00
James Dansereau dac4ae7c0c D228: fix white NPC-weapon-texture patches -- IA16 palette intensity/alpha byte-order bug
GE_TEXDUMP on Facility (-level_34) found ~14% of LOD-textured CI uploads
whose palette is IA16 (intensity-alpha, not RGBA16) rendering solid
near-white. A GE_D228 correlation probe ruled out the texpool/RC2-clip
hypothesis this row started with -- decoded size exactly matched the base
tile every time, so the data reaches import_texture fine.

The real bug: palette_to_rgba32's G_TT_IA16 branch read
intensity = palentry & 0xff (low byte), alpha = palentry >> 8 (high byte)
-- backwards relative to the already-correct direct-IA16 decode
(import_texture_ia16) a few lines above it in the same file, which reads
intensity from the first byte (high, after gfx_dp_load_tlut's PD_BE16
swap) and alpha from the second. A dim, fully-opaque palette entry (e.g.
intensity=0x58, alpha=0xff) decoded backwards as bright and
mostly-transparent -- the white-patch symptom.

Fix: swap the two lines to match the working convention.

User-verified live: AK47 and other metallic guns render correctly.
Headless -level_34 run crash-free pre-verification; a full sweep is
still owed (the user's own game instance was running concurrently this
session, so verify.sh/taskkill were avoided).

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016DQUKGLZxFtPy52MkKXXog
2026-09-12 21:20:51 -04:00
James Dansereau a088bb51e7 D195: restore G_TEXTURE_GEN envmap UV generation -- fixes black reflective materials game-wide
GE uses real N64 RSP environment-mapping (G_TEXTURE_GEN) for every
shiny/reflective material: gold/silver weapon skins, chrome trim, and
Control's reflective console glass. An earlier session (D72.1) removed
the PD-inherited envmap UV-generation block wholesale from gfx_sp_vertex
to fix the Rareware logo, reasoning "GE never generates texture
coordinates from vertex normals" -- true for the logo (lit, but doesn't
set G_TEXTURE_GEN) but false in general. Every envmap draw was left
sampling whatever raw tc[] happened to be authored (near 0), landing on
a fixed corner texel of the reflection texture regardless of view angle
-- reading as solid black for a typically dark-edged reflection map.

Restored the envmap UV generation (ported from the reference Perfect
Dark PC port's already-correct implementation), gated specifically on
rsp.geometry_mode & G_TEXTURE_GEN so D72.1's actual fix is untouched
(the logo never sets this bit) while every other envmap draw gets real
reflection coordinates back.

User-verified live: console glass and gold/silver guns are now visibly
reflective instead of flat black. The remaining "not translucent"
complaint on the glass is confirmed NOT a bug -- it was never see-through
on the original N64 either (reflective by design, not transparent).

Full 21-level sweep crash-free post-fix.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016DQUKGLZxFtPy52MkKXXog
2026-09-12 21:02:53 -04:00
James Dansereau 1f7f804733 D247: close as NOT A BUG -- confirmed faithful N64 TV-safe letterbox; D246 narrowed
Display pipeline pass on the two remaining M-116 QA reports.

D247 (black bars top/bottom): traced to bondviewGetCurrentPlayerViewportHeight()
returning VIEWPORT_HEIGHT_DEFAULT (220 of 240 NTSC scanlines, fr.h) for the
decomp's own default SCREEN_SIZE_FULLSCREEN option -- unmodified ground-truth
code, no #ifdef PORT anywhere near it. Verified against both the existing
save and a fresh EEPROM (rules out a stale Screen=Wide/Cinema setting from
earlier sessions) -- same inset either way. This is GoldenEye's real
TV-safe-area letterbox, present on original hardware. No code change.

D246 (left/right edge strips): GE_PCDUMP captures of the native render show
clean edge columns, ruling out an RDP/game-DL scissor bug and the D227/D245
tc-overflow class -- the defect must be introduced later, in the SDL window
presentation path GE_PCDUMP bypasses (MSAA resolve blit or a live-window
scale remainder). Still needs the user's window size/MSAA setting to chase
further; documented as a narrowed OPEN with concrete next steps.

New porting-notes.md entry: check the decomp's own constants before
assuming a rendering "defect" is a port bug.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016DQUKGLZxFtPy52MkKXXog
2026-09-12 20:35:50 -04:00
James Dansereau 9b0acccd1d D229: fix green/pulsating IsWater water -- fast3d wasn't expanding CI8 indices
texSelect loads the water image as ZLIB+CI8 (raw 8-bit palette indices);
GE's custom RSP ucode expands them to RGBA16 in TMEM at load time, so a
later RGBA/16b tile re-declaration over the same slot samples real blue
pixels. fast3d has no such expansion and read the raw index byte-pairs as
16-bit texels (g dominates -> green mottle); the "pulsing" was always the
pre-existing PRIM_LOD_FRAC sinf() cross-fade between two mis-decoded tiles.

Track each TMEM load's source G_IM_FMT in LoadedTexture.src_fmt; in
import_texture, an RGBA/16b tile over a CI-sourced slot now routes through
the CI8 palette import path instead. Fires only on the genuine format
disagreement, so real RGBA16 textures are untouched.

Verified live on Frigate (-level_26): water renders blue, user confirms
"looks better". Sweep + Surface 2 by-eye still owed.

Also files D245 (water seam), D246 (edge strips), D247 (black bars) from
the same playtest session.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016DQUKGLZxFtPy52MkKXXog
2026-09-12 20:16:45 -04:00
James Dansereau 9137f8f44b docs(D219): flag the unverified 16-bit texnums in porting-notes for future triage 2026-09-12 19:07:04 -04:00
James Dansereau b1cf0eac4c D219: scope the fire-particle byte-order fix by pixel format; resolved
M-115: re-apply M-113's store-time bswap scoped to the 16-bit GBI-size
family only (PORT_PIXEL16 = bswap16 under #ifdef PORT; PORT_PIXEL32 stays
identity). The fast3d importers disagree on pool byte order:
import_texture_rgba16/_ia16 read manually big-endian bytes, while
import_texture_rgba32 does PD_BE32() on a native load -- M-113's blanket
swap hit both and regressed muzzle flash/ammo HUD (M-114).

Format is the structural discriminator, not compmethod (fire frames span
LOOKUP/RLE/HUFFMANBLUR/RLELOOKUP) or texnum range. Offline census of all
2698 ROM images (scratch/d219_headers.py / d219_census.txt): 94 non-zlib
wide-pixel; the 16-bit family is IMAGE_FIRE_0..14 + texnum 1198-1201/2430/
2510-2523, every ammo/flare/crosshair/muzzle-flash image is RGBA32.

Runtime-verified on Dam (scripted fire): all 15 frames decode format=1,
pool dumps warm R-dominant (mean opaque RGB 255,238,139). RGBA32 pool
bytes bit-identical to the M-114-revert build. User playtest confirmed;
D219 closed. GE_D219RAW probes generalized (no texnum filter), inert.
2026-09-12 19:05:50 -04:00
James Dansereau 7e99344741 docs(D148/D160/D173): re-confirm propDef stride ruled-out; rule out PadRecord.stan and act_anim aliasing for puppet-position bug (#61)
Investigation pass on the cutscene-reliability cluster (D148/D160/D173),
part of the 1.0 acceptance-bar #4 push. No build/runtime toolchain was
available in this worktree (no gcc/cmake on PATH, MSYS2 MINGW64 not
active), so this is a static-analysis-only pass; no code changes.

D160 (Dam end-cutscene / D148 label): independently re-derived (not
just re-cited) that hypothesis (a), a propDef sizepropdef() stride
desync, is ruled out — CutsceneRecord (propDef type 46) is all-scalar,
28B, zero pointer/union fields, so the D122/D126/D132/D209 pointer-
width-growth class cannot apply. Confirms the existing M-31 audit
recorded in porting-notes.md. Hypotheses (b)/(c) (AI trigger flow /
invisible puppet render) remain unconfirmed — still need the shipped
GE_D160=1 trace driven live.

D173 (third-person Bond puppet floats / spins in cutscenes): checked
the two most D209-shaped candidates for a puppet Y-position aliasing
bug and ruled out both. (1) PadRecord.stan is a ROM-serialized pointer
field zeroed by tools_pc/d88_emit.py's emit_pad() with a "dead-on-load"
comment; verified against the N64 source asset tables (UsetupdamZ.c)
that every PadRecord literal initializes stan to 0 on N64 too, so the
PC zeroing is byte-identical to ground truth, not a converter bug.
(2) The anim-root-motion Y-accumulation chain was already exhaustively
audited during D193/D209 (M-80/M-81) and the padding[]-union sweep
that found D209/D210 explicitly cleared act_anim/act_dead as
layout-stable. Root cause not found; the D209-style struct-aliasing
pattern does not appear to be the shared explanation here, unlike the
hope stated in the dispatch brief. Flagged next steps: a live Cradle
capture, and locating the actual two-actor Cuba end-credits code path
(not found this session).

Added a generalizable porting-notes.md quirk: before assuming a zeroed
ROM-serialized pointer-width tail slot is a converter miss, check the
N64 source literal — some fields are legitimately always NULL on both
platforms.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016TaKy6AAsVUTfjkhrX6CjG
2026-09-12 10:15:12 -04:00
James Dansereau 650ac57fc6 fix(D233): fast3d trivial-reject drops visible triangles with a behind-camera vertex (#63)
gfx_sp_tri1's CPU-side trivial-reject AND-test trusted per-vertex outcodes
(x<-w / x>w / y<-w / y>w / z>w) that are only valid half-space tests when
w>0. A vertex that has crossed behind the camera plane (w<0 -- common when
the camera is close to a large room-structure polygon, e.g. walls/ceiling
trusses near a doorway) flips the comparison sense, so its outcode can come
out wrong. When that spurious bit happens to match the other two genuinely
correct vertices' bits, the AND-reduction fired and dropped the whole
triangle before it ever reached OpenGL -- even though GL's own homogeneous
clipper (which handles w<0 correctly) would have rendered the visible part
of it.

This reads exactly like D233 (indoor geometry intermittently vanishing near
doors while props/furniture keep drawing): large near-camera polygons are
far more likely to have a vertex cross behind the eye than small
self-contained prop meshes, and the backface-cull code six lines below
already special-cases this same w-sign hazard for its own cross-product
sign -- the trivial-reject block above it never got the same treatment.

Fix: skip the trivial-reject AND-test whenever any of the triangle's three
vertices has w<0, deferring to GL's clipper instead. This can only ever
send MORE triangles to the GPU than before, never fewer, so it cannot make
anything newly invisible.

Also investigated D234 (Dam guard towers, only the first renders) under
the same M-106 hypothesis that it shares a root cause with D233/D222 --
did not find fast3d-side evidence for it; left open in findings.md with
the ruled-out mechanisms and a next-step recommendation. D222 (FovScale
breaks culling) is a separate, already-characterised game-logic bug in
src/game/fr.c/bondview2.c, out of this fast3d-only fix's scope.

Build verified green (MSYS2 mingw64 cmake+ninja, full link succeeds).
Could not visually verify -- this worktree has no ROM/data and no
interactive display; see docs/dev/findings.md D233 entry for the exact
human verification steps (GE_PCDUMP on a doorway-heavy interior).

docs/dev/findings.md: D233 (FIXED, high confidence on mechanism/unverified
visually) + D234 (OPEN, not root-caused) entries added.
docs/porting-notes.md: generalised the w<0 trivial-reject hazard as a
recurring class for any future CPU-side "skip this triangle" heuristic.
docs/dev/findings-index.csv regenerated.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016TaKy6AAsVUTfjkhrX6CjG
2026-09-12 10:11:51 -04:00
James Dansereau 646798be56 docs(M-102): fix findings-index false-positive, release <version> bug, land parked site cleanup (#53)
* docs(M-102): fix findings-index false-positive, release <version> bug, land parked site cleanup

Docs triage pass (docs/dev/notes/PROMPT-docs-triage-session.md).

- gen_findings_index.py: D194's row was silently bucketed FIXED (an open
  design item) because it had no distinct status cell, so the generator's
  fallback keyword search matched "fixed" somewhere inside 6,500 chars of
  narrative -- the same misleading-index failure mode that cost a session
  on D227 (see docs/dev/findings.md SS H "D227 -- M-98"/"M-99"). Gave D194
  a real status cell. Also extended LEAD_RE/bucket() with 5 verdict tokens
  already in use in the doc (ANALYZED, GUARDED, DIAGNOSTIC SHIPPED,
  ROOT-CAUSED, NOT A BUG) and added a leading verdict word to 4 more rows
  that had a status cell but no recognized token -- fixes all 10 rows the
  generator previously bucketed "?" (D175 D174 D173 D220 D160 D133 D136
  D156 D153, plus D194). findings-index.csv regenerated; --check passes;
  diff reviewed, only these 10 rows moved.
- ci.yml: release-notes.md's <version> placeholders were never substituted
  before `gh release create --notes-file`, so every published release body
  (including the live v0.1.0 release) ships the literal text. Now sed'd to
  the tag first.
- Landed docs/dev/notes/UNLANDED-docs-site-cleanup-steps3-5.{md,patch}
  (parked M-101, never pushed, branch deleted): deletes the orphaned
  docs/StructureGuide.md (0 tracked references), adds title/description
  frontmatter to 5 published Pages docs, rewrites docs/index.md's stale
  "Phase 2 of 4 / no audio yet / 19-of-21" status text to match the
  current README. The 2 files whose hunks no longer applied via `git am`
  (docs/index.md, docs/dev/agentic-development.md) were redone by hand
  against current main.
- docs/BACKLOG.md (local, gitignored): retargeted a dead
  docs/PORT-LEARNINGS.md reference to docs/porting-notes.md.

Larger triage items (findings.md monster-row convention, full
status-accuracy sweep, duplicate-defect clustering, dev-notes plan
triage, HANDOFF rotation policy) scoped but not started -- see
docs/dev/notes/FOLLOWUP-docs-triage-session.md (gitignored).

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016TaKy6AAsVUTfjkhrX6CjG

* docs/index.md: fix stale in-level-music claim before merge

This PR predates the M-102c/M-105 correction (already landed in the
README via PR #55): in-level music is NOT absent, it plays with some
tracks having wrong-sounding instruments / occasional garbling (D77
fixed, D230 filed for the residual). This branch's own rewritten Status
paragraph still said music 'doesn't yet' play -- fixing it to match
before merge so main doesn't briefly regress to a stale claim this
session already corrected elsewhere.
2026-09-12 09:33:54 -04:00
James Dansereau 741dfe78b9 fix(D227/D176a): sky texcoords are S10.5, not texels — fixes seam, over-tiling and scroll speed (#43)
* fix(D176a): sky scroll/tiling too fast -- perspective-correct tc interpolation

skyPortRenderPoly (Path B, D176(a) black-sky fix) placed sky quad verts
under a plain w=1 ortho projection, so fast3d's GPU pipeline interpolated
texture coords linearly in screen space across the primitive. The source
S/T data (unk20/unk24) is computed upstream from a world-space projection
without a perspective divide -- exactly like the real N64 RDP's
G_TRI_SHADE_TXTR coefficient block, which relies on real perspective-
correct interpolation to divide it back out per pixel.

A single sky quad's near (top) and horizon-grazing (bottom) vertices can
differ up to ~38x in camera-space w. Under linear interpolation that
smears the entire S/T delta evenly across every pixel instead of
concentrating it near the horizon, producing a uniformly dense aliased
'hatching' over the whole sky -- reported as 'scrolls too fast / tiles
too visibly'.

Fix: build a custom projection matrix that gives each vertex its real
camera-space w (already computed upstream, SkyRelated38.unk0c) while
keeping the same screen-space x,y, so the GPU's normal perspective divide
recovers the intended position but interpolates tc (and colour) with
real 1/w weighting -- the same pipeline every other textured draw in the
game already depends on. No port/fast3d changes; #ifdef PORT only, N64
path untouched.

Verified: tools_pc/verify.sh bunker1 PASS (no regression on a non-sky
level); -level_22 (Statue) and -level_41 (Cradle) GE_PCDUMP captures show
the expected before/after change (uniform parallel aliasing -> a proper
perspective-converging fan), and Cradle's sky is no longer black at
default FOV. Defect 2 (horizon-band tessellation) and the FOV-coupled
black-sky-past-frustum symptom are unchanged / still open.

docs/dev/findings.md: new D176(a) subsection + summary-row update.
docs/porting-notes.md: generalized the screen-space-overlay quirk to
call out the w=1-vs-real-w interpolation pitfall.

* chore(D176a): regen findings index

* docs(D176a/D227): M-93 - human playtest of PR #43 confirms Cradle black-sky fix + partial Statue scroll improvement; new split-sky residual filed as D227



* docs(D227): M-94 - visual evidence + a concrete mechanistic hypothesis for the sky seam (per-primitive wScale quantization), not yet fixed

Headless -level_22 capture (this shell can do offscreen GE_PCDUMP capture
via the game binary directly, run from the repo root with the MSYS2
mingw64 PATH set -- the earlier GUI-launch flakiness in this session was
specific to a live window, not this path) shows a real, static-frame
crease in the sky's cloud texture. Screenshot committed:
docs/img/bugs/d227-sky-seam-statue.png.

Hypothesis: skyPortRenderPoly (D176(a)'s fix) computes wScale per call,
and skyRenderTri/skyRenderFull issue up to 5 separate calls per frame
(one per triangle in the sky fan). The position math is exact for any
wScale (re-verified algebraically), but Vtx.ob[] is s16, so two
triangles sharing an edge can quantize a logically-shared vertex to two
slightly different values depending on which triangle's independently-
chosen wScale computed it -- crack at the shared edge, reads as "two
regions with a different pattern."

Not yet confirmed (didn't isolate camera motion from sky-scroll motion
to test the "moves at a different rate" half of the report) and not
fixed -- documented the fix direction (one wScale shared across the
whole fan, not recomputed per triangle) for whoever picks this up next.
Cleaned up capture scratch files after pulling the one evidence shot.

* docs(D227): M-94 addendum - static-camera test confirms the sky genuinely animates over time, independent of camera motion

* fix(D227): M-95 - one shared wScale across the whole sky fan instead of one per triangle, closes the visible seam

skyRenderTri/skyRenderFull draw up to 5 triangles per frame from a
shared pool of up to 5 vertices (built once, then fan-triangulated
across 1-3 calls). D176(a)'s fix had each call compute its own wScale
from only its own 2-4 verts; two triangles sharing a vertex could each
pick a different wScale, and since Vtx.ob[] is s16, quantize that
logically-shared vertex to two different values depending on which
triangle's call computed it -- a crack at the shared edge (D227, the
"two sky halves" report).

Fix: skyPortBeginFan()/skyPortEndFan() (new, #ifdef PORT) compute one
wScale across the whole fan and skyPortRenderPoly uses it when set,
falling back to the old per-call computation otherwise. N64 path
unchanged (these are PORT-only additions around existing #ifdef PORT
code, no #else branch touched).

Verified:
- Clean build, no new/duplicate symbols.
- Full verify.sh sweep: 21/21 PASS, both with and without this change.
- Same-frame before/after screenshots at -level_22 frame 345
  (docs/img/bugs/d227-sky-seam-statue{,-fixed}.png): visible kink in
  the cloud streaks in the before shot, gone in the after shot, same
  exact frame.
- bunker1's nonzero framediff worst_cell is unaffected by this change
  (reproduced identically pre-fix) -- confirmed pre-existing stale
  golden-baseline issue, unrelated to sky.c.
- Cradle's black-rectangle artifact is also confirmed pre-existing
  (reproduced identically pre-fix) -- the separate, already-documented
  FOV-coupled black-sky-past-frustum-edge symptom (D218/D222 family),
  not touched by this fix.

Not re-verified: whether the "moves at a different rate" half of the
original report is also resolved, and the aspect-ratio-artifact
alternate theory was never independently ruled out. Human eyeball
still owed before merge, same as every other rendering fix landed this
session without interactive display access.

Also generalized the quirk (per-call vs per-shared-vertex-group scale
quantization) to docs/porting-notes.md alongside the existing D176(a)
entry.

* docs(D227): M-96 - human playtest on Statue: seam/crack STILL PRESENT despite M-95 fix

The M-95 wScale-sharing fix only verified the static per-primitive
quantization theory (single-frame screenshot diff); it explicitly left
the 'two halves move at different rates' temporal theory from the
original report unverified. This playtest is that missing
verification, and it says the seam is still visible in live play.

D227 NOT resolved. PR #43 stays in draft pending investigation of the
temporal/rate theory -- do not merge on the M-95 fix alone.

* docs(D227): M-96 addendum - N64 sky should be near-static, this build scrolls extremely fast

New data point from the same Statue playtest session, separate from the
seam/crack: the user reports the intended N64 scroll rate is near-static,
stronger than M-93's 'still reads too fast'. Bears on D176(a)'s fix
magnitude itself, not just the D227 seam -- flagged as a possible shared
root cause (wrong per-frame tc delta could drive both symptoms), not yet
investigated.

* fix(D227): M-98 - share sky S/T fold across whole fan, not per-triangle

skyPortBeginFan() (M-95) shared wScale across a whole sky fan so shared
vertices quantize position consistently, but skyPortRenderPoly's S/T
fold (foldS/foldT -- floorf(minS/64)*64, keeps texel coords in s16
range) was still computed per-call, from only that triangle's own 2-4
verts. Same bug class as the wScale fix, one field over, never fixed --
which is why M-96's human playtest still saw the seam after M-95.

Two triangles in one fan can floor a shared vertex's S/T to different
multiples of 64 texels; nominally invisible (GL_REPEAT period 64), but
each triangle bakes (S-fold)*32 into its own s16 Vtx buffer, so two
folds 64 texels apart produce tc values 2048 apart -- a real crack at
the shared edge.

Fix: extend skyPortBeginFan()/skyPortEndFan() to also compute one
shared fold across the whole fan, threaded into skyPortRenderPoly the
same way as wScale. #ifdef PORT only, no game-logic change.

Also measured (per M-96/M-97's ask): cross-correlated 11 consecutive
frames at a static camera -> ~7 px/tick horizontal scroll at 640px
capture width, a full screen-width sweep every ~1.5s. Confirms
"extremely fast" quantitatively; root cause of that magnitude is not
yet found (accumulator + vertex geometry are unmodified N64 logic, so
if it's genuinely wrong the bug is in how the Path B substitution maps
texel-ticks to screen pixels, not the tick rate itself -- next step
spec'd in findings.md).

Verified: build clean; -level_22 frame 345 (same frame M-95's
before/after used) shows no visible crease vs. the pre-M-95 reference
screenshot; verify.sh bunker1 PASS, worst_cell unchanged (known stale
golden baseline, not a regression). Human eyeball still owed on both
the seam-close and the scroll-speed question before PR #43 leaves
draft.

* docs(D176a): M-98 - Cradle side of PR #43 checked; tower starburst is Defect 2

Checked the Cradle side of the D227 fold-sharing fix (M-97 left this
outstanding). No regression -- verify.sh cradle PASS -- but found a
much more visible pre-existing artifact while there: looking up the
suspension tower near spawn, roughly half the sky renders as a sharp
radiating starburst instead of clouds.

Confirmed pre-existing (pixel-identical with sky.c reverted to
pre-M-98) and confirmed static, not the D227 "moves at different
rates" symptom (pixel-identical 30 ticks apart at a fixed camera).
This is the already-known, already-open D176(a) Defect 2
(horizon-band tessellation) -- the code's own fold-logic comment
already predicts exactly this failure shape for a triangle spanning
>1000 texels near the horizon, which looking straight up the tower
produces. Not fixed (tessellation is separate, bigger work); logged
with a concrete repro + screenshot so it's no longer "inconclusive."

* docs(D227): M-99 - human playtest negative (seam persists, view-angle-dependent); headless repro blocked

Human playtest after M-98's fold-sharing fix: the seam is still present
on Statue and now confirmed to move/change with mouse/view position --
also reported still bad on Cradle and present on Surface. M-98's fix
was real but is not the dominant mechanism live play is hitting, same
pattern as M-95 before it.

Ruled out this pass: the cross-quad water/cloud texture-scale mismatch
theory, on the two IsWater==0 levels actually tested (Statue, Cradle)
-- untested on any IsWater==1 level, which is now the top ranked
candidate for next session.

Blocked on: headless camera-pan repro via GE_INPUTSCRIPT does not
work -- confirmed neither analog-stick nor C-button tokens rotate the
camera, so this needs either a human playtest or a debug hook into the
real mouselook path before it can be chased further headlessly. Full
ranked candidate list + environment notes for next session in
findings.md and (session-local) docs/HANDOFF.md.

* docs(D227): M-100 - root cause PROVEN: s16 texture-coordinate overflow

The sky seam is not a crack, not a quantization mismatch, and not
view-dependence. One sky quad spans ~30,000 texels in S and T, but
Vtx.tc is S10.5 in an s16 = +/-1024 texels, so 7 of its 8 texture
coordinates overflow and wrap to arbitrary values. The fold cannot help
against a span 29x the representable range.

Unblocked by a user-supplied emulator-vs-ours screenshot pair on Surface:
the real symptom is a radial starburst, not a crack, which is a different
mechanism from what M-94..M-98 were chasing. M-95 (shared wScale) and M-98
(shared S/T fold) each fixed a real second-order bug; neither could touch
this one. Both stay - per-fan consistency is exactly what will make
subdivision seamless.

Measured with a new env-gated GE_D227V probe (GE_D176 style) on the Cradle
frame-350 camera. All four w are positive, so no projective pole. The quad
is split gSP2Triangles(0,1,3, 0,3,2) on the 0-3 diagonal, and vertices 0
and 3 are exactly the two that keep one coordinate in range - hence "two
halves with different patterns, split by a line", the original D227 report
verbatim. Apparent view-dependence needs no view-dependent mechanism: S/T
depend on view, so the wrap point moves.

Confirmed by a diagnostic build: baking tc at 1-texel instead of
1/32-texel granularity (32x range, deliberately wrong scale) makes the
starburst and the split completely disappear. No second defect behind it.

D227 == D176(a) "Defect 2" == M-98's "Cradle tower starburst". M-98
misfiled that capture as unrelated, which is what made D227 look
headlessly-unreproducible in M-99 - it reproduces statically.

Fix not implemented: subdivide until span < ~960 texels/primitive. The
subdivision math and cut placement are worked out in the finding (S is
linear in w, so cut uniformly in w), but the vertex budget is an open
decision - dynAllocateVertices is an unchecked 50 KB/frame pool and pure
tessellation wants ~40% of it.

* docs(D227): M-100 addendum - RDP tile shift (option D) dominates; fast3d already implements it

shifts/shiftt is the RDP's native precision-vs-range knob and gfx_pc.cpp
implements it fully including the left-shift case. Emitting tc at 32/2^k
units with shifts = 16-k buys 2^k range with no tessellation, no fast3d
change and no vertex-budget cost. k=5 covers the measured 29,830-texel
span outright.

* fix(D227): M-100b - sky texcoords are S10.5, not texels; drop M-82's stray *32

Fixes the sky seam/starburst, the over-tiling, and the "scrolls too fast"
complaint - all three were the same bug.

M-82 ("D176(a) Defect 1") read unk20/unk24 as texel counts and baked tc as
(S - fold) * 32 to convert texels into tc's S10.5 units. They are not texel
counts. skyRender sets them as worldpos * 0.1f and the N64 path hands them
to the RDP coefficient block unscaled (skyRenderTri: S * unk34 * sp368), so
they are already in the RDP's native S10.5 1/32-texel units.

That stray *32 made every sky texture coordinate 32x too large, producing
three symptoms previously tracked as separate bugs:

  1. D227 - spans of ~30,000 texels against an s16 tc holding +/-1024, so 7
     of a quad's 8 coordinates overflowed and wrapped to arbitrary values.
     The quad splits on the 0-3 diagonal and verts 0 and 3 are exactly the
     two that keep one coordinate in range, hence "two halves with different
     patterns" - the original D227 report verbatim.
  2. Over-tiling - ~466 repeats of the 64-texel cloud per quad, not ~15.
  3. M-96's "the N64 sky is nearly static, ours races", measured at ~7
     px/tick in M-98. g_SkyCloudOffset advances 1 unit/tick = 1/32 texel,
     not 1 texel. This is why M-98's re-derivation of the tick path kept
     coming back clean: the accumulator was never wrong, its unit was.

Fix: tc = (S - fold) 1:1, with the fold rebased to a whole tile period
(SKY_TC_WRAP = 64 texels * 32 = 2048 units). The ~30,000-unit span then fits
an s16 unaided - which is also why the original N64 code needs no
tessellation here: it never had a range problem to solve.

Kept: M-95's shared wScale and M-98's shared fold (both real bugs; per-fan
consistency keeps a fan's shared vertices bit-identical). Also kept as a
safety valve, since only ~4% of s16 headroom remains on the observed span:
skyPortPickShift/skyPortCaptureTile/skyPortEmitTileShift, which trade tc
precision for range via the RDP's own tile shifts/shiftt (port/fast3d
already implements it, so no fast3d change). skyPortCaptureTile replays the
exact G_SETTILE texSelect emitted with only the shift fields patched, so it
cannot drift from texSelect's format/line/mask derivation.

Also adds the env-gated GE_D227V per-vertex probe (GE_D176 style) that
measured all of this.

Verified: -level_41 Cradle frame 350 (the M-98 starburst repro) now shows
soft cloud bands at the correct scale with no starburst, diagonal split or
moire; GE_D227V confirms kS=kT=0 and max tc 31,513 of 32,767. -level_22
Statue frame 345 clean. verify.sh bunker1 PASS (worst_cell 10.32, the known
stale-golden-baseline number). Human play-test still owed.

* D229: file green/pulsating water; decouple D227's tc safety valve from it

New finding D229: on IsWater levels (Frigate, Surface 2) the water renders
green and pulses blue<->green on an interval.

Pre-existing, proven by A/B: built plain main with none of the D227 work and
captured -level_26 frame 340 - same green, only the tiling density differs.
D229 is independent of D227.

The gun half of the same report was NOT a bug: the branch was 2 commits
behind main and those 2 commits were exactly the D217 fixes (#47 texpool
alignment, #49 CI cache palette-content key). After merging main the user
confirms the gun is good on Frigate.

Mechanism so far: the water quad is sky.c's IsWater block1 (Frigate confirmed
IsWater=1 via GE_D176, which also settles M-99's ranked item 1).
sub_GAME_7F09343C binds tile 0 and tile 1 to the SAME tmem, offsets tile 1 via
gDPSetTileSize(1, 90, 150, 0, 0), and cross-fades TEXEL0/TEXEL1 with a
PRIM_LOD_FRAC driven by sinf(). That sine is the reported pulsing, so one
texunit resolves blue and the other green. Ruled out the shade path by
measurement (it spans dark blue to pale yellow, never green; sampled pixels
have R and B crushed). Not yet root-caused.

Code change here is only the decoupling: skyPortBeginFan takes allowShift and
the water quad passes FALSE, leaving that path byte-identical to its pre-D227
behaviour. The water quad is a two-texunit draw sharing one set of vertex tc,
so a tc rescale needs a matching shift on both tiles - and shifting both makes
them sample identically, which flattens the cross-fade. An intermediate build
that did so turned the water from pulsating into constantly green, observed
live. Also fixes skyPortCaptureTile to capture after all tile setup (not just
after texSelect) and to handle both tiles, so a future shift cannot clobber a
later re-declaration.

Cradle sky re-verified unaffected (frame 350 still correct). bunker1 golden
framediff reports REGRESSION at 55.02, but plain main scores WORSE at 73.24 -
the baseline is stale relative to main's D217 texture fixes, the re-baseline
owed since M-83/M-84. Not caused by this branch.

* docs(D227/D229): regenerate findings index; mark D227 FIXED

The generated findings-index.csv was hand-edited during the main merge and
when D229 was filed, so CI's 'Check generated dev indexes are current' failed
on PR #43. Regenerated with tools_pc/gen_findings_index.py.

Also updates the D227 row's status to lead with FIXED (M-100b) rather than
the M-94 'not yet fixed' text, so the index reflects the user-confirmed fix.

* docs: register GE_D227V in the env-probe index

CI's 'Check generated dev indexes are current' also runs
gen_env_probes.py --check, which flags any GE_* probe with live sites that
has no row in docs/dev/GE-ENV-PROBES.md. GE_D227V (added in M-100 to measure
the sky texcoord overflow) had none.
2026-09-11 20:45:08 -04:00
James Dansereau 4d45e78176 docs: Pages site cleanup step 1 - curated publish set + cross-link fixes (#51)
* docs: step 1 of the docs/site cleanup - whitelist Pages site config, fix cross-links to excluded docs, drop game-behavior-reference index bullet

Publish only the curated set (index/building/internals/porting-notes/
dev-process/agentic-development); everything else under docs/ stays in
the repo but out of the Pages build and sitemap. Cross-links from the
published pages to excluded docs now point at GitHub blob URLs so they
still resolve. No content rewrite yet -- steps 2-5 (README update, per-
page descriptions, light copy passes, repo hygiene) remain.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016TaKy6AAsVUTfjkhrX6CjG

* docs(dev-process): add §6 -- keep PR/git-history noise low

Squash-merge single-purpose/docs PRs, batch same-session docs updates
into one branch instead of one-PR-per-finding, keep unrelated
housekeeping off active branches, declare stacked-PR dependencies, and
triage the open-PR list every session -- close stale PRs (superseded
by newer main content) rather than force-merging or endlessly
rebasing them.

Prompted by this session's PR #26: real conflicts against main because
D191/D193/D149 were all fixed/closed since it was opened; closed
rather than rebased.
2026-09-11 17:31:36 -04:00
James Dansereau 199182d1d9 fix(D77): in-level music silent — missing return in sub_GAME_7F0C0BF0 (D6-class UB)
Root cause: src/game/mp_music.c's sub_GAME_7F0C0BF0() is a one-line wrapper
around get_mTrack2Vol() with no return statement. On N64/IDO the value
happened to already sit in $v0; at the PC release build's -O2 the return
register is genuinely undefined (docs/porting-notes.md D6 class, same as
D187). Every in-level music trigger goes through set_missionstate()'s
MISSION_STATE_1/4 cases (the only path that starts a level's background
track), which feeds this garbage/zero value straight into
musicTrack1ApplySeqpVol()/musicTrack3ApplySeqpVol() right before
musicTrack1Play()/musicTrack3Play() — silencing the whole track for its
entire duration while note-on processing continues normally. Front-end/menu
music bypasses set_missionstate() entirely (front.c calls musicTrack1Play()
directly), which is why it was never affected.

Fix: return the tail call under #ifdef AVOID_UB, #else keeps the N64 body
verbatim. One line, no game-logic change.

Diagnostic: added a temporary, cheap (~1/s, gated on GE_AUDIOTRACE)
[AUDIOLVL] peak/RMS probe of the exact buffer audioSetNextBuffer() hands to
SDL (port/src/audio.c), interleaved into the same audiotrace.log as the
existing csplayer.c [MUSICNOTE] probe via the shared geTracePrintf lock.
Before the fix: 173 [MUSICNOTE] events over a 28s BUNKER1 capture, but every
single [AUDIOLVL] reading (29 samples spanning the full run) read
peak=0 rms=0.0. After the fix: same note count, every [AUDIOLVL] reading
sustained non-zero (peak ~2700-10300, rms ~800-2900). tools_pc/verify.sh
bunker1: PASS, no visual regression.

Docs: docs/dev/findings.md D77 updated from stale "nothing reaches PC
speakers" framing to the actual root cause + verification; new D6 instance
logged in docs/porting-notes.md.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016TaKy6AAsVUTfjkhrX6CjG
2026-09-10 23:34:40 -04:00
James Dansereau d285a30725 docs(D217): M-88 - defect 1 is NOT a tools_pc/d43_emit.py sidecar bug
Dispatched to root-cause + fix D217 defect (1) (wrong palette bytes on
model-DL CI textures) confined to tools_pc/d43_*.py, working theory: a
4-byte/2-entry model-TLUT source-pointer offset in the sidecar.

Investigation refutes that theory: traced the full texture reference
chain (ModelFileTextures TextureID -> Globalimagetable -> runtime
texInflateZlib/NonZlib decode -> texWriteLoadToTmemAddr -> fast3d
gfx_dp_load_tlut) and confirmed tools_pc/d43_emit.py never touches
texture or palette content for model files - it only converts
geometry/node/GDL structure and passes TextureID through unchanged.

Reproduced the exact reported bytes with the existing GE_TEXDUMP env
probe (no code changes): BUNKER1 pal[0]=0001 (black, correct) vs
FACILITY pal[0]=1a00 (green, matches the originally reported defect)
for the same tile=1x1 CI4 grip texture.

Narrowed the likely real mechanism to port/fast3d/gfx_pc.cpp
(gfx_dp_load_tlut palette-address pitch math) interacting with
src/game/tex.c (texWriteLoadToTmemAddr's literal width=1
SetTextureImage) - both out of this dispatch's file scope, so no fix
applied per the brief's own instruction to stop and write up rather
than edit out-of-scope code.

No tools_pc/*.py files modified. docs-only commit.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016TaKy6AAsVUTfjkhrX6CjG
2026-09-10 23:27:36 -04:00
James Dansereau 6b66c9ddc9 docs(D217/D211): M-86 — D217 root cause characterised; D211 aim-zoom verified
D217: two defects found. (1) The visible green grip/hand is upstream of
fast3d — the grip's count=1 model G_LOADTLUT is fed different source bytes
per level (Facility 1a 00 -> 0x1A00 green; Bunker 00 01 -> black); every
larger model TLUT carries a 2-entry leading zero pad, so the port's
model-TLUT source pointer is likely 4 bytes low (or a d43_emit.py blob
offset). fast3d byteswap is correct (proven by Bunker). (2) A real CI
texture-cache collision (no palette-content key) — fix landed on branch
fix/d217-model-texture-palette f6fc0399 (palette FNV-1a hash in the CI
key); owes a 21-level sweep; does not fix (1). porting-notes + graphics-
backlog updated.

D211: aim-zoom compose verified correct by construction (single post-lerp
multiply at the fr.c chokepoint; zoom ratio preserved). Only a low-risk
cosmetic eyeball remains (viewmodel/frustum-cull use unscaled fovy).

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016TaKy6AAsVUTfjkhrX6CjG
2026-09-10 18:40:48 -04:00
James Dansereau 9a6017a784 D176(a): emit screen-space sky geometry on PC (Path B)
skyRenderTri/skyRenderFull emit the sky as a verbatim N64 RDP triangle
command chopped into G_RDPHALF_* immediates, which fast3d deliberately
no-ops -> Surface/Statue/Streets skies render solid black.

Behind #ifdef PORT, substitute a screen-space gSPVertex + gSP1Triangle/
gSP2Triangles emit built from the already-projected SkyRelated38 verts
(new helper skyPortRenderPoly, ortho matrices via dynAllocate*). N64 path
unchanged under #else. Pure RSP-idiom substitution, no behavioural change.

Links 243/243. Render check owed on a display: -level_22 frame ~360.

findings.md D176(a) M-46; porting-notes.mdD.
2026-09-08 22:29:28 -04:00
James Dansereau b47eea65e3 fix(D210): chrToPatrol leaves act_patrol.lastvisible60 uninitialised on PC
Sibling of D209 (A1 raw-byte union-alias class). chrToPatrol writes
act_init.padding[0x13] (union byte 0x4c) = -1, which is act_patrol.lastvisible60
on N64. act_patrol starts with a patrol_path* that widens 4->8 on x86-64, so
0x4c now lands in waydata and lastvisible60 (@0x50) stays uninitialised. The
patrol 'haven't seen the player recently' gate (chraction.c:~9347) then reads
garbage on the first ticks after entering PATROL.

Fix: write the named field under #ifdef PORT; N64 line verbatim under #else.
ABI/pointer-width only, no game-logic change.

Found by the post-D209 A1 sweep; the only new instance (act_anim/act_dead
padding aliases are pointer-free -> layout-stable).

Build clean; bunker1 + facility verify PASS (both patrol-heavy), no crash.
findings D210 + porting-notes A1 + findings-index regen.
2026-09-08 20:51:18 -04:00
James Dansereau a63efe184b fix(D209): AI locomotion locked to walk anim — union byte alias shifts at 64-bit
Root cause of D193 ("NPC AI locomotion is too slow", the user's biggest
playtest complaint; broke Cradle completability).

get_sound_at_range() (chraction.c:3573) is the locomotion-animation
selector: it picks ANIM_DATA_sprinting/running/walking from an arg1 speed
tier. Its only caller passed that tier as self->act_ubytes.padding[45] — a
raw byte alias into the ChrRecord action union rather than the named field.

On N64 offset 45 is exactly act_gopos.unk59:
  act_gopos = {coord3d targetpos@0, StandTile *target@12,
               waypoint *target_path@16, waypoint *waypoints[6]@20,
               u8 curindex@44, u8 unk59@45}
At 64-bit the three pointer members widen 4->8B (target@16, target_path@24,
waypoints@32), pushing unk59 to 81 while the literal 45 lands inside
waypoints[1] (40..47) — byte 5 of a heap pointer. The arena is low-4GB
(0x00000000_70xxxxxx), so that byte is always 0x00: arg1 reads 0 forever
and every AI chr in the game was bound to ANIM_DATA_walking /
ANIM_DATA_walking_unarmed regardless of what the ailist commanded. GE
character travel is animation-root-motion driven, so all AI moved at walk
pace on every level. Bond is unaffected (explicit physics, no root motion),
which is the reported "player fine / all AI slow" split.

Fix: PORT-only read of the named field; N64 line kept verbatim under #else.
ABI/pointer-width only, no game-logic change (rule-2 narrow exception, D3x).
Both callers reach the site with actiontype == ACT_GOPOS, so it is the same
byte N64 reads.

Evidence (Cradle -level_41, GE_D193A extended with tier/aidx): all six chrs
report ACT_GOPOS tier=1 SPEED_RUN on 420/440 samples, while the live
model->anim reverse-resolves to animation_table_ptrs1 index 40
(PTR_ANIM_walking) for Trevelyan and 107 (PTR_ANIM_walking_unarmed) for the
guards on every sample; 42 (running) and 41 (sprinting) never appear.
Travel sat in a flat 140-155 u/s band for all of them.

User playtest-verified on the fix build: Trevelyan and the guards run.

Also:
- GE_D193A extended with tier / gspd / typ / tick / move / frz / hid / aidx
  (aidx reverse-resolves model->anim against animation_table_ptrs1).
- bondtypes.h: unk59 was commented "guess: room" — it is the SPEED tier.
- porting-notes.md A1: new bug class — raw-byte aliases into a union read a
  plausible constant rather than garbage, so they misbehave silently.
- findings.md: D209 added; D193 closed against it.
2026-09-08 19:50:45 -04:00
James Dansereau cf477c20cf docs(D191): findings + porting-notes + regen findings-index
Playtest-verified (Bunker ii + Statue). 21/21 solo levels crash-free.
Regenerated findings-index.csv (the validate CI check requires it current).
2026-09-08 09:12:12 -04:00
James Dansereau 9bf0c49151 fix(audio): D206 — every SFX resolved one bank slot too high
GE's sndPlaySfx reads the on-disk sound bank through the cast alias
struct ALInstrumentAlt_s { s32 unk0, unk4, unk8; ALSound *soundArray[1]; }.
On N64 (4-byte pointers) soundArray sits at struct offset 12 and
deliberately aliases the on-disk ALInstrument's bendRange/soundCount
words, so soundArray[N] == on-disk table entry [N-1] — GE's SFX_IDs are
1-based into the table by design (ID 0 = NOTHING_SFX, short-circuited).
On PC the 8-byte pointer + 8-byte alignment push soundArray to offset 16,
and the converted bank (romdata.c afFixupInst) is packed to match, so
every SFX_ID resolved one bank slot too high.

Root cause of D202's silenced-PPK 'slap' (id 46 -> PUNCH1 instead of
GUN_SILPPK_A) and D205 (3) armour + (4) melee->Klobb. M-61's rejected
'index 45, +0.999' was correct all along.

Fix: src/snd.c:1001, #ifndef PORT / #else -> soundArray[soundIndex - 1],
N64 line kept verbatim. ABI/layout only (D3x class), no game-logic change.
Also serves the retrigger chain (same 1-based space).

Verified: build clean; BUNKER1 GE_AUDIOTRACE 60s crash-free, all ~90
distinct requested indices resolve to rom_sfx_decode.py slot N-1 (0/90 at
N); -level_09 golden framediff 3/3. User playtest: 'most audio is good now.'

findings.md D206 + D205 (M-73/M-74) + D207; porting-notes.md §E.
2026-09-07 22:22:55 -04:00
James Dansereau 5c3944582b docs: v0.1.0 alpha framing + hygiene pass (#25)
Update the public-facing docs to the M-49 state (v0.1.0 alpha, first
full-campaign playtest: 19/21 missions completable, D191 crashes Bunker ii
+ Statue, D193 AI pacing is the top flaw).

- README: lead with what it is + status, research angle second; new
  Quick start section; Status/Download rewritten for the alpha + dual
  platform; "By the numbers" refreshed (~3 weeks, ~320 commits, ~190
  findings, ~49 sessions, 69 PORT files).
- .github/release-notes.md: v0.1.0 title + known-issues rewrite.
- .github/social-preview.html: status/stat lines (regen + re-upload the
  PNG separately).
- docs/index.md, docs/dev/LEVEL-STATUS.md: M-49 status.
- docs/dev/findings.md, docs/dev/GRAPHICS-BACKLOG.md: D191-D197 +
  D148/D170/D173 M-49 escalations.

Hygiene:
- Fix the `&amp;` literal in internals.md H1.
- Repoint two ../README.md links that 404 on the Pages site.
- Standardise British -> American spelling across the public docs
  (behaviour->behavior, colour->color, catalogue->catalog,
  centre->center, etc.). Deep internal logs left untouched.
- .gitignore: document the local-notes convention (docs/HANDOFF.md,
  docs/BACKLOG.md, and a new docs/dev/notes/ drop for roadmaps and
  session plans) so it survives a fresh clone.
2026-09-04 00:13:43 -04:00
James Dansereau 86440e3b58 fix(linux): survive the decomp's latent stack-buffer overruns (D189) (#24)
* fix(linux): survive the decomp's latent stack-buffer overruns (D189)

The decompiled game code has a class of fixed-size stack-buffer over/under-
runs that write a few words into adjacent stack scratch:

  * stan.c  sub_GAME_7F0B1DDC  — `StandTile *tileStack[39]` with a bail check
    of `if (cat >= 41)` that only runs once per outer iteration, so `cat`
    reaches 40 + pointCount and the append writes several slots past the end.
    BUNKER1 (-level_09) prop room-list setup legitimately visits ~40 tiles.
  * bondview2.c  bondviewCalcIntroSwirlCamera  — `f32 pointbuf[10]` indexed
    `&pointbuf[i*3]` for i in [-1..2] then written [0..5], i.e. [-3 .. 11].

On the N64 and on the MinGW/Windows build (neither uses a stack protector)
these are harmless in practice — the Windows build is stable over thousands
of frames. Only Ubuntu's gcc default (`-fstack-protector-strong`) turns them
into a fatal `__stack_chk_fail`, at BUNKER1 stage load and again at the intro
swirl camera (~frame 5).

Two-part fix:
  * `-fno-stack-protector` globally (CMakeLists) — matches the N64 and MinGW
    builds so the same code runs the same way. A hardened Linux build would
    need the whole overrun class swept first.
  * `StandTile *tileStack[64]` under `#ifdef PORT` (stan.c) — the one case
    that is cleanly understood and bounded (`pointCount` is 4-bit, so 40+15
    is the true worst case). Pure local scratch, never escapes, no behaviour
    change. N64 keeps `[39]` under `#else`.
  * stan.c:2225 link-resolve also switched to the D177 PORT_PTRADD macro for
    idiom consistency (the blob maps below 4 GiB so the bare cast is
    currently lossless; #else is byte-identical).

Stacked on the D188 xprintf fix. Verified: Windows -level_09 framediff 3/3
within golden threshold (all changes are #ifdef PORT or no-op on MinGW);
Linux -O2 -level_09 now runs to frame 2100+ with no crash.

* docs: D189 update (stack-protector / latent overrun class) + porting-notes D8

* docs: D190 — Linux -level_45 objective.c load crash (open); D189 sweep 5/6
2026-09-03 20:18:25 -04:00
James Dansereau 1261389a5c fix(linux): thread a va_list* through _Printf (x86-64 SysV ABI) (#22)
* fix(linux): thread a va_list* through _Printf (x86-64 SysV ABI)

On the x86-64 System V ABI `va_list` is an array type, so a by-value
`va_list` parameter decays to a pointer. `_Printf()` was passing `&args`
(the address of that local pointer, not the argument list) to `_Putfld()`,
which does `va_arg(*args, ...)` — so `_Putfld` walked garbage and
segfaulted. Latent at `-Og`, fatal at `-O2` (PR #9), which is why the
Linux release build crashed at boot:

  bossInitMainthreadData (boss.c:247, the D121 per-level -m token sprintf)
    -> sprintf("-level_%c%c %s", ...) -> _Putfld -> SIGSEGV @ xprintf.c

Same UB class as D187. Windows x64's `va_list` is a scalar (`char*`), so
`&args` happened to work there — the Windows build is unaffected.

Fix: under `#ifdef PORT`, `_Printf` takes `va_list *` and passes it
straight to `_Putfld` (which already expects `va_list *`); `src/sprintf.c`
(the only PC caller — `rmon.c` is excluded from the build) passes `&args`
of a real `va_list` object. N64 build untouched (`#ifdef PORT`, and it
byte-matches the ROM).

Verified:
- Windows: build links, `-level_09` framediff 3/3 within golden threshold.
- Linux -O2: boot crash gone, now advances past bossInitMainthreadData
  into stage load (uncovers a separate pre-existing stan.c stack overflow
  during BUNKER1 prop setup — tracked separately).

* docs: D188 (xprintf va_list ABI) + D189 (stan.c stack-smash) findings + porting-notes D7
2026-09-03 20:12:56 -04:00
James Dansereau ac7223959f docs(hud): D187 finding + porting-notes D6 (missing-return / -O2 class)
M-47 root-cause + interactive-console verification for the missing HUD
ammo-type icon: framediff -level_09 frame 320 worst-cell dmean 21.8 -> 4.0
with the one-line AVOID_UB return; orange clip glyph confirmed present
again. porting-notes D6 covers the non-void-no-return / latent-until-O2
pattern.
2026-09-03 15:04:16 -04:00
James Dansereau ccff1374b5 Merge branch 'main' into feat/f10-options-overlay 2026-09-03 10:03:23 -04:00
James Dansereau 7863ec096f port: D186 — refuse a sub-30 Video.FpsCap instead of throttling the sim
sync_framerate_with_timer() runs inline on the scheduler thread
(osSpTaskStartGo -> gfx_run -> swap_buffers_begin), so a low frame cap
blocks VI-retrace delivery and drags every game thread down to the cap
rate rather than just dropping presented frames. There is no N64 analogue
(RSP/RDP/VI are separate silicon; the CPU never waits on them).

Clamp 0 < FpsCap < 30 to 0 (uncapped) with a warning, at both:
  - videoInit, so a bad ge007.ini value (e.g. dinged to 10 via the F10
    options overlay) is normalised and persists sane on next configSave();
  - gfx_sdl_set_target_fps, the fast3d chokepoint, which also covers the
    overlay's live set path.

Caps >= 30 are unchanged. Default (FpsCap = 0) is byte-identical to
golden (-level_09 framediff 3/3). The real fix — moving frame pacing off
the scheduler thread — is documented as owed in findings.md D186.
2026-09-03 00:51:40 -04:00
James Dansereau 2f5d7f9063 port: D184 — F10 port-layer options overlay (approach C)
New port/src/optionsoverlay.c + port/include/optionsoverlay.h: an
immediate-mode options overlay drawn as its own fast3d 2D display list,
appended after the game DL. Implements docs/dev/OPTIONS-MENU-PLAN.md §2/§3.

- config.c/h: configForEachOption() + configSetOptionMeta() label/step/enum
  side table; CONFIG_OPT_* enum. config.c stays free of specific-key knowledge.
- gfx_pc.cpp gfx_run(): one-line hook runs optionsOverlayEmit() after the game
  DL, before gfx_flush. Returns NULL when closed -> zero bytes appended, golden
  dumps byte-identical.
- video.c: F10 toggles (videoPumpEvents, next to F12); ESC closes; wheel
  scrolls; videoRequestLiveConfig()/liveCfgDirty re-applies VSync/FpsCap/
  TextureFilter at frame start.
- input.c: while open, controller 0 returns a neutral pad and nav
  (arrows/enter/wheel/mouse) routes to optionsOverlayHandleInput() — mirrors
  the D180 WI-1 swallow pattern.
- v1 rows: VSync, FpsCap, MSAA(restart), TextureFilter, MouseAimSpeed,
  MouseTurnSpeed, MouseInvertY, MouseCaptureMode, ScreenShakeIntensity.
  Live-apply where possible; configSave() on close.
- GE_OPTIONSOVERLAY=1 auto-opens at boot (env-gated diagnostic, left in).

Port-layer only, no src/ edits, no #ifdef PORT in game code. Build links
241/241. Runtime framediff/soak/eyeball owed on an interactive machine
(this headless env kills the GUI process early and writes 0-byte PPMs).
2026-09-02 19:03:37 -04:00
James Dansereau 293e7436d3 port: D177 — ladders non-functional (progression blocker), pointer-width ABI
MoveBond gates the entire ladder-collision path on
stanGetLocusCount(&curLocus), which was pinned at 0 on PC. Three compounding
pointer-width bugs in the stan navigation layer (same class as D79/D90),
no game logic touched:

1. stanCheckLinkedSpecialTile receives the caller's
   struct StandTileLocusCallbackRecord typed as `s32 *outFlags` and writes
   the LADDER signal with raw `outFlags[1] = 1`. The record's first member
   is `s32 *rooms` — 8 bytes on PC — so `[1]` is its high half and `count`
   (moved +4 -> +8) is never written. stanGetLocusCount() reads ->count,
   stays 0, ladder path never runs. (FORCECROUCH survived by luck: LE low
   half of rooms is at +0.) Fix: #ifdef PORT cast to the real struct, write
   ->rooms / ->count by name.

2. curLocus was declared `struct move_bond_temp_struct` — an 8-byte
   "placeholder while matching" that equals the N64 record size but is too
   small for the widened PC record, so stan's field writes overflowed the
   local. Fix: #ifdef PORT declare it as the real
   struct StandTileLocusCallbackRecord.

3. stanGetMoveBondCollisionTiles would AV on the first climb:
   `(coord3d *)((s32)coords + off)` truncates the 64-bit &bondCollision
   stack pointer. Fix: PORT_PTRADD (uintptr_t arithmetic) added to stan.c.

All #ifdef PORT; N64 path kept verbatim under #else. Candidate root-cause
from an M-36 subagent (parts 1/3); part 2 found on review.

Verified: build links clean; -level_09 framediff 3/3 (frame_200 run
variance only); -level_36 (Surface, mandatory ladders) boots crash-free;
interactive climb confirmed working in-game by the owner.

findings.md D177 (§F + §H), porting-notes.md §A.
2026-09-02 18:26:38 -04:00
James Dansereau 4b71435d73 port: D183 — fast3d source-pitch de-stride + texture diagnostics (M-36 Family A)
Family A of the M-36 triage (Surface "grey static" D176b, file-select
interlacing D182-2). The assigned hypothesis — import_texture_* shear when
line_size_bytes != full_image_line_size_bytes — is DISPROVEN for the Surface
repro:

- Only gfx_dp_load_tile produces a strided load; GE loads every texture via
  gDPLoadBlock (tex.c texWriteLoadToTmem*), which sets line == full. Measured:
  0/64 GE_DTEX + 0/166 GE_TEXDUMP imports strided on -level_36; 0 in the
  front end either.
- Independent offline pitch scan (new GE_TEXRAW dump) shows the importers
  pick exactly the pitch the source is stored at. The Surface cliff texture
  is a 32x32 IA8 whose ROM bytes are genuinely a noise field — decoded
  faithfully, tiled ~1 texel/px. D176(b) is likely a tiling-density / UV /
  shift-LOD issue (RC3/D167 family) or a wrong-texture bind, not a decode
  bug. Full evidence: findings.md D183. D176(b)/D182(2) stay OPEN.
- Re-confirmed D159's texSwapAltRowBytes no-op is correct (re-applying it
  makes the dumps worse).

Shipped anyway (golden-safe, reversible):
- import_texture() compacts strided rows into a contiguous buffer before the
  format dispatch, so every importer sees line == full — the behaviour the
  seven SUPPORT_CHECK(full == line) asserts only assert (and assert compiles
  out under NDEBUG). Provably inert when full == line (all current loads).
  GE_TEXPITCH=0 restores the old flat read.
- GE_DTEX gains line=/full=/STRIDED markers; GE_TEXRAW=1 dumps raw
  importer-input bytes for offline decode-vs-source analysis.

Verified: build 240/240; -level_09 framediff 3/3; GE_STARTMENU=10 briefing
crash-free, renders. Investigation: subagent (worktree).

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01GULf6knbsqfsnW39tMr9WT
2026-09-02 11:00:11 -04:00
James Dansereau cd1ed57449 port: D178 — byte-swap the raw briefing segment (blank objectives / briefing text)
Family B of the M-36 triage. The Ubrief*Z segment (assets/obseg/brief/) is
a raw 48-byte ROM image of struct BriefStruct { u16 brief[4]; struct { u16
textid; u16 enabled_difficulty; } objective[10]; }, loaded by front.c
load_briefing_text_for_stage() via _fileNameLoadToAddr() with no converter
and no BE->LE fixup. On the LE host all 24 u16 read byte-swapped:

- textid 0x2C04 (getStringID(LDAM,4)) -> 0x042C -> langGet() resolves an
  unloaded bank -> NULL -> blank objective/briefing text. This is the whole
  of the D143 "briefing text blank" residual (the bank loaded fine; the ids
  into it were swapped).
- enabled_difficulty 0x0001 -> 0x0100 = 256, so `selected_difficulty >=
  enabled_difficulty` is always false -> difficulty-gated objectives vanish
  (on Agent only the one AGENT-difficulty line survived -> lone "a." bullet).

Fix: romdataFixupBriefing() in port/src/romdata.c, called from a #ifdef PORT
block in load_briefing_text_for_stage() right after the load — same shape as
langFixupLoadedBank(). BE-serialized-struct reconciliation (AGENTS.md #2),
semantics-preserving, N64 build untouched. GE_D178=1 dumps raw + fixed words.

Verified: Dam briefing renders all four objectives at 00 Agent with correct
difficulty gating and "007: James Bond" header; -level_09 framediff 3/3;
GE_STARTMENU=7/=13 crash-free; build links clean 240/240.

Investigation + patch: subagent (worktree). Suspect 2 (Gfx-width temp_s0
arithmetic) was ruled out — benign 512-byte gap, langLoadToBank records the
bank base itself. Follow-ups noted in findings.md: annotate D143 as
superseded; latent 64->32 pointer truncation at front.c:6569 / :2202.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01GULf6knbsqfsnW39tMr9WT
2026-09-02 10:56:03 -04:00
James Dansereau 4ca11e4386 Prepare repository for public release
- README: attract-mode stills + demo GIF as the hero row, status/warning
  callouts, metrics table, "Contents" index, doc-index table; simplified
  the two-agent workflow diagram (LR -> TD, fewer edges) for GitHub web
- Table-of-contents indexes added to internals.md, porting-notes.md,
  agentic-development.md, AUDIO-PLAN.md
- CI: add Windows/MSYS2 build job, minimal token (contents: read),
  persist-credentials: false, concurrency group; run on main + master.
  validate job regenerates the US ROM-asset symbol file only and configures
  ntsc-final (PAL/JP need a region ROM; no ROM is used in CI)
- .github: SECURITY.md, issue forms + chooser config, PR template,
  labels.yml, dependabot (Actions, monthly)
- Do not track the proprietary SGI IRIX IDO toolchain or SGIImageViewer.exe;
  document in SetupGuide.md / building.md how to obtain IDO for N64 ROM
  builds (the PC port does not need it)
- Stop tracking two committed *.pyc files; drop stale screenshots and a
  redundant .gitignore line; misc doc cross-reference fixes

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01GULf6knbsqfsnW39tMr9WT
2026-09-01 22:42:52 -04:00
James Dansereau 203549f57e D168: fix vertically-flipped GE_PCDUMP captures; close D114/D116
gfx_opengl_dump_bound_fbo wrote glReadPixels output (GL bottom-left
origin) straight into a top-row-first P6 PPM, so every GE_PCDUMP / F12
capture was upside-down. This is the entire source of the D114/D116
"HUD/text X-mirror" - four sessions chasing a fast3d mirror that never
existed, misreading inverted screenshots of asymmetric content. The
developer confirms the game renders correctly on real hardware.

- writer now emits rows top-to-bottom
- tools_pc/golden/*.png flipped in place to match + golden/README.md
- D114/D116 reclassified as capture-orientation artifacts (not deleted);
  D75 "logo mispositioned" / RC1 "photo 180 deg" flagged for re-judging
- annotations in findings.md, GRAPHICS-BACKLOG.md,
  TEXTURE-GLITCH-ANALYSIS.md, porting-notes.md D2, GE-ENV-PROBES.md

Not runtime-verified (migrated tree has no ROM/toolchain) - needs a
fresh capture to confirm text reads normally.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01UpTM1AcBRJuTetoZNcCD5V
2026-09-01 19:44:39 -04:00
James Dansereau 52539d10de Prepare for public release
- README, LICENSE (MIT for the port layer), NOTICE, CONTRIBUTING.
- Restructure docs: internals.md, porting-notes.md, dev-process.md +
  dev/agentic-development.md (the research write-up), dev/ (raw record).
- Replace decomp status-badge CI with a PC-port validate workflow.
- Remove session/agent scaffolding and stale planning docs from the tree.
- Add .gitattributes (normalize line endings to LF); add screenshots.

The pre-2026-08 history is the GoldenEye 007 decompilation by Larry Ficken
(KholdFuzion) and contributors, preserved unchanged. The PC-port work from
2026-08-17 on is mine.
2026-09-01 19:28:59 -04:00