docs(D194): M-87 design-goal note — mouse feel should target Quake/PD-remaster responsiveness without losing GE aim nuance

User wants overall mouse feel closer to Quake Remaster / the Perfect Dark
PC port (raw, direct, responsive) while explicitly preserving GE's
aim-mode vs hipfire split (the reason D118/D194 exist). Reframes the fix
order: normalize by a fixed reference dt first (D194 part b, the
frame-rate coupling - likely the dominant cause of 'feels
unresponsive'), then re-derive the aim-mode curve, and evaluate raw
PD/Quake-style hipfire mouse-look as a real option outside aim mode
rather than assuming N64 stick-emulation is mandatory everywhere.

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

docs/dev/findings.md

@@ -393,7 +393,7 @@ covers D24–D69; the log continues in §H (D32 procedure, D70–D121).
 | D190 | **Linux `-level_45` SIGSEGV at load in `add_ptr_to_objective` (`objective.c:64`) (M-48, open).** `objective_ptrs[objective->menu] = objective;` faults — `objective` wild or `objective->menu` a garbage index → OOB write. Almost certainly the D122/D126/D132 propDef-stride / ROM-serialized-struct-widening family (`struct objective_entry` / the type-23/type-1E setup-text record chain read at the wrong stride on PC). Found in the M-48 Linux level sweep: **5/6 spot-checked levels (`-level_09/20/27/34/37`) load + render fine; `-level_45` is the one failure.** Not a v0.1.0-alpha blocker (alpha is explicitly "expect crashes"). Windows: `-level_45` load status not re-checked this session. | OPEN — not investigated (M-48) |
 | D191 | **Windows `-O2` release-bundle crash: SIGSEGV in `modelGetNodeRwData` (`src/game/model.c:478`) — the `root->Parent` node-tree walk (M-49, user playtests of the v0.1.0 win64 bundle).** **Two instances, identical fault PC `0x1400801b1`:** (1) fresh save, killed the first guard right after escaping the cell in Bunker ii; (2) Statue (`-level_49`?), right after the Trevelyan meeting cutscene. `ge007.crash.log` (auto-dump; symbols intact in the shipped exe, `addr2line` resolves): PC = `modelGetNodeRwData` at `model.c:478` — the `switch (root->Opcode & 0xff)`, i.e. `root` (a `ModelNode *`) is bad; `addr2line` puts it in the inlined self-recursion at `:532`, so the `while (root->Parent) { root = root->Parent; … }` walk (`model.c:527-540`) handed a garbage node into the recursive call. Instance 1: `Rdx = 0x70267bc000000000` — a `~0x70266xxx` heap address in the **high 32 bits, zero low half** = 32-bit pointer field read as 64-bit (or a byte-swapped `u32` pair). Instance 2: `Rdx = 0`, FAULT ADDR `0x0` — `root` (or `root->Parent`) resolved to NULL. Both: `Rcx=Rdi` = the `~0x7008xxxx`/`~0x7007xxxx` object ptr, `R8 = 0x1d` (29). So the `Parent` chain in some model contains a **truncated or NULL link** — pointer-width / byte-swap family (D3x, D119 `weapons_held[]->chr` type-pun, D122/D126/D132 propDef-stride). NOT weapon-fire-specific — common factor is `modelGetNodeRwData` running on a character/cutscene model whose node tree has a bad `Parent`. Crash logs saved: `scratchpad/crashlogs/`. **Repro aid:** shipped exe has full symbols; `debug-crash.ps1` in the bundle dir runs it under gdb, `GE_D51=1` → `d52rw.log` rwdata-pool trace. The crash.c EBP backtrace breaks immediately (`#01: 0x1d`) — need a real `bt` + `p *root` + `p *Objinst` at the fault. Not yet reproduced under a debugger; no fix. | FIXED + PLAYTEST-VERIFIED (M-79). User replayed Bunker ii (first-guard kill) and Statue (post-Trevelyan cutscene) on the fix build — **both no longer crash** → 21/21 solo levels crash-free (v0.2.0 gate met; Cradle's remaining issue is D193, not a crash). Build clean; bunker1 golden framediff 3/3. **Real gdb backtrace (M-79):** the fault is NOT in the `root->Parent` walk — `root` arrives *already* garbage (`0x70267a9000000000` = a half-word-swapped `u32` `0x70267a90`) from frame #1 `bondviewSelectCuff(model=0x70076808, header=0x700763a0, switchindex=29)`, called from `gunUpdateAndFire(GUNRIGHT)` on the frame the player fires. `bondviewSelectCuff` byte-indexes `header->Switches` (a `ModelNode *` array — **8-byte stride on PC**, widened per D43/D45) with `offset = switchindex << 2` (N64 4-byte stride), so every `base[N]` deref lands mid-slot and yields a misaligned half-pointer that is non-NULL by luck → `modelGetNodeRwData(root=garbage)`. **Exactly the D140 bug class** — D140 fixed the identical pattern in `gunfire.c:1740`; this call site was missed. Fix: PORT-only `offset = switchindex * (s32) sizeof(ModelNode *)`; the `base = (u8*)switches + offset` math and the `#else` N64 line are unchanged. ABI/pointer-width only (D3x class), no game-logic change. The Statue instance (`Rdx=0`, NULL fault addr) is the same site landing on a slot whose bytes read as 0. |
 | D193 | **NPC AI locomotion is too slow — characters don't move to their destinations at the original game's rate (M-49, user playtest; clarified after the FULL 21-level playthrough — "the biggest overall flaw").** Not (primarily) an animation-playback bug — the *travel speed* of scripted/AI movement is wrong: guards, named NPCs (Trevelyan, Ourumov) and friendlies (Natalya) all take noticeably longer to run/walk to their goal positions than on N64. General, not chr-specific. **Leading hypothesis — the D117/D134/D155/D156 wall-clock-timing family:** `chr.c` / `chrai.c` integrate movement as `pos += speed * g_GlobalTimerDelta` and step sim loops `while (i < g_ClockTimer)` / `-= g_ClockTimer` (`chr.c:1437,1446,1491-1502,1862,2359,2569`; `chrai.c:76`). On the port `osGetCount()` is free-running wall-clock (D117), `g_GlobalTimerDelta`/`g_ClockTimer` are derived from it, and D155's `FRAMETIMING_PORT_MAX_CATCHUP = 6` clamps `nextFrameTime`. If the effective per-second sum of `g_GlobalTimerDelta` (or the `g_ClockTimer` tick count) runs low — quantization, the catch-up clamp biting during normal play, or a units mismatch (`g_JP_GlobalTimerDelta` vs `g_GlobalTimerDelta`, `chr.c:1435/1437`) — every delta-scaled AI motion integrates slow while **player** movement (input-driven per frame) still feels right, which is exactly the reported split. Related: **D170** (Ourumov/Trevelyan "flee" looks wrong — flagged there as possibly the same locomotion-speed issue rather than an AI divergence). Also possible: `chrGoToBond/Chr(SPEED_RUN/WALK/SPRINT)` speed enum → path-follow step, or pathfinding advancing ≤1 waypoint per frame-quantized tick. **Instances seen (M-49 full playthrough):** (a) Facility — the post-scripted-scene beat with Ourumov + the soldier squad: the soldiers **walk in super slowly and take a long time to path into firing positions** before they start shooting (this is regular squad combat AI, not a named-NPC script — good evidence the slowdown is general delta-scaled `chr` locomotion / path-following, not one ailist); (b) the named-NPC flee behaviour on Silo (Ourumov) and Cradle (Trevelyan) — see D170; (c) **Natalya (the escort NPC) always walks really slow** — on every escort level (Bunker ii, Statue, Control, Archives) she trails far behind, forcing the player to wait. Escort follow-AI is the same `chrGoToChr`/path-follow path as (a). **WORST CASE — Cradle (`-level_51`) is "bugged out completely" due to Trevelyan's behaviour (M-49).** The final level is Trevelyan-fleeing-and-scripted end to end (he runs the antenna cradle, climbs, drops to the cradle floor, the helicopter beat); if his locomotion timing / path-following is off he never hits the trigger points and the level's scripted progression stalls or goes haywire. This makes D193 effectively a **can't-properly-finish-the-game** bug, not just cosmetic sluggishness. **Next:** log `g_GlobalTimerDelta` + `g_ClockTimer` per frame during normal play and check the 1-second sum vs the N64's ~60; time a guard's run across a known distance vs reference footage; then watch Trevelyan's chr state / current AI command on Cradle. | **FIXED + user-playtest-verified (M-81) — root cause is D209**: `act_ubytes.padding[45]`, a raw-byte union alias for `act_gopos.unk59` (the SPEED tier), lands on offset 45 which is `unk59` on N64 but is byte 5 of `waypoints[1]` at 64-bit — always `0x00`. So the locomotion-animation selector `get_sound_at_range()` always received tier 0 and bound `ANIM_DATA_walking`/`walking_unarmed` for **every AI chr in the game**, and since travel is anim-root-motion driven they all moved at walk pace no matter what the ailist commanded. User verified on Cradle: Trevelyan and the guards run. Full elimination trail below — **steady-state timing keystone MEASURED and the "sim sums low" hypothesis is CONTRADICTED (M-80).** Added a `GE_D193=1` per-wall-second probe in `waitForNextFrame()` (`src/game/frametiming.c`, `#ifdef PORT`, env-gated): logs render frames, sim ticks delivered (= sum of the `deltaFrames` fed to `updateFrameCounters` = sum of `g_ClockTimer`), catch-up clamp hits, and max raw pre-clamp delta. Built ntsc-final, ran `-level_09 / _20 / _27 / _34` idle-after-load, ~20 s each. **Every level, rock-steady: render = 30.0 fps, sim = 60.0 ticks/s, clamped = 0, maxraw = 2.** i.e. each rendered frame carries `g_ClockTimer = 2` and the per-second sum is *exactly* the N64's ~60 — the wall-clock timer is NOT running low in steady state, and `FRAMETIMING_PORT_MAX_CATCHUP` never bites in normal play. VSync on/off made no difference (still 30/60). So the B1 premise ("`g_GlobalTimerDelta`/`g_ClockTimer` sum low over a real second") is wrong for the common case; D193 must come from elsewhere. **Residual quantization risk (not yet observed):** `nextFrameTime = (dt_counts + 387937) / 775875` is integer-rounded per frame with no remainder carry, so a scene that renders at a *steady* rate between 30 and 60 that is not an integeLine truncated
-| D194 | **Mouse input needs another tuning pass — RMB aim over-sensitive + sensitivity couples to frame/sim rate (M-49, user playtest).** Two parts. **(a) Aim mode (RMB) is near bang-bang, not proportional** (`port/src/input.c:697-707`): any per-poll delta past `AIM_MOVE_THRESH` emits stick `m = clamp(61 + |Δ|·(MouseAimSpeed/100)·AIM_GAIN, 61, 60+AimBand)` = `[61,80]` — with the M-29 defaults (`MouseAimSpeed=16`, `AIM_GAIN=4.0`, `AimBand=20`) `m` is already 61 (fast) at ~1.5 px/poll and saturates at 80 by ~30 px/poll, so the usable proportional band is tiny and sits near the top of GE's aim range → "way too sensitive," turn rate barely tracks how fast you actually move the mouse. Needs a real response curve (low floor, wider proportional band, maybe a gamma), not a threshold+clamp. **(b) Overall sensitivity correlates with movement/frame rate** (user's words: "correlated with movement speed, does not feel good"): `input.c` emits raw stick counts **per controller poll** with no `g_GlobalTimerDelta` / polls-per-frame normalization (hipfire yaw `sx += edx·(MouseTurnSpeed/100)·6.0` at `:709`; aim as above). GE integrates the stick scaled by its sim delta, and the port's poll cadence vs render/sim cadence drifts with scene load — so effective sensitivity shifts when the framerate does (which reads as "when I'm moving"). Fix direction: accumulate mouse delta and convert to stick using a fixed reference dt (or feed the game a dt-consistent value), so a given hand motion = a given view rotation regardless of fps. Lineage: D118a (hipfire pitch digital vs analog), D165 (menu pointer), D166 (hipfire pitch pulses), D180-B3 (`MouseAimSpeed` 25→16). Config knobs exist (`Input.MouseAimSpeed/AimBand/MouseTurnSpeed/HipfirePitchSpeed`) but the *shape* of the mapping is the problem. | OPEN — root-caused, not fixed (M-49) |
+| D194 | **Mouse input needs another tuning pass — RMB aim over-sensitive + sensitivity couples to frame/sim rate (M-49, user playtest).** Two parts. **(a) Aim mode (RMB) is near bang-bang, not proportional** (`port/src/input.c:697-707`): any per-poll delta past `AIM_MOVE_THRESH` emits stick `m = clamp(61 + |Δ|·(MouseAimSpeed/100)·AIM_GAIN, 61, 60+AimBand)` = `[61,80]` — with the M-29 defaults (`MouseAimSpeed=16`, `AIM_GAIN=4.0`, `AimBand=20`) `m` is already 61 (fast) at ~1.5 px/poll and saturates at 80 by ~30 px/poll, so the usable proportional band is tiny and sits near the top of GE's aim range → "way too sensitive," turn rate barely tracks how fast you actually move the mouse. Needs a real response curve (low floor, wider proportional band, maybe a gamma), not a threshold+clamp. **(b) Overall sensitivity correlates with movement/frame rate** (user's words: "correlated with movement speed, does not feel good"): `input.c` emits raw stick counts **per controller poll** with no `g_GlobalTimerDelta` / polls-per-frame normalization (hipfire yaw `sx += edx·(MouseTurnSpeed/100)·6.0` at `:709`; aim as above). GE integrates the stick scaled by its sim delta, and the port's poll cadence vs render/sim cadence drifts with scene load — so effective sensitivity shifts when the framerate does (which reads as "when I'm moving"). Fix direction: accumulate mouse delta and convert to stick using a fixed reference dt (or feed the game a dt-consistent value), so a given hand motion = a given view rotation regardless of fps. Lineage: D118a (hipfire pitch digital vs analog), D165 (menu pointer), D166 (hipfire pitch pulses), D180-B3 (`MouseAimSpeed` 25→16). Config knobs exist (`Input.MouseAimSpeed/AimBand/MouseTurnSpeed/HipfirePitchSpeed`) but the *shape* of the mapping is the problem. **M-87 design-goal note (user):** overall mouse feel should move toward **Quake Remaster / the Perfect Dark PC port** — raw, direct, responsive 1:1 mouse-look — while explicitly **not losing GE's original aiming nuance** (the analog-stick aim-mode vs digital-hipfire split this whole D118/D194 lineage exists to preserve). Reframes the fix direction from "just widen the proportional band" to: normalize by a fixed reference dt first (part (b), the frame-rate coupling — this alone should fix most of "feels unresponsive"), then re-derive the aim-mode response curve, and treat raw hipfire mouse-look (PD/Quake-style, bypassing the N64 digital-stick emulation entirely when the player is *not* in aim mode) as a real design option to evaluate against "keep GE's aim-mode feel," not assume the N64 stick-emulation path is mandatory everywhere. | OPEN — root-caused, not fixed (M-49) |
 | D195 | **Transparency / alpha surfaces broken on Control (M-49, user playtest)** — Natalya's console room, the glass partitions + translucent projected wall displays. Failure mode not yet specified by the reporter (no `GE_PCDUMP` capture taken). Likely a fast3d render-mode / alpha-blend path defect, not a decode one — neighbours D161 (CI8/LUT decode), D172, D176(b) (both blend-adjacent) but those are texture-format bugs, this reads as a blend-state one; check D128 portal adjacency in case the glass geometry is portal-culled wrong instead. Logged in `GRAPHICS-BACKLOG.md`. **Next:** `GE_PCDUMP` capture on Control near the console room, compare RDP render-mode words against N64 `gmain.s` for the glass/display materials. | OPEN — not investigated (M-49), needs a capture |
 | D197 | **Character face/head textures wrap around the head, seen on Silo (M-49, user playtest).** Reads as `G_TX_CLAMP` not honoured (or a non-power-of-two wrap period) on a head/face texture tile — the texture repeats around the mesh instead of clamping at the UV edge. Not yet isolated to a specific character or texture; no `GE_PCDUMP`/`GE_TEXDUMP` capture taken. Likely fast3d texture-tile setup (clamp/wrap mode bits from the tile descriptor not round-tripped) rather than a data bug, given it's cosmetic and geometry-independent. **Next:** `GE_TEXDUMP` the offending head texture's tile descriptor on Silo, diff clamp/mirror bits against `gmain.s`'s expectations for that material. | OPEN — not investigated (M-49), needs a capture |
 | D198 | **`alAdpcmPull`/`_decodeChunk` used `K0_TO_PHYS` (an unconditional `& 0x1FFFFFFF` mask) on 64-bit heap pointers (`src/libultra/audio/load.c`).** `K0_TO_PHYS` is the N64 kseg0→physical mask, valid only because N64 pointers fit in 32 bits; on PC's 64-bit heap it truncates any pointer whose value exceeds 512MB, corrupting the `aLoadADPCM`/`aSetLoop`/`aADPCMdec` DRAM addresses at 3 call sites (`load.c:71`, `:468`, `:474`). Every sibling call site in `env.c`/`resample.c`/`reverb.c` already resolves state pointers via `osVirtualToPhysical` (the port shim, `port/src/libultra.c`), which is bit-identical to `K0_TO_PHYS` for real N64 kseg0 addresses but correctly PC-shimmed. **Fix (ABI-layer, `#ifdef`-free — same call resolves correctly on both platforms):** replace the 3 `K0_TO_PHYS(...)` calls with `osVirtualToPhysical(...)`. No behavior change on N64 (identical result for kseg0 pointers); fixes PC. Surfaced while building the Phase-3 software mixer (D199) — the acmd list these opcodes feed now actually executes on PC instead of being ignored. | FIXED (`src/libultra/audio/load.c`) — part of the Phase-3 mixer landing, not yet build/runtime-verified in isolation |