docs(render): close unified residency slice

docs/research/2026-07-24-slice-d-unified-residency-report.md

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+# Modern Runtime Slice D — Unified Residency Report
+
+**Date:** 2026-07-24
+**Exact source/binary:** `1853a57c12ee16f8d1d2c41cca60851a4bd89de6`
+**Configuration:** Release, physical local AMD display, 2560 × 1440
+**Result:** PASS
+
+## Scope
+
+Slice D did not replace the renderer's specialized physical caches or alter
+visual quality. It placed their limits and exact occupancy behind one typed
+policy/diagnostic ledger, added generation-safe logical identity and leases,
+bounded the previously unbounded animation and retained-alpha-scratch owners,
+and made decoded audio part of the same accounting model.
+
+The final gate exercised the exact D4 binary through:
+
+- capped Caul → Sawato → Rynthid → Aerlinthe → Sawato → Holtburg → Caul →
+  Sawato → Caul;
+- the same nine-stop route uncapped;
+- pinned dense Arwic uncapped;
+- fixed-camera screenshots at every canonical checkpoint;
+- graceful character logoff and transport disconnect.
+
+Raw JSON, CSV, PNG, trace, and frame-history artifacts remain in the ignored
+local `logs/` tree:
+
+- `connected-r6-soak-20260724-164203.*`
+- `connected-r6-soak-20260724-165143.*`
+- `connected-dense-town-20260724-170034.*`
+
+## Connected results
+
+| Route | Result | Elapsed | Failures | Warnings | Graceful |
+|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
+| Capped nine-stop | PASS | 514.308 s | 0 | 9 | yes |
+| Uncapped nine-stop | PASS | 508.793 s | 0 | 11 | yes |
+| Dense Arwic uncapped | PASS | 67.570 s | 0 | 1 | yes |
+
+Warnings were expected authoritative population changes, known VFX
+diagnostics, and empty world-edge landblocks. No warning represented a
+residency, reveal-readiness, rendering, or shutdown failure.
+
+### Frame cost
+
+The values below are turn-window p95 CPU/GPU milliseconds. Lower means more
+frame time remains for other work.
+
+| Destination | Capped CPU / GPU | Uncapped CPU / GPU |
+|---|---:|---:|
+| Caul first | 8.0 / 3.6 | 7.5 / 3.2 |
+| Sawato first | 4.6 / 1.7 | 2.1 / 1.3 |
+| Rynthid | 4.6 / 1.8 | 2.4 / 1.5 |
+| Aerlinthe | 4.6 / 2.2 | 2.1 / 1.4 |
+| Sawato revisit | 4.6 / 1.8 | 1.6 / 0.9 |
+| Holtburg | 4.7 / 2.1 | 3.7 / 2.1 |
+| Caul return | 5.4 / 3.1 | 6.0 / 3.2 |
+| Sawato plateau | 4.6 / 1.3 | 1.7 / 1.0 |
+| Caul plateau | 8.4 / 3.4 | 7.0 / 3.3 |
+
+Pinned dense Arwic, with 15,530 entities and 111 animations, measured
+5.4 ms CPU p95 and 3.0 ms GPU p95 while turning. These measurements confirm
+that the connected route is normally CPU-limited rather than GPU-limited.
+They are evidence for the explicit Slice F/G approval decision, not permission
+to begin that deferred ECS work.
+
+## Residency plateau
+
+The capped run's aggregate ledger is summarized below. CPU excludes the
+prepared package's clean memory-mapped address space; GPU is cache-attributed
+physical residence, not every framebuffer/shader/UI allocation tracked by the
+independent process-wide GPU tracker.
+
+| Checkpoint | Committed CPU | Physical GPU | Animations | Alpha scratch | Retiring |
+|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
+| Caul first | 36.8 MiB | 185.1 MiB | 26 | 8.10 MiB | 0 |
+| Sawato first | 39.4 MiB | 247.1 MiB | 33 | 1.87 MiB | 0 |
+| Rynthid | 23.3 MiB | 277.2 MiB | 39 | 2.62 MiB | 0 |
+| Aerlinthe | 39.6 MiB | 277.3 MiB | 43 | 3.97 MiB | 0 |
+| Sawato revisit | 30.3 MiB | 277.3 MiB | 43 | 3.97 MiB | 0 |
+| Holtburg | 39.4 MiB | 347.0 MiB | 50 | 4.70 MiB | 0 |
+| Caul return | 50.3 MiB | 355.0 MiB | 51 | 8.54 MiB | 0 |
+| Sawato plateau | 36.1 MiB | 363.0 MiB | 55 | 2.28 MiB | 0 |
+| Caul plateau | 38.5 MiB | 335.1 MiB | 55 | 8.53 MiB | 0 |
+
+The third Caul visit used less cache-attributed CPU and GPU residence than the
+second. Parsed-animation residence stopped at 55 entries, retained alpha
+scratch remained below its 16 MiB aggregate budget, staged and retiring bytes
+were zero at every canonical checkpoint, and all reported owners stayed within
+their configured limits.
+
+Process working set and private bytes are intentionally not substituted for
+these ownership facts. The 27.53 GiB prepared package is memory mapped; Windows
+counts touched clean file-backed pages in working set even though they are
+discardable and are not committed cache ownership. The uncapped run ended at
+1,776.5 MiB working set and 1,543.8 MiB private bytes after warming all nine
+destinations. Slice E still owns the remaining portal publication/retirement
+allocation and frame-transaction work.
+
+## Automated gates
+
+- Typed transition, cancellation, failure, owner-reuse, and stale-generation
+  conformance tests pass.
+- Every bounded domain has deterministic forced-pressure coverage.
+- Physical cache tests prove eviction and fence-delayed release.
+- All-domain teardown converges to zero reported charge.
+- Release build passes.
+- Complete Release suite passes: 8,111 tests, 5 intentional skips.
+- Connected fixed-camera screenshots passed the existing harness comparisons;
+  Slice D introduced no visible-frame change requiring a new subjective gate.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+Slice D's policy and acceptance gates are complete. Runtime cache memory is now
+finite, attributable, generation-safe, and pressure-tested without reducing
+view distance, particle distance, texture quality, or retail presentation.
+Slice E is the next approved step: spread portal publication and retirement
+over explicit per-frame cost budgets while keeping retired objects immediately
+inactive and destination reveal correctness exact.