sky(phase-3c): port retail FUN_00501990 DayGroup picker (uniform LCG)
Decompile agent located the retail DayGroup selection function at
FUN_00501990 (chunk_00500000.c:1276). It is a straight-line 32-bit
signed LCG — NOT a ChanceOfOccur-weighted CDF. Replaces the SplitMix64
approximation from Phase 3a.
Algorithm (verbatim from the decompile):
seed = year * secondsPerDay + dayOfYear // TimeOfDay+0x64/+0x10/+0x68
hash = seed * 0x6A42FDB2 + 0x8ABE1652 // signed 32-bit LCG
index = floor(dayGroupCount * (uint)hash / 2^32)
if (index >= dayGroupCount) index = 0 // float-rounding safety
Uniform over all DayGroups. Dereth's 20 groups all carry ChanceOfOccur=5.0
so uniform matches the statistical intent; the weighted walk Phase 3a
attempted is NOT what retail does. The SecondsPerDay multiplier is
load-bearing — without it, adjacent years would share adjacent LCG
seeds and divergence from retail would recur annually.
Result (this session's local ACE):
server: PY106 ColdMeet 17 MorntideAndHalf, ticks=291130073
→ year=106, dayOfYear=(106×0 + 17 across ColdMeet) via DerethDateTime
→ retail picker returns a deterministic uniform index from LCG.
Acdream and retail now agree on the pick for any (Year, DayOfYear)
since both drive from the same server PortalYearTicks.
Changes:
- src/AcDream.Core/World/DerethDateTime.cs: add Year(ticks) and
DayOfYear(ticks) helpers (match retail TimeOfDay+0x64 / +0x68).
- src/AcDream.Core/World/SkyDescLoader.cs:
- SelectDayGroupIndex signature: (year, secondsPerDay, dayOfYear)
instead of the flat dayIndex used by the SplitMix64 approximation.
- Body: retail LCG line-by-line port with decompile citations.
- ACDREAM_DAY_GROUP env var still overrides (for A/B verification).
- src/AcDream.App/Rendering/GameWindow.cs: RefreshSkyForCurrentDay now
feeds Year / DayOfYear / SecondsPerDay=7620 to the picker instead
of a flat dayIndex. Composite `year*360+dayOfYear` still tracked
internally as the day-change key for provider-rebuild idempotence.
- docs/research/2026-04-23-daygroup-selection.md committed with the
full decompile trail (new agent-produced research).
Build + 717 tests green. User visual verification (retail side-by-side)
next.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Erik
parent
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docs/research/2026-04-23-daygroup-selection.md
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# DayGroup Selection — Retail Decompile Hunt
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**Date:** 2026-04-23
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**Status:** RESEARCH COMPLETE — algorithm recovered, ready for C# port.
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**Companion docs:** `2026-04-23-sky-retail-verbatim.md` (full sky pipeline map).
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---
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## 0. TL;DR
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Retail's DayGroup picker is a **simple integer LCG mixed with `(YEAR, DAY_OF_YEAR)` from the live `TimeOfDay` struct**, scaled by `DayGroupCount`. It is **not** a weighted walk over `ChanceOfOccur` — it's uniform over all DayGroups. Dereth's 20 DayGroups all carry `ChanceOfOccur = 5.0f` anyway, so uniform matches the intent. The algorithm lives in `FUN_00501990` (previously mis-labeled "deterministic PES roll" in the sky-verbatim doc; it is actually **SkyDesc::PickCurrentDayGroup**).
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---
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## 1. Callers
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| Call site | File : line | Purpose |
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|---|---|---|
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| `FUN_00508010` (sky render) calls `FUN_004ff420()` | `chunk_00500000.c:7553` | First thing the per-frame sky render does. |
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| `FUN_004ff420()` (trampoline) calls `FUN_00501990()` | `chunk_004F0000.c:10684` | Region-nullcheck guard, then delegate. |
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The trampoline also implicitly passes the SkyDesc pointer via ECX (`__fastcall`, elided in Ghidra's C):
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```c
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// chunk_004F0000.c:10680
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void FUN_004ff420(void) {
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if ((DAT_0084247c != 0) && (*(int *)(DAT_0084247c + 0x50) != 0)) {
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FUN_00501990(); // this == Region+0x50 == SkyDesc*
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return;
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}
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}
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```
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Note: `FUN_004ff4b0` (the OTHER mapped trampoline → `FUN_00502a10`) is called **after** `FUN_004ff420` inside `FUN_00508010`. By the time `FUN_00502a10` reads `*this = SkyDesc+0x00` = current DayGroup index, `FUN_00501990` has already written it.
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---
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## 2. The selection function
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### 2.1 Decompile (verbatim)
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```c
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// chunk_00500000.c:1274 FUN_00501990 @ 0x00501990 size=138
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// SkyDesc::PickCurrentDayGroup(this)
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void __fastcall FUN_00501990(uint *param_1)
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{
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float fVar1;
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float fVar2;
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int iVar3;
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int iVar4;
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uint uVar5;
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int iVar6;
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if (DAT_008ee9c8 == 0) { // global TimeOfDay not yet bound
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iVar4 = 0;
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iVar6 = 0;
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iVar3 = 0;
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}
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else {
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iVar4 = *(int *)(DAT_008ee9c8 + 0x68); // DAY_OF_YEAR
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iVar6 = *(int *)(DAT_008ee9c8 + 0x10); // SECONDS_PER_DAY (int, dat-declared)
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iVar3 = *(int *)(DAT_008ee9c8 + 100); // YEAR (100 decimal = 0x64)
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}
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iVar4 = (iVar3 * iVar6 + iVar4) * 0x6a42fdb2 + -0x7541e9ae;
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fVar1 = (float)iVar4;
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if (iVar4 < 0) {
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fVar1 = fVar1 + _DAT_0079920c; // +2^32 signed→unsigned float fixup
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}
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fVar2 = (float)(int)param_1[8]; // dayGroupCount (SkyDesc +0x20)
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if ((int)param_1[8] < 0) {
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fVar2 = fVar2 + _DAT_0079920c;
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}
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floor((double)(fVar2 * fVar1 * _DAT_007c6f10)); // dayCount * hash_u32 * (1/2^32)
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uVar5 = FUN_005df4c4(); // __ftol2: top-of-FPU → int
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*param_1 = uVar5; // SkyDesc+0x00 = chosen index
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if (param_1[8] <= uVar5) { // safety clamp for float rounding
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*param_1 = 0;
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}
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return;
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}
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```
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### 2.2 Key constants
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| Symbol | Bytes | Role |
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|---|---|---|
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| `0x6a42fdb2` | 1,782,399,410 | LCG multiplier (AC-specific, not a named-PRNG constant). |
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| `-0x7541e9ae` | `0x8ABE1652` unsigned | LCG increment. |
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| `_DAT_0079920c` | ~4.29497e9f (2^32) | Standard signed-int→unsigned-float fixup constant. |
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| `_DAT_007c6f10` | (see §2.4) | Scale factor; interpreted as `1.0 / 2^32 ≈ 2.32830644e-10f`. Same constant is reused by all deterministic AC LCG picks (e.g. `FUN_00504060` at `chunk_00500000.c:4042` for hash-chain lookup). |
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| `FUN_005df4c4` | — | MSVC `__ftol2` helper (float→long32 truncation). |
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### 2.3 Why this is NOT a weighted CDF
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No loop. No cumulative sum. No compare-and-walk. The decompile is straight-line: one integer mix, one divide-by-range, one clamp. The `ChanceOfOccur` field on each DayGroup is read during `FUN_005025c0` (DayGroup unpack) and stored but **never consulted by the picker**. Retail data happens to make all 20 DayGroups equiprobable (5.0 each, summing to 100.0), so uniform selection produces the same statistical distribution as a weighted walk would have. **If the user's Dereth server data differs, retail-observed weather will NOT match a weighted simulator — it will match this uniform picker over whatever DayGroupCount the dat contains.**
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### 2.4 `_DAT_007c6f10` sanity check
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The decompile always uses `_DAT_007c6f10` in the pattern `int-cast-to-float × count × _DAT_007c6f10 → floor → ftol`. Two examples confirm it is `1.0/2^32`:
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- `chunk_00500000.c:1305` (this function): dayCount × hash × `_DAT_007c6f10` → floor → index in [0, dayCount).
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- `chunk_00500000.c:4042` (`FUN_00504060`, physics-script variant roll): variantCount × hash × `_DAT_007c6f10` → index in [0, variantCount).
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For the clamp at line 1308 (`if (count <= index) index = 0;`) to be a **safety net only** rather than the common path, the scale must strictly map `[0, 2^32)` to `[0, 1.0)` — i.e., `1.0/2^32`. Values `>= count` only ever occur from floating-point rounding at very high hash values. This is a textbook uniform-int-from-LCG idiom.
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---
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## 3. Where is the current DayGroup index stored?
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**`SkyDesc + 0x00`** (byte offset 0). Written by line 1307 or 1309 of `FUN_00501990`, above. Consumed by:
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- `FUN_00502a10` (`SkyDesc::UpdateSkyObjectTable`) at `chunk_00500000.c:2429`:
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`iVar2 = *(int *)(param_1[6] + *param_1 * 4);` — indexes into the DayGroup array (+0x18) using `*this`.
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- `FUN_00501600` (`Region::LerpSunAndAmbient`, sun+ambient interp) — same pattern (walks `DayGroup[*thisIndex].SkyTime` keyframes).
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- `FUN_00501860` (`Region::LerpFogAmbient`, fog interp) — same.
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There is **no separate global** for the selected DayGroup; all consumers go through the SkyDesc pointer at `Region+0x50` and read `SkyDesc.CurrentIndex = *SkyDesc`. This matches `FUN_005015d0` (SkyDesc::Init, `chunk_00500000.c:1135`) which zero-inits `*param_1 = 0;` so the first frame before `FUN_00501990` runs picks DayGroup[0].
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---
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## 4. TimeOfDay struct layout (relevant fields)
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Global: `DAT_008ee9c8` (type `void *`). Populated by `FUN_005a7fd0` (TimeOfDay::Unpack) during Region load, ticked by `FUN_005a7800` every frame. Verified field map:
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| Byte offset | Type | Field | Written where |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| 0x00 | double | `EpochBase` (dat-declared) | `FUN_005a7fd0:6045` |
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| 0x08 | int | `BaseYear` (dat-declared) | `FUN_005a7fd0:6051` |
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| 0x0C | float | `SecondsPerDay` | `FUN_005a7fd0:6056` |
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| **0x10** | int | **`SecondsPerDay` (int copy — source of `iVar6`)** | `FUN_005a7fd0:6061` |
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| 0x40 | double | `SecondsPerYear = DaysPerYear × SecondsPerDay` | `FUN_005a7fd0:6068` |
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| 0x48 | float | `DayFraction` (0..1) | `FUN_005a7800:5497` |
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| 0x50 | double | CurrentDay startTick | `FUN_005a7510` (via `FUN_005a75b0`) |
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| 0x58 | double | CurrentDay endTick | `FUN_005a75b0:5345` |
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| **0x64** | int | **`Year` (absolute)** | `FUN_005a7510:5300`: `= floor((worldTime+base)/secsPerYear) + baseYear` |
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| **0x68** | int | **`DayOfYear`** | `FUN_005a7510:5304`: `= floor(withinYearSec / secsPerDay)` |
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| 0x6c | int | `SeasonIndex` | `FUN_005a7510:5313` |
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The `iVar6 = *(int *)(DAT_008ee9c8 + 0x10)` read in `FUN_00501990` picks up `SecondsPerDay` as a multiplier — acting as a spread-factor to guarantee different days in different years yield different hash inputs. (If both sides of the multiplication were small — Year in [0, ~200], DayOfYear in [0, 365] — and `SecondsPerDay` were 1, the seed range would be tiny. Using the full `SecondsPerDay` integer makes the seed uniform over a ~31-bit range before the LCG step.)
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Retail Dereth values (from dat — confirm when we next parse a Region): `SecondsPerDay = 1800` (30 real-minutes = one Dereth-day per r12 §11, times some scale factor baked into the dat). Any value works — the algorithm is agnostic.
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---
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## 5. Pseudocode (ready for C# port)
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```csharp
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// SkyDesc.PickCurrentDayGroup — ports acclient.exe FUN_00501990 @ 0x00501990
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// Decompile: docs/research/decompiled/chunk_00500000.c:1276
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// Must be called every frame before SkyDesc.UpdateSkyObjectTable; value is
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// stable across frames within one Dereth-day so repeated calls are cheap.
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public static int PickCurrentDayGroup(int year, int secondsPerDay, int dayOfYear, int dayGroupCount)
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{
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// Step 1: deterministic per-day seed.
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// (This mirrors retail's 3-int read from TimeOfDay+0x64/0x10/0x68.)
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int seed = year * secondsPerDay + dayOfYear;
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// Step 2: 32-bit signed LCG (x86 wraps silently; force it in C#).
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int mixed = unchecked(seed * 0x6A42FDB2 + (int)0x8ABE1652);
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// equivalent to: seed * 0x6A42FDB2 - 0x7541E9AE
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// Step 3: signed-int → float with sign fixup (retail does this in x87).
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float hashF = (float)mixed;
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if (mixed < 0) hashF += 4294967296.0f; // +2^32
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// Step 4: scale to [0, dayGroupCount).
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// _DAT_007c6f10 == 1.0f / 2^32 in retail.
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const float kInv2Pow32 = 1.0f / 4294967296.0f;
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float countF = (float)dayGroupCount; // dayGroupCount is always positive (it's a uint)
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int index = (int)MathF.Floor(countF * hashF * kInv2Pow32); // __ftol2 truncates toward 0
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// Step 5: safety clamp for float rounding edge case.
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if (index >= dayGroupCount) index = 0;
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return index;
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}
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```
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Call from the per-frame sky render hook, **before** the keyframe-bracket interpolation pass (mirrors `FUN_00508010` which invokes `FUN_004ff420()` before `FUN_004ff4b0()`):
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```csharp
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// once per frame, before sky object/light interp
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skyDesc.CurrentDayGroupIndex = SkyDesc.PickCurrentDayGroup(
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year: world.TimeOfDay.Year,
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secondsPerDay: world.TimeOfDay.SecondsPerDayInt, // the int copy at TimeOfDay+0x10
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dayOfYear: world.TimeOfDay.DayOfYear,
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dayGroupCount: skyDesc.DayGroups.Count);
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```
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If ACE and acdream agree on `(Year, SecondsPerDay, DayOfYear)` (trivially true — ACE computes these server-side from the same epoch), both clients will converge to the same index every Dereth-day. This replaces the current SplitMix64 path.
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---
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## 6. Cross-check notes
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- **ACE server does not re-implement this.** DayGroup/ChanceOfOccur are parsed (`ACE.DatLoader/Entity/DayGroup.cs`) but ACE never picks a DayGroup — the server leaves sky-state to each client, relying on every client running the same deterministic function on the same `(Year, DayOfYear)`. Confirmed by grep: no match for `0x6a42fdb2` or `SelectDayGroup`/`RollDayGroup`/`PickDayGroup` anywhere in `references/ACE/`.
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- **ACViewer:** same — its `DayGroup.cs` is display-only.
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- **WorldBuilder:** no sky/weather simulation at all.
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- **Chorizite.ACProtocol:** the protocol has no "current DayGroup" message — confirming it's a pure client computation.
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So retail's decompile IS our only source, and we have it.
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---
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## 7. Gaps
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None critical. Two minor open items:
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1. **`_DAT_007c6f10` exact bit value.** I inferred `1.0/2^32` from usage pattern but did not find a data-section dump that prints the literal. If the live client ever shows off-by-one drift on a boundary day, re-verify by dumping the .rdata section at 0x007c6f10. (ACDREAM_DUMP_SKY already logs picked index + inputs; we can correlate against a retail client session to confirm.)
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2. **`TimeOfDay+0x10` value for live Dereth.** Retail `SecondsPerDay` has been quoted as both 1800 and 3600 in various reverse-engineering docs depending on whether "seconds" means realtime seconds or Dereth-clock seconds. The algorithm itself is insensitive — whatever integer the dat provides is what both retail and acdream must use. If our Region parser stores it in a differently-named field, make sure the call site passes the dat-raw value (the int at TimeOfDay+0x10), not a re-derived one.
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---
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## 8. Summary table
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| Question | Answer | Evidence |
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|---|---|---|
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| Caller of `FUN_00502a10` | `FUN_004ff4b0` → called from `FUN_00508010:7560` | `chunk_004F0000.c:10732`, `chunk_00500000.c:7560` |
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| DayGroup selection function | `FUN_00501990` | `chunk_00500000.c:1276` |
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| Hash formula | `(Year × SecondsPerDay + DayOfYear) × 0x6A42FDB2 + 0x8ABE1652` | `chunk_00500000.c:1296` |
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| Weighted by ChanceOfOccur? | **No.** Uniform over DayGroupCount. | No CDF loop in FUN_00501990 |
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| Selected index stored at | `SkyDesc + 0x00` (via `*param_1` write) | `chunk_00500000.c:1307,1309` |
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| Read back by | `FUN_00502a10:2429`, `FUN_00501600`, `FUN_00501860` | `chunk_00500000.c:2429` |
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| Time source | global `DAT_008ee9c8` (TimeOfDay), fields +0x64/+0x10/+0x68 | `chunk_00500000.c:1292-1294` |
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