Two read-only research landings that unblock the last two C4 routes.
**Parent-cell propagation (unblocks route 7).** Retail DOES re-cell children
when the parent crosses a cell, recursively to unbounded depth.
SetPositionInternal @0x00515330 branches on `this->cell == curr_cell`
@0x0051536d; the changed branch reaches change_cell @0x00513390, whose
delegates leave_cell @0x00510f50 and enter_cell @0x00510ed0 self-recurse over
children and write the FULL identity (add_object @0x00510ee2, objcell_id
@0x00510f1e, part-array cell id @0x00510f2b, cell pointer @0x00510f35).
change_cell itself has no child loop — the recursion is in the delegates.
The clincher: update_object @0x00515d10 early-returns on `parent != 0`
@0x00515d40, so a child never runs its own physics tick and parent
propagation is the ONLY mechanism maintaining its cell.
The trap this retires: the depth-1 loop @0x0051539c-0x005153d8 is the
SAME-CELL fast path (objcell_id and part-array id only, deliberately not the
cell pointer), not the propagation. An implementer finding it first would
conclude "depth-1, id-only" and ship equipped items stranded at landblock
boundaries — the #184 class. Route 7's planned set_parent-only write would
have done exactly that.
Settled by READING, not by a debugger trace. The scoping had listed this as
needing live cdb evidence, but change_cell/set_cell's child handling had
simply never been read; the project's grep -> decompile -> verify order had
not been exhausted. One BN field-name gap was closed by walking
struct CPhysicsObj in the verbatim acclient.h, so no PE byte-decode was
needed either. A breakpoint set is recorded for optional confirmation only.
**Route 3 scoping (portal, the last route).** ~225-400 added non-comment
production lines, ONE slice, contingent on #280 splitting out. Portalling
works today; route 3 removes a duplicate authority
(LocalPlayerTeleportPlacement.Place), it does not fix a bug.
Eight dated-inventory claims are now false, the most consequential being "the
binding machinery is 100% dormant end to end" — the portal authority's
CONSUMPTION and validation side is live production code at three layers and
is exercised by every placement; only the PRODUCER adapter is missing. That
makes route 3 materially smaller than the campaign plan implies.
#280 SPLITS from route 3, definitively: it is a reveal-gate/prefetch-window
concern (WorldRevealReadinessBarrier's neighbourhood radius versus retail's
mid_radius, LScape::PreFetchCells @0x00505660 / SmartBox::SetRegion
@0x00453227), mechanically disjoint from the placement cutover — route 3
reads the ready predicate, #280 rewrites it. The campaign plan already
sequences #280 separately; only the session handoff said it "rides with"
route 3, and the plan is right.
Retail's local portal arrival is the GENERIC path for the third route running:
SmartBox::TeleportPlayer @0x00453910 is SetPositionSimple(player, dest, 1)
with flags 0x1012 — route 2's exact primitive — plus PlayerPositionUpdated.
Two rule inversions recorded so route 3's implementer cannot carry the wrong
rule forward from the routes just landed: route 2's "never re-arm the leash"
INVERTS here (the teleport branch arms ConstrainTo @0x0045418A and zeroes
velocity @0x004541B4), and 4b-3's hook-before-placement ordering INVERTS (the
local teleport_hook runs AFTER placement, from PlayerPositionUpdated
@0x004538AE). The classifier's dormant LocalPlayer-teleport route already
encodes both.
Two documentation defects found in passing and recorded, not fixed: the
2026-07-16 portal pseudocode attributes portal arrival to enter_world (that
is the login path), and a stale comment hides a live second writer — the
generic wire-pose write does run for the local player (AP-131/C5 scope).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Erik