Brainstormed 2026-05-08 over 8 design questions. Captures:
- Texture model: sampler2DArray for ALL textures (1-layer wrap for
per-instance composites). Matches WB's modern shader, future-proofs
for atlas adoption in N.6+.
- Translucency: WB's two-pass alpha-test (no native Additive on GfxObj
surfaces; falsifiable at visual verification).
- Data delivery: all-SSBO. Instances[] at binding=0, Batches[] at
binding=1. Indexed by gl_BaseInstanceARB+gl_InstanceID and
gl_DrawIDARB respectively.
- Bindless residency: resident on upload, never release. Bounded
content; instrument under ACDREAM_WB_DIAG=1.
- Escape hatch: two-way flag preserved. N.5 replaces N.4's draw method
in place; legacy InstancedMeshRenderer remains the safety net.
- Perf measurement: CPU stopwatch + GL_TIME_ELAPSED queries, logged
via [WB-DIAG]. Acceptance gates pasted into SHIP commit.
- Persistent-mapped buffers: deferred to N.6.
- Per-instance highlight (selection blink): deferred; field reserved
in InstanceData for Phase B.4 follow-up.
Spec at docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-08-phase-n5-modern-rendering-design.md
covers architecture, components, per-frame data flow walk-through,
translucent rendering, error handling + fallback, testing + acceptance,
risks, and explicit out-of-scope list. Plan + task breakdown comes next.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Detailed briefing for the next agent picking up Phase N.5 (Modern
Rendering Path: bindless textures + glMultiDrawElementsIndirect on
N.4's foundation). Covers:
- Where N.4 left things (commits, what works, gotchas inherited)
- The two-feature pairing (why bindless + indirect together)
- Files to read first (WB shaders, our dispatcher, CLAUDE.md cribs)
- 8 brainstorm questions to resolve before spec
- Spec + plan structure (matching N.4's pattern)
- Acceptance criteria
- Things to explicitly NOT do
Sized for a fresh session to pick up cold without spelunking through
months of session history.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Phase N.4 (Rendering Pipeline Foundation) ships. WbFoundationFlag
flips to default-on (== "1" → != "0"). WB's ObjectMeshManager is
now acdream's production mesh pipeline; WbDrawDispatcher is the
production draw path. Legacy InstancedMeshRenderer is retained as
ACDREAM_USE_WB_FOUNDATION=0 escape hatch until N.6 retires it.
Visual verification at Holtburg passed:
- Scenery (trees / rocks / fences / buildings) renders correctly
- Characters connected with full close-detail geometry (Issue #47
preserved — GfxObjDegradeResolver path intact)
- FPS substantially improved by grouped instanced draws + per-entity
AABB cull + opaque front-to-back sort + palette-hash memoization
Three high-value WB API gotchas surfaced during Task 26 visual
verification and are now documented in CLAUDE.md "WB integration
cribs" + plan Adjustments 7-9 + memory project_phase_n4_state.md:
1. ObjectMeshManager.IncrementRefCount only bumps a counter — does
NOT trigger mesh loading. Call PrepareMeshDataAsync explicitly.
2. ObjectRenderBatch.SurfaceId is unset — read batch.Key.SurfaceId.
3. Modern rendering (GL 4.3 + bindless = every modern GPU) packs
every mesh into ONE global VAO/VBO/IBO. Use
glDrawElementsInstancedBaseVertex(BaseInstance) with FirstIndex +
BaseVertex from the batch, not naive DrawElementsInstanced.
Plan doc flipped to Final state. Roadmap N.4 → Live ✓; N.5 rebranded
from "Terrain rendering" to "Modern rendering path" (bindless +
multi-draw indirect on top of N.4's foundation; terrain rendering
moves to N.5b). CLAUDE.md "Currently in flight" pointer updated to
N.5. New memory file project_phase_n4_state.md preserves the three
WB gotchas for cross-session continuity.
n4-verify*.log added to .gitignore.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Resolves Adjustment 4 (Option A): WorldEntity now carries the server-
sent AnimPartChange data as PartOverrides and a HiddenPartsMask bitmask.
EntitySpawnAdapter.OnCreate populates AnimatedEntityState from these
fields at spawn time. GameWindow's CreateObject handler converts the
network-layer AnimPartChange records into lightweight PartOverride
structs.
This unblocks Task 22: the WbDrawDispatcher can now resolve per-part
GfxObj overrides and hidden-part suppression from entity state.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Self-contained briefing for whoever picks up Week 4 (Tasks 22-28):
the WbDrawDispatcher full draw loop + sky-pass preservation +
visual verification + flag default-on + legacy-code deletion +
plan finalization.
Highlights two unresolved decisions that need a brainstorm checkpoint
at the start of Week 4 (NOT 'just dispatch'):
- Adjustment 4 plumbing: WorldEntity needs HiddenPartsMask +
AnimPartChanges fields, OR EntitySpawnAdapter.OnCreate takes them
as separate parameters. Decision before Task 22 writes code.
- Surface-metadata side-table population strategy for Task 23.
References the living-document plan + spec + 5 prior adjustments
so a fresh agent has full context cold.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Week 3 ships: AnimatedEntityState (Tasks 16+18+19, commit ce72c57),
EntitySpawnAdapter routing server-spawned content through the existing
TextureCache.GetOrUploadWithPaletteOverride path (Task 17, commit
c02c307). 947 tests pass.
Adjustment 4: WorldEntity lacks HiddenPartsMask + AnimPartChanges
fields. Adapter scaffolding ships; AnimatedEntityState gets default
values (empty mask + empty override map). Plumbing deferred to Task 22
brainstorm — either add fields to WorldEntity or thread through a
separate parameter to EntitySpawnAdapter.OnCreate.
Adjustment 5: Task 20 (per-instance decode conformance) is structural.
Both old and new paths call the same TextureCache function — bytes
identical by construction. EntitySpawnAdapterTests already cover the
routing. No separate conformance test file needed.
Next: Task 22 (Week 4) — WbDrawDispatcher full draw loop. First task
that actually draws through WB and unlocks Adjustment 3's mitigation
(dual-pipeline cost resolves when legacy renderer can short-circuit
its upload for atlas-tier content).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Week 2 ships: LandblockSpawnAdapter routes atlas-tier GfxObjs to WB
ref counts (Task 11/12), pending-spawn list integration verified
(Task 14), WbMeshAdapter.Tick drains the pipeline queues per frame
(added per Adjustment 3, fixes a real memory leak).
Task 13 (memory budget verification) is deferred: stress-test
revealed the FPS drop with flag-on isn't the queue leak we thought
— it's the dual-pipeline cost (background workers + duplicate GL
upload + duplicate I/O + legacy renderer still doing the same atlas
work). The savings only materialize in Task 22 when the dispatcher
short-circuits the legacy upload for atlas-tier content. Plan
Adjustment 3 documents this; no fix needed before Week 4 since
default-off is byte-identical to pre-N.4.
Next: Task 16 (Week 3) — AnimatedEntityState + per-instance path.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Smoke test flag-on showed characters/NPCs disappearing along with
static scenery. Root cause: Task 9 routed all
InstancedMeshRenderer.EnsureUploaded calls through WB. But that
renderer is used for BOTH tiers in production — character per-part
spawn (line 2302, per-instance) AND streaming-loader spawns (lines
5137 + 5155, atlas).
The renderer is tier-blind by design. Tier-routing belongs at the
spawn-callback layer per the spec's data-flow section:
- LandblockSpawnAdapter (Task 11) calls IncrementRefCount per
unique GfxObj — atlas-tier only.
- EntitySpawnAdapter (Task 17) routes through per-instance path
via TextureCache.GetOrUploadWithPaletteOverride.
This commit removes the sentinel pattern + 4 sentinel-skip checks
from InstancedMeshRenderer. Kept the _wbMeshAdapter constructor
parameter (unused for now) so GameWindow's wire-up doesn't shift.
Kept all the real WB pipeline construction in WbMeshAdapter
(it's the substrate routing will use in Week 2).
Verified flag-on === flag-off post-revert.
Plan updated with Adjustment 2 explaining the discovery + correct
architectural placement for routing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Task 6 (dat-reader bridge) obsoleted: WB ships DefaultDatReaderWriter
which takes a dat-directory path and constructs all four databases
(Portal/HighRes/Language + CellRegions) internally. We can use it
directly instead of bridging our DatCollection. Adjustment 1 noted
in the plan; full bring-up deferred to Task 9.
Task 7: GameWindow constructs WbMeshAdapter when
ACDREAM_USE_WB_FOUNDATION=1 is set; pairs with Dispose. Field is
null when flag is off, so no behavioral effect on default-off path.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
28-task plan covering 4 weeks of work organized as:
- Week 1 (Tasks 1-10): WB plumbing + atlas for static scenery + conformance
- Week 2 (Tasks 11-15): streaming integration + memory budget verification
- Week 3 (Tasks 16-21): per-instance customization + animation
- Week 4 (Tasks 22-28): full draw dispatcher + visual verification + ship
Living document — task checkboxes marked as commits land; adjustments
appended in-place rather than rewriting earlier tasks. Conformance
tests run before substitution per N.1/N.3 pattern. Behind
ACDREAM_USE_WB_FOUNDATION=1 feature flag during weeks 1-3.
CLAUDE.md updated with a "Currently in flight" pointer in the Roadmap
discipline section so future agents pick up the plan as authoritative
for rendering work.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adopting WB's ObjectMeshManager + TextureAtlasManager as acdream's
shared rendering infrastructure. Two-tier split: atlas for shared
procedural content (terrain props, scenery, buildings), per-instance
path for server-spawned customized entities (characters, creatures,
equipped items).
Animation handled by composing per-frame override matrices from our
existing AnimationSequencer with cached rest poses at draw time.
Cache stays valid; AnimationSequencer untouched.
Streaming-loader integration: ~200 LOC adapter shim wires landblock
load/unload to IncrementRefCount/DecrementRefCount; pending-spawn
list mechanism preserved.
Surface metadata (Translucency/Luminosity/Diffuse/SurfOpacity/
NeedsUvRepeat/DisableFog) preserved via side-table keyed by
(GfxObjId, surfaceIdx) — no fork patches required.
Three algorithmic conformance tests run before substitution per the
N.1/N.3 pattern. Visual verification at 5 named locations.
3-4 weeks, single shippable phase. Foundation enables N.5-N.9.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
After brainstorming N.4 we recognized WB's ObjectMeshManager isn't a
static helper — it's a 2070-line stateful asset pipeline (GPU resources,
atlas system, LRU + memory budget, background staging, bindless path).
Adopting it wholesale is the foundation that N.5/N.6/N.7 build on, not
a parallel substitution.
Updates:
- N.4 expanded to capture Option A scope: ObjectMeshManager + atlas +
per-instance customization layer + animation cache strategy + streaming
adapter. Estimate 3-4 weeks.
- N.5 estimate revised down (3-4w → 2-3w) since atlas + pipeline come
from N.4. Includes N.2's deferred terrain math substitution.
- N.6 estimate revised down (2-3w → 1-2w) — most substance lands in N.4.
- N.7 estimate revised down (2-3w → 1-2w) — naturally smaller on shared
infrastructure.
- N.8 estimate revised down (1.5-2w → ~1w) — C.1 already shipped most.
- N.10 noted as likely subsumed by N.4 (OpenGLGraphicsDevice arrives
with ObjectMeshManager).
- Calendar header revised to reflect the rebalanced totals.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Audit during N.3 follow-up uncovered that WB's TerrainUtils
CalculateSplitDirection uses a different math expression than
retail's FSplitNESW (the AC2D-cited polynomial 0x0CCAC033 etc that
our visual terrain mesh and physics already share). Substituting
TerrainSurface.SampleZ with WB's GetHeight in isolation would
re-introduce the triangle-Z hover bug from earlier work — physics
and visual mesh would pick different diagonals on disputed cells.
Updates:
- ISSUE #51 documents the divergence with file references and the
research that's needed when N.5 picks this up.
- Roadmap N.2 entry flags the dependency on N.5 and the reasoning
("not low-risk after all").
N.1's conformance proved slope-filtering equivalence (boolean
walkable verdict), not formula equivalence. The lesson is captured
in memory (feedback_wb_migration_formulas.md, not in-repo).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Walked Holtburg with the user; no texture regressions on terrain
blending, mesh textures, scenery clipmap edges, or building surfaces.
The deliberate A8 non-additive change (R=G=B=255,A=val) produced no
visible delta on entity textures. Phase N.3 is shipped end-to-end.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Roadmap: N.3 row added to shipped table; sub-phase block updated from
ahead-estimate to shipped summary. Document header date bumped.
Plan: docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-08-phase-n3-texture-decode-via-wb.md
captures the audit + per-format substitution strategy + A8 isAdditive
divergence resolution that drove this phase.
No ISSUES.md update — visual verification at Holtburg is the remaining
gate; if the A8 non-additive change produces a visible delta on entity
textures, an issue gets filed there.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Roadmap updates after Phase N.1 ship:
- Marks N.0 (submodule + project refs setup) as ✓ SHIPPED with the
c8782c9 commit reference
- Updates N.2-N.9 effort estimates with realistic post-N.1 numbers
(originals were 1-2 days / 1 week / 2 weeks; realistic numbers
factor in conformance-test discovery, ACME-vs-Chorizite delta
hunts, and the visual-verification-then-revert cycle that ate
most of N.1's calendar time)
- Adds a "Lessons from N.1" subsection so future N phases benefit
from the rotation-bug-conformance-test pattern, the ACME divergence
insight, and the "whackamole = stop" rule
- Updates total calendar estimate to 3-4 months / 10-12 engineering
weeks for N.2-N.9 (was 2-3 months / 6-8 weeks)
New handoff doc at docs/research/2026-05-08-phase-n3-handoff.md
captures everything a fresh agent picking up N.3 (texture decoding)
needs: phase context, what to read first, suggested task decomposition,
watchouts (especially the ACME-divergence and conformance-test
lessons), and where to start.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds Phase N.1 to "Phases already shipped" table at top of roadmap,
updates the Phase N section to mark N.1 with checkmark SHIPPED status,
and files the known road-edge-tree cosmetic difference at landblock
0xA9B1 in ISSUES.md as issue #50 follow-up.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds two design docs and a roadmap entry for the strategic shift
from "port retail rendering algorithms ourselves" to "depend on a
fork of Chorizite/WorldBuilder for rendering + dat-handling."
- docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-08-phase-n-worldbuilder-migration-design.md
— parent design: integration model (fork + submodule), 10 sub-phases
(N.0 setup through N.10 GL consolidation), strangler-fig phasing
with per-phase feature flags, retail-decomp boundary clarified for
what WB does NOT cover (network, physics, animation, motion, UI,
plugin, audio, chat).
- docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-08-phase-n1-scenery-via-wb-helpers-design.md
— N.1 detailed design: replace IsOnRoad / DisplaceObject /
slope-normal calc / rotation / scale inside SceneryGenerator.Generate()
with calls to WB's SceneryHelpers + TerrainUtils. Keep data flow,
ScenerySpawn shape, and renderer integration. Add small LandBlock →
TerrainEntry[] adapter. Feature flag ACDREAM_USE_WB_SCENERY=1.
- docs/plans/2026-04-11-roadmap.md — Phase N entry added between
Phase M and Phase J. Lists all 10 sub-phases with effort estimates.
Fork already created at https://github.com/eriknihlen/WorldBuilder.
N.0 setup (replace references/WorldBuilder/ snapshot with submodule,
add project references, build green) is the next implementation step.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Saves the comprehensive inventory of what WorldBuilder provides
(terrain, scenery, static objects, EnvCells, portals, sky, particles,
texture decode, mesh extraction, visibility) vs what acdream still
ports from retail decomp (network, physics, animation, movement, UI,
plugin, audio, chat).
This is the load-bearing reference for the strategic shift from
"port retail algorithms ourselves" to "rely on WorldBuilder for
rendering + dat-handling, port only what WB doesn't cover."
Updates CLAUDE.md:
- Adds top-level instruction: read the inventory FIRST before
re-porting anything in the 🟢 list
- Reframes references/WorldBuilder/ as acdream's rendering BASE,
not just a reference repo
- Updates the "Reference hierarchy by domain" table to point
rendering/dat questions at WorldBuilder, with retail decomp as
cross-check
Subsequent commits will fork WorldBuilder and replace our terrain/
scenery/object rendering with calls into the fork.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Self-contained brief for a fresh agent: bug description with the
2026-05-06 screenshot evidence, what's confirmed (Z fix from #48 is
in, Stab placement is correct, dat content matches), five competing
hypotheses (LCG noise drift / cell-coord transposition / Align
reference / slope filter / SceneInfo lookup), and the cdb retail
trace as the gold-standard diagnostic to disambiguate. Same pattern
as the #48 handoff — paste the doc into a new session as the prompt.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Closes#48. Trees on sloped cells visibly hovered above the visible
terrain because GameWindow.SampleTerrainZ (the bilinear fallback used
during scenery hydration before physics registers a landblock) had
its diagonal arms swapped — used the SEtoNW triangle test on SWtoNE
cells and vice versa. The ACDREAM_DUMP_SCENERY_Z=1 diagnostic showed
every scenery line ran through the bilinear path (streaming race),
so on hilly terrain scenery was placed at a Z up to ~1.5 m off from
the visible mesh.
Latent since ff325ab (2026-04-17 "feat(ui): debug overlay + refined
input controls" carrying along the upgrade). That commit reached for
WorldBuilder TerrainUtils.GetHeight as the secondary oracle and
re-derived the triangle-pair tests; the named-retail / ACE algorithm
in TerrainSurface.SampleZ (used by the physics path / player Z) was
always correct, so player feet stayed flush — the two paths just
disagreed and only scenery noticed.
Fix:
- TerrainSurface.InterpolateZInTriangle (private static) — single
source of truth for the triangle pick + barycentric Z, sourced
from FUN_00532a50 / ACE LandblockStruct.ConstructPolygons.
- TerrainSurface.SampleZFromHeightmap (public static) — heightmap-
byte-array variant for the scenery hydration fallback. Both this
and TerrainSurface.SampleZ (instance) now delegate to the same
InterpolateZInTriangle.
- GameWindow.SampleTerrainZ — thin wrapper over the new static.
- TerrainSurfaceTests.SampleZFromHeightmap_AgreesWithInstance_AcrossWholeLandblock
asserts both sampler paths agree at 1500 sample points across both
diagonals, so future drift gets caught.
The ACDREAM_DUMP_SCENERY_Z=1 diagnostic in BuildSceneryEntitiesForStreaming
is kept committed (env-var gated, zero cost when off) — useful for
the related #49 scenery (X, Y) placement investigation filed in the
same commit.
Visual verified at Holtburg landblock 0xA9B30001 2026-05-06: the
formerly floating 32 m pines (setups 0x020002D3 / 0x020002D9) now
sit flush on the visible terrain mesh.
Test baseline: dotnet test reports the same 8 pre-existing motion /
BSP step-up failures as the handoff doc warned about — no new
failures introduced.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Keep local physics authoritative at the retail 30 Hz MinQuantum, but expose a render-only position that lerps between completed physics ticks for the player mesh and chase-camera target. Network outbound continues to use the discrete physics position.
Also make the visually confirmed #47 humanoid close-detail DIDDegrade path default-on, with ACDREAM_RETAIL_CLOSE_DEGRADES=0 left as a diagnostic opt-out.
Verification: dotnet build AcDream.slnx -c Debug; focused #38 interpolation tests passed; visual confirmed smooth 2026-05-06. Full dotnet test AcDream.slnx -c Debug --no-build still has the known 8 AcDream.Core.Tests baseline failures.
Co-authored-by: Codex <codex@openai.com>
A few specific scenery GfxObjs render with their trunk base ~0.5-1.5m
above the terrain mesh while the vast majority sit flush. Per-GfxObj-
id ⇒ deterministic across instances. Player Z snap is unaffected.
Side-by-side with retail confirmed the same species place flush there.
Filed with three competing hypotheses: per-GfxObj origin convention
(some tree meshes authored with origin at bbox-center vs trunk-base),
physics-vs-bilinear terrain Z mismatch on NE↔SW-cut cells, or the
same DIDDegrade close-detail story as #47 applied to scenery.
Detailed cut-and-paste handoff for the next agent at
docs/research/2026-05-06-issue-48-handoff.md — covers the diagnostic
dump that disambiguates the hypotheses with one log line per
offending tree.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Humanoid bodies (Setup 0x02000001 + heritage variants) rendered visibly
flat / bulky vs retail because we drew the base GfxObj id from Setup /
AnimPartChange directly. Retail's CPhysicsPart::LoadGfxObjArray
(0x0050DCF0) treats that base id as the entry point to a DIDDegrade
table; close/player rendering uses Degrades[0].Id, which is the
higher-detail mesh that carries bicep / deltoid / shoulder geometry.
ACViewer also has this bug — it was the key signal it isn't acdream-
specific. Both clients drew the LOD-3 base mesh (e.g. 14 verts / 17
polys for Aluvian Male upper arm 0x01000055), missing the close-
detail variant (0x01001795: 32 verts / 60 polys).
Adds GfxObjDegradeResolver that walks the table with safe fallbacks
at every step. Wired in GameWindow after AnimPartChange application
and before texture-change resolution so texture overrides match the
resolved mesh's surfaces. Gated by ACDREAM_RETAIL_CLOSE_DEGRADES=1
and scoped to humanoid setups (34 parts with >=8 null-sentinel
attachment slots) while the fix bakes — the change is harmless on
non-humanoid setups (resolver falls back to base when no degrade
table) but we hold the broader sweep until LOD distance plumbing
lands.
User confirmed visually 2026-05-06: bicep, deltoid, and back-muscle
definition match retail.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Self-contained pickup brief for the bulky-humanoid bug. Has:
- the bug + acceptance criterion
- everything ruled out this session (with evidence)
- starting facts confirmed via diagnostics
- 4 ranked hypotheses (per-vertex normals → ambient → MSAA → frame
composition) with concrete tests for each
- diagnostic env vars + their output shapes
- the CLAUDE.md grep-named-first workflow
- files most likely to need edits
- live test workflow (env vars, expected entities in Holtburg)
- constraints (don't break drudges / scenery / +Acdream local view)
Designed to drop straight into a fresh agent's prompt window.
Filed #47 in docs/ISSUES.md — humanoid characters using Setup 0x02000001
(players + Woodsman + other Aluvian NPCs) render visibly bulkier and less
shape-defined than retail's view. Drudges and other monster setups render
identically. Independent of equipment (naked +Je still shows it).
Investigation this session ruled out 0xF625 ObjDescEvent drops (real bug,
fixed in e471527, but doesn't explain shape), HiddenParts overlap,
ParentIndex walking (animation frames are setup-root coords already),
and player-specific data flow (NPCs using same setup affected too).
Diagnostic infrastructure landed alongside the issue (env-var-gated, no
runtime cost when off):
- ACDREAM_DUMP_CLOTHING=1 now also prints:
- setup.Parts.Count, flatten.Count, APC count on header
- ParentIndex[] and DefaultScale[] arrays
- IdleFrame per-part Origin + Orientation (first 17 parts)
- per-part EMIT line: gfx, subMeshes count, triangle count
- TOTAL triangle / meshRef counts per entity
This is what nailed down "all 34 parts emit" + "animation frames are
setup-root not parent-local" + "humans get setup-wide 180°-Z rotation
that drudges don't" — saved hours next session.
Open hypotheses for #47 next session: per-face vs smoothed vertex
normals (per-vertex normals from dat may be face-style for human
GfxObjs but smooth for monsters), low cell ambient leaving back faces
flat-shadowed, missing MSAA on the GL window.
#45 — closed by commit e9e080d. PlayerMovementController hands a raw
localAnimSpeed (1.0 slow / runRate fast); UpdatePlayerAnimation now
scales sidestep cycles by WalkAnimSpeed/SidestepAnimSpeed × 0.5 to
match ACE's BroadcastMovement formula. User-verified.
#46 — filed. Retail clients observing acdream's local +Acdream
character see visibly blippy / laggy movement. Local acdream view of
the same character is fine; acdream observing retail-driven
characters is also fine (after #39 / #45). The degradation is
specifically on the OUTBOUND path. Likely culprits ranked: AutoPos
heartbeat cadence (acdream's fixed 200 ms is suspect per
project_retail_motion_outbound memory), MoveToState send conditions,
sequence counters, or absent HasVelocity on UPs. Verification approach
documented (two retail clients + one acdream side-by-side; cdb
breakpoint count of MovementManager::unpack_movement on retail
observer).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
#45 — local +Acdream slow-strafe walking renders too slow. User
observed during fix#5 visual verify of #39: the observer-side fix
landed, then the user noticed the matching animation on the local
player was also playing at sub-walk cadence. Likely the same
SidestepAnimSpeed (1.25) vs WalkAnimSpeed (3.12) mismatch as fix#5
but on the local UpdatePlayerAnimation path. Filed for separate
investigation.
#39 — added "Progress 2026-05-06" section listing the five-commit
fix sequence (8fa04af → 863d96b → bb026b7 → 2653b30 → cc62e1c →
349ba65), the wire-level finding that retail genuinely does NOT
broadcast on Shift toggle (refuting the earlier confused trace
analysis), the user-verified working cases (1/2/4/5) and the
residual items (latency from 500ms UM grace, direction-flip cases
3/6/7 not yet explicitly verified).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Visual-verify of commit 8fa04af in launch-39-candidate.log refutes the
static-analysis hypothesis that retail does not broadcast UMs on
HoldKey-only changes. The log shows:
- [FWD_WIRE] for retail actor 0x50000001 contains many direct Walk↔Run
transitions (0x44000007 ↔ 0x45000005). ACE IS sending UMs on Shift
toggle.
- [SETCYCLE] fires correctly per UM; Sequencer.CurrentMotion cycles
through Walk / Run / Turn / Sidestep correctly per [UM_RAW].
- [UPCYCLE_PLAYER] never fired — UM grace correctly suppressed it
(UMs at >2 Hz, well within 500 ms grace).
- User reports legs visually stuck in walking animation despite the
wire/sequencer saying Run.
Conclusion: bug is downstream of Sequencer.CurrentMotion — same as
2026-05-03 hypothesis F. Most likely _currNode lands on the walk-to-run
transition link after SetCycle (`currNodeIsCyclic=False` confirmed in
[SCFULL]) and Advance does not progress past it to the cycle.
The candidate fix code (LastUMTime, ApplyPlayerLocomotionRefinement,
hysteresis constants, un-gated call site) is left in place — harmless
because UM grace blocks the velocity-fallback path while UMs arrive,
and the infrastructure may be useful for cases #2–#7 if those need
velocity fallback. But it does not close case #1.
Updates ISSUES.md #39 with refuted hypothesis + new evidence + next
step pointer. findings-static.md gains "Visual-verify result" §
documenting the diagnostic dump and recommending the next investigation
target be AnimationSequencer.Advance queue-handling.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds a player-remote velocity-fallback path to ApplyServerControlledVelocityCycle
so that when retail (the actor) toggles Shift while holding W and acdream is
the observer, the visible leg cycle switches Run↔Walk within ~200–500 ms even
though no fresh UM arrives. Static analysis (ACE GameActionMoveToState +
MovementData.cs auto-upgrade + acdream's prior diag traces) suggests retail
does NOT broadcast a fresh MoveToState on HoldKey-only changes — acdream's
UMs handle direction-key changes and our local +Acdream's transitions, but
retail-driven actors leave the cycle stuck.
Changes (all in src/AcDream.App/Rendering/GameWindow.cs):
- New RemoteMotion.LastUMTime field, stamped in OnLiveMotionUpdated
- ApplyServerControlledVelocityCycle: removed inner IsPlayerGuid gate;
routes player remotes to new ApplyPlayerLocomotionRefinement
- ApplyPlayerLocomotionRefinement (forward-direction only):
- 500 ms UM grace window (UMs win when fresh)
- Forward-direction-only (low byte 0x05 / 0x07)
- Hysteresis: Run → Walk demote at < 4.5 m/s; Walk → Run promote > 5.5 m/s
- Skip SetCycle when neither motion ID nor speedMod changed meaningfully
- [UPCYCLE_PLAYER] diag gated on ACDREAM_REMOTE_VEL_DIAG=1
- Outer call site in OnLivePositionUpdated un-gated (!IsPlayerGuid removed);
per-remote routing now lives inside the function
Scope: case #1 (Run↔Walk forward) only. Cases #2–#7 (backward, sidestep
speed-buckets, direction-flips) remain deferred — PlanFromVelocity is
forward-only and its NPC-tuned thresholds (RunThreshold=1.25) do not
separate player Walk (~2.5 m/s) from player Run (~9 m/s); a TTD trace
of retail's per-direction algorithm should ground the wider fix.
ISSUES.md #39 updated with progress; investigation-prompt.md and a new
findings-static.md committed under
docs/research/2026-05-06-locomotion-cycle-transitions/ (the prompt was
authored on a parallel branch in commit 7a38da3 and is brought into this
worktree here so the next session can find it without branch-hopping).
Build clean. The 8 pre-existing test failures on this branch
(BSPStepUpTests.C3_Path6_AirborneMoverHitsSteepSlope, MotionInterpreter
WalkBackward GetMaxSpeed, etc.) are unrelated to this change — verified
by running them with the diff stashed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
#42 — moved from OPEN to DONE in place (rich investigation log preserved
below the new Resolution block). The originally-listed mechanisms (H1
slope-driven AdjustOffset projection, H2 step-down probe, H3 EdgeSlide)
were all RULED OUT by the first evidence run; root cause was self-
collision in FindObjCollisions, not in-sweep mechanism choice. Added
forward-pointer to retail's CObjCell::find_obj_collisions self-skip
(named-retail acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt:308931).
#43 — new entry in Recently closed for the slope staircase on grounded
player remotes. Diagnosis: PositionManager.ComputeOffset's seqVel-only
fallback returned flat-Z motion because anim cycles bake Z=0 body-local,
producing visible 5 Hz Z stepping at the server-UP cadence. Fix: project
the fallback onto the local terrain plane (mirrors retail's
CTransition::adjust_offset contact-plane projection at the queue-empty
boundary). Verified via 9193 queue-empty-with-non-zero-offset.Z ticks
across a 34m vertical traversal.
Both diagnostic env-vars kept in tree for future regression hunts:
ACDREAM_AIRBORNE_DIAG=1 and ACDREAM_SLOPE_DIAG=1.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replaces the original 96-line note with a detailed self-contained
brief targeted at someone picking up #42 cold in a new session.
Adds:
- Explicit ruled-out list (wire data, Euler error, stale velocity,
diagnostic instrumentation) — saves rediscovering dead ends.
- The user's "buildings + jumping puzzles" constraint that rules out
blanket sweep-disable.
- Specific file/line targets in PhysicsEngine.cs (470, 478-491,
493-519, 521-530, 532, 534-558) and TransitionTypes.cs (786-846,
1305-1311) with a brief reading order.
- Phase 1 / Phase 2 / Phase 3 investigation plan with concrete
diagnostic harness (`ACDREAM_AIRBORNE_DIAG=1` + `[SWEEP]` log) and
direction-correlation test.
- Per-hypothesis fix paths so the agent doesn't re-derive them from
the diagnosis.
- Full acceptance criteria including build/test gates and visual
test sequence (flat / hillside / running / doorway / puzzle / land).
- Hard rules (don't blame ACE, don't disable sweep, don't touch L.3
motion code, don't reduce sphere dims, etc.).
- cdb breakpoint recipe for retail-vs-acdream A/B comparison.
- Pre-session reading list with line numbers.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Brings the elated-aryabhata-208d5e branch into main. 7 commits implementing
the L.3 retail-faithful remote-entity motion port:
de129bc M1 Fresh InterpolationManager port + retail spec
40d88b9 M2 Queue routing for player-remote UPs + entity-position sync
2365c8c M3 Animation root motion fallback for idle queue
d57ace0 M6 Cleanup — dead fields + stale env-var references
c26bbbb M4 Jump-CellId fix + #42 filed
b37b713#42 root cause confirmed via A/B test
5cc2812 Handoff prompt for #42 PhysicsEngine investigation
User-verified visual checks: smooth body chase on running/walking/strafing,
no per-UP rubber-band, no slope staircase, NPCs pathing correctly, jumps
land cleanly. Two follow-up issues filed:
#41 sub-decimeter steady-state blips (velocity-synthesis residual; LOW)
#42 airborne XY drift on jumps (PhysicsEngine.ResolveWithTransition
depenetration; root cause confirmed; deep-dive prompt at
docs/research/2026-05-05-issue-42-handoff.md)
Replaces the env-var-gated experimental path (ACDREAM_INTERP_MANAGER=1)
which was marked DO-NOT-ENABLE — the env-var no longer toggles anything.
NPCs and airborne player remotes still use the legacy path; only grounded
player remotes route through the new retail-faithful queue.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Self-contained next-session brief for the airborne XY drift
follow-up. Captures: confirmed root cause (ResolveWithTransition,
verified A/B), three ranked hypotheses for the in-sweep mechanism
(initial-overlap depenetration on non-+Z terrain normal is leading),
three fix paths in preference order, repro steps with terrain-slope
direction-correlation test, and the acceptance criteria.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A/B-tested 2026-05-05 with user observing retail-controlled remote:
- With CellId fix removed: jumps render with geometrically-correct
XY (no drift) but body falls through the floor.
- With CellId fix applied: jumps land cleanly but arc shows ~1 m
horizontal offset; snaps back on next UM.
Confirms the drift originates inside ResolveWithTransition, not from
wire data, local Euler error, or stale velocity. CellId fix kept in
place because falling through the floor is more disruptive than
~1 m visual jitter that resolves on next input.
#42 updated with the verified diagnosis, three ranked-by-probability
hypotheses for the in-sweep mechanism (initial-overlap depenetration
along non-+Z terrain normal is the leading candidate), three matching
fix paths, and a deterministic repro recipe for the next session.
The right next step is investigating PhysicsEngine.ResolveWithTransition
and comparing against retail's CTransition::find_valid_position
(docs/research/named-retail/) — out of scope for the L.3 motion port,
files as a follow-up PhysicsEngine bug.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
CellId fix:
L.3 M2 introduced OnLivePositionUpdated player-remote routing that
returned without setting `rmState.CellId = p.LandblockId`. The legacy
path always set this (formerly at line 3601). Airborne player remotes
fall through to the legacy TickAnimations path which gates
ResolveWithTransition on `rm.CellId != 0`; without the cell-id update
the sphere sweep was skipped, K-fix15 landing detection never fired,
and the body fell through the floor on jumps.
Fix: set `rmState.CellId = p.LandblockId` early in the M2 player-remote
branch (after orientation snap, before any return).
User-verified 2026-05-05: jumps now land cleanly with sequencer
leaving Falling on landing.
#42 filed:
Visual verification of M4 also exposed a ~1 m horizontal drift on
stationary jumps (body arcs through the air offset from actor's actual
position; lands at offset; snaps back on next UM). User confirms this
is pre-existing, masked by the legacy path's hard-snap-on-every-UP
behavior that M2 explicitly removed per retail spec
(03-up-routing.md § 3 "AIRBORNE NO-OP"). Filed as #42 with three
candidate fix paths (pragmatic legacy-restore, root-cause investigation,
or hybrid soft-correction).
M5 NPCs verified clean (legacy path unchanged).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Restores PositionManager.ComputeOffset call in TickAnimations player-
remote branch. M2 was queue-only (body chases server but stops between
UPs after head reached); M3 adds the retail REPLACE behavior:
- Queue active and not reached → catch-up vector (REPLACES anim).
- Queue empty or head reached → anim root motion (seqVel × dt rotated
by body.Orientation) drives translation between UPs.
- Blip-to-tail still fires on fail_count > 3.
Mirrors retail UpdatePositionInternal @ 0x00512c30 per
docs/research/2026-05-04-l3-port/05-position-manager-and-partarray.md
§ 6: PositionManager::adjust_offset OVERWRITES local frame's origin
with catch-up when active; otherwise no-op (anim root motion stands).
User-verified 2026-05-05: "Best implementation we have had so far.
Running works, walking works, strafing works."
Closes#40 (env-var path regression — replaced wholesale).
Files #41 for residual sub-decimeter blips: velocity-synthesis magnitude
(RunAnimSpeed × adjustedSpeed) overshoots server pace slightly, queue
walks it back every UP. Within retail's DesiredDistance / MinDistance
tolerances; not a correctness bug. Fix path requires porting
add_motion @ 0x005224b0 and cdb-tracing retail's actual
CSequence::velocity magnitude.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Rewrites src/AcDream.Core/Physics/InterpolationManager.cs from the spec
in docs/research/2026-05-04-l3-port/04-interp-manager.md. Public API
preserved (Vector3-returning AdjustOffset, Enqueue, Clear, IsActive,
Count) so PositionManager + GameWindow callers continue to compile;
internals are full retail spec.
Bug fixes vs prior port (audit 04-interp-manager.md § 7):
#1 progress_quantum accumulates dt (sum of frame deltas), not step
magnitude. Retail line 353140; the prior port's `+= step` made
the secondary stall ratio meaningless.
#3 Far-branch Enqueue (dist > AutonomyBlipDistance = 100m) sets
_failCount = StallFailCountThreshold + 1 = 4, so the next
AdjustOffset call's post-stall check fires an immediate blip-to-
tail snap. Retail line 352944. Prior port silently drifted
toward far targets at catch-up speed instead of teleporting.
#4 Secondary stall test ports the retail formula verbatim:
cumulative / progress_quantum / dt < CREATURE_FAILED_INTERPOLATION_PERCENTAGE.
Audit notes the units are 1/sec (likely Turbine bug or x87 FPU
misread by Binary Ninja) — mirrored byte-for-byte regardless.
#5 Tail-prune is a tail-walking loop, not a single-tail compare.
Multiple consecutive stale tail entries within DesiredDistance
(0.05 m) of the new target collapse together. Retail line 352977.
#6 Cap-eviction at the HEAD when count reaches 20 (already correct
in the prior port; verified).
New API: Enqueue gains an optional `currentBodyPosition` parameter so
the far-branch detection can reference the body when the queue is
empty. Backward-compatible (default null = pre-far-branch behavior).
UseTime collapsed into AdjustOffset's tail (post-stall blip check)
since acdream has no per-tick UseTime call separate from
adjust_offset; identical semantic outcome.
State fields renamed to retail names with sentinel values:
_frameCounter, _progressQuantum, _originalDistance (init = 999999f
sentinel per retail line 0x00555D30 ctor), _failCount.
Tests:
- 17/17 InterpolationManagerTests green.
- New test Enqueue_FarBranch_PrearmsImmediateBlipOnNextAdjustOffset
pins the bug #3 fix: enqueueing 150 m away triggers a same-tick
blip (delta length ≈ 150 m), and the queue clears.
Spec tree: 17 research docs (00–14) under docs/research/2026-05-04-l3-port/.
00-master-plan + 00-port-plan describe the 8-phase rollout. 01-per-tick,
03-up-routing, 04-interp-manager, 05-position-manager-and-partarray,
06-acdream-audit, 14-local-player-audit are the L.3 spec used by this
commit and the M2 follow-up.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Five parallel agents + dat probes ruled out:
- byte-level decode primitive (matches ACViewer)
- polygon emission (no ST_DOUBLE / Surface.Type & 6 issues)
- per-PART texture-override scoping (correctly per-MeshRef'd)
- SubPalette indexing convention (full-size 2048 palettes, *8 wire un-pack
is single-applied)
Smoking gun: for +Acdream the server sends 10 SubPaletteSwap ranges that
overlay palette indices [0..320), [576..1024), [1392..1488), [1728..1920).
The complement — [320..576), [1024..1392), [1488..1728), [1920..2048) —
is NOT overlaid. Base palette 0x0400007E at those indices has
red/skin tones. Coat texture UVs sampling those non-overlaid indices
render as visible "skin stub at top of coat".
Either ACE sends incomplete SubPaletteSwap data, or retail does extra
client-side ClothingTable computation we (and ACE) don't.
Diagnostic harness now lives at tools/InspectCoatTex/Program.cs;
GameWindow's DUMP_CLOTHING also probes runtime SubPalette dat sizes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
End-of-session cleanup of the 2026-05-03 remote-motion debug session.
Documentation:
- CLAUDE.md: add ⚠️ DO-NOT-ENABLE warning for ACDREAM_INTERP_MANAGER=1
in the diagnostic env-vars list. Add an "Outbound motion wire format"
section documenting acdream's WalkForward+HoldKey.Run encoding (which
ACE auto-upgrades to RunForward on relay) so future sessions don't
re-derive it.
- docs/ISSUES.md: file two new issues:
* #39 — Run↔Walk cycle transition not visible on observed
retail-driven player remotes when watched from acdream. Root cause
located: ApplyServerControlledVelocityCycle is gated by
IsPlayerGuid, excluding the exact case where ACE doesn't broadcast
a UM (shift toggle while direction key held). Fix sketch ~10
lines, separate commit. Cross-references the four-agent
investigation prompt.
* #40 — ACDREAM_INTERP_MANAGER=1 env-var path regressed. Documents
why (e94e791 conflated MoveOrTeleport with update_object), the
visible symptoms (staircase Z, position blips), and why
Commit B (039149a)'s ResolveWithTransition port was insufficient
(env-var path also clears body.Velocity → no horizontal Euler
motion → sweep input is queue catch-up only, which stair-steps).
Fix path = separate L.3 follow-up to re-integrate PositionManager
additively on top of the legacy chain.
Code:
- GameWindow.cs:6042: prepend a ⚠️ REGRESSED warning block at the top
of the env-var per-frame branch so anyone reading the code is
immediately aware not to enable it. Cross-references ISSUES.md #40.
- AnimationSequencer.cs: re-throttle [SCFAST]/[SCFULL] diagnostics to
0.5s per instance (rolled back from A.1's unthrottled experiment).
Already served its purpose; throttled is enough for steady-state
diagnostics. Restore _lastSetCycleDiagTime field.
No behavior change for any current launch (env-var unset = legacy
path unchanged). Build green; baseline test failures (8) unchanged
from prior commit, none introduced by this session.
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Hand-off briefing for the remaining "observed retail char's leg cycle
doesn't visibly switch in acdream" bug. Captures everything we learned
today including:
- All 8 commits shipped today (turn-sign, observed-velocity revert,
retail-faithful tick, Commands-list SubState skip, currNode reset)
- Confirmed wins: body translation, run-in-circles, jump landing
position + animation, turn-left direction
- Confirmed remaining bug: walk/run/idle leg cycle on observed remotes
+ residual steady-state blippiness
- Diagnostic infrastructure (FWD_WIRE, CMD_LIST, HASCYCLE, SETCYCLE,
SEQSTATE, TURN_WIRE, OMEGA_DIAG, VEL_DIAG) and how to reproduce
- cdb live trace findings (retail uses additive add_to_queue with no
truncate; we have ClearCyclicTail + rebuild)
- Six concrete next-step hypotheses
- A self-contained prompt for the next research agent
- Notes on rejected approaches (link-skip, full-reset, scaling hack)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Visual verification of L.3.1-as-originally-scoped (commit ae79e34
through e08accf) revealed that InterpolationManager corrections alone
cannot produce smooth motion — retail also relies on animation root
motion (the L.3.2 PositionManager work, originally deferred). The two
halves are functionally inseparable.
Spec changes:
- L.3.1 sub-lane absorbs L.3.2's PositionManager
- New section: PositionManager architecture (pure-function ComputeOffset
returning Vector3 delta; combines body-local seqVel * dt rotated to
world + InterpolationManager.AdjustOffset correction)
- New section: IsGrounded plumbing through EntityPositionUpdate (the
PositionFlags.IsGrounded=0x04 is already parsed; just expose it)
- New section: retail-faithful jump pipeline (airborne → no-op per
MoveOrTeleport's has_contact=0 semantics; landing detected via first
IsGrounded=true UP after airborne)
- Acceptance criteria updated for combined scope
- Implementation order: 6 commits remaining (after the revert at 1641d6e)
- Stall-blip TAIL annotation (Task 0 resolution) folded in
L.3.3 (MoveToManager) stays a separate sub-lane.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
