Procedural-scenery foliage (trees/bushes — entity ids in the
ProceduralSceneryIdAllocator's 0x8XXYYIII namespace) sways with weather in
mesh_atmospheric.vert and all four directional_shadow_world_* caster vertex
shaders, both calling the identical new foliage_wind.glsl include so the
shadow moves with the leaf by construction.
Classification (FoliageWindClassification, AcDream.App.Rendering.Wb): two
new BatchData.flags bits, computed once per (entity, subset) from four
inputs — entity id (bit 31 for procedural scenery), the pack's declared
FoliageExclusions membership, the subset's TranslucencyKind, and
ObjectRenderData.HasCutoutSubset (computed once per mesh at build time, not
per frame). Bit 1 marks an alpha-cutout leaf subset; bit 2 marks an opaque
trunk subset (only when its own mesh also owns a cutout subset, so rocks
stay still). WbDrawDispatcher.ClassifyBatches (world receiver) and
AddDirectionalShadowBatches (caster) call this with the same four inputs, so
casters and receivers classify identically without needing to share state.
Retail's mesh_modern/terrain_modern/mesh_detail pipelines never read these
bits, so pack-off output is unaffected.
Motion model (foliage_wind.glsl, mirrored bit-for-bit in the new
FoliageWindModel for hermetic CPU tests): height-squared-scaled slow lean
for every foliage subset, plus branch swing and per-vertex-hash-decorrelated
flutter for cutout subsets only. AtmosphericPostProcessGraph.ResolveFoliageWind
resolves the wind block once per frame.Serial — advanced by whichever of
RenderDirectionalShadows (which runs first) or RenderPostProcess is called
first that frame, with the second reading the already-advanced state, which
is what keeps the caster and receiver reading byte-identical clock/strength
values. The per-day-group mean/gust target (AtmospherePolicyDeclaration.
FoliageWindByDayGroup, keyed by the same day-group index convention
ActiveDayGroupMultipliers already established: Clear/Cloudy/Overcast/Rainy)
eases toward its target over WeatherSystem.TransitionSeconds (10s) so a
weather change never snaps; wind-enabled off or indoor instead gates the
OUTPUT to an exact zero (not an asymptotic approach) so a settings toggle or
cell transition is immediate. The wind clock is a Stopwatch started at graph
construction (monotonic, session-relative magnitude for GPU sin() accuracy),
overridable by the same ACDREAM_SKY_PHASE_SECONDS pin SkyRenderer already
uses, for deterministic offline gates.
New settings: wind-enabled, wind-strength, wind-direction-degrees (225°
default — no authored retail wind direction exists to read),
wind-lean-metres, wind-branch-metres, wind-flutter-metres (0 on Low),
wind-canopy-height-metres.
Register row IA-25 files this as an intentional, strictly opt-in divergence:
retail applies no per-vertex wind displacement to any geometry. Known,
accepted limitation: classification is per mesh-subset (one BatchData.flags
word per indirect-draw batch), not per entity instance, so the rare case of
one mesh subset being reachable from both a procedural-scenery and a
non-scenery placement would classify all of that subset's instances alike.
Tests: FoliageWindClassificationTests (the full classification matrix),
FoliageWindModelTests (identity on non-foliage/calm-wind/base-vertex,
canopy-top displacement bound, z-never-increases, trunk has no flutter
term), RenderPackAtmospherePolicyEvaluationTests (exact day-group lookup,
no interpolation across day-group ids, easing convergence without overshoot
or discontinuity), AtmosphericShaderAbiTests (each of the five shaders calls
acdreamFoliageDisplace exactly once; mesh_modern/terrain/mesh_detail call it
never), and four AtmosphericPostProcessGraphTests additions (indoor/disabled
exact-zero gating, settings-to-UBO wiring, same-frame-Serial idempotency —
the last proxies the caster/receiver agreement invariant without needing
this hermetic harness's WbDrawDispatcher/TerrainModernRenderer dependency
chain to exercise RenderDirectionalShadows directly).
App hermetic filter: 6015/6017 (the same 2 pre-existing failures as VM6a,
confirmed unrelated). Core.Tests hermetic: 4697/4697. RenderPackValidator.Tests:
30/30. Full solution Debug and Release builds green. Shader recompile
touched exactly the 5 edited files' .spv (plus manifest); the retail oracle
set and every other pack shader are byte-identical.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Opus narrow re-review of 51178f7c: APPROVE. Residuals closed: the AR plan
no longer says '<=1 LSB' unqualified (99.99% of pixels; 95 foliage-
silhouette pixels up to 73 LSB, 58 isolated); the campaign doc says the
same; AtmosphericColorPipelineTests now read the SHIPPED exposure/vignette
defaults from BuiltInAtmosphericRenderPack.Descriptor and the graph's named
DefaultVignetteStrengthFallback instead of literals.
Measured for the gate (offline Holtburg hillside, High defaults vs pack
off): mean luminance -17% noon, -44% dusk, p95 unchanged, clip 0.06% both;
neutral High vs pack off: 110,561 px at |d|=1, 95 at >=5 (foliage edges).
Evidence images under docs/research/evidence/vm3/.
#422 filed: one High-default offline capture exited with
STATUS_HEAP_CORRUPTION after a clean managed shutdown; 1 in 8 runs, never
under validation layers. VM7 gate item.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Fix round from Opus review of 87677f9c (APPROVE WITH FIXES):
1. (A1/A3) Hardened the atmospheric_filmic.frag / atmospheric_bloom_
downsample.frag shader-source pinning test: asserts the exact decode
call count (6 - three in lowFusedScene, three in main's non-fused
branch), that the 2.2 display-gamma exponent and 1/2.2 inverse in
atmospheric_common.glsl are formatted FROM AtmosphericColorPipeline
.DisplayGamma (so shader literal and CPU-tested value cannot drift),
that the 0.18 contrast pivot in atmospheric_filmic.frag is formatted
from AtmosphericColorPipeline.LinearMidGrey, and pins
AtmosphericPostProcessGraph.BloomKneeLinear/BloomThresholdLinear as
exact literals (0.73f / 1f). Also removed a stray trailing "()" from
an existing comment in atmospheric_filmic.frag that was inflating the
decode-call count to 7.
2. (B1) Re-derived the "vignette-strength" default for the linear-light
post stack. The vignette multiply now happens on linear colour before
the final encode, so a corner factor of (1 - strength) displays as
(1 - strength)^(1/2.2), not (1 - strength) directly. The accepted
look was strength 0.12 under the OLD gamma-space pipeline: a 12%
on-screen corner darkening. Under strength 0.12 in the new linear
pipeline that same 0.88 corner multiplier would only display as
0.88^(1/2.2) ~= 0.9435 (5.6% darkening - visibly weaker). Solving
(1 - strength)^(1/2.2) = 0.88 gives strength = 1 - 0.88^2.2 ~= 0.245,
which reproduces the accepted 12% corner darkening. Since
RenderPackSettingValueCodec requires every declared default to be
step-aligned from the minimum and 0.245 is not a multiple of the old
0.01 step, the step also moves to 0.005 (a finer slider, not
coarser) so the exact derived default is a valid grid point -
verified by running the ExternalTierTwoPackCanRenameEveryOwnedId
AndShaderAsset validation test, which failed with "invalid default
value" before this correction. Also updated the matching fallback in
AtmosphericPostProcessGraph.FromDescriptor (0.12f -> 0.245f) for
consistency, and added
AtmosphericColorPipelineTests.VignetteDefaultReproducesTheAccepted
TwelvePercentCornerDarkening pinning encode(1-0.245) ~= 0.88.
3. (A4) Renamed VolumetricShaftFrameParameters.LinearSunColor ->
AuthoredSunColor in VolumetricShaftQuality.cs (internal, 2 references,
both in that file - safe). Left LightSource.ColorLinear unrenamed:
grep shows 13 files depend on it (GlobalLightPacker, SceneLightingUbo,
LightBake, LightManager, EnvCellRenderer, RenderingDiagnostics, and
several Core tests) across the shared retail default-path lighting
UBO pipeline - renaming it is out of VM3's pack-only scope and would
touch the mandatory-unchanged default path. Added a pointer comment
on the field in LightSource.cs (and a one-line note at its
WorldRenderFrameBuilder.cs call site) documenting the same
display-space-not-linear fact and explaining why the rename is
deferred to its own default-path colour-space pass.
4. (B4) Added a citation beside acesFitted in both atmospheric_filmic
.frag and its C# mirror (AtmosphericColorPipeline.AcesFitted):
Krzysztof Narkowicz, "ACES Filmic Tone Mapping Curve" (2016). The fit
takes linear scene light in and returns linear display light in
[0,1] - it does not itself gamma-encode. Evidence: acesFitted(0.80 *
decode(0.46)) = 0.2064 un-encoded versus the accepted 0.51 on screen.
5. (B2) Rewrote the VM3 section of docs/plans/2026-08-22-visualmaster-
campaign.md with the shipped truth in place of the pre-implementation
guess: exposure stays 0.80 (at exposure 1.0 the linear pipeline maps
gamma-0.5 to 0.6017, essentially the same 0.6163 the owner called too
bright), bloom threshold stays 1.0 (a fixed point of both exponents),
knee moves 0.45 -> 0.73, vignette-strength moves 0.12 -> 0.245. Added
the old-vs-new curve table at exposure 0.80 across ten gamma inputs.
Replaced the acceptance criteria's "new automated test on the
recording RHI" with the CPU mirror + shader-source pins actually
used, and recorded that the real-frame masked capture WAS run
(retail vs High-with-every-effect-neutral, artifacts/vm3):
independently re-verified by re-running the pixel diff against the
checked-in screenshots - 110,561 px at |delta|=1 and exactly 95
pixels at |delta|>=5, confined to foliage-canopy silhouette edges
against sky with nothing on any ground/building/water surface. Noted
the Stage-1 luminance table re-capture is still owed at the owner
gate.
6. (B3) Corrected docs/plans/2026-08-21-atmospheric-rendering.md's VM3
summary sentence: the bloom intermediate is already linear after
extraction (no separate "bloom read" decode), and the neutral-preset
claim is now phrased as a measured numerical identity (<=1 LSB on a
real frame) rather than an unqualified "is" statement.
7. (A5) Corrected toolchain attribution: tools/compile-shaders.ps1 used
the managed Silk.NET.Shaderc path (shaderc_shared.dll) to compile in
both this round and the original VM3 commit - a Vulkan SDK glslc was
detected and its path recorded, but the managed compiler is what
actually ran. Regenerating this round only changed the atmospheric_
filmic frag stage's manifest hash (comment-only edits); the compiled
.spv bytes are unchanged, and every retail-oracle shader
(mesh_modern, terrain_modern, mesh_detail, etc.) remains untouched.
8. Replaced an invented motive in the atmospheric_filmic.frag contrast-
pivot comment ("rounded up for a stronger gamma-space contrast
feel") with the actual reason: the previous 0.5 was simply the [0,1]
midpoint of the standard contrast formula, not a deliberately chosen
value; in linear the perceptual mid-grey is 0.18.
Verify: Release build 0 warnings / 0 errors. App hermetic-filter tests:
5970 passed / 0 failed / 0 skipped. VulkanShaderManifestTests: 7/7 pass
(retail-oracle SPIR-V byte-identical; only the atmospheric_filmic frag
manifest hash changed, no .spv bytes changed).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Fixed step-count volumetric ray marches (Low/Medium presets, e.g. 40 steps)
sample the same t values at every pixel, so a shadow-cascade edge crossing
lands at the same march step across a whole neighbourhood of pixels and
reads as visible concentric banding around light shafts. Offset each
pixel's march phase with interleaved gradient noise (Jimenez 2014,
fract(52.9829189 * fract(dot(gl_FragCoord.xy, vec2(0.06711056,
0.00583715))))) instead of the fixed 0.5 sub-step center: t = (step + ign)
/ steps. This decorrelates the step boundaries across pixels, turning the
banding into fine per-pixel noise that the existing quarter/half-res
upsample already averages away. Pack-on only — atmospheric_volumetric is
never used on the retail default path; extinction, colour, and early-outs
are unchanged.
Regenerated SPIR-V via tools/compile-shaders.ps1: only
atmospheric_volumetric.frag.spv and shaders.manifest.json's source hash
for that stage changed.
Also files #421 (docs/ISSUES.md) for Campaign AR review finding F7: the
directional-shadow pass's DirectionalShadowTransformBufferSet duplicates
the main pass's N.5 instance SSBO instead of binding it, to be resolved
once the planned GPU-culling step for shadow cascades lands. Updates the
VM5 ledger row and outcome note in
docs/plans/2026-08-22-visualmaster-campaign.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Dated 'VM4 correction' notes, not silent rewrites:
- AR plan: NoOpRenderPackProductionIntegrationTests is a 2x2 recording-
device fixture, not a production pin; the real invariance is VM0's.
Both '14,928/14,928 zero skips' totals qualified: hermetic lane filter.
- Stage-2 connected report: the dense-town CPU figures ran under the
automation observer (9.8 MB/frame alloc) and say nothing about the
owner's hitch on the product; clean numbers are VM0's.
- Track A report + findings doc: TerrainUtils.GetNormal only orients
scenery; the render normals were already smooth; A2 replaced central
differences with retail's incident-face average (the reviewer's own
premise error).
- Findings doc: 'retail brightens' is the fallback path only; real
hardware runs the single-pass lerp (VM2). LandscapeDetailTextures = 0
answers the landscape open question. VM0 production table added as the
baseline.
- Completion audit retail-path row and the review's F1/F2/F3/F5 headers
annotated with their closures.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Opus narrow re-review of ae651312: APPROVE. Closes its three residuals:
- AP-232 filed: retail's single-pass stage-1 OUTPUT alpha
(MODULATE(TEXTURE, CURRENT) @0x0059c549) is the blend weight for a
translucent subset; acdream's two-draw model is exact for opaque
subsets (fog identity pinned) and a bounded weight difference on
translucent ones. Distinct from AP-34 (queue order). Owed since
05970306.
- TerrainAtlas.DetailSamplerDescription names the production sampler
(WRAP/LINEAR x3 per ACRender::SetDetailSurfaceInternal @0x006b6280);
the test now asserts that constant's properties instead of a
test-local copy.
- Plan VM1 section: fragment now described as fogged; VM1 marked CLOSED
with the Holtburg measurement (+2.17/+0.57/+0.16 vs predicted
+2.2/+0.66/+0.16) and the detail-on cost (+0.3-0.5 ms CPU at Arwic).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Exact-pixel and production-perf comparison of 6c79d35c (+ only the A2
normal files, so no terrain mask is needed) against c51b07ef with no pack:
connected as +Acdream, visible window, one isolated config clone per
variant, pinned clocks. Open field: the only differences are idle pose,
mana digits and a passing flyer. Holtburg: same-binary-twice defines the
dynamic mask (9.8%); in the static 90% both self-diffs have ZERO pixels
with |d|>=8 while base+normals vs HEAD-off has 841/729 - all streaks inside
the animated lifestone. Buildings, ground, trees, sky and UI are clean.
Perf (uncapped Release, no automation observer, ACDREAM_FRAME_PROF=1):
Holtburg CPU p50 4.7 -> 4.1 ms, Arwic 6.0 -> 5.2 ms, GPU unchanged,
alloc/frame 574 KB -> 21 KB. No regression; F5b's '27.8 ms retail CPU' was
the observer.
Three false alarms recorded so nobody repeats them: the isolated gate
settings lack fieldOfView (90 vs the real 86.33 -> a 0.952 zoom); the real
%APPDATA% settings still selected acdream.atmospheric/low (pack ON); a
minimized GLFW window is throttled and never settles.
Tools: tools/vm0/capture-visible.ps1 (pre-campaign gate + -Exe/-Live/
-ConfigDir/-CharacterName/-PreCaptureCommand), tools/vm0/perf-run.sh,
and -BuildingDetailTextures on run-offline-pixel-gate.ps1. Baseline
patches under docs/research/evidence/vm0/.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Binding rule: when retail gates a mechanism behind a capability, preference,
or trysinglepass-style switch, the port is not done until the gate's live
value is cdb-read on the PDB-paired client and cited with the binary GUID.
Records that the owner's live 'too bright' was the pack-on gamma-space
tonemap (VM3), not the detail overlay (+3% fallback / -10% real path).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Live cdb read on the PDB-paired retail client (owner's AMD GPU):
m_caps.bCanDoSinglePassDetailing = 1, trysinglepass = 1,
MaxSimultaneousTextures = 8, bTexOpDotProduct3 = 1,
LandscapeDetailTextures = 0, EnvironmentDetailTextures = 1,
landscape/object detail surfaces null, building/environment non-null,
tiling 4 everywhere.
So retail's detail combine on modern hardware is the texture-stage path in
D3DPolyRender::SetSurface (stage0 alpha PREMODULATE, stage1 colour
BLENDCURRENTALPHA): lerp(base*diffuse, detail.rgb, detail.a*diffuse.a) -
a mild DARKENING (~-10% mid-tones with 0x06006D58), not the
DSTCOLOR+INVSRCALPHA brightening that Campaign AR ported and that the
2026-08-21 findings doc + AR review both analysed. Those described the
fallback for adapters without D3DTEXOPCAPS_PREMODULATE; the reviewer's
guess that consumer drivers rarely advertised it was wrong.
VM1 now carries the re-port (SRCALPHA+INVSRCALPHA, detail.rgb /
detail.a*diffuseAlpha, neutral at a==0) together with the fade removal.
No distance fade exists on either path. Scripts are read-only attaches
with no breakpoints.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds the independent Campaign AR review (docs/research/2026-08-22-campaign-
ar-review.md): architecture, technical correctness, performance, coverage.
Findings F1-F8; F1 (default-path invariance proven only on a 2x2 recording-
device oracle) blocks merge; F2 (10 m/50 m detail fade has no retail anchor);
F3 (the port is retail's two-pass fallback; single-pass stage path
undetermined); F4 (post stack runs in gamma space); F5 (four overclaiming
sentences, one premise error the reviewer owns).
Campaign VM plans the closure: VM0 masked pixel + production perf A/B vs
6c79d35c; VM1 removes the fade (retail attenuates by mips); VM2 one cdb read
of m_caps.bCanDoSinglePassDetailing; VM3 linear-light post stack with a
numerically neutral preset; VM4 truthful docs; VM5 volumetric jitter; VM6
weather-driven foliage wind - procedural-scenery (bit-31 id namespace) cutout
subsets only, three motions (lean/branch/flutter) with gusts and per-tree
phase, shadows share the displacement include; VM7 closeout + merge.
Roadmap gains the Campaign VM pointer beside Campaign AR.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
