Fix round 1 of the two the plan allows for S4-c2 (048d5b12f), addressing
every item M1-M8/A1-A8 from the campaign branch's packet section 11.
M1 (BLOCKING): ParticleRenderer.DeferToRetailAlphaQueue threw whenever a
mesh-particle batch's TranslucencyKind.Opaque classification (mask 0x00)
reached a non-Append DrawMesh row - a real, reachable outcome since
TryAppendMeshDraws applies no IsOpaque-style pre-filter unlike
WbDrawDispatcher's path. Deleted both throws (ParticleRenderer.cs,
WbDrawDispatcher.cs SubmitToAlphaQueue), extracted the router-input
derivation into internal static ParticleRenderer.RouteParticleSubmission
(directly testable), and implemented rows 1/5's immediate draw by reusing
the existing per-instance billboard/mesh draw code (new
DrawImmediateParticleSubmissionRhi, no new renderer, no sort per A8).
materialHasAlpha (row 4) is derived from CMaterial::CheckAlphaValues
@0x005396a0 (Ghidra-verified 2026-09-04): has_alpha=0 only when
Ambient.a==Diffuse.a==Specular.a==Emissive.a==1.0f, else 1 - and
CMaterial::SetTranslucencySimple @0x005396f0 (reached from
CPhysicsPart::SetTranslucency <- Particle::Update @0x0051c290's per-frame
alpha-fade) sets all four channels to (1f - translucency) uniformly, so
has_alpha == "this particle's current alpha isn't 1.0" - already carried in
ColorArgb's top byte (Lerp(StartAlpha,EndAlpha,tLife), ParticleSystem.cs
1039-1041/1453).
M3: SubmitToAlphaQueue now takes isBuildingShell + viewProjection and feeds
Row 1's detailSurfaceActive gate for translucent building-shell instances
(retail DrawBuilding @0x0059f2a0 installs building detail before its own
shell subsets reach DrawMesh). Row 1 (detail on) draws the instance
immediately at its own walk-stream AlphaSubmitMark via new
DrawImmediateAlphaInstance/DrawImmediateAlphaInstanceRhi (reusing
WriteDeferredAlphaEntrySlot + the drain's pipeline/detail code for slot 0);
never touches _deferredAlpha/the queue for pure-Immediate submissions (fixes
a latent leak: previously reserving a _deferredAlpha slot for every
candidate meant a frame with ALL-immediate content never registered a
source, so ResetAlphaSubmissions never ran). M3c: DrawPreparedAlphaBatchRhi's
own per-command hasDetail/DrawBuildingDetailRangeRhi branch is deleted -
detail-eligible content no longer reaches the drain (spec: delayed replay
is always detailEnabled=0). New AD-120 register row for the "in place -> at
the entity's own stream mark" granularity adaptation this introduces.
M6: RetailPViewPassExecutor.SubmitOrDrawTransparentCellShell routes an
EnvCell's transparent shell through the SAME RetailAlphaMeshRouter table
(mask 0x02, detailSurfaceActive = EnvCellRenderer.TransparentDetailEnabled)
instead of a hand-coded branch. Detail on: unchanged immediate draw. Detail
off: appends ONE token per CELL via new EnvCellAlphaDrawSource (internal,
delegate-based so it's unit-testable without a GPU harness), replayed
through EnvCellRenderer.RenderTransparentOrdered at the next flush -
RenderTransparentOrdered already replayed a cell's batch on demand, so no
new deferred-replay abstraction was needed (the original landing's claim
that one was required is corrected in the packet).
M4: RetailAlphaEntry.IsFirstForList deleted. Retail's per-DrawMesh-
invocation "first for this list" flag is trivially true for every subset
retail ever appends (DrawMesh @0x0059d4a0 sets both flags true at entry,
0059d4cc/0059d4d0, clearing each independently after ITS OWN first append
within that call, 0059d5ef) - the captures confirm it (new=1 on 9,685/10,556
AM lines, impossible under "first since last drain"). acdream's deleted
isFirstForList = target.Count == 0 computed the wrong quantifier. One
acdream append already IS one DrawMesh call, so the field carried no
information and its own pin was vacuous (feedback_every_new_pin_must_be_
shown_to_fail) - deleted rather than kept as an always-true no-op.
M5: split all six AlphaFlushTranscript_* KnownFailure Facts into live
AlphaFlushSites_* (site+threshold sequence only, content-independent,
unconditional pass) and AlphaFlushCounts_* (KnownFailure, full tuple incl.
drained counts) sharing one RunAlphaFlushTranscriptReplay helper. Rewrote
the KnownFailure reason honestly: THREE independent causes, not "harness
content only" - (1) zero live mesh content, (2) acdream appends one entry
per INSTANCE vs retail's one per SUBSET per DrawMesh call, (3) acdream's
CLIP list is structurally empty for ordinary content (M2). Added ONE live
valve pin (WalkFrameDriverTests.SortCellExit_ValveDrainsThroughReplayAtThe
ExactBoundary, a Theory over 2250/2249) that goes through WalkFrameDriver.
Replay's own SortCellExit arm, not RetailAlphaQueue.Flush called directly.
M2/A2/M8c (register): ~~AP-34~~ restored as struck-through RETIRED (it had
been deleted outright, not struck, breaking the register's own convention)
citing residuals AP-238/AP-239/AP-240. The chunk-2 commit's "AP-236"/
"AP-237" collided with an id ALREADY filed-and-retired on main by an
unrelated #132 fix (docs/ISSUES.md:19976) - ids are never reused, so both
are renumbered: AP-236->AP-238 (EnvCell; rewritten per M6 - granularity-only
residual now, "never through the shared queue" is retired), AP-237->AP-239
(mask-reconstruction gap; the dangling "AP-236b" citation in
RetailAlphaMeshRouter.cs never matched either filed id and is corrected to
AP-239). New AP-240 filed for M2: WbDrawDispatcher.IsOpaque filters
ClipMap out upstream, so ordinary clip-mapped content never reaches
retail's CLIP FIFO (draws immediately on the pre-existing
OpaqueAlphaToCoverage pipeline instead) - no pipeline change this round,
per the contract. AP section header recounted honestly: 159 active (was
stale at 161); AD section 92 (was 91, +AD-120).
M7: AP-239's only cited example (cloud GfxObj 0x01004C35, surface
0x08000023) is DISPROVEN - decoded Type=0x10114 has alpha-family bits
that win in BOTH retail's real priority and acdream's reconstruction, so it
never actually diverges. A 2026-09-04 scan of all 6,152 Portal-dat Surfaces
found 27 real Translucent+Base1ClipMap-no-alpha-family instances
(Type=0x14); cross-referencing GfxObjs found surface 0x08000015 on GfxObj
0x010001EC - cited in place of the disproven cloud example.
M8: (a) RenderDeviceD3D::DrawBlock is @0x005a17c0 per symbols.json, not
@0x005a18d0 (that is its per-land-cell loop head) - fixed across
RetailAlphaQueue.cs, RetailPViewPassExecutor.cs, WalkEvents.cs,
WalkFrameDriver.cs (x3), RetailFrameWalk.cs. (b) RetailAlphaQueue.cs's four
FlushAlphaList addresses were labelled "return site" but are the CALL
instruction's own address (x86 CALL rel32 is 5 bytes) - relabelled "call at
X (returns to X+5)". (d) worldbuilder-inventory.md:420's AP-34 citation
updated.
A1: RetailPViewRenderer.cs's outdoor-root passes.FlushLandscapeAlpha() call
(labelled LandscapeFlush) is deleted - retail's real LandscapeFlush
(PView::DrawCells @0x005a4840's own FlushAlphaList(0f) @0x005a4872) sits
strictly inside if (outside_view.view_count > 0) on the INTERIOR PView; an
outdoor root never reaches it (terrace-edge capture: zero 005a4877 FL
lines). Verified no opaque draw intervenes between this deletion point and
RetailAlphaQueue.EndFrame()'s own RenderNormalMode pass-end flush
(WorldSceneRenderer.cs: DrawPostWorldParticles's PView branch is an
explicit no-op; only diagnostic wireframes follow) - #132's "drain after
the finished opaque world" invariant is kept by that flush alone.
A4: RetailAlphaQueue's ApplyScratchRetention call sites passed the ENTRY
count as the SOURCE-count argument too (observedClip + observedAlpha
twice), so _sources/_sourceDrawOffsets never shrank toward the real source
count. Fixed to capture _sources.Count before Clear().
A5/A6/A7: WalkStaticStreamPopulatorTests.cs's stale "same viewer distance"
banner corrected; two off-by-one entry counts in the packet's section 10
sequences corrected (foundry-deep x10->x11, holtburg-doorway-still x5->x6);
WalkAlphaDepthTrace.cs's "new=" comment explains why IsNew is retained but
never compared (M4's finding makes a per-subset comparison meaningless at
acdream's per-instance granularity); RetailAlphaMeshRouterTests.cs's
IndependentReferenceRoute (never actually independently-shaped) renamed to
RestatedBranchTableRoute with an honest doc comment, and the unverified
"flipped in turn and failed every time" claim deleted.
A3 was resolved as a side effect of M1's SubmitToAlphaQueue doc-comment
rewrite (the wrong "0x02/0x03, 0x04/0x05, 0x08/0x09" enumeration no longer
exists); RetailAlphaMeshRouter.cs's own MaskFromTranslucencyKind comment
updated in the same spirit (M1's particle-site Opaque-reachability finding).
Mutation checks (each applied to a scratch-restored copy, confirmed
failing, then byte-exact reverted - diffed against a /tmp backup after
restore):
- A1 (RetailPViewRendererTests.DrawInside_NeverCallsFlushLandscapeAlphaDirectly):
restoring the deleted "if (ctx.RootCell.IsOutdoorNode)
passes.FlushLandscapeAlpha();" line reintroduces a direct
RetailPViewPassExecutor.FlushLandscapeAlpha call in DrawInside's compiled
body. Actual failure: "Assert.DoesNotContain() Failure: Filter matched in
collection ... CompiledCall { ... Target = Void FlushLandscapeAlpha() }".
- A4 (RetailAlphaQueueTests.RetainedSourceCapacity_ConvergesToTheReal
SourceCountNotTheEntryCount): reverting both ApplyScratchRetention calls
to (observedClip + observedAlpha, observedClip + observedAlpha) - with
100 distinct sources in the spike frame (so _sources.Capacity grows to
128, past its initial 4) followed by three low-demand frames of 10
entries via ONE repeated source - makes sourceTarget compute from 10
(Math.Max(4,10*2)=20) instead of 1 (Math.Max(4,1*2)=4). Actual failure:
"Expected the retained source-array capacity to converge toward the real
source count (1), but it stayed at 20". (A single-source-only spike does
NOT discriminate this bug - Math.Min(sourceTarget, _sources.Capacity)
clamps both formulas to the same unchanged initial 4 - hence the
100-source setup.)
- M5 valve (WalkFrameDriverTests.SortCellExit_ValveDrainsThroughReplayAt
TheExactBoundary, 2250 case): flipping RetailAlphaQueue.Flush's no-op
comparison from "<" to "<=" (S4-c1/c2's own boundary mutation) makes the
2250-entries case a no-op instead of draining. Actual failure:
"Assert.Equal() Failure: Values differ Expected: 0 Actual: 2250".
- M6 (EnvCellAlphaDrawSourceTests, both Facts): adding an immediate
renderTransparentOrdered(new[]{cellId}) call inside
EnvCellAlphaDrawSource.AddPendingCellId (simulating the M1/M3 "drew
immediately instead of deferring" bug class) makes
PendingCellToken_IsDrainedAtTheFlushAndNeverBeforeIt fail with
"Assert.Empty() Failure: Collection was not empty Collection: [[4660]]"
and ParticleAppendedBetweenTwoCellTokens_KeepsItsPositionInTheCombined
Drain fail with 'Expected: string[] ["cell:256", "particle:7",
"cell:512"] Actual: List<string> ["cell:256", "cell:512", "cell:256",
"particle:7", "cell:512"]'.
- M1 (ParticleRendererRouteTests.OpaqueClassifiedMeshBatch_WithMaterialAlpha
_RoutesToAlphaAppend): hardcoding materialHasAlpha to false inside
RouteParticleSubmission makes the Opaque-mask+has-alpha case route
Immediate instead of Append. Actual failure: "Assert.Equal() Failure:
Values differ Expected: Append Actual: Immediate".
Gates (real output lines):
- dotnet build AcDream.slnx -c Release -> "Build succeeded. 0 Warning(s)
0 Error(s)".
- Hermetic lane (--filter "Lane!=InstalledDat&Lane!=PreparedPackage&
Lane!=Live&Lane!=Manual&Lane!=Timing&Lane!=Windows&Lane!=Linux&
Lane!=SystemFont&Purpose!=Diagnostic&Status!=KnownFailure") ->
"Passed! - Failed: 0, Passed: 6864, Skipped: 0, Total: 6864".
- InstalledDat lane (ACDREAM_RUN_INSTALLED_DAT_TESTS=1,
ACDREAM_DAT_DIR="C:/Users/erikn/Documents/Asheron's Call",
--filter "Lane=InstalledDat") -> "Failed: 10, Passed: 255, Skipped: 1,
Total: 266" - the exact 4 pre-existing failures
(TowerAscent_StaircaseStaysConeVisible_EveryStep,
LayoutImporterMediaBearingChildSweepTests, LayoutImporterInvisibleSweep
Tests, Oh_doorway_still_first_frame_diff) plus the six
AlphaFlushCounts_* KnownFailure Facts, nothing else; all six
AlphaFlushSites_* Facts pass inside this same lane (the whole
WalkTraceConformanceTests partial class carries Lane=InstalledDat, so
they cannot run hermetically).
- Shader classes (VulkanShaderDescriptorContractTests,
VulkanShaderManifestTests, RenderPackSpirvValidatorTests) -> "Passed! -
Failed: 0, Passed: 32, Skipped: 0, Total: 32".
- RetailAlphaQueueTests, RetailAlphaMeshRouterTests, RetailFrameWalkTests,
WalkFrameDriverTests, ParticleRenderer*Tests, EnvCellRenderer*Tests
(combined filter) -> "Passed! - Failed: 0, Passed: 120, Skipped: 0,
Total: 120".
- Register collision grep: AP-238/AP-239/AP-240/AD-120 each count exactly
1; ~~AP-34~~ count exactly 1; live totals AP=159, AD=92.
Not done / deferred: none - all M1-M8/A1-A8 items landed; A8 was a
no-action note.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replaces the single scope-global distance-sorted RetailAlphaQueue with
retail's own two independent FIFO lists (CLIP/ALPHA, capacity 3000 each,
D3DPolyRender::AddMeshToAlphaList's exact append-only/capacity-drop
behavior — Ghidra-verified 2026-09-04), routed by a new
RetailAlphaMeshRouter porting DrawMesh's five-row immediate/delayed
branch table and ConstructMesh's subset-mask formula as pure functions,
and drained at retail's four normal-world FlushAlphaList sites
(DrawBuilding/DrawBlock/PView::DrawCells/RenderNormalMode) under the
exact Ghidra-verified no-op predicate (both counts strictly below
threshold*3000). A new WalkFrameEventKind.SortCellExit /
IWalkEventSink.OnSortCellExit / IWalkFrameLeafRenderer.FlushSortCellExit
fires once per admitted land-block cell for DrawBlock's 0.75f valve,
pinned by a dedicated far/near ordering test in RetailFrameWalkTests.cs.
WbDrawDispatcher's two submit sites and ParticleRenderer's one route
through the router; since none of the three ever draws during the Sky
leaf, installs a detail surface, or sets MultiPassAlpha, rows 1/2/4/5
are provably unreachable there and the call sites assert loudly rather
than building unexercisable immediate-draw plumbing. FlushFartherThan,
RetailAlphaOrdering.ComputeViewerDistance, and every viewerDistance
argument on the submit path are deleted.
Scope note (packet s4-depth-alpha-packet.md §10): C4 (routing EnvCell's
transparent shell batches through the shared queue) was not attempted —
EnvCell draws one per-cell MultiDrawIndexedIndirect call with no
per-subset deferred-replay abstraction, and building one without visual
verification (no graphical client in this worktree) was judged out of
this bounded chunk's scope. AP-34 is therefore retired and replaced by
two narrower rows rather than deleted outright: AP-236 (the carried-
forward EnvCell-immediate residual) and AP-237 (a newly identified gap:
TranslucencyKind.AlphaBlend can arise from either retail's Alpha/
Translucent bits, mask 0x02/ALPHA, or the Translucent+ClipMap "cloud"
override, mask 0x08/CLIP — GroupKey doesn't retain the raw bit to tell
them apart, so the router always picks ALPHA; only known example is
cloud GfxObj 0x01004C35). Both are compositing-order-only divergences,
never blend/visual ones.
Mutation checks (each applied, confirmed failing, then reverted):
- FIFO drain order reversed -> 5 RetailAlphaQueueTests fail (order).
- FlushAlphaList `<` -> `<=` -> boundary/scratch tests fail (2250 case
reads drained=0 instead of 2250).
- Capacity check loosened (3000 -> 6000) -> overflow-drop test fails
(TryAppend returns true, PendingCount reads 3001).
- IsFirstForList forced true -> flag test fails once inspected on the
pre-flush two-entry snapshot (the post-flush single-survivor version
of this test was vacuous and rewritten).
- Router row 3 condition inverted -> both the hand-traced Theory (6
cases) and the 160-cell independent-truth-table brute force fail (20
mismatches).
- SortCellExit emitted before OnLandscapeCellTurn instead of after ->
RetailFrameWalkTests ordering pin fails ("SCX must immediately follow
its own cell's SC").
- Prepare-per-list instead of prepare-once-combined -> the CLIP/ALPHA
boundary batching test throws (index out of range).
Gates: Release build 0 warnings/0 errors. Hermetic lane (Lane!=Installed
Dat&...&Status!=KnownFailure) 6855/6855 passed. InstalledDat lane 249
passed / 10 failed — exactly the 4 pre-existing failures (#383 x2
LayoutImporter, TowerAscent KnownFailure, #458 Oh_doorway_still
KnownFailure) plus 6 NEW KnownFailure Facts
(AlphaFlushTranscript_*_MatchesRetailFrame2, one per capture) extending
this gate from PM/PC to AM/FL: the flush SITE+THRESHOLD sequence matches
the capture exactly for all six poses (including zero SortCellExit
drains in every capture, confirming the 0.75 valve is inert at these
scene complexities in both retail and this replay); the drained-COUNT-
per-list dimension diverges because this hermetic harness (matching the
existing PM/PC gate's own EmptyAlphaDepthWorldData design) carries no
live GfxObj/particle content, so every observed count reads (0,0)
against retail's real per-frame volume — both sequences quoted in full
per pose in the packet's new §10. Shader classes (VulkanShaderDescriptor
ContractTests/VulkanShaderManifestTests/RenderPackSpirvValidatorTests)
32/32 passed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Retail never clips a particle to a portal view: each emitter's polys
join the ONE alpha list during its owner cell's far-to-near walk turn
(LScape::draw @0x00506330 iterates block_draw_list reversed; DrawBlock
@0x005A17C0 walks cells; ShouldDrawParticles @0x0050FE60 gates by cell
and distance), and occlusion is the depth test at FlushAlphaList
@0x0059D2E0 (its float is a COUNT threshold - 0f = flush all). The
1d2f2f73 architecture instead re-submitted particles once per
OutsideView slice under that slice's hardware clip slot, which cut
effects at aperture boundaries and drew nothing when no outside slice
was in view (the cathedral look-north disappearance).
Now: unattached emitters submit once per frame by owner-cell kind
(outdoor landcells in the landscape stage, interior EnvCells in the
final world scope - new UnattachedEmitterCellScope filter); cell,
shell-route, barrier-static, and late-stage owners submit their
per-slice cone-cull UNION once with clipSlot 0; and particles emit in
the stage matching their PARENT CELL - an interior dynamic whose
sphere straddles an exit-portal plane keeps its mesh in both stages
(#118) but its particles move to the final pass, so the interior
stage can no longer repaint over them (the aperture-band star cut).
Also lands the inert Change-2 primitives for the AP-236 retirement
(candle-behind-door): RetailAlphaQueue.FlushFartherThan drains only
the far prefix without resetting sources, plus the executor
passthrough and the conservative look-in threshold helper - nothing
calls them yet.
User-gated 2026-08-29 round 2 at the Sanctuary Cathedral: spell and
recall stars cover the whole room at every camera direction including
north; waterfall containment holds on retail's depth/seal mechanism;
adjacent-room particles/lights, walls, Holtburg, recall unregressed
(paperdoll remains pre-existing intermittent #443). Register: AP-236
filed for the remaining barrier-order divergence.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Complete Slice D3 by replacing the unbounded animation dictionary with a concurrent byte/count LRU and by putting the three retail alpha scratch owners behind one typed aggregate budget. Preserve immediate growth and draw order while reclaiming one-frame density spikes after sustained under-use. Close stale bounds-cache issue evidence without inventing a cache.
Move fallback and PView world drawing, shared alpha, particles, visibility, selection, and diagnostics behind focused frame owners. Make exceptional frames failure-atomic by restoring the shared GL baseline and preserving primary alpha failures through cleanup.
Co-authored-by: Codex <codex@openai.com>
Replace scheduler-quantized software sleeps with a reusable Windows high-resolution deadline timer, expose pacing in the frame profiler, and make shutdown wake every persistent mesh worker without losing the shared signal.
Preserve retail alpha order while using a stable radix, skip duplicate deferred-alpha SSBO packing, pack light sets, cache static selection descriptors, and retire historical material groups at the whole-frame boundary. The fixed dense-Caul sample improved from roughly 9-12 ms CPU to 5.3-6.2 ms without reducing visual quality.
Release build succeeds with zero warnings and all 6,300 tests pass with five intentional skips. Three independent retail, architecture, and adversarial reviews are clean; the post-review connected route remains pending because local ACE is offline.
Co-authored-by: OpenAI Codex <codex@openai.com>
Queue translucent world GfxObj batches and scene particles in one stable far-to-near stream using transformed DAT sort centers, then drain it at retail's landscape and final-world boundaries. Preserve authored blend, cull, lighting, opacity, and adjacent-only batching so particles behind lifestones are composited through the crystal instead of overpainting it.
Release build succeeds and all 5,914 tests pass with five intentional skips.
Co-authored-by: OpenAI Codex <codex@openai.com>
Erik