-ExeOverride runs another AcDream.App.exe through the SAME isolated
settings/scene/capture path so two binaries compare without mixing tool
versions (VM0's recorded fieldOfView trap). -DebuggerScript launches the
client under cdb so ntdll's debug heap validates every free and a heap
corruption breaks at the corrupting site with a stack.
#422 (1-in-8 STATUS_HEAP_CORRUPTION exit after a pack-on offline capture):
16 runs attached + 24 runs under the debug heap on 1f151242, all clean
(P ~ 0.5 % at the filed rate). Recorded as not reproducible on the current
binary, carried as a watch item for the owner's VM7 matrix with the loop as
the first step if it recurs; no longer a merge blocker. Evidence under
docs/research/evidence/vm7 alongside the final pack-off-vs-base+normals
robust diff (5-10 px, lifestone band only).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Closes the automated half of slice VM6 at 754d59d9 and records how it was
proven. The first pixel method (clock pin 0 s vs 3 s, wind-off pair as the
control) is recorded as confounded: the treeline silhouette carries a
bimodal 0-or-~280 px rasterisation churn between runs of the same binary,
and two conclusions drawn from it were retracted. The replacement
apparatus (same pin, wind on vs off, two captures per arm, robust mask =
AND of the four cross pairs minus both repeat pairs, shadows off so only
geometry can move) found the round-4 defect (wind welded to the shadow
gate: 1 m wind = 49-65 px vs a 22 px floor while the CPU state was
correct) and, after round 5, gives 14,993 robust wind pixels vs a 65 px
floor, every one on a treeline tree, hillside tree or shoreline bush, with
the wind-off frame matching the pre-round-4 plain pipeline at mean |d|
0.007 (round 4's eec95535: 1.77, the overhead-sun regression the narrow
review caught).
tools/vm6/wind-pixel-proof.py is the analysis command the closeout names;
evidence overlays under docs/research/evidence/vm6. Plan: VM6 ledger row
CODE-COMPLETE 2026-08-23, owner visual gate owed (section VM6 Acceptance).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 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>
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>
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>
