The sky + weather (rain cylinder) are retail's LScape — 'the outside seen through the exit portal.' Retail PView::DrawCells (pseudo_c:432709) draws LScape clipped to the OutsideView when outside_view.view_count>0, then does a conditional Z-buffer-ONLY clear (432731) before the indoor cells. acdream now does the same:
- sky.vert writes gl_ClipDistance against the SAME binding=2 TerrainClip UBO the terrain reads. The OutsideView planes are screen-space (NDC) half-spaces encoded as clip-space planes (nx,ny,0,dw); the test dot(plane,gl_Position)>=0 reduces after perspective divide to nx*ndcX+ny*ndcY+dw>=0 — projection-INDEPENDENT — so the same plane set clips the sky EXACTLY despite its separate dome projection. count==0 (outdoor) → all distances +1 → full-screen, bit-identical. Lighting/fog math untouched.
- GameWindow: relocated the sky pre-scene + weather post-scene draws to their retail LScape positions, each in a local 8-plane clip bracket so sky.vert confines them to the doorway indoors / full-screen outdoors. Added the conditional doorway depth-ONLY Z-clear (no color → no blue hole), scissored to the OutsideView AABB. drawSkyThisFrame = seen_outside policy AND (outdoor OR exit-portal-in-view) — a sealed interior with no exit portal in view draws no sky (kills the full-screen-sky interim regression). Sky pre/post particle passes (particle.vert has no gl_ClipDistance) scissored to the doorway bbox.
- ClipFrameAssembly gains HasOutsideView + OutsideViewNdcAabb (the doorway NDC AABB, computed for BOTH Planes and Scissor terrain modes — unlike TerrainScissorNdcAabb which is Scissor-only).
- The pre-login goto SkipWorldGeometry moved BELOW the sky draw so the live sky still renders during the EnterWorld handshake (clipAssembly is null/no-clip pre-login → full-screen).
Build green; App tests 160/160. Stage 4 tests + verify-annotations follow.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds the GPU mechanism to clip drawing to a per-cell screen-space convex
region via gl_ClipDistance, consumed by the mesh + terrain vertex shaders.
This is the MECHANISM only — every instance defaults to slot 0 (no-clip /
pass-all) and terrain to count 0, so the running game renders IDENTICALLY to
pre-U.3 (verified: offline launch compiles both shaders and reaches steady
state; no GL errors). U.4 populates real clip data from portal visibility.
Binding contract (define once, both sides obey):
- mesh_modern.vert: SSBO binding=2 CellClip[] (shared per-frame regions, slot 0
reserved no-clip) + SSBO binding=3 uint[] per-instance slot, indexed by the
IDENTICAL gl_BaseInstanceARB+gl_InstanceID used for binding=0. binding=0/1
untouched.
- terrain_modern.vert: UBO binding=2 TerrainClip { int count; vec4 planes[8]; }
for the single OutsideView region (UBO namespace; SceneLighting is UBO
binding=1, so binding=2 is free and does not collide with the mesh SSBO
binding=2). count 0 = ungated.
- Both redeclare out gl_PerVertex { vec4 gl_Position; float gl_ClipDistance[8]; }
and set unused planes (i >= count) to +1.0 so they pass everything.
CellClip std430 layout (144 bytes/slot): count@0, 3 pad uints@4/8/12,
planes[8]@16 (vec4 stride 16). Terrain UBO std140: count@0 (padded to 16),
planes[8]@16 → 144 bytes. Verified by ClipFrameLayoutTests (8 new tests).
Pieces:
- ClipFrame: per-frame container + uploader for the SHARED clip data (binding=2
SSBO + terrain UBO). NoClip() = slot 0 + terrain count 0. AppendSlot /
SetTerrainClip pack std430/std140 bytes for U.4. UploadShared binds both.
- WbDrawDispatcher + EnvCellRenderer: each owns its binding=3 zero buffer
(all-zeros sized to its instance count → slot 0), re-binds binding=2 from the
shared ClipFrame id (or an internal no-clip fallback if unwired) before MDI.
gl_ClipDistance is per-vertex, so the single glMultiDrawElementsIndirect per
group is preserved — no draw splitting.
- TerrainModernRenderer: binds the terrain clip UBO (shared or no-clip fallback)
before its draw.
- GameWindow: glEnable(GL_CLIP_DISTANCE0..7) once at init (unused planes pass-all
so always-on avoids per-draw thrash); per frame builds ClipFrame.NoClip(),
UploadShared, and hands the buffer ids to the three renderers (tiny diff; U.4
swaps NoClip() for the real portal-visibility frame).
Gate: dotnet build green; App suite 134/134; offline launch confirms both
shaders compile + link with no GL errors.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Remove IndoorCellStencilPipeline + portal_stencil shaders, RenderInsideOutAcdream,
RenderOutsideInAcdream, the A8-perf instrumentation, the cameraInsideBuilding /
ACDREAM_A8_INDOOR_BRANCH branch, and the dead EntitySet partition values. Collapse
the render branch to the default Draw(All) path (U.4a replaces it with the gated
unified pass). Keep all audited EnvCellRenderer / BuildingLoader / CellVisibility /
camera-collision fixes.
Also deleted with the partition: the two test-only walk helpers
(WbDrawDispatcher.WalkEntitiesForTest / WalkEntitiesForTestByCellIds) and their
test files (WbDrawDispatcherEntitySetTests, WbDrawDispatcherCellIdsOverloadTests),
which existed solely to exercise the removed IndoorPass/OutdoorScenery/
BuildingShells/LiveDynamic partition. EntityMatchesSet / IsShellScopedSet collapse
to the All-path constants; the set: parameter is retained as a seam for the
unified pass.
Note: the depth-clear-if-inside default-path workaround was removed per the
U.1 task list — any current indoor-wall degradation persists until a later
Phase U task lands the unified pass (expected, not a regression introduced here).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Lands the working A8 indoor-rendering and streaming fixes accumulated this
session. User has verified these visually to some degree (e.g. lifestone /
translucent meshes confirmed fine under the FrontFace flip; bridge / wall /
collision regressions confirmed fixed after travel); not every path has been
exhaustively gated. The cellar-flap defect remains OPEN and will be solved
the retail-faithful way via a dedicated brainstorm (see handoff docs).
Rendering core (reviewed, high confidence):
- EnvCellRenderer SSBO stride fix: upload packed Matrix4x4[] (64B) instead of
the 80B CPU InstanceData struct the shader never expected — fixes the
transform/texture "explosion" for any draw with >1 instance (cells that
dedupe to a shared cellGeomId). Real root cause.
- WB-style global FrontFace(CW) + per-batch CullMode carried through the MDI
layout (GroupKey + BuildIndirectArrays + DrawIndirectRange split into
same-cull runs with absolute uDrawIDOffset per run).
- EntitySet partitioning (IndoorPass / OutdoorScenery / LiveDynamic) +
WorldEntity.BuildingShellAnchorCellId so building shells scope to their
dat-derived building cell instead of rendering everywhere.
- RenderOutsideInAcdream (look into buildings from outside) +
CollectVisiblePortalBuildings frustum cull of portal bounds.
- Sky-when-inside-building + per-cell audit probe + GL-state probe.
Streaming / perf (test-covered; not independently code-reviewed this session):
- Near/far priority queues so near work wins over far; PromoteToNear carries
full landblock + mesh data; LandblockEntriesWithoutAnimatedIndex avoids
rebuilding the animated-lookup dict in the hot draw path. Fixes the
bridge-not-appearing / missing-walls / broken-collision-after-travel
regressions and improves post-transition FPS.
Tooling + docs:
- tools/A8CellAudit: offline dat cell/portal/building dumper (portals +
buildings modes) — reproduces the cellar-flap investigation with no launch.
- docs/research cellar-flap root-cause + option-2 handoff (the didInsideStencil
double-duty finding + the WB-recursive design decision + brainstorm prompt),
entity-taxonomy, replan, issue-78 visibility investigation.
Diagnostics retained on purpose: ACDREAM_A8_DIAG_* gates, portal_stencil.vert
provisional pos.w clamp, and the probe families are kept (env-var gated, zero
cost when off) because the pending option-2 cellar-flap brainstorm needs them.
Strip in the option-2 ship commit.
Indoor branch stays behind ACDREAM_A8_INDOOR_BRANCH=1 (default off = pre-A8
visual). Build green; App tests + Core (streaming/dispatcher/loader) tests pass.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
WB's PortalStencil.vert has a pos.w clamp for the camera-coplanar-with-
portal degenerate. We exclude it per spec (matches retail intent), but
the file should note the omission so future readers don't wonder.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Removes the pos.w clamp in portal_stencil.vert and the FragColor
declaration in portal_stencil.frag added in 2d31d49. Both were
speculative defensive code not in the spec or the WB reference. The
shaders now match the spec verbatim (except the locally-conventional
`core` profile qualifier which is correct).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Minimal pair for the indoor-cell stencil pipeline (#78). Vert transforms
world-space portal polygon vertices through uViewProjection; includes a
near-zero pos.w guard for coplanar-camera robustness (matches WB pattern).
Frag either passes through gl_FragCoord.z or writes gl_FragDepth=1.0
based on uWriteFarDepth; FragColor declared but suppressed via ColorMask
on the CPU side.
Matches WorldBuilder's PortalStencil.vert/.frag at
references/WorldBuilder/Chorizite.OpenGLSDLBackend/Shaders/.
Uses #version 430 core consistent with acdream's mesh_modern shaders.
Deployed to bin/ via existing Rendering\Shaders\*.* .csproj glob.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Subtract 0.01 from every terrain vertex Z in the modern terrain vertex
shader, matching retail's per-draw nudge applied inside
ACRender::landPolysDraw(arg2=2). Coplanar building floors now always win
the depth test against the rendered terrain, so the visual "ground at
the building floor" reads as the building's floor, not as Z-fighting.
Constant 0.01f bit-equals retail's float literal 0.00999999978 when
rounded to single precision.
Render-only — physics reads the un-nudged heightmap via
TerrainSurface.SampleZ / SampleZFromHeightmap. The same render-vs-
physics split is already established for EnvCell render lift
(+0.02m at GameWindow.cs around the cell-mesh draw).
Retail anchors:
docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt:1120769
docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt:702254
Cross-ref:
docs/research/2026-05-25-issue-100-terrain-cutout-handoff.md
docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-25-issue-100-terrain-cutout.md
Followed by Task 2 (delete the hiddenTerrainCells / BuildingTerrainCells
plumbing). Visible result of this commit alone: building floors stop
Z-fighting, but the 24m x 24m transparent rectangles persist until the
plumbing is removed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Phase O Task 4: extract the WB mesh pipeline (ObjectMeshManager + 7 support files)
from references/WorldBuilder into src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Wb/ and bridge dat I/O
through our DatCollection via a thin DatCollectionAdapter.
O-D7 adapter path taken: ObjectMeshManager has 26 _dats.X call sites (threshold 20),
so a DatCollectionAdapter : IDatReaderWriter is introduced rather than refactoring
ObjectMeshManager's internal dat access directly.
Files added (verbatim copies, namespace-only changes):
- ObjectMeshManager.cs — mesh pipeline hub; IDatReaderWriter field satisfied by adapter
- GlobalMeshBuffer.cs — single global VAO/VBO/IBO manager
- EdgeLineBuilder.cs — wireframe edge geometry from CellStruct polygons
- ModernRenderData.cs — ModernBatchData + LandblockMdiCommand structs
- TextureAtlasManager.cs — texture array grouping by (Width, Height, Format)
- ParticleBatcher.cs — GPU particle batching; T4 interim uses BaseObjectRenderManager
static fields from Chorizite.OpenGLSDLBackend.Lib (stays until T7)
- ParticleEmitterRenderer.cs — per-emitter particle lifecycle + rendering
- ActiveParticleEmitter.cs — wrapper holding renderer + part index + local offset
- DatCollectionAdapter.cs — NEW: bridges DatCollection → IDatReaderWriter; implements
ResolveId() via DatDatabase.TypeFromId + Tree.TryGetFile in HighRes→Portal→Language→Cell
order matching DefaultDatReaderWriter; DatDatabaseWrapper wraps DatDatabase as IDatDatabase
WbMeshAdapter.cs changes (T4 Step 6):
- _graphicsDevice switched from Chorizite.OpenGLSDLBackend.OpenGLGraphicsDevice to
extracted AcDream.App.Rendering.Wb.OpenGLGraphicsDevice
- ParticleBatcher = new ParticleBatcher(_graphicsDevice) restored (T3 had null! placeholder)
- ObjectMeshManager now constructed with new DatCollectionAdapter(dats) instead of _wbDats
- _wbDats field + its construction + disposal + [indoor-upload] NULL_RESULT diagnostic block
left intact — T7 cleanup removes these once WorldBuilder project ref is dropped
EmbeddedResourceReader.cs: replaced assembly manifest lookup (wrong prefix for our assembly)
with disk-based lookup mapping "Shaders.Particle.vert" → Rendering/Shaders/wb_particle.vert;
consistent with all other acdream shaders.
wb_particle.vert / wb_particle.frag: WB particle shaders copied verbatim with wb_ prefix
to distinguish from acdream's own particle.vert.
OpenGLGraphicsDevice.cs: ParticleBatcher property type updated to extracted ParticleBatcher;
setter changed from private to internal so WbMeshAdapter (same assembly) can assign post-ctor.
Build: green (0 errors, 0 warnings in AcDream.App).
Tests: 1147+8 baseline maintained (8 pre-existing failures unchanged).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three root causes regressed the Holtburg lifestone since the WB rendering
migration (Phase N.5 retirement amendment, commit dcae2b6, 2026-05-08).
All confirmed via temporary [LIFESTONE-DIAG] instrumentation and visually
verified by the user through the +Acdream test character.
1. **Alpha-test discard** in mesh_modern.frag transparent pass killed
high-α pixels of dat-flagged transparent surfaces. Native AC
transparent surfaces routinely include effectively-opaque pixels —
e.g. the lifestone crystal core (surface 0x080011DE) — that compose
correctly under (SrcAlpha, 1-SrcAlpha) blending. The original N.5
§2 rationale ("high-α belongs in opaque pass") doesn't hold for
surfaces flagged transparent at the dat level: those pixels can't
reach the opaque pass at all. Fix: remove `α >= 0.95 discard` from
the transparent pass, keep `α < 0.05 discard` as a fragment-cost
optimization (skip totally-empty pixels).
2. **Cull state** for the transparent pass was unset by
WbDrawDispatcher after the N.5 retirement amendment deleted
StaticMeshRenderer.cs (which had the Phase 9.2 setup at commit
6f1971a, 2026-04-11). Closed-shell translucents — lifestone crystal,
glow gems — need GL_CULL_FACE + GL_BACK + GL_CCW in the transparent
pass; otherwise back faces composite over front faces in iteration
order under DepthMask(false). Fix: re-establish Phase 9.2's exact
GL state setup at the top of Phase 8.
3. **uDrawIDOffset uniform** was missing from mesh_modern.vert.
gl_DrawIDARB resets to 0 at the start of each
glMultiDrawElementsIndirect call, so the transparent pass — which
begins later in the indirect buffer — was fetching
Batches[0..transparentCount) instead of its actual section at
Batches[opaqueCount..end). The lifestone crystal ended up reading
the FIRST OPAQUE batch's TextureHandle every frame; as the camera
moved and the front-to-back opaque sort reordered which group
landed at BatchData[0], the crystal's apparent texture flickered to
whatever sat first — typically the player character's body parts.
Fix: add `uniform int uDrawIDOffset` to the vertex shader, change
Batches[gl_DrawIDARB] → Batches[uDrawIDOffset + gl_DrawIDARB], and
set the uniform per-pass in WbDrawDispatcher (0 for opaque,
_opaqueDrawCount for transparent). Mirrors WorldBuilder's
BaseObjectRenderManager.cs line 845.
Tests: 1688/1696 passing (8 pre-existing physics/input failures
unchanged). N.5b conformance sentinel 94/94 clean.
Visual: Holtburg lifestone now renders with the spinning blue crystal
correctly composed over the pedestal. Other transparent content (glass,
particle effects, NPC clothing) is unaffected — the same uniform fix
applies globally and is correct for all transparent draws.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per Phase A.5 spec §4.9.2: ClipMap foliage uses binary alpha-cutoff.
At N₂=12 horizon distance the pixel-stepped silhouettes are visible.
A2C with MSAA 4x produces smooth retail-faithful tree edges.
GL context now requests Samples=4. WbDrawDispatcher's opaque pass
toggles GL_SAMPLE_ALPHA_TO_COVERAGE on/off around the multi-draw
indirect call. mesh_modern.frag's opaque pass now discards only
truly-empty (α<0.05) so the GPU derives sample mask from coverage;
transparent pass boundary logic is unchanged.
MSAA audit: no custom FBOs found — all rendering uses default
framebuffer. Sky/particles/ImGui are all MSAA-compatible.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Deletes:
- TerrainChunkRenderer.cs (454 lines, replaced by TerrainModernRenderer)
- TerrainRenderer.cs (247 lines, older sibling, no production users)
- terrain.vert / terrain.frag (replaced by terrain_modern.{vert,frag})
Removes the temporary Task 8 perf-benchmark toggle (ACDREAM_LEGACY_TERRAIN
env var, _useLegacyTerrain field, parallel _terrainLegacy renderer
instance, [TERRAIN-DIAG/modern|legacy] label suffix). The modern path
is now the only path. Mirror N.5's mandatory-modern amendment: missing
GL_ARB_bindless_texture throws NotSupportedException at startup
(already in place via the BindlessSupport.TryCreate gate).
Three load-bearing research comments preserved verbatim from terrain.vert
into terrain_modern.vert before deletion: the MIN_FACTOR = 0.0 N-dot-L
floor block (cross-ref Lambert brightness split), the aPacked3 bit
layout, the gl_VertexID corner-table 2026-04-21 ConstructPolygons fix.
Also retires the now-orphaned _shader field (legacy terrain pipeline
was its only user).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Symptom: terrain renders pure black in modern path (legacy renderer
correct). Diagnostic at TerrainModernRenderer.Draw showed:
glProgramUniformHandle(prog=4, loc=5, handle=0x100251xxx) → GL_INVALID_OPERATION (0x0502)
on both terrain and alpha sampler uniforms.
Root cause: the `uniform sampler2DArray` + glProgramUniformHandleARB
combination is rejected by the NVIDIA Windows driver in this configuration.
The handle is valid and resident; the uniform location is valid; the
program is valid; but the driver refuses to bind a 64-bit handle to a
sampler uniform via the program-uniform path.
Fix: switch to N.5's mesh_modern pattern — pass each 64-bit handle as a
`uniform uvec2` (low + high 32-bit halves) and construct the sampler at
the use site via the GLSL `sampler2DArray(handle)` constructor. This
form is what ARB_bindless_texture documents as universally supported and
is what N.5 already uses successfully.
Files:
- terrain_modern.frag: replace `uniform sampler2DArray uTerrain/uAlpha`
with `uniform uvec2 uTerrainHandle/uAlphaHandle` + `#define`s
- TerrainModernRenderer.cs: cache uvec2 uniform locations; set via
`glProgramUniform2(program, loc, low32, high32)` per frame
- BindlessSupport.cs: remove now-unused `SetSamplerHandleUniform`,
leave a comment noting why the helper was retired
- GameWindow.cs: also strip the temporary [TERRAIN-DBG] cursor-wrap
print added during the perf-baseline investigation
Build green; 114/114 tests in N.5+N.5b filter still pass; user-verified
terrain renders correctly in modern path post-fix. Captured fresh perf
baseline:
- Legacy: cpu_us median 1.5 / p95 3.0 (1 chunk = 1 glDrawElements)
- Modern: cpu_us median 6.4-7.0 / p95 9-14 (51 visible LBs, 1 MDI call)
Modern is ~4× slower on CPU at radius=5 because the chunked legacy path
already collapsed the scene to one draw call. The architectural wins
(zero glBindTexture/frame; constant-cost dispatch as A.5 raises radius)
will be documented in T10's perf baseline doc; the spec's
"≥10% lower CPU" acceptance criterion is invalid at radius=5 and needs
revision.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Fragment shader for the modern terrain dispatcher. Bit-identical math
to today's terrain.frag (per-cell maskBlend3 + Phase G fog + lightning
flash). Same #version 460 + GL_ARB_bindless_texture preamble change
as terrain_modern.vert. Sampling syntax unchanged — the bindless-ness
is invisible at the GLSL level.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Vertex shader for the modern terrain dispatcher. Bit-identical math
to today's terrain.vert (Phase 3c per-cell mesh + Phase G AdjustPlanes
lighting). The only structural change is the version + bindless
extension preamble — sampler access stays a regular sampler2DArray
uniform; bindless-ness is invisible at the GLSL level.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
mesh_instanced.vert + .frag deleted. WbDrawDispatcher always uses
mesh_modern when WB foundation is on. Legacy escape hatch
(ACDREAM_USE_WB_FOUNDATION=0 or bindless missing) runs through
InstancedMeshRenderer which has its own shader path — untouched.
GameWindow's else-branch removed; if bindless is missing, _meshShader
stays unloaded, _wbDrawDispatcher stays null, and _staticMesh is not
constructed (its guard requires _meshShader non-null). All downstream
_staticMesh usages were already null-safe (null-conditional operators
or explicit null guards). Two null-forgiving suppressors added at the
WbDrawDispatcher + SkyRenderer construction sites where the compiler
couldn't prove non-null but the logic guarantees it (both require
_bindlessSupport non-null, which implies _meshShader was assigned;
_textureCache is assigned unconditionally).
InstancedMeshRenderer.cs: the one reference to mesh_instanced was
a code comment (location 3 NOT used by mesh_instanced.vert) — not
a file load. Escape hatch code path is preserved; the shader comment
is now stale but low priority.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Code quality review caught four issues:
- Unnecessary GL_ARB_bindless_texture extension in mesh_modern.vert
(vert doesn't use bindless types). Removed; only the frag needs it.
- SSBO binding=1 (BatchBuffer) and UBO binding=1 (SceneLighting) are
in distinct GL namespaces — added a comment in the vert documenting
this so Task 10's bind site doesn't get confused.
- Misleading "0=opaque, 1=transparent" comment expanded to spell out
the full Decision 2 two-pass alpha-test logic and what each discard
threshold protects against.
- BatchData.flags field is reserved; documented that N.5's dispatcher
owns all blend state, with a hook for future shader-side additive.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
New entity shaders for the WB modern rendering path. Modeled on WB's
StaticObjectModern.* but adapted to acdream's lighting model:
- Drops uActiveCells (we cull cells on CPU in WbDrawDispatcher)
- Drops uDrawIDOffset (full passes, no pagination)
- Drops uHighlightColor (deferred to Phase B.4 follow-up; field reserved
in InstanceData struct comment)
- Preserves mesh_instanced's SceneLighting UBO at binding=1 with 8 lights,
fog params, lightning flash, per-channel clamp — full visual identity
vert reads InstanceData[] @ binding=0 indexed by gl_BaseInstanceARB +
gl_InstanceID for the per-entity model matrix; reads BatchData[] @
binding=1 indexed by gl_DrawIDARB for the per-group bindless texture
handle + layer.
frag samples sampler2DArray reconstructed from a uvec2 bindless handle
+ uint layer. uRenderPass uniform picks two-pass alpha-test thresholds:
0 = opaque (discard alpha<0.95), 1 = transparent (discard alpha>=0.95
and alpha<0.05).
Not yet wired to the dispatcher — Task 6 sets up shader load + capability
detection in GameWindow; Task 7-10 rewrite the dispatcher to use SSBO +
glMultiDrawElementsIndirect.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Ports retail's ParticleEmitterInfo / Particle::Init / Particle::Update
(0x005170d0..0x0051d400) and PhysicsScript runtime to a C# data-layer
plus a Silk.NET billboard renderer. Sky-PES path is debug-only behind
ACDREAM_ENABLE_SKY_PES because named-retail decomp confirms GameSky
copies SkyObject.pes_id but never reads it (CreateDeletePhysicsObjects
0x005073c0, MakeObject 0x00506ee0, UseTime 0x005075b0).
Post-review fixes folded into this commit:
H1: AttachLocal (is_parent_local=1) follows live parent each frame.
ParticleSystem.UpdateEmitterAnchor + ParticleHookSink.UpdateEntityAnchor
let the owning subsystem refresh AnchorPos every tick — matches
ParticleEmitter::UpdateParticles 0x0051d2d4 which re-reads the live
parent frame when is_parent_local != 0. Drops the renderer-side
cameraOffset hack that only worked when the parent was the camera.
H3: Strip the long stale comment in GfxObjMesh.cs that contradicted the
retail-faithful (1 - translucency) opacity formula. The code was
right; the comment was a leftover from an earlier hypothesis and
would have invited a wrong "fix".
M1: SkyRenderer tracks textures whose wrap mode it set to ClampToEdge
and restores them to Repeat at end-of-pass, so non-sky renderers
that share the GL handle can't silently inherit clamped wrap state.
M2: Post-scene Z-offset (-120m) only fires when the SkyObject is
weather-flagged AND bit 0x08 is clear, matching retail
GameSky::UpdatePosition 0x00506dd0. The old code applied it to
every post-scene object — a no-op today (every Dereth post-scene
entry happens to be weather-flagged) but a future post-scene-only
sun rim would have been pushed below the camera.
M4: ParticleSystem.EmitterDied event lets ParticleHookSink prune dead
handles from the per-entity tracking dictionaries, fixing a slow
leak where naturally-expired emitters' handles stayed in the
ConcurrentBag forever during long sessions.
M5: SkyPesEntityId moves the post-scene flag bit to 0x08000000 so it
can't ever overlap the object-index range. Synthetic IDs stay in
the reserved 0xFxxxxxxx space.
New tests (ParticleSystemTests + ParticleHookSinkTests):
- UpdateEmitterAnchor_AttachLocal_ParticlePositionFollowsLiveAnchor
- UpdateEmitterAnchor_AttachLocalCleared_ParticleFrozenAtSpawnOrigin
- EmitterDied_FiresOncePerHandle_AfterAllParticlesExpire
- Birthrate_PerSec_EmitsOnePerTickWhenIntervalElapsed (retail-faithful
single-emit-per-frame behavior)
- UpdateEntityAnchor_WithAttachLocal_MovesParticleToLiveAnchor
- EmitterDied_PrunesPerEntityHandleTracking
dotnet build green, dotnet test green: 695 / 393 / 243 = 1331 passed
(up from 1325).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three small hygiene items flagged by external code-review reports
during the sky/weather investigation:
1. CullFace state leak in SkyRenderer.RenderPass.
Disabled CullFace at the start of the sky pass without restoring it
on exit. Benign today — the global convention in this codebase is
CullFace=off and subsequent renderers (InstancedMeshRenderer,
StaticMeshRenderer) explicitly enable on entry / disable on exit —
but a future caller assuming culling stays on across the sky pass
would have silently broken. Wrap with an IsEnabled save / Enable
restore using TextRenderer.cs's pattern.
2. Stale comment in SubMeshGpu.SurfTranslucency doc.
Said "the shader multiplies output alpha by (1 - x)". After commit
97fc1b5 the shader uses translucency DIRECTLY as opacity per retail
D3DPolyRender::SetSurface at 0x59c7a6 (decomp 425255-425260).
Updated to reflect the current formula.
3. Stale comment in sky.frag header.
Said "fragment.a = texture.a × (1 - uTransparency) × (1 - uSurfTranslucency)".
Updated to "× uSurfTranslucency" with citation.
Not addressed: Report 2's "uLuminosity declared but never referenced"
claim. Verified false — the uniform was already removed; the only
remaining uLuminosity references are in comments documenting the
historical removal (sky.frag header line 13-14 explicitly says
"removed 2026-04-26"). Report 2 was reading stale content.
1314 tests pass.
Three retail-faithful sky/weather composite fixes (one cohesive commit
because they touch the same per-Surface flag plumbing path).
1. Surface.Translucency is OPACITY, not (1 - opacity).
Retail D3DPolyRender::SetSurface at 0x59c7a6 (decomp 425255-425260)
computes `curr_alpha = _ftol2(translucency × 255)` and writes that
directly as vertex.color.alpha. ACViewer (TextureCache.cs:142) and
WorldBuilder (ObjectMeshManager.cs:1115) both use `1 - translucency`
and are wrong by the same misread. Cloud surface 0x08000023 has
Translucency=0.25; under the old (1-x) formula opacity was 0.75,
making clouds 3× too bright vs retail. Flipped to use translucency
directly. Gated on the Translucent flag (0x10) so non-Translucent
surfaces (which carry Translucency=0 in the dat) keep opacity 1.0
instead of going invisible.
2. Sky fog re-enabled with a "fog floor" mitigation.
Disabled 2026-04-24 because Dereth sky meshes are authored at radii
1050-1820m while storm-keyframe FogEnd is ~400m, which would saturate
the entire dome to flat fogColor and destroy stars/moon/dome texture.
Retail visibly DOES fog its sky, mechanism still un-pinned. Workaround:
clamp `vFogFactor` to a minimum of SKY_FOG_FLOOR=0.2 so the dome shows
AT LEAST 20% raw texture even at extreme distances. Tuned via dual-
client visual comparison; preserves stars/moon while letting the
horizon haze visibly in low-FogEnd keyframes.
3. Additive sky surfaces skip fog entirely.
Retail D3DPolyRender::SetSurface at 0x59c882 calls
SetFFFogAlphaDisabled(1) when the Additive flag (0x10000) is set —
sun, moon, stars, additive cloud sheets render unfogged. Without this
gate the sun dimmed to fog color at horizon dusk/dawn instead of
staying bright. Plumbed via new `uApplyFog` shader uniform driven by
the existing SubMeshGpu.IsAdditive boolean (already set from
TranslucencyKind.Additive at upload time).
User visually verified all three vs retail screenshots in Holtburg.
Tests: 1223 pass.
Two independent brightness bugs were compounding to make rain ~6.7×
too bright at the cylinder rim, and clouds full-bright instead of
time-of-day-tinted:
**Fix 1 — Surface.Translucency was never plumbed to the shader.**
Retail's D3DPolyRender::SetSurface at 0x59c767: when the Surface's
Translucent (0x10) bit is set, its translucency float drives per-vertex
alpha (curr_alpha = ftol(0.5 × 255) = 127). ACViewer
(TextureCache.cs:142) and WorldBuilder (ObjectMeshManager.cs:1115) both
encode the same as `opacity = (1 - x)`. acdream read only Surface.Type
and Surface.Luminosity in GfxObjMesh.Build() — Surface.Translucency
(the float) was never read, never stored, never reached the shader.
For the rain Surface 0x080000C5 (Translucency=0.5) this meant rain
streaks were at full alpha=1.0 instead of 0.5 — 2× brighter than retail
under the (SrcAlpha, One) blend.
Plumbed end-to-end:
GfxObjSubMesh.SurfTranslucency (init float, default 0)
GfxObjMesh.Build() reads surface.Translucency next to .Luminosity
SubMeshGpu.SurfTranslucency carries it to draw time
SkyRenderer.RenderPass writes uniform `uSurfTranslucency`
sky.frag final alpha: a = sampled.a × (1 - uTransparency) ×
(1 - uSurfTranslucency)
Bonus reach: cloud surface 0x08000023 has Translucency=0.25 → clouds
also dimmed by 25%, more retail-faithful overall.
**Fix 2 — Emissive default was 1.0 instead of the surface's actual Luminosity.**
The sky shader's `effEmissive = (luminosity > 0) ? luminosity : sub.SurfLuminosity`
fallback never fired because the local `luminosity` defaulted to 1f (always
> 0). Every sky mesh got effEmissive=1.0, saturating vTint to white before
the alpha blend. The comment claimed the fallback was active; the code
disagreed.
Empirical sky-surface LUMINOUS audit (RainMeshProbe a6e7108) found that
NO Dereth sky surface carries the SurfaceType.Luminous flag (0x40) —
the previous code comment that did was wrong. The differentiator is
purely the Surface.Luminosity FLOAT:
dome/sun/moon: Lum=1.0 → vTint saturates → texture passthrough
stars/clouds: Lum=0.0 → vTint = ambient + sun·N·L → time-of-day tint
rain: Lum=0.1484 → faint emissive baseline + lit additions
Refactored:
replaceLuminosity = NaN sentinel for "no replace override"
rep.Luminosity > 0 → set replaceLuminosity to override value
rep.MaxBright > 0 → cap replaceLuminosity at MaxBright
effEmissive = NaN ? sub.SurfLuminosity : replaceLuminosity
Dead uniform `uLuminosity` removed from sky.frag and SkyRenderer SetFloat
call — the redundant multiply was already commented-out earlier this
year (would have double-dimmed clouds), and the uniform value was unused
in the fragment.
Visual verification (Holtburg, live ACE, Rainy DG forced and natural
LCG-picked): rain rim is no longer visible; cloud direction matches
retail when the same DayGroup is active; sky lighting transitions through
day cycle with appropriate time-of-day tint on stars/clouds.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Iteration on the sky rendering pipeline to restore stars/moon visibility
at night and fix washed-out grey daytime clouds. Key fixes:
* sky.frag: disable fog-mix on sky meshes. Retail's keyframe FogEnd
(0..400m at midnight, up to 2400m during day) is calibrated for
terrain; sky meshes are authored at radii 1050-14271m which sits
past FogEnd universally, causing every sky pixel to saturate to
fogColor (dark navy). Stars, moon, dome texture all got
obliterated. The horizon-glow trade-off is noted in the shader
comment; research item to find retail's sky-specific fog range
later.
* SkyRenderer + sky.frag: promote rep.Luminosity into uEmissive so the
vertex lighting saturates properly for bright keyframes. Retail's
FUN_0059da60 non-luminous path writes rep.Luminosity into
material.Emissive via the cache +0x3c slot; we were instead using
it as a post-fragment multiply which could only dim, never brighten.
Net effect: daytime clouds now render saturated white, dome dims
correctly at night (rep.Luminosity=0.11 → Emissive=0.11), stars
and moon unchanged.
* terrain.vert: MIN_FACTOR 0.08 -> 0.0 per retail FUN_00532440 decompile
(DAT_00796344 ambient-floor = 0.0). Back-lit terrain now falls to
pure ambient rather than getting an 8% sun floor.
New research / tooling (no runtime impact):
* docs/research/2026-04-24-lambert-brightness-split.md — retail's
ambient-brightness formula pinned from PE .rdata read + live
RetailTimeProbe capture: effAmbBright = AmbBright + |sunDir| * 0.2
where scale constant 0x0079a1e8 = 0.2f exactly.
* docs/research/2026-04-23-lightning-real.md — research note on the
dat-baked PhysicsScript-driven lightning path (Rainy DayGroup has
explicit PES-triggered flash SkyObjects with 5ms time windows).
* Corrections stapled to sky-decompile-hunt-{B,C}.md: DAT_00842778 is
DirColor, DAT_0084277c is AmbColor (the hunt docs had the swap
backwards).
* tools/RetailTimeProbe/Program.cs: extended with pid=NNNN selector,
sky global probe (DirColor/AmbColor/AmbBright/sunDir/cache.amb),
and the 0x0079a1e8 scale-factor readout.
* tools/SkyObjectInspect/: throwaway dat-inspector built by the Opus
deep-dive agent. Identified GfxObj 0x010015EF as the stars layer
(A8R8G8B8 128x128 texture, 4% bright-pixel ratio).
* src/AcDream.App/Rendering/TextureCache.cs: per-texture alpha
histogram dump under ACDREAM_DUMP_SKY=1 for diagnosing "are the
clouds decoded with proper alpha" type questions.
README: rewrite to reflect current state (playable pre-alpha rendering
Dereth with animated characters, day-night cycle, weather, etc.)
instead of the stale "Phase 0 dat inventory only" description.
All 742 tests green.
Retail applies linear vertex fog with 3D range distance
(D3DRS_FOGVERTEXMODE=3=LINEAR, D3DRS_RANGEFOGENABLE=1,
D3DRS_FOGTABLEMODE=0=NONE) to ALL mesh draws including sky. Only
FOGCOLOR / FOGSTART / FOGEND are lerped per keyframe; the mode flags
are init-only.
Verified in `docs/research/2026-04-23-sky-fog.md`:
- chunk_005A0000.c:3361-3389 device-init sets the modes.
- Sky meshes render at world origin (translation zeroed, rotation-
only) with intrinsic mesh radii in the thousands of meters
(WorldBuilder's SkyboxRenderManager.cs:247 comment confirms).
- With keyframe MaxWorldFog = 2400m, the dome saturates to
WorldFogColor at its horizon band. THAT is retail's dusk/dawn
horizon-glow mechanism.
Port:
`sky.vert` now computes the vertex fog factor:
worldPos = uModel × aPos (camera-centered since view translation=0)
dist = length(worldPos.xyz)
fogFactor = clamp((fogEnd - dist) / (fogEnd - fogStart), 0, 1)
— outputs as varying vFogFactor. 1.0 means no fog contribution,
0.0 means full fog color.
`sky.frag` applies the mix BEFORE the lightning-flash bump:
rgb = mix(uFogColor.rgb, rgb, vFogFactor)
Uses the existing SceneLighting UBO's uFogParams (x=start, y=end,
z=flash, w=mode) and uFogColor — no new uniforms, no C# change.
Expected visual:
- Dome at dawn/dusk: horizon band blends toward keyframe fogColor
(warm orange at sunset, cool blue at dawn), matching retail's
sky/fog coupling.
- Close sky objects (sun disk at typical mesh radius): unaffected
since dist < fogStart.
- Clouds at intermediate distance: partial fog blend, subtly
muting their saturation with distance.
Note on lightning: the flash channel (uFogParams.z) stays wired but
is currently always 0 because no code drives it. Agent #5 is
researching retail's real lightning mechanism (PlayScript / SetLight
PhysicsScript / other). This commit does not attempt to port it.
Build + 733 tests green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
After Phase 4 landed the per-vertex lighting formula, user observed
acdream was still "a bit too bright" vs retail. Root cause:
- My Phase 4 shader deliberately left vTint unclamped so D3D-style
overbright contributions to emissive meshes (dome has Emissive=1 → lit
could reach 2.0 with ambient + sun) would clamp naturally at the
framebuffer.
- But the frag cap was 1.2 (leaving "headroom for lightning flash"),
letting dome vertices run 20% hotter than retail's per-channel 1.0.
Retail's D3D fixed-function pipeline clamps vertex lit colour at
D3DRS_COLORCLAMP=1 (default) BEFORE texture modulation. We now match:
- Clamp `vTint = clamp(lit, 0, 1)` in sky.vert so the saturate happens
at the vertex stage, exactly like D3D.
- Drop normal-frame frag cap from 1.2 → 1.0 (the 3.0 flash relaxation
stays so lightning strobes still visibly blow out).
Expected visual:
- Dome: identical appearance (was clamping to framebuffer 1.0 anyway),
but pure retail-spec rendering so no sneaky 20% headroom.
- Clouds: unchanged (already < 1.0 at morning Rainy keyframe).
- Fragment flash during storm: unchanged — cap relaxes to 3.0 on flash.
Build + 733 tests green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Re-enables the Phase 2 lighting formula that was reverted in Phase 3b
due to a "blue-green-yellow sweep" across clouds. Root cause of that
earlier regression was NOT the formula — it was that we rolled the
wrong DayGroup (Sunny when retail was Cloudy), producing a sharp warm
sun against a sky that should have been rendered with diffuse
overcast light. After Phase 3g pinned the LCG multiplier to 360
(DaysPerYear) so retail + acdream agree on DayGroup, the same
per-vertex formula now faithfully reproduces retail's visuals.
The formula is verified in decompile agent Q2+Q4+Q6 results,
`docs/research/2026-04-23-sky-material-state.md`:
D3DRS_LIGHTING = ON (FUN_0059da60:10648)
D3DRS_AMBIENT = 0 (never written after init)
Material.Emissive = (Luminosity, Luminosity, Luminosity, 1)
Material.Ambient/Diffuse = defaults (≈1,1,1,1) for non-luminous
light.Ambient = keyframe AmbColor × AmbBright (via SetDirectionalLight)
light.Diffuse = keyframe DirColor × DirBright
Fixed-function lighting per vertex:
lit = Emissive + Ambient × lightAmbient + Diffuse × lightDiffuse × max(N·L, 0)
= Surface.Luminosity + AmbColor×AmbBright + DirColor×DirBright × max(N·L, 0)
Fragment: texture × lit × SkyObjectReplace.Luminosity.
Expected visual:
- Dome (Surface.Luminosity=1): `lit = 1 + amb + diff·N·L` saturates to 1
→ texture passthrough, baked gradient preserved.
- Clouds (Surface.Luminosity=0): `lit = 0 + amb + diff·N·L`
→ purple haze at night (ambient dominates, sun below horizon);
→ warm tan at dusk (ambient + warm sun on west-facing vertices);
→ pale cool gray at noon (ambient + white sun from above).
- Sun/moon (SurfaceType.Additive, Luminosity=1): same as dome +
additive blend — stays bright regardless.
The shader uniforms (uAmbientColor, uSunColor, uSunDir, uEmissive)
were already wired in the C# renderer from Phase 2; Phase 3b just
stopped using them in the shader. This commit re-activates them.
No clamp at the vertex — retail's D3D lighting allows Emissive+sum
to exceed 1, relies on the framebuffer per-channel saturation. We
keep the 1.2 ceiling in the frag (for lightning flash overbright
headroom) consistent with that convention.
No fog yet (Q1 confirmed retail leaves fog enabled for sky; will add
in a follow-up if horizon looks too bright).
Build + 733 tests green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Phase 2 added a per-vertex lighting path to the sky shader based on the
Phase 1 dump showing dome surfaces with Luminosity=1.0 and cloud
surfaces with Luminosity=0.0. Live visual verification vs retail at
MorntideAndHalf (dayFraction=0.48, user-observed 2026-04-23) disproved
the hypothesis:
retail: clean blue sky + white clouds
acdream: blue-green-yellow sky sweep + greyish clouds
The "sweep" is exactly the signature of per-vertex `diffuse × sunColor`
where sunColor=(250,215,151) warm gold at ~63° east: the west-facing
cloud faces get the gold tint, east-facing stay cool, and interpolation
across the mesh produces the color sweep. Retail's clean white clouds
at the same time of day means retail is NOT applying per-vertex lighting
to sky meshes.
Revised model (unlit + SkyObjectReplace modulation):
fragment.rgb = texture.rgb * uLuminosity
fragment.a = texture.a * (1 - uTransparency)
The "purple haze night / warm dusk" effect users describe from retail
comes from SkyObjectReplace per-keyframe Luminosity dimming + Transparent
fading, NOT from a shader ambient multiply. At midnight, for example,
Replace[0] dims the dome to 11% (Luminosity_raw=11) and Replace[2]
fully hides the drifting cloud (Transparent_raw=100) — so the camera
sees the dome texture at 11% × baked gradient colors, and any purple
the user perceives is baked into the dome texture's night gradient.
The retail-authoritative Surface.Luminosity flag probably feeds a
separate render path (material system? D3D emissive vs diffuse
coefficients?) that is NOT per-vertex GL lighting. A future phase can
revive it if the decompile hunt for the DayGroup selection algorithm
surfaces it.
Code change: sky.vert + sky.frag only. The C# renderer still pushes
uAmbientColor/uSunColor/uSunDir/uEmissive uniforms — they are declared
in the shaders but unused in Phase 3b. No renderer change needed; these
uniforms cost nothing and keep the port-forward path open.
Build + 717 tests green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Phase 2 of the sky port. Empirically confirmed from the Phase 1 dump
(ACDREAM_DUMP_SKY=1 on the live Dereth region): retail distinguishes
self-illuminated sky meshes from lit ones by the `Surface.Luminosity`
FLOAT field (0..1), NOT by the `SurfaceType.Luminous` flag bit (none of
Dereth's sky meshes have the flag set).
Observed values on the 4 currently-visible sky GfxObjs:
GfxObj 0x010015EE (dome, 4 surfaces) Luminosity = 1.0
GfxObj 0x010015EF (upper cloud) Luminosity = 0.0
GfxObj 0x01004C36 (lower drift cloud) Luminosity = 0.0
GfxObj 0x01001348 (sun/moon additive) Luminosity = 1.0
Retail uses this as an emissive coefficient in the per-vertex lighting
formula (decompiled chunk_00500000.c:7535 FUN_00508010 + chunk_00530000.c
AdjustPlanes per-vertex math):
tint = clamp(vec3(Luminosity) + AmbColor*AmbBright
+ max(dot(N, -sunDir), 0) * DirColor*DirBright,
0.0, 1.0)
fragment = texture * tint
When Luminosity=1.0 the clamp saturates → full texture brightness
regardless of time of day (dome gradient preserved; sun/moon always
bright). When Luminosity=0.0 only the ambient + diffuse term drives the
tint, so clouds pick up the time-of-day ambient (purple at midnight
per AmbColor=(200,100,255)×AmbBright=0.4 ≈ (0.31,0.16,0.40); warm tan
at dusk; pale-cool at noon).
Also empirically confirmed: raw SkyObjectReplace Transparent/Luminosity
/MaxBright are in 0..100 percent range (observed 11, 15, 22, 66, 100,
and -1 sentinel). The `/100` divide in SkyDescLoader (eeae83a) is
retail-correct; `_DAT_007a1870` in the decompile must be 0.01f.
Code changes:
- src/AcDream.Core/Meshing/GfxObjSubMesh.cs: new `Luminosity` field on
the per-submesh record (0..1, defaults to 0 for non-sky meshes).
- src/AcDream.Core/Meshing/GfxObjMesh.cs: pull Surface.Luminosity when
building submeshes (alongside existing Translucency capture).
- src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Sky/SkyRenderer.cs:
- SubMeshGpu gains SurfLuminosity, propagated from GfxObjSubMesh.
- Render() pushes uAmbientColor/uSunColor/uSunDir once per frame from
the interpolated keyframe; uEmissive once per submesh.
- uTint uniform removed (replaced by the vTint varying computed in
the vertex shader).
- src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Shaders/sky.vert: computes vTint per-vertex
using the retail AdjustPlanes formula.
- src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Shaders/sky.frag: consumes vTint, drops
uTint uniform. uLuminosity (the per-keyframe SkyObjectReplace
override) still applied as a final scalar multiply.
Expected visual difference from Phase 1 baseline:
- Dome gradient: IDENTICAL (Luminosity=1 saturates).
- Sun / moon: IDENTICAL (Luminosity=1 saturates, additive blend).
- Clouds: now tinted by time of day. Midnight → purple haze. Noon →
pale cool. Dusk → warm tan.
Open questions (unchanged from Phase 1 doc):
- Does the 15s LightTickSize throttling need porting? Phase 3.
- Does FUN_00532440 (AdjustPlanes per-cell terrain relight) need
porting for non-sky geometry to follow the sky? Phase 3.
Build + 717 tests green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Retail's Region dat stores SkyObjectReplace.Luminosity / Transparent /
MaxBright as percentages in the 0..100 range. Our shader expects
fractions in 0..1. We were passing raw values (luminosity up to 100)
straight into the sky fragment shader's rgb-multiplier:
rgb = sampled.rgb * uTint.rgb * uLuminosity;
At the "Sunny" DayGroup's noon keyframes (verified via live diag),
Luminosity = 100 → shader multiplied the cloud texture RGB by 100 →
min(rgb, vec3(1.2)) clamped all channels to 1.2 → pure white sky.
Also gave the dawn/dusk purple sky effect on top of the pale texture.
Fix: SkyDescLoader.ConvertTimeOfDay divides Luminosity, Transparent
and MaxBright by 100 when loading each SkyObjectReplace. The Rotate
field stays as degrees (values like 270° are genuine headings, not
percentages).
Transparent was accidentally surviving via a 0..1 clamp downstream,
but we fix it for consistency and so brightness-attenuating values
in the 0..99 range (partial fade during dawn/dusk) work correctly
instead of rounding to full-transparent.
WorldBuilder's SkyboxRenderManager does NOT apply these fields at
all — that's why they never hit this bug. Our port applies them for
per-keyframe day-night fades, so we needed the unit conversion.
Also picked up in this commit (incidental, already running):
- Sky render: per-submesh blend mode from TranslucencyKind.Additive
for sun/moon-style self-bright objects (Additive bit 0x10000).
Luminous flag 0x40 intentionally NOT mapped to additive — that
flag is on the sky dome + cloud sheets and making them additive
produced the previous "fully white" iteration of this bug.
- ToD default seed: DayTicks/16 (Midsong = hour 9 = true noon)
instead of DayTicks*0.5 which landed on Gloaming-and-Half (sunset)
due to DerethDateTime's +7/16 day-fraction offset. Pre-TimeSync
view now correctly starts at noon.
- Lightning flash: brighter white-blue (vec3(1.5,1.5,1.8)) instead
of dim grey; ceiling relaxed during flash so the strobe actually
blows out. Cadence (strike intervals, decay) unchanged.
- Saved docs/research/2026-04-21-sky-deep-audit.md with the
decompile+ACE+ACME+WorldBuilder research done to corner this bug.
Open follow-up (not fixed here): sky clouds are white at noon /
don't get the dusk/night purple tint. Our sky shader is fully unlit
— doesn't apply sun/ambient directional light like the terrain
shader does. AmbientColor in the keyframe data carries the right
tint (purple at midnight, magenta at dusk) but we pass
uTint = Vector4.One instead of the keyframe value. Next commit will
wire directional-sun + ambient into sky.frag so cloud meshes pick
up the time-of-day color.
All 717 tests green. User-confirmed: sky colors are now "much
better" after this change (previously fully white).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Our LandblockMesh, terrain.vert corner tables, and TerrainSurface.SampleZ
used the OPPOSITE diagonal for each CellSplitDirection enum value from
what ACE (and the decompiled retail client at FUN_00532a50) picks for the
same sign bit. Same formula, same sign-bit mapping, inverted geometry.
Symptom: remote players rendered at server-broadcast Z hovered or clipped
by up to ~1m on sloped cells. Flat cells masked the bug because all four
corner heights were equal so any triangle pair returned the same Z. Live
diagnostic confirmed +0.79m hover on cell (7,5) at lb(AA,B4) — a ~20°
slope — while flat neighbors agreed to floating-point noise.
Three coordinated edits so CPU mesh + GPU corner lookup + CPU sampler all
agree on the retail geometry:
- LandblockMesh: SWtoNE branch now emits {BL,BR,TR}+{BL,TR,TL} (y=x cut),
SEtoNW emits {BL,BR,TL}+{BR,TR,TL} (x+y=1 cut).
- terrain.vert: corner-index tables updated to match.
- TerrainSurface.SampleZ: swapped the two branches' interpolation.
After the fix, 19 live DIAG samples across flat + two slope transitions
all land within 0.01m of server Z. Staircase pattern during remote motion
on slopes is a separate bug (no per-frame collision resolution) and will
be addressed via the transition/FindValidPosition port.
Cross-verified against: ACE LandblockStruct.ConstructPolygons lines 221-
244, decompiled retail FUN_00532a50 (chunk_00530000.c:2235), ClientReference
IsSWtoNECut (tests/AcDream.Core.Tests/Terrain/ClientReference.cs).
Updated test SplitDirection_TerrainSurface_AgreesWith_TerrainBlending
with corrected expectations (Z values swap between the two branches).
All 717 tests green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two runtime blockers discovered after merging the sky/weather/lighting
branch:
1. GLSL reserved word: mesh.frag + mesh_instanced.frag used \`int active\`
as a local. On GLSL ES / some drivers \`active\` is a reserved identifier
and compile fails hard (\"ERROR: 0:38: 'active' : Reserved word\").
Renamed to \`activeLights\`.
2. SkyRenderer.EnsureMeshUploaded called DatCollection.Get<GfxObj>
without the _datLock that wraps the streaming pipeline's dat reads.
DatBinReader has shared buffer state; concurrent reads race and
throw ArgumentOutOfRangeException from Vec2Duv.Unpack deep in the
mesh parse. Wrapped both Get<GfxObj> and GfxObjMesh.Build in
try/catch and cache a null entry on failure so we don't retry every
frame and crash the render loop. Full fix would plumb _datLock into
the sky renderer, left as a TODO.
Client now stable end-to-end — in-world, spawn stream flowing,
animation + audio + sky + light UBO all live.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add ParticleRenderer that draws every live particle from the shared
ParticleSystem as a billboarded quad. Unit quad VBO + per-instance
(pos, size, color) VBO with glVertexAttribDivisor for one draw call
per emitter. Billboards using the camera's basis vectors so quads
always face the viewer.
Fragment shader does a procedural radial falloff (no texture pipeline
needed — raindrops / snowflakes read as soft dots). AttachLocal
emitters get re-centred on the camera each frame so the rain volume
follows the player per r12 §7.
Two-pass render splits additive from alpha-blend emitters so blend
state flips once per kind rather than per-emitter.
Wired into GameWindow.OnRender after static-mesh draw with depth
write off (particles occluded by walls but don't self-occlude).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Wire the existing LightManager + WorldTimeService state into visible
rendering. Every draw call (terrain, static mesh, instanced mesh, sky)
now shares one SceneLighting UBO at binding=1 carrying:
- 8 Light slots (Directional / Point / Spot, retail hard-cutoff)
- Ambient RGB + active light count
- Fog start/end/mode + color + lightning flash scalar
- Camera world position + day fraction
The CPU side (SceneLightingUbo in Core.Lighting) is a POD struct that
gets BufferSubData'd once per frame from GameWindow.OnRender. Shaders
read the block via `layout(std140, binding = 1) uniform SceneLighting`
— no per-program uniform uploads.
Shader changes:
- mesh.frag + mesh_instanced.frag accumulate 8 dynamic lights per
fragment using the retail no-attenuation hard-cutoff model
(r13 §10.2 / §13.1). Sun reads slot 0; spots use hard cos-cone test.
Additive lightning flash + linear fog layered on top. Saturate
clamps per-channel to 1.0.
- terrain.vert bakes AdjustPlanes sun+ambient per vertex using the
retail MIN_FACTOR = 0.08 ambient floor (r13 §7). terrain.frag adds
fog + flash on top of the baked vertex color.
- mesh.vert + mesh_instanced.vert emit vWorldPos so the fragment
stage can do per-pixel lighting against world-space positions.
- New sky.vert / sky.frag pair — unlit, scroll-UV, camera-centered,
with its own 0.1..1e6 far plane. Ports WorldBuilder's skybox.
SkyRenderer (new file in App/Rendering/Sky/) ports WorldBuilder's
SkyboxRenderManager verbatim for the C# idiom: zeroed view translation,
dedicated projection, depth mask off, iterate each visible SkyObject
in the day group, apply arc transform (Z rot for heading + Y rot for
arc sweep), feed TexVelocityX/Y as a scrolling UV offset, apply
per-keyframe SkyObjectReplace overrides (mesh swap + transparency +
luminosity) for overcast / dusk cloud variants.
GameWindow integration:
- OnLoad parses Region (0x13000000) into LoadedSkyDesc and hot-swaps
WorldTime's provider to the dat-accurate keyframes. Seeds to noon
for offline rendering. Creates the SceneLightingUboBinding and the
SkyRenderer.
- OnRender: set clear color from atmosphere fog, tick WeatherSystem,
spawn/stop rain/snow camera-local emitters on kind change, feed
sun to LightManager (zero intensity indoors — r13 §13.7), tick
LightManager against viewer pos, build + upload the UBO, draw
sky before terrain, draw terrain + static + instanced using the
shared UBO.
5 new UBO packing tests (struct sizes, slot population, 8-light cap,
directional slot 0).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds the first on-screen HUD for the dev client plus today's mouse-control
refinements. Also lands yesterday's scenery-alignment changes that were
left uncommitted in the working tree.
Overlay:
- BitmapFont rasterizes a system TTF via StbTrueTypeSharp into a 512x512
R8 atlas at startup (Consolas on Windows, DejaVu/Menlo fallbacks)
- TextRenderer batches 2D quads in screen-space with ortho projection;
one shader + two draw calls (rect then text) for panel backgrounds
under glyphs
- DebugOverlay composes info / stats / compass / help panels on top of
the 3D scene; toggles via F1/F4/F5/F6; transient toasts for key events
- DebugLineRenderer and its shaders (carried over from the scenery work)
are properly committed in this commit
Controls:
- Per-mode mouse sensitivity (Chase 0.15, Fly 1.0, Orbit 1.0); F8/F9 to
adjust the active mode multiplicatively (x1.2)
- Hold RMB to free-orbit the chase camera around the player; release
stays at the new angle (no snap-back)
- Mouse-wheel zooms chase distance between 2m and 40m
- Chase pitch widened to [-0.7, 1.4] so mouse-Y tilts both ways from
the default neutral angle
Scenery alignment (carried from yesterday's session):
- ShadowObjectRegistry AllEntriesForDebug + Scale field
- SceneryGenerator uses ACViewer's OnRoad polygon test + baseLoc +
set_heading rotation
- BSPQuery dispatchers accept localToWorld so normals/offsets transform
correctly per part
- TransitionTypes.CylinderCollision rewritten with wall-slide + push-out
- PhysicsDataCache caches visual-mesh AABB for scenery that lacks
physics Setup bounds
Replace guessed sun direction (0.5, 0.4, 0.6) with ACME's verified
value (0.5, 0.3, -0.3) from GameScene.cs:238. Replace hardcoded
ambient/diffuse (0.25/0.75) with ACME's ambient intensity 0.45 from
LandscapeEditorSettings.cs:108.
Terrain shaders now match ACME Landscape.vert/frag pattern:
- Vertex shader computes Lambert term with xLightDirection uniform
- Fragment shader applies: color * (clamp(lambert, 0, 1) + xAmbient)
Static object shader matches ACME StaticObject.vert:
- LightingFactor = max(dot(N, -L), 0) + ambient
- Removed separate uDiffuseIntensity (ACME doesn't have one)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replace 25 per-landblock VAOs with one shared buffer set. Vertex positions
are now baked in world space during AddLandblock (worldOrigin added to each
vertex), so uModel is eliminated from terrain.vert entirely. Buffer rebuild
happens on the cold path (landblock load/unload) via RebuildGpuBuffers.
Draw loop: bind VAO once, then one glDrawElements per visible landblock
into its sub-range of the shared EBO — same frustum-cull logic, no
VAO/VBO rebind overhead per landblock.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replaces the per-entity glUniform uModel path with a shared instance VBO and
DrawElementsInstanced. All instance model matrices are uploaded to GPU once per
frame; the VAO's per-instance attribute pointers (locations 3–6, divisor=1) are
updated with a byte-offset re-point per group so a single VBO serves all groups
without requiring DrawElementsInstancedBaseInstance (not in Silk.NET 2.23).
Changes:
- InstancedMeshRenderer: add _instanceVbo, _instanceBuffer scratch; EnsureUploaded
sets up mat4 instance attrs (locs 3–6) from the shared VBO; Draw builds the flat
float[] of all instance matrices once then calls DrawElementsInstanced per sub-mesh.
Drops the unused uint TerrainLayer attribute (loc 3 from vertex VBO) — mesh shaders
never used it. Adds InstanceGroup helper to track per-group buffer offsets.
- mesh_instanced.frag: replace sampler2DArray+uTextureLayer with sampler2D uDiffuse,
matching the existing TextureCache / individual-texture pipeline.
- mesh_instanced.vert+frag: track as committed files (were untracked).
- Shader.cs: add SetVec3 helper needed for uLightDirection uniform.
- GameWindow.cs: switch mesh shader load from mesh.vert/.frag to
mesh_instanced.vert/.frag.
Visual output is identical: same entities, same textures, same lighting constants
(SUN_DIR=(0.5,0.4,0.6), AMBIENT=0.25, DIFFUSE=0.75 — moved from frag to vert).
Build: clean. Tests: 431/431 green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Server sends UpdateMotion whenever an entity's motion state changes:
NPCs starting a walk cycle, creatures switching to a combat stance,
doors opening, a player waving, etc. Phase 6.1-6.4 already handles
rendering different (stance, forward-command) pairs for the INITIAL
CreateObject, but without this message NPCs freeze in whatever pose
they spawned with and never transition to walking/fighting.
Added UpdateMotion.TryParse with the same ServerMotionState the
CreateObject path uses, reached via a slightly different outer
layout (guid + instance seq + header'd MovementData; the MovementData
starts with the 8-byte sequence/autonomous header this time rather
than being preceded by a length field). Only the (stance, forward-
command) pair is extracted — same subset CreateObject grabs.
WorldSession dispatches MotionUpdated(guid, state) when a 0xF74C
body parses successfully. The App-side wiring (guid→entity lookup
and AnimatedEntity cycle swap) is intentionally deferred to a
separate commit because it touches GameWindow which is currently
being edited by the Phase 9.1 translucent-pass work.
89 Core.Net tests (was 83, +6 for UpdateMotion coverage).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The visual-win commit that wires up the Phase 3c.1/.2/.3 building blocks:
Holtburg's terrain now uses AC's real per-cell texture-merge blend
(base + up to 3 terrain overlays + up to 2 road overlays, with alpha
masks from the alpha atlas) instead of the flat per-vertex single-layer
atlas lookup that preceded it.
Geometry rewrite:
- New TerrainVertex struct (40 bytes): Position(vec3) + Normal(vec3) +
Data0..3 (4x uint32 packed blend recipe)
- LandblockMesh.Build is now cell-based: iterates 8x8 cells instead of
the old 9x9 vertex grid, emits 6 vertices per cell (two triangles),
384 total vertices per landblock
- For each cell: extract 4-corner terrain/road values → GetPalCode →
BuildSurface (cached across landblocks via a shared surfaceCache) →
FillCellData → split direction from CalculateSplitDirection → emit
6 vertices in the exact gl_VertexID % 6 order WorldBuilder's vertex
shader expects
- Per-vertex normals preserved via Phase 3b central-difference
precomputation on the 9x9 heightmap, interpolated smoothly across
the cell (we deliberately didn't adopt WorldBuilder's dFdx/dFdy
flat-shade approach — Phase 3a/3b user-tuned lighting was worth
keeping)
Renderer rewrite:
- TerrainRenderer VAO: vec3 Position, vec3 Normal, 4x uvec4 byte
attributes for Data0..3. The uvec4-of-bytes read pattern matches
Landscape.vert so the ported shader math stays byte-for-byte
identical to WorldBuilder's.
- Binds both atlases: terrain atlas on unit 0 (uTerrain), alpha atlas
on unit 1 (uAlpha)
Shader rewrite (ports of WorldBuilder Landscape.vert/.frag, trimmed):
- terrain.vert: unpacks the 4 data bytes + rotation bits, derives the
cell corner from gl_VertexID % 6 + splitDir, rotates the cell-local
UV per overlay's rotation field, and computes world-space normal
for the fragment shader
- terrain.frag: maskBlend3 three-layer alpha-weighted composite for
terrain overlays, inverted-alpha road combine, final composite
base * (1-ovlA)*(1-rdA) + ovl * ovlA*(1-rdA) + road * rdA. Phase
3a/3b directional lighting applied on top (SUN_DIR, AMBIENT=0.25,
DIFFUSE=0.75, in sync with mesh.frag).
- Editor uniforms (grid, brush, unwalkable slopes) deliberately
omitted — not applicable to a game client
- Per-texture tiling factor hardcoded to 1.0 for now (WorldBuilder
reads it from uTexTiling[36] uploaded from the dats); one tile per
cell = 8 tiles per landblock-side, slightly coarser than the old
~2x-per-cell tiling. Tunable via the TILE constant if needed.
TerrainAtlas grew parallel TCode/RCode lists (CornerAlphaTCodes,
SideAlphaTCodes, RoadAlphaRCodes) so TerrainBlendingContext can be
built without the mesh loader touching the dats directly.
GameWindow builds a TerrainBlendingContext once, shares a Dictionary
<uint, SurfaceInfo> surfaceCache across all 9 landblocks. Output:
"terrain: 137 unique palette codes across 9 landblocks" — avg ~15
unique per landblock, cache reuse healthy.
LandblockMeshTests rewritten for 384-vertex layout. 77/77 tests green.
Visual smoke run launches clean: no shader compile/link errors, no
GL warnings, terrain renders to the screen.
User visual verification is the final acceptance gate for Phase 3c.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Original Phase 3a constants had SUN_DIR=(0.4,0.3,0.8) — heavily
vertical, so roofs and ground both landed near peak brightness and
only walls dropped. Combined with AMBIENT=0.4/DIFFUSE=0.6 the lit-vs-
shadow contrast was ~2.2x, which was real but hard to read through
textures. User feedback: "Ligtning looks the same I think."
Diagnosed with a temporary grayscale-lighting fragment output — walls
on different sides of the same building did show different brightness,
confirming the Phase 3a/3b pipeline is wired correctly end-to-end and
the issue was purely perceptual contrast.
Retuned: SUN_DIR=(0.5,0.4,0.6) (more oblique), AMBIENT=0.25, DIFFUSE=0.75.
Contrast ratio now ~3.3x. User-verified visually.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds a hardcoded sun direction + ambient + Lambert diffuse to both
terrain.frag and mesh.frag. Both vertex shaders now forward a world-
space normal (computed as mat3(uModel) * aNormal) for the fragment
shader to dot against the sun vector.
Lighting model:
final_rgb = texture_rgb * (AMBIENT + DIFFUSE * max(0, dot(N, SUN)))
where AMBIENT=0.4, DIFFUSE=0.6, SUN=normalize(0.4,0.3,0.8).
Building walls facing the sun light up, walls in shadow dim to ~40%.
Scenery (trees, bushes, rocks) with real per-vertex normals from SWVertex
shades naturally. Terrain currently uses flat UnitZ normals so every
terrain fragment gets the same contribution — terrain will look a bit
washed out compared to real AC until a Phase 3b pass computes per-vertex
landblock normals from the heightmap.
Non-uniform scale (from scenery's random scale baked into MeshRef
PartTransform) would technically require the inverse-transpose for
correct normals, but scenery uses uniform scale so mat3(uModel) is
good enough. Flagging as a known Phase 3+ concern if nonuniform scale
ever shows up.
Build clean, runtime clean: 1133 entities hydrated, no shader compile
errors, process runs through startup.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Addresses the 'doors, windows, and alpha-keyed parts render bright
pink' issue the user observed after the Phase 2a visual checkpoint.
SurfaceDecoder gains a second overload taking an optional Palette
parameter. When the render surface format is PFID_INDEX16 and a
palette is supplied, each 16-bit value in SourceData is treated as
an index into Palette.Colors (a List<ColorARGB>) and the corresponding
ARGB color's channels are written to the output buffer. The original
no-palette overload is preserved so the Task 3 unit tests that
confirm INDEX16 -> magenta fallback still describe their behavior
correctly (INDEX16 without a palette still returns magenta).
TextureCache now resolves the RenderSurface's DefaultPaletteId via
the dats and passes the resulting Palette (or null) to the decoder.
mesh.frag adds an alpha cutout: fragments with sampled alpha < 0.5
are discarded. Without this, transparent regions of alpha-keyed
textures (doors, windows, foliage cutouts) would render as opaque
rectangles using the texture's background color. This is the
standard alpha-tested approach, simpler than full alpha blending
and matches how AC's original client rendered these surfaces.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds a 2-stage GLSL shader (vertex + fragment), a Shader helper that
compiles/links and exposes SetMatrix4 for uniforms, and an OrbitCamera
with yaw/pitch/distance and a 192-unit-centered target for a single
landblock. TerrainRenderer now takes a Shader and issues an actual
DrawElements call with uView + uProjection uniforms. GameWindow owns
the Shader and Camera, routes mouse drag to camera yaw/pitch, and
scroll wheel to camera distance.
The fragment shader maps world Z to a green-brown-white ramp so
lowlands read green, midlands brown, and peaks white — no textures
yet, but enough to visually confirm the terrain shape.
Shaders are copied to the output dir via a <None Update> item group.
Smoke verified against real dats: process stays alive with no GL
errors, no shader compile/link failures, and no exception trail.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
