Campaign N Slice N5 (docs/plans/2026-07-29-network-transport-campaign.md
section 8 rung 3): the permanent removal of the loopback blindness that let
#260 ship. Local ACE never drops a datagram, so every historical connected
gate was structurally incapable of exercising the N1-N4 recovery machinery;
from this slice on, tools/run-connected-loss-gate.ps1 runs the standard
lifecycle route through deterministic seeded loss and passes only on proven
non-zero recovery.
Observability:
- [net-tick] gains resend/s nak-out/s nak-in/s rej-in/s dup-drop/s parked/s
reclaim/s cache= nakset= - TransportStats window deltas mirroring the
acks/s cumulative-delta pattern, plus the two instantaneous depths (the
unbounded-like-retail sent-packet cache watchdog and the inbound NAK set).
TransportStats gains RejectsReceived (inbound RejectRetransmit packets).
Counters increment unconditionally; every string is behind
NetDiagnostics.ProbeNet (Code Structure Rule 5).
- WorldSession.Dispose emits one cumulative [net-final] totals line so the
loss gate asserts exact counters instead of reconstructing them from
rounded per-second rates.
- LinkStatusSnapshot.PacketLossPercentage is deliberately NOT wired: filed
#261 - retail's CLinkStatusAverages formula
(LinkStatusHolder::GetPacketLossPercentage @ 0x00411370) must be located
first; inventing a ratio is forbidden.
N4-review F3 fold-in:
- Fresh reliable sends stamp Header.Iteration = the session iteration
through the same shared retail header build already cited for Time (N3)
and the N4 control packets: FlowQueue::TransmitNewPackets @ 0x00547A60,
the stack build at 0x00547A84/0x00547AA8. The control-header rule now
holds across all three send shapes (fresh reliable, ack, NAK). ACE reads
neither Time nor Iteration inbound (campaign section 3) - wire-safe, and
resends keep the stamp verbatim per the N1 rebuild rule.
Loss injection (Transport/LossyTransportDecorator):
- IWorldSessionTransport wrapper with deterministic seeded per-direction
loss. Config via NetDiagnostics typed env properties read once:
ACDREAM_NET_DROP_PCT (0 = off = default), ACDREAM_NET_DROP_SEED (default
1), ACDREAM_NET_DROP_DIR (out|in|both, default both).
- Arming gate: NOTHING drops in either direction until the decorator has
FORWARDED the first ENCRYPTED outbound datagram - parse-free check on
length > 20 with EncryptedChecksum set in the LE flags word at bytes
4..8. The cleartext handshake always survives and the arming datagram is
never a casualty; handshake-loss testing belongs to N6's ConnectResponse
0.333 s retransmit.
- Structurally absent at 0%: WrapIfConfigured returns the raw transport -
WorldSession's default factory is the only production seam and a normal
run never constructs the decorator.
Root-cause fix the gate immediately exposed:
- The logoff-confirmation wait in Dispose processed inbound datagrams but
never pumped the transport, so a lost S2C logoff confirmation was
gap-detected but its healing NAK never went out. Retail's pump
(Client::UseTime @ 0x00411C40 -> PacketController::UseTime @ 0x005410D0)
runs until LogOffServer; the wait now sweeps per processed datagram,
making the logoff wait the third covered blocking pump (after Tick and
the handshake loops). A lost C2S logoff REQUEST remains unrecoverable by
ACE design (arrival-driven NAK; a quiet client is never NAKed - campaign
section 3 row 1), recorded in the gate header.
Gates:
- tools/run-connected-loss-gate.ps1 (-DropPct 2 -Seed 1): PASS vs local
ACE - the first automated observation of packet loss in project history.
Decorator ledger: dropped out=3 in=10 of forwarded out=183 in=496.
[net-final] resends=2 nak-in=2 nak-out=6 rej-in=0 acks-out=114
acks-in=119 dup-drop=0 sanity-drop=0 cksum-fail=0 parked=9 reclaimed=0
uncached-nak=0 cache=1 nakset=0. Every injected loss healed: both
ACE-driven C2S resend recovery (nak-in=2 -> resends=2) and client-driven
S2C NAK recovery (parked=9 -> nak-out=6) fired on a real connected
route, all six checkpoints validated, graceful logout confirmed, ACE
recorded the transport Disconnect.
- tools/run-connected-world-lifecycle-gate.ps1 (decorator absent): PASS -
zero behavior change on the no-loss baseline; the gate now defensively
clears the drop env vars.
- Core.Net Release: 747/747 (737 + 10 N5: decorator determinism/direction/
arming/structural-absence/env parsing, the 5% seeded WorldSession lossy
lifecycle with zero message loss both ways + ACE Headroom 256, the
[net-tick] field pins, the Iteration stamps).
- Full solution Release: 9,763 passed / 5 skipped / 0 failed.
Test-fixture note: FakeAceTransport gains AutoAdvanceOnBlockingReceive so
virtual time can move during the blocking Connect()/EnterWorld() pumps -
with the clock frozen there, a dropped handshake-window datagram could
never be NAK-healed (a fixture artifact, not a transport property).
Campaign section 9 ledger row added (SHA recorded at N6 kickoff).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Closes out the GL deletion by fixing the CI workflow and developer gate
scripts that still assumed a GL arm existed to compare against, build,
or select via ACDREAM_RENDER_BACKEND.
.github/workflows/headless-portability.yml: linux-graphical's "Verify
actionable unsupported-driver gate" step is deleted outright — it ran
the deleted `ui-studio` CLI verb (Studio was removed at Commit 1) to
prove the GL capability gate rejects Mesa's llvmpipe driver, and there
is no more GL capability gate for any driver to pass or fail. Its test
filter dropped two dead entries (GraphicalCapabilityRequirementsTests,
deleted at Commit 2; StudioWindowTests, already gone). Its package
contract check dropped the libcimgui.so assertion (ImGui's native
bridge, deleted at Commit 1). linux-vulkan's explanatory comment, which
described GL's rejection as the reason no cross-backend pixel diff runs
in CI, is rewritten to explain there is no GL arm left at all. Two dead
src/AcDream.UI.ImGui/** path triggers (that project no longer exists)
are removed from both the pull_request and push filters.
tools/run-backend-differential-gate.ps1 and its dedicated route file
tools/connected-backend-differential.route.txt are deleted: the whole
script's purpose was comparing a GL launch against a Vulkan launch of
the same route, and there is no second arm left to compare. Single-arm
regression checking already exists via run-offline-pixel-gate.ps1's
-Baseline mechanism.
tools/run-portal-churn-soak.ps1 is simplified rather than deleted: its
repeated-portal-churn methodology (within-arm capture comparison,
memory/entity/GPU trend analysis) has value independent of the
GL-versus-Vulkan question it was built to answer for issues #256/#257
before V11. -Backends now defaults to @('vulkan') alone; the doc
comments are rewritten from "step 0 discriminator, run before V11" to
an ongoing single-arm regression soak.
tools/run-offline-pixel-gate.ps1 drops its now-nonfunctional -Backend
parameter (ACDREAM_RENDER_BACKEND has read zero call sites since
RuntimeOptions.RenderBackend was removed at Commit 2 — passing -Backend
gl silently launched Vulkan anyway) along with its GL-escape-hatch
example and every comment that referenced the now-deleted differential
gate. tools/run-connected-world-lifecycle-gate.ps1,
tools/run-offline-vulkan-capture.ps1, and
tools/run-repeat-connected-gate.ps1 keep their (harmless, already
no-op) ACDREAM_RENDER_BACKEND set/clear lines but have their
now-inaccurate "escape hatch" / "GL run" comments corrected to state
plainly that the variable is unread and the line is kept only for the
historical record.
No .cs files touched; `dotnet build AcDream.slnx -c Release` unaffected
(0 warnings, 0 errors, matching the prior commit's build).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
THIS CUTOVER AWAITS THE USER'S VISUAL SIGN-OFF. It is not complete. Section 7
of the campaign plan names the V10 sign-off as the only required user stop
besides gate failures, and it has not been given. This commit flips the default
and runs the battery so that the sign-off has evidence in front of it.
ROLLBACK, one line: `git revert` of this commit. It restores the GL default,
the pre-V10 escape-hatch polarity and the gate scripts' inherited backend
together; nothing else has to move with it.
An unset, empty or unrecognised ACDREAM_RENDER_BACKEND now yields
RenderBackendKind.Vulkan. Only `gl` or `opengl`, case-insensitive, selects
OpenGL. The polarity of the typo case flipped with the default and on purpose:
before V10 an unrecognised token had to land on GL because Vulkan was dark and a
typo must never silently start a backend that cannot draw; after V10 it has to
land on Vulkan for the same reason read the other way, because GL is the backend
V11 deletes. `opengl` is honoured beside `gl` because an escape hatch exists to
be found.
Three gate scripts follow the flip. run-offline-pixel-gate.ps1 gains -Backend
(default vulkan) and now FORCES all four determinism levers — backend, day
group, world day fraction, sky phase — plus ACDREAM_MSAA_SAMPLES=0, instead of
inheriting any of them. run-repeat-connected-gate.ps1 and
run-connected-world-lifecycle-gate.ps1 CLEAR ACDREAM_RENDER_BACKEND rather than
setting it, so what they exercise is the process default and an ambient override
in a caller's shell cannot make a GL run wear the default's report.
TEST PIN UPDATED, flagged as required: RenderBackend_DefaultsToGl becomes
RenderBackend_DefaultsToVulkan, and RenderBackend_AnythingElseStaysOnGl splits
into RenderBackend_SelectsGlOnlyForTheEscapeHatchTokens and
RenderBackend_AnythingElseStaysOnVulkan. Five cases replace two. No other test
is touched, weakened or deleted.
AD-46's divergence-register row moves from "dormant until the V10 cutover" to
live, in this commit, per the same-commit register rule.
Battery, all on the new default:
complete Release suite 9,222 passed / 5 skipped / 0 failed (9 projects)
+5 against the pre-flip 9,217; the +5 are this
slice's own escape-hatch cases
#250 family, singly 4/4 pass (none failed in the whole-suite run)
repeat connected gate PASS 3/3 on both columns
world-lifecycle route PASS, 0 failures, both sessions graceful at exit 0
validation layer inserted at instance AND device level by the loader,
zero errors and zero warnings, real frame captured
GL escape hatch verified by two offline launches: 4.3.0 Core Profile
Context, bindless present, exit 0
Every connected launch in the battery reached Vulkan with no environment
variable set, which is the flip itself under test rather than an assertion
about it.
THE PIXEL GATE IS NOT MET, AND WAS NOT RELAXED. Vulkan against a GL-era capture
taken at this commit through the escape hatch, MSAA off and both clocks pinned:
1.099e-03 masked / 3.764e-02 whole-frame, against a 0.001 threshold. 97.9% of
the difference is in the treeline band, and the masked residual of 619 px — set
against a same-backend control of 10 px — sits entirely on the silhouettes of
distant alpha-blended scenery. That is AD-46's registered population; section
5.5.19 measured the same quantity at 497 px / 8.8e-04. Below the band the two
backends are photometrically identical: mean luminance differs by 0.01 of 255.
No baseline was regenerated and no mask or tolerance was widened.
Two instrument findings are recorded in section 5.5.23. The offline gate's sky
mask is still load-bearing — this slice tried retiring it on the reasoning that
V7's clock pins had made it obsolete, and the control refuted that: two launches
of the same binary still differ by 1,011 px on GL and 482 px on Vulkan, almost
all of it in the band. The default went back to 280 with the measurement written
into the script's help. And the repeat gate's desktop witness needs an
uncontested primary monitor: a first attempt reported 1/3, and the two failing
grabs turn out to be a web browser and Discord composited over the client rect,
not a blank frame — the client's Vulkan capture rendered in all six runs.
Nothing GL, ImGui or Studio is deleted. That is V11's scope and it is untouched.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Carry one immutable prepared collision closure with each accepted near-tier generation and install graph plus flat views through the same retained publication receipt. Apply the same strict package-only rule to live entities, add exact sampled graph-authoritative comparison artifacts and lifecycle counters, and prove cancellation, demotion, rehydrate, revisit, teardown, reconnect, and the nine-stop route with 14,064 zero-mismatch samples.
Co-authored-by: OpenAI Codex <codex@openai.com>
Keep one-item endpoint and checkpoint results as arrays under PowerShell strict mode so the uncapped reconnect session is validated by the same gate as the multi-checkpoint capped route.
Send the active character id, drain until the authoritative server confirmation, then emit retail's zero-sequence connection disconnect with the negotiated receiver iteration. The connected gate now waits for ACE to remove the exact UDP session before reconnecting, eliminating fixed-delay races.
