# Campaign AR Stage 2 connected and closeout gate

**Date:** 2026-08-22  
**Verdict:** PASS for every machine-local Stage 2 row; external hardware,
second-client remote-player evidence, and final project-owner acceptance remain
explicit gates

## Scope and evidence boundary

This report records the executable ACE-connected, dense-scene A/B, long-life,
external-package, shader, build, and complete-test work that followed the
[Stage 1 live approval](2026-08-22-atmospheric-stage1-live-gate.md). It applies
the measured constraints and budgets already established in the
[terrain and atmospheric findings](2026-08-21-terrain-and-atmospheric-rendering-findings.md);
it does not re-derive them or revisit that report's refuted claims.

The measured binaries were clean-source Release products. The retail renderer
remained the default and authoritative path. No physics or collision behavior
was changed.

## Connected scenario matrix

The three-process connected lifecycle gate passed on exact commit `0b6c6557`.
Its report is
[`logs/connected-world-gate-20260822-132443/report.json`](../../logs/connected-world-gate-20260822-132443/report.json).
The capped six-stop process ran for 249.114 seconds, the fresh uncapped reconnect
for 67.917 seconds, and the pack-transition process for 51.277 seconds. All
three exited gracefully with no hard failures. Full graphical-process teardown
and the subsequent fresh Vulkan context/device construction passed.

The route proved:

- capped and uncapped operation, portal travel, reconnect, fresh process, and
  destination publication/retirement;
- outdoor, Facility Hub interior/dungeon, and outdoor-after-dungeon states;
- atomic High select, retail disable, High re-enable, 1024 x 768 resize, clear,
  overcast, and rain transitions;
- resource-free retail restoration and active enhanced metadata at every named
  screenshot; and
- terminal render-scene shadow parity with zero mismatches and zero pending
  deltas.

The connected metadata makes the caster boundary concrete. The transition row
published 6,624 casters: 374 terrain commands, 6,571 outdoor statics, 26
buildings, 10 animated statics, one local player, 14 non-player creatures, one
other live dynamic, and one equipped child. The capped login row reached 9,533
casters, including 922 animated statics; Holtburg after the dungeon reached
9,539. Facility Hub correctly published `Outdoor=false`, zero directional
strength, and zero casters. Outdoor DAT publication still cannot distinguish a
tree from other outdoor scenery, and create-object metadata still cannot
distinguish a hostile monster from another non-player creature, so the report
keeps the authoritative `OutdoorStatics` and `NonPlayerCreatures` labels.

One diagnostic distinction is retained rather than hidden: streaming frames
recorded transient render-frame candidate-order differences before the final
candidate sets and digests converged. The authoritative render-scene shadow
comparison finished 77/77 with zero mismatch in the transition process; no
pack or retail-output divergence remained at the terminal checkpoints.

## Dense turning A/B and frame pacing

Matched dense-Arwic runs used the same route, commit `1f75ce05`, resolution,
camera turn, server, character, entity population (15,522), and warmed scene:

- Atmospheric Medium:
  [`logs/connected-dense-town-20260822-133441.report.json`](../../logs/connected-dense-town-20260822-133441.report.json)
- retail/off:
  [`logs/connected-dense-town-20260822-133727.report.json`](../../logs/connected-dense-town-20260822-133727.report.json)

| Phase | Retail CPU p50 / p95 / p99 | Medium CPU p50 / p95 / p99 | Retail GPU p50 / p95 | Medium GPU p50 / p95 |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| Six-second turn | 27.8 / 32.9 / 36.7 ms | 28.6 / 32.2 / 40.2 ms | 0.6 / 1.2 ms | 1.5 / 1.9 ms |
| Stationary | 28.6 / 30.2 / 31.1 ms | 29.1 / 30.9 / 32.6 ms | 0.9 / 0.9 ms | 1.7 / 1.8 ms |

The user's turning hitch reproduces on the retail path: Medium did not worsen
turn CPU p95 (32.2 versus 32.9 ms). It adds the expected GPU work, about
0.7–0.9 ms at p95/p50 in this run. The Atmospheric screenshot's pack-owned
window reports incremental CPU p50/p95/p99 of 0.209/0.248/0.302 ms, inclusive
GPU p50/p95/p99 of 1.374/1.818/1.869 ms, 14,890 casters, three cascades,
61,655,840 resident bytes, and 44,236,800 transient bytes. Medium therefore
stays inside its declared CPU, GPU, and 128 MiB resident budgets.

Process working/private memory was also recorded, as required: the stationary
Medium process was 1,669.9/2,084.4 MiB versus retail's 1,354.8/1,676.8 MiB.
Those process totals include driver and shared host allocations and are not
substituted for the exact pack-owned GPU ledger. Retirement and terminal
convergence are covered by the long route and deterministic lifecycle gates.

## Long lifetime and package lifecycle

The nine-stop Medium route passed on exact commit `1f75ce05`:
[`logs/connected-r6-soak-20260822-134004.report.json`](../../logs/connected-r6-soak-20260822-134004.report.json).
It ran for 516.064 seconds through Caul, Sawato, Rynthid, Aerlinthe, Sawato
revisit, Holtburg, Caul return, Sawato plateau, and Caul plateau. Every
materialization, movement/jump/combat exercise, return/convergence check, and
graceful close passed. The warnings are expected world/DAT population noise;
there are no renderer, pack-budget, or lifecycle failures.

The connected graphical external-package gate passed all six fresh processes
on exact commit `f92479ac`. Its machine-readable report is
[`artifacts/atmospheric-rendering/connected-package-lifecycle-20260822-135333/report.json`](../../artifacts/atmospheric-rendering/connected-package-lifecycle-20260822-135333/report.json).

| Scenario | Plugin outcome | Renderer outcome | Persisted selection |
|---|---|---|---|
| Install/select v1 Low | loaded | external v1 active | external v1 |
| Replace by v2 with stale v1 selection | loaded | safe retail fallback with exact version diagnostic | retail |
| Explicitly select v2 High | loaded | external v2 active | external v2 |
| Remove package | failed-not-found | safe retail fallback | retail |
| Inject failure after registration | failed and transaction rolled back | safe retail fallback | retail |
| Correct package and reselect | loaded | external v2 active | external v2 |

Every process connected, entered world, captured its render-pack metadata,
disconnected, and exited with code zero. Failure rows created no half-active
pack and recovery required an explicit corrected selection.

## Final automated gate

On clean exact code commit `f92479ac`:

- managed shader regeneration compiled **24/24** Vulkan pairs and produced no
  tracked SPIR-V difference;
- forced locked restore passed;
- the complete Release solution built with **0 warnings and 0 errors**; and
- the repository-owned fresh-process gate passed **15,178/15,178** tests with
  zero skips or failures across 14 assemblies. App contributed **5,950/5,950**.

The complete logs, TRX files, environment inventory, hashes, and aggregate
summary are under
[`artifacts/atmospheric-rendering/stage2-closeout-release-gate-f92479ac/`](../../artifacts/atmospheric-rendering/stage2-closeout-release-gate-f92479ac/).

## Remaining external gates

Campaign AR is not declared shipped by this report. Three evidence classes are
not available to this machine-local run:

1. A second connected client/account must produce a nonzero authoritative
   `RemotePlayers` caster row and a visible moving remote-player shadow.
2. Supported physical GPU classes other than the installed Radeon RX 9070 XT
   and integrated AMD adapter must repeat the required pack-off/Low/Medium/
   High/Auto resolution and pacing rows. The integrated adapter currently
   proves safe Auto-to-retail fallback, not active Low or the complete matrix.
3. The project owner must later perform and explicitly accept the final
   pack-off/pack-on visual matrix, including moving sun and moon shadows,
   foliage cutouts, temporal shimmer/cascade seams, indoor gating, rays and
   sun-only volumetrics, and retail restoration.

These are evidence gates, not authorization for more renderer features. The
current code, SDK, connected lifecycle, package lifecycle, long lifetime, and
machine-local automation are complete.