# Portal regression closeout — 2026-07-25

## Scope

The first connected retained-scene visual pass reported:

1. portal transit remained in the tunnel too long;
2. a clear/void interval appeared between tunnel exit and destination world;
3. the inventory paperdoll disappeared and rebuilt during transit;
4. doors, signs, portals, NPCs, and other server-spawned objects disappeared
   after repeated portal travel.

This note records the root causes and the correction. It does not reduce world
radius, texture quality, particles, readiness, or retail presentation. The
correction's visual pass occurred on the temporary old-draw rollback; the
retained-source re-gate is tracked separately below.

## Retail and protocol anchors

- `SmartBox::DoSetState` clears `waiting_for_teleport` when the player becomes
  visible. The next `SmartBox::UseTime` resumes `CObjectMaint` and `CPhysics`
  while the portal viewport may still be active.
- `gmSmartBoxUI::UseTime @ 0x004D6E30`: the later
  `TunnelFadeOut -> WorldFadeIn` edge hides the portal viewport, shows the
  world viewport, releases the destination render reservation, and starts the
  final one-second WorldFadeIn state.
- WorldFadeIn completion sends LoginComplete and ends logical teleport state.
  Materialization, viewport release, and protocol completion are three
  distinct edges.
- `gmPaperDollUI::RedressCreature @ 0x004A3BC0` creates the private inventory
  object only when absent and a SmartBox player is available; temporary player
  absence does not delete an existing private object.
- `gmPaperDollUI::~gmPaperDollUI @ 0x004A3590` owns final private-object
  destruction.
- `CPhysicsObj::prepare_to_leave_visibility @ 0x00511F40`,
  `CObjectMaint::AddObjectToBeDestroyed @ 0x00508F70`, and
  `CObjectMaint::UseTime @ 0x005089B0` define retail's delayed active-object
  destruction.
- `CPhysicsObj::set_hidden @ 0x00514C60` plays typed UnHide at intensity 1
  when materializing. The destination purple/pink effect is DAT-driven retail
  behavior, not a generic exit effect to suppress.

## Root causes and corrections

### Shared-origin retirement head-of-line blocking

The 25x25 old spatial window was detached as hundreds of independently metered
operations. No intermediate subset was observable because the complete old
generation was already quiesced, but the shared origin could not change until
all admissions finished.

`GpuWorldState.DetachAllForOriginRecenter` now performs one atomic spatial
generation swap and returns exact per-landblock teardown receipts. Deferred
resource release remains budgeted. A destination publication waits only on an
older receipt for that same landblock; that exact receipt may advance ahead of
unrelated cleanup while the remaining retirement FIFO order stays unchanged.

### Destination scheduling and upload utilization

Near worker jobs, retained publication receipts, mesh uploads, and composite
uploads could each serialize destination work behind unrelated work. The
destination neighborhood is now ordered first at worker and publication
boundaries. When a destination completion actually exists, ordinary
publication is temporarily preempted; when it does not exist or failed,
ordinary Near/Far work continues under the same budget.

`WorldRevealRenderResourceScheduler` owns an exact reveal-generation profile:

- mesh item count: 8 -> 64;
- composite item count: 16 -> 64;
- upload bytes: unchanged at 8 MiB;
- array allocation, mipmap, buffer upload/allocation/copy, and new-resource
  ceilings: unchanged.

The profile ends at the portal/world viewport swap. The complete canonical
render/composite/collision readiness predicate remains mandatory.

### Private retained-UI ownership

The paperdoll and creature appraisal used shared mesh data without independent
references, so old-world retirement could evict their meshes. Both now use
`SyntheticEntityMeshReferenceOwner`, with transactional acquisition and
retryable release. `PaperdollFramePresenter` retains the last successful
private object across temporary SmartBox unavailability and equivalent
appearance refreshes; character-session reset is the explicit clear edge.

### ACE KnownObjects revisit

The active 25-second liveness teardown was correct for resource reclamation,
but ACE may keep the GUID in `KnownObjects` and omit CreateObject when the
client revisits that landblock. Deleting acdream's final accepted spawn
snapshot therefore made the object permanently absent.

`DormantLiveEntityStore` retains only the accepted data snapshot after every
active owner is destroyed. Landblock residency re-enters ordinary hydration
with the retained timestamp gate. Exact F747, a newer instance generation, and
session reset remove the dormant snapshot. Dormant objects own no physics,
animation, script, effect, light, audio, render, collision, or per-frame work.
This ACE adaptation remains explicit in divergence AP-69.

## Gates

- Focused portal/retirement/reveal/private-viewport/dormant tests: green.
- Complete App Release suite: 3,813 passed / 3 skipped.
- Release solution build: green with zero warnings.
- Complete Release solution suite: 8,322 passed / 5 skipped.
- User connected correction gate on rollback route (`2c848d41`):
  - paperdoll remains visible;
  - portal transit is materially faster;
  - server-spawned objects remain after repeated travel.
- Retained production source:
  - `20f9fadb` reapplies exact cutover `ef1d2633` over the correction;
  - complete Release suite: 8,326 passed / 5 skipped;
  - connected portal/revisit visual re-gate pending before G4 acceptance.