acdream/docs/research/2026-04-28-sky-cloud-material-trace.md
Erik ec1bbb4f43 feat(vfx): Phase C.1 — PES particle renderer + post-review fixes
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>
2026-04-28 22:47:11 +02:00

5.1 KiB

2026-04-28 Sky Cloud Material Trace

Context: Phase C.1 originally treated the Rainy/Cloudy sky visual as a SkyObject PES problem. Retail named-decomp and dat inspection disprove that for the broad cloud/ray layer.

Retail Trace

  • LScape::draw (0x00506330) calls GameSky::Draw(0) before terrain and GameSky::Draw(1) after terrain.
  • SkyDesc::GetSky copies pes_id, but GameSky::CreateDeletePhysicsObjects compares/replaces only gfx_id and calls GameSky::MakeObject(gfx_id, ...). The sky object PES id is not part of retail GameSky rendering.
  • GameSky::UseTime applies keyframe replace fields to instantiated sky objects:
    • 0x005076e1: CPhysicsObj::SetLuminosity(luminosity * 0.01)
    • 0x00507715: CPhysicsObj::SetDiffusion(max_bright * 0.01)
    • 0x00507747: CPhysicsObj::SetTranslucency(transparent * 0.01)
  • CMaterial::SetTranslucencySimple (0x005396f0) writes material alpha as 1 - translucency.
  • CMaterial::SetDiffuseSimple (0x00539750) writes material diffuse RGB. Therefore SkyObjectReplace.MaxBright is diffuse, not an emissive cap.
  • D3DPolyRender::SetSurface (0x0059c4d0) disables fixed-function fog alpha whenever the raw SurfaceType.Additive bit is set (0x0059c882), even when the earlier Translucent + ClipMap branch forces normal alpha blending.

Dat Trace

The broad Rainy/Cloudy layer is GfxObj 0x01004C35, not one of the tiny 0x020xxxxx setup anchors:

  • 0x01004C35: huge sky mesh, bbox roughly 20175 x 20175 x 1180, UVs tile across the sheet.
  • Surface 0x08000023: Base1ClipMap | Translucent | Alpha | Additive (0x00010114), Translucency=0.25, Luminosity=0, Diffuse=1.
  • Texture 0x060037AF: 256x256 A8R8G8B8 cloud/ray texture.

The setup ids observed in Rainy groups (0x02000588, 0x02000589, 0x02000BA6, 0x02000714) are one-part dummy anchors with tiny 0x010001EC geometry and default scripts/PES for sounds/flashes. They are not the broad cloud layer.

Port Consequences

  • Keep per-SkyObject PES rendering debug-only until another retail path proves it is used.
  • Render 0x08000023 as final alpha blend because retail's translucent/clipmap branch overrides the raw additive blend.
  • Still disable sky fog for that surface because retail keys fog-alpha disable off the raw Additive bit.
  • Route MaxBright to diffuse (uDiffuseFactor) and Luminosity to emissive.
  • Use a final opacity multiplier for material/surface transparency before the fragment alpha write; dynamic keyframe transparency remains 1 - value.

WorldBuilder Cross-Check

Cloned upstream https://github.com/Chorizite/WorldBuilder.git at commit 167788be6fce65f5ebe79eef07a0b7d28bd7aa81. Its Chorizite.OpenGLSDLBackend/Lib/SkyboxRenderManager.cs renders sky objects camera-centered with depth off, but it is not a faithful retail oracle for sky tint: GameScene.cs has the skybox render call commented out, the manager always selects DayGroups[0], and it uploads SunlightColor = Vector3.Zero / AmbientColor = Vector3.One for sky. RegionInfo.cs interpolates DayGroup[0] lighting for terrain/world objects, not the active retail DayGroup/weather sky.

That explains why WorldBuilder cannot answer the missing green/purple Rainy sky tint directly. The actionable lesson is narrower: do not fog-paint the raw-additive cloud sheet itself. In acdream, non-additive sky layers now receive the keyframe fog tint so the broad background wash appears behind clouds, while surfaces with the raw Additive bit (notably 0x08000023) keep fixed-function fog disabled and preserve the pink cloud/ray detail.

WorldBuilder's regular object path does collect Setup.DefaultScript particle hooks (ObjectMeshManager.CollectEmittersFromScript) and instantiates them via ObjectRenderManagerBase, but its skybox manager does not use that setup/particle path for SkyObjects. Dat inspection also showed the canonical Rainy default script target 0x3300042C is a sound-loop chain (SoundTweaked

  • CallPES), not the broad green tint or cloud ray layer.

Additional renderer lessons from upstream WorldBuilder:

  • Particle blend is material-derived. ParticleEmitterInfo does not carry an additive flag; WorldBuilder reads ObjectRenderData.Batches[0].IsAdditive from the particle GfxObj surface. acdream now leaves DAT emitters non-additive by default and resolves particle blend from the selected particle surface.
  • Particles must be globally sorted back-to-front before drawing. Sorting only inside per-texture dictionaries can reorder translucent particles whenever multiple textures/blend states are active.
  • Particle quads come from the authored particle GfxObj bounds. Degenerate extents fall back to 1.0, and point-sprite degrade mode applies a 0.9 base scale.
  • Texture decoding must try highres RenderSurface records after portal lookup and must zero alpha for black pixels on compressed clipmap textures.
  • WorldBuilder tracks UV wrap and cull mode per object batch. acdream's sky path already uses authored UV wrap, but shared object rendering still needs the same metadata carried through a later C.4 pass.