acdream/docs/plans/2026-04-29-movement-collision-conformance.md

Phase L.2 - Movement & Collision Conformance

Status: ACTIVE planning document, created 2026-04-29. Roadmap owner: Phase L.2 in docs/plans/2026-04-11-roadmap.md. Scope: player movement prediction, retail collision/transition behavior, building boundaries, edge and wall sliding, cell ownership, outbound movement packets, and server-correction diagnostics.

Purpose

Phase B.3 shipped the first usable physics foundation: terrain contact, basic resolver behavior, streaming-populated collision inputs, and enough movement wire support to walk on ACE. That was not the complete retail collision system.

Phase L.2 is the conformance program that turns that foundation into a retail-faithful movement stack. It is the single organizing bucket for work that otherwise looks scattered across B.3 physics, L.1 animation/motion, and G.3 dungeon/portal space.

The active movement spine is:

input + motion command
  -> local body prediction / root-motion source
  -> PhysicsEngine.ResolveWithTransition
  -> TransitionTypes + BSPQuery + ShadowObjectRegistry contact/cell result
  -> MoveToState / AutonomousPosition outbound packets
  -> server echo or correction diagnostics

Live ACE accepting a position, or the absence of visible rubber-banding, is not proof of retail collision parity. ACE can tolerate coarse or locally invalid fine-grained movement. L.2 therefore requires retail-decomp evidence, synthetic conformance tests, real-DAT fixtures, and live retail-observer checks.

Current Foundation

Already active in acdream:

• PhysicsEngine.ResolveWithTransition is the local player collision path.
• BSPQuery contains a partial retail-style BSP dispatcher and step/contact logic.
• TransitionTypes carries SpherePath, CollisionInfo, ObjectInfo, transition validation, step-up/down, and partial slide behavior.
• PhysicsDataCache loads GfxObj, Setup, and CellStruct physics data from DATs.
• ShadowObjectRegistry gives the resolver a broadphase over nearby world objects.
• TerrainSurface uses triangle-aware terrain sampling rather than the older bilinear placeholder.

Known incomplete areas:

• Full CELLARRAY ownership and CObjCell::find_cell_list / adjacent-cell checks are not ported.
• cell_bsp / CellBSP is not fully represented as a first-class runtime owner.
• Building entry/exit and indoor/outdoor portal transit are not solved by the normal walking path.
• Retail edge_slide, cliff_slide, and precipice_slide behavior is incomplete; failed edge/step-down cases often hard-block instead of sliding.
• NegPolyHit handling is a stub relative to the retail transition dispatch.
• Live entities collapse to a simplified cylinder shape; exact retail sphere/cylsphere and object-shape behavior is not yet matched.
• Outbound contact/cell fields can be too optimistic, so server agreement does not necessarily mean local conformance.

Lane Model

L.2 uses five working lanes. The roadmap breaks them into six sub-lanes because real-DAT and live verification spans every lane.

Lane	Owns	Roadmap slice
Diagnostics	Truth probes, dump flags, server-correction logging, retail observer harness	L.2a, L.2f
Transition parity	FindTransitionalPosition, step-up/down, edge-slide, cliff-slide, precipice-slide, NegPolyHit dispatch	L.2c
Geometry fidelity	CSphere, CCylSphere, object shape extraction, building object collision, walkable polygon context	L.2d
Cell/building ownership	outdoor cell seams, low-cell id updates, CELLARRAY, cell_bsp, building entry/exit	L.2e
Movement/network authority	contact byte, full cell id, MoveToState / AutonomousPosition cadence, root motion vs velocity prediction, correction response	L.2b, L.2f

Roadmap Slices

L.2a - Truth & Diagnostics

Goal: make every bad movement outcome explainable.

• Add targeted diagnostics for local placement, contact plane, object hit, water, cell id, outbound packet fields, server echo, and correction delta.
• Keep diagnostics opt-in via env vars and devtools panels.
• Record enough data for side-by-side retail-observer runs without drowning normal logs.
• Build real-DAT fixture capture for known walls, building ledges, rooftops, slopes, landblock seams, and dungeon entrances.

Current shipped slices:

• 2026-04-30: cdb + TTD retail-observer toolchain (tools/pdb-extract/, tools/ttd-record.ps1, tools/ttd-query.ps1) with PDB pairing checker and ring-buffer trace replay. The "retail observer harness" line item.
• 2026-04 (pre-L.2 rename): ACDREAM_DUMP_MOVE_TRUTH paired outbound/server-echo dumper in GameWindow covers outbound packet fields + server echo + correction delta with cell-id mismatch.
• Pre-L.2: scenario-specific dumps ACDREAM_DUMP_MOTION, ACDREAM_DUMP_STEEP_ROOF, ACDREAM_DUMP_STEPUP, ACDREAM_DUMP_EDGE_SLIDE for the codepaths hit during prior bug chases.
• 2026-05-12 (slice 1): general-purpose probes via new AcDream.Core.Physics.PhysicsDiagnostics static class. ACDREAM_PROBE_RESOLVE emits one [resolve] line per PhysicsEngine.ResolveWithTransition call (input/output pos+cell, ok-vs-partial, grounded-in, contact-plane status, wall normal if hit, walkable polygon valid, moving entity id). ACDREAM_PROBE_CELL emits one [cell-transit] line per PlayerMovementController.CellId change with old→new + position + reason tag (resolver/teleport). Both flippable live via the DebugPanel "Diagnostics" section — checkbox toggles take effect on the next resolve, no relaunch required.

Remaining L.2a work: contact-plane probe (general, not just steep-roof), ShadowObjectRegistry hit log ("you collided with entity X"), water probe, real-DAT fixture-capture pipeline, and folding the older sticky-at-startup ACDREAM_DUMP_* flags into PhysicsDiagnostics for unified runtime toggling.

L.2b - Movement Wire / Contact Authority

Goal: stop sending movement packets that claim more certainty than the local resolver has earned.

• Fix outbound contact state so AutonomousPosition and MoveToState do not always claim grounded contact.
• Track local result cell id and outbound full cell id separately from the last server placement until correction proves they agree.
• Reconcile packet cadence with retail/holtburger references.
• Wire routine server correction handling and diagnostics, not only portal reseating.

L.2c - Transition Parity: Edge / Slide / Neg-Poly

Goal: match retail movement at walls, roof edges, step boundaries, and precipices.

• Port and test edge_slide, cliff_slide, precipice_slide, and step_up_slide behavior from named retail.
• Preserve walkable polygon context needed for precipice/edge decisions.
• Replace NegPolyHit stub behavior with the retail dispatch path.
• Confirm the user-visible rule: walk-only motion is blocked by step, edge, walkable, and collision rules; jumping clears OnWalkable and only succeeds when the airborne path actually clears geometry.

Current shipped slice (2026-04-30): wall-adjacent step_up_slide feels acceptable in live testing; player/remote movers pass EdgeSlide; terrain and BSP step-down/find-walkable now preserve walkable polygon vertices; failed step-down edge cases perform the retail back-probe before SPHEREPATH::precipice_slide; precipice slide results now re-enter the TransitionalInsert retry loop so tangent edge motion is preserved instead of being reverted by outer validation. Remaining L.2c work is live visual confirmation at real building/roof edges, real-DAT building-edge fixtures, fuller cliff_slide coverage, and NegPolyHit dispatch.

L.2d - Shape Fidelity: Sphere / CylSphere / Building Objects

Goal: object collisions use retail shape semantics, not one simplified fallback.

• Finish CSphere / CCylSphere parity for static and live objects.
• Stop treating all live entities as one root-centered cylinder.
• Preserve enough building identity to model CBuildingObj collision and bldg_check behavior.
• Audit Setup.Radius and cylinder fallback behavior against retail before relying on them for conformance.

Current sub-direction (revised 2026-05-13 evening after slice 1 + 1.5 shipped and Holtburg-doorway capture analyzed — third reframe): L.2d as scoped ("shape fidelity: Sphere / CylSphere / Building Objects") is essentially closed at the Holtburg site that motivated this phase. Building BSP collision works correctly — the slice-1.5 probe captured real triangles in plausible world positions for gfxObj=0x01000A2B with bspR=13.99m. The 121 wall hits the L.2a probe attributed to obj=0xA9B47900 were side effects of the player already being pushed back by a separate Door cylinder entity at the same doorway threshold.

The actual blocker is a server-spawned Door entity — Setup 0x020019FF named "Door" — that ACE places at each Holtburg-town building threshold (five doors total observed across 0xA9B40029, 0xA9B40154, 0xA9B40155). It registers as a Cylinder shadow entry via the server-spawn path; its Cylinder collision blocks the player walking into the doorway. That's door-state handling, a different class of problem from L.2d's shape-fidelity scope — it touches network (CreateObject PhysicsState bits), interaction (Use action on door entity), animation (door open/close), and collision-state-toggle.

Recommend: leave L.2d in "watch-and-wait" mode with slice 1's probe infrastructure in place. No more L.2d slices until a NEW shape-fidelity bug is observed at a different site (dungeon walls, stairs, roofs) with the probe-armed client. The door-state work becomes its own sub-phase (probably nested under B.4 interaction or filed as a new L.2 sub-phase like L.2g) scoped separately.

Full slice 1 + 1.5 handoff: docs/research/2026-05-13-l2d-slice1-shipped-handoff.md. Design spec (now mostly historical, framing was wrong but probe infrastructure shipped from it): docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-13-l2d-cbuildingobj-collision-design.md. Predecessor L.2a handoff: docs/research/2026-05-12-l2a-shipped-l2d-handoff.md.

L.2e - Cell Ownership: Outdoor Seams, CELLARRAY, cell_bsp

Goal: the resolver knows which cell owns the movement and which adjacent cells must be checked.

• Update low outdoor cell id across 24m cell boundaries and landblock seams.
• Port the retail adjacent-cell search: find_cell_list, check_other_cells, and adjust_check_pos.
• Promote cell_bsp / CellBSP from partial data to active runtime owner.
• Hand G.3 a trustworthy building/portal boundary so dungeon streaming is not asked to solve collision ownership after the fact.

L.2f - Real-DAT and Live Retail-Observer Conformance

Goal: prove the stack against real terrain/building/cell data and what a retail client sees when observing acdream.

• Add real-DAT fixtures for representative movement cases.
• Use retail client observer runs to verify motion packets, animation/movement coupling, and server-visible placement.
• Treat ACE acceptance as a coarse compatibility check only.
• Require conformance notes in tests or research docs for every AC-specific algorithm ported under L.2.

L.2g - Dynamic PhysicsState Toggling

Goal: server-driven post-spawn state changes (chiefly ETHEREAL flips) are honored by the local collision stack.

Triggered 2026-05-12 evening by the L.2d slice 1.5 trace: the Holtburg doorway blocker is a closed Door entity (Setup 0x020019FF) whose PhysicsState.Ethereal bit flips when the player Uses the door. The L.2d shape-fidelity work doesn't cover this — the door's collision shape is already correct; what's missing is honoring the runtime state change.

Scope is intentionally narrow:

• Parse inbound GameMessageSetState (opcode 0xF74B).
• Plumb the new PhysicsState value into ShadowObjectRegistry's cached per-entity state so the existing CollisionExemption.IsExempt(...) check sees the up-to-date bits.
• Verify the Holtburg inn-door scenario: walk into doorway → blocked, Use door → door swings open AND player can walk through, auto-close after 30s → door closes AND player is blocked again.
• Confirm the existing UpdateMotion pipeline drives (NonCombat, On/Off) on non-creature entities (door swing animation). If not, one-line fix.

Excluded from L.2g scope (deferred):

• Door-specific UX polish: "door is locked" sound, creature-AI bump-open.
• Any Door-specific class hierarchy — generic state-flip infrastructure is enough; doors are the verification scenario, not a privileged case.

Lane: informal sixth lane "dynamic state." The existing five-lane table treats per-entity state as static-after-spawn; L.2g makes it dynamic.

Full design spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-12-l2g-dynamic-physicsstate-design.md.

M1 critical path: this slice unblocks the "open the inn door" demo scenario.

Current shipped slice (2026-05-12):

Commit	Subject
2459f28	feat(phys L.2g slice 1): inbound SetState (0xF74B) parser
d538915	feat(phys L.2g slice 1): ShadowObjectRegistry.UpdatePhysicsState
536a608	feat(phys L.2g slice 1): WorldSession dispatches SetState (0xF74B) + hex probe
108e386	feat(phys L.2g slice 1): GameWindow routes SetState + extends [entity-source] log

Slice 1 is CODE-COMPLETE: parser + registry mutator + WorldSession dispatcher + GameWindow subscriber. 6 new tests pass (3 parser + 3 registry). Build clean. Per-commit + final integration code reviews all approved. Visual verification deferred to Phase B.4b — the inbound SetState chain can't fire at runtime until B.4b finishes the outbound Use handler. See docs/research/2026-05-12-l2g-slice1-shipped-handoff.md for full evidence + the 4 minor + 1 Important review notes.

Named Retail Anchors

Primary source: docs/research/named-retail/acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt. Struct source: docs/research/named-retail/acclient.h. Address lookup: docs/research/named-retail/symbols.json.

Use these names before falling back to older docs/research/decompiled/ chunks:

• CTransition::find_transitional_position - 0x0050BDF0
• CTransition::transitional_insert - 0x0050B6F0
• CTransition::step_up - 0x0050B610
• CTransition::step_down - 0x0050B2A0
• CTransition::edge_slide - 0x0050B3D0
• CTransition::cliff_slide - 0x0050A6D0
• SPHEREPATH::step_up_slide - 0x0050C3B0
• SPHEREPATH::precipice_slide - 0x0050CC80
• SPHEREPATH::adjust_check_pos - 0x0050CC00
• CTransition::adjust_offset - 0x0050A370
• CTransition::check_other_cells - 0x0050AE50
• CPhysicsObj::is_valid_walkable - 0x0050F530
• CObjCell::find_cell_list - 0x0052B4E0
• CBuildingObj::find_building_collisions
• CCellStruct::point_in_cell
• CCellStruct::sphere_intersects_cell
• CCellStruct::box_intersects_cell
• CCylSphere::intersects_sphere
• CSphere::intersects_sphere
• CSphere::slide_sphere

Implementation Order

1. Land L.2a diagnostics first. Do not make another physics change blind.
2. Fix L.2b packet/contact truth so logs and server echoes describe reality.
3. Port L.2c transition parity in narrow slices with named-retail citations and conformance tests.
4. Improve L.2d shape fidelity where transition parity depends on object contact semantics.
5. Land L.2e cell/building ownership before G.3 dungeon/portal work relies on indoor/outdoor walking.
6. Promote each synthetic case to L.2f real-DAT and live observer coverage.

Acceptance

• A developer can name the active movement path and the current incomplete pieces without reading old chat logs.
• dotnet build and dotnet test stay green for each implementation slice.
• Every AC-specific port cites named retail decomp or a documented fallback.
• Real-DAT fixtures cover buildings, walls, roof edges, outdoor seams, and at least one dungeon/building entrance path before L.2 is marked shipped.
• Retail observer view and acdream local view both agree on contact, position, and movement state for the representative cases.