acdream/docs/ISSUES.md
Erik 5937ebe1c5 docs(issues): #37 — Investigation 2 narrows bug to SubPalette coverage gaps
Five parallel agents + dat probes ruled out:
- byte-level decode primitive (matches ACViewer)
- polygon emission (no ST_DOUBLE / Surface.Type & 6 issues)
- per-PART texture-override scoping (correctly per-MeshRef'd)
- SubPalette indexing convention (full-size 2048 palettes, *8 wire un-pack
  is single-applied)

Smoking gun: for +Acdream the server sends 10 SubPaletteSwap ranges that
overlay palette indices [0..320), [576..1024), [1392..1488), [1728..1920).
The complement — [320..576), [1024..1392), [1488..1728), [1920..2048) —
is NOT overlaid. Base palette 0x0400007E at those indices has
red/skin tones. Coat texture UVs sampling those non-overlaid indices
render as visible "skin stub at top of coat".

Either ACE sends incomplete SubPaletteSwap data, or retail does extra
client-side ClothingTable computation we (and ACE) don't.

Diagnostic harness now lives at tools/InspectCoatTex/Program.cs;
GameWindow's DUMP_CLOTHING also probes runtime SubPalette dat sizes.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-05-05 14:45:50 +02:00

63 KiB
Raw Blame History

acdream — known issues + small deferred features

Rolling tactical list. What goes here:

  • Bugs: user-visible defects we've observed but haven't fixed yet.
  • Small deferred features: work that fits in one or two commits. Anything larger should be a named Phase in the roadmap.

What does NOT go here:

  • Large multi-commit work → add a Phase to the roadmap instead.
  • Ideas / wishlist → docs/plans/.
  • Design questions → open a docs/research/*.md note.

Conventions

  • Sequential integer IDs (#1, #2, …). Commits that close an issue reference the ID in the message (e.g. fix #3: periodic TimeSync parsing).
  • Status is OPEN, IN-PROGRESS, or DONE. DONE items move to the Recently closed section at the bottom with closed-date + commit SHA.
  • Every session: scan OPEN issues at start; promote/close anything we touched during the session before ending.
  • Promoting to a Phase: mark as DONE (promoted to Phase X) + commit SHA where the Phase entry landed.

Template

Copy this block when adding a new issue:

## #NN — Short title

**Status:** OPEN
**Severity:** HIGH | MEDIUM | LOW
**Filed:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Component:** e.g. sky, physics, net, ui

**Description:** One paragraph — what's wrong or what's missing.

**Root cause / status:** What we know so far. Empty if unknown.

**Files:** Path references with approximate line numbers.

**Research:** Links to `docs/research/*.md` if applicable.

**Acceptance:** How we'll know it's fixed.

Active issues

#39 — Run↔Walk cycle transition not visible on observed player remotes (acdream-as-observer)

Status: OPEN Severity: MEDIUM (visible animation desync; not a correctness/wire bug) Filed: 2026-05-03 Component: physics / motion / animation

Description: When observing a remote-driven player character through acdream and the actor toggles Shift while keeping a direction key held (Run↔Walk demote/promote), the visible leg cycle does NOT update on the observer side. Body position eventually corrects via UpdatePosition hard-snaps (causing visible position blips), but the animation cycle stays at whatever it was last set to (Run sticks; Walk sticks).

Observation matrix:

Observer Actor Cycle Run↔Walk Z on slopes
Retail Retail
Retail Acdream
Acdream Acdream ✗ (only with env-var path)
Acdream Retail

Root cause / status:

ACE only broadcasts a fresh UpdateMotion (UM) when the wire's ForwardCommand byte changes — i.e. on direction-key state changes (W press, W release). Toggling Shift while W is held changes ForwardSpeed and HoldKey but NOT ForwardCommand, so ACE does NOT broadcast a UM for the demote/promote. The speed change DOES propagate via UpdatePosition (position-delta velocity changes between Run-pace and Walk-pace), confirmed via [VEL_DIAG] serverSpeed varying ~2.5 m/s (walk) ↔ ~9 m/s (run).

Retail's inbound code uses UP-derived velocity to refine the visible cycle when no UM tells it. Acdream has the equivalent function — ApplyServerControlledVelocityCycle in GameWindow.cs:3274 — but it's gated if (IsPlayerGuid(serverGuid)) return; for player remotes, exactly the case where the gap matters.

(Earlier hypothesized as H2 in the 2026-05-03 four-agent investigation but marked refuted because the [UPCYCLE] diag never fired — that was BECAUSE of the gate; un-gating reveals it firing per UP, which is the correct behavior.)

Fix sketch (~10 lines): un-gate ApplyServerControlledVelocityCycle for player remotes when currentMotion is a locomotion cycle (Run/Walk/Sidestep/Backward). UMs still drive direction-key changes authoritatively; UP-derived velocity refines the speed bucket within the same direction. Add a LastUMUpdateTime grace window (e.g. 500ms) so UMs win when fresh.

Files:

  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/GameWindow.cs:3274ApplyServerControlledVelocityCycle (the gate if (IsPlayerGuid(serverGuid)) return; to remove with conditions)
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/GameWindow.cs:3640-3660 — call site (already passes through with HasServerVelocity from synthesized UP-deltas)
  • src/AcDream.Core/Physics/ServerControlledLocomotion.cs:54-76PlanFromVelocity thresholds (may need re-tuning if banding is observed)

Research:

  • docs/research/2026-05-03-remote-anim-cycle/investigation-prompt.md — full background of the four-agent investigation
  • This session's diagnostic logs at tools/diag-logs/walkrun-A1b-*.log (UM_RAW, FWD_WIRE, SETCYCLE traces) confirming ACE's wire pattern

Acceptance:

  • Observer in acdream watching a retail-driven character toggle Shift while holding W: visible leg cycle switches Run↔Walk within ~200ms of the wire change.
  • No regression on the working cases (acdream-on-acdream, retail observers, idle↔Run, idle↔Walk).
  • No spurious cycle thrashing during turning while running (ObservedOmega doesn't trigger velocity-bucket changes).

#40 — ACDREAM_INTERP_MANAGER=1 env-var path regressed (staircase + blips)

Status: OPEN (do-not-enable; pending L.3 follow-up rebuild) Severity: N/A (gated; default behavior unaffected) Filed: 2026-05-03 Component: physics / motion (per-tick remote prediction)

Description: The ACDREAM_INTERP_MANAGER=1 per-frame remote tick introduced by commit e94e791 (L.3.1+L.3.2 Task 3) is a regression and should not be enabled. Two visible symptoms:

  1. Z staircase on slopes: observed remotes running up/down hills sink into rising terrain or float over receding terrain, then snap to correct Z at each UpdatePosition arrival. Body never follows the terrain mesh between UPs.

  2. Position blips during steady-state motion: XY drifts unconstrained between UPs, then UP hard-snaps cause visible jumps.

Both symptoms ABSENT when env-var unset (default legacy path).

Root cause: the env-var path was designed to mirror retail CPhysicsObj::MoveOrTeleport (acclient @ 0x00516330). MoveOrTeleport is retail's network-packet entry point — minimal work. The per-frame physics tick is retail's update_object (FUN_00515020) — full chain including apply_current_movementUpdatePhysicsInternalTransition::FindTransitionalPosition (collision sweep). The legacy path mirrors update_object correctly. The env-var path stripped the collision sweep on a wrong assumption that this was "more retail- faithful" — it was the opposite.

Commit B (039149a, 2026-05-03) ported ResolveWithTransition into the env-var path, but the symptom persisted because the env-var path also clears body.Velocity for grounded remotes (no Euler integration of horizontal motion → sweep input is the catch-up offset only, which itself stair-steps because UPs are sampled at ~1 Hz).

Files:

  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/GameWindow.cs:6042-6260 — env-var per-frame branch
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/GameWindow.cs:6260+ — legacy per-frame branch (works)
  • src/AcDream.Core/Physics/PositionManager.cs — class itself is retail-faithful (port of CPositionManager::adjust_offset), only the integration was wrong

Research:

  • This session's 2026-05-03 chronological commit log + visual verification
  • docs/research/2026-05-03-remote-anim-cycle/investigation-prompt.md for the four-agent investigation that traced this

Fix path (separate L.3 follow-up phase, NOT this session):

The PositionManager class is correct retail-port. Re-integrate it as ADDITIVE refinement on top of the working legacy chain (small correction toward queued server positions, applied AFTER apply_current_movement + UpdatePhysicsInternal + collision sweep) — not as a REPLACEMENT for them. Match retail's actual update_object chain ordering: position_manager::adjust_offset runs after the primary motion + collision resolution.

Acceptance:

  • New per-tick path enabled via env-var (or default after stabilization) produces the same smooth slope motion + zero blips as the legacy path.
  • Inbound UpdatePosition queue catch-up nudges body toward server authoritative position without overriding terrain Z snap or causing position blips.
  • Verification: side-by-side vs legacy default in 2-client setup, identical visible behavior.

#38 — Chase camera + player feel "30 fps" since L.5 physics-tick gate

Status: OPEN Severity: MEDIUM (gameplay-feel regression; not a correctness bug) Filed: 2026-05-01 Component: rendering / physics / camera

Description: User reports that running around in third-person / chase camera feels less smooth than it did before the L.5 physics-tick work. FPS counter still reads 60+, but the motion of the player character + camera looks like it's updating at ~30 fps.

Root cause / status:

Almost certainly the L.5 _physicsAccum gate in PlayerMovementController.cs (lines ~448-456). Retail integrates physics at 30 Hz (MinQuantum = 1/30 s); we ported that faithfully so collision behavior matches. Side effect: _body.Position only updates on physics ticks, i.e. every 33 ms. Render runs at 60+ Hz but the chase camera follows _body.Position directly — so the visible position changes in 33 ms steps, even though we render at 60+ FPS. First-person is less affected because the world rotates with Yaw (which does update every render frame); third-person is hit hardest because the character itself is the moving thing.

Retail in 2013 didn't see this because render was also ~30 fps — render rate ≈ physics rate. Our 60+ Hz render exposes the gap.

Discussion + fix options at the end of docs/research/2026-05-01-retail-motion-trace/findings.md ("Other things still don't have…" → camera smoothness discussion in chat, not yet captured in the doc — TODO migrate the discussion in).

Recommended fix: render-time interpolation between physics ticks (standard fixed-timestep + interpolated rendering pattern from Quake / Source / Unreal). Snapshot _prevPhysicsPos and _currPhysicsPos at each tick; render player + camera target at Lerp(_prev, _curr, _physicsAccum / PhysicsTick). Cost: ~33 ms visual latency between input and what you see (matches retail's perceived latency anyway). Network outbound stays on the discrete tick value — no wire change.

Quick confirmation test before any code change: temporarily set PhysicsTick to 1.0/60.0 and see if chase camera feels smooth again. If yes, gate is confirmed cause. (Don't ship that — it'd undo the L.5 collision fixes.)

Files:

  • src/AcDream.App/Input/PlayerMovementController.cs:172PhysicsTick constant
  • src/AcDream.App/Input/PlayerMovementController.cs:448-456_physicsAccum gate
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/GameWindow.cs — wherever player render position + chase camera read _body.Position

Research:

  • L.5 background: memory/project_retail_debugger.md (the 30 Hz MinQuantum gate, the cdb trace evidence)
  • Discussed during 2026-05-01 motion-trace work

Acceptance:

  • Chase-camera run-around at 60+ FPS feels as smooth as render rate suggests (no perceptual stepping)
  • Network outbound (MoveToState / AutonomousPosition cadence + values) unchanged from current behavior
  • Collision behavior unchanged (the L.5 wedge / steep-roof scenarios still resolve correctly)
  • Observer view from a parallel retail client unchanged

#37 — Humanoid coat doesn't extend up to neck (visible "skin stub" between hair and coat)

Status: OPEN Severity: LOW (cosmetic; doesn't affect gameplay) Filed: 2026-05-01 Component: rendering / clothing / textures

Description: Every humanoid character (player + NPCs) wearing a coat shows a visible skin-colored region at the top of the coat where retail shows continuous coat fabric. From the back view: hair → skin stub → coat top. In retail: hair → coat collar (no exposed skin). This was originally reported as "head/neck protruding forward" — the apparent forward shift is an optical illusion caused by the missing coat collar.

Investigation 2026-05-01 (~3 hr session, conclusively ruled out many hypotheses):

What we ruled out:

  • Animation source. ACDREAM_USE_PLACEMENT_BASE=1 (force chars to Setup.PlacementFrames[Resting] instead of Animation.PartFrames[0]) → stub still visible.
  • Backface culling / mesh winding. ACDREAM_NO_CULL=1 (disable glCullFace entirely) → stub still visible.
  • Palette overlay (SubPalettes). ACDREAM_NO_PALETTE_OVERLAY=1 (skip ComposePalette) → stub still visible (other colors broke as expected — confirms overlay was firing). Bug is NOT a body-skin SubPalette being mis-applied to coat fabric.
  • Bug source = part 16 (head). ACDREAM_HIDE_PART=16 → head goes away, stub remains UNCHANGED (clean coat top with same shape). Stub is NOT from head GfxObj polygons.
  • Per-part placement frame Origin. ACDREAM_NUDGE_Y=-0.1 confirmed +Y = forward in body-local; head Origin (0, 0.013, 1.587) places head correctly relative to spine. Math checks out.

What we confirmed (data is correct):

  • Player Setup 0x02000001 (Aluvian Male), 34 parts.
  • Server (ACE) sends animParts=34 texChanges=12 subPalettes=10.
  • Part 9 (upper torso/coat) has gfx 0x0100120D after AnimPartChange.
  • Part 9 has 2 surfaces, BOTH covered by 2 TextureChanges (oldTex=0x050003D5→0x05001AFE, oldTex=0x050003D4→0x05001AFC).
  • Stub IS from part 9: ACDREAM_HIDE_PART=9 → entire torso (including stub region) disappears.
  • Per-part composition formula (Scale × Rotation × Translation) matches ACME's StaticObjectManager.cs:256-258 and retail decomp's Frame::combine at 0x00518FD0.

Investigation 2 (2026-05-04, 5 parallel agents + dat probes):

ALL of the obvious hypotheses ruled out:

  • Byte-level decode primitive matches ACViewer. INDEX16/P8/DXT/BGRA paths are byte-identical.
  • Polygon emission matches retail. All 43 polygons of gfx 0x0100120D are SidesType=0 (ST_SINGLE), all surfaces are Base1Image — NO ST_DOUBLE polygons we'd be missing, NO surfaces lacking the Type & 6 bits that retail's DrawPolyInternal skips.
  • Per-PART texture-override scoping is correct. resolvedOverridesByPart[partIdx] gets per-MeshRef'd; not a global flat map (Agent 3's claim was wrong).
  • SubPalettes are full-size (Colors.Count=2048) palettes. Our subPal.Colors[idx] indexing matches ACViewer's newPalette.Colors[j + offset].
  • The *8 wire un-pack is correctly single-applied (parser stores raw bytes; ComposePalette multiplies once).

The actual smoking gun (Investigation 2):

For +Acdream the server sends 10 SubPaletteSwap ranges that overlay palette indices: [0..320), [576..1024), [1392..1488), [1728..1920). The complement — indices [320..576), [1024..1392), [1488..1728), [1920..2048) — is NOT overlaid. Base palette 0x0400007E at those indices contains the original red/skin tones (sampled values: 0x46 0x22 0x04, 0x4A 0x28 0x09, etc).

If the coat texture's UVs at the upper region map to texel-bytes whose palette index lands in one of those non-overlaid ranges, those pixels render with base-palette skin tones. That's the visible "skin stub at the top of the coat".

Working hypothesis: either

  1. ACE sends incomplete SubPalette ranges (retail-original would cover the full palette)
  2. Retail does additional client-side compute that ACE pre-resolves wrongly
  3. The base palette 0x0400007E itself is supposed to have coat colors at those indices in retail's interpretation (different palette decode)

Next investigation (deferred):

  • Diff ACE's WorldObject_Networking.cs CharGen ObjDesc construction against retail's ClothingTable::BuildObjDesc (acclient_2013_pseudo_c.txt:436261). Check if ACE actually walks every CloSubPaletteRange in the chosen PaletteTemplate, or skips some.
  • RenderDoc capture: confirm which texel/palette-index the upper-region polygons sample.
  • tools/InspectCoatTex/Program.cs is the diagnostic harness — extend it.

Files (diagnostic env vars committed for next-session reuse):

  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/InstancedMeshRenderer.cs:210-275ACDREAM_NO_CULL env var
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/GameWindow.csACDREAM_HIDE_PART=N hides specific humanoid part; ACDREAM_DUMP_CLOTHING=1 dumps AnimPartChanges + TextureChanges + per-part Surface chain coverage.
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/TextureCache.cs:159-204DecodeFromDats is the texture decode entry. Compare against references/WorldBuilder-ACME-Edition/.../TextureHelpers.cs.

Reproduction:

$env:ACDREAM_LIVE = "1"; $env:ACDREAM_DEVTOOLS = "1"
# normal launch — visible from chase camera looking at +Acdream's back

Stub is visible on +Acdream and on every NPC humanoid (Pathwarden, Town Crier, Shopkeeper Renald, etc.).

Acceptance: Side-by-side retail + acdream rendering of +Acdream shows coat extending up to chin level on both. No exposed skin between hair and coat.

#L.1 — Hotbar UI panel

Status: OPEN Severity: MEDIUM Filed: 2026-04-26 (deferred from Phase K) Component: ui / hotbar

Description: Number keys 1-9 are bound to UseQuickSlot_1..9 actions but no panel exists. Actions fire (visible via the [input] console log) but produce no visible result. Phase L feature: drag-drop hotbar with up to 5 bars × 9 slots, drag spell/skill icons to slots, key activates the slot's contents. Server-side: CreateShortcutToSelected (action 0x0A9 in retail motion table) sends a UseSelected on slot fire.

Files: src/AcDream.UI.Abstractions/Panels/Hotbar/ (TBC).

Acceptance: Drag an item or spell into slot 1, press 1, server responds as if the user clicked the item.


#L.2 — Spellbook favorites panel

Status: OPEN Severity: MEDIUM Filed: 2026-04-26 (deferred from Phase K) Component: ui / magic

Description: In MagicCombat scope, 1-9 should fire UseSpellSlot_1..9 (distinct from hotbar). Requires a small UI to pin favorite spells + a spellbook tab nav. Cross-references issue #L.3 (combat-mode dispatch).


#L.3 — Combat-mode tracking + scope-aware Insert/PgUp/Delete/End/PgDn dispatch

Status: OPEN Severity: MEDIUM Filed: 2026-04-26 (deferred from Phase K) Component: input / combat

Description: Insert/PgUp/Delete/End/PgDn mean different things in melee / missile / magic combat modes (per retail keymap MeleeCombat / MissileCombat / MagicCombat blocks). Phase K has the bindings and the scope stack; what's missing: CombatState.CurrentMode field + listener for the server-side SetCombatMode packet (likely 0x0053 or similar — confirm against ACE source). When mode arrives, push the appropriate scope; when leaving combat, pop.


#L.4 — F-key panels: Allegiance / Fellowship / Skills / Attributes / World / SpellComponents

Status: OPEN Severity: LOW Filed: 2026-04-26 (deferred from Phase K) Component: ui

Description: Retail F3-F6, F8-F12 toggle UI panels for various character data. Phase K has the bindings (ToggleAllegiancePanel, ToggleFellowshipPanel, ToggleSpellbookPanel, ToggleSpellComponentsPanel, ToggleAttributesPanel, ToggleSkillsPanel, ToggleWorldPanel, ToggleInventoryPanel); the panels themselves don't exist. Each is its own design feature. Inventory (F12) is the most-requested.


#L.5 — Floating chat windows (Alt+1-4)

Status: OPEN Severity: LOW Filed: 2026-04-26 (deferred from Phase K) Component: ui / chat

Description: Alt+1..4 toggle four floating chat windows in retail. Phase K binds the actions; ChatPanel currently is a single window. Floating windows would need filtered-by-channel-type chat tail rendering.


#L.6 — UI layout save/load (saveui / loadui / lockui)

Status: OPEN Severity: LOW Filed: 2026-04-26 (deferred from Phase K) Component: ui

Description: Retail had @saveui <name>, @loadui <name>, @lockui commands for persisting ImGui-style window layouts. ImGui has built-in LoadIniSettingsFromMemory / SaveIniSettingsToMemory — wire these to per-named-layout files, plus chat-command parsing for the @ prefixes.


#L.7 — Joystick / gamepad bindings

Status: OPEN Severity: LOW Filed: 2026-04-26 (deferred from Phase K) Component: input

Description: Retail keymap declares 11 Joystick devices in the Devices block but no actions are bound by default. acdream uses Silk.NET keyboard+mouse only. Adding Silk.NET joystick support + a JoystickInputSource adapter would unlock controller play. KeyChord.Device byte already supports values >1, so the binding side is ready.


#L.8 — Plugin / scripting / macro input subscription

Status: OPEN Severity: MEDIUM Filed: 2026-04-26 (deferred from Phase K) Component: plugin / input

Description: CLAUDE.md goal: "Build acdream's plugin API to support scripting/macros for player automation." Plugins should be able to register custom actions (with namespaced IDs like mymacro.heal-rotation) and subscribe to InputAction events. Phase K foundation supports this via the multicast InputDispatcher; what's missing is the plugin-API surface.


#32 — Retail edge-slide / cliff-slide / precipice-slide incomplete

Status: IN-PROGRESS Severity: HIGH Filed: 2026-04-29 Component: physics / collision

Description: When walking along walls, roof edges, cliff edges, or failed step-down boundaries, retail often slides along the boundary. acdream still hard-blocks or accepts too much in several of these cases.

Root cause / status: Tracked under Phase L.2c. Wall-adjacent step_up_slide now feels acceptable in live testing. Local/remote movement passes the retail-default EdgeSlide flag. The first precipice-slide slice now preserves terrain/BSP walkable polygon vertices and runs the retail back-probe before SPHEREPATH::precipice_slide; edge-slide Slid / Adjusted results now feed the TransitionalInsert retry loop instead of being reverted by outer validation, and a synthetic diagonal terrain-boundary test covers tangent motion. ACDREAM_DUMP_EDGE_SLIDE=1 now reports whether a failed step-down had polygon context.

L.4/L.5 update 2026-04-30: A retail debugger trace (cdb attached to v11.4186 acclient.exe — see #35) confirmed that retail does NOT wedge on the steep-roof scenario that produces the wedge in our acdream port. Three concrete findings:

  1. Retail's OBJECTINFO::kill_velocity rarely fires in normal play — gated on last_known_contact_plane_valid, which our L.2.4 proximity guard tends to clear before steep-poly hits land. Retail trace: 0 kill_velocity hits across 40,960 update_object calls. Our Phase 3 reset path now matches retail's gate (only kills when valid).
  2. Retail integrates physics at 30Hz (MinQuantum = 1/30 s); render is 60+ Hz. UpdatePhysicsInternal/update_object ratio = 0.61. We ported this gate as L.5 in PlayerMovementController via _physicsAccum. Render still runs at 60+ Hz; only the physics integration step is 30Hz.
  3. The remaining wedge cause — body's pre-position drifts to the polygon's tangent and gravity's tangent component into surface produces a stable retain-collide-revert loop — is a downstream consequence of retail's grounded-on-steep escape chain (step_sphere_upstep_up_slidecliff_slide) being incompletely ported. Live test confirmed retail-strict Path 6 produces "lands on roof in falling animation, can't slide off" half-state because that chain doesn't produce smooth descent.

Pragmatic ship-state: BSPQuery Path 6 keeps the L.4 slide-tangent deviation (project-along-steep-face-and-return-Slid) for steep-poly airborne hits. It produces user-acceptable "slide off the roof" behavior at the cost of departing from retail's Path 6 → SetCollide → Path 4 → Phase 3 reset chain. Retail-strict requires the step_up_slide / cliff_slide audit below; until that lands, slide-tangent is the right deviation.

Remaining gaps: real-DAT building-edge fixtures, fuller cliff_slide coverage, NegPolyHit dispatch, and the retail-strict step_up_slide / cliff_slide audit (filed for follow-up). Named retail anchors include CTransition::edge_slide, CTransition::cliff_slide, SPHEREPATH::precipice_slide, and SPHEREPATH::step_up_slide.

Files: src/AcDream.Core/Physics/TransitionTypes.cs, src/AcDream.Core/Physics/BSPQuery.cs, tests/AcDream.Core.Tests/.

Research: docs/plans/2026-04-29-movement-collision-conformance.md, docs/research/2026-04-30-precipice-slide-pseudocode.md.

Acceptance: Synthetic and real-DAT tests cover wall-slide, roof-edge slide, cliff/precipice slide, failed step-up/step-down, and the jump-clears-edge case.


#35 — [DONE 2026-04-30] Retail debugger toolchain (cdb + PDB GUID matching)

Status: DONE Severity: N/A (infrastructure) Filed + closed: 2026-04-30 Component: tooling / research

Description: When the question is "what does retail actually DO at runtime?" — wedges, animation flicker, geometry-specific bugs where the decomp is correct but the visible behavior is mysterious — there was no way to attach a debugger to a live retail acclient.exe and trace it. This issue tracks the toolchain that closed that gap.

What shipped:

  • tools/pdb-extract/check_exe_pdb.py — reads any PE's CodeView entry and reports MATCH / MISMATCH (expected GUID = …) against our refs/acclient.pdb. Always run before attaching cdb.
  • tools/pdb-extract/dump_pdb_info.py — dumps a PDB's expected build timestamp + GUID + age. Used to figure out which acclient.exe build pairs with our PDB (answer: v11.4186, Sept 2013 EoR).
  • CLAUDE.md "Retail debugger toolchain" section — full workflow: cdb path, sample .cdb script, PowerShell wrapper pattern, watchouts (PDB name conventions, ; parsing, kill-target-on-detach behavior, high-hit-rate lag).
  • Step -1 added to the development workflow — "ATTACH cdb TO RETAIL (when behavior is the question, not code)". Tells future sessions: when guessing has failed twice in a row, don't keep guessing.

Discoveries this toolchain enabled (closed in same session):

  • Retail integrates physics at 30Hz (UpdatePhysicsInternal/update_object ratio = 0.61). Drove the L.5 fix in PlayerMovementController.
  • OBJECTINFO::kill_velocity rarely fires in normal play (gated on last_known_contact_plane_valid). Our acdream port now matches.
  • Retail does NOT wedge on the steep-roof scenario. Confirmed our L.4 slide-tangent deviation in Path 6 is necessary until the retail step_up_slide / cliff_slide chain audit lands.

Files: tools/pdb-extract/check_exe_pdb.py, tools/pdb-extract/dump_pdb_info.py, CLAUDE.md, memory/project_retail_debugger.md.

Acceptance: Future sessions can attach cdb to a live retail client in under 5 minutes by following the CLAUDE.md workflow.


#36 — Sky-PES dispatch port (consolidates #2 / #28 / #29 visual gaps)

Status: OPEN Severity: MEDIUM (aesthetic feature-parity, but addresses a cluster of bugs) Filed: 2026-04-30 Component: sky / weather / particles

Description: Three open sky bugs (#2 lightning, #28 aurora, #29 cloud density) all trace back to the same missing infrastructure: retail's sky-PES (Particle Effect Script) dispatch chain. We have it now from a 2026-04-30 cdb live trace.

What retail does (live trace evidence):

Trace over 24,576 GameSky::Draw frames:
  GameSky::Draw                    = 24,576  (60 Hz render rate)
  GameSky::UseTime                 = 12,288  (30 Hz — half rate, MinQuantum)
  GameSky::CreateDeletePhysicsObjects = 12,288  (also 30 Hz)
  CPhysicsObj::CallPES             = 372     (~150/min average)
  CallPESHook::Execute             = 372     (1:1 with CallPES)
  CreateParticleHook::Execute      = 62      (15 at cell load + 47 burst at transition)
  CPhysicsObj::create_particle_emitter = 62  (matches CreateParticleHook)

Three findings:

  1. Retail has persistent particle emitters on celestial / sky objects. Created at cell load (15 initial) and dynamically as conditions change (the trace caught a +47 burst on a region/weather/time transition).
  2. The PES script-hook system (CallPESHook::ExecuteCPhysicsObj::CallPES) drives those emitters periodically, ~150 times per minute on average.
  3. Earlier research said "GameSky doesn't read pes_id" — correct in scope, but missed that the dispatch chain runs through the script- hook system, not from inside GameSky directly. Cell/region/weather handlers schedule PES script hooks; those hooks call into CallPES.

Decomp anchors:

  • CallPESHook::Execute @ 0x00526e20 — script-hook action that fires CallPES
  • CreateParticleHook::Execute @ 0x00526ec0 — particle-creation hook
  • CPhysicsObj::CallPES @ 0x00511af0
  • CPhysicsObj::create_particle_emitter @ 0x0050f360
  • GameSky::CreateDeletePhysicsObjects @ 0x005073c0
  • LongNIHash<ParticleEmitter> instance — emitter registry
  • CelestialPosition.pes_id @ struct offset +0x004 — populated by SkyDesc::GetSky but consumed downstream of GameSky (via the hook system, not GameSky itself)

Implementation outline:

  1. Decomp dive: read CallPESHook::Execute, CreateParticleHook::Execute, CPhysicsObj::CallPES, and GameSky::CreateDeletePhysicsObjects (and any cell/region weather handlers that spawn the dynamic 47).
  2. Identify what triggers CreateParticleHook for sky objects — is it inside CreateDeletePhysicsObjects, the region/weather change handler, or somewhere else?
  3. Port the persistent-emitter creation path: when a cell loads or weather/time changes, instantiate the appropriate ParticleEmitters on celestial objects.
  4. Port the PES timeline driver — periodic dispatch from a script timeline into our equivalent CallPES.
  5. Port the actual PES script execution (rate of emission, particle parameters, etc.) into our particle system.
  6. Live verify with cdb during specific weather windows: aurora at dusk on Rainy DayGroup, lightning during storm.

Files (likely):

  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Sky/SkyRenderer.cs — emitter wiring
  • src/AcDream.Core/World/SkyDescLoader.cs — already parses pes_id
  • src/AcDream.Core/Particles/* — particle system foundation
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/ParticleRenderer.cs — visual layer

Live-trace verification plan (next cdb session): Reattach to retail during a specific aurora moment, log this pointer + pes_id arg on every CallPES invocation, log the GfxObj being attached on every create_particle_emitter. That tells us EXACTLY which celestial objects retail PES-drives and with which IDs.

Acceptance: During the same in-game time/weather where retail shows aurora-style light play (Rainy DayGroup, dusk/dawn windows), acdream shows comparable colored sky effects. Cloud sheets look as dense / purple as retail. Lightning flashes appear during storm windows.

Closes-when-done: #28, #29, partially #2 (lightning may need additional flash-shader work).


#33 — Live entity collision shape collapses to one cylinder

Status: OPEN Severity: MEDIUM Filed: 2026-04-29 Component: physics / entities

Description: Live world entities do not yet use exact retail CSphere / CCylSphere shape semantics. Several paths collapse the entity to a simplified root-centered cylinder or fallback radius, which is not enough for retail object and creature collision parity.

Root cause / status: Tracked under Phase L.2d. Requires auditing object shape extraction, Setup.Radius fallback, building object identity, and live entity broadphase records against named retail.

Files: src/AcDream.Core/Physics/CollisionPrimitives.cs, src/AcDream.Core/Physics/ShadowObjectRegistry.cs, src/AcDream.Core/Physics/PhysicsDataCache.cs.

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

Acceptance: Live object collision uses the appropriate retail sphere or cylsphere data where available. Tests prove at least one multi-shape object and one live creature case no longer use the single-cylinder fallback.


#2 — Lightning visual mismatch (sky PES path disproved)

Status: OPEN Severity: MEDIUM Filed: 2026-04-25 Component: weather / sky / vfx

Description: Lightning/storm sky visuals still do not match retail. A 2026-04-28 named-retail recheck disproved the prior assumption that SkyObject.PesObjectId drives sky-render flash particles: SkyDesc::GetSky copies the field into CelestialPosition.pes_id, but GameSky::CreateDeletePhysicsObjects, GameSky::MakeObject, and GameSky::UseTime never read it.

Root cause / status: Open again. The sky-PES path is non-retail and must stay disabled for normal rendering. The remaining mismatch likely lives in the sky/weather mesh material path, the lightning/fog flash path, or another weather subsystem outside GameSky; do not reintroduce per-SkyObject PES playback without new decompile evidence.

Files:

  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Sky/SkyRenderer.cs — sky/weather mesh draw, material state, pre/post split
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Shaders/sky.frag — flash/fog/lightning coloration path
  • src/AcDream.Core/World/SkyDescLoader.cs — keep PesObjectId parsed for diagnostics, not render playback

Research:

  • docs/research/2026-04-28-pes-pseudocode.md — C.1 correction: CelestialPosition.pes_id copied but ignored by GameSky
  • docs/research/2026-04-23-sky-pes-wiring.md — earlier decompile trace reached the same no-sky-PES conclusion
  • docs/research/2026-04-23-lightning-real.md (decompile trace + dat discovery)
  • docs/research/2026-04-23-physicsscript.md (runtime semantics)
  • docs/research/2026-04-23-lightning-crossfade.md (crossfade mechanism)

Acceptance: During a Rainy DayGroup's storm window, visible flashes appear in the sky at the dat-scripted moments, the fragment-shader flash bump briefly brightens the scene, and (later, once thunder audio is wired) a thunder clap plays with a short propagation delay.

See also #36 (Sky-PES dispatch port) — the lightning visuals likely route through the same PES-hook chain that drives aurora and cloud-density. Most of #2's storm-flash visuals will be unblocked by the #36 port.


#3 — Client clock drifts from retail after ~10 minutes (periodic TimeSync missing)

Status: OPEN Severity: MEDIUM Filed: 2026-04-25 Component: net / sky

Description: Our WorldTimeService.DayFraction syncs with the server once at login via ConnectRequest + TimeSync, then advances from the local wall-clock. Retail receives periodic TimeSync refreshes (header flag 0x1000000) carrying a fresh PortalYearTicks double and re-anchors its clock. Without those, acdream's keyframe state drifts from retail's over 10+ minutes — observed during the 2026-04-24 sky-color debug sessions where retail was at DayFraction 0.976 while acdream was at 0.634.

Root cause / status: Mechanism is well-understood (see research). WorldTimeService.SyncFromServer(double) already exists — we just need to detect the periodic flag in the packet header and call it whenever a fresh tick arrives.

Files:

  • src/AcDream.Core.Net/WorldSession.cs — header-flag parsing; currently only the initial sync is consumed
  • src/AcDream.Core/World/WorldTimeService.csSyncFromServer(double ticks) ready; needs caller wiring

Research: docs/research/deepdives/r12-weather-daynight.md §TimeSync (line ~563). References retail packet-header flag 0x1000000 carrying PortalYearTicks double.

Acceptance: Probe retail via tools/RetailTimeProbe and acdream's ACDREAM_DUMP_SKY log at the same wall-clock moment after a 20-minute session without re-login; abs(acdream.DayFraction - retail.DayFraction) < 0.01.



#13 — PlayerDescription trailer past enchantments (options / shortcuts / hotbars / desired_comps / spellbook_filters / options2 / gameplay_options / inventory / equipped)

Status: OPEN Severity: LOW (no current user-visible bug; future panels will need the data) Filed: 2026-04-25 Component: net / player-state

Description: PlayerDescriptionParser walks through enchantments (Phase H, 2026-04-25). The trailer beyond that — Options1 / Shortcuts / HotbarSpells (8 lists) / DesiredComps / SpellbookFilters / Options2 / GameplayOptions blob / Inventory / Equipped — is not yet parsed. Required for future Spellbook UI panel, hotbar UI, inventory UI, character options panel.

Root cause / status: Holtburger events.rs:462-625 has the full layout. The trickiest piece is gameplay_options — a variable-length opaque blob; holtburger uses a heuristic forward search (find_inventory_start_after_gameplay_options) for plausibly-aligned inventory-count + GUID pairs to find the inventory start. Other sections are well-formed.

Files:

  • src/AcDream.Core.Net/Messages/PlayerDescriptionParser.cs — extend Parsed record + walker.
  • tests/AcDream.Core.Net.Tests/PlayerDescriptionParserTests.cs — add fixtures per section.
  • src/AcDream.Core.Net/GameEventWiring.cs — route parsed.Inventory + Equipped to ItemRepository.

Research: holtburger events.rs:462-625; references/actestclient/TestClient/messages.xml.

Acceptance: All sections of a real-world PlayerDescription parse to completion (no truncation). New tests cover synthetic fixtures per section. ItemRepository.Count after login > 0.



#4 — Sky horizon-glow disabled (fog-mix skipped on sky meshes)

Status: OPEN Severity: LOW (aesthetic feature-parity, not regression from pre-session state) Filed: 2026-04-25 Component: sky

Description: Phase 8.1 (commit 593b76f) disabled the fog-mix on sky meshes to fix the "entire dome swallowed by fog color" regression. Dereth's keyframe FogEnd values (02400 m) are calibrated for terrain; sky meshes are authored at radii 105014271 m so every sky pixel was past FogEnd, saturated to uFogColor, destroying stars / moon / dome texture. Disabling the mix restored visibility but we lost retail's horizon-glow effect (gradient from clear zenith to fog-tinted horizon band at dusk/dawn).

Root cause / status: Three competing hypotheses, none pinned down: (a) retail uses a different fog range for sky than terrain; (b) retail applies fog with an elevation-angle weighting rather than linear distance; (c) retail's sky meshes don't participate in the global fog and the "horizon glow" comes from a different atmospheric-scatter path. Need to identify retail's actual sky-fog behaviour before re-enabling with correct parameters.

Files:

  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Shaders/sky.frag — line ~55, rgb = mix(uFogColor.rgb, rgb, vFogFactor) currently commented out
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Shaders/sky.vert — lines 109-114, vFogFactor computation

Research: docs/research/2026-04-23-sky-fog.md. Partial; doesn't pin the sky-specific fog path.

Acceptance: At dusk in Holtburg, the sky dome shows a clear zenith and a warm fog-tinted horizon band that matches retail's appearance, with stars / moon / sun / clouds all still visible at their correct brightnesses elsewhere in the frame.


#28 — Aurora ("northern lights") effect not rendered

Status: OPEN Severity: LOW (aesthetic feature-parity) Filed: 2026-04-26 Component: sky / vfx

Description: Retail renders a dynamic colored "light play" effect in the sky during certain Rainy/Cloudy DayGroup time windows. The user describes it as aurora-borealis-style. acdream renders no comparable effect.

Root cause / status: Open again. The prior root cause was wrong: CelestialPosition.pes_id exists in the retail header and is populated by SkyDesc::GetSky, but named retail GameSky code does not read it during sky object creation, update, or draw. A 2026-04-28 C.1 experiment that played those PES ids produced colored blobs/wash that did not match retail's broad aurora-like rays, and the path is now debug-only behind ACDREAM_ENABLE_SKY_PES=1.

Retail header at acclient.h line 35451 still documents the copied field:

struct CelestialPosition {
    IDClass<...> gfx_id;
    IDClass<...> pes_id;          // ← particle scheduler ID
    float heading; float rotation;
    Vector3 tex_velocity;
    float transparent; float luminosity; float max_bright;
    unsigned int properties;
};

StarsProbe confirmed Dereth Rainy DayGroup 3 carries multiple PES-bearing entries (verified 2026-04-27). Sample for the user's observed Warmtide-Rainy state:

OI Gfx PES Active window Notes
5 0x02000714 0x330007DB always low-rate background
7 0x02000BA6 0x33000453 0.030.19 early morning
17 0x02000589 0x3300042C 0.270.91 active during user's screenshot

acdream's geometry half is now wired (commit landing 2026-04-27 — EnsureSetupUploaded walks Setup.Parts for 0x020xxx IDs). The remaining dynamic visual half is not SkyObject.PesObjectId; likely suspects are sky/weather mesh material state, texture transform/blending, or a separate weather/lightning subsystem outside GameSky.

Implementation outline:

  1. Keep SkyObject.PesObjectId parsed for diagnostics only.
  2. Compare retail/acdream material state for the active sky/weather GfxObj/Setup ids (0x02000588, 0x02000589, 0x02000714, 0x02000BA6).
  3. Trace the named retail sky/weather draw path for texture transforms, translucency, diffusion, luminosity, and any non-GameSky weather effect dispatch.
  4. Only add a new runtime visual path once the decompile has an actual caller.

Decomp pointers:

  • SkyDesc::GetSky named retail 0x00501ec0 — copies SkyObject.default_pes_object into CelestialPosition.pes_id.
  • GameSky::CreateDeletePhysicsObjects named retail 0x005073c0 — creates/updates sky objects from gfx_id, does not read pes_id.
  • GameSky::MakeObject named retail 0x00506ee0 — calls CPhysicsObj::makeObject(gfx_id, 0, 0), no PES.
  • GameSky::UseTime named retail 0x005075b0 — updates frame/luminosity/diffusion/translucency, no PES.

Files:

  • src/AcDream.Core/World/SkyDescLoader.cs — carries PesObjectId for diagnostics.
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Sky/SkyRenderer.cs — likely material/texture-transform parity work.
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/GameWindow.cs — sky-PES playback remains debug-only, disabled by default.

Acceptance: When retail shows aurora-style light play at a specific in-game time / weather, acdream shows a visually-comparable effect at the same time.

See #36 (filed 2026-04-30) — a live cdb trace confirmed retail's aurora rendering uses the script-hook PES dispatch chain (CallPESHook::ExecuteCPhysicsObj::CallPES) on persistent particle emitters, with a cell-load population (15 initial emitters) plus dynamic spawning on region/weather/time transitions (caught a +47 burst). Implementation work consolidated under #36.


#29 — Cloud surface 0x08000023 still appears thinner than retail despite blend-mode + Setup fixes

Status: OPEN Severity: LOW (aesthetic feature-parity) Filed: 2026-04-27 Component: sky / clouds

Description: User screenshot comparison showed acdream's clouds let too much sun through; retail's are denser and have a purpleish tint. Two follow-up fixes landed without visible improvement:

  1. TranslucencyKindExtensions.FromSurfaceType now applies retail's Translucent-override at D3DPolyRender::SetSurface (decomp 425246-425260) — surface 0x08000023 (Type=0x10114 = B1ClipMap | Translucent | Alpha | Additive) is now correctly classified as AlphaBlend instead of Additive.
  2. SkyRenderer.EnsureSetupUploaded now loads 0x020xxxxx Setup IDs (e.g. 0x02000588, 0x02000589, 0x02000714, 0x02000BA6) which were silently dropped. Setup parts are flattened via SetupMesh.Flatten and uploaded with their per-part transform baked into vertex positions.

Despite both being decomp-correct fixes, the user reports no observable visual change in dual-client comparison. Two follow-up hypotheses:

  • The Setup objects are tiny placeholder meshes (one 0x010001EC part each) that exist mainly to anchor a PES emitter — the cloud "density" / "purple sheen" the user perceives is entirely the PES particle layer, not the static mesh.
  • The cloud surface might still be rendering correctly per its dat data, and what looks "thicker" in retail is the additional aurora-like PES sheen overlaid on top.

If hypothesis (a) is correct, this issue effectively rolls into #28 — the PES rendering work would resolve both.

Files:

  • src/AcDream.Core/Meshing/TranslucencyKind.cs — Translucent override
  • src/AcDream.App/Rendering/Sky/SkyRenderer.csEnsureSetupUploaded

Acceptance: Cloud sheets look as dense/purple as retail in dual-client side-by-side. May require #28 (PES) to land first.

See #36 (filed 2026-04-30) — confirmed via live cdb trace: retail's cloud density comes from the same PES-driven particle-emitter chain as aurora. Implementation consolidated there.



Recently closed

#31 — [DONE 2026-04-29] Low outdoor cell id can go stale after transition movement

Closed: 2026-04-29 Commit: (this commit) Resolution: ResolveWithTransition now refreshes outdoor cell ownership from the resolved world position while the sphere sweep runs. Intra-landblock 24m outdoor seams update the low cell id, and full-cell callers crossing a landblock seam get the destination landblock prefix plus the correct outdoor low cell.


#34 — [DONE 2026-04-29] Missing routine local/server correction diagnostic

Closed: 2026-04-29 Commit: (this commit) Resolution: Added ACDREAM_DUMP_MOVE_TRUTH=1, which logs local resolved position/contact/cell, outbound movement fields, server UpdatePosition echo, and local/server correction delta for the player in grep-friendly move-truth OUT / move-truth ECHO lines.


#30 — [DONE 2026-04-29] AutonomousPosition contact byte is too often grounded

Closed: 2026-04-29 Commit: (this commit) Resolution: GameWindow now derives the movement contact byte from MovementResult.IsOnGround and passes it explicitly to both MoveToState.Build and AutonomousPosition.Build. Added packet tests proving both builders encode an explicit airborne contact byte.


#27 — [DONE 2026-04-26] Cloud meshes appeared missing or faint vs retail

Closed: 2026-04-26 Commit: 4678b3e fix(sky): apply per-Surface Translucency + Luminosity for retail-faithful weather Resolution: Resolved as a side-effect of the Bug A fix. The original observation came from a session where every sky mesh got effEmissive = 1.0 (saturated vTint to white), which made stars/clouds look full-bright instead of time-of-day-tinted. Fix 2 corrected the emissive default to sub.SurfLuminosity so cloud surfaces (Lum=0.0) now run through the ambient+diffuse vertex-lit path and pick up keyframe tint. Fix 1 separately plumbed surface.Translucency to the shader, picking up the 0.25 translucency on cloud surface 0x08000023 (75% opacity). Visual verification under Phase 0 of the followup plan: clouds and colors now match retail at LCG-picked DayGroups across the day cycle.


#1 — [DONE 2026-04-26] Rain falls only to horizon, not to the player's feet

Closed: 2026-04-26 Commits: 3e0da49 (sky pass split + retail -120m Z offset), 4678b3e (Surface.Translucency + Luminosity correctness), d95a8d2 (legacy emitter delete) Resolution: Two-part fix. First, rain rendering was completely re-architected to match retail's LScape::draw pattern at 0x00506330 — sky pass before the landblock loop (RenderSky), weather pass after (RenderWeather). Weather meshes now overlay terrain instead of being painted over. Camera anchored inside the rain cylinder via the retail-correct -120m Z offset (constant 0xc2f00000 in GameSky::UpdatePosition at 0x00506dd0). Second, the per-Surface Translucency float (rain = 0.5) and Luminosity float (rain = 0.1484) were both being ignored by the renderer; plumbed end-to-end so streaks contribute at retail-correct intensity instead of 6.7× too bright. Legacy camera-attached particle emitter (UpdateWeatherParticles + BuildRainDesc + BuildSnowDesc) deleted; world-space mesh is the only path now. Snow rides the same fix automatically. Filed alongside two follow-up issues from the visual-verify session: #27 (cloud rendering parity), #28 (aurora/northern lights).


#26 — [DONE 2026-04-26] Stars rendered as a square in one corner of the sky

Closed: 2026-04-26 Commit: 7b88fde fix(sky): drive wrap mode from mesh UV range — fixes Bug B (stars-as-square) Resolution: SkyRenderer's wrap-mode heuristic was GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE unless TexVelocity != 0, which mis-classified the inner sky/star layer 0x010015EF (UVs in [0.398, 4.602], TexVel=0). Most of the dome sampled the texture's edge texels; only the small region where UVs fell in [0,1] showed actual texture content. Fixed by computing NeedsUvRepeat per submesh from the actual UV range during GfxObjMesh.Build() and driving the wrap-mode choice from that flag plus the existing scrolling check. Outer dome 0x010015EE/F0/F1/F2 (UVs strictly in [0,1]) keeps CLAMP_TO_EDGE so no seam regression. Probe tools/StarsProbe/ (commit 991fb9a) committed alongside as the diagnostic that found this.


#25 — [DONE 2026-04-26] Phase K.3 — Settings panel + click-to-rebind UI

Closed: 2026-04-26 Commit: (this commit) Resolution: SettingsPanel with click-to-rebind UX (modal capture via InputDispatcher.BeginCapture, Esc cancels, conflict prompt with Yes/No, draft / Save / Cancel semantics), F11 toggle + ImGui MainMenuBar entry, per-action / per-section / reset-all-defaults buttons. Roadmap + ISSUES + memory crib + CLAUDE.md updated.


#24 — [DONE 2026-04-26] Phase K.2 — auto-enter player mode + MMB mouse-look

Closed: 2026-04-26 Commit: af74eac Resolution: Auto-enter player mode at login (one-shot guard reusing the existing Tab handler logic); MMB-hold mouse-look (CameraInstantMouseLook — cursor-locked camera + character yaw drive together); Tab → ChatPanel.FocusInput(); DebugPanel "Toggle Free-Fly Mode" button.


#23 — [DONE 2026-04-26] Phase K.1c — retail-default keymap + JSON persistence

Closed: 2026-04-26 Commit: da18910 Resolution: ~149 retail-faithful bindings byte-precise to docs/research/named-retail/retail-default.keymap.txt; %LOCALAPPDATA%\acdream\keybinds.json with merge-over-defaults migration; acdream debug F-keys relocated to Ctrl+F*.


#22 — [DONE 2026-04-26] Phase K.1b — cut handlers over to dispatcher

Closed: 2026-04-26 Commit: 256e962 Resolution: Drop the legacy mouse-X-character-yaw path; fix WantCaptureMouse gating; single input path via the multicast InputDispatcher.


#21 — [DONE 2026-04-26] Phase K.1a — input architecture skeleton

Closed: 2026-04-26 Commit: 84512d3 Resolution: Action enum, multicast InputDispatcher with scope stack, KeyChord / Binding / KeyBindings, Silk.NET adapters; parallel to existing handlers (no behavior change).


#20 — [DONE 2026-04-25] CombatChatTranslator — retail-faithful combat-text formatters

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: 3d26c8e Resolution: Retail-faithful combat-text formatters into ChatLog ("You hit drudge for 50 slashing damage"). Subscribes to CombatState's DamageTaken / DamageDealtAccepted / EvadedIncoming / MissedOutgoing / AttackDone / KillLanded events; templates ported verbatim from holtburger panels/chat.rs:221-308.


#19 — [DONE 2026-04-25] TurbineChat codec (0xF7DE) + ChatChannelInfo

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: ca968fc Resolution: Full 0xF7DE codec with three payload variants (EventSendToRoom, RequestSendToRoomById, Response), UTF-16LE strings with variable-length prefix, SetTurbineChatChannels (0x0295) parser, unified ChatChannelInfo (Legacy + Turbine variants), TurbineChatState. Note: ACE doesn't run a TurbineChat server — codec is ready for retail-server-emulating setups.


#18 — [DONE 2026-04-25] Holtburger inbound chat parity + Windows-1252 codec

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: ff5ed9e Resolution: EmoteText (0x01E0) / SoulEmote (0x01E2) / ServerMessage (0xF7E0) / PlayerKilled (0x019E) parsers + WeenieError routing through GameEventWiring. Global codec switch from Encoding.ASCII to Encoding.GetEncoding(1252); matches retail + holtburger; accented names round-trip correctly.


#17 — [DONE 2026-04-25] ChatPanel input field + slash commands

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: f14296c Resolution: ChatPanel gains Enter-to-submit input field; ChatInputParser recognises /say /t /tell /r /g /f /a /m /p /v /cv /lfg /trade /role /society /olthoi; ChatVM tracks LastIncomingTellSender for /r reply.


#16 — [DONE 2026-04-25] LiveCommandBus + WorldSession chat senders

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: 8e6e5a0 Resolution: Real ICommandBus impl + WorldSession.SendTalk / SendTell / SendChannel wrappers + SendChatCmd record + ChannelResolver legacy-id mapping per holtburger.


#15 — [DONE 2026-04-25] DebugPanel migration

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: 56037a4 Resolution: Migrates the 473-LOC StbTrueTypeSharp DebugOverlay to an ImGui DebugPanel with collapsing-headers + checkbox diagnostics + combat-event tail. Deletes DebugOverlay.cs; TextRenderer + BitmapFont kept for future HUD-in-world (D.6 damage floaters, name plates).


#14 — [DONE 2026-04-25] IPanelRenderer widget extension

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: b131514 Resolution: Adds 14 widget signatures (TextColored / Checkbox / Combo / InputTextSubmit / BeginTable / etc.) to IPanelRenderer + ImGuiPanelRenderer impl. Foundation for I.2 DebugPanel and I.4 ChatPanel input.


#7 — [DONE 2026-04-25] PlayerDescription parser stops after spells (enchantment block parsed)

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: feat(net): #7 PlayerDescriptionParser — enchantment block walker + StatMod flow Resolution: Extended PlayerDescriptionParser past the spell block to parse the Enchantment trailer per holtburger events.rs:462-501. Added EnchantmentEntry record with full wire payload (16 fields including the StatMod triad — type/key/val) + EnchantmentBucket (Multiplicative / Additive / Cooldown / Vitae per EnchantmentMask). Parsed now exposes IReadOnlyList<EnchantmentEntry> Enchantments. GameEventWiring routes each entry through the new Spellbook.OnEnchantmentAdded(ActiveEnchantmentRecord) overload with StatModType / StatModKey / StatModValue / Bucket populated. 2 new parser tests cover the enchantment block schema + Vitae singleton.

The remaining trailer sections (options / shortcuts / hotbars / inventory / equipped) are not yet parsed; filed as #13. Stopping after enchantments is intentional — it covers the highest-value section (issue #6 lights up) and avoids the heuristic gameplay_options walker that #13 needs.


#12 — [DONE 2026-04-25] Capture full Enchantment wire payload (StatMod) on ActiveEnchantmentRecord

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: feat(net): #7 PlayerDescriptionParser — enchantment block walker + StatMod flow Resolution: Closed alongside #7 in the same commit. ActiveEnchantmentRecord extended with optional StatModType, StatModKey, StatModValue, Bucket fields. Spellbook got an OnEnchantmentAdded(ActiveEnchantmentRecord) overload that accepts the full record. EnchantmentMath.GetMod aggregator now consumes the StatMod data: multiplicative bucket (1) → multiplier ×= val; additive bucket (2) → additive += val; vitae bucket (8) → multiplier ×= val (applied last, matching retail CEnchantmentRegistry::EnchantAttribute semantics). 5 new EnchantmentMath StatMod-aware tests cover: multiplicative buffs aggregate, additive buffs sum, stat-key mismatch is filtered out, vitae applies multiplicatively, family-stacking picks the higher spell-id buff.

ParseMagicUpdateEnchantment (the live-update opcode 0x02C2) is not yet extended — it still uses the 4-field summary. That's a separate refactor; PlayerDescription's enchantment block is the load-bearing path for issue #6, and that's now flowing.


#6 — [DONE 2026-04-25 architecture; data flowing as of #12] Vital max ignores enchantment buffs + vitae

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: feat(player): #6 fold enchantment buffs into vital max via EnchantmentMath Resolution: Ported CEnchantmentRegistry::EnchantAttribute (PDB 0x00594570) as EnchantmentMath.GetMod(IEnumerable<ActiveEnchantmentRecord>, SpellTable, statKey) returning (Multiplier, Additive). Family-stacking dedup via SpellTable.Family (only one buff per family bucket wins, by highest spell-id as a generation proxy). Spellbook.GetVitalMod(statKey) delegates. LocalPlayerState.GetMaxApprox reworked to apply (unbuffed × mult) + add with retail's min-vital clamp (>= 5 if base ≥ 5 else >= 1, matches CreatureVital::GetMaxValue at PDB 0x0058F2DD). Stat-key constants (MaxHealth=1, MaxStamina=3, MaxMana=5) verified against docs/research/named-retail/acclient.h line 37287-37301.

Architecture in place; data still flat. Until ISSUES.md #12 lands the wire-format extension that captures StatMod (type/key/val) on ActiveEnchantmentRecord, the per-enchantment modifier value isn't aggregated yet — EnchantmentMath.GetMod returns Identity (1.0, 0.0) for every stat key. Once #12 wires the data, the existing aggregator + formula light up automatically. Live +Acdream Stam/Mana percent will continue to read ~95% until #12 lands.

6 new EnchantmentMathTests cover: empty list returns Identity, no-table-entries returns Identity, stat-key constants match ACE enum, Identity is (1, 0), family-stacking dedup, family=0 (no-bucket) treated as separate.


#11 — [DONE 2026-04-25] Spell metadata loader (spells.csv → SpellTable)

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: feat(spells): #11 SpellTable — hydrate metadata from spells.csv at startup Resolution: Added SpellMetadata record + SpellTable CSV loader (hand-rolled RFC 4180-ish parser for the quoted Description column with embedded commas). Wired into Spellbook constructor as optional metadata source; Spellbook.TryGetMetadata(spellId, out) returns the static record when found. GameWindow loads data/spells.csv from bin output at construction (file copied via <None Include> in AcDream.App.csproj from docs/research/data/spells.csv). Falls back to SpellTable.Empty + console warning if the file is missing (e.g. tooling contexts). 10 new tests covering: empty table, header-only, simple row, quoted description with commas, blank lines skipped, bad spell-id rows skipped, lookup hit/miss, RFC 4180 escaped-quote parsing.


#9 — [DONE 2026-04-25] Address-correction sweep on acclient_function_map.md

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: docs(research): #9 sweep acclient_function_map.md against PDB symbols Resolution: Wrote tools/pdb-extract/check_function_map.py that cross-checks 63 hand-curated entries against docs/research/named-retail/symbols.json. Findings: zero entries matched address-and-name exactly (confirms ~0x800-0xC10 byte delta vs the binary that produced our Ghidra chunks — different build revision). 38 entries corrected by PDB name lookup; 25 entries either lack PDB symbol records (inlined / non-public) or had wrong class assignments (e.g. 0x5387C0 claimed as CTransition::find_collisions was actually CPolygon::polygon_hits_sphere). Updated acclient_function_map.md with corrected addresses, kept legacy addresses in a "Was" column for traceability, added a top-of-file sweep summary.


#10 — [DONE 2026-04-25] Wire KillerNotification (0x01AD)

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: docs(issues): #8/#9/#11 filed; #10 wired (KillerNotification) Resolution: Orphan parser at GameEvents.ParseKillerNotification existed but was never registered for dispatch in GameEventWiring.cs. Added a combat.OnKillerNotification(victimName, victimGuid) method on CombatState that fires a new KillLanded event, then registered the handler. One-line dispatch + 12-line CombatState method + one regression test fixture in GameEventWiringTests.


#8 — [DONE 2026-04-25] pdb-extract tool: PDB → symbols.json + types.json

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: tools(pdb-extract): #8 PDB -> symbols.json + types.json sidecar Resolution: Pure-Python (no deps) MSF 7.00 PDB parser at tools/pdb-extract/pdb_extract.py. Reads refs/acclient.pdb (Sept 2013 EoR build), extracts S_PUB32 records from the symbol stream + named class/struct types from TPI, and writes JSON sidecars to docs/research/named-retail/:

  • symbols.json — 18,366 named functions (address + demangled name + raw mangled)
  • types.json — 5,371 named class/struct records (name + size + kind)

Best-effort MSVC C++ demangler handles the common ?Method@Class@@<sig> patterns + ctors (??0) + dtors (??1); operator overloads and vtables left mangled. Spot-check verified: CEnchantmentRegistry::EnchantAttribute resolves to 0x00594570 exactly as the discovery agent reported. Runtime <1s.

Regen workflow: py tools/pdb-extract/pdb_extract.py refs/acclient.pdb. The committed JSON outputs are stable + ~3 MB combined; ripgrep/jq on them is faster than re-parsing.


#5 — [DONE 2026-04-25] VitalsPanel stamina/mana bars always null

Closed: 2026-04-25 Commit: feat(player): #5 PlayerDescription parser — Stam/Mana via attribute block Resolution: First attempt (commit d42bf57) used AppraiseInfoParser for PlayerDescription (0x0013) — wrong wire format. ACE source confirmed via GameEventPlayerDescription.WriteEventBody: PlayerDescription is hand-written (DescriptionPropertyFlag-driven property hashtables, vector flags, attribute block, skills, spells, options/inventory tail) — distinct from IdentifyObjectResponse (0x00C9)'s AppraiseInfo.Write. Pivoted to a real port: new PlayerDescriptionParser.cs that walks property hashtables (Int32/Int64/Bool/Double/String/Did/Iid + Position) gated on the property flags, then reads vector flags + has_health + the attribute block where vitals 7/8/9 carry ranks/start/xp/current. Also redesigned LocalPlayerState to track per-vital snapshots (replacing the sentinel-API of attempt 1) plus per-attribute snapshots, with GetMaxApprox applying the retail formula vital.(ranks+start) + attribute_contribution (Endurance/2 for Health, Endurance for Stamina, Self for Mana). Live verified: +Acdream shows three bars; ~95% reading on Stam/Mana traced to active buff multipliers (filed as #6). Wire-port also added PrivateUpdateVital (0x02E7) + PrivateUpdateVitalCurrent (0x02E9) for delta updates per holtburger UpdateVital. ~700 LOC C#, 30+ new tests.