1d54880213
Iteration on the sky rendering pipeline to restore stars/moon visibility
at night and fix washed-out grey daytime clouds. Key fixes:
* sky.frag: disable fog-mix on sky meshes. Retail's keyframe FogEnd
(0..400m at midnight, up to 2400m during day) is calibrated for
terrain; sky meshes are authored at radii 1050-14271m which sits
past FogEnd universally, causing every sky pixel to saturate to
fogColor (dark navy). Stars, moon, dome texture all got
obliterated. The horizon-glow trade-off is noted in the shader
comment; research item to find retail's sky-specific fog range
later.
* SkyRenderer + sky.frag: promote rep.Luminosity into uEmissive so the
vertex lighting saturates properly for bright keyframes. Retail's
FUN_0059da60 non-luminous path writes rep.Luminosity into
material.Emissive via the cache +0x3c slot; we were instead using
it as a post-fragment multiply which could only dim, never brighten.
Net effect: daytime clouds now render saturated white, dome dims
correctly at night (rep.Luminosity=0.11 → Emissive=0.11), stars
and moon unchanged.
* terrain.vert: MIN_FACTOR 0.08 -> 0.0 per retail FUN_00532440 decompile
(DAT_00796344 ambient-floor = 0.0). Back-lit terrain now falls to
pure ambient rather than getting an 8% sun floor.
New research / tooling (no runtime impact):
* docs/research/2026-04-24-lambert-brightness-split.md — retail's
ambient-brightness formula pinned from PE .rdata read + live
RetailTimeProbe capture: effAmbBright = AmbBright + |sunDir| * 0.2
where scale constant 0x0079a1e8 = 0.2f exactly.
* docs/research/2026-04-23-lightning-real.md — research note on the
dat-baked PhysicsScript-driven lightning path (Rainy DayGroup has
explicit PES-triggered flash SkyObjects with 5ms time windows).
* Corrections stapled to sky-decompile-hunt-{B,C}.md: DAT_00842778 is
DirColor, DAT_0084277c is AmbColor (the hunt docs had the swap
backwards).
* tools/RetailTimeProbe/Program.cs: extended with pid=NNNN selector,
sky global probe (DirColor/AmbColor/AmbBright/sunDir/cache.amb),
and the 0x0079a1e8 scale-factor readout.
* tools/SkyObjectInspect/: throwaway dat-inspector built by the Opus
deep-dive agent. Identified GfxObj 0x010015EF as the stars layer
(A8R8G8B8 128x128 texture, 4% bright-pixel ratio).
* src/AcDream.App/Rendering/TextureCache.cs: per-texture alpha
histogram dump under ACDREAM_DUMP_SKY=1 for diagnosing "are the
clouds decoded with proper alpha" type questions.
README: rewrite to reflect current state (playable pre-alpha rendering
Dereth with animated characters, day-night cycle, weather, etc.)
instead of the stale "Phase 0 dat inventory only" description.
All 742 tests green.
173 lines
7.2 KiB
Markdown
173 lines
7.2 KiB
Markdown
# acdream
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A modern open-source C# / .NET 10 Asheron's Call client.
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Faithful port of the retail client's behaviour to Silk.NET with a modern,
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plugin-friendly architecture. The code is modern; the behaviour is retail.
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**Status:** playable pre-alpha. You can log in to an ACE server, walk and
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run through Dereth, see other players animate correctly, watch the
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day-night cycle, hear ambient audio, and take weapons out. Many systems
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are still stubbed or in-progress — see roadmap.
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## Stack
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- **Language:** C# .NET 10
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- **Graphics:** [Silk.NET](https://github.com/dotnet/Silk.NET) (OpenGL 4.3)
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- **Audio:** OpenAL via Silk.NET
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- **Dat parsing:** [Chorizite.DatReaderWriter](https://github.com/Chorizite/DatReaderWriter)
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- **Networking:** Custom UDP + ISAAC cipher + game-message layer, wire-compatible
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with ACEmulator server
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## What works
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- Connecting to a local ACEmulator (ACE) server on `127.0.0.1:9000`
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- Character selection and login
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- Rendering Dereth terrain with retail-correct texture blending,
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per-vertex lighting, and road overlays
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- Static scenery (buildings, trees, scenery objects) via EnvCell walker
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- Animated characters (own + remote) with walk / run / strafe / jump /
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turn / attack motions sourced from the retail motion tables
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- Network sync with remote players — you can watch other characters
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animate correctly, including speeds and directional motion
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- Day-night cycle driven from the retail Region dat (0x13000000) —
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correct DayGroup picking via the retail LCG, correct keyframe
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interpolation, correct per-keyframe sky-object replace
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- Weather (rain/snow particles synced from the server via the retail
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DayGroup name)
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- Sky dome, stars, moon, clouds, sun — each rendered from the retail
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Region's SkyObjects with texture scrolling and alpha fade
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- Plugin host with live event replay-on-subscribe
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## What's stubbed or in-progress
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- Indoor transitions (building interiors) — disabled, Phase B.3 pending
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- Combat — animation works, damage math not wired
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- Lightning visual — the retail PhysicsScript-driven flash is researched
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but not wired (see `docs/research/2026-04-23-lightning-real.md`)
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- TimeSync drift — we only sync calendar on login, not periodically,
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so acdream's in-game clock gradually drifts from retail's
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- Landscape draw distance — currently `ACDREAM_STREAM_RADIUS=2` (~400m)
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vs retail's several kilometres
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See `docs/plans/2026-04-11-roadmap.md` for the ordered phase list.
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## Building + running
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**Requires:**
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- .NET 10 SDK
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- A retail Asheron's Call dat directory (Turbine/Microsoft property —
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supply your own). Contains `client_portal.dat`, `client_cell_1.dat`,
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`client_highres.dat`, `client_local_English.dat`.
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- A running ACE (ACEmulator) server on `127.0.0.1:9000` (or override
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via env var)
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**Launch (PowerShell on Windows — bash has trouble with the apostrophe
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in "Asheron's Call"):**
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```powershell
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$env:ACDREAM_DAT_DIR = "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\Asheron's Call"
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$env:ACDREAM_LIVE = "1"
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$env:ACDREAM_TEST_HOST = "127.0.0.1"
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$env:ACDREAM_TEST_PORT = "9000"
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$env:ACDREAM_TEST_USER = "testaccount"
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$env:ACDREAM_TEST_PASS = "testpassword"
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dotnet run --project src\AcDream.App\AcDream.App.csproj -c Debug
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```
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Offline CLI dat inspector (no server needed):
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```
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dotnet run --project src/AcDream.Cli -- "C:\path\to\Asheron's Call"
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```
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## Diagnostic env vars
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| Variable | Effect |
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| `ACDREAM_DUMP_SKY=1` | Per-second dump of the interpolated `SkyKeyframe` values + per-SkyObject draw info + texture alpha histograms |
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| `ACDREAM_DUMP_MOTION=1` | Dump every inbound `UpdateMotion` + resulting `SetCycle` |
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| `ACDREAM_STREAM_RADIUS=N` | Tune landblock visible-window radius (default 2 = 5×5) |
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| `ACDREAM_NO_AUDIO=1` | Suppress OpenAL init |
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| `ACDREAM_DAY_GROUP=N` | Force a specific DayGroup index for A/B-testing weather presets |
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| `ACDREAM_RUN_SKILL=N` / `ACDREAM_JUMP_SKILL=N` | Client-side run/jump skill (default 200) |
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## Layout
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```
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src/
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AcDream.App/ rendering + audio + main loop (Silk.NET)
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AcDream.Core/ game state, meshing, physics, sky, weather, lighting
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AcDream.Core.Net/ UDP + ISAAC + game-message layer
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AcDream.Cli/ offline dat-inspector console app
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AcDream.Plugin.Abstractions/ plugin host interfaces
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AcDream.Plugins.Smoke/ example plugin
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tests/
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AcDream.Core.Tests/ xUnit tests (742 passing)
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AcDream.Core.Net.Tests/ network-layer tests
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tools/
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RetailTimeProbe/ Win32 P/Invoke ReadProcessMemory probe of
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the live retail acclient.exe — dumps
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TimeOfDay + sky-lighting globals so we
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can compare against acdream's state
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SkyObjectInspect/ dat-inspector for Region sky objects
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references/ vendored read-only reference code — ACE,
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ACViewer, WorldBuilder, holtburger,
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AC2D, Chorizite, DatReaderWriter.
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Gitignored.
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docs/
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architecture/ single-source-of-truth architecture doc
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plans/ phase roadmaps + per-phase specs
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research/ decompile-derived research, per-phase
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findings, deep-dive agent reports
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audit/ phase-completion audits
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```
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## Development workflow
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All AC-specific behaviour is ported from the decompiled retail client
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(`docs/research/decompiled/`). The workflow is:
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1. **Decompile first.** Find the matching function in the decompiled
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client.
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2. **Cross-reference.** Check against ACE's C# port and ACViewer /
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WorldBuilder.
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3. **Write pseudocode.** Translate C to readable pseudocode first.
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4. **Port faithfully.** Translate line-by-line, preserving variable
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names and control flow.
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5. **Conformance test.** Add tests using golden values from retail.
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6. **Integrate surgically.** Minimise churn in the surrounding pipeline.
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Guessing at AC-specific algorithms is explicitly forbidden — see
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`CLAUDE.md` for the full workflow rationale and the list of failure
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modes we've paid for in the past.
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## Reference repos
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We cross-reference five external projects for every retail behaviour:
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- **ACE** (ACEmulator) — authoritative server-side protocol
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- **ACViewer** — MonoGame dat viewer; good for character appearance
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- **WorldBuilder** — Silk.NET dat editor; matches our stack
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- **Chorizite.ACProtocol** — clean-room C# protocol library
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- **holtburger** — most complete non-retail client; Rust TUI, full
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client-side behaviour
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- **AC2D** — C++ AC-client emulator; has the real terrain split
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formula and 0xF61C movement packet format
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See `CLAUDE.md` for which reference is authoritative for which domain.
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## Licence
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Not yet chosen. All external reference code is vendored under its own
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licence; see `references/*/LICENSE`. The acdream source code itself is
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unreleased — not yet distributed to the public. Once the licence
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choice is made it will go in a top-level `LICENSE` file.
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The AC dat files and the game's intellectual property remain the
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property of Microsoft / Turbine. This project does not distribute any
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of those files or assets — you must supply your own retail install.
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