acdream/docs/research/2026-08-30-cathedral-handover.md

# HANDOVER — Campaign FW / cathedral defects (2026-08-30, end of session)

For the next session taking over. Read this top to bottom, then the
campaign memory (`claude-memory/project_frame_walk_campaign.md`), then the
synthesis (`docs/research/2026-08-30-cathedral-synthesis.md`).

## Where you are

- **Worktree:** `C:\Users\erikn\source\repos\acdream\.claude\worktrees\peaceful-blackburn-5333f0`
- **Branch:** `claude/campaign-w-retail-frame-walk` (pushed; NOT merged to main)
- **HEAD at handover:** the commit after `4686a1ac` — `git log --oneline -15`
  shows tonight's chain. Suites at HEAD: hermetic App 6,762/0, InstalledDat
  walk conformance 40/1, walk lane green.
- **Launch (owner-gated visual checks):** PowerShell, env
  `ACDREAM_DAT_DIR="$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\Asheron's Call"`,
  `ACDREAM_LIVE=1`, `ACDREAM_TEST_HOST=127.0.0.1`, `ACDREAM_TEST_PORT=9000`,
  `ACDREAM_TEST_USER=testaccount`, `ACDREAM_TEST_PASS=testpassword`, probe
  `ACDREAM_PROBE_WALK_ROOT=1`, then
  `dotnet run --project src\AcDream.App\AcDream.App.csproj --no-build -c Release`.
  ALWAYS build first; the owner closes the client for you (never
  Stop-Process — graceful-close rules in CLAUDE.md).
- **The defect scene:** cathedral, landblock `0xF418`. Owner telelocs:
  terrace `0xF4180104 [31.9 57.3 169.8]`; the seam pair 0x0104↔0x0101 at
  y≈72; remote player parked at `0xF4180112 [36.3 18.6 169.8]` (south
  hall). The remote player is a second account/client the owner runs.

## Campaign status (FW stages)

- FW0–FW3 landed (see the plan `docs/plans/2026-08-30-campaign-fw-frame-walk.md`
  status blocks). FW1 residue: foundry F67–79 (probe script
  `tools/walk-oracle/fw1-f67-viewpoint-probe.cdb`, needs an owner retail
  session). FW4 is ACTIVE and partially executed via tonight's slices.
  FW5/FW6 not started.
- The production renderer is still a HYBRID: the walk owns statics,
  terrain, sky, seals-set, punch fans, and (as of tonight) static-owner
  particle turns; the LEGACY `PortalVisibilityBuilder` still builds
  `pvFrame` every frame and feeds per-cell clip slices, the look-in
  frames + look-in dynamics, the DynamicLast per-cell viewcone, and the
  outside-dynamics slice loop. FW4's goal is deleting that duality — the
  through-wall defect below is a direct consequence of it.

## Tonight's ledger (chronological, all pushed)

USER-VERIFIED WINS:
1. **Cathedral falls bleed FIXED** (`280c0549`) — the #132 positional
   invariant ported walk-natively: `WalkFrameEventKind.StaticParticles`
   submits each landscape cell's / building shell's emitter owners AT ITS
   WALK TURN; the batched pre-clear submission is deleted. Mechanism
   credit: the OWNER's pointer to the old pipeline's `e102fb36` fix.
2. **Indoor/seam rain FIXED** (`75eab42f`) — retail gates the weather pass
   on `SmartBox::is_player_outside` @0x00451e80 (Ghidra:
   `(player objcell & 0xFFFF) < 0x100`); one boolean at the executor's
   weather site. GameSky draws at DEPTHTEST_ALWAYS (pc 0x00507063) — the
   depth-disabled weather port was correct.
3. **In-cathedral torch regression FIXED** by reverting slices 4+5
   (`7f500b97`).
4. Earlier same-day: FW4 slices 1/2/3/6 (`37febd1f`,`c40aecfc`,`5f7ccdea`,
   `bb9212c7`) — kept per the tri-review verdicts, with reworks listed in
   the synthesis.

THE REVIEW CORPUS (read before ANY new cathedral theory):
`docs/research/2026-08-30-cathedral-review-{prompt,fable,opus,audit,
datformat,datgeometry,decomp}.md` + `2026-08-30-cathedral-synthesis.md`.
The decomp report is the retail frame SSOT (one-frame seal latch; TWO
PViews; FIFO no-sort alpha lists; full 0f DrawBuilding flush;
ShouldDrawParticles update-time; CEnvCell::IsInView = constant
PARTIALLY_INSIDE). The DAT-geometry report is the F418 ground truth
(falls = landblock stabs 0xCF418000-13; exits are FULL-SIZE, no "thin
bands"; the seam = COINCIDENT double exit-to-outside planes at y=48 and
the 0x104/0x101 boundary at y=72).

## THE OPEN DEFECT — through-wall remote player (NOT FIXED)

**Symptom:** a remote player parented at `0xF4180112` renders through
opaque walls when the observer stands in `0xF4180101` AND from outdoors.
From `0xF4180104` he is correctly hidden. Retail never shows him (no
sightline chain exists through the complex). Owner-reported ~21:46; two
fix attempts tonight; still visible after both.

**Attempt 1 (context):** slice 3 (`5f7ccdea`) had already moved the
outside-stage predicate's flood to walk VisitedCells — related plumbing,
not aimed at this.

**Attempt 2 (the [dyn-route] trace + the root-flood gate — latest
commit):** the trace (`[dyn-route]` lines, probe `ACDREAM_PROBE_WALK_ROOT`)
proved: the LEGACY builder manufactures REAL 3–5-plane cell views for
0x112 from sightline-less roots (`vis=1 cone=3+4 / 3+5` — NOT the
zero-plane pass-all trapdoor), and routing flip-flops between
`lookin-excluded` and DynamicLast as the observer moves. Fix shipped:
`RenderScenePViewBuildInput.RootFloodCells` (the walk's
`InteriorFloodCells` as a set) — an interior-parented dynamic rides
DynamicLast ONLY if its parent is in the walk's own root flood; non-walk
frames fall back to the legacy drawableCells meaning
(`BuildAndCompare` default likewise). Verified working in the post-fix
log: every 0x112 dynamic now logs `rootflood-excluded`.

**AND THE PLAYER STILL RENDERS.** Post-fix log
(`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\fw4-rootflood-gate.log`): 0x112 dynamics show BOTH
`rootflood-excluded` AND `lookin-excluded` states — meaning the remaining
draw path is the **LookInObject route**: `DrawBuildingLookInDynamics`
(RetailPViewRenderer, runs inside `DrawLandscapeDynamicsPhase`, which for
interior roots runs in the pre-clear closure) draws look-in-cell dynamics
from the OLD apparatus's look-in frames (`_lookInFrames`, built by
`BuildInteriorRootLookIns` / `MergeNearbyBuildingFloods`) — **the very
frames whose invented visibility the trace exposed**. Two doors let him
through; only DynamicLast was closed.

**Leading hypothesis for the next session (UNVERIFIED — trace first):**
the old look-in machinery not only draws him with invented clip regions,
it also PUNCHES far-Z apertures for its invented frames
(`DrawLookInPortalPunch`, forceFarZ) — erasing true wall depth exactly
where the invented aperture sits, so the pre-clear-drawn player passes
depth there. Check also whether look-in DYNAMICS draw before/after wall
shells and with which clip slots.

**The retail-shaped fix direction (synthesis steps 4+7 completed
properly):** look-in dynamics must be keyed to THE WALK's look-in cells
(the walk's `VisitedCells − InteriorFloodCells` per frame, or better: a
per-look-in walk turn like `StaticParticles`), and the old apparatus's
look-in frames/punches must lose their production role (FW4's deletion
list). An interim honest gate: `DrawBuildingLookInDynamics` skips cells
the WALK did not visit as look-ins this frame — that alone should kill
the invented-frame draws while keeping legitimate look-ins. Do NOT
band-aid at the symptom (no-workarounds rule); the trace must first
confirm the punch/route hypothesis: extend `[dyn-route]`-style logging
into `DrawBuildingLookInDynamics` (which cells, which frames, whether
0x112 appears, and whether look-in punches fire for it).

## Also open (diagnosed, unfixed, in priority order after the above)

1. **The stalks** — dark shapes at the east cliff = DRAWN never-drawn
   marker anchors (GfxObj 0x010001EC, DIDDegrade 0x1100002E). The retail
   degrade-admission port exists as `fce250ec` on the QUARANTINED branch
   `claude/cathedral-rendering-debug-47a417` — NOT an ancestor of this
   branch. Re-land it (synthesis step 10).
2. FW1 foundry F67–79 residue (needs an owner retail cdb session).
3. Remaining synthesis Phase II items: seals from walk views (step 6),
   full-flush DrawBuilding barrier + FIFO no-sort alpha queue (step 8),
   terrain in_view culling for interior roots (step 9 — slice 6 currently
   uses the full camera frustum), then FW4's deletions, FW5 camera, FW6.
4. Walk-path alloc tail ~1.5 MB/frame (FW6 hygiene).

## Instrumentation available (all under ACDREAM_PROBE_WALK_ROOT=1)

`[walk-root]` (continuous rooting: root flood vs visited split, walk ov),
`[walk-cam]` (replayable cameras), `[walk-portal]` (per-portal side/clip),
`[walk-part]`/`[walk-alpha]` (submission routes + drains with pre/post
phase tags), `[walk-dyn]` (outside-stage verdicts), `[dyn-route]`
(DynamicLast admission, on-change), `[falls]`/`[falls-adm]` (falls owner
watch 0xCF418000-13 + admission). Documented in `docs/launch-options.md`.
RenderDoc 1.45 is at `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\RenderDoc_1.45_64\`
(key-triggered capture does NOT work over this RDP session — use the
target-control python API to trigger, or the in-app overlay locally; an
old acdream capture exists at `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\RenderDoc\`).

## Binding rules for the successor (hard-learned tonight)

1. **Never identify render content from aggregate owner sets** — trace
   ids to the DAT (`0x4…`=interior allocator, `0xC…`=landblock statics,
   `0x8…`=scenery, raw=server entities).
2. **Phase-level probes cannot see position-within-phase** — order inside
   a stage is its own dimension.
3. **The owner's old-pipeline fix history is an oracle** — check
   `e102fb36`-era work (`C:\Users\erikn\.codex\worktrees\16ee\acdream`,
   `docs/research/2026-08-29-cathedral-seam-progress.md`) before
   re-deriving.
4. **Ghidra arbitration is mandatory for BN branch senses** (multiple
   misreads; MCP on port 8081, patchmem.gpr must be open).
5. The oracle traces (`docs/research/2026-08-30-fw-walk-oracle/`,
   `posed/` = the fixture set) are frame truth; `posed/terrace-center` =
   DI f4180104, flood n=1, ov=1.
6. One fix at a time, trace-pinned first, owner-gated after — six blind
   rounds preceded tonight's three verified fixes.