Drew T
e86e45320a
PARALLEL GATE (landed, verdict-proven): dedup_propagate's byte-gate loop was serial --
one `make build BINARY=<ov>` at a time over up to 141 members per function. Measured: a
propagation ran 95 minutes at load 1.6 on a 32-core box (~5% utilisation). The Makefile
has parallelised extract-all/check-all since Phase 26 (xargs -P$(JOBS)), but this tool
predates that and drives the SINGLE-binary target from Python, so it never saw any of it.
- new gate_all(): ThreadPoolExecutor over distinct overlays, 32-way by default (JOBS env
overrides; deliberately NOT capped at the Makefile's conservative 16).
- SAFE by the same argument check-all relies on: byte_gate only runs `make build`, writing
solely to per-binary-disjoint build/<bin>/**; it mutates no source. Splice happens before,
restore after -- only the VERIFICATION is parallel.
- DETERMINISTIC: ThreadPoolExecutor.map preserves order, so the reported first failure is
the first in `changed` order -- identical verdict to the serial loop. Control run: same
verdict on a clean tree.
- Measured and NOT optimised: setup (sig load + registered_addrs) is 8.6s of a 5,700s run
= 0.15%. All the time is gating. Don't thread the setup.
BANKING DEFERRED on a genuine pre-existing tool bug (NOT the parallel change -- 0 gate
batches ran, it never reached that code):
[FAIL] ov_MAIN_012: 0x80156600 not instantiated -- REVERTED
Inputs verified sound at HEAD (in sig, find_site->stub, stub line matches), so the bug is
in apply_plan's multi-function edit path. Run #1 missed it because it launched before the
15 wave-3 banks were committed; they landed mid-flight, enlarging run #2's plan.
SECOND DEFECT: the failure exit printed REVERTED but left 38 files dirty incl.
src/shared/engine_core.h -- the same incomplete-restore class as the reconcile-ledger bug
(cookbook 156), on a different path. struct_check needs the same ledger treatment.
Not patching the fleet-shared writer at the end of a marathon session -- that is how the
next 141-binary incident happens. Tree clean, 44 banks safe, propagation is pure
multiplication and can run any time.
Checkpoint p9 carries: the fix-then-resume plan, the master-IDXTAB-map design (DESTPTR half
proven 14/14), wave guidance, and an 8-item error ledger with its single root cause.
BFM-decomp
A matching decompilation of Brave Fencer Musashi (PlayStation, SLUS-00726, USA 1998) — the first public decompilation effort for this game.
What "matching" means
The goal is C source code that, compiled with the original-era toolchain (PsyQ 4.x / GCC 2.7.2-family + ASPSX via maspsx), produces a byte-for-byte identical SLUS_007.26 and, eventually, byte-identical overlay binaries. SHA1 checksums are the ground truth; "functionally equivalent" does not count.
No ROM content
This repository contains no game assets, no disassembly output, and no ROM-derived data — only source code, build configuration, symbol names/addresses, hashes, and documentation. To build or contribute you must provide your own dump of the game disc (4-track BIN/CUE, redump layout). See .gitignore for the firewall.
Project status
Latest (Phase 19, 2026-06-20): the project builds 136 binaries byte-identical from a clean tree (the EXE + the resident engine + all 134 location overlays);
make check-all→ 136/136. Fleet byte-identical-from-source is 58.0% (function-instance-weighted; see the PhaseEnds for the byte-weighted ~30% figure and what it includes). Shared engine functions are matched once inov_SC01_077and propagated ×134 viatools/dedup_propagate.py. (The narrative below is Phase-11/12-era; a full refresh is part of the public-flip prep.)
Gen1 (foundation) complete — the matching pipeline is proven end-to-end. make extract && make build && make check rebuilds SLUS_007.26 byte-for-byte identical (SHA1 143dbb89…) from C + assembly, reproducibly across many sessions.
- Compiler pinned by evidence:
gcc-2.7.2-psx -O2 -G0 -mips1 -mcpu=3000+maspsx --aspsx-version=2.56 --expand-div. - 52 functions hand-matched to byte-identical machine code — including the LZSS streaming decompressor — with a decomp-permuter + matching-cookbook "flywheel" to accelerate the next.
- 959 PsyQ SDK functions linked byte-identical (libcd, libgs, libgte, libspu/libsnd, libgpu, libc2, libmcrd, libapi/libcard, libetc) straight from the real PsyQ 4.0 libraries instead of re-decompiling them — bringing byte-identical-from-source coverage of the EXE to ~50%.
- File-loader / overlay system reverse-engineered, with the resident engine blob + location overlays' load addresses proven byte-identical against a live PCSX-Redux RAM dump.
About half the EXE is still INCLUDE_ASM stubs (correct bytes, not yet C), and the bulk of the game lives in compressed overlays inside the .CD archives — Gen2 (overlays & engine at scale) is underway:
- The build toolchain is binary-agnostic (one parameterized pipeline builds any binary), and the always-resident engine blob rebuilds byte-for-byte from source (SHA1
8e17e02f…) — the second binary reconstructed exactly, after the EXE — and is now 86% hand-matched C (123 / 146 functions, up from 0): its scripting turned out to be compiled-MIPS state/mode dispatch, not a bytecode VM, and the save-file + sound (SQV) formats are documented. The harvest used a reusable swarm-of-agents + bit-for-bit byte-gate method (a wrong match can't be accepted) —tools/harvest_verify.py+tools/match_one.py, which carry straight into the overlay phase. - A cross-binary deduplication pipeline is live: a Ghidra-free signer fingerprints all 134 location overlays, and the report finds ~9,000 byte-identical function groups shared across binaries (~28 MB of collapsible code) — a single engine function is byte-identical in all 134 overlays. This is "one match unlocks many": each engine match will be auto-credited across the overlay fleet.
Current phase and detailed progress live in phase-ends/ (newest PhaseEnd_*.md = current state); methodology, rules, and the full roadmap are in PROJECT_CONTEXT.md; environment setup in docs/SETUP.md.
This project is developed primarily by Claude Code driving Ghidra through an MCP server; see CLAUDE.md.
License
Private repository for now. AGPL-3.0 is planned at public release, modeled on sotn-decomp. tools/brave-CUE/ is CUE's BRAVE extractor (GPL, source included) and retains its own license.