Pure-2D sprite games (Mega Man X6) render a true 4:3 field of view with no
overscan to reveal, so 16:9 requires making the engine draw more. Two parts:
- [widescreen] full_2d opts a pure-2D game into the native-wide present path
(it never emits the 3D sprite-tag hook the gameplay detector keys on, so
every in-game frame was misclassified as a 4:3 menu and pillarboxed).
- [widescreen.bg2d] is a gen-time hook on the per-layer background tile
renderer (MMX6 FUN_800270d0) at its column-count / start-tile-column /
start-screen-x instructions, routed through gpu.c psx_ws_mmx6_bg_{cols,
startcol,startx}. It draws LEFT=ceil(nw_offset/16) extra 16px columns on
BOTH sides so the loop fills the 16:9 reveal margins with real adjacent
stage, existing columns staying pixel-aligned with objects. Identity at
4:3 and in the engine's own 512 hi-res mode (so the title is untouched).
Tooling: wide_full debug command + sw_wide_dump_full dump the entire
native-wide compositor surface (both vertical-double-buffer y-bands and both
reveal margins) for diagnosis.
Known follow-ups: object screen-X cull widen (actors in the margins);
top/bottom flicker + stale-margin refresh on the vertical double-buffer.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The complete §25 fix: make BOTH recompiler emitters emit guest calls as
TAIL-TRANSFERS driven by the unified flat trampoline + the guest's own $ra/$sp,
instead of nesting one host C frame per guest call. The host stack can no longer
mirror unbounded guest re-entrancy — the architectural root of the ~14-min idle
freeze. Gated gen-time by PSX_CPS; legacy codegen byte-identical when unset.
VALIDATED (user): full-CPS Tomba boots BIOS -> FMV -> New Game -> village idle and
plays; ce_profile cur_max_kb FLAT at 5 KB from frame ~9.9k through 56,890 (turbo
soak) — blew past the ~50k-frame freeze threshold with the host stack bounded
(legacy climbed +1.17 KB/frame -> 48 MB -> freeze).
KEY CORRECTION to the prior session's §25.1: there are TWO emitters. The BIOS
(full_function_emitter.cpp) was done last session but the §8 leaking chain
(func_8001A954 ...) is GAME code, emitted by code_generator.cpp (via main_psx.cpp)
— never converted. Also, §25.1's "continuations not in the dispatch table"
hypothesis was wrong (they were always added); the real boot regressions were
found by dumping the always-on fntrace ring on the abnormal psx_dispatch return.
Emitter changes (gated PSX_CPS):
- full_function_emitter.cpp (BIOS): BIOS A0/B0/C0 vector runtime-fallback
tail-transfers instead of nested psx_dispatch_call (was the frame-0 exit).
- code_generator.cpp/.h (game): jal/jalr/jr-$ra/jr-table/branch-split/j-split ->
tail-transfer (jalr captures rs before the link, alias-safe); each call's
return point registered as a dispatchable continuation; entry-switch (keyed on
cpu->pc) at the top of every function AND every overlapping-alias body. 0
psx_call_contract / call_by_address emitted under CPS.
- main_psx.cpp: psx_dispatch_game_compiled gains continuation cases
(case cont: cpu->pc=cont; func_owner(cpu)); entries clear cpu->pc.
- strict_translator.cpp: syscall emits `if (psx_syscall(...)) return;` so a void
syscall falls through to the inline post-syscall jr $ra (real-HW EPC+4).
Runtime changes (the legacy "return via nested dispatch / cpu->pc=0" idioms that
exit the flat CPS trampoline):
- traps.c: psx_syscall returns int (0=void/fall-through, 1=transfer);
Enter/ExitCriticalSection return 0; case-3 ChangeThread-success returns 0 — the
fiber scheduler leaves cpu->pc=0 on resume, which was the frame-712 exit.
- cpu_state.h / overlay_api.h: psx_syscall signature void->int; overlay callback
ABI bumped 4->5 (stale overlay caches rejected).
- dirty_ram_interp.c: gate interp_enter_compiled behind PSX_HAS_GAME_DISPATCH
(un-breaks the BIOS-only build).
- main.cpp: dump the always-on fntrace ring tail + stack to psx_cps_exit_trace.json
on an abnormal psx_dispatch return (diagnostic; CLAUDE.md ring-buffer model).
Docs: RECURSION_BUG.md §25.2-§25.4. Remaining: dwarf->overworld playtest;
Stage 3 (sljit/overlay CPS parity); then consider making CPS default.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
[widescreen.cull] auto_backdrop — generic far-backdrop column preload for
16:9. A shared detector (runtime/include/ws_backdrop_detect.h) finds each
scrolling-backdrop column-window generator by its /96-magic + 0x176-camX +
sra,5 divide-tail invariant and records the window's START/END bound
instructions + width (window_cols). All four execution paths route those
bounds through psx_ws_backdrop_value(orig, is_end, window_cols), which widens
the camera-tracked window by exactly the 16:9 reveal (margin scales with
window_cols; identity at 4:3 so the build stays byte-identical with widescreen
off). gcc emit + sljit + dirty-RAM interp + overlay ABI v4 / codegen ver 3.
Also: CodeGenConfig::overlay_mode — explicit [widescreen.*] per-address site
shape checks now SKIP (apply only where bytes match) instead of hard-exit in
overlay mode, because overlay regions reuse the same address for different
code across scene variants. Main-EXE mode keeps the hard error.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Controller (item 3): present an analog (DualShock) pad by default for
analog-capable games so the left stick gives variable run speed; fold the
physical D-pad / keyboard arrows onto the left analog axes at full deflection so
they still move the character (avoids the Special Edition full-throttle-D-pad
bug). Add a launcher-editable analog-stick deadzone option (settings.toml +
input.ini + game.toml [controller] default), modeled on snesrecomp.
Settings persistence (item 6): deterministic restore-at-init + save-on-exit for a
game's native OPTION-screen settings, declared per game in a dedicated
game_options.toml. The recompiler rewrites each setting's boot-init store (sb/sh)
to route its value through psx_game_option_store(addr,val), applying a value
persisted from a prior session over the game default (identity when none, so a
fresh install is byte-identical). The runtime saves the live config globals to
<memcard_dir>/<game_id>.options on exit (atexit). Adds a game_options debug
command. Requires a regen for the hook to emit.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add [widescreen.cull] auto_screen_x — a gen-time pass that recognizes the GTE
per-vertex trivial-reject signature (a `sltiu …,0x140/0x141` width compare paired
with a `sltiu …,0xE0/0xF1` height compare in the same function) and emits every
WIDTH compare routed through the existing psx_ws_x_margin() helper, so the wider
16:9 field of view is submitted to the GPU instead of being culled at the 320
screen-edge boundary.
The width compare is sign-extended and shifted to the true wide window
(-margin <= SX < imm + margin) so BOTH the left and right margins reveal: SX is a
16-bit GTE coord loaded via lhu, so an off-left vertex is a large unsigned value
and a plain `SX <u (imm+2m)` widen only fixes the right edge. At margin 0 the
verdict reduces bit-for-bit to vanilla `SX <u imm`, so 4:3 / widescreen-off stays
byte-identical (ENHANCEMENTS Rule 1).
Replaces hand-listing the ~100 identical sites with one opt-in, per-game flag;
generic to any PSX GTE title (the 0x140/0xE0 reject pattern is universal). The
vertical (0xE0) bound is never touched. Tomba: 106 sites auto-widened across the
RTPT tri/quad and RTPS billboard render funnel.
Files: recompiler/{include,src}/code_generator.{h,cpp} (signature detect + emit),
config_loader.{h,cpp} (parse), main_psx.cpp (wire-through).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The far backdrop (ocean/cloud/distant mountain) is GTE-projected 3D drawn
by the main-EXE driver FUN_8004db3c (sole caller of the GTE emitter
FUN_80027600). The global widescreen GTE X-squash compresses it toward
centre, so its geometry falls short of the revealed 16:9 edges -> blue void
that pops as the camera moves.
Fix: bracket the backdrop driver with gte_ws_set_suppress(1)/(0) so its
draws skip the X-squash and fill the stretched frame (skybox treatment),
while the near 3D world keeps the wider FOV.
FUN_8004db3c draws a MIX (far backdrop + nearer props/scenery), so the
suppress is DEPTH-GATED in gte_rtps_internal: only vertices with projected
SZ >= s_ws_far_threshold (default 900, tunable live via the ws_far_threshold
TCP cmd) un-squash; nearer props stay squashed and aligned. Validated:
threshold 900 fills the void, keeps the foreground door + background
scenery (path/tree) aligned. Residual: the mountain grass-top straddles the
depth band (per-vertex limitation) -> flickers when the camera dips; this
is the checkpoint before exploring native-wide rendering to remove the
squash (and this whole artifact class) entirely.
Mechanism:
- recompiler: [widescreen.backdrop] unsquash_funcs emits
gte_ws_set_suppress(1) at entry + (0) before each jr-$ra return
(code_generator + config_loader + main_psx). Main-EXE -> regen-class.
- runtime: gte.cpp depth-gated squash + s_ws_far_threshold; cpu_state.h
decl; debug_server.c ws_aspect (live squash on/off) + ws_far_threshold
(set split + read SZ stats) diagnostics.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The 16:9 edge pop-in is the parallax 2D BACKDROP layer (ocean/cloud/mountain/
grass), drawn by overlay actor handlers (FUN_801216bc family) that compute
screenX = (worldX - camX) >> parallax in pure integer math and store it to the
object's +0x12 field WITHOUT the GTE — so the GTE X-squash that gives 3D the
wider 16:9 FOV never reaches them and far pieces sit past the 320px edge,
clipped (the blue void / half-rectangles at the edges). See TombaRecomp
ISSUES.md #8C for the full root-cause trail.
Fix = psx_ws_backdrop_x() (gpu.c): squash screenX around screen-centre by the
same ws factor as the GTE, identity at 4:3. Applied on BOTH execution paths
because overlay code runs interpreted when no cache DLL is loaded (the common
case in dev — see #8G):
- Native: recompiler emits write_half(.., psx_ws_backdrop_x(rt)) at the
[widescreen.backdrop] x_sites store (config_loader + code_generator +
main_psx --ws-config so the overlay compile gets the sites). Forwarded into
overlay DLLs via OverlayCallbacks {ws_backdrop_x, ws_x_margin, ws_sprite_tag}
(overlay ABI v2->v3 as the cache discriminator); compile_overlays.py glue +
--ws-config passthrough.
- Interp: dirty_ram_interp SH hook keyed by psx_ws_is_backdrop_site(pc); the
runtime registers the x_sites from game.toml (main.cpp).
Verified in data: backdrop slot screenX squashes 371 -> 318 (pulled on-screen).
PARTIAL: visible culling persists -> remaining cause is the backdrop spawn/
despawn window (separate from screenX clip); see #8C "REMAINING CAUSE".
Also added (earlier this session): ws_census draw ring, ws_margin override,
gpu_state ws fields.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Menu fix (user-validated): per-prim center-squash mangled composite 2D
UI (dialog boxes built from tiled cap/middle/cap SPRTs no longer
aligned). Root cause was decoupling — content was squashed while the
frame presented 4:3. Now squash applies IFF the frame is stretched:
gpu_ws_present_native_43() is the single predicate (FMV video OR a
full-2D screen = no character billboards this frame), shared by the
GTE squash, the GPU per-prim squash, and the present 4:3 pin. Full-2D
menus get zero squash + 4:3 pillarbox = pixel-native. Removed the old
menu-2D squash paths (lines/flat-rects/mono-sprites/polylines).
Cull-margin widening (recompiler feature): the game's per-object draw
classifier tests (objX-camX+BIAS) <u RANGE sized for the 4:3 screen;
the GTE squash shows ~33% more world so the margin collapses and
objects pop near the wide edges. New [widescreen.cull] config emits
those immediates with a runtime term psx_ws_x_margin() (bias +margin,
range +2*margin, plus a1+=margin for param-margin variants) — 0 at
4:3/boot/menu/FMV so the original cull is byte-identical, ~53px when
stretching 16:9. Site instruction types are verified at emit (fatal on
mismatch). Requires regen.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
User-validated on Tomba: world, characters and HUD all present at
native proportions on the 16:9 stretch.
Mechanism (all parameterized via game.toml [widescreen], inert by
default and at 4:3):
- recompiler: [widescreen] sprite_tag_funcs emits a
psx_ws_sprite_tag(cpu) callback at the entry of each listed
function (the game engine's shared per-prim helper). The runtime
records prim pointer ($a0) -> GTE-projected anchor (read from
sprite_anchor_addr scratchpad) in a frame-stamped hash.
- gpu.c: at GP0 execution, prims whose guest address (from the DMA
linked-list walk's source tracking) is tagged get every X
re-squashed around their own anchor — undoing the present stretch
for CPU-computed pixel offsets the GTE squash never saw. Covers
POLY_FT4 billboards and SPRT parts; SPRT texels keep full coverage
via gr_draw_textured_rect_scaled.
- hud_sprt_squash: untagged textured rects (SPRT family — pure
screen-space 2D: HUD, menus) center-squash around the display
centre. Untextured TILEs (fades) untouched.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Coverage campaign step 2. Interior code addresses reached through
function-pointer tables (e.g. Tomba's entity event pumps: 0x8004DF00
family inside func_8004DD1C, table at 0x80013F18) previously dispatch-
missed into the dirty-RAM interpreter, and seeding them truncated the
host function (mid-function-seed softlock class).
Discovery (main_psx): iterative loop classifying every candidate entry
against the current function set — function start: covered; interior:
ALIAS entry (host never capped); gap: forced entry (explicit seeds
trusted; scanned pointers need jr-ra/prologue boundary evidence). The
generic scanner sweeps all data words outside code ranges for text
pointers with table evidence (an adjacent text-pointer word).
Emission (code_generator/control_flow): aliases grouped per host into
ONE shared static body — entry switch + the union of blocks reachable
from any entry (successors + jr jump-table edges) — plus a dispatchable
wrapper per entry. Sibling entries are injected as block leaders so all
group CFGs are identical. Aliases are excluded from the split pre-pass
containment so they never truncate hosts; the pre-pass cap is raised
16 -> 256 with a loud non-convergence warning (16 no longer converged
once promotions widened the function set).
Tomba (SCUS-94236): 1441 alias entries in 108 host groups, 25 scan-
promoted entries; dispatch 2855 -> 5562; generated C 12 MB -> 15.3 MB
(naive per-alias duplication was 80 MB). Verified on the overworld
route: 0x4Dxxx family gone from dirty_ram_stats per-PC (was ~0.5M
insns/session), 0x8004DF00 called natively once/frame from
ra=0x800462C4 (fntrace), dispatch_miss_total=0, aborts=0, user-visible
gameplay clean.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Accumulated working-tree state for the overlay-JIT-cache phase, committed as a
checkpoint before the Bug A fix (next commit):
- event_ring.{c,h}: always-on unified event-timeline ring (IRQ deliver/gate/
raise, I_STAT changes, DMA kick/sched/done, ENQ/DEQ per source, exec-mode
tagged). Edge-recorded, eviction-bounded, survives a blue screen; dump via
event_ring_dump/_tail/_clear.
- cdrom.c: disc_speed="instant" no longer collapses every sector read to the
500cy floor (which flooded ~1100 DMA3 completions/frame and starved main
code). CDROM_INSTANT_PERIOD bounds sector IRQs to CDROM_INSTANT_MAX_PER_FRAME
(32)/frame. Known caveat: a transient ~1-2s reentry storm at boot frame ~210
still trips the watchdog once, then recovers.
- interrupts.c: claimed-IRQ cooldown is now per-source — SIO stays 0 (card
reads need back-to-back IRQs); DMA/VBLANK/timer get CLAIMED_PROGRESS_QUANTUM
(8) blocks of guaranteed main-code progress between deliveries. Root cause of
the instant-disc freeze: cooldown=0 let the block leader re-take the
exception before its body ran (pinned at the 0x8005A1D8 field loop).
- gpu/dma/memory/sio/timers/psx_cycles: event-ring instrumentation at raise/
kick/complete/schedule sites; g_event_step_conservative (single-cycle event
stepping A/B used to refute the event-granularity hypothesis for Bug A).
- overlay_capture.c, overlay_loader.h, crc32: capture/manifest plumbing for
per-entry validity (Inc3).
- recompiler: overlay-mode emission updates (code_generator, main_psx).
- tools: compile_overlays.py audit/patch updates; tomba_loadtest.py.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Restores entry-scoped overlay analysis (analyze_exact_entries +
split_mid_function_targets=false) as the MANDATORY mode for overlay inputs,
renamed --overlay-exact -> --overlay: the ingester's contract, set
unconditionally by compile_overlays.py for every overlay, never a human toggle.
Evidence-scoped discovery compiles only proven seeds + reachable code and keeps
branch/jump-table targets as in-parent labels — no whole-byte sweep, so it no
longer decodes embedded data tables as code.
Effect on the captured Tomba overlay: the data-as-code explosion collapses from
thousands of UNSUPPORTED to 122 clean functions with 42 residual unsupported
opcodes + 8 bad targets. Those residuals are now a per-function-audit concern
(Inc1-B), not a wholesale region failure. Main-EXE codegen is unchanged (Tomba
still regenerates 2854 functions; split pre-pass still runs in non-overlay mode).
Also adds docs/overlay-recompilation-design.md — the converged design of record
(precision-over-recall; compiled!=registered!=callable; write-invalidation over
CRC; internal-labels-in-parent; the RAM-write-path audit result; the three
implementation increments).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Rips out the --overlay-exact recompiler path (analyze_exact_entries,
split_mid_function_targets, the CLI flag, and the compile_overlays.py flag),
returning the recompiler to master's naive whole-blob analysis. Overlay
compilation now splits mid-function branch targets into standalone functions —
the original behavior that produced black-on-load / blue-on-new-game — so we
can faithfully reproduce the failure before fixing it.
Pivot in approach: rather than excluding mid-function seeds at scan time, the
plan is to capture everything (the full overlay image is already dumped to
overlay_captures.json) and have the ingester detect each seed's containing
parent function at encode time and merge/ignore mid-function seeds, while
flagging entries reached only via computed/indirect jumps as jump-risk.
The runtime overlay loader/capture system (b2929aa) is unchanged. The 5
recompiler files are restored byte-exact to master (d22c9ce); config_loader's
overlay_cache flag is retained.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Reinstates the runtime-loaded overlay DLL cache (Layer A) and the offline
overlay compilation pipeline that were built on the pruned codex/cache-discovery
branch (tip 2bbafc2) and never merged. Ported onto current master; rebuilt
rather than history-restored.
Runtime (off by default, opt in via [runtime] overlay_cache = true):
- overlay_loader.c/.h, overlay_api.h: CRC32-keyed DLL cache at
cache/<game_id>/<region>_<crc>.dll. On a dirty-RAM dispatch miss the loader
LoadLibrary's the matching DLL, wires runtime callbacks via overlay_init(),
enumerates func_XXXXXXXX exports, and dispatches them BEFORE the interpreter.
- overlay_capture.c/.h: write-once capture set; records overlay DMA bytes and
writes overlay_captures.json (execution-verified seeds) at clean exit.
- dma.c: capture + cd_dma_log hook at CD DMA completion (async model).
- cdrom.c: cdrom_get_setloc_lba() for disc-position correlation.
- dirty_ram_interp.c: g_dirty_ram_exec_pc_table (exec-verified PCs), a
decodability guard on JAL-into-dirty targets, and the overlay dispatch hooks.
- debug_server.c: cd_read_log + overlay_loader_status TCP commands.
- config_loader: [runtime] overlay_cache flag (default false).
Recompiler (compile_overlays.py / extract_overlays.py drive these):
- main_psx.cpp --overlay-exact: analyze only explicit entries + direct JAL
targets and set split_mid_function_targets=false, so overlay basic-block
targets are NOT split into bogus standalone functions (the mid-function-seed
failure mode that produced black-on-load / blue-on-new-game).
- function_analysis.cpp: analyze_exact_entries(); code_generator.cpp: gate the
mid-function split pre-pass behind split_mid_function_targets (default true,
so normal main-EXE codegen is unchanged - Tomba still regens to 2854 funcs).
Deltas from the original: save states dropped (never worked); overlay enable is
runtime-config-gated (off by default) instead of a build-time define; loader
stderr logging converted to the overlay_loader_status TCP path (CLAUDE.md Rule 3).
Recovered from _backups/2026-06-06-consolidation/psxrecomp-all-PRE.bundle.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Matthew Stanley