Root-causes the transient 1-frame sign-corner flicker at wide aspects
(sign faces blink when the exact-sign NCLIP path silently loses its
shadows for one frame):
- gte_nclip was the only shadow consumer skipping the engine's single
safety invariant (packed-word validation). A stale FIFO shadow (e.g.
after an SXYP MTC2 shifts the real FIFO but not shadows 12/13) could
invent a silently WRONG winding sign. New pgxp_get_gte_sxy_checked
validates the shadow's word against the live SXY register; staleness
now demotes to the honest integer fallback.
- Overlay shadow-diff REPLAY passes ran the pgxp memory hooks live
(record pass's stale FIFO shadows re-validated against different
vertices -> flags dropped, live slots overwritten -> arena-wide
provenance kill = one-frame integer-sign blink, plus false
SHDIFF_GTE_DATA divergences permanently demoting shards to interp).
gte_replay_side_effects_begin/end now bracket pgxp_suppress so replay
is shadow-silent, like the speculative validation passes. The nclip
precise path is additionally gated off inside the sandbox and
speculative passes.
- pgxp_set_enabled is now idempotent: a redundant re-derive (config
apply, correction toggle, debug A/B) no longer costs a generation
bump, which killed every live shadow and blinked one frame of
exact-sign coverage.
- Observability: free-running NCLIP precise/fallback/corrected counters
and a PGXPStats.invalidations counter (bumped at the generation-bump
site), both exposed in the geom_correction debug reply.
All changes are inert at 4:3 (ws_precise_nclip gate) and touch
host-only state exclusively.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three changes that ride the existing PGXP dataflow engine:
- Arm the PGXP engine whenever a precision consumer needs it, not only when
a correction feature is on. gpu_pgxp_rederive_enable() derives the arm from
texture correction OR geometry correction OR the widescreen precise-NCLIP
opt-in, and every setter re-derives. Previously disabling both corrections
silently disabled the shadows precise_nclip depends on.
- gte_nclip: when the sub-pixel shadow of all three SXY FIFO entries is live,
take the winding SIGN from the exact double cross product and keep the
hardware integer magnitude. The X-squash scales areas by a positive factor,
so only integer rounding ever flips a sign; this removes both the vanished
trackside signs and the per-frame tile flicker at wide aspects without any
epsilon tolerance. The producer clamps shadow coords to +/-4096 px so a
projection blowup cannot wrap the 16.16 int32.
- Clamp rescue (prepare_precise_triangle): a vertex parked exactly on a GTE
saturation rail (+/-1024) is hardware-mangled; when the validated dataflow
shadow knows its true position, rasterize with that instead. Kills the
"polygon spike" streak class that 4:3 framing plus CRT overscan hid. Every
in-range vertex stays native, so normal geometry is bit-identical.
- dirty_ram_interp: fire psx_mod_function_entry on interp dispatch so
function-entry mod hooks do not depend on which backend executes a
mod-patched page.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The geometry side cache was an 8192-entry HASHED table with no ambiguity check.
Unrelated screen positions shared a slot, so a vertex could be handed a
different vertex's sub-pixel fraction, and eviction changed which triangles got
corrected from frame to frame — moving seams across every mesh.
Both references index this table exactly, one slot per reachable SXY
(beetle-psx vertexCache[0x800*2][0x800*2]; DuckStation 2048x2048), and gate it
on an ambiguity flag so a pixel that two DIFFERENT projections rounded to is
never used. Do the same: direct index, first writer wins, flag on a conflicting
value, allocate lazily on enable so the faithful default costs nothing, and
fail closed to the faithful path if the allocation fails.
Adds a lookup census (attempted / hit / miss_unrecorded / miss_ambiguous) on
geom_correction. With an exact table a miss_unrecorded is a genuine tracking
coverage gap rather than a cache artifact, which is what distinguishes 'the
cache was lossy' from 'the vertex path never reaches us in a matchable form'.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The depth-cue tail (INTPL/DPCS/DPCT/DPCL/NCDS/NCDT/CDP) and the lighting
helpers (light_transform / light_color / color_output) hardcoded lm=1 on
every IR write-back, clamping all negative components to zero. Crash Bash
tweens its vertex animation through INTPL (cmd 0x0980011, lm=0): pose A in
IR1-3, pose B in the far-color registers, blend in IR0. With lm forced on,
every negative vertex component collapsed to 0 on tween frames, squashing
characters onto their anchor point. At 10fps keyframes / 30fps renders that
made the menu character strobe (2 of 3 renders flattened, so exactly one
display buffer ever held a healthy pose) and in-game characters flatten.
Beetle/hardware render the same frames correctly.
depth_cue_from_ir is now the faithful hardware formula: base = IR<<12,
step = lim(((FC<<12) - base) >> sf*12) with the forced-unsigned-off
intermediate clamp, MAC = (base + IR0*step) >> sf*12, final IR clamp with
lm from the instruction word. sf (bit 19) is honored instead of assuming 12.
The lighting helpers take lm from the instruction too (games light with
lm=1, so their behavior is unchanged).
Observability (always-on, build-dbg commands):
- GTE projection ring (gte_ring_dump): every RTPS/RTPT's V/RT/TR/H/OFX/OFY
inputs and SXY/SZ/FLAG outputs, frame-stamped, with caller ra.
- GTE INTPL ring (gte_intpl_dump): every INTPL's IR0/IR1-3/FC inputs
(snapshotted pre-op) and MAC/IR/FLAG outputs, with frame filter AND
offset paging so a whole frame is reachable.
- gte_frame_stats: per-frame nproj/nsat/nflat/nintpl/nintpl_tiny —
nintpl_tiny (all-tiny output from non-tiny input) is the collapse
signature and pinned this bug to the INTPL math in one query.
- gte_latch_dump: retained ring of saturated projections.
Verified on Crash Bash SELECT GAME TYPE: nintpl_tiny 335-352/473 -> 0-3,
vertex buffer at 0x80056AC8 no longer alternates healthy/collapsed, and a
20-shot jittered screenshot burst shows the character in every frame
(was bimodal present/absent).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Tally which GUEST function (guest ra at gte_execute, not the libgte leaf
0x80000F40 that g_debug_current_func_addr reports) projects far/sky vertices,
to identify the sky-draw fn for the per-function dome-expand bracket. ws_dome_probe
on=1 thr=<SZ> arms; dump lists ra + count + max_sz. FINDING (Ape): the title sky
is a curved dome with a RANGE of depths, so the depth-gated dome-expand only
scales its farthest verts (warps it, can't cleanly fill) — confirms the per-
function bracket is required. Lead: far-sky verts came from game code in the
~0x80138xxx overlay region. Probe stays as a tool; Ape dome wiring is a follow-up.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Depth-gated dome-expand: in native-wide (no squash), scale far-depth
(SZ >= ws_far_threshold) GTE-projected X outward from the projection centre by
(3*num)/(4*den) so a FINITE sky-dome mesh grows to fill the wider FOV instead
of leaving black corners. Live-tunable via the ws_dome + ws_far_threshold TCP
commands; off by default (no config wires it on), so inert unless toggled.
NOTE: depth alone does not cleanly isolate Ape's title dome (its sky is not the
uniquely-farthest layer — distant world geometry shares the depth range), so the
Ape title needs the per-function bracket route (find the dome draw fn, bracket
with gte_ws_set_dome_expand like the far-backdrop unsquash_funcs). The mechanism
lands here; the Ape wiring is a follow-up. Correct as-is for titles whose sky IS
the farthest layer.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds full 16:9/21:9 native-wide support for fully-3D titles (Ape Escape,
SCUS-94423) as a generic, opt-in, 4:3-byte-identical framework capability, plus
a native-wide GL compositor perf fix and a cutscene present-mode flicker fix.
Widescreen (generic, per-game opt-in via [widescreen*]):
- Shared screen-extent cull detector (runtime/include/ws_cull_detect.h) used by
all three backends (recompiler, dirty-RAM interp, sljit). Per-game signature
immediates ([widescreen.cull] screen_w_imms/screen_h_imms) — Ape's funnel
tests 0x181/0xF1 on its 368px display, not Tomba's 0x140/0xE0.
- Three funnel idioms widened: unsigned per-vertex sltiu (psx_ws_cull_sltiu),
signed min/max slti right edge + bare-bltz left edge (psx_ws_cull_slti/bltz,
new helpers + SLJIT_HLP appends), and billboard center+/-halfwidth. Explicit
[widescreen.cull] slti_sites for X-only funnels the auto-detector can't
qualify.
- gte_game_mode: GTE-activity gameplay detector for 3D titles with no sprite-tag
helper (gte.cpp notes every RTPS/RTPT). STICKY (>=3 verts, 45-frame hysteresis)
so sparse cutscene frames never flip to a 4:3 pillarbox = fixes intro flicker.
- nw_hud_corners: push outer-third screen-space HUD sprites to the true wide
corners in native-wide (else inset by the reveal).
- nw_backdrop: stretch a full-frame axis-aligned 2D backdrop quad to fill the
wide frame (for titles with a flat sky plane).
- Pattern-scanned interp/sljit widen hooks now gated per-game (auto_screen_x /
auto_backdrop): fixes an ungated auto_backdrop false-positive that rewrote a
live GPR = the ~24s native-wide crash on Ape.
Native-wide GL perf (fixes 16:9 frame drops):
- The wide surface centre equals the canonical 4:3 framebuffer, so wide_blit_center
copies canonical->wide-centre at present (both present paths) and the per-prim
mirror SKIPS prims fully inside the 4:3 frame (mirror_x/geo/batch_center_only).
Only reveal-margin prims re-rasterize. Peak frame time 38.8ms -> 17.5ms, no
vsync misses. Toggle gl_wide_fast; 4:3 untouched (all gated on g_wide_cur).
Runtime-only except the recompiler cull emit (regen needed for cull widening).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
gte_divide computed the perspective divide as exact
(H*0x20000/SZ3 + 1)/2; real PS1 GTE (and Beetle, mednafen psx/gte.cpp)
use the Unsigned Newton-Raphson reciprocal table. They diverge on
24.7% of inputs by +/-1 (max +/-3) in h_div_sz, which feeds screen
coords and the IR0/MAC0 depth-cue factor — a camera/distance-dependent
divergence. This implements the hardware UNR algorithm (incl. the
1<<17 overflow-flag semantics); matches Beetle bit-exactly over 400k
inputs. Faithful-core accuracy improvement for all titles.
Staged as a candidate for Ape Escape's camera-distance-dependent
black additive-glow artifact but NOT causally confirmed (the artifact
did not reproduce in the scene reachable for oracle A/B). Glow
investigation parked; this fidelity fix stands on its own.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Models the GTE command latency + stall-on-COP2-access, the next Stage-2 cycle
component. Mirrors the mult/div completion-stall mechanism:
- cpu->gte_ts_done (new CPUState field, appended): a GTE command sets it to
psx_cycle_count + (cost-1); back-to-back commands serialize (psx_gte_set
stalls to the prior deadline first). Any COP2 register access
(MFC2/CFC2/MTC2/CTC2/LWC2/SWC2) calls psx_gte_stall, advancing guest cycles
to the deadline if the op is still in flight.
- Cost table (psx_cycles.c, psx_gte_cmd_latency): per-op cost-1, transcribed +
verified from beetle-psx gte.cpp op returns (RTPS15 NCLIP8 MVMVA8 NCDS19
NCDT44 RTPT23 NCCT39 ... AVSZ4=5 not 6). cost-1 because the COP2 instruction's
own +1 base is charged separately (Beetle GTE_Instruction returns ret-1).
- Set armed in the shared gte_execute() (one site for both backends); stall
emitted before every COP2 reg access in both emitters (code_generator,
strict_translator) and the dirty interp. The compiled "+1 at top" vs interp
"base after exec_one" offset cancels (same as muldiv).
Validated EXACT on ruler #2 (new gte_rtps + gte_nclip loops): native +15/+8 ==
Beetle +15/+8. All other components unchanged (no regression); Tomba2 boots to
FMV. Requires regen (emitters changed); runtime+BIOS+game regenerated.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <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>
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>
Adds the DuckStation-style widescreen hack as a config option,
implemented in the runtime (no regen needed):
- gte.cpp: gte_set_display_aspect(num, den). RTPS/RTPT scale the
IR1*h/sz screen-X term by (4*den)/(3*num) around the game's own
OFX projection centre (identity at 4:3). Games cull against the
SXY values they read back from us, so post-projection screen-
bounds culls stay aligned with the visible frame.
- present: GL letterbox_rect generalised to the configured aspect
(gl_renderer_set_display_aspect); SDL_Renderer path gets an
aspect-derived logical size + dst rect. Window opens at the
configured aspect (clamp_window_4x3 -> clamp_window_aspect).
- config: [video] aspect_ratio = W:H (4:3 default, 16:9, up
to 32:9) in game.toml, settings.toml (load+save), launcher seed.
World geometry keeps correct proportions on the stretched present;
screen-space 2D (HUD, FMV, sprite quad widths) stretches — the
known limitation of the squash tier. EXPERIMENTAL.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- memcard.c: stop auto-creating blank cards when .mcd files don't
exist; missing file now correctly means "no card in slot"
- gpu.c: fix setup_textured_draw raw texture flag (was ? 0 : 0,
now ? 1 : 0 for identity-modulation bypass)
- gpu.c: add shaded quad vertex capture mechanism for Phase 4.5
debug (capture_quads / get_quads debug commands)
- gte.cpp: add gte_exec_count to track total GTE compute commands
executed (exposed via gte_state debug command)
- debug_server.c: wire up capture_quads, get_quads commands and
gte_exec field in gte_state response
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
tetrisgm