`bios_hle` (default on) is the player-facing "skip the BIOS and go
straight to the game" flag, and it did nothing under the bundled
OpenBIOS: choosing OpenBIOS sat the player in the boot animation while
the identical build on retail SCPH-1001 went straight to the game.
Root cause was ordering, not policy. The tier has two axes with
different per-image requirements:
* boot-skip needs only `shell_entry_phys`, works under pure LLE
(nothing is synthesized — the shell call just returns
immediately), so any image exporting it can skip
* kernel-call needs `deliver_event_ret`, the kernel's own
DeliverEvent `$ra`, or a delivered callback returns to
the wrong PC
main.cpp correctly refused the call axis on an image without
`deliver_event_ret` by assigning `bios_hle = false` — and then derived
`boot_skip` from that already-mutated flag. OpenBIOS omits
`deliver_event_ret` (B0 semantics unvalidated) but DOES export
`shell_entry_phys`, so an available skip was cancelled by an unrelated
refusal, and one flag meant two things depending on a BIOS detail no
player can see.
Both axes are now decided by one pure, dependency-free function,
`psx_bios_hle_plan()` (runtime/src/bios_hle_plan.c): the boot decision
reads the REQUESTED `bios_hle`, each axis is gated on only the anchor it
needs, and refusals are reported at startup instead of downgrading
silently. `psx_bios_hle_configure()` clamps `boot_skip` to
`shell_entry_phys != 0` as a backstop so the banner and `hle_dump`
cannot overstate what can fire. The main.cpp local is renamed
`bios_hle_requested` and is no longer written back from the plan — the
`session_reboot` path re-enters that block, so folding a refusal into
the request would have made a netplay rematch differ from first launch.
Also in this pass:
* A BIOS profile's `[runtime]` block was parsed into
`BiosConfig::runtime` and read by NOTHING, and bios/OpenBIOS.toml
carried an inert `bios_hle = false` there that read as the reason HLE
was off on OpenBIOS. It was not. `load_bios_config` now REJECTS
`[runtime]` in a BIOS profile: a profile states facts about an image,
never preferences.
* `psx_icache_fastpath_test` had been unbuildable ("redefinition of
`psx_advance_cycles`" — the test's counting stub vs the header's
`static inline`), which blocked every runtime test registered after
it. It now builds with `PSX_OVERLAY_DLL_BUILD=1`, the seam
psx_cycles.h already provides for a TU supplying its own advance.
Tests: new `bios_hle_plan_test` pins the matrix, including a 64-case
sweep asserting the boot decision is independent of
`deliver_event_ret` and the call decision independent of
`shell_entry_phys`. Runtime ctest 15/15, recompiler ctest 30/30.
Validated on Ape Escape (SCUS-94423) built against this framework with
both backends linked, headless, all four cases:
OpenBIOS default bios_boot=skip to game; route=2 fire at vec 0x30000
ra=0xBFC06EA8 (the continuation OpenBIOS.toml
documents); in-game on screen
retail default bios_boot=skip to game; route=2 at vec 0x30000
ra=0xBFC0702C; in-game on screen; differs only in
bios_backend=HLE (LLE fallback)
PSX_BIOS_HLE=0 bios_boot=real intro; ring empty (no hook)
KEEP_INTRO=1 bios_boot=real intro; ring empty
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Correcting my own earlier claim: this document is NOT wrong about the table
format. Its translations.json references all sit inside section 1, titled
'Prior art: the n64recomp PMS-J mechanism', and under Appendix A's 'n64recomp
prior art' heading. Section 3.3 correctly documents the PSX format as
translations/tsumu.toml with schema/default_lang/[[entry]], which matches
Tsumu's shipped table exactly. I grepped for translations.json, saw the hits,
and called the doc stale without reading their context.
Two references were genuinely wrong:
- Section 3 called the module 'proposed location: runtime/src/text_xlate.c'.
It shipped, as text_xlate.cpp. Corrected the extension, marked it shipped,
and noted the section is written in the future tense throughout.
- Appendix A pointed psxrecomp hook points at
F:\Projects\psxrecomp\_wt-tsumu\psxrecomp\, a worktree that no longer
exists. Made the paths repo-relative and added the shipped module and its
entry points to the list.
Every in-repo file path the document cites now resolves.
The README opened by explaining what a static recompiler is and how to run the
CLI, and buried the fact that eight titles actually run on it. Restructure so
the catalogue and the shipped features come first, and the build instructions
follow the pitch rather than preceding it.
- Hero: reposition as a general-purpose PS1 static recompiler, plus a 3x2
screenshot grid of the six playable titles.
- Games: add Xenogears (github.com/OpokXeno/xenogears-recomp), marked
community, per issue #83; note the author also contributed widescreen
cull-site work upstream. Per-title notes now name widescreen support.
- New sections: Widescreen (16:9 / 21:9 / adaptive, showing both a 2D sprite
engine and 3D), Mods (versioned .psxmod packages over a verified stock image,
with the launcher panel), on-the-fly localization (the Tsumu translation
layer), and Renderers (OpenGL default, Vulkan experimental, software
reference).
- Promote 'Do I need a PlayStation BIOS?' near the top: bundled MIT OpenBIOS
means most players need no dump, which is the first question a newcomer has.
- Reorder: Games / What It Is / BIOS / features / how-to-build / the rest.
No section was dropped; all 18 are still present.
Screenshots are sized to how they render (800px grid cells, 1280px hero shots)
rather than colour-quantised, so there is no visible loss: 11.6MB of captures
land as 4.6MB of assets. Netplay is deliberately not mentioned.
All image paths, internal anchors and relative file links verified to resolve.
Correction to an earlier claim of mine: ctest was NOT absent. recompiler/ and
runtime/ already had 21 add_test() calls between them and `ctest` ran 8 tests
green in the recompiler tree. My original survey used a quoted git-grep
pathspec that the shell passed literally, matched nothing, and I read the empty
result as "no test wiring anywhere". The real problem was narrower: partial
registration and zero documentation.
Of 61 first-party test sources (excluding 3 fixtures/harnesses), 37 were
referenced by no CMakeLists at all. Each was run by hand; 21 pass and are now
registered, taking the recompiler tree from 8 to 29 tests -- still under five
seconds, and still requiring no BIOS dump, no disc image, and no generated
code.
The 15 runtime source-invariant guards are registered from
recompiler/CMakeLists.txt rather than runtime/CMakeLists.txt, following the
existing dirty_text_continuation_guards precedent. They only read runtime
source, and the runtime tree cannot configure until a BIOS has been generated,
so registering them there would have made them unreachable from the only tree a
newcomer can build.
Three tests are deliberately NOT registered because they fail today. Wiring a
known-red test would recreate exactly what took CI off pull requests. Detail is
in docs/TESTING.md; briefly:
test_interpreter_perf_guards.py asserts psx_devices_mmio_sync invalidates
the inline cycle limit. It does not. The function delegates either to
psx_devices_service_to_now() (which clears g_psx_cycle_fast_limit,
psx_cycles.c:161) or to psx_devices_recompute_deadline() (:153-157),
and that second branch never clears it. Needs a timing owner: the guard
may have found a real hole, or the invariant may have moved. The guard is
itself partly stale -- it still names s_next_service_cycle, since renamed
to psx_next_service_cycle.
test_runtime_perf_diag_guards.py asserts a substring no longer present in
the runtime source.
test_overlay_pair_dedup_runtime.py needs its companion harness built; not a
source-only guard.
New docs/TESTING.md covers running the suite, running one test, what each group
needs, the known-failing three, and why fixtures must not be registered. It
also records two traps that cost time here: parallel builds can crash cc1plus
on config_loader.cpp under memory pressure (retry with -j 1, it is not a code
error), and the codegen tests need an ABSOLUTE recompiler path -- a relative one
passes their os.path.isfile check and then fails inside subprocess.run on
Windows with WinError 2, which reads as a broken test.
Linked from CONTRIBUTING.md (above the existing manual regression checklist,
noting the suite does not tell you whether a game still runs) and from
docs/BUILDING.md.
Verified: clean configure + build, ctest 29/29 pass in 4.08s.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
These are not stale-by-omission; each asserts something the code does not do,
and each was verified against the implementation before editing.
docs/BUILDING.md
- PSX_ENABLE_VULKAN was documented "off by default" in two places. It
defaults ON (runtime/runtime.cmake:778). Corrected both, and noted that
the build option being ON does not make Vulkan the runtime renderer.
- Removed the PSX_BUILD_COSIM row: no option() for it exists anywhere in
the tree. Replaced with PSX_NETPLAY, which is real (runtime.cmake:194).
- Step 2 (regenerate BIOS) was labelled "(Optional)". It is required before
the first runtime build: step 3 configures psx-runtime from
generated/OpenBIOS_full.c and fails at configure time without it
("Cannot find source file" / "No SOURCES given to target"). Regenerating
the *retail* backend remains genuinely optional; that distinction is now
explicit.
- "This repository has no required git submodules" contradicted .gitmodules
(recomp-ui, lib/recomp-net) and README's --recurse-submodules clone.
Replaced with a table of which submodule each build option needs.
docs/ARCHITECTURE.md
- Same Vulkan default correction.
- Removed the claim that BIOS and game configs merge with "game wins on
scalar keys". No such merge exists: load_bios_config is called only from
the recompiler front-ends (main_bios.cpp, and main_psx.cpp solely to build
the BiosAddressModel) and never from runtime/src/main.cpp.
docs/config_schema.md
- Same merge claim, stated in more detail. Replaced with the actual runtime
precedence: env > CLI > settings.toml > game.toml > compiled default.
docs/STRING_TRANSLATION.md
- Header said "SPEC (design only - no implementation yet)" above a shipped
feature: runtime/src/text_xlate.cpp (~970 lines), initialised from
main.cpp, configured via [localization]. Marked IMPLEMENTED and added the
public entry points.
docs/FEATURES.md
- Layer A (dynamic DLL overlay loading) was headed "SHELVED". It is the live
production dispatch path: overlay_loader.c is ~4,400 lines with 15
LoadLibrary sites, last modified 2026-07-26, and COMPILING_OVERLAYS.md
documents shipping the resulting .dll shards in releases. Added a status
banner and kept the original account as history, since the CRC-keying
dead ends it records are still worth reading.
docs/BIOS_SELECTION.md
- Claimed the identity gate checks "size, CRC32, SHA-256". It checks size
and CRC32 only (bios_backend_for_file, main.cpp:1088-1089); image_sha256
is recorded metadata and never enters the accept/reject decision.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Writes down the contract before implementing it, because one part is a
behaviour change someone would otherwise file as a bug.
The rule: no BIOS chosen -> OpenBIOS; a BIOS the player explicitly chose
-> that BIOS. A developer can require retail for a title with a verified
OpenBIOS incompatibility via [runtime] openbios = false.
"Chosen" means --bios or a launcher/settings pick, and nothing else.
Today resolve_bios_path() also searches directories near the executable,
so a stray SCPH1001.BIN would silently win even though the player never
asked — making behaviour depend on what happens to be on disk. Discovery
stops being a selection mechanism.
Also recorded: why both BIOSes are compiled into one binary (a build
flavour per BIOS needed the same choice restated in three places that
nothing cross-checked, and it compiled cleanly when they disagreed); why
that is affordable (game C is byte-identical across profiles — verified
on Tomba!, Tomba! 2 and Ape Escape — so only the BIOS is duplicated, and
the two collide on just 22 symbols); that the developer setting is not
player-overridable; and that savestates are BIOS-specific and must be
refused across BIOSes, which is the one silent-corruption risk here.
README gets a player-facing version: you probably don't need a BIOS,
here's how to use your own, saves work either way, savestates don't mix.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The runtime links generated/<serial>_{full,dispatch}.c, produced by a separate
recompiler step run before the build. Those paths are marked GENERATED so cmake
configure succeeds before that step has run — which meant skipping generation
surfaced only as a raw "cc1: fatal error: <file>: No such file or directory"
deep in the build, with no hint that a step was skipped or what produces the file
(exactly the trap a from-source builder on a fresh checkout hits).
Add runtime/check_generated_sources.cmake and wire it into
psxrecomp_add_runtime_target as a build-time dependency of the runtime target:
a missing game source now aborts at build start with the files named and the
exact fix (build recompiler -> extract EXE -> generate -> rebuild), and configure
emits an early non-fatal warning. Framework-wide, so every game inherits it.
Also fix the docs/BUILDING.md "build and run a game" recompiler invocation (the
framework is a submodule at psxrecomp/, not ../psxrecomp/) and add the
recompiler-build step.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Alex Vanderveen