re: RETRACT "the game never draws eff3" -- a batched draw merged two quads

The console draws all five title flashes. My claim that ptlogo_back2eff3 is
never drawn was an instrument artefact, and I had reported it to the port with
three alternative explanations "ruled out".

A GPU draw can batch several quads -- indices=4 is one, indices=8 two,
indices=24 six -- and the UI draw log dumps only the first 8 vertices. Taking
min/max over a line's whole vertex list merges quads into one box.

eff3 is batched with eff4, and because the wipe family is right-aligned, eff3
(788..1196) lies ENTIRELY INSIDE eff4 (447..1196). The union is exactly eff4's
own extent, so the merged box matched eff4 to 1 px, eff3 vanished, and nothing
looked wrong.

Parsed per quad, all five fire in both title entries in the declared stagger:
eff1 130-131, eff2 133, eff3 133-134, eff4 133-135, eff/eff5 134+, back2 136+;
and 5953-5955 / 5955-5957 / 5957-5958 / 5957-5959 / 5958+ / 5962+ in entry 2.
Frames 133 and 134 are t=60.1 and 62.3, inside eff3's declared t in (58,64).

Also retracts "the developer splash is one composited quad" -- the same bug,
which the port refuted by arithmetic first (a 259-tall box cannot contain three
logos spanning y 164..585). It draws three logos and three glows as separate
quads in one indices=24 call; the 525x259 was gamearts_eff merged with
seta_eff. The 9-unit black hold is unaffected: those glows are the developer
splash's first draw.

The three "ruled out" explanations were all aimed at the wrong failure. In
particular the invisible-draw check counted draws with NO geometry line, when
the hiding place was draws with PARTIAL geometry. Refuting three wrong
hypotheses is not evidence for a fourth, and a list of failure modes written by
whoever built the instrument is the least likely to contain its blind spot.
Recorded in METHOD.md, along with the tell that was present and explained away:
a merged box carries the first quad's colour, which made one element's alpha
read 255/127/254 on consecutive frames.

New tool: tools/re-capture/quads_per_frame.py parses vertices in groups of four
and warns when the logged quad count falls short of indices/4.

Also guards a double-A-tap in ui_draw_capture.sh: the movie branch ignored that
TARGET=menu had already tapped, so a run tapped A on the title at t=23s and
again at t=27s on the transition; the guest faulted and Xenia dumped registers
to stdout until the file reached 519 MB.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QsEPXWVaEpyfudtR6re1Pd

docs/re/INDEX.md

@@ -171,5 +171,5 @@ files, which is how the same ground got covered twice.
 | [`structures/ui-tie-break-cost-at-settle.md`](structures/ui-tie-break-cost-at-settle.md) | What the unknown paint-order tie-break costs, in pixels | ✅ **decoded**, closing the open half of Q3: at the settled instant the tie-break costs **at most 1 px at Δ1**, on the **Japanese title only** (`ptlogo2`×`ptlogo_tm`, 5 px shared ink); **exactly 0 px on all five port screens**. The earlier 24-pair bound was a `rest()` count — and 10 of the title's 11 tied pairs are between `ptlogo_back2eff1`…`eff5`, five transient flashes that are **transparent** on the settled screen ([`ui-settle-time.md`](structures/ui-settle-time.md)). Live pairs at settle: entry 4 → **1**, entry 7 → **2**, the four loading bundles → **0**. ✅ Not a knife-edge — sweeping every keyframe time and midpoint, the count is **flat across the whole settle window**, and the loading bundles' tie is live only at t17–t33. ✅ Controls: an overlapping *different*-key swap moves 25 310 / 268 698 / ~765 000 px on the entries reporting zero; zeros are explained by shared-ink counts (the `ptframe` pairs share **0 px** of ink). ⚠️ Entries 0/1/12/15 have **no live control** — their zeros rest on keyframe data, not a render. 🟡 Refutation attempt on the corpus's "24 pairs": **survives** as a rest-pose bound, 16/16 on entry 7. ❔ *Why* ties order as they do is still unknown — and now worth one pixel |
 | [`structures/ui-record-loop-length.md`](structures/ui-record-loop-length.md) | Where a looping record's cycle restarts — and the `PRESS Ⓐ` plate's real period | ✅ **decoded**: a nested record is itself a RATC bundle and its header **`+0x08` is the loop length**; its keyframes need not fill it, and the slack is a hold at the final pose. Disc-wide over **1 781** timed nested records: 92.3 % declare exactly their last keyframe time, **7.7 % declare more**, and **0 declare less** — the falsifier (a cycle cannot restart before its own last pose) never fires. 🔴 **The plate's `ptbtn00f` is 105 units of ramp inside a 120-unit cycle, so it holds dark for 15 units** — the port was shipping **105**, and the answer is **120**. ✅ Falsification test against the running game, using a pacing factor measured *independently* on the focus ring (declared 120 → **2.177 s**, factor **1.0885**): to reach the corpus's measured 2.12–2.34 s, 105 units needs a factor of **1.211–1.337** (🔴 excludes the ring's) while 120 needs **1.060–1.170** (✅ contains it). Different elements, different bundles, separate runs — tied only by both declaring 120. ⚠️ Says where a cycle *ends*, not which records cycle. ❔ the **top-level** `+0x08` (300 on every `GP_TITLE` entry, elements ending at 244–269) is a different question, untouched |
 | [`structures/ui-focus-record-pulse-census.md`](structures/ui-focus-record-pulse-census.md) | Every focus record whose glow pulses, and where `rest()` puts it | ✅ **decoded**, disc-wide: **1 130** focus records, **2 664** timed elements, **210 with a varying alpha** — of which **202** have `rest()` == the **peak** (burns bright forever) and **8** land **mid-ramp**. By pak: `PILOTLOG` 116, `MOVIE_THEATER` 54, `HANGAR_ARSENAL` 30, `LEADERBOARD` 8, **`GP_TITLE` 2**. 🟡 Bounds rather than refutes the port's "34 in the export, 2 varying, nothing to fix" — correct, and correct *because* `GP_TITLE` has 2; the pathology sits in the screens a wider port needs next. 🔴 The 8 mid-ramp ones are the worse mode: `py_ranking_btn01f` swings 255→127→255 and `rest()` returns **244**, neither extreme, which looks entirely plausible and nothing reports it. ✅ Control: `ptbtn01f` is genuinely constant (255 throughout) and is **not** flagged; two hits verified keyframe by keyframe. ⚠️ A pulsing element has no resting pose — the question is malformed, not mis-answered; `pose_at(t)` inside the record's declared cycle ([`ui-record-loop-length.md`](structures/ui-record-loop-length.md)) is the only well-formed query. ⚠️ 210 is a **floor**: focus records are matched by the `Xf.rat` name rule, and varying scale/rotation/position is not counted |
-| [`structures/ui-title-buildin-measured.md`](structures/ui-title-buildin-measured.md) | The title's build-in and the plate glow, read out of the guest's own draw stream | ✅ **measured** (Canary, `ARM=early` draw capture): the decoded *mechanism* is observed, not just its end state. **The five flashes fire in a six-frame window and are absent from all 155 other sampled frames**; `ptlogo_back2eff1` is drawn in exactly 2 frames at **t = 54.0** against a decoded peak of **t54–56**, and `ptlogo1` first appears at **t = 42.2** against a decoded **t42** — with units/frame taken from the **glow's period alone**, a different element. The two holders (`ptlogo_back2eff`, `ptlogo_back2`) are continuous from frame 134. ✅ The glow's per-vertex colour alpha IS its fade alpha: **observed range 0…80 against a decoded peak of 80**, exact and unfitted; **period 51.158 presented frames** over 20 cycle starts; fitting the decoded ramp gives RMS **13.16** against **38.18 reversed** (2.9×), so the asymmetry is real and correctly directed. Structure: the settled title is 10–11 draws naming no sprite — which is why arming at the title sees nothing. ⚠️ Frame **107** is a 27-draw spike between the movie's last frame and the title's first; calling it "the composite" was an **over-read** — it binds **no texture** and only 4 of its 27 draws log geometry. The second title entry has no such frame. ⚠️ The two entries are the same animation at **different sampling phases** (only 4 of 46 aligned frames match), which is what makes the `eff3` result robust. 🔴 **The game does not draw `ptlogo_back2eff3` at all** — reproduced over **two** title entries 5 800 frames apart, and three alternative explanations tested and failed: *phase* (its window is **6 units** against a **2.23-unit** step, so it cannot be missed — frames 133/134 sit at t=60.1/62.3 inside it and draw `eff2` and `eff4` instead), *an unlogged draw* (exactly 2 blind draws/frame, always the same full-screen-triangle shader, present when no wipe is active), and *a bad position guess* (dropping position entirely, **zero** quads anywhere have a width within ±30 of 408; the spectrum jumps 262 → 748). Draw counts across both entries: eff1 **4**, eff2 **3**, eff3 **0**, eff4 **6**. 🔴 **The port draws `eff3` at t=60–62 and the console does not.** ❔ Why is not established — nothing in its element record differs from its neighbours. ⚠️ An earlier "sub-frame phase" explanation and the advice that drawing all five "shows more sweep than the console" are both **withdrawn**. ⚠️ What a frame-by-frame build-in comparison *will* show is disagreement about which flash lands in which frame — 2 units/submitted frame against this run's 2.231 units/presented frame — and neither side is wrong. 🔴 **Trap:** matching a bound texture's dimensions to a sprite fails both ways — it missed every flash *and* read the intro movie's 640×360 YUV planes as `ptbase2`. ✅ A regression of five events' observed frames against their declared times (residuals ≤0.9 frames) recovers the intercept at frame **106.1** when the composite spike, not in the fit, is frame **107**. ⚠️ Per-vertex alpha = fade alpha holds for the **glow** and does not generalise — `eff4` reads 255/127/254 on consecutive frames. ❔ Frame rate not recorded, so nothing is in seconds; the glow's period implies a **114**-unit cycle against a declared 120, unexplained; `eff5` vs `ptlogo_back2eff` not separated |
-| [`structures/boot-splash-gap-measured.md`](structures/boot-splash-gap-measured.md) | The black gap between the two boot splashes | ✅ **measured** in the guest's **draw stream**, which separates true black from a fade tail where luminance cannot: the publisher's last sprite is frame 125 (alpha 7), then **frames 126–129 submit NO sprite quad at all**, then the developer fades in at alpha 34. **The gap is 4 presented frames.** Converted with the disc as its own clock — `palogo_sqex` declares alpha≥1 for **239.8 units** and is drawn in **105** frames → **2.284 units/frame** (the title capture independently gave 2.231) — that is **~9.1 units ≈ 0.152 s**, against the **12** the port authored; ⚠️ and the true black is *shorter*, since both boundary frames still carry picture. ✅ Second finding: the **developer splash is ONE composited 525×259 quad** at the bounding box of its three declared logos, none of whose individual sizes is ever submitted. ❌ Not declared on the disc: `palogo_eff0.prm` is a single static keyframe, and the top-level `+0x08` is a **family constant** (300 / 60) whose slack ranges 12–226 units. ❔ The executable is **not** looked at — named, not claimed. 🔴 The instrument was perturbing the measurement: the capture script taps Ⓐ on "screen changed a lot", which is also true of a fading splash — it tapped through the publisher and the developer never appeared. `GRACE=1` and `NOTAP=1` knobs added |
+| [`structures/ui-title-buildin-measured.md`](structures/ui-title-buildin-measured.md) | The title's build-in and the plate glow, read out of the guest's own draw stream | ✅ **measured** (Canary, `ARM=early` draw capture): the decoded *mechanism* is observed, not just its end state. **The five flashes fire in a six-frame window and are absent from all 155 other sampled frames**; `ptlogo_back2eff1` is drawn in exactly 2 frames at **t = 54.0** against a decoded peak of **t54–56**, and `ptlogo1` first appears at **t = 42.2** against a decoded **t42** — with units/frame taken from the **glow's period alone**, a different element. The two holders (`ptlogo_back2eff`, `ptlogo_back2`) are continuous from frame 134. ✅ The glow's per-vertex colour alpha IS its fade alpha: **observed range 0…80 against a decoded peak of 80**, exact and unfitted; **period 51.158 presented frames** over 20 cycle starts; fitting the decoded ramp gives RMS **13.16** against **38.18 reversed** (2.9×), so the asymmetry is real and correctly directed. Structure: the settled title is 10–11 draws naming no sprite — which is why arming at the title sees nothing. ⚠️ Frame **107** is a 27-draw spike between the movie's last frame and the title's first; calling it "the composite" was an **over-read** — it binds **no texture** and only 4 of its 27 draws log geometry. The second title entry has no such frame. ⚠️ The two entries are the same animation at **different sampling phases** (only 4 of 46 aligned frames match), which is what makes the `eff3` result robust. 🔴🔴 **RETRACTED — the game DOES draw `ptlogo_back2eff3`, and all five flashes fire in both entries in the declared stagger** (`eff3` at frames 133–134 / 5957–5958, i.e. t=60.1 and 62.3, inside its declared t∈(58,64)). The absence was an **instrument artefact**: a draw batches several quads (`indices=8` is two) and the log dumps only the first 8 vertices, so min/max over a line **merges** them — and because the wipe is right-aligned, `eff3` (788…1196) lies entirely inside `eff4` (447…1196), making the union *exactly* `eff4`'s extent. The merged box matched `eff4` to 1 px. 🔴 Three explanations had been "ruled out" and all three were aimed at the wrong failure — notably the invisible-draw check counted draws with **no** geometry, where the hiding place was **partial** geometry. Superseded text follows: ~~three alternative explanations tested and failed: *phase* (its window is **6 units** against a **2.23-unit** step, so it cannot be missed — frames 133/134 sit at t=60.1/62.3 inside it and draw `eff2` and `eff4` instead), *an unlogged draw* (exactly 2 blind draws/frame, always the same full-screen-triangle shader, present when no wipe is active), and *a bad position guess* (dropping position entirely, **zero** quads anywhere have a width within ±30 of 408; the spectrum jumps 262 → 748). Draw counts across both entries: eff1 **4**, eff2 **3**, eff3 **0**, eff4 **6**.~~ (all from the merged-box parse, and wrong) 🔴 **The port draws `eff3` at t=60–62 and the console does not.** ❔ Why is not established — nothing in its element record differs from its neighbours. ⚠️ An earlier "sub-frame phase" explanation and the advice that drawing all five "shows more sweep than the console" are both **withdrawn**. ⚠️ What a frame-by-frame build-in comparison *will* show is disagreement about which flash lands in which frame — 2 units/submitted frame against this run's 2.231 units/presented frame — and neither side is wrong. 🔴 **Trap:** matching a bound texture's dimensions to a sprite fails both ways — it missed every flash *and* read the intro movie's 640×360 YUV planes as `ptbase2`. ✅ A regression of five events' observed frames against their declared times (residuals ≤0.9 frames) recovers the intercept at frame **106.1** when the composite spike, not in the fit, is frame **107**. ⚠️ Per-vertex alpha = fade alpha holds for the **glow** and does not generalise — `eff4` reads 255/127/254 on consecutive frames. ❔ Frame rate not recorded, so nothing is in seconds; the glow's period implies a **114**-unit cycle against a declared 120, unexplained; `eff5` vs `ptlogo_back2eff` not separated |
+| [`structures/boot-splash-gap-measured.md`](structures/boot-splash-gap-measured.md) | The black gap between the two boot splashes | ✅ **measured** in the guest's **draw stream**, which separates true black from a fade tail where luminance cannot: the publisher's last sprite is frame 125 (alpha 7), then **frames 126–129 submit NO sprite quad at all**, then the developer fades in at alpha 34. **The gap is 4 presented frames.** Converted with the disc as its own clock — `palogo_sqex` declares alpha≥1 for **239.8 units** and is drawn in **105** frames → **2.284 units/frame** (the title capture independently gave 2.231) — that is **~9.1 units ≈ 0.152 s**, against the **12** the port authored; ⚠️ and the true black is *shorter*, since both boundary frames still carry picture. 🔴 **RETRACTED**: "the developer splash is ONE composited 525×259 quad" — the same batching artefact. It draws three logos and three glows as separate quads in one `indices=24` call; the 525×259 was `gamearts_eff` merged with `seta_eff`. The port refuted it with arithmetic (a 259-tall box cannot hold logos spanning y 164…585) before I checked. ⚠️ The gap measurement is unaffected — those glows are the developer splash's first draw. ❌ Not declared on the disc: `palogo_eff0.prm` is a single static keyframe, and the top-level `+0x08` is a **family constant** (300 / 60) whose slack ranges 12–226 units. ❔ The executable is **not** looked at — named, not claimed. 🔴 The instrument was perturbing the measurement: the capture script taps Ⓐ on "screen changed a lot", which is also true of a fading splash — it tapped through the publisher and the developer never appeared. `GRACE=1` and `NOTAP=1` knobs added |