4 Commits

Author SHA1 Message Date
sylph-decoder
4b5ac88f0a re: the declared timeline DOES reproduce the splash -- and the unit rate is per-GamePart
Two results, one of which corrects me.

1. The R1-re-opened 'declared keyframe timeline reproduces the captured
splash' resolves in FAVOUR of the declared timeline. Instrument is a disc
keyframe table against the guest's vertex stream -- no renderer in the chain,
which is what the 'our-reader' tag demanded. Calibration-free test: is each
captured alpha an exact member of the declared piecewise-linear value set at
integer t? 39/50 exact under truncation, 30/50 under rounding, and the worst
error under either rule is ONE alpha level in 255. All 11 non-exact samples
are low by exactly 1 and all are on falling segments. The old refutation
rested on 'still at a=255 nine frames after its declared a=32' -- under the
fixed layout a=32 is at t=206, four units from the end of a 210-unit
timeline. That was the off-by-one association.

2. The unit->seconds rate is PER-GAMEPART, which corrects what I told the
port an hour ago. Title ~57 units/guest-second; splash ~35-40. The splash
figure is confirmed two ways that share no algebra: a 15-unit ramp (T read
off the disc, not borrowed) and a 160-unit HOLD, which is a declared
duration with no T, no alpha slope and no interpolation in it.

And my 'the borrowed T=15 does not apply' was wrong in the other direction:
the disc says T=15 plainly. What failed was the premise of a single global
rate, not the T. Noted at the foot of that page rather than by editing it.

The trap worth recording: all four elements give 650-679 alpha/s, agreeing
to 2%, which reads exactly like one clock. It is a coincidence -- T differs
22 vs 15 and the rates differ 57 vs 37, and the ratios nearly cancel. A
quantity that looks constant across screens is not evidence of one clock
when the thing that would vary is inside it. The hold breaks the tie.

For the port: a single keyframe_units_per_second cannot be right, and a
splash played at 60 runs 1.5-1.7x too fast -- shorter, sharper fades than
the game's, which is the direction the play-test reported.
2026-09-01 17:19:59 +00:00
sylph-decoder
3d1c3c9564 re: fix the stale headline on the units-per-second page
The title still said 'not yet a number' after the second half resolved it to
56.8. Kept the failed first half in place and in order -- the borrowed T is
the lesson -- but a reader must not stop at the header.
2026-09-01 17:11:28 +00:00
sylph-decoder
d67aaaf30b re: the rate is 56.8 units per guest second -- both predictions hold, control passes
The capture reached the title AFTER the harness stopped classifying, so the
plate's ramp was in the log with tick stamps after all.

ptbtn00: alpha 11->231 over 334.4 guest ms = 657.9 alpha/s. With its
independently attested T=22 that is 56.8 units per guest second, inside the
pre-registered 55-65 band. The final step of every ramp is excluded because
it clamps at 255 and reports more elapsed time than it consumed -- including
it drags the plate to 633.0 alpha/s, a 4% error entirely inside the clamp.

Control passes at 1.15%: ptcopyright gives 650.4 alpha/s, and at one shared
clock that makes its own segment T=22.25. Two elements agreeing on a rate
AND independently landing on a round declared length is stronger than either.

Why my earlier 29.9 was wrong, and it is the failure the page predicted: it
used T=15 borrowed from a row that is about A element with a 15-unit fade,
generalised to splash B's quads, which is not what that row says. At 56.8 the
splash elements' implied T is 23-34, none of them 15. And the step quantum
does not rescue 15: splash steps are multiples of 17 = 255/15, which is what
made 15 look confirmed, but at T=28.5 a step of 17 is simply TWO units of
8.9. A quantum fixes T only if you already know the step is one unit.

60 is NOT refuted -- 5.6% away against ~5% quantisation resolution -- so the
port keeps it. But this DOES eliminate the unit constant as a cause of a late
plate: at 56.8 units/s t=236 lands at 4.15 s against the port's 3.93 s, so
the port is fractionally early.
2026-09-01 17:11:19 +00:00
sylph-decoder
781a70af9a re: the animation clock is TIME-INTEGRATED -- one prediction held, one failed
Reported against the pre-registration, failure first.

HELD, and by a cleaner argument than the regression: the clock is NOT
frame-counted. The same animation takes 21 frame labels in one capture and
33 in another, and splash A's logo steps +136,+34 in one and
+17,+51,+34,+34,+17,+17 in the other. A fixed per-frame increment cannot do
that. Steps are always integer multiples of 17 (255/15 = one unit), so the
clock advances in whole units at a rate set by how long the frame took.

That retires '2 units per submitted frame' as a MECHANISM -- including my own
page from two hours ago. The measurement stands; 2 was that run's frame
pacing. units = 2 x frames computes an emulator artefact. Recorded as a
proposal against the register, not enacted, and noted at the head of the H3
page rather than by editing it.

FAILED: predicted 60 units per guest second, accept 55-65. Measured median
29.9 over six elapsed-ratio estimates (25.2-36.6). Prediction 3 said 30 was
excluded and 30 is what came out.

Why the rate is not a number yet: units/s = (d_alpha/dt) * T/255, and T is
the load-bearing term. d_alpha/dt is measured cleanly six ways. T=15 for
these elements comes from a corpus row whose usual derivation is circular
with the thing just retired -- a step of 34/frame implies T=15 only GIVEN 2
units/frame. T=30 would give ~60. No amount of re-measuring alpha settles it.

Settles with ptbtn00, whose T=22 is attested by two independent readers with
no clock anywhere in the chain. That capture did not reach the title in 531 s
of attract loop against 243 s in the previous run -- the variable attract
loop capture-harness-status.md already documents at up to 604 s. Instrument
built and control-passed; one run is missing.

Instrument: guest timebase, 50 MHz per emulator.cc:225, scalar 1.0 per
clock.cc:37, so no host wall clock enters any number. Control: 123.24 guest
seconds across a capture running ~118 wall seconds.

Told the port to change NOTHING today: ~30 rests on an unverified T, and
retiring 2 x frames does not by itself supply a replacement.
2026-09-01 17:04:23 +00:00