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.
The Port asked which of two of my measurements to believe, 55 units/s vs
~150, a factor of 2.7 off one game. Measured on the plate's own declared
ramp, against a pre-registration committed first.
PREDICTED 11 frames at 2 units/frame, 4.4 at the Port's inferred 5, +/-1.
MEASURED 10 labels, and three consecutive gap-free steps of EXACTLY 23,
which is 255*2/22 on the nose. 5 units/frame is excluded by >2x.
Why the splash read as 5: an alpha step is not a clock rate. For a linear
segment d(alpha)/frame = 255*(units/frame)/T. Splash B's quads step 34 with
a declared T=15; the plate steps 23 with a declared T=22; ONE clock, two
steps 1.5x apart. And the Port's intervals start at each quad's first
submission, which on splash A is already alpha=85 -- not the element's t
where alpha=0, and biased by a different amount per element because T
differs. My own splash-quad-timeline.txt published alpha against frame with
no T beside it, which is the column that makes the conversion possible; it
now carries the warning.
The other half: the 'title settled' anchor is ptcopyright reaching full
alpha -- the last build-in element and the ONLY glyph one, which is what a
glyph counter settling means. Calibrated on the plate's own ramp it lands at
t~168 (t~176 at a flat 2.0/label). The Port's candidates are 118 and 160, 42
units apart: this is 8-16 units from 160 and 50-58 from 118. It is 160.
Instrument fact that bounds all of it: labels with zero draws exist, ~1 in 5,
and the clock does NOT advance a fixed amount across them -- across label
5376 the plate moved +82 where three adjacent labels each moved +23. So an
empty label is a real advance, not a logger artefact, and spans that cross
one are approximate. The conclusion rests on the gap-free steps.
Also recorded: the sweep leaves never settle. They translate monotonically
through every label examined and are still moving when the plate arrives, so
'settled' can only mean the build-in elements are done.
NOT answered, and it is what the port actually needs: units per SECOND.
units/s = (units/frame) x (guest fps); this pins the first at 2 and says
nothing about the second, and 2x30 vs 2x60 differ by exactly the ~2 s the
human reported. My own title-plate-delay-measured.md's 2.13 s does not
reconcile with this capture's 20 labels for the same two anchors -- a real
~2.9x disagreement, now localised to frames->seconds rather than
units->frames. Settling it needs the guest's own frame counter, which
neither capture read.
