Sylpheed/docs/re/structures/ui-render-tone-curve.md

# 🟡 Our composite is brighter than the emulator's frame — measured, not decoded

**Status:** 🟡 **measured, and REFUTED outside its stated reach** — the single
exponent holds only below render ≈ 40; see the refutation below. Closes an
observation left dangling by
[ui-8ax-fullres-background](ui-8ax-fullres-background.md) ("the capture is ~4×
darker than the render"), and puts a number on the ❔ that
[INDEX](../INDEX.md)'s texture row already carried: *"exact fidelity
(gamma/sRGB curve, premultiplied alpha, per-channel scale) is untested, since a
hue comparison cannot see it."*

⚠️ **This is not a decode.** A port applying it is authoring a value.

## First: the geometry is right

Cross-correlating `live-main-menu.png` against our render over ±6 px finds the
best alignment at exactly **dy = 0, dx = 0**, correlation **0.9466**. So the
composite is in the right place at the right size and only the *tone* differs.
(The capture is 1279×675 and top-aligned; that is the screenshot tool's crop.)

## 🔴 The first two methods were wrong, and both failed visibly

* **Three dark patches** gave "capture ≈ 4× darker". Over the whole frame the
  best linear scale is **0.914**. Three patches from one region are not a
  transfer curve.
* **A pixel-wise fit** over 854 685 pixels produced a non-monotonic transfer
  (render 96–127 → capture *143*, brighter than render 128–159 → 132). That is
  the signature of **edge misalignment**, not of a tone curve: at a 0.947
  correlation a bright render pixel routinely lands on a dark capture pixel.
  Mean abs error was 10–14 for every model, which is the tell that none of them
  fit.

Both are recorded because the second is the interesting failure — a fit whose
*residual* is large everywhere is not a model to choose between, it is a method
to throw away.

## The method that works: flat patches only

16×16 patches where **both** images have `std < 8`, so local edges cannot
contribute. The threshold is not arbitrary — at `std < 3` there are **zero**
patches, and the count runs 0 / 83 / 404 / 1055 / 1788 for `std <`
3 / 5 / 8 / 12 / 20.

| screen | flat patches | gamma exponent | mean abs err | best linear | its err |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| main menu | 404 | **1.491** | 0.28 | 0.276 | 0.34 |
| `EXTRAS` | 382 | **1.493** | 0.22 | 0.273 | 0.28 |
| title | 506 | **1.338** | 1.08 | 0.842 | 9.02 |

So `capture ≈ 255·(render/255)^γ` with **γ ≈ 1.34 – 1.49**.

## 🔴 REFUTED above render ≈ 40 — one exponent cannot express this curve (2026-08-29)

Raised by the port, and **independently reproduced here** before being adopted.
Binning matched pixels by render level instead of fitting a scalar:

| | render 16 | 23 | 31 | 39 | 47 | 64 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **port**, all matched pixels | γ 1.26 | 1.18 | 1.10 | 1.03 | 0.93 | 0.85 |
| **mine**, flat-neighbourhood pixels | γ **1.303** | **1.347** | **1.128** | **0.912** | **0.935** | **1.003** |

✅ **The finding holds: the exponent falls monotonically and crosses 1.0.** Below
that the capture is darker than the render (γ > 1, which is what this page
measured); **above it the capture is *brighter*.** A single exponent cannot
express a curve that crosses unity, so the model above is **valid only in the
darks** — which is exactly the reach this page already stated. ⚠️ **The reach
line was not a hedge; it was the finding.**

🟡 **Where they disagree, and it is not resolved.** The crossing point is
**≈44** by the port's binning and **≈35–40** by mine; the darks read **1.18–1.26**
(theirs), **1.30–1.35** (mine) and **1.49** (this page's original patch fit).
Three estimators on three populations — selected flat patches, all matched
pixels, flat-neighbourhood pixels — and nothing here adjudicates between them.
**All three agree on the direction and on γ > 1 in the darks**; that is the part
to rely on.

⚠️ **A confound in my reproduction, stated so it is not mistaken for
independence it does not have:** my whole-image correlation is only **0.594**,
because the committed `live-main-menu` capture and the default render differ in
**focus state** — the port measured that 74.1 % of differing pixels fall inside
the `live-main-menu` vs `live-main-menu-options-focused` signature. My bins
therefore include that mismatch. It did not change the direction of the trend,
but it is why my numbers are not a clean second opinion.

⚠️ Also: render 1280×720 against a 1279×675 capture requires a resample
(LANCZOS here), which perturbs levels at edges — hence restricting to
flat-neighbourhood pixels.

## ⚠️ The reach — and it is narrow

* **The flat patches are almost all dark**: render values ~0–60. Over that range
  a gamma and a linear scale are nearly indistinguishable — on the two menus the
  errors are 0.28 vs 0.34 and 0.22 vs 0.28, which decides nothing. **Only the
  title separates them** (1.08 vs 9.02), because its flat regions reach ~60.
* **The held-out control could not test it.** Running the same fit on the
  developer splash gives 2 918 flat patches whose render range is **0–4** — pure
  black. Every model scores ≈ 0.00 there. That is a control that failed to
  discriminate, not a control that passed.
* **Nothing here constrains midtones or highlights**, which is exactly where a
  γ = 1.4 curve does its visible work.

## 🔴 The confound as I stated it is REFUTED — canary applies no gamma of its own

I wrote that "canary applies its own output transform: `kernel_display_gamma_type
= 2` — BT.709". **That is not what the cvar does.** Reading the source:

```cpp
void VdGetCurrentDisplayGamma_entry(lpdword_t type_ptr, lpfloat_t power_ptr) {
  // 1 - sRGB.  2 - TV (BT.709).  3 - use the power written to *power_ptr.
  // Anything else - linear.
  // Used in D3D SetGammaRamp/SetPWLGamma to adjust the ramp for the display.
  *type_ptr = cvars::kernel_display_gamma_type;
  ...
```

It is a **getter the guest calls** (`xboxkrnl_video.cc`, exported `kStub`). The
cvar is a value *reported to the game*, which then builds its own ramp. The
emulator's role is downstream and faithful:

* the guest writes its ramp to the `DC_LUT` registers;
* `command_processor.cc` reads them into `gamma_ramp_256_entry_table_`;
* the **swap** (present) path applies them —
  `swap_apply_gamma_pipeline_layout`, with `apply_gamma_table.ps` /
  `apply_gamma_pwl.ps` compiled in.

So there is no emulator-side BT.709 post-process to subtract. Any gamma in the
captured frame is a ramp **the game installed**.

### 🟡 What that does and does not settle

✅ The stated confound is gone: the measured exponent is not an emulator artefact
bolted onto the game's output.

✅ **The game DOES query the display gamma — measured 2026-08-29.** Booted with
`--log_mask=12 --log_level=3` (Kernel logging on, Cpu/Gpu off), which changes
nothing about the output. `VdGetCurrentDisplayGamma` is called **once at video
init**, between the command-buffer setup and `VdSetDisplayMode`:

```
d> F8000008 VdGetSystemCommandBuffer(701CF830, 701CF804)
d> F8000008 VdGetCurrentDisplayGamma(701CE1F8(00000000), 701CE1F0(0))
d> F8000008 VdSetDisplayMode(40000000)
d> F8000008 VdGetCurrentDisplayInformation(701CF110)
```

**The control is in the same log:** 359 `VdRetrainEDRAM` and 358
`VdGetSystemCommandBuffer` lines, so an absent call would have been visible.
Evidence in [`data/gamma-call-evidence.txt`](../data/gamma-call-evidence.txt).

Per the export's own comment the returned type is "used in D3D
SetGammaRamp/SetPWLGamma", so the game asks the question a ramp-builder asks, at
the moment one would ask it.

### 🟡 The ramp write: inferred from a closed chain, not directly observed

The write is a GPU register operation (`XE_GPU_REG_DC_LUT_RW_INDEX` in
`CommandProcessor::WriteRegister`), invisible to kernel logging and unlogged in
any case. But two facts from the source close the reasoning:

**1. The swap-path gamma stage is a pure LUT — nothing else.**
`apply_gamma_table.xesli` is the whole transform:

```
uint3 apply_gamma_input = uint3(texel_fetch(source, pixel).rgb * 255.0 + 0.5);
apply_gamma_output.r = texel_fetch_buffer(xe_apply_gamma_ramp, input.r).b;
… .g = …(input.g).g;   … .b = …(input.b).r;
```

An index into a 256-entry table. No sRGB encode, no second transfer function.

**2. The table defaults to IDENTITY.** `CommandProcessor::Initialize` fills it
with `value = i * 0x3FF / 0xFF`, and its own comment says so: *"Initialize the
gamma ramps to their default (linear) values — taken from what games set when
starting with the sRGB (return value 1) `VdGetCurrentDisplayGamma`."* An unwritten
ramp is a no-op.

So: the only transform is a LUT; the LUT is identity unless the guest writes it;
the game queries the display gamma at init (measured above); and the captured
frame differs from our composite by γ ≈ 1.34–1.49, which identity cannot produce.
**⇒ the guest wrote a non-identity ramp.**

⚠️ **This is an inference, and here is its weak joint.** It assumes our composite
faithfully reproduces the *pre-ramp* framebuffer, which it does not exactly — our
renderer has its own inaccuracies. What makes it hold up is the *shape*: a
systematic exponent near 1.4, fitted on flat patches, consistent across three
screens, is not the signature of a compositor bug.

A fixed sRGB stage elsewhere in the presenter is the obvious alternative and does
not fit: an sRGB **encode** (≈ `^0.45`) brightens, and we measured darkening; an
sRGB **decode** (`^2.2`) darkens far more than 1.4.

✅ **Direct observation is still available and cheap**, and needs the emulator only
to boot: a GPU trace records gamma ramps as their own command type
(`TraceWriter::WriteGammaRamp`), or one log line at
`XE_GPU_REG_DC_LUT_RW_INDEX` would settle it outright. Not done.

⚠️ And the ramp a game builds depends on the display type it is *told*. Canary
hard-codes `2` (TV/BT.709); on hardware that is the console's display setting. So
the exponent is display-profile dependent **by design**, not a fixed property of
the game.

### ✅ The corrected next experiment

My planned run — set `kernel_display_gamma_type = 0` and re-fit — was the wrong
design: it changes what the *guest* is told and therefore which ramp the *game*
builds, so it could never isolate an emulator stage that does not exist. It also
perturbs the capture harness, because `skip_intro.sh` classifies movie-vs-static
on an **absolute** rmse threshold and a brighter frame biases it (see
[capture-harness-status](../capture-harness-status.md)).

The right run changes nothing about the output: boot with `LOG_MASK=12
LOG_LEVEL=3` (both are needed — kernel calls log at Debug) and look for
`VdGetCurrentDisplayGamma` and the `DC_LUT` writes. Same frames, no perturbation.
✅ **Run, and it answered the first half** — see above. ⚠️ And note it needed the
emulator only to **boot**, not to reach a menu: video init happens in the first
seconds. This had been parked behind the title-screen blocker for no reason.

## What a port should do with this

Treat it as **authored**, not transcribed. If the goal is to match the emulator —
which is what every capture in this corpus is — a γ ≈ 1.4 darkening of the
composite gets closer, and is best applied where it was measured (the dark
background), not extrapolated to the whole range on this evidence.