Answers question 1 of the 2026-09-02 play-test: interpolate or hold. It
interpolates, piecewise-linearly, evaluated once per present at one unit
per present.
palogo_sqex_eff gives 28 distinct alphas over 28 consecutive presents,
changing on 26 of 27 adjacent pairs. It is not one slope, and the disc says
why: that element declares 0:a=0 -> 15:a=255 -> 30:a=212 -> 45:a=0, three
segments with three gradients. Predicted -2.87 and -14.13 per unit against
measured modal steps of -3 (x6) and -14 (x9). The declared keyframes
predict the per-frame steps, which makes this a prediction rather than a
description.
So the port must lerp: hold-to-next-key would emit 3 states where the game
emits 28. And "eased" is the wrong description -- there is no easing
function, the envelope only looks eased because consecutive declared
segments have different gradients.
Alpha lives in the per-vertex k_8_8_8_8 colour, rewritten into a fresh
vertex buffer every frame. Not a PS constant (ps_c[n=0] on 1048/1048), not
a blend factor, not a texture swap.
🔴 And the game's splash is ALSO mostly frozen. Measured with the same
statistic the play-test used on the port: the game moves 21.2% and 27.8%
against the port's 16.4%, and its longest frozen run is 3.34 s against the
port's 3.20 s. The publisher declares 205 of 255 units -- 80% -- as a flat
hold at full opacity.
That refutes the play-test's second clause. "A fade does not hold one
picture for 3.20 s" -- this one does, for 3.34 s. Its first clause stands:
26 states for a 45-unit build-in is too few, the game gives 49 and 51.
The deficit is the state count, not the freeze: ~100 against 26. Acting on
the second clause would have sent the port to remove the one part of its
splash that is already right.
Not answered: which function does it. This is the behaviour; the
image-side half of question 1 is still open.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Jc4pciRArGHfxGGhEbwp5t
e6f921d442