Sylpheed/docs/re/REFUTED.md

# Refuted — claims that were tested and died

**Read this before proposing a hypothesis.** Every line below was believed at
some point, measured, and found false. Reviving one costs a whole iteration and
produces nothing.

This file exists because the list had been living in the autonomous agent's
*loop prompt* — the only copy, lost the moment the container was. A refuted
result is a real result; it belongs in the corpus like any other.

**Format:** each entry is the claim as it was believed. Where the true answer is
known it follows after `→`. Grouped by subject so a grep for your noun finds the
neighbourhood, not just the line.

---

## Offsets, structs and the progress singleton

* `position = instance − 0x12c` → refuted.
* `+0x29d0` → refuted.
* "an offset intersection can find a struct's consumer" → **only for LARGE or
  unusual offsets.** Small ones have no power (`+184`: 301/351/115 hits).
* "a `+1956` store means a progress write" → writes go through the COPY, not
  direct stores. 9 direct stores, none of them a progress write.
* "the singleton-global filter can find progress writers" → it fails its own
  control.
* "the progress copy destination is an `r1`-relative stack local" → it is a
  **frame register**. The `r1` assumption returned 0 for all 21 candidates
  *including the known-good* — the filter was killed by its own control.
* "word B's writer also stores the Time/Points record" → it does not.
* "the debriefing records the metric with the clear bit" → 44 calls, exactly two
  strings (`DEBRIEFING`, `BASE_INFO`), no `Time`, no `Points`.
* "`0x820AF030` holds live state" → all 384 words constant; it is a
  spawned-entity record, not live state.

## Screens, classes and RTTI

* "the rotated draw in the title's capture is the `Z` swoosh
  (`ptlogo_back2*`)" → **mine, and refuted.** Its quads span y −209…925 and
  −292…1012 in screen space; the swoosh is a band at y 126…360.
  [`ui-title-build-map.md`](ui-title-build-map.md)
* "the keyframe words at `+4`/`+8`/`+12` are always zero" → they are non-zero in
  **4.76 %, 4.62 % and 14.50 % of 83 862** blocks disc-wide, reading as
  **degrees** (±180, ±90, 120, 360). The original note was a sample artefact.
  (Superseded figures: an earlier count of 72 287 blocks missed every nested
  record — see the alignment entry below.)
* ~~"those angle fields are where the title's rotated quads come from" → **no** —
  every `GP_TITLE` build 4 element has all three at zero.~~ → **that refutation
  was itself wrong, and is withdrawn (2026-08-28).** `+12` *is* exactly where
  they come from. Build 4's **top-level** elements do all read zero; the rotated
  quads belong to its two **nested** leaf records, `ptloop01.rat` (`+12` = 30)
  and `ptloop02.rat` (`+12` = −45), which the census never opened. Measured
  off the GPU: **+30.26°** and **−45.28°**.
  [`ui-keyframe-rotation.md`](structures/ui-keyframe-rotation.md)
* "the rotated draw's element cannot be named from the capture" → refuted; its
  quads' **edge lengths** name it. 400 × 1076 and 400 × 1444 match `pteff03`
  399×180 at 600 % and `pteff03a` 399×180 at 800 % — two different heights, both
  landing. [`ui-keyframe-rotation.md`](structures/ui-keyframe-rotation.md)
* "a keyframe-block scanner may assume 4-byte alignment" → refuted; it found
  **0/3** of its own control blocks and under-counted the corpus by 16 341
  blocks. Nested `RATC` blobs start at odd offsets (`0xbb5966`).
* "keyframe rotation lives only in **nested** `.rat` leaf records" → **mine, and
  refuted within the hour by my own sweep.** It held for the three archives I had
  checked (`GP_TITLE`, `GP_BUNK`, `GP_CHALLENGE`) and failed on the next:
  `GP_DIALOG` and `GP_DEBRIEFING_PILOTLOG` rotate **top-level** elements, and
  those are the clearest examples on the disc.
  [`ui-keyframe-rotation.md`](structures/ui-keyframe-rotation.md)
* "the pivot-anchored scale formula `kf.x − pivot·(scale−100)/100` is our
  renderer's reading, not a measurement" → **now measured.** At the `ptloop`
  pair's 600 %/800 % scale it predicts both quad centres at y = 360.0 against a
  captured 359.1/360.0, where top-left anchoring predicts 810/990.
  [`ui-keyframe-rotation.md`](structures/ui-keyframe-rotation.md)
* "the game passes a pink per-vertex colour for the title swoosh" → **refuted by
  draw capture.** Every vertex colour in the capture is `<alpha>FFFFFF`, white RGB.
* "the swoosh discrepancy is undecodable" → **solved**: the game submits it as two
  **rotated parallelograms**; `ui_layout::blit` only does axis-aligned rectangles.
  [`ui-title-build-map.md`](ui-title-build-map.md)
* "the `--log_ui_draws` per-draw capture reads the guest's blend state" →
  **mine, and wrong.** It records primitive type, index count, index-buffer
  address, VS/PS ucode hashes, texture bindings and vertex attribute 0 — no
  `RB_BLENDCONTROL`. It can test vertex colour as-is; blend state needs a Canary
  change. [`ui-title-build-map.md`](ui-title-build-map.md)
* "the plate-free title capture (t ≈ 4.0 s) may be too early to be settled" →
  **mine, and refuted.** The swoosh band correlates 0.7342 at t = 4.0 s and
  0.7353 at t = 21.5 s — identical to 0.001 over 17.5 s.
* "`T8aD +0x04` bit `0x02` selects an additive blend" → **mine, and refuted.**
  Blending those sprites additively worsens every measure against the capture.
  [`ui-title-build-map.md`](ui-title-build-map.md)
* "the title logo elements' wrong pivots (off by up to 59 px, authored against the
  other language's sprite) explain the swoosh rendering too thick" → **mine, and
  refuted.** `blit` sizes from the texture and applies the pivot only as
  `pivot·(scale−100)/100`; all seven swoosh elements are scale `(100,100)` at every
  keyframe, so the term is zero. The mismatch is real but inert here — it would
  bite `ptlogo1`/`ptlogo2`, which scale to 150 during the build-in.
  [`ui-title-build-map.md`](ui-title-build-map.md)
* "the title screen loops at ≈ 2.2 s" → **mine, and doubly wrong.** The title
  *art* is near-static (wordmark sd 0.06); the 2.3 s pulse is the
  **`PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON` plate**, which is a *different build* (2, not 4). Localised
  by a per-tile amplitude map and decoded in `ptbtn00f.rat`.
  [`ui-title-build-map.md`](ui-title-build-map.md)
* ~~"a `.rat` leaf record's keyframes use the build's 40-byte layout" → they do
  not~~ — **withdrawn.** They do. The scan that "found nothing" required 29
  increasing times; the records hold **three**. Decoded in
  [`ui-title-build-map.md`](ui-title-build-map.md).
* "the title's measured ≈ 2.2 s oscillation is the `ptloop01`/`ptloop02`
  elements" → **mine, and refuted by decoding them.** Their sweeps run 7.5 s and
  9.5 s; a 22 s capture showed 8 peaks, not 3. The period's source is unidentified.
* "the developer splash cannot be rendered by `screen render` at all" → it can,
  with **`--all`**. It is only invisible to the *default* listing, which filters on
  `is_build`. [`ui-title-build-map.md`](ui-title-build-map.md)
* "the four `GP_TITLE` entries that are not screen builds are unidentified" → they
  are the **splash**: 10/13 the `SQUARE ENIX` logo, 11/14 the developer logos.
* ~~"the boot title is phase 2 and the attract title is phase 4 state 0, and only
  phase 2 handles Ⓐ" → refuted~~ — **the REFUTATION is withdrawn.** The test
  assumed Ⓑ lands in phase 4 state 0; the event-0 block actually sets
  **phase = 2** and state = 0 together, so it probed phase 2. The hypothesis is
  untested, not dead.
  [`boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md`](boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md)
* "any title after the first one refuses input" → too broad. The **Ⓑ-returned
  title accepts Ⓐ**; only the **attract**-returned title is inert.
  [`canary-scripted-input-traps.md`](canary-scripted-input-traps.md)
* "`sub_821C6458` is `GamePart_Title`'s state machine" → **mine, imprecise.** It
  is the machine for **phase 4** of a five-way outer dispatch at `this+132`;
  phase 0 is the splash. The ten states and eighteen edges are phase 4 only.
  [`boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md`](boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md)
* "`sub_821CC860` is the game's by-name screen factory" → **mine, and wrong.** Its
  decoded arguments include `BG`, `BLACK`, `FADE`, `FILE`, `KEY`, `PAD`, `SOUND`,
  `GAMMA_RGB` — it is a **generic name-keyed lookup**, mostly config.
* "`DIFFICULTY` and `EXTRA_MENU` are corroborated screen names" → **mine, and
  wrong.** Neither appears in `r5` at any of the 48 call sites; they were strings
  merely referenced by the same functions. Only `TUTORIAL_MENU` survives.
  [`boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md`](boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md)
* "the `{func, func, ptr}` triples at `0x820a3b48` are a GamePart state table" →
  **static-initialiser records trailing the `RegisterToFactory` strings.** The
  bytes before them are the tail of a diagnostic string and the data column is
  zero-filled descriptors.
  [`boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md`](boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md)
* "the boot sequence is driven by a table the game reads" → it is **not
  data-driven**; four search spaces closed, transitions are calls with an id
  argument. [`boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md`](boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md)
* "`config.ini` is a GamePart settings table, so the boot order is in it" → its
  `[SYSTEM]` section is **empty**; the only populated section is `[LANGUAGE]`.
  [`boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md`](boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md)
* "the attract loop is `GP_ADVERTISE_DEMO` (GamePart 1)" → 🟡 id 1 has **no
  registration site** in the shipped build; the attract is the title replaying
  `ADV.wmv`.
* "the 29 id-table names are 29 distinct GameParts" → 24 register, and `3`/`4`
  are the **same class** (`GamePart_SaveLoad`).
* "Ⓐ on `NEW GAME` leads to a standing black-screen hang" → it opens
  **`DIFFICULTY`**, then **`SELECT DATA`**. What looked like a hang was a menu
  waiting for input that nobody pressed; the crash that follows is the already
  documented `sub_823070B0` cache throw.
  [`menu-navigation-semantics.md`](menu-navigation-semantics.md)
* "tapping Ⓐ during the boot movie breaks the title" → **one** tap skips the
  movie cleanly and the title works normally. It is *hammering* (88 presses) that
  breaks it. [`movie-binding.md`](movie-binding.md)
* "the attract movie runs ~85 s, so it is not `ADV.wmv` (137 s)" → **mine, and
  wrong.** Sampling began 39 s into the movie, so what was timed was its tail.
  The attract movie **is** `ADV.wmv`, played in full.
  [`movie-binding.md`](movie-binding.md)
* "the boot intro and the attract movie are different videos" → one asset, one
  manifest slot (`ADVERTISE_MOVIE`).
* "the new-game intro is unidentified" → `MS00A` → `S00A.wmv`, decoded from the
  movie manifest.
* "`GP_READY_ROOM.pak` holds the Ready Room screen" → its 317 distinct element
  names contain **none** of the six visible labels; it is the briefing /
  tactical-map content behind the `BRIEFINGS` item.
  [`ready-room-probe.md`](ready-room-probe.md)
* "the Ready Room might be 3D with a UI overlay" → it is **2D**; the pak carries
  zero 3D containers.
* "element kind `0x3002` is *the* button kind" → title-side only. All 902
  `GP_READY_ROOM` bundles have **zero** `0x3002`; that pak uses `0x3000`,
  `0x3004`, `0x300c`, `0x3008`. `0x3002` is one member of a `0x3000` family.
* "the transition between menu screens is a cut" → it is a **fade through
  black**; a 0.5 Hz screenshot burst simply samples too slowly to see it.
  [`screen-transitions.md`](screen-transitions.md)
* "the main menu's initial focus is fixed" → three boots of one script gave
  `TUTORIAL`, `TUTORIAL`, `NEW GAME`.
* "the title menus drop d-pad presses shorter than ~0.3 s" → **refuted by my
  own data.** The menu **wraps at both ends**; every press registered, and the
  "missing" step was the wrap. See [`menu-navigation-semantics.md`](menu-navigation-semantics.md).
* "the main menu opens with `NEW GAME` focused" → it opens on **`TUTORIAL`**,
  2/2 boots (🟡 a third recorded run implies `NEW GAME`, so this is reproducible,
  not invariant).
* "`GP_TITLE` builds 6/8/9 are three submenus" → **8 is the JAPANESE main
  menu**, and 6/9 are the English and Japanese `EXTRAS` submenu. `GP_TITLE`
  holds eight screens shipped twice (EN/JP), and exactly one submenu. See
  [`ui-title-build-map.md`](ui-title-build-map.md).
* "the `PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON` plate is a state of the title build" → it is **its own
  build** (2/3), composited over build 4 and faded in a beat later.
* "the RTTI route can name the anonymous classes" → 1 150 vtables: 1 150
  `ANON_`, 0 `rtti_present`, 0 base classes.
* "the sibling vtable methods name the class" → they cannot.
* "`xrefs` can name the callers of a vtable method" → no.
* "the `ind_call` refutation voids existing corpus claims" → damage bounded,
  4/4 caller claims verify. But **`xrefs.ind_call` is a CROSS PRODUCT** — always
  filter `kind='call'`.
* "`BASE_INFO` marks the 5-slot screen family" → it discriminates
  screen-config from table-read, 9/9 vs 10/10.
* "a high key count means a rich screen" → `sub_82297550` / `sub_822A2F00`'s 27
  "keys" are coordinate pairs, i.e. a layout table.
* "`EX_` = the CHALLENGE-mission debriefing" → `EX_` is **EXTRA**, mission-kind
  3.
* "the `EX_` selection has not been shown" → it has: `[[obj+4]+184] == 3`.

## Stages, missions and the challenge set

* "the disc's stages are numbered 1..28" → S01–S16 story, S17 **cut**, S18–S23
  tutorials, S24–S29 challenge.
* "S24–S29 are story missions" → they are the challenge missions.
* "the challenge missions have their own maps" → they reuse
  `GP_MAIN_GAME_E.pak`'s stage records.
* "the challenge `REQUIREMENT` values are 16,25,26,27,29" → the chain is
  16→24→25→26→27→28.
* "the `Extra0n` family shares one leaderboard metric" → `RECORD_TYPE` is
  per-stage: 3 Time / 3 Points.
* "stage = filled SHAB count + 1" → refuted.
* "the first TRIGGER is always the point of no return" → refuted.
* "`EnumUnit_S14.tbl` might be missing" / "S14's 13 are a manifest omission" /
  "asteroids are exempt from the manifest" → S14's 13 are **dangling
  deployments**. NEEDS-HUMAN: fly S14.
* "`StageMessageSet_S02.tbl` is not in the pak" → it is.
* "`S28_p1` has an asteroid volume with no definition" → refuted.
* "`test_s8p1_asteroid.tbl` is test-only" → refuted.
* "the settings family has 28 or 29 objects" → 24.

## ISL / mission scripting

* "the bytecode is in the `.embsec_` sections" → refuted.
* "only 31 built-ins take a unit" → refuted.
* "`sub_8230C398` is the message pump" → refuted.
* "`bus+8216` is the subscriber registry" → refuted.
* "the ScriptPhase vtable is ≥200 slots" → 113.

## IDXD, paks and naming

* "IDXD record keys are `name_hash`" → record keys are **`tag_hash`**
  (case-SENSITIVE); `name_hash` is case-INSENSITIVE and used for pak keys.
* "pak TOC order is stage order" / "TOC order is semantic order" → it is not.
* "the executable holds the asset names" → the image names **no data value at
  all**; that route is powerless.
* "the image might name a data VALUE" → powerless.
* "the XPR2 manifest names hash to the DefTables tables" → refuted.
* "the `DefTables` model names are unreachable" → reachable via the `Enumerate`
  declaration tables (1 413/1 425, 99.2 %).
* "the `GP_MAIN_GAME_*` unnamed block is undiscovered data" → refuted.
* "each `GP_MAIN_GAME_*` `Enumerate` object declares something" → refuted.
* "`GP_HANGAR_ARSENAL` is missing data tables" → refuted.
* "the `Enumeration` self-index can name objects" → a self-index names
  **records, not files**.
* "a per-pak prefix might close the 2D blocker" → no.
* "the `+` paths might name the 2D or `GP_READY_ROOM` keys" → the `+`-dictionary
  route is exhausted, 0 of 1 817.
* "the `game:\` paths are unresolved" → refuted.
* "a set-difference over file names can see reuse" → it cannot; **join per
  USER**. Per-pak copies are ×6.


## Audio

* "which bank the menu plays is not on the disc" → the **cue table** cannot say
  (all BGM cues are numeric), but the **code** can: `sub_821C5580` plays cue
  **1103 = `BGM_103`**, and its two declared waves match the two streams the XMA
  probe saw byte-for-byte.
* "the observed BGM stream sizes match no bank's declared waves, so the game hands
  the decoder a window" → **mine, and wrong** — I checked only the `BGM_0xx` rows.
  They are `BGM_103`'s two waves exactly; the game hands over the whole wave.

* "an individual SE cue's audio cannot be extracted" → **mine, and wrong.**
  `--xma_param_probe=true` logs each stream's head bytes; searching them in
  `Static.slb` locates the wave exactly. [`menu-audio-cues.md`](menu-audio-cues.md)
* "`Static.slb` has no wave boundaries, so its layout is unknown" → it is a
  **packed run** of whole 2 048-byte XMA packets with no delimiters — the two
  located cues are contiguous. There is nothing to scan for, by design.

* "`Pj_Silph.xgs` holds the cue→wave index, so parse XACT" → **no XACT container
  exists on this disc**: 0 × `XGSF`/`SDBK`/`WBND` in all 1.08 GB of `sound.pak`,
  and no `XACT`/`.xgs` string in the executable. The extensions are the authoring
  tool's, not the format's. [`menu-audio-cues.md`](menu-audio-cues.md)

* "every sound cue resolves to its own `.slb` bank" → the 322 `SE_*` cues do not;
  **0 of 322** are in `FILES`, and `BANK_SE` puts them all in `Static.slb`.
* "`Static.slb` can be split into waves like any other bank" → it holds **0
  `RIFF`, 0 `seek`, 0 `WAVE`** across all 8 353 472 readable bytes.
  [`menu-audio-cues.md`](menu-audio-cues.md)

* "`BGM_001.slb` is three sub-waves (10 KB + 4.47 MB + 4.67 MB)" → the 10 KB is
  the **bank header**; a bank is **two** waves.
* "a music bank's two waves might be intro + loop, two variations, or two halves"
  → they are **two stems of one performance, played together** — equal duration
  in 32/32 banks, and sample-synchronous.
  [`structures/bgm-two-stems.md`](structures/bgm-two-stems.md)
* "`BGM_106`–`BGM_109` break the two-wave rule" → they are the leading-region
  straddle; realigned across entry boundaries they obey it.
* "the cue table names which BGM belongs to which screen" → all 32 BGM cues are
  numeric (`BGM_001`…`BGM_109`).

## Units, weapons, effects and assets

* "`Generic` (394) is the unit datasheet" → refuted.
* "a loadout's `Arm1` names an item" → it names a **hardpoint slot**
  (`Turret_NNN`), 59/59.
* "`EnumUnit` and the unit datasheet share a vocabulary" → they do not.
* "the roster is the `Generic.Model` set" → roster 40, `Generic.Model` 46,
  `GameResourceID` 480 — three vocabularies.
* "every unit ID is `UN_<l>###_<FACTION>_<name>`" → the grammar is
  `UN_<letter>###_[<subkind>_]<FACTION>_<name>`.
* "`_EXn` is the `Extra0n` index" → three different `EX` vocabularies exist.
* "the only two `_EX5` names on the disc are the AA gun and the DeltaSaber" →
  refuted.
* "running the tutorial will instantiate the `_Ttrl` weapons" → refuted.
* "the disc has exactly three `EnumWeapon` tables" → four.
* "the `wep_NN` package gaps are unshipped weapons" / "`wep_85` is the tip of a
  family" → `wep_85` is the **only** declared-but-unshipped asset (59/0/1/26).
* "nothing is deployed without being declared" → refuted.
* "effects are one namespace" → refuted.
* "the 58 undeclared effect names are missing assets" → refuted.
* "all five orphan effects are unshipped" → refuted.
* "`eff_f0002` ships in `Base.xpr`" → refuted.
* "`Base.xpr` holds more bound effects than `ptc_pack`" → refuted.
* "the 34 unlocated are a scatter" → refuted.
* "the 9 unlocated might be under another prefix" → refuted.
* "`ptc_pack` has 532 names" → 727.
* "the `_e`/`_f` law is effect-FIELD-specific" → it is the **faction law**,
  564/564.
* "a disc-wide `.xpr` byte search can show an effect is ABSENT" → it cannot.
* "`rot_n001` is on the disc" → refuted.
* "`rou_f004`'s mesh is in `Stage_S28.xpr`" → it is in `DeltaSaber_A.xpr`.
* "`parent` + `_all` + `_child` is the composite-model convention" → refuted.
  `_hangar` **is** real (59 of 166, 59/59 with a bare twin); `_all`/`_child` is
  not.
* "`Motion_guard_start` has no damage variants" → refuted.
* "`CoverArea` bits 2 and 3 are mutually exclusive" → refuted.
* "the 27 unresolved `NamePlate` values are missing objects" → refuted.

## LOD, background and misc tables

* "`EnumLODSet_*` is a per-stage family" → `EnumLODSet_test.tbl` serves 17
  stages; 17+5+1 = 23.
* "there are 8 orphan LOD tables" → 6.
* "the orphans are stale copies of `_test`" → refuted.
* "S25 is absent from the `DefTables` LOD families" → refuted.
* "`BackGroundID` has no referent anywhere" → it is an **identity**.
* "`BackGroundPackage == BG_<id>.xpr`" → refuted.
* "`<X>ID` + `<X>Package` is a convention" → refuted.
* "`Placement_*` / `RouteTest_*` are unattached" → refuted.
* "the `AsteroidDefinition` join does not reproduce by hash" → it does.
* "the 8-value frame is a new finding" → it was already in the corpus.

## Loaders, config and tuning

* "the config reader is XML" → INI.
* "`sub_822F9498` is the unit-definition loader" → it is `PlayerParams`'s.
* "`sub_822AE628` reads the main-game `Tweak`" → refuted.
* "`sub_8230D1F8` is a rank table" → it is the stage-settings loader.
* "`sub_82286BC8`'s key list is new" → refuted.
* "`sub_825F2CF0` / `sub_825F2F88` read a post-processing table" → refuted.
* "`Booster` is a new schema" / "`Booster` is the player craft's flight
  envelope" → refuted; nothing selects `Booster`.
* "the `AnalogRevice`/`Tweak` block is unreachable" → reachable
  (`sub_821A6CF0`, base `0x820A1630`).
* "a 0-xref string block has no reader" → refuted.
* "the AI table was NEEDS-HUMAN" → refuted.
* "the `PG*` HUD names are undocumented" → they are documented.
* "a base-solver row identifies a FUNCTION" → it does not.
* "a 64K-boundary base is low confidence" → **inverted**; it is high
  confidence.
* "the 0x820B0000 cluster is a false positive" → refuted.
* "a pointer to a function in the image implies a registry" → refuted.
  `.pdata` is not a registry.
* "the 13 player-facing chatter tables are the WINGMAN tables" → refuted.
* "the 8 undeclared chatter tables are tutorial chatter" → refuted.
* "other datasheets ship a schema too" → refuted.

## Encoding and text

* "every IDXD string value is ASCII" → 6 non-ASCII values of 99 328.
* "`文字列` is a dev placeholder" → they are Shift-JIS **type words**.
* "the splash `_eff` glows hold a constant α ≈ 33, contradicting their declared
  255 plateau" → **mine, and refuted within the iteration.** They ramp 34 → 255
  in exact steps of 34. I had printed the series' minimum and read it as its
  range. [`ui-keyframe-time-unit.md`](ui-keyframe-time-unit.md)
* "the declared keyframe timeline reproduces the captured splash" → **refuted for
  multi-keyframe elements.** `palogo_gamearts` is still at `a=255` nine frames
  after its declared `a=32`, and its declared 80-frame fade-in is never drawn.
  The `_eff` glows do reproduce, exactly — so this is about the group timeline,
  not about the interpolation law. [`ui-keyframe-time-unit.md`](ui-keyframe-time-unit.md)
* "the `_eff` elements' agreement is the whole case for the keyframe-time shift,
  so it stays a shape argument" → superseded. The **hold duration** is
  calibration-free and decides it: observed 83 frames of full alpha against a
  predicted **2.0** as decoded and **80.0** shifted. The shift is nonetheless
  **not adopted** — it moves `GP_TITLE` build 7 by 13 % of pixels, away from its
  verified English twin's brightness. [`ui-keyframe-time-unit.md`](ui-keyframe-time-unit.md)
* "the `GP_TITLE` build 7 render difference is evidence against the keyframe-time
  shift" → **mine, and withdrawn.** It is one element, `ptlogo_eff3.t32`, a
  transient bloom with no resting pose; `rest()`'s dwell fallback returns a
  different endpoint of the same movement under each reading. The brightness
  comparison measured our heuristic, not the decode.
  [`structures/ui-resting-pose.md`](structures/ui-resting-pose.md)
* "`rest()`'s longest-dwell fallback picks the pose the element rests at" →
  **refuted structurally.** A dwell gap is time spent interpolating *between*
  poses; an endpoint is only held when the two poses are equal, which is a
  plateau, which the earlier path already returned for. Every element that
  reaches the fallback has a guessed rest pose.
* "`rest()` for a plateau-less element should be the **last keyframe**" → **mine,
  and refuted.** The developer splash's three sibling glows are structurally
  identical and differ by one byte (`a=212` vs `a=255` at `t=45`); that rule
  makes `palogo_anima_eff` alone invisible while `gamearts_eff` and `seta_eff`
  stay lit. Capture box-mean ratios (0.717 / 0.723 / **0.772**) go the other way
  too. [`structures/ui-resting-pose.md`](structures/ui-resting-pose.md)
* "a keyframe `scale` of 0 means *unset*, so render at 100 %" → **refuted by a
  disc-wide control.** 2 166 elements have a zero-scale keyframe and **not one is
  zero on every keyframe**, while 1 762 grow back out of zero (`ptlogo_eff3.t32`
  runs 0 % → 200 %). Zero means collapsed; the renderer now draws nothing.
  [`structures/ui-rat-layout.md`](structures/ui-rat-layout.md)
* "a Japanese-locale capture is impossible in this container, because canary has
  no `user_language` cvar" → **mine, and refuted the next iteration.** The cvar
  really is absent, but the language is persisted in
  `<storage_root>/xconfig.settings` (`user.language`, BE u32 at file offset
  `0x912`, located from three struct landmarks) and that file is writable. The
  capture is still not *taken* — a Japanese run never reached the title in 787 s
  — but it needs a longer run, not a rebuilt emulator.
  [`tools/re-capture/set_console_language.py`](../../tools/re-capture/set_console_language.py)
* "the Japanese-locale run never reached the title in 787 s" → **the measurement
  was broken, not the run.** `wait_title.sh` carried the superseded single-pixel
  oracle. Re-run with `is_title.py`: the game still did not present the
  interactive title, but that is now a measured statement (zero green-glyph
  pixels, correlation ≤ 0.22 to either build-7 render) rather than an artefact.
* "the Japanese-locale run fails to reach the interactive title *because of the
  locale*" → **refuted by the English control.** 75 samples over 734 s with the
  same flags and oracle, every one glyph = 0. Neither locale presents the
  interactive title without a pad press.
* "neither locale reaches the interactive title without a pad press" /
  "the game sat in the attract loop for 604 s" → **withdrawn as causes.** Both
  rest on runs whose polling loop sampled every ~41 s, because `screenshot`
  costs 10.8 s while the emulator runs (0.117 s idle, 92×). A title lasting a few
  seconds would be missed. The observations stand; the conclusions drawn from
  them do not. [`capture-harness-status.md`](capture-harness-status.md)
* "the boot harness fails because its polling loop samples every ~41 s, slower
  than the title screen lasts" → **mine, and refuted by my own fix.** The
  sampling defect was real (3.98 s → 0.29 s per sample, 13.7×, control-verified
  at 753/327), but a probe running at 3.99 fps for **420 continuous seconds —
  1 674 samples — still saw zero green-Ⓐ pixels.** Sampling rate was not the
  cause. [`capture-harness-status.md`](capture-harness-status.md)
* ~~"neither locale reaches the interactive title without a pad press"~~ →
  withdrawn last iteration for want of evidence, now **reinstated as a
  measurement**: 1 674 dense samples over 420 s, English, zero glyph frames.
  ⚠️ Reach: a mid-run window only; it says nothing about the boot title.
* "the PRESS Ⓐ plate appears only in the **boot** title window, which mid-run
  sampling could never catch" → **mine, and refuted.** The fast probe was
  attached at t=0: **2 391 frames over 600 s at 3.98 fps from launch**, max glyph
  0. The plate did not appear at any point in the first ten minutes.
  [`capture-harness-status.md`](capture-harness-status.md)
* "2 391 frames over 600 s from t=0, max glyph 0, therefore the title never
  appears in the first ten minutes" → **withdrawn: the instrument stalls.** A
  single long-lived x11grab stream degrades 3.98 → 1.60 fps and then freezes,
  repeating one stale frame; cross-checked, it read surface mean 5.21 where
  `import` read 125.65 at the same moment. A dense negative from a frozen stream
  is not a negative. [`capture-harness-status.md`](capture-harness-status.md)
* "the `T8aD` layer key fully determines a screen's paint order" → **refuted, and
  the remainder is undecodable.** Elements sharing a key are tied; on the title
  the game paints the five tied `ptlogo_back2eff` glows `1,2,5,3,4` while the
  declaration table, the RATC child order and **every** field in the `T8aD`
  header (exhaustive 0x00–0x7f, u8/u16/u32, both directions — 0 matches against
  64 for the declaration-order control) all give `1,2,3,4,5`.
  [`ui-paint-order-derived-check.md`](structures/ui-paint-order-derived-check.md)
* "SE audio is undecodable from the disc — no XACT container exists anywhere"
  (as it stood on the **handoff page**) → **stale**: `menu-audio-cues.md` had
  already retracted it and located three cues in `Static.slb` that decode to PCM.
  The retraction never reached the row the port agent reads. Handoff row fixed;
  `tools/re-capture/handoff_lint.py` now checks for this class.
* "which of `8AX` and `ptbase` the game draws needs a per-draw capture recording
  texture base addresses" → **mine, and refuted — it is settled statically.** The
  two carry the same art at two resolutions, so neither compares usefully against
  a capture; their *difference* does. Correlating the capture's
  departure-from-upscale against the 8AX-only detail gives +0.0475 (main menu)
  and +0.0634 (title), both 68 % of ceiling against matched controls of ≤0.0095.
  The game draws the full-res `8AX`.
  [`ui-8ax-fullres-background.md`](structures/ui-8ax-fullres-background.md)
* "the pixel-pair ratio shows the capture is native, not an upscale" → **mine,
  and withdrawn as evidence.** Upscales give 0.00–0.72, native 0.98, capture 1.01
  — but additive noise pushes any such ratio toward 1, and both "native + noise"
  and "bilinear upscale + noise" fit the observed values. The conclusion happens
  to be right; this test does not establish it.
* "the render-vs-capture gamma may be canary's own BT.709 output transform, since
  `kernel_display_gamma_type = 2`" → **mine, and refuted from the source.** That
  cvar is the value a `kStub` getter (`VdGetCurrentDisplayGamma`) hands the
  **guest**; the game builds its own ramp from it and canary applies the guest's
  `DC_LUT` ramp in the swap path. No emulator-side gamma post-process exists to
  subtract. 🟡 Whether this game installs a ramp at all is still unestablished.
  [`ui-render-tone-curve.md`](structures/ui-render-tone-curve.md)
* "the GPU trace produced nothing because either the CLI flag did not reach the
  cvar or `BeginTracing()` failed silently" → **both wrong.** The trace writer is
  **compiled out**: `trace_writer.h` gates it on `#ifdef NDEBUG`, so a release
  build has no writer at all. Confirmed with a control — the format string
  `_stream.xtr` appears **once** in the Debug binary and **zero** times in the
  Release binary `run-canary` actually uses.
  [`capture-harness-status.md`](capture-harness-status.md)
* "the `T8aD` `+0x04` bit `0x02` means the sprite's name contains `eff`" →
  **refuted, now on evidence.** `ptlogo_back2eff` is an `eff` name with the bit
  clear; the attribution is confirmed by header-order pairing (18/18 on build 4)
  rather than by a size match, which cannot separate it from the same-sized
  `ptlogo_back2eff5`. All 10 bit-set sprites *are* `eff` names, so the
  implication runs one way only.
* "the bit `0x02` marks a transient element" → **refuted.** `pteff03` and
  `pteff03a` carry the bit and run to `t=250`, ramping to `a=255` and holding.
  [`ui-paint-order-key.md`](structures/ui-paint-order-key.md)
* "bit `0x02` set ⇒ the sprite's name contains `eff`" (the one-way reading that
  survived the biconditional's refutation) → **mine, and refuted disc-wide the
  next iteration.** True 10/10 on `GP_TITLE` build 4; over 14 709 sprites it
  fails on **2 657 of 4 995** bit-set ones. `P(eff|set) = 0.468` against
  `P(eff|clear) = 0.144` — an association, not an implication.
  [`ui-paint-order-key.md`](structures/ui-paint-order-key.md)
* "`T8aD +0x04` bit `0x02` selects premultiplied alpha" → **refuted.**
  Premultiplied requires `RGB ≤ A` everywhere; over 170 decoded textures the
  flagged group violates it on a median **52.5 %** of pixels against **30.2 %**
  unflagged — both far from premultiplied, and the flagged group *further*.
  [`ui-paint-order-key.md`](structures/ui-paint-order-key.md)
* "`build-reborn test` cannot terminate" → **mine, and too strong; corrected the
  next iteration.** It is heavy, not hung: 19 of 166 `.xpr` containers exceed
  25 s, `Stage_S02` completes in **144 s** with `rc = 0`, and one full pass is
  ~45–60 minutes. The 3 h 26 m observed was that work at a load average of 9–14,
  inflated by my own two duplicate runs.
  [`test-suite-runtime.md`](test-suite-runtime.md)
* "the case for the keyframe-time shift rests on a single element" → **no longer
  true.** Three elements across two screens discriminate and all favour it:
  `palogo_gamearts` and `palogo_seta` hold full alpha 83 frames, `palogo_sqex`
  ≥77, against 6–8 predicted by the current reading and 80–102 by the shifted
  one. The `_eff` glows fit both and argue against neither.
  [`ui-keyframe-time-unit.md`](ui-keyframe-time-unit.md)
* "an element with no held pose should be drawn as NOTHING rather than at a
  guessed endpoint" → **mine, and refuted.** Suppressing every plateau-less
  element and re-correlating against the live captures: title +0.9500 → +0.6839,
  main menu +0.9460 → +0.9037, `EXTRAS` +0.9440 → +0.9094. Worse on all three.
* "`rest()` guesses for 24.57 % of elements (3 807 of 15 493)" → **mine, and
  overstated by 65 %.** The plateau test marks a **single-keyframe** element as
  plateau-less because it has no adjacent pair — but its one pose is
  unambiguously its rest. 1 502 of the 3 807 are those; the genuinely ambiguous
  population is **2 305 (14.88 %)**.
  [`ui-resting-pose.md`](structures/ui-resting-pose.md)
* "`rest()` for a plateau-less element should be the last keyframe → refuted by
  the sibling argument" → **that refutation is itself refuted, this time by
  measurement.** Rendering under the rule and correlating against the live
  captures: publisher splash +0.9600 → **+0.9982**, developer splash +0.9643 →
  **+0.9758**. Making `palogo_anima_eff` invisible *improves* the match; the
  sibling symmetry was my expectation, not evidence.
* "the port's exposure to the rest-guessing defect is 14 elements" → **two.** The
  fallback needs an element to be plateau-less **and** multi-keyframe; title,
  main menu and `EXTRAS` reach it **zero** times, the two splashes once each.
  [`ui-resting-pose.md`](structures/ui-resting-pose.md)
* "the shifted time reading implies rest = the last keyframe, so the plateau rule
  can be dropped" → **mine, and refuted by measurement.** Applying it to every
  element collapses all five screens (title 0.9500→0.6819, main menu
  0.9460→0.6416, `EXTRAS` 0.9440→0.5745) and renders both splashes **blank**. A
  group is entry → hold → exit and the exit is the screen's *dismissal*: a
  displayed screen sits at the hold, not at its final pose.
  [`ui-resting-pose.md`](structures/ui-resting-pose.md)
* "`rest_plateau` renders elements the game has already finished with" (as a
  general claim) → **narrowed by its control.** It holds on **transient** screens
  only: suppressing the finished glows takes the two splashes from 0.9604/0.9659
  to **0.9982/0.9980**, while the same edit costs the title 0.002, the main menu
  **0.092** and `EXTRAS` **0.107**. A plateau mid-animation is evidence the
  element is held at that point in the timeline, not that it is on screen once the
  screen has settled — and where a screen does settle, the rule is right.
  [`ui-resting-pose.md`](structures/ui-resting-pose.md)
* "the group header's undecoded lead-in word carries a per-element start offset"
  → **refuted immediately.** It is `0x00000000` for all seven elements of the
  developer splash — glows and logos alike — while those two families are
  observed to run sequentially (frames 94–115 and 116–211) despite declaring
  overlapping times. [`ui-group-start-time.md`](structures/ui-group-start-time.md)
* "the splash elements share one clock origin" → **refuted.** Fitting a single
  origin needs f₀ ≈ 93.5 for `palogo_gamearts_eff` and f₀ ≈ 103 for
  `palogo_gamearts`, ~19 units apart, and aligning one throws the other off by
  ~9 frames at both ends. Durations match (97.8 %, 98.5 %); starts do not.
* "the glows and logos might overlap and my size-grouping merged them" → **tested
  and refuted.** Across all 235 captured frames, **zero** contain both a glow and
  a logo; f110–115 draw two glows and f116 onward two logos, with no transition
  frame. The sequencing is real.
* "a bundle's declared elements are what the screen shows" → **refuted.** Entry 11
  declares three logo/glow pairs and only two are ever drawn — `palogo_anima`
  gets 0 frames against `palogo_gamearts`'s 95, from byte-identical keyframe
  times. (Reach: within the capture's frames 1–214.)
  [`ui-group-start-time.md`](structures/ui-group-start-time.md)
* "the glow and logo phases are one bundle with elements selectively activated"
  → **mine, and withdrawn as unestablished.** The alternative — two compositions
  shown in sequence — fits equally. The texture-base test fails its control: the
  publisher splash is a different bundle and shares the base `0x11C30000`, so
  that address is a reused upload slot, not a bundle identity. What survives is
  that declared elements ≠ drawn elements.
  [`ui-group-start-time.md`](structures/ui-group-start-time.md)