Syplheed-Reborn/docs/re/ui-title-build-map.md

# Which `GP_TITLE` build is which screen — measured against the running game

**Status:** ✅ `CONFIRMED` for the four screens the boot path actually shows
(title art, `PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON`, main menu, `EXTRAS`); 🟡 `PROBABLE` for their
Japanese twins; ❔ open for the two `DELTASABER` plates.

Answers [MISSION Q2](../port/MISSION.md). The previous statement — *"build 4
title, 5 main menu, 6/8/9 submenus"* — is **partly wrong** and is withdrawn:
build 8 is the **Japanese main menu**, not a submenu, and `GP_TITLE` holds
exactly **one** submenu (`EXTRAS`), in two languages.

## The archive is eight screens, each shipped twice

`GP_TITLE.pak` has 16 entries; `sylpheed-cli screen list` calls 12 of them
composable builds. The 16 fall into **eight pairs**, and each pair's two members
have near-identical sizes and name hashes that differ by a constant — one
character of the name apart:

| entry | hash | bytes | build idx | pair |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | `01a2db9c` | 483 958 | 0 | A |
| 1 | `0ff0b8a8` | 483 958 | 1 | A |
| 2 | `285d8849` | 267 014 | 2 | B |
| 3 | `369773cb` | 267 014 | 3 | B |
| 4 | `a60fcb85` | 12 278 666 | 4 | C |
| 7 | `b483e6e6` | 13 363 328 | 7 | C |
| 5 | `a715f485` | 6 977 437 | 5 | D |
| 8 | `b58a0fe6` | 6 931 653 | 8 | D |
| 6 | `a81c1d85` | 6 549 126 | 6 | E |
| 9 | `b69038e6` | 6 548 438 | 9 | E |
| 10 | `cdba806e` | 426 473 | — | F |
| 13 | `db2ea1f8` | 423 333 | — | F |
| 11 | `cec0a96e` | 999 643 | — | G |
| 14 | `dc34caf8` | 999 643 | — | G |
| 12 | `cf2a8ccd` | 1 774 639 | 10 | H |
| 15 | `dd56d99b` | 1 774 639 | 11 | H |

For the three pairs whose members differ visibly — C, D, E — **the difference is
English versus Japanese**: build 7 is the title art with the katakana subtitle
プロジェクト シルフィード, build 8 the main menu reading 新規 / ロード /
チュートリアル / オプション / エクストラ, build 9 the `EXTRAS` submenu as
エクストラ. That is the whole of the language split we can see. In pairs A, B and
H the two members render **byte-identical PNGs** — the archive still carries two
copies, but the artwork does not change with the language.

Pairs F and G are the four entries `screen list` does *not* classify as builds by
default. **They are the developer splash**, and they render — see below.

## The map

Contact sheet of every render:
[`captures/title-builds/title-build-contact-sheet.png`](captures/title-builds/title-build-contact-sheet.png).

| build | what it is | confirmed how |
|---|---|---|
| 0, 1 | a `DELTASABER / SYLPHEED A.I.` plate low-left on black, no background | ❔ **not observed running.** Never seen in the boot path, the main menu, `EXTRAS` or `MISSION SELECT` |
| **2**, 3 | the `PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON` plate — **an overlay build of its own**, not a state of build 4 | ✅ seen composited over build 4 on the live title, at the same rect our render puts it |
| **4** | title art, English (`PROJECT SYLPHEED`, ™, `(C)2006,2007 SQUARE ENIX`) | ✅ [`live-title-press-a.png`](captures/title-builds/live-title-press-a.png) |
| 7 | the same, Japanese | 🟡 renders as the JP twin of build 4; the container runs an English locale, so it was not seen |
| **5** | main menu, English: NEW GAME / LOAD GAME / TUTORIAL / OPTIONS / EXTRAS, footer `Ⓐ : OK` | ✅ [`live-main-menu.png`](captures/title-builds/live-main-menu.png) — element for element |
| 8 | the same, Japanese | 🟡 as above |
| **6** | the `EXTRAS` submenu, English: MISSION SELECT / MOVIE THEATER / BACK, footer `Ⓐ : OK  Ⓑ : Back` | ✅ [`live-extras.png`](captures/title-builds/live-extras.png) |
| 9 | the same, Japanese | 🟡 as above |
| 10, 11 | the same `DELTASABER` plate as build 0, over a dark circuit-line background | ❔ **not observed running** |

## ✅ The splash — the four "non-build" entries, rendered

`screen list --all` widens the enumeration to every composable bundle and shows
all **16** entries. The four that the default listing drops are the two halves of
the developer splash, each shipped twice:

| entry | elements / sprites | what it is |
|---|---|---|
| **10, 13** | 3 / 2 | the white **`SQUARE ENIX`** publisher logo |
| **11, 14** | 7 / 6 | **`GAME ARTS` / `SETA` / `studio anima`** — the developer logos |

[`splash-entries-rendered.png`](captures/title-builds/splash-entries-rendered.png).
Rendered with `screen render --all --primitives --black`. Entry 11's seven
elements are the three logos, their three `_eff` glows and the
`palogo_eff0.prm` black backdrop — exactly the composition
[`structures/ui-paint-order-key.md`](structures/ui-paint-order-key.md) measured
for the splash.

### ✅ Confirmed against the running game — 2026-08-28

The 🟡 above ("no framebuffer capture to diff against") is closed. Recording the
boot from the moment the window appears, at 2 fps, catches the splash before the
movie:
[`live-splash-publisher.png`](captures/title-builds/live-splash-publisher.png),
[`live-splash-developer.png`](captures/title-builds/live-splash-developer.png).

Edge-correlated against the renders, **with the other half as a negative
control**:

| capture | vs entry 10 | vs entry 11 |
|---|---|---|
| publisher frame (t ≈ 2.0 s) | **0.9146** @ (0,0) | 0.027 ✗ |
| developer frame (t ≈ 6.0 s) | −0.033 ✗ | **0.9792** @ (0,0) |

Both halves match their own render at zero shift and are firmly rejected by the
other. The `13`/`14` twins score 0.876 / 0.966 — near-identical artwork, so this
test cannot tell a pair apart, only a screen from a different screen.

### ✅ The splash's timing is DECODED, and the capture confirms it

Re-recorded at **10 fps** (the 2 fps pass below was ±0.5 s and could not see
ramps at all). The splash **fades, both ways** — it does not cut — and the
bundle's own keyframes say so:

```
$ sylpheed-cli screen info --all --build 10 GP_TITLE.pak
1  palogo_sqex.t32       7 kf  [15  30  235 239 251 255  -]
2  palogo_sqex_eff.t32   4 kf  [15  30  45  -]              (the glow, child of 1)

$ ... --build 11
1  palogo_gamearts.t32   7 kf  [15  30  190 194 206 210  -]   (seta, anima identical)
2  palogo_gamearts_eff   4 kf  [15  30  45  -]
```

Under Q1's `1 unit = 1/60 s`:

| | declared | measured at 10 fps |
|---|---|---|
| `SQUARE ENIX` ramp in | `15 → 30` = 0.25 s | rise 0.4 → 0.8 s |
| `SQUARE ENIX` hold | `30 → 235` = **3.42 s** | ≈ 3.5 s (0.8 → 4.3 s) |
| `SQUARE ENIX` fade out | `235 → 255` = **0.33 s** | **≈ 0.3 s** (4.4 → 4.7 s) |
| developer hold | `30 → 190` = **2.67 s** | ≈ 2.4 s (5.6 → 8.0 s) |
| developer fade out | `190 → 210` = **0.33 s** | **≈ 0.3 s** (8.1 → 8.4 s) |

The offset between declared and measured start is ≈ 0.35 s, which is simply that
the recording's `t = 0` is when the *window* appears, not when the guest starts
drawing. Everything downstream of that lines up.

**The overshoot is the glow.** The measured rise peaks (6.21) at 0.8 s and settles
back (5.39) by 1.1 s, which looks like a bloom. It is the `_eff` child element:
its keyframes are `15 → 30 → 45`, so it ramps in *after* the logo and then back
down, while the logo itself holds. Decoded, not a rendering artifact.

So the port can **read** the splash's timing off the disc rather than author it —
the first screen's animation is not a measurement it has to trust.

### The wall-clock sequence, for orientation

| | |
|---|---|
| `SQUARE ENIX` on screen | **≈ 0.5 → 4.0 s** after the window appears |
| black | ≈ 4.5 s |
| `GAME ARTS` / `SETA` / `studio anima` | **≈ 5.0 → 7.5 s** |
| black | ≈ 9.0 s |
| `ADV.wmv` begins | **≈ 9.5 s** |

⚠️ The frames at ≈ 9.5–12.5 s show `SQUARE ENIX` again in **cyan**. That is not a
third splash — it is the intro movie's own opening, which the milestone-2 notes
describe as "white SQUARE ENIX + cyan glow + red diamonds". A capture-only reading
would have recorded a third logo screen that does not exist.

**So the first of the five screens now has a reference composite, a framebuffer
capture, and its on-screen durations.**

**Reach of the two negatives.** Builds 0/1 and 10/11 were looked for in: the whole
boot sequence (a 5 s-cadence filmstrip from launch to the title, ~190 s), the
title, the main menu, the `EXTRAS` submenu, the `LOAD GAME` slot list, the
transition into `MISSION SELECT` (a 40-frame burst), and the attract cycle. They
appear in none of them. The obvious remaining candidate is a *long* load — a
mission launch — which is out of this objective's scope; they are most likely a
loading/AI-chatter plate. That is a hypothesis, not a result.

## Three things the captures settle beyond the map

**The live title is two builds composited.** Build 4 draws the art; build 2 draws
`PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON` on top, and it **fades in a beat later** — a screenshot taken
2.5 s after arriving at the title has the art and no plate, one taken ~1 s later
has both. The port must treat the plate as its own timed element.

**The attract-loop title carries the plate too.** After ~8–10 s idle the title
fades to black, a full-motion video plays for ~85 s, and the title comes back —
*with* `PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON`
([`live-attract-title-press-a-band.png`](captures/title-builds/live-attract-title-press-a-band.png)).
This is consistent with, and adds nothing to, the draw-quad comparison in
[`canary-scripted-input-traps.md`](canary-scripted-input-traps.md): the plate is
not the tell that distinguishes the boot title from the attract title.

**`EXTRAS` is the only main-menu destination inside `GP_TITLE`.** Ⓐ on `EXTRAS`
opens build 6 — measured. The other four destinations leave the archive: Ⓐ on
`LOAD GAME` opened a `LOAD GAME` slot list, and Ⓐ on `MISSION SELECT` inside
`EXTRAS` opened a `MISSION SELECT` screen, neither of which is a `GP_TITLE`
build. `dat/` carries `GP_SAVE_LOAD.pak`, `GP_TUTORIAL.pak`, `GP_OPTIONS.pak`,
`GP_MISSION_SELECT.pak` and `GP_MOVIE_THEATER.pak`; **that those are the archives
behind the other four buttons is an inference from the names, not a measurement.**

## How to reproduce

```bash
sylpheed-cli screen list  "$SYLPHEED_DISC/dat/GP_TITLE.pak"
sylpheed-cli screen render --build 6 "$SYLPHEED_DISC/dat/GP_TITLE.pak" /tmp/b6.png
tools/re-capture/boot_menu.sh q2      # boots to the main menu, cursor on NEW GAME
tools/re-capture/pad.py dpad down 0.35 # x4 -> EXTRAS
tools/re-capture/pad.py tap A 0.30
```

Mind the d-pad hold — see [`METHOD.md`](METHOD.md).

## ✅ The title is not a still image — it loops, ≈ 2.2 s

Recording the title at 10 fps for 22 s shows the screen **never settles**. After
the build-in it oscillates by about ±0.5 in mean luminance, continuously:

```
peaks at   5.6  7.8  10.0  12.7  15.2  17.1  19.2  21.3 s
intervals  2.2  2.2   2.7   2.5   1.9   2.1   2.1
                                       mean 2.24 s
```

**measured**, n = 7 intervals, spread 1.9–2.7 s — peak-picking a low-amplitude
signal is coarse, so read it as **≈ 2.2 s ± 0.4**, not a precise period.

The mechanism is already decoded: build 4 declares **`ptloop01.rat` /
`ptloop02.rat`**, and `loop*.rat` is a **looping sprite animation** rather than a
composition ([`INDEX.md`](INDEX.md), UI screen layout row). So the title carries a
looping element by construction; what is new is that it runs at ≈ 2.2 s and never
stops.

### ✅ The loop records ARE decoded — and they are not what I measured

`ptloop01.rat` is an **`opt `-linked leaf record**: in build 4 the chunk `opt `
(size `0x0c`) carries the name, immediately followed by a `RATC` blob at
**`0xbb5966`** (`ptloop02.rat` the same at `0xbb5a82`). Its pivot fields read
`200`/`90`, matching `screen info`'s `pivot (200,90)` — the right blob.

**The keyframes use the ordinary 40-byte block layout**, starting at `+0x68`:

| | `ptloop01` → `pteff03.t32` | `ptloop02` → `pteff03a.t32` |
|---|---|---|
| kf0 | `t=150` x=**−639** α=`ff` | `t=150` x=**1721** α=`00` |
| kf1 | `t=540` x=−39 α=`80` | `t=630` x=1111 α=`80` |
| kf2 | `t=600` x=**1521** α=`ff` | `t=720` x=**−839** α=`ff` |
| scale | 100 × 600 | 100 × 800 |
| span | 150 → 600 = **450 units = 7.5 s** | 150 → 720 = **570 units = 9.5 s** |

Y is constant at 270 and X runs off one edge to the other, so these are
**horizontal light sweeps** — `loop01` left → right, `loop02` right → left.

### 🔴 Two things I wrote last iteration are wrong

**1. "A leaf record's keyframes are not in the build's 40-byte layout."**
Withdrawn — they are, exactly. The scan that "found nothing" demanded **29**
strictly-increasing times because I read the word at `+0x004` (`0x001e0000`) as a
keyframe count. These records hold **three** keyframes. A filter that hard-codes
the expected count rejects the right structure; whatever the `30` is, it is not
the number of keyframes here.

**2. "The ≈ 2.2 s oscillation is the `ptloop` elements."** Withdrawn — I asserted
the link because build 4 declares those elements, not because anything showed it.
The decoded sweeps run **7.5 s and 9.5 s**. A 22 s capture would show ~3 peaks
from a 7.5 s cycle; it showed **8**. So the loops are *not* what the oscillation
measured.

### ✅ Identified: it is the `PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON` plate pulsing

A per-tile amplitude map over the capture (8 × 6 grid, 18 s after build-in)
localises the 2.3 s period precisely:

| region | sd | dominant lag |
|---|---|---|
| band x ≈ 318–954, y ≈ 560–672 | **7.65** | **2.3 s** |
| wordmark centre | 0.06 | — |
| bottom-right corner | 0.003 | — |

That band is the `PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON` plate's rest position (`ptbtn00.rat`, rest
`(383,550)`, pivot `(256,25)`). It is **build 2**, composited over the title — not
build 4.

Decoding `ptbtn00f.rat`, the plate's highlight variant, gives the pulse directly:

| kf | t | alpha |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 6 | `0x00` |
| 1 | 29 | `0x06` |
| 2 | 35 | `0x4a` |
| 3 | 50 | `0x50` |
| 4 | 58 | `0x50` (hold) |
| 5 | 97 | `0x4a` |
| 6 | 105 | `0x06` |

A glow that fades in to `0x50` and back out — exactly a "press start" pulse.

There is an **eighth** keyframe: fade `0x00ffffff` at the same position — the glow
returns to **fully transparent**, so this is a closed cycle, not a one-shot ramp.

🟡 **The cycle length is still not readable — and now that is an observation.**
The eighth block's time slot contains the four bytes `end `, the record's ASCII
terminator: the record simply stops there and the value does not exist. So the
corpus's "a group's last block has no time of its own" rule holds here in a second
form — not the next group's index, but the chunk terminator.

Declared span is **≥ 105 units = 1.75 s**; measured **≈ 2.3 s** (≈ 138 units),
which would need a final step of ≈ 33 units. **That 33 is fitted to the
measurement, not read from the file**, and is recorded only so nobody re-derives
it as if it were a decode.

❔ **The word at `+0x004` is not a keyframe count.** It reads `0x003c0000` (60)
here with 8 keyframes, and `0x001e0000` (30) in the loop records with 3. Whatever
it is, it is not the count, and it is not decoded.

### ❔ The declared 4.08 s build-in was not tested

That was the intent of this recording and it did not work. The title was reached
by **skipping the movie with Ⓐ**, which cuts to black and brings the title up on a
path that may not be the normal one; and the visible rise (≈ 2.7 s, from t ≈ 0.8
to 3.5) is a *luminance* curve, which
[`screen-transitions.md`](screen-transitions.md) already establishes is **not**
the fade quad's ramp. So ≈ 2.7 s neither confirms nor contradicts build 4's
declared `16 → 261` (4.08 s); the two are not measuring the same thing.

Testing it properly needs the title reached **without** a skip, and a way to
separate the quad from the elements — neither of which this recording had.