New probe (axis_probe.py) decomposes every held input into all THREE rotation
components at once, instead of measuring one axis at a time through a non-forward
matrix row -- the flaw that once made roll and pitch produce identical numbers.
For previous rows (f,u,w): roll = atan2(u.w_old, u.u_old), and forward's rotation
toward each of the other two rows gives the remaining pair.
Stage 02, file pad, full deflection on exactly one channel at a time:
lx+ roll 209.8 b 0.9 c 10.1 deg/wall-s
ly+ roll 0.0 b 154.1 c 0.0
rx+ roll 0.0 b 0.0 c 0.0
ry+ roll 161.1 b 87.0 c 37.1
LB/RB all zero
What this supports: lx = ROLL, cleanly (~0 on both other channels), agreeing with
the independent roll measurement. ly drives ONE axis, cleanly.
What it does NOT support, and I am not claiming:
- WHICH axis ly drives. entities2 measures row 2 = forward against velocity, but
rows 0 and 1 are labelled up/right by the D3D convention rather than by
evidence, and yaw/pitch SWAP if that is wrong. Roll is immune (rotation of
either non-forward row in their shared plane is roll either way).
- anything about rx/ry/LB/RB. The run ended on GAME OVER: full-deflection spin in
a live combat mission gets the craft destroyed, and the only symptom is "0
player candidates" AFTERWARDS, so late rows may be post-death. rx+ reading all
zeros and ry+ reading mixed are exactly what a dying craft would produce.
So "yaw: no input found" is NOT resolved. Both gaps are now written into the
probe's header with what would fix them: a liveness check between inputs, and
pinning up-vs-right against world Y.
Runtime-capture harness (sylph-re container)
Screenshot-driven scripts for reading the running retail game's menus under Xenia
Canary + lavapipe, headless. They assume the container helpers screenshot,
vgamepad, pad are on $PATH and HOME=/sylph-home/re.
| Script | What it does |
|---|---|
skip_intro.sh |
Boot → main menu, unattended. Taps A only while the intro movie is actually playing (frame-to-frame RMSE), then once at the PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON title. Static logo screens are left alone, so a stray tap can never land on NEW GAME. |
wait_title.sh |
Older variant: wait for the title (green Ⓐ glyph at px 625,618) and tap A. Superseded by skip_intro.sh. |
step.sh |
One Arsenal navigation step (down/up/next/prev/none) + a compact capture: weapon list stacked over the DATA SHEET. |
sweep.sh |
Walk a whole weapon-type list, capturing only rows that show a DATA SHEET — locked rows (a "Conditions to Develop" panel) are detected by the brightness of the Range Class label box and skipped. |
type.sh |
Change weapon-type tab N times (RB) and report the header strip. |
hp.sh / cyc.sh |
Hangar hard-point carousel: cyc.sh steps it (d-pad down, not left/right) and captures the Name + DATA SHEET. |
Input timing under lavapipe: the game polls input at its own low frame rate, so a 60 ms d-pad tap is dropped roughly half the time. 200 ms is reliable; 300 ms starts to auto-repeat (two rows per press).
Findings produced with these: docs/re/weapon-datasheet-runtime.md.
Guest-memory tools (no screenshots)
| Script | What it does |
|---|---|
gmem.py |
Read the live guest address space out of /dev/shm/xenia_memory_* (Xenia's backing file), addressed by guest VA. find / read / words. |
weapon_runtime.py |
Solve the Weapon/Shell struct layouts against the disc records and read the fields the disc defaults. |
unit_discover.py |
Find which runtime class carries a set of ID strings, assuming no vtable: tallies the word at pointer_site - k across distinct IDs. |
unit_runtime.py |
Same solver for the unit\UN_*.tbl definition objects (vtable 0x820af844). Unions several snapshots — unit definitions are per-stage. |
schema_order.py |
Merge a sub-record's field-declaration order across all tables (topological sort); the layout check that pins fields no table ever values. |
order_check.py |
Test offset = base + 4*index for one table's sub-record against solver output. |
grab_tutorial.sh |
Cold-boot Canary, walk to the Nth TUTORIAL entry, wait for the stage load, snapshot guest RAM. One emulator per capture — backing out of a loaded mission wedges it. |
Snapshot first — cp --sparse=always /dev/shm/xenia_memory_* snap.bin (~2 s) — and
point $GMEM_FILE at the copy; the running emulator pegs every core under lavapipe.