74 Commits
Author SHA1 Message Date
zwitschi 19ed4fefd4 docs(skills): one common copy of the skill packs; project keeps blender-director
The 94 symlinks in ~/.agents/skills and the full second copy in
~/.pi/agent/skills/blender-skills were the same packs under two roots, so Pi
reported a collision for every one of them on every start and silently dropped
the loser.

- The 93 upstream packs, the shared references/ notes and the LICENSE now live
  once, flat and one level down, in the common agent folder ~/.pi/agent/skills/.
- The repository keeps only the project-specific pack:
  .agents/skills/blender-skills/blender-director/. Its ../references/ links now
  point at ~/.pi/agent/skills/references/ because it no longer sits beside them.
  Its SKILL.md declared metadata.role twice (specialist, orchestrator), which is
  fatal YAML - the pack had never actually loaded.
- AGENTS.md and Docs/toolchain.md describe the split and warn against copying the
  common packs back into the repository.

Verified by walking all three discovery roots and parsing every frontmatter:
97 skills loaded, 0 malformed, 0 collisions.
2026-11-10 08:36:58 +01:00
zwitschi 61dd28bc89 feat(hero): one-command iteration loop, first judged pass, comparison plates
Tools/hero_iterate.sh runs the whole chain - chmod the Blender files, build, import, render, judge, plate -
and fails loudly at each step with its log under /tmp/gigline. Tools/hero_compare.py builds the side-by-side
plate (reference | rendered, one height, labelled); two are committed for review.

This pass: the stone is warmer in Blender (0.66/0.60/0.48 against the near-white blockout) and the banners are
1.35 x 6.2 m hung from 7.2 m, matching the reference proportion instead of the 1.55 x 5.4 that sat too low and
too fat.

Iteration 1 judge verdict, confidence 0.9: lacks warm sandstone, lacks fluted column detail, banners wrong,
no doorways, no inscription or medallions. Checked against the plate, two of those are wrong (120 flute
strips exist and cast shadows; three 1.2 m deep doorways with steps exist and read black) and three are real.
The split is recorded in TODO.md with the next action for each - the important one being that the stone colour
must change in the UE material (ue_hero_facade_import.py), not in the Blender material, which the render does
not use.
2026-11-10 08:28:06 +01:00
zwitschi 670c692c43 chore: make the Blender files writable and commit the regenerated asset state
Every .blend under Art/ was read-only from the checkout, and a Blender save then fails with 'Cannot save
blend file ... is not writable'. In Tools/hero_facade_build.py the save runs BEFORE the FBX export, so the
old FBX was silently reused and a build could look successful while changing nothing. All 20 .blend and
.blend1 files are now writable and 'find Art -name *.blend ! -perm -u+w' returns nothing.

Re-rendered the full capture set afterwards. The pixels are unchanged, which is the expected result and worth
writing down: render_screenshots.sh renders the IMPORTED Unreal assets, so a Blender change needs
build -> import -> render. Chmod alone cannot change an image.

Also commits the asset state today's imports and the collision-hull clearing produced (67 site meshes, 8
textures, 6 theatre meshes, the demo map), after verifying the walkable demo is unaffected: the player still
stands on Sidewalk_North_07 at 158 cm with feet at 161.
2026-11-10 08:11:13 +01:00
zwitschi 03ef4dc945 feat(hero): first pass from the masonic-temple reference folder
Art/reference/hero-masonic/ (15 images, git-ignored) replaces the single Wikimedia photo as the source of
truth. Two front elevations drive this pass: 02-masonictemple01.jpg, a clean street-level frontal, and
06-el-capitan-theater-frontal-fachade.jpg; 05-hollywoodmasonictemple-1922.jpg records the original masonry.

Changes:

- the blank Hero_Stylobate_LintelBand across the portals is removed - the reference has open doorways with
  steps, and they now read as three dark openings with banners above them;
- rustication(): five ashlar courses from the pavement to the portal heads, 4 cm joints proud of the wall;
- balustrade(): bottom rail, top rail and 38 balusters along the roof edge, where the reference shows a
  cresting and railing.

Still missing against the same references, and recorded: warm sandstone instead of flat pale stone, lattice
grilles in the window bays, the carved inscription, and medallions that do not read at distance.

The blend is read-only after a checkout - chmod u+w first or the save fails silently and the FBX is never
written, which happened once here.

Rows 4-6 re-rendered and pending review.
2026-11-10 08:08:01 +01:00
zwitschi 7b9a7a3867 fix(hero): seat the façade detail on the wall, so it renders at all
The three hero captures showed a plain block with six columns because every applied detail sat BEHIND the
wall's front face, inside the solid mass:

  Hero_Banner_1   y -1.08..-1.02   (55 cm inside)
  Hero_Portal_1   y -2.35..-1.15   (2 m inside)
  Hero_Window_1_1 y -0.60..-0.52   (2 cm inside)

The colonnade, cornice and dentils happened to protrude, which is exactly what the shots showed.

The depth is now stated once, in hero_facade_build.py: FRONT_Y is the wall's front face and
seat_on_front() moves every applied part until its street-facing face sits at FRONT_Y + offset - 8 cm for
banners and jambs, 5 cm for entablature and cornice, 3 cm for window panes, 4 cm for mullions, 10 cm for
portal signs. It reports what it moved, 99 parts.

After re-export, re-import and re-render the front elevation now shows the three red banners, the two
window bands, the dentil course and the portals. What is still missing against the reference: rusticated
banding on the stone, lettering on the motto band, grilles in the windows, a balustrade on the parapet, and
the blank lintel band across the portals that the reference does not have.

Rows 4, 5 and 6 are back to pending for review because the images changed.
2026-11-10 07:59:51 +01:00
zwitschi 01e49ff889 docs(hero): the detail is modelled inside the wall - that is why the facade renders plain
Measured the Y positions in the source and the imported mesh:

  blend scene Y        -12.50 .. +0.13
  Hero_Mass            y = -BODY_D/2 - 0.5, so it spans -12.50 .. -0.50
  Hero_Banner_1        -1.08 .. -1.02, i.e. 55 cm BEHIND the wall's front face
  imported bounds      y -13 .. +1250 cm

So the banners - and by the same construction the window bays and portal surrounds - sit inside the mass and
never render. The columns, cornice and dentils protrude, which is exactly what the captures show: a plain
block with six columns.

The camera check is answered as well: the three hero cameras are aimed at (-13336, 1307) where the hero actor
is, and the frontage sits at the origin, so the framing was correct all along.

Next step is mechanical, not artistic: put a FRONT_Y constant in Tools/hero_facade_build.py, place every
elevation detail relative to it, re-export and re-render. The model does not need remodelling before its
detail can be seen.
2026-11-10 07:57:00 +01:00
zwitschi e19cc361ad docs(hero): reference-vs-model gap assessment, and a camera suspicion to check first
Started the hero facade task the way it has to start - by comparing the reference photograph with the
current render rather than with memory of it.

Reference: el-capitan-facade-day-wikimedia-2009-10-27.jpg, north elevation, daylight.

The model (SM_HeroFacade, 4 materials) is much further along than the review captures suggest: six fluted
columns with capitals and abaci, architrave, entablature, cornice with 52 dentils, parapet, motto band with
surround and two medallions, three banners, five window pairs, and three portals with jambs, lintels,
mullions and five steps each.

What it genuinely lacks: surface. Rusticated banding, carved lettering on the motto band, window grilles,
and a balustrade with finials on the parapet.

And one thing to check before any modelling: the three hero captures show a plain block with six columns and
nothing else, while the mesh carries banners, windows and portals and is staged at (-13336, 1307, 0). The
likely explanation is that the cameras frame Frontage_SM_ElCapitanTheatre at the origin, or the wrong side
of the hero - in which case the rejection is describing a camera error. One render aimed at Hero_Facade from
Y -4000 decides it, and three new tasks are recorded with that first.
2026-11-10 07:55:14 +01:00
zwitschi fc1e832664 docs(todo): remove the vehicle blocks that leaked into the hero facade section
A shared heading string made one edit land in two sections, so the hero-facade task carried a copy of the
vehicle's bisect evidence. The section is back to its own two steps.

Also re-ran the gates on the tree as it stands after today's ground and placement work:

  Tools/ue_audit_scene.py  593 mesh actors, every mesh has a material, building X ranges as expected,
                           no duplicate actor labels, 0 failures
  prettier --check         all Markdown clean
  unittest                 99 tests pass
2026-11-09 22:25:49 +01:00
zwitschi fe219b038c test(vehicle): collision is not the cause either - defer the rig to its own session
Third fix tried and failed: the terrain staged in the probe map with collision disabled entirely. The pawn
still rises (Z 315 -> 421), exactly as with collision enabled.

With that, the terrain's convex hull, its collision channel and its collision itself are all eliminated, and
the failure survives in a map whose only difference is the presence of a 279 m static mesh.

The player is unaffected throughout - re-checked after every attempt, still standing on Sidewalk_North_07
at 157 cm - so nothing in the walkable demo regressed.

Deferred rather than guessed, per AGENTS.md: the task is marked deferred with the three failed fixes, the
probe workflow and switches a fresh session inherits, and the next question framed precisely - why a map
containing a collisionless 279 m static mesh changes a physics body's behaviour, which points at streaming,
memory layout or the broadphase rather than at collision authoring.

Generated probe levels deleted; the tools stay.
2026-11-09 22:22:39 +01:00
zwitschi a1771cb55f test(vehicle): the terrain alone reproduces it, and two collision fixes did not help
Built the map-content bisect the task asked for: Tools/ue_vehicle_probe_map.py duplicates ReviewMap,
optionally adds one demo mesh and the pawn, and saves it as VehicleProbe.

  control (no extra mesh)   Z 300 -> 297   rests on the review floor
  + Terrain_DEM             Z 300 -> 498   thrown upward

So Terrain_DEM alone reproduces the fault in a map that works. Two fixes were tried:

- Tools/ue_clear_simple_collision.py cleared the auto-generated convex hulls from all 76 site/street
  meshes - the terrain had ONE convex element over 279 m - and set them to complex-as-simple. Still rises.
- The terrain component set to QueryOnly, so traces hit it and physics ignores it. Still rises.

Neither changed the behaviour, so the ejection is neither the convex hull nor the collision channel. The
next probe is the complex triangles themselves: give Terrain_DEM no collision at all in the probe map and
see whether the pawn falls. If it falls, the triangle winding is pushing bodies out of the ground mesh -
the same inverted-winding family that made the sidewalk unstandable earlier.

Both tools have README rows; the pawn is parked again.
2026-11-09 22:20:28 +01:00
zwitschi 410d924403 test(vehicle): not the mover, not an overlap - the writer stays unnamed
Two more probes, both negative:

  --novehmover  movement component tick disabled from the constructor -> the pawn still rises
  overlaps      GetOverlappingComponents at spawn                     -> 0 components

So it is not the Chaos movement component, and the body is not inside anything, at any height. With the
velocity clamped to zero, the mover disabled, zero overlaps and a correct dynamic body, the transform is
still written every frame - in DemoMap only.

That is the limit of targeted probing. The remaining path is systematic rather than clever: rebuild DemoMap
in a fresh empty level and add one group of staged content at a time, running the pawn profile after each,
until it starts rising. Five or six runs name the actor or mesh; guessing at engine internals has not, in
ten probes.

The probes stay in the tree as switches: -probes (all diagnostics), -novehmover, -profile, plus the velocity
clamp and overlap list. They cost nothing when unused.
2026-11-09 22:14:53 +01:00
zwitschi 387a4530de test(vehicle): clamping the velocity to zero does not stop the rise - the transform is written
The decisive clamp: zero linear and angular velocity every frame for two seconds.

  t=0.25 Z=3220 vZ=0 | t=0.75 Z=3683 vZ=0 | t=1.25 Z=4197 vZ=0

It rises at ~1200 cm/s with velocity pinned to zero, so this is not a force, an impulse, or a bad initial
state - all of those the clamp would have removed. Something calls a transform setter on the vehicle every
frame.

Our own source contains exactly one direct transform write outside the character (the shot actor's camera),
so the writer is engine-side: the Chaos vehicle component driving UpdatedComponent from a vehicle state that
was never created, or a skeletal-mesh transform update.

Also diffed the two maps, since the pawn works in ReviewMap and not in DemoMap: kill_z, gravity, lights and
partitioning are identical; DemoMap adds 593 static mesh actors, a height fog and a post-process volume,
ReviewMap adds a shot actor and the character. Nothing in either list can write a transform, so the map
difference is not in its actors or settings.
2026-11-09 22:11:13 +01:00
zwitschi 331e2016be test(vehicle): the Chaos rig is fine - DemoMap is what breaks it
Ran the bisect the task asked for. The same pawn, unchanged, in two maps:

  ReviewMap, flat floor    Z 200 -> 188 -> 174 -> 157 -> 87   vZ -208 -> -663   falls correctly
  DemoMap, on the street   Z 486 -> 920 -> 1126 -> 1385      vZ ~0             teleports up
  DemoMap, 60 m away       Z 291 -> 467 -> 920 -> 1343       vZ +1595          launches
  DemoMap, 25 m up         Z 2496 -> 2664 -> 3068 -> 3434    vZ +1509          launches at once

So the pawn, its physics asset, its wheels, its mass and its movement component all work: on a plain floor
it falls and settles. Everywhere in DemoMap it is thrown upward, at any height, including 25 m in the air,
which rules out contact and points at something the demo map stages and the review map does not.

That inverts the previous nine hypotheses - they were all about the vehicle - and puts the next probe in the
map: diff the staged actors and world settings between the two builders.

Pawn parked; the bisect numbers are in the task.
2026-11-09 22:07:38 +01:00
zwitschi 358673bcfc test(vehicle): the body is genuinely dynamic, so the teleport is applied to a normal actor
The dynamics probe rules out the last structural explanation:

  simulate=1  instance=yes  profile=PhysicsActor

A normal dynamic actor - and it still travels ~700 cm/s upward with vZ oscillating around zero. So the
teleport is applied to a genuinely dynamic body, which is why not one of the force-shaped settings
(gravity, mass, penetration, spawn height) changed anything.

Recorded with it: the bisect plan for the next pass, because guessing at Chaos internals has stopped being
the cheap option. Spawn the pawn in ReviewMap's empty floor to separate asset from world, and spawn a stock
AWheeledVehiclePawn beside it to separate our setup from the engine's.

Pawn parked; captures unchanged.
2026-11-09 21:58:37 +01:00
zwitschi d1636f6986 test(vehicle): it is a kinematic teleport, not a force - and that is why every force test was clean
Instrumented the movement component so the write is caught at its source rather than inferred from the
actor: a UGigLineVehicleMovement subclass is substituted for the stock component through
AWheeledVehiclePawn::VehicleMovementComponentName, and it logs CreateVehicle(), the first UpdateState and
the component tick.

  mover tick: Z 661  -> 1143 -> 1443 -> 1718 ..., output null, wheels 0
  physics OFF at 3 s: Z 2247, and it does not move for a whole second afterwards
  profile: t=0.25 Z=515 vZ=-8 | t=0.75 Z=920 vZ=-22 | t=1.25 Z=1287 vZ=173

Two conclusions:

1. The mesh's physics state IS what moves the actor - switching physics off freezes it at once.
2. It moves WITHOUT VELOCITY: position rises ~700 cm/s while vZ oscillates around zero. That is a
   kinematic teleport, not an impulse and not a force - which is exactly why gravity, mass and
   penetration all measured clean. The vehicle-state output is null throughout, so the teleport comes
   from the Chaos layer driving the body kinematically while the vehicle itself was never created.

Pawn parked, captures regenerated so the demo stays clean.
2026-11-09 21:51:52 +01:00
zwitschi 348ed1ac69 test(vehicle): the writer is not in the pawn's tick
Sampled the actor transform immediately before and after Super::Tick on every frame: it never changes
there. The 'inside Super::Tick' line never fires, yet the actor climbs 400-1400 cm/s.

With the earlier results that leaves exactly one consistent candidate: the Chaos movement component's own
tick or its async physics step, outside APawn::Tick. That also explains why SetComponentTickEnabled(false)
did not stop the climb and why the body's reported velocity is ~0 while the actor moves - the movement
component is writing a transform it took from a vehicle state that was never created.

Next step is a subclass of UChaosWheeledVehicleMovementComponent that logs UpdateState /
OnUpdateTransform together with the vehicle-state pointer, so the write is caught at its source rather
than inferred from the actor.
2026-11-09 21:44:17 +01:00
zwitschi 0f059a5c93 test(vehicle): bones match, terrain has no lid, and stopping the mover does not stop the climb
Three more measured facts:

  bones  VehicleRig root Wheel_FL Wheel_FR Wheel_RL Wheel_RR
  setups Wheel_FL Wheel_FR Wheel_RL Wheel_RR           -> exact match, mesh suspect ruled out
  mover  updated=VehicleMesh ticking=1
  stop   tick disabled at 2.5 s with the actor at Z 2001; at 3.0 s it is at Z 2258
  terrain CTF_USE_COMPLEX_AS_SIMPLE with 0 box elements -> no invisible lid to eject from

So the wheel bones are right, there is no proxy collision to fight, and disabling the mover's tick did not
stop the climb. That moves the suspect list to the pawn's own Tick/root: something writes the actor
transform every frame regardless of the physics body, and the 1 cm bounds are its fingerprint.

Pawn parked again; the diagnostic stays.
2026-11-09 21:41:36 +01:00
zwitschi 6d025491ef docs(vehicle): evidence, ruled-out list and three ordered suspects
The previous edit to this section never applied - a substring that no longer existed - so the task
still described only the first launch observation. It now records everything measured this session:

  box 452x205x40 centre 0,0,-18 | bounds extent 1,1,1
  velocity -24,-182,-28 cm/s | mass 1500 | sim=1 | setups=4 wheels=0

The conclusion is that the body is nearly still while the actor is nine metres up, so this is a
transform problem rather than a force one, and the suspects are ordered: the component hierarchy, the
Chaos movement component's transform updates, and then the skeletal mesh's bone layout - which would
explain CreateVehicle() bailing before it ever builds wheels.

Ruled out with a run each: spawn penetration at four heights, panel collision, chassis box dimensions,
world gravity, and mass.
2026-11-09 21:34:36 +01:00
zwitschi 14ed01a4e6 test(vehicle): the body barely moves, so something else moves the actor
The motion probe splits the problem in two:

  velocity  -24, -182, -28 cm/s     (a body that cannot climb 9 m in 1.5 s)
  mass      1500 kg                 (the override DID apply)
  box       452 x 205 x 40          (correct)
  bounds    extent 1,1,1            (still degenerate)
  actor     Z 1393, spawned at 458

The physics body is nearly still while the actor is nine metres above its spawn. So this is not a
force problem at all - it is a transform problem: something writes the actor's transform that is
neither the body's velocity nor our code, which is also what the degenerate bounds are telling us from
the other side.

Next: find who writes that transform. Suspects are the Chaos movement component's UpdateState /
OnUpdateTransform and the component hierarchy - a pawn whose root is the mesh while the physics state
belongs elsewhere behaves exactly like this.

Pawn parked again so the demo stays clean.
2026-11-09 21:34:22 +01:00
zwitschi 2ecd029cc0 docs(review): row 22 approved - the whole capture set is signed off
The last open row (DemoMap vehicle) is approved, so every capture in the table has a verdict: 20
approved and 3 hero-facade rows excluded from this pass and tracked as their own task.

The status header now says so, so a reader does not have to count rows to learn where the review
stands.
2026-11-09 21:31:55 +01:00
zwitschi a372fdf389 docs(review): rows 1, 2 and 3 approved - ReviewMap is signed off
Owner approved the last three mannequin rows, so every ReviewMap capture is now approved except the
three hero-facade shots, which live in their own task.

Two housekeeping changes in the same table:

- approved rows drop the standing 'vision judge still reports floating' note; the disagreement is
  recorded in MEMORY.md, and the table is for approval state, not for a second copy of it.
- row 22 goes back to pending re-review rather than staying rejected: the image changed after the
  rejection (the vehicle cameras were re-aimed), so it needs a fresh verdict, not the old one.
2026-11-09 21:31:06 +01:00
zwitschi de83f990ac fix(review): mannequin down 2 cm; 8 and 9 approved
Owner review: rows 1, 2 and 3 show the mannequin about 2 cm too high; rows 8 and 9 show nothing wrong.

The staging height moves from 8 cm to 6 cm above the floor plane (floor_z on the mannequin's
sit_on_floor call, which now logs +6.0), and rows 8 and 9 are approved. Rows 1, 2 and 3 go back to
pending with the change noted in the table, since the image is what changed.

Captures regenerated.
2026-11-09 21:30:09 +01:00
zwitschi f29d9d7e49 test(vehicle): the chassis box and the gravity are both innocent
Four more things measured instead of guessed:

  chassis box        452 x 205 x 40, centre 0,0,-18  -> correct for the car
  world gravity      global_gravity_z = 0.0, and the character falls normally
  spawn height       5 m up: the pawn still climbs, so penetration is not the cause
  mass override      SetMassOverrideInKg at 0.5 s never logged

The one number that does not fit: the pawn's mesh component reports bounds extent 1,1,1 while
simulating and carrying a 452 cm collision box, and the actor drifts 4.8 m sideways while climbing
with no input. A body that simulates with correct collision but degenerate bounds is not the body the
movement component is driving, so the next question is which component owns it and whether
CreateVehicle() runs at all.

The pawn is parked again; the diagnostic logging stays (it is the tool that produced this), and the
evidence is in the 'Vehicle physics' task.
2026-11-09 21:06:26 +01:00
zwitschi be86ee6d73 test(vehicle): the launch is inside the vehicle, not around it
Three hypotheses tested and ruled out, each with its own run:

  spawn level with the road        -> actor climbs to Z 1993
  spawn 1.2 m above the road       -> climbs to 2131
  visual panels' collision removed -> climbs to 2066

So neither the spawn penetration nor the panels' overlap is pushing the pawn up; the force is inside
the vehicle. With zero wheels there is no suspension to blame either, which leaves the chassis body
itself - its box size against the mesh bounds, or the skeletal mesh's own collision fighting the
physics asset body.

The pawn is parked again so the demo carries no 18 m flying car, and the ruled-out list is recorded in
the 'Vehicle physics' task next to the two remaining suspects.
2026-11-09 20:59:35 +01:00
zwitschi 4498274328 test(vehicle): park the Chaos pawn and give the physics its own task
The pawn was found again after a cleanup removed its staging, and the diagnostic answers the
zero-wheel question with a bigger one: with the pawn present the actor is launched to Z 1993 cm - 18 m
above the ground it stands at 150 - and still reports 0 wheels.

  GigLine vehicle diag: mesh=1 simulating=1 physasset=yes setups=4 wheels=0
  GigLine vehicle: settled at Z 1993 cm, simulating=1

Wheels are only created inside CreateVehicle() when the physics state produced a vehicle, so the
chassis body is the suspect rather than the wheel setup: PA_Vehicle_Sedan has one box on the root bone,
and a body that starts intersecting geometry is the usual reason a vehicle pawn launches itself.

Parked rather than shipped: the pawn is not staged, the visible car stays as panels, and the physics is
'Vehicle physics - Chaos rig' in TODO.md with the evidence and three concrete steps. The demo no longer
carries an 18 m flying car in its captures.
2026-11-09 20:50:52 +01:00
zwitschi f65c6e8d45 docs(review): approve 11 and 12, split the hero facade into its own task
Owner verdicts: rows 11 (shadow compare) and 12 (vehicle staging) approved. The three hero-facade
rows are no longer reviewed inside this pass - they are asset work, not vehicle work, so they become
their own TODO section ('Hero facade rework') with two steps: rebuild the facade against the reference
photography, then re-render the three staging shots and put them back in the table.

The table rows point at that task instead of repeating 'rework needed'.

Row 3 stays pending: it is the same mannequin raise as 1, 2, 8 and 9 and needs the same re-review.
2026-11-09 20:12:45 +01:00
zwitschi 4db33489e1 fix(review): raise the mannequin 8 cm, lower the player 2 cm, per the owner's notes
Owner review of the last set:

  1, 2, 8, 9  rejected - 'mannequin still too low'
  14          approved, but 'floating, only maybe 2 cm too high'

The mannequin correction had been a no-op: actor bounds on a freshly assigned skeletal mesh read as
zero, so sit_on_floor returned +2 cm while the soles sat level with the floor plane. It is now raised
8 cm, which puts them clearly above it, and the four rows are back to pending for re-review with that
noted.

The player start drops 2 cm (258 -> 256) for row 14.

Also repaired the four table rows: a cell-index mistake in the previous edit had emptied their item
links.
2026-11-09 19:57:20 +01:00
zwitschi fb5488c1df fix(review): stage objects by their measured bounds, and aim the vehicle cameras at the car
The review notes named the same class of problem in six rows: things sitting a little too low or too
high in the floor. They were all hand-typed staging heights, and every one was wrong by a different
amount - the mannequin's root is not at its soles, the resting cube's origin is not at its base, the
vehicle's wheels are 2 cm below its panel origin.

sit_on_floor() measures the actor's bounds and shifts it so the mesh's lowest point lands 2 cm above
the floor plane, and reports the correction it applied:

  MPFB character    +2.0 cm
  ScaleTest_A      -48.0 cm   (it was floating)
  vehicle wheels    +2.0 cm

The DemoMap vehicle shot was rejected as 'no vehicle in the scene': both vehicle cameras were still
aimed at the car's old position, so re-aiming them at Y -1450 brings it back into frame.

Status table notes record each fix; the hero-facade rework and the shadow-compare expectation are
left for the owner's next review.
2026-11-09 19:39:04 +01:00
zwitschi 1b4b46e957 fix(site): slice the road too - the 2 m lid was a convex hull, not geometry
The road was never mis-modelled: a 279 m strip imports with ONE auto-generated convex hull, and a
convex hull's top is the strip's maximum height. A downward trace therefore landed at 366 cm - a flat
lid about 2 m above the visible road, which sits at roughly 152 cm there. That single fact explains
every failed sidewalk fix, the 'road above its own sidewalk' reading, and why the player always ended
up on Road_Hollywood.

Slicing the road the way the sidewalks already were fixes it, and the cross-section is now continuous:

  Terrain_DEM       154
  Sidewalk_North_07 158
  Road_Hollywood_07 158   (was 366)

Two changes had to land together: the road exported in slices, and the map stopped staging the single
Road_Hollywood asset - which still sat on top of the slices and won every trace until removed.

All 23 captures regenerated; the player and the car both stand on a continuous ground plane.
2026-11-09 19:15:10 +01:00
zwitschi 4132dc77e3 docs(site): the road fans past the sidewalk where the centreline curves
Found the mechanism behind the 2 m disagreement. street_mesh.py builds the road across -10.5..+10.5 m
and the north sidewalk +10.5..+15.8 m, so along the straight the two bands meet exactly at the gutter.
The strips are generated along a curved centreline, and the fan-out at the bend pushes the road's outer
edge to -13.8 m while the sidewalk occupies -17.3..-11.8 m - a 2 m overlap where the road surface is
366 cm and the sidewalk 158 cm.

That is the surface a downward trace at the player's Y kept finding, and the reason the scene read as
the road hovering above the pavement.

The fix is a clamp in strip() so a row's outer offset cannot pass the nominal gutter, or trimming the
road's ends - one function, then re-export, re-import and the 14 s probe confirms it. Recorded in
MEMORY.md and TODO.md. The demo reads correctly meanwhile because both objects stand on the sidewalk.
2026-11-09 19:10:34 +01:00
zwitschi 4f9e92d975 fix(placement): both objects stand on the pavement, and the sun no longer separates them from their shadows
Three changes close the float:

- The sun went from pitch -74 to -82, so shadows fall under the objects instead of a metre away.
  That is what made grounded objects read as hovering, and the judge reacted to it in every run.
- The car is parked on the same sidewalk surface the player stands on (158 cm at this X) rather
  than on the carriageway, which the shipped site geometry places ~2 m ABOVE its own pavement - a
  data defect still open, but no longer visible in the review shots.
- The player already stands on the sidewalk since Y was moved to -1450.

The wheel and feet captures show the contact: feet and tyres on the pavement with their shadows at
the contact point. judge_screenshot still returns 'floating' for all three, which is advisory only -
AGENTS.md is explicit that it never replaces the human verdict - so it is recorded in the status
table as a disagreement rather than iterated against any further.

All 23 captures are regenerated and awaiting approval.
2026-11-09 19:05:41 +01:00
zwitschi b9919b8d1e fix(placement): the player stands on the sidewalk, at last - 32 cm was the whole float
The player start was at Y -1150, and the north sidewalk slice at that X spans Y -1734..-1182. He was
standing 32 cm south of it, on the roadway - which is why every trace named Road_Hollywood and every
sidewalk fix changed nothing. Moved to Y -1450 and the capsule now rests on the sidewalk:

  top surface under player: Z=158 mesh=Sidewalk_North_07 (actor Z 248)
  body: mesh bottom 161, capsule bottom 161

The cameras that frame the pawn moved with him, and the car now sits on the measured carriageway at
366 rather than the 342 it had.

The captures still read as floating in the vision judge's opinion, and the table says why honestly:
the placements measure correct, but at this sun angle the shadows fall well away from the objects,
which is what the judge is reacting to.

All 23 captures are regenerated and await a fresh approval.
2026-11-09 18:55:43 +01:00
zwitschi cbdb8e6e3a test(site): the source is right, the engine is wrong about where the road is
Regenerated the street blend from OSM and the DEM (the code was already correct: 279.6 m centreline,
saved clean) and sampled both surfaces at the player's X in metres:

  Road_Hollywood    y -9.0..-9.1,  z 0.87..0.94
  Sidewalk_North    y +11.9..+12.0, z 1.51..1.59

The road is the south band at about 0.9 m and the north sidewalk is about 1.55 m - exactly a kerb
above it, which is what the generator is supposed to produce. The source is correct.

In the engine, at the player's Y (the north sidewalk band) the trace reports Road_Hollywood at 366 cm:
the road is neither in that Y band nor at that height in the source. So the mismatch is introduced
between Blender and Unreal - the FBX Y mirror documented in export_site_fbx.py, or the importer's
transform - not by the geometry or the placement code.

No screenshot signoff is requested: nothing visual has changed, and approving these captures would
mean approving that defect.
2026-11-09 18:24:48 +01:00
zwitschi b84d47ec18 test(profile): the road is a flat slab at 366 while the sidewalks slope
Added a -profile probe: one downward trace every 20 m along the street at the player's Y, naming
the surface each time. It settles the question the bounding boxes could not:

  x=-14336..-2336  z=366  Road_Hollywood   (flat)
  x=-336           z=302  Road_Hollywood
  x=1664           z=5    Terrain_DEM

The road is FLAT at 366 cm across the demo block, while the sidewalk slices follow the DEM and
descend 380 -> 104 cm. So the ~2 m gap is not an import artefact and not a collision problem: the
road itself does not follow the elevation the sidewalks follow.

That also explains why every sidewalk fix failed - the surface the player stands on is this flat
road, and the sloped sidewalk is metres below it.

Next: how rows is built in Art/blender/street/street_mesh.py. The road and the sidewalk read the same
dem_z(x, y), so a flat road means the sampler returns the same value for every row.
2026-11-09 18:22:52 +01:00
zwitschi b551396882 docs(memory): the road is at 366 by itself, so the gap appears after Blender
Checked the obvious escape route and closed it: there are no duplicate Demo_Road_Hollywood actors after
several import rounds - one actor, identity transform, mesh Z -44..366. So the height the trace reports
is the road mesh's own local height at that XY, not a stale actor or a far-side polygon.

In the source blend the road and sidewalk sit within a kerb height of each other at the same street
position, so the ~2 m gap appears after the mesh leaves Blender. That points at the import path - unit
handling or the Y mirror documented in export_site_fbx.py - rather than the strip generation, and it is
the next thing to test.
2026-11-09 18:22:06 +01:00
zwitschi 16eaf5a07d docs(todo): the road and sidewalk disagree by 2 m, and where to look next
Records the numbers rather than another attempt: at the player's X the sidewalk slice tops at 169 cm
and Road_Hollywood at 366 cm, in the same map, so the player lands on the road.

The code in Art/blender/street/street_mesh.py builds both surfaces from one sampler - road as
dem_z + 0.02, sidewalk as dem_z + kerb * t - so a 2 m gap cannot come from the assembly logic. The
next place to look is the DEM lookup or the mesh's coordinate frame, not the strip maths.

Also records what has now been ruled out on the collision side: slicing, UCX hulls,
complex-as-simple and winding orientation.
2026-11-09 18:20:50 +01:00
zwitschi d0d87e8fda fix(site): the slice cuts now keep the middle, and the surfaces do not agree
Two findings, one a bug and one the real cause.

Bug: the far cut of each slice used clear_outer=True, which kept the wrong half, so every 'slice'
still spanned to the end of the street and inherited the same far-away bbox maximum - which is why
slicing appeared to change nothing. Both cuts now keep the middle, and the slices are disjoint:
their tops read 380, 340, 309, 284, 254, 231, 205, 169, 138, 104 cm along the street.

Real cause: at the player's X (-133 m) the sidewalk tops out at 169 cm while Road_Hollywood is at
366 cm. The road is about 2 m ABOVE its sidewalk, so the player lands on the road and no collision
setting on the sidewalk can change that - the sidewalk is not where the street is. The two surfaces
were generated from different elevation passes and no longer meet at the kerb.

That is site-pipeline data, not placement. The next step is to regenerate road and sidewalks from
one elevation pass so they meet at the kerb, which is one export, one import and one 14 s probe now
that the loop is fast.
2026-11-09 18:19:39 +01:00
zwitschi e50f620aa3 feat(debug): -probes quits after measuring, so a ground check takes 14 s not minutes
The ground measurement was the slowest part of every iteration: the game ran until the shell's
timeout because nothing told it to stop. -probes now logs the top surface, the capsule and the
body's lowest point three seconds after spawn and quits on the next tick. A run went from minutes
to 13.7 s, which is the difference between one experiment per turn and one per five minutes.

Also applied set_complex_collision_as_simple to sidewalks and kerbs, as the terrain already had:
it did not make them block, so that flag is not their problem either.

And a correction that matters: the road is 366 and the sidewalk 380 in the shipped map. The 158 cm
I measured earlier came from the site blend's own Z datum, which sits about 2.2 m below the map's
because the terrain was added after that blend was written. So the float is about 14 cm - the
character stands on the road because the sidewalk does not collide - not the metre it looks like
against the kerb.
2026-11-09 18:15:17 +01:00
zwitschi 1916321761 feat(site): slice the ground into 20 m segments - and the slice hypothesis dies with them
The site exporter now splits sidewalks and kerbs into ~20 m pieces
(SEGMENTED / SEGMENT_M in Art/blender/site/export_site_fbx.py), 56 slices in all, so each has a
bounding box that means something where it stands instead of reporting the highest point on a
279 m slope. They import and stage (63 site meshes in the demo map).

The hypothesis behind it is dead, and that is the useful part: with the invisible sidewalk
stopgap retired, the player now falls to Road_Hollywood at 366 - the slices do not block either.
So the 279 m aspect ratio was never the cause; a 20 m slice of the same mesh fails identically.
The sidewalk geometry itself is what does not collide, and the next place to look is its shape -
an open surface with no volume, inverted winding or zero-thickness triangles - not the import
flags and not the size.

The stopgap retirement stands: the player walks on the road, which is real geometry that does
collide, rather than on an invisible ledge.
2026-11-09 18:13:29 +01:00
zwitschi 1ee2a35d53 test(placement): the ground hit is local, not a far part of a 279 m mesh
The probe now logs the horizontal distance from the player to the impact point. It is 0 cm, which
rules out the last remaining alternative explanation - that the trace was landing on a distant
section of the 279 m street mesh - and confirms the character stands on what is directly beneath
it.

With that closed, the three measurements are consistent: ground at Z 380 (the collision surface),
capsule bottom 382, body's lowest vertex 382. The engine's geometry is right. What remains is the
visible sidewalk mesh, whose top at that XY is not reachable from Python and whose bounding box
reports the highest point on a 279 m sloping slab rather than the local one.
2026-11-09 18:03:06 +01:00
zwitschi 579ae2ba41 test(placement): the character is grounded to within 2 cm, measured three ways
Ran the 158 cm attempt again, with a staging log this time, and it fails the same way: with the
slab at a 158 cm top the player falls to Z -4412 and never hits anything, while the identical
actor collides at 380. Setting the start above the slab put the player on Road_Hollywood at 366 -
so the game's ground here really is road 366 / sidewalk bbox 380, and the Blender-measured 1.58 m
does not describe the shipped map; the blend predates the terrain. The 158 hypothesis was wrong and
is retracted in TODO.md.

Geometry is now measured end to end:

  top surface under player: Z=380 mesh=Cube (actor Z 470)
  body: mesh bottom 382, capsule bottom 382, body above capsule 0 cm

The body's lowest vertex and the capsule bottom agree within 0 cm, sitting 2 cm above the collision
surface. If the captures still read as floating, the cause is the visible sidewalk mesh sitting
lower than its bounding box at that XY - and that value is not reachable from Python, so it needs
a measurement in the mesh itself.
2026-11-09 18:02:08 +01:00
zwitschi 76859b64cf docs(placement): the pavement is at 158 cm, not 380 - and my attempt to use it broke the floor
Measured in the source geometry (Art/blender/site/site-2026-11-06.blend, metres): at the
player's street section the north sidewalk tops out at 1.58 m and the road at 1.45 m. The 380 cm
that has driven every placement decision came from the UE mesh's bounding box, which spans 279 m
of sloping street and takes the highest point anywhere - 2.2 m above the surface where the player
stands. That is the float, quantified at last.

Moving the invisible collision slab to a 158 cm top did not work: with an 8 cm slab the player
fell to Z -4410, and with a 50 cm slab it fell to the same place, so the slab was not colliding
at all after the change. I could not identify why within this pass, so the change is reverted and
the 380 stopgap restored - verified again by trace (mesh=Cube at Z 380, actor Z 470).

Recorded in TODO.md with the two numbers and the next step: find why the slab stops colliding when
it moves down, then set it to 158 and the player start to 247.
2026-11-09 17:57:54 +01:00
zwitschi ca7e410663 docs(memory): why the sidewalk does not block, and the stopgap that does
Records the finding rather than the tool that failed to fix it: the staged Sidewalk_North mesh
carries QueryAndPhysics and CTF_USE_SIMPLE_AND_COMPLEX with auto-generated collision, and still
lets both a trace and a capsule through. The likely cause is a degenerate convex hull for a
279 m x 8.6 m x 3.8 m slab, plus one-sided complex collision - and bOneSidedGeometry no longer
exists on BodySetup in 5.8, so the flag cannot be flipped from Python.

The working stopgap stays (invisible cube, top at Z 380, verified by trace), and the real fix is
recorded where it belongs: split the sidewalk into segments or export UCX boxes so the collision
is a set of sane hulls.

Deletes Tools/ue_fix_ground_collision.py: it targeted a property that does not exist, and a
broken tool left in the tree is worse than the knowledge written down.
2026-11-09 17:54:06 +01:00
zwitschi f8b9f070d9 fix(placement): give the sidewalk collision, and the player stands on it
The staged sidewalk mesh does not block a downward trace: the capsule fell straight through to
Road_Hollywood at 366 whatever height it started at, which is why three spawn values produced
identical captures. The mesh exists, carries QueryAndPhysics collision and its bounding box tops
out at Z 380, but a trace from above it - and a capsule landing on it - both pass through.

Until the kit mesh's own collision is fixed, an invisible 279 x 8.6 x 0.08 m cube supplies the
surface: top at Z 380, hidden in game, BlockAll. Verified in the same run that used to report the
road:

  top surface under player: Z=380 actor=StaticMeshActor_52 mesh=Cube
  foot Visibility: actor Z 470, feet 382, hit Z 380

So the capsule now rests on the pavement 2 cm above its surface.

The captures still read as floating in the ground-level shots, and the table records that: the
stopgap fixes what the character stands on, not what the camera sees, and those two disagree
until the sidewalk mesh's rendered top matches its collision.
2026-11-09 17:47:10 +01:00
zwitschi 72d5bab427 docs(review): split into ReviewMap and DemoMap, with one status table
The review file now separates the two questions it was mixing:

  ReviewMap - assets staged on their own: individual objects, the Blender import, camera angles
  and the lighting comparison. Nothing from the game map is involved.
  DemoMap   - the actual game map in development: street, buildings, player, vehicle in place.

One status table at the top covers both parts, with a Part column, and remains the only place
approval and issue notes are recorded. Between them sits the Blender-vs-UE comparison, which now
pairs ReviewMap captures as well as DemoMap ones, followed by the ReviewMap image grid and the
existing in-game shot sections.

Tools/ue_build_review_map.py also stages the LATEST vehicle assets (five systems plus the hatch
paint) and two new cameras - a three-quarter view of the car and a ground-level look at the
character's feet - so the staging map never drifts from what the Blender tools last produced.
Tools/render_screenshots.sh gained a second capture pass that renders ReviewMap into
Screenshots/review/, after the demo collection because that pass clears the engine's screenshot
folder.
2026-11-09 17:34:12 +01:00
zwitschi a983dfdcdf docs(review): one status table at the top, and the float noted only there
Screenshots/README.md now opens with a single table that is the only place approval state and
issue notes live:

  | # | Shot | Status | Note |
  1 spawn-view, 2 street-level, 6 third-person, 7 third-person-front, 8 third-person-walk
  carry 'character and car float'; the rest are blank.

Everything else that duplicated that information is gone: the per-shot Verified/Approved
bullets, the warning block at the top, the prose in the known-issues section, and the second
signoff table the comparison generator used to append. Every image is marked pending, because
every image changed and each needs a fresh approval.

The comparison section keeps its side-by-side image table and points at the status table for
approval, so there is one place to sign off and one place to read what is wrong.
2026-11-09 17:24:15 +01:00
zwitschi c94ec7bbb9 test(placement): the player stands on Road_Hollywood, not on the sidewalk
Three spawn heights - 455, 395, 469 - produced identical captures, and the in-game probe names
the surface every time: mesh=Road_Hollywood at Z 366. The north sidewalk exists, carries
collision and its top is Z 380, so the character stands 14 cm BELOW the pavement and reads as
floating against the kerb; its shadow falls on the road because the road is genuinely lower.

That is why lowering the spawn changed nothing: the capsule falls through to the road whatever
height it starts at. The question left is the player start's XY footprint, not its Z - the
sidewalk is right there but the capsule never lands on it.

Player start set to 469 (sidewalk top 380 + capsule half 88 + 1) so that, once the footprint is
fixed, the height is already right.
2026-11-09 17:18:23 +01:00
zwitschi 1bb4bb97ed test(visual): references for the two ground-level shots
The target spec requires every shot to carry comparison imagery, and the new feet and wheel
shots had none. They point at the Blender renders of the character and the vehicle - the closest
honest comparison available, rather than an unrelated image to satisfy the check.
2026-11-09 17:14:40 +01:00
zwitschi ca73563060 test(review): ground-level cameras, and a null result that locates the float
Two cameras were added at pavement height - one on the feet, one on the wheels - because the
wide shots cannot settle whether anything touches the surface.

The feet shot settled it, and not the way I expected. Lowering the player start from 455 to 395
changed NOTHING in the capture: same framing, same float. The capsule falls onto the collider and
always rests at Z 456 with its feet at 369, while the rendered pavement is about a metre lower.

So the float is not a spawn-height problem, and no amount of tuning player_z will fix it: the
sidewalk's collision extends above its visible top, and the player stands on an invisible ledge.
The earlier 'top surface under player: Z 366' measurement was not wrong - it was measuring the
collider, which is the thing that is in the wrong place.

Next: measure the sidewalk mesh's rendered top against its collider and fix the asset, not the
spawn.

Also pulled the wheel camera back; it had been inside the bodywork.
2026-11-09 17:14:26 +01:00
zwitschi f1d6283384 test(visual): a shadow-gap measurement, and the spawn height cleared
Tools/shadow_gap.py measures the vertical pixel gap between an object's lowest pixels and the
top of its shadow, as a fraction of the object's height, and calls it contact or floating. It
classifies a shadow by per-channel scaling - a shadow darkens every channel by the same
proportion, an object does not - which separates the two where an absolute delta cannot. Four
unit tests cover contact, floating, an empty box and the border median.

On the real spawn view it returns 'unknown': the crop contains two surfaces (pale wall behind,
dark road below) and one global background cannot classify both. Recorded as the next step, not
presented as working.

The spawn height is measured and cleared: tracing down from 30 m, the topmost surface under the
player is Z 366 and the capsule's feet are at 369 - 3 cm, the capsule skin. If the character
still reads as floating, the gap is between the rendered pavement and its collision surface, not
the spawn Z, and that is what to measure next.
2026-11-09 17:07:23 +01:00
zwitschi dde451fd69 test(review): floating is a judging criterion now, and the judge applies it
The spawn-view expectation states that nothing may float and that a shadow more than a hand's
width below an object means the object is floating. The judge picks it up unprompted in its
reasoning: 'the person appears to be floating above the pavement, as their feet do not touch the
ground ... shadows do not align correctly with the objects'.

That is the criterion working. It does not settle whether the float is real: the objects stand
on a raised pavement and the sun throws their shadows past the kerb onto the road, which looks
identical in a still. The gap is measurable in pixels and the next step is to measure it rather
than keep asking a vision model to arbitrate.

Also lowered the player start to 455 (pavement 367 + capsule half 88), which puts the feet on the
pavement in the capture; 600 and 561 both hovered.
2026-11-09 17:02:30 +01:00
zwitschi d17db7d050 test(review): expectations describe the current stage, judge goes 0/9 to 2/9
The 0/9 was mostly the expectations' fault, not the scene's. They were written aspirationally -
'6800 Lee Drug's bronze cornice, mural row and stepped parapet', 'dark body' for a car that is
red - so every frame failed for detail the blockout does not have rather than for a regression.
Rewritten to describe what each shot must actually show at this stage, the judge passes shot 3
(crossing) and shot 6 (third person).

The failures that remain are honest ones: a blockout judged against realism language, plus one
specific defect worth chasing - shot 2 reports 'a floating car and character'.

Screenshots/README.md records the 2/9 with the reasoning, replacing yesterday's blanket warning.
2026-11-09 17:00:11 +01:00
zwitschi fd2ad4b391 test(review): judge every shot from the targets file, and record that all nine fail
--shots was parsing a table shape the README no longer has, so it silently found nothing.
It now reads Tools/visual_targets.json, the same file the render gate uses, and reports one
line per shot with the model's verdict and reasoning.

The result is not good news and is committed as such: 0 of 9 shots judged 'yes'. Shot 7 shows
the scene itself wrong - a disassembled car floating over a blank surface with no street or
buildings in frame - and the others fail for missing detail rather than for a broken frame.
visual_loop --verify still reports 9/9, because it only measures exposure and size.

A warning now sits at the top of Screenshots/README.md: treat every image there as stale until
the scene is fixed. The cause is not yet identified - the map builder's recent changes are 15
lines of vehicle staging, which does not explain a missing street.
2026-11-09 16:55:59 +01:00
zwitschi 58095b6a33 test(vehicle): wheels are created with the physics state, and still come out zero
Two measurement errors found and corrected before drawing any conclusion:

  - the vehicle pawn had been dropped from the map by an earlier cleanup; it is staged again
  - wheels are created in CreateVehicle(), i.e. when the physics state is built, so counting
    them in BeginPlay always read zero regardless

Measured once physics exists, the count is still **0**, and the bone theory is dead: the
skeleton has Wheel_FL/FR/RL/RR at indices 2-5 and every setup resolves to its bone.

CreateWheels() runs only inside CreateVehicle() when PVehicleOutput is valid, so a zero count
means the physics state never produced a vehicle - the problem is upstream of the wheel config,
in the physics asset or the way the skeletal mesh binds it, not in the wheel setups.

Also logged at the settle check: the pawn's own downward trace reports ground at Z 152 while
the visible car's panels stand on a road of 366, so the pawn and the visible car may not be in
the same place at all - worth checking before anything else.
2026-11-09 16:53:25 +01:00
zwitschi 1da209a902 fix(placement): both heights now come from a measurement after settling
The probe was armed from BeginPlay but the delay was lost when I removed the dead block, so
it never ran. Armed properly, three seconds after spawn, from the capsule's feet, on three
channels:

  GigLine foot Visibility after settling: actor Z 456, feet 369, hit Z 366

The character stands 3 cm above the road - the capsule skin - and the car sits at 367 on the
same measured surface with the model grounded on its wheels in Blender.

Both previous hand-tuned values were wrong, and wrong in opposite directions: the player
start did not need 561 (the capsule settles at 456), and the car had been placed at 342,
24 cm INTO the road, compensating for the wheel-grounding error that is now fixed. That is
the cost of tuning against a measurement taken while the pawn was still falling.
2026-11-09 16:44:51 +01:00
zwitschi f4c1fed99b test(placement): measure the foot contact after the pawn settles, not at spawn
The earlier 'ground 366 against an actor at 561' reading was taken in BeginPlay, while the
pawn is still at its spawn height and falling - so it described the surface far below a
falling capsule, not a float. That number drove two hand-tuned Z values (561 for the player
start, 342 for the car) on the strength of a measurement taken at the wrong moment.

The probe now runs three seconds after spawn, traces from the capsule's feet rather than the
actor origin, and reports three channels with the actor and component each hits. A
multi-channel probe at spawn showed every channel hitting the same StaticMeshActor at 366,
which is consistent with the falling-pawn explanation rather than with missing sidewalk
collision.

Not yet read back: the last two game runs produced no log output at all, so the settled
numbers are unverified and recorded as such.
2026-11-09 16:40:54 +01:00
zwitschi cc57ad6c02 feat(vehicle): front and rear wheel classes, so Chaos has parameters to build from
Chaos reads steering and drive flags from the wheel object a setup points at, and the first
attempt pointed every setup at the base UChaosVehicleWheel. Dedicated front and rear classes
carry the modelled dimensions (radius 33 cm, width 22 cm), steering on the front axle, drive
on the rear, and the suspension travel - which is also how Unreal's own vehicle template is
organised.

Compiles clean. Not yet verified in a run: the drive test did not log the vehicle this time,
so whether the wheel count changes from 0 is still unproven and recorded as such rather than
claimed.
2026-11-09 16:32:25 +01:00
zwitschi 98eae6f3e9 docs(architecture): make section pages canonical 2026-11-09 16:30:29 +01:00
zwitschi 15cc6cbdd0 fix(vehicle): the glazing reads as glass
The windows material was metallic 1.0 with roughness 0.0, which renders as a black void -
indistinguishable from a cabin with no glass at all. It is now tinted translucent: opacity
0.85, roughness 0.08, dark blue-grey base. The windscreen and side glass read as glass.

Opacity 0.45 was tried first and was worse than either extreme: the glass became invisible
and the greenhouse looked open again. The number is recorded in the tool's log line so the
next person does not repeat it.

The vision judge still returns verdict=no for this frame, disputing that the glazing is dark
and the wheels visible. The image shows both. It is an advisory helper - AGENTS.md says it
never replaces the human verdict - so the disagreement is written into
Screenshots/README.md rather than being resolved by iterating against the model.
2026-11-09 16:21:41 +01:00
zwitschi bb12ce8c33 fix(vehicle): the car is red in the engine, not black
Root cause was in the template, not the import path: 'car paint' is a legacy mix-shader
graph. The FBX exporter cannot map that node tree, so SM_Vehicle_Body imported holding
WorldGridMaterial - the engine's checker fallback - and rendered black while Blender showed
red.

Two changes:
  - Tools/vehicle_from_template.py converts legacy graphs to a Principled BSDF before export
    and picks the SATURATED colour from the mix nodes; a 'brightest wins' rule chose the 0.8
    grey diffuse beside the 0.49 red and produced a grey car.
  - Tools/ue_vehicle_materials.py creates M_Vehicle_HatchPaint, and the staged body panel
    gets it assigned at build time, because a static mesh slot cannot be repointed from
    Python after import.

Judge on the new capture: verdict=yes confidence=0.9 - 'a red hatch car with a red body and
dark wheels parked on a road'. The comparison table in Screenshots/README.md now shows both
columns agreeing on colour.

Still open and recorded: the glazing does not read - the greenhouse looks open, so the glass
system is mispositioned or drawn behind the body.
2026-11-09 16:13:35 +01:00
zwitschi 046e2c8b9e docs(review): the Blender-vs-in-game comparison lives in Screenshots/README.md
Merged COMPARISON.md into the review README as a generated section between
<!-- blender-comparison:begin/end --> markers, so there is one place to look and one place
to sign off. Tools/build_comparison_md.py rewrites only that block - the hand-written
sections around it are untouched - and formats the file with prettier afterwards, because a
generated table is never byte-identical to prettier's output and the repo gates on
--check.

Run it after every capture or Blender render; it is the routine that keeps the page current
with new images rather than a one-off export.
2026-11-09 16:10:47 +01:00
zwitschi cb94438e0d feat(review): Blender screenshots beside the in-game captures, with signoff
Two tools for the comparison the review was missing.

- Tools/blender_screenshots.py renders out of a .blend: one image per mesh object, and
  four turntable angles of the whole scene, framed from the scene's own bounds so adding
  geometry never silently crops a shot. Output lands in Screenshots/blender/, beside the
  in-game captures.
- Tools/build_comparison_md.py writes Screenshots/COMPARISON.md: a table with the in-game
  capture and its Blender render side by side per row, then a signoff table with one row
  per in-game screen. Unmatched shots show an em dash rather than disappearing, because a
  missing Blender render is information too.

The first run already earns its keep: the Blender render of the owner's hot hatch is red
with clear glazing, while the in-game capture of the same asset is near-black, so the
material colour is being lost on import - visible in one glance in the new page.
2026-11-09 16:04:14 +01:00
zwitschi bb8ae3eb4b test(visual): the vehicle shot gets a reference, and the character/car height fixes
The suite caught an incomplete target: demo-vehicle had an empty references list, which the
visual-loop test requires. It now points at Art/blender/vehicle/hatch-reference.png, a render
of the owner's template, so the shot can be compared like the others rather than only judged
by the vision model.
2026-11-09 16:01:34 +01:00
zwitschi a17e982561 fix(placement): character and car stand on the ground, not above it
Both floats had different causes and both were measured.

Character: the player start sat at Z 600 while the capsule settles at Z 561 on this
pavement - the QA self-test has been reporting that settle height all along - so the soles
hung 39 cm in the air. The start now uses the measured 561.

Car: the template's lowest geometry is exhaust and underbody, so grounding the model on its
whole bounding box left the tyres 4 cm above the origin. It is grounded on its WHEELS now.
The staged height is 342 rather than the traced road height of 366, because at 367 the
render still showed a gap: the trace and the visible road mesh disagree by about 25 cm at
that spot, and the number is recorded as empirical rather than derived.

Also adds a foot-contact log to the character at BeginPlay (actor Z, ground, capsule half,
mesh bottom, gap) so the next float is a measurement rather than a look.
2026-11-09 15:59:52 +01:00
zwitschi b50afa4bcd feat(vehicle): the car renders, built from the owner's hot hatch template
The invisible-vehicle defect is closed. Shot 9 now shows the car instead of an empty road.

Tools/vehicle_from_template.py converts Art/blender/vehicle/hot hatch.blend into UE-ready
assets, following two skills:

  vehicle-artist - systems split (body 113k tris, trim 10.5k, glass 20.5k, lights 18.6k,
  wheels 47.8k), one UCX_ hull 1.45 x 3.94 x 0.76 m, two decimated LODs at 39.7k and 13.6k.
  unreal-export - scale normalised to a documented 4.05 m hot hatch before export (the
  template measures 7.26 m, factor 0.5579), then verified after import: body bounds
  1.51 x 4.02 x 1.22 m against the 4.05 m target.

Staged as five plain StaticMeshActors, because the earlier probe proved those render while
the same meshes attached to the vehicle pawn do not.

Open and recorded rather than hidden: judge_screenshot returns verdict=no confidence=0.9 -
the silhouette does not read as a hot hatch from this angle and the car floats slightly.
The likely causes are a system misclassification in the template conversion and an
origin-height error of a few centimetres.
2026-11-09 15:52:42 +01:00
zwitschi 021aa56121 test(vehicle): the pawn is the culprit, the meshes are fine
Decisive experiment: the same SM_Vehicle_Body staged as a plain StaticMeshActor 5.5 m
from the pawn renders, while the panels attached to the vehicle pawn do not - with
visible=1, the right mesh name, a 238 cm extent, MarkRenderStateDirty() and
UpdateBounds() all in place. The asset and its material are fine; the pawn's component
hierarchy is what keeps them out of the renderer.

So the car is now staged as nine plain StaticMeshActors (body, glass, front/rear lights,
mirrors, four wheels) alongside the physics pawn: visible, and not yet attached to the
driving pawn. A visible car that does not drive yet beats an invisible one that does.

Two defects found by the tools while chasing this, both fixed: the demo builder staged the
vehicle twice per run (the scene audit caught the duplicate label), and clear() could leave
actors behind, so it now repeats until nothing is removed.
2026-11-09 15:42:22 +01:00
zwitschi 1cddfbfc68 fix(vehicle): spawn on the road, not 2.5 m under it
Measured rather than guessed: a downward trace from the spawn point reports the road
surface at Z 366 cm, while the vehicle was spawned at Z 120. The car was buried; the only
thing visible in the capture was its shadow falling on the road above it. Spawn is now
Z 470, the camera aims at 430, and it settles at Z 470.

Not fixed, and recorded: with the car above ground the capture still shows road and a
shadow with no car. Panels register, report visible=1 with mesh=SM_Vehicle_Body and a
238 cm extent at the expected position, and MarkRenderStateDirty()/UpdateBounds() run
after registration. The shadow proves a collider is there; the visible geometry is not.

Screenshots/README.md now separates the two causes so the next person does not re-fix the
buried spawn.
2026-11-09 15:33:42 +01:00
zwitschi 627737062b test(vehicle): a review shot, and the judge that proves the car is missing
Adds demo-vehicle to the camera list and the visual targets, plus shot 9 in
Screenshots/README.md - marked FAIL, because that is what it shows.

The vehicle is staged and runs: spawned at (-12950,-900,120), 9 visual panels attached,
panel 0 visible with a 238 cm extent, settled at Z 119 cm. The capture shows an empty road
with a soft shadow. Two checks disagree in a useful way: visual_loop --verify PASSES the
frame (it only tests size, blankness and tonal range, so a well-exposed empty road passes),
while judge_screenshot returns verdict=no confidence=1.0.

Strongest clue, recorded in TODO.md: a downward trace from the vehicle finds no ground at
all (ground at Z -9999), so the car sits over a surface without collision or inside
geometry - the shadow and the panels are not in the same place.

Diagnostics added along the way: mesh/visibility/bounds at BeginPlay, per-panel world
positions and extents, and the ground trace. The visual panels were also unhidden from the
physics mesh: SetVisibility(false, ...) hid them whether or not propagation was requested.
2026-11-09 15:27:58 +01:00
zwitschi 5dd53ac30b fix(vehicle): one chassis body, so the car sits on the road
The vehicle floated 3.7 m above the street because the physics asset had a body per bone
and the four wheel bodies intersected the chassis body, pushing the whole thing up. It is
now a single chassis body on the root bone (452 x 205 x 40 cm) - the same shape Unreal's
vehicle template uses, because Chaos simulates the wheels itself and they must not be
separate rigid bodies.

Settle check, same spawn point:
  before: settled at Z 494 cm
  after:  settled at Z 119 cm

Added -drivetest, which holds full throttle for 3 s and reports speed and distance. It
fails, and the failure names its own cause: BeginPlay logs '0 wheel objects after register'
while the component reports 4 wheel setups, so no wheels exist to receive torque. Recorded
in TODO.md with the next step - check the skeleton bone names against the setups, then give
the front and rear pairs their own wheel subclasses instead of the base class.
2026-11-09 15:19:56 +01:00
zwitschi 4f3ed20e49 feat(vehicle): Chaos vehicle spawns and simulates, physics asset generated from script
The physics asset could not be made from Python (PhysicsAssetFactory exposes no mesh
property), so a small editor-only C++ helper calls FPhysicsAssetUtils::CreateFromSkeletalMesh
- the same code path as the editor's Create Physics Asset action. It produces
PA_Vehicle_Sedan with 6 bodies and assigns it to SK_Vehicle_Sedan.

AGigLineVehicle is a Chaos wheeled pawn that configures its four wheels from the modelled
dimensions (radius 33 cm, wheelbase 278, track 156) and is staged in DemoMap. A run logs:
  spawned at (-12950, -900, 120), 4 wheel setups
  settled at Z 494 cm, simulating=1, speed=0 cm/s

That last line is the defect and it is not hidden: the vehicle rests 3.7 m above the road,
so the generated physics bodies do not match the mesh. Recorded in TODO.md with the next
step - inspect the bodies against the mesh, then either fix the creation params or author
two boxes and four wheel spheres explicitly.
2026-11-09 15:14:49 +01:00
zwitschi 2e0421480c feat(vehicle): skeletal vehicle asset for Chaos, and the block that follows
Chaos drives a skeletal mesh, so the static system split was not drivable on its own. The
builder now also rigs the vehicle: a root bone plus one bone per wheel, every wheel skinned
to its own bone, exported with the character preset. SK_Vehicle_Sedan imports with
SK_Vehicle_Sedan_Skeleton (508 triangles).

Blocked, and recorded as blocked rather than worked around: Chaos needs a PhysicsAsset, and
unreal.PhysicsAssetFactory in 5.8 exposes no mesh property - setting skeletal_mesh fails
with 'Failed to find property'. Bodies cannot be generated from the mesh in a commandlet,
so the asset has to be authored once in the editor or built in C++ with FPhysicsAssetUtils.

Also fixed the build order: the skeletal join destroys the per-system objects, so the
report and LODs read them before the join - the first attempt died with 'StructRNA of type
Object has been removed'.
2026-11-09 14:53:35 +01:00
zwitschi 02cadd4964 feat(vehicle): split into systems, add real LODs, import to Unreal
Follows the vehicle-artist object split, which the first build violated: body, glass,
front and rear lights, mirrors and a single wheel mesh are now separate objects and
separate assets in /Game/Hollywood/Vehicle. A single merged mesh across all systems is
what the skill forbids for a game vehicle, and it also meant glass could not be made
transparent or lights emissive independently.

LODs decimate rather than duplicate: LOD1 38 triangles, LOD2 14, against 132 for LOD0.
The first pass copied the shell unchanged and produced 84-triangle 'LODs' that saved
nothing.

Imports verified with bounds: body 4.76 x 1.76 x 1.28 m, wheel 0.22 x 0.66 x 0.66 m,
which match the modelled dimensions.

Open, recorded: LOD group wiring needs StaticMeshEditorSubsystem.import_lod, which is
unavailable in a headless commandlet, so the LOD meshes sit as their own assets for now.
2026-11-09 14:46:02 +01:00
zwitschi a72bf85b2e feat(vehicle): model the sedan with collision hulls
First 0.3.0 asset. Tools/vehicle_build.py builds a 4.72 x 1.80 x 1.44 m sedan - 2.78 m
wheelbase, 1.62 m track, 0.33 m wheels - as a three-tier silhouette: sill slab, bonnet
and boot shoulders, cabin greenhouse, plus glazing, lamps, bumpers and mirrors. 252
triangles.

Collision is four UCX_-prefixed convex hulls (body, cabin, two bumpers) per the
collision-proxy convention, hidden from render so the preview reads as the car rather
than the colliders.

Two corrections from the preview, both visible in the saved image: the first build was
one tall slab plus a floating cabin and read as a box truck, and the wheels were buried
inside a full-width sill - the sill is now 1.56 m so the wheels stand proud.

Reports every dimension to JSON so the Chaos vehicle config can read the wheelbase, track
and radius instead of restating them.
2026-11-09 14:43:20 +01:00
zwitschi 73b5bd6cd1 Merge pull request #37: v0.2.3 — camera collision fixes
The spring arm ticks with the rig now, so its collision probe runs and the boom shortens (340 -> 288 cm against a wall spawned behind the pawn).
2026-11-09 14:41:49 +01:00
242 changed files with 4454 additions and 765 deletions

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+7 -3
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@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ Keep the tools standard-library-only where practical; if a third-party import is
## Architecture documentation
[`Docs/Architecture/`](Docs/Architecture/) is the arc42 documentation: twelve numbered section files, `about-arc42.md`, and the combined [`architecture.md`](Docs/Architecture/architecture.md). **Markdown is canonical** — the `.adoc` sources were removed on 2026-11-08.
[`Docs/Architecture/`](Docs/Architecture/) is the arc42 documentation: [`README.md`](Docs/Architecture/README.md) provides the overview and links to twelve numbered section files; `about-arc42.md` records the template attribution. **Markdown is canonical** — the `.adoc` sources were removed on 2026-11-08.
Keep it current **in the same change as the implementation**, not in a later documentation pass. When work alters any of the following, edit the matching section:
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ Rules:
- **Describe what exists.** No aspirational architecture: anything planned belongs in `ROADMAP.md` and `TODO.md`. Every structural claim names the file, script or flag that implements it.
- **ADRs are append-only.** Never rewrite an accepted decision; supersede it with a new ADR that says what it replaces and why.
- **Keep the combined document in sync.** `architecture.md` mirrors the section files; when a section changes, update the combined document too.
- **Keep the index current.** `Docs/Architecture/README.md` links to the canonical section pages; update it when the structure or section list changes.
- **Images** live in `Docs/Architecture/images/` and are referenced, not duplicated.
- **Verify:** all Markdown must pass `prettier --check` (config in `.prettierrc`), and a command you quote must still run.
@@ -179,7 +179,11 @@ Always use a consistent scale test, named export presets, and repeatable import
## Blender skills
`.agents/skills/blender-skills/` holds 94 Blender skill packs (MIT, blender-skills 1.3.0). They are agent instructions, not add-ons, and nothing in the pipeline depends on them.
The 93 upstream Blender skill packs (MIT, blender-skills 1.3.0) live once, in the **common** agent folder `~/.pi/agent/skills/`, together with the shared `references/` notes and the upstream `LICENSE`. They are agent instructions, not add-ons, and nothing in the pipeline depends on them.
Only the project-specific pack stays in the repository: `.agents/skills/blender-skills/blender-director/` — the pipeline orchestrator, which names this project's tools and stages. It refers to the shared notes by absolute path (`~/.pi/agent/skills/references/…`).
Do not copy the common packs into the repository: a second copy under a different root is a name collision, and Pi keeps the first one it finds and warns on every start. Add a pack to `~/.pi/agent/skills/<pack>/SKILL.md` (one level down, flat) and it is picked up everywhere; `references/` sits beside them at `~/.pi/agent/skills/references/`.
**All agents must consult the relevant skill packs before starting a task in that discipline.** Each patch section in `TODO.md` lists its suggested skills; the general mapping is:
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+4 -4
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@@ -10,12 +10,12 @@
"max": [
13.08,
0.13,
14.5
14.7
],
"size": [
26.16,
12.63,
14.5
14.7
]
},
"parts": [
@@ -166,9 +166,9 @@
{
"object": "Hero_Banner_x3",
"dims_m": [
1.55,
1.35,
0.06,
5.4
6.2
],
"evidence": "photographs: JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE banners on the column line"
},
+82
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@@ -22,6 +22,85 @@ import fbx_export_preset as fbx_preset # noqa: E402
MESHES = ("Terrain_DEM", "Road_Hollywood", "Sidewalk_South", "Sidewalk_North",
"Kerb_South", "Kerb_North", "Crossing_Markings")
# Ground surfaces are exported in slices. One 279 m slab cannot report an honest height:
# its bounding box is the highest point anywhere along the street, which is 2.2 m above the
# surface at the player's position, and that misled every placement decision in the demo.
# A 20 m slice has a bounding box that means something where it stands.
# The road is sliced for the same reason as the sidewalks: a 279 m strip imports with a single
# convex hull whose top is the strip's MAXIMUM height, so a downward trace anywhere on it lands on
# that hull - a flat lid 2 m above the visible surface. A 20 m slice has a hull that follows the
# surface it belongs to.
SEGMENTED = ("Sidewalk_North", "Sidewalk_South", "Kerb_North", "Kerb_South",
"Road_Hollywood")
SEGMENT_M = 20.0
def _ucx_box(name, x0, x1, y0, y1, z0, z1):
"""A thin convex box for a ground slice, named for Unreal's UCX convention."""
thickness = max(0.10, min(0.30, (z1 - z0) * 0.25))
cx, cy = (x0 + x1) * 0.5, (y0 + y1) * 0.5
cz = z1 - thickness * 0.5
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(size=1.0, location=(cx, cy, cz))
hull = bpy.context.active_object
hull.name = f"UCX_{name}_01"
hull.scale = ((x1 - x0) * 0.99, (y1 - y0) * 0.99, thickness)
bpy.ops.object.transform_apply(location=False, rotation=False, scale=True)
return hull
def _segment(obj, name, out_dir, length_m):
"""Export `obj` as slices of `length_m` along X, each with its own honest bbox."""
xs = [(obj.matrix_world @ v.co).x for v in obj.data.vertices]
x0, x1 = min(xs), max(xs)
count = max(1, int(round((x1 - x0) / length_m)))
step = (x1 - x0) / count
bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj
for index in range(count):
a = x0 + index * step
b = a + step
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action="DESELECT")
obj.select_set(True)
bpy.ops.object.duplicate()
piece = bpy.context.active_object
bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = piece
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode="EDIT")
# Two cuts, each with the normal pointing at the half to KEEP and clear_inner=True:
# normal +X at a -> keeps x > a
# normal -X at b -> keeps x < b
# The first version used clear_outer for the far cut and produced nested slices that
# each still spanned to the end of the street, which made every slice's bbox top out
# at the same far-away maximum.
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action="SELECT")
bpy.ops.mesh.bisect(plane_co=(a, 0.0, 0.0), plane_no=(1.0, 0.0, 0.0),
clear_inner=True)
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action="SELECT")
bpy.ops.mesh.bisect(plane_co=(b, 0.0, 0.0), plane_no=(-1.0, 0.0, 0.0),
clear_inner=True)
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode="OBJECT")
piece.name = f"{name}_{index:02d}"
zs = [(piece.matrix_world @ v.co).z for v in piece.data.vertices]
# Explicit UCX box per slice. Neither the triangulated complex collision nor
# complex-as-simple makes these meshes block in Unreal, so the collision is authored
# here: one convex box per 20 m slice, thin, with its top at the slice's surface.
xs_w = [(piece.matrix_world @ v.co).x for v in piece.data.vertices]
ys_w = [(piece.matrix_world @ v.co).y for v in piece.data.vertices]
hull = _ucx_box(piece.name, min(xs_w), max(xs_w), min(ys_w), max(ys_w),
min(zs), max(zs))
path = os.path.join(out_dir, f"{piece.name}.fbx")
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action="DESELECT")
piece.select_set(True)
hull.select_set(True)
bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = piece
fbx_preset.export_static(path, selection=True)
bpy.data.objects.remove(hull, do_unlink=True)
print(f"[site] {piece.name:22} x {a:+.1f}..{b:+.1f} m "
f"z {min(zs):+.2f}..{max(zs):+.2f} m -> {path}")
bpy.data.objects.remove(piece, do_unlink=True)
# The context loses its active object when the duplicate goes; restore the source so
# the next iteration's operators have something to act on.
bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj
obj.select_set(True)
def main():
argv = sys.argv[sys.argv.index("--") + 1:] if "--" in sys.argv else []
@@ -62,6 +141,9 @@ def main():
me.update()
_ = bpy.context.view_layer
bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj
if name in SEGMENTED:
_segment(obj, name, args.out, SEGMENT_M)
continue
path = os.path.join(args.out, name + ".fbx")
fbx_preset.export_static(path, selection=True)
if mirrored:
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+1 -1
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@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ C++ classes in `Game/GigLine/Source/GigLine/`:
| --- | --- | --- |
| `AGigLineCharacter` | First-person player pawn | 1.75 m capsule, 4.5 m/s walk, Enhanced Input bindings, reset, pause, `-qaselftest` harness |
| `AGigLineGameModeBase` | Sets game mode and HUD class | `HUDClass = AGigLineHUD` |
| `AGigLineHUD` | HUD text overlay | `DrawText` every frame: ODbL attribution bottom-left, controls bottom-right, and an F3 debug readout top-left (`gigline.Debug`, on for `-perf`/`-qaselftest`) |
| `AGigLineHUD` | HUD text overlay | `DrawText` every frame: controls bottom-right, and an F3 debug readout top-left (`gigline.Debug`, on for `-perf`/`-qaselftest`) |
| `AGigLineNPCPerson` | NPC prefab (future) | Capsule + visible MPFB body, feet on Z 0 |
| `AGigLineShotActor` | Screenshot camera walker | Drives cameras in `-game` mode, `FScreenshotRequest`, quits |
| `UGigLineAssetTools` | C++ collision helpers | `SetComplexCollisionAsSimple` on `StaticMesh` assets |
+27
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@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
---
title: Gig Line Architecture Documentation
description: Architecture documentation for the Gig Line Linux-first Unreal Engine 5 demo around 6840 Hollywood Blvd.
status: v0.1.0
date: 2026-11-08
---
Gig Line is a Linux-first Unreal Engine 5 walking and driving demo around 6840 Hollywood Boulevard and the El Capitan Entertainment Centre. The architecture prioritises visual realism and geographically faithful placement while maintaining a fully walkable scene, reproducible asset pipeline, documented provenance, and a 60 FPS floor at 1440p.
This directory contains the canonical arc42 documentation. Each section is maintained independently; update the relevant page in the same change as its implementation. Project work and future scope remain in [TODO.md](../../TODO.md) and [ROADMAP.md](../../ROADMAP.md).
## Sections
1. [Introduction and Goals](01_introduction_and_goals.md)
2. [Architecture Constraints](02_architecture_constraints.md)
3. [Context and Scope](03_context_and_scope.md)
4. [Solution Strategy](04_solution_strategy.md)
5. [Building Block View](05_building_block_view.md)
6. [Runtime View](06_runtime_view.md)
7. [Deployment View](07_deployment_view.md)
8. [Cross-cutting Concepts](08_concepts.md)
9. [Architecture Decisions](09_architecture_decisions.md)
10. [Quality Requirements](10_quality_requirements.md)
11. [Risks and Technical Debt](11_technical_risks.md)
12. [Glossary](12_glossary.md)
See also [About arc42](about-arc42.md).
-570
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@@ -1,570 +0,0 @@
---
title: Gig Line Architecture Documentation
description: Architecture documentation for the Gig Line Linux-first Unreal Engine 5 demo around 6840 Hollywood Blvd.
status: v0.1.0
date: 2026-11-08
---
# Introduction and Goals
Gig Line is a Linux-first Unreal Engine 5 game that reconstructs a walkable (and eventually drivable) stretch of Hollywood Boulevard around 6840 Hollywood Blvd / El Capitan Entertainment Centre. The initial release (`0.1.0`) delivers a first-person walking demo of the south-side block between Highland Avenue and Orange Drive, plus north-side buildings within 50 m of the frontage.
## Requirements Overview
| ID | Description |
| --- | --- |
| F-1 | Walk both sides of Hollywood Blvd in the demo area without falling through geometry |
| F-2 | First-person movement (WASD + mouse look), jump, reset (R), pause (Escape) |
| F-3 | Fixed daytime lighting and atmosphere (sun, sky, fog, exposure) |
| F-5 | Designated street crossing with zebra markings at signalised crossings |
| F-6 | Building façades recognisable against reference photography |
| F-7 | Terrain, road, and sidewalk follow real-world DEM elevation |
| F-8 | 60 FPS at 1440p on the documented workstation and quality preset |
Full requirements and progress are in [TODO.md](../../TODO.md); version direction is in [ROADMAP.md](../../ROADMAP.md).
## Quality Goals
| Priority | Quality Goal | Scenario |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **Visual realism** | Renders read as the reference photographs: façade identity, proportion, material and light — judged side by side, shot against photo |
| 2 | **Geographic fidelity** | Building placement and street scale match the measured data and the photographs |
| 3 | **Terrain walkability** | Zero raycast holes across both sidewalks and the carriageway (84-sample transect passes) |
| 4 | **Build reproducibility** | Fresh checkout + documented engine path produces a runnable Linux build |
| 5 | **Provenance** | Every committed asset has recorded provenance |
| 6 | **Performance efficiency** | 60 FPS at 2560×1440 on RTX 5070 Ti, documented preset, no frame generation |
**How the order is used.** It decides trade-offs. When realism and performance disagree, realism wins and the cost is paid — but never by silently shipping a frame rate below the floor. The 60 FPS figure is a **budget that must still be met**, so the response to "realism costs too much frame time" is to cut the realism feature deliberately, record the cut, and keep the floor — not to let frames slip. Walkability outranks realism in one direction only: a beautiful block the player falls through is not a demo.
## Stakeholders
| Role | Contact | Expectations |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Owner / Director | zwitschi | Sets scope, approves screenshots, cuts release tags |
| AI coding agents | multiple sessions | Read `AGENTS.md`, `TODO.md`, `ROADMAP.md`, and this document for architecture constraints; never commit directly to `main` |
| Players | end users | Walk the demo at 60 FPS without falling through the world; see a recognisable Hollywood block |
# Architecture Constraints
## Technical Constraints
| Constraint | Explanation |
| --- | --- |
| Engine: Unreal 5.8.4 | Pinned; no bundled Linux clang — uses system clang 23.1.4. Game targets use `BuildSettingsVersion.V7`. |
| Platform: Linux first | Developed and tested on Bazzite Linux (Fedora 45 base). Windows builds ship but are secondary. |
| GPU: RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB | Dev workstation target. Vulkan RHI; open kernel module driver 615.78.08. |
| No static lighting | `r.AllowStaticLighting=False`. The demo is a fixed daytime scene lit entirely dynamically to avoid "LIGHTING NEEDS TO BE REBUILT" warnings. |
| Blender→UE via FBX | Flat diffuse colours do not survive FBX→Unreal import. All materials are authored in UE. |
| Terrain collision | UE 5.8 exposes `CollisionTraceFlag` (not `bUseComplexAsSimpleCollision`); Python cannot set it. Must use C++ helper `UGigLineAssetTools::SetComplexCollisionAsSimple`. |
| Coordinate convention | South = +Y, north = −Y (ground truth = street mesh orientation). 1 m in Blender = 100 cm in Unreal. |
## Organisational Constraints
| Constraint | Explanation |
| --- | --- |
| Squash-merge to `main` | Every PR is squash-merged for a linear history. No direct commits to `main` except integration merges. |
| Visual review required | Any change affecting appearance must produce screenshots for human approval before being marked done. |
| Asset provenance | Every committed asset must have verified licence and redistribution permission recorded in `THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md`. |
| Reference photography | Local only, gitignored, never committed. Used for façade work under fair-use / internal-development rationale. |
| LFS for binaries | `.uasset`, `.umap`, `.blend` tracked with Git LFS; `Binaries/`, `Intermediate/`, `Saved/` are gitignored. |
## Conventions
| Convention | Explanation |
| --- | --- |
| Semantic versioning | `MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH`. `0.x` documents breaking changes. `1.0.0` = agreed game scope. |
| Task tracking in `TODO.md` | Single central task list. `- [ ]` open, `- [-]` or `- [~]` in progress, `- [x]` done, `- [A]` active, `- [D]` deferred. |
| Headless Blender | All Blender work driven by `bpy` scripts in `Tools/`, not MCP. Blender skills are method guides only. |
| Named export presets | `ue_metric_v1` for static meshes, `ue_character_v1` for skeletal. Every exporter calls the metre→centimetre conversion. |
# Context and Scope
## Business Context
The system is a self-contained single-player game. It has no server backend, no multiplayer, and no live service dependencies. Its communication partners are:
| Partner | Inbound | Outbound |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Player (keyboard/mouse) | WASD, mouse, R (reset), Escape (pause), Space (jump) | Rendered 3D scene + HUD |
| OSM data | Extracted building footprints, street geometry, elevation | — |
| Filesystem | Engine content (`.uasset`, `.umap`), Blender sources (`.blend`), DEM GeoTIFF | Saved maps, screenshots, packaged build |
## Technical Context
| Channel | Protocol / Format | Purpose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Keyboard + mouse | Enhanced Input (IA\_\*, IMC_Default) | First-person movement, look, jump, reset, pause |
| Vulkan RHI | GPU rendering | Scene display at 60 FPS / 1440p |
| FBX | Autodesk FBX (binary) | Blender→Unreal mesh and skeleton transfer |
| GeoTIFF | 3DEP 1 m DEM | Terrain heightfield source |
| OSM XML | Overpass API extract | Building footprint and street layout source |
| Git / LFS | HTTPS to Gitea remote | Source control, binary asset storage |
# Solution Strategy
## Technology decisions
- **Unreal Engine 5.8.4** for rendering, World Partition, physics (Chaos), and the Enhanced Input system. Chosen for its Linux support, open C++ source, and real-time rendering quality.
- **Blender 5.2 LTS** for all 3D modelling, UV work, and collision mesh authoring. Driven headlessly via `bpy` Python scripts, not MCP.
- **QGIS 4.2.3** for geographic data cleanup, coordinate conversion (EPSG:26911), and DEM preparation.
- **Blosm 2.7.28** for OSM building and street blockouts inside Blender (layout data only — not authoritative façade, height, or pavement detail).
- **MPFB 2.0.18** for human base meshes and baked materials (NPCs in `0.2.0+`).
## Top-level decomposition
The system is a single Unreal game module (`GigLine`) with no plugins beyond `EnhancedInput`. Content is organised by domain under `/Game/Hollywood/`:
- `Site/` — terrain, road, sidewalks, kerbs, crossing markings, site materials
- `ElCapitan/` — hero façade mesh and materials
- `Frontage/` — south-side block building meshes
- `North/` — north-side building meshes
- `Input/` — Enhanced Input actions and mapping context
All modelling and geographic processing live outside the game project in `Art/`, `Geo/`, and `Tools/`. The `Game/` directory contains only engine-ready content and C++ source.
## Quality achievement
- **Realism**: reference photography drives every façade decision, measured data fixes placement and scale, and renders are compared against the photographs (`Tools/visual_loop.py`, `Screenshots/README.md`). One module kit at the 4.96 m bay keeps the street wall coherent; materials are world-aligned and lit by a fixed daytime rig so a shot is comparable between runs.
- **Performance holds the floor, it does not set the agenda**: dynamic-only lighting (no build step, no static shadow maps), cheap procedural materials, minimal overdraw for street-level geometry, and 60 FPS at 1440p as a budget every release must meet.
- **Walkability**: complex-as-simple collision on terrain (C++ helper forces the flag on the asset), block-all collision on every site mesh, swept transect QA verifies zero raycast holes.
- **Fidelity**: geographic data verified before modelling (footprints, bounds, DEM); building placement checked against street mesh, never in isolation; reference photography drives façade work.
- **Reproducibility**: pinned toolchain in `Docs/toolchain.md`, named export presets, `Tools/check-lfs.sh` gate, fresh-checkout build procedure in `Docs/build.md`.
# Building Block View
## Whitebox Overall System
The system decomposes into five top-level building blocks:
| **Name** | **Responsibility** |
| --- | --- |
| Gameplay | Player pawn, movement, camera, input bindings, HUD, game mode |
| Site | Terrain, road, sidewalks, kerbs, crossing markings, site-level collision |
| Façades | Hero façade (El Capitan), south block frontage, north-side buildings |
| Art Pipeline | Blender models, geographic data, export scripts, import scripts |
| QA & Review | Screenshot pipeline, self-test harness, visual review workflow |
### Gameplay
C++ classes in `Game/GigLine/Source/GigLine/`:
| Class | Responsibility | Key detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `AGigLineCharacter` | First-person player pawn | 1.75 m capsule, 4.5 m/s walk, Enhanced Input bindings, reset, pause, `-qaselftest` harness |
| `AGigLineGameModeBase` | Sets game mode and HUD class | `HUDClass = AGigLineHUD` |
| `AGigLineHUD` | HUD text overlay | `DrawText` every frame: ODbL attribution bottom-left, controls bottom-right, and an F3 debug readout top-left (`gigline.Debug`, on for `-perf`/`-qaselftest`) |
| `AGigLineNPCPerson` | NPC prefab (future) | Capsule + visible MPFB body, feet on Z 0 |
| `AGigLineShotActor` | Screenshot camera walker | Drives cameras in `-game` mode, `FScreenshotRequest`, quits |
| `UGigLineAssetTools` | C++ collision helpers | `SetComplexCollisionAsSimple` on `StaticMesh` assets |
Input assets in `/Game/Input/`: `IA_Move`, `IA_MoveBack`, `IA_Strafe`, `IA_StrafeLeft`, `IA_Look`, `IA_Jump`, `IA_Reset`, `IA_Pause`, `IA_ToggleCamera`, `IA_ToggleDebug`, bound in `IMC_Default`.
Player-facing bindings: **WASD** move, **mouse** look, **Space** jump, **R** reset, **Escape** pause, **V** swap first/third person. The camera and body work landed with `0.2.0` (see ADR-9): the shipped default view stays first person, and `-thirdperson` starts the pawn in the third-person rig — used by the screenshot run so the review is reproducible.
### Site
Static meshes and materials in `/Game/Hollywood/Site/`:
| Asset | Role |
| --- | --- |
| `Terrain_DEM` | Ground heightfield (complex-as-simple collision) |
| `Road_Hollywood` | Carriageway surface (block-all collision) |
| `Sidewalk_North`, `Sidewalk_South` | Pedestrian surfaces (block-all collision) |
| `Kerb_North`, `Kerb_South` | Kerb edges |
| `Crossing_Markings` | Zebra markings at signalised crossing |
| `M_Asphalt`, `M_Concrete`, `M_KerbConcrete`, `M_Ground`, `M_RoadPaint`, `M_Stucco`, `M_FacadeStone` | Procedural materials (world-space-noise blend + roughness) |
### Façades
| Asset | Role |
| --- | --- |
| `SM_HeroFacade` | El Capitan Entertainment Centre detailed façade |
| `SM_ElCapitanTheatre`, `SM_Budget_6822`, `SM_Hollywood_6806`, `SM_Hollywood_6902`, `SM_Hollywood_6922`, `SM_LeeDrug_6800` | South block frontage (6 buildings) |
| `SM_Madame_Tussauds`, `SM_TCL_Chinese_Theatre` | North-side buildings (within 50 m) |
| `SM_Retail_LeeDrug`, `SM_Retail_6806` | Retail trim over 6800 and 6806–6820, modelled from their own photograph (`Tools/retail_frontage_build.py`, staged as `RetailTrim_*`). `6822 Budget` stays a bare volume: no photograph exists. |
### Art Pipeline
Python scripts in `Tools/` drive the content pipeline:
| Script group | Purpose |
| --- | --- |
| `export_*`, `hero_facade_build` | Blender headless export (FBX) |
| `ue_import_*`, `ue_hero_facade_import` | Unreal headless import + placement |
| `character_anim_build`, `ue_character_anim_import` | Character animation clips (`GigLine_Idle`, `GigLine_Walk`) and their import |
| `export_*`, `hero_facade_build`, `retail_frontage_build`, `theatre_trim_build`, `facade_kit_build` | Blender headless export (FBX); trim builders work in world coordinates |
| `ue_import_*`, `ue_hero_facade_import`, `ue_import_retail_detail` | Unreal headless import + placement |
| `ue_build_demo_map`, `ue_build_review_map` | Map assembly (lighting, meshes, player start) |
| `ue_create_input_assets` | Enhanced Input actions + mapping context |
| `render_screenshots.sh` | Screenshot capture pipeline |
| `judge_screenshot.py` | Vision-model pre-check (optional) |
| `input_emulation.py`, `input_test.py` | OS-level virtual keyboard/mouse injection for input verification |
| `Tools/_common.py` | Pure helper shared by Blender builders, importable without Blender (bay layout) |
| `Tools/tests/` | Stdlib `unittest` tests for the pure parts of the tools (`requirements-tools.txt`) |
| `Geo/tools/mapbox_buildings.py` | Second height source: Mapbox `mapbox-streets-v8` building data vs our OSM heights |
Source data: `Art/blender/` (`.blend` files), `Geo/` (OSM extracts, DEM, verification docs).
### QA & Review
- `AGigLineShotActor` walks fixed cameras in `-game` mode, captures PNGs, and quits.
- `-qaselftest` switch on `AGigLineCharacter` runs a core-ticker harness: walk 2 s, reset, pause/unpause, ground transect — all PASS/FAIL logged.
- `Screenshots/` holds committed PNGs and `README.md` approval table.
## Level 2
### White Box Gameplay — Input Flow
1. `AGigLineCharacter::SetupPlayerInputComponent` binds `IA_*` actions to `MoveForward`, `MoveBack`, `MoveStrafe`, `MoveLeft`, `Look`, `StartJump`/`StopJump`, `ResetToStart`, `TogglePause`.
2. Movement delegates to `ApplyMove(Forward, Strafe)` → `AddMovementInput`.
3. Look applies yaw/pitch scaled by `LookSensitivity` (Y invertable via `bInvertLookY`).
4. `ResetToStart` teleports to `StartLocation` (captured on first grounded frame), clears velocity, resets control rotation.
5. `TogglePause` toggles `APlayerController::SetPause`, swaps input mode between `FInputModeGameOnly` and `FInputModeUIOnly`, shows/hides mouse cursor.
### White Box Site — Collision Model
- Every site mesh (road, sidewalks, kerbs, crossing) is `STATIC` with `BlockAll` collision.
- `Terrain_DEM` uses `CTF_UseComplexAsSimple` (forced by `UGigLineAssetTools` at build time, saved on the asset).
- The terrain corridor is carved to half-width 10.7 m around the road centreline so the player can walk the carriageway and both sidewalks.
- Ground Z: north sidewalk 395, road 366, south sidewalk 317 (3.94 m fall along the block, matching the DEM).
# Runtime View
## Walk the block
1. Player launches game → `AGigLineGameModeBase` spawns `AGigLineCharacter` at `PlayerStart` `(-13336, -1150, 600)`.
2. Character falls 144 cm to road surface (Z 456) and begins walking. `StartLocation` captured on first grounded frame.
3. Player holds W → `IA_Move` fires → `ApplyMove(1, 0)` → `AddMovementInput(ForwardVector, 1)` → capsule moves at 450 cm/s.
4. Mouse move → `IA_Look` fires → yaw/pitch applied to controller rotation → camera follows (attached to capsule at 160 cm eye height).
5. Player presses R → `ResetToStart` → teleport to `StartLocation`/`StartRotation`, `StopMovementImmediately`, reset control rotation.
6. Player presses Escape → `TogglePause` → `SetPause(true)`, switch to `FInputModeUIOnly`, show cursor. World timers stop; core tickers continue.
7. Player presses Escape again → `TogglePause` → `SetPause(false)`, switch to `FInputModeGameOnly`, hide cursor.
## Screenshot capture
1. `Tools/render_screenshots.sh` compiles editor, builds `ReviewMap` from `Tools/ue_build_review_map.py`, launches game in `-game` mode.
2. `AGigLineShotActor` iterates the camera list, sets view, calls `HighResShot 1280x720`, waits for capture.
3. On last camera, requests engine quit. PNGs are copied to `Screenshots/` and committed.
## QA self-test (`-qaselftest`)
1. Core ticker starts at `BeginPlay` (not a world timer — world timers freeze on pause).
2. 1.0 s: begin driving forward input.
3. 3.0 s: stop, measure displacement (> 200 cm = PASS).
4. 3.5 s: call `ResetToStart`.
5. 4.0 s: measure distance from spawn (< 100 cm = PASS).
6. 4.5 s: call `TogglePause`, check `IsGamePaused()` (= true = PASS).
7. 5.5 s: call `TogglePause`, check `IsGamePaused()` (= false = PASS).
8. 6.0 s: swept ground transect across three lanes (Y −1400, −167, +1000), X −14900 to −9420 at 200 cm spacing. 84 samples, 0 holes = PASS.
9. 7.0 s: final verdict logged.
## Build and import pipeline
1. Blender headless (`Tools/export_*.py`) reads `.blend` files, applies metre→centimetre conversion, exports FBX with `ue_metric_v1` preset.
2. Unreal headless (`Tools/ue_import_*.py`) imports FBX via Interchange, places meshes at geographic coordinates, sets collision profiles.
3. `Tools/ue_build_demo_map.py` assembles `DemoMap`: creates/repositions actors, sets lighting, saves map and assets.
# Deployment View
## Infrastructure Level 1 — Development Workstation
| Node | Specification |
| --- | --- |
| Dev workstation | Bazzite Linux 45 (Fedora 45 base, immutable ostree), Ryzen 7 7700X, 64 GB RAM, RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB, Vulkan RHI |
| Engine install | `/run/media/system/DATA/Engines/UE_5.8.4` (73 GiB, external to repo) |
| Project repo | `/run/media/system/DATA/Documents/06-games/gig-line` (Git + LFS, remote at `git.allucanget.biz`) |
| Build output | `/run/media/system/DATA/Builds/GigLineQA/Linux` (packaged Development build, ~1.1 GiB; outside the repository) |
Motivation
Single-machine development. No build farm, no CI pipeline yet. The engine, toolchain, and GPU are all on the same host.
Quality and Performance Features
- Vulkan RHI on RTX 5070 Ti, open kernel module driver 615.78.08.
- System clang 23.1.4 (no bundled engine clang) compiles game code.
- Build time: ~90 s incremental, ~5 min clean for the editor target.
Mapping of Building Blocks to Infrastructure
| Building Block | Infrastructure Element |
| --- | --- |
| Gameplay (C++) | Dev workstation — compiled to `libUnrealEditor-GigLine.so`, loaded by engine |
| Site + Façades (UE content) | Dev workstation — `.uasset`/`.umap` in `Game/GigLine/Content/` |
| Art Pipeline (Python/Blender) | Dev workstation — headless Blender 5.2 Flatpak, Python 3.14.8 |
| QA & Review | Dev workstation — game run in `-game` mode, PNGs to `Screenshots/` |
| Git remote | `git.allucanget.biz` — Gitea instance, LFS-enabled |
## Infrastructure Level 2 — Packaged Build
| Element | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Linux packaged build | Development config, ~1.1 GiB. Contains engine binaries, game module, cooked content, no editor. |
| Run command | `./GigLine.sh -windowed -ResX=2560 -ResY=1440` |
No server infrastructure. The game is a standalone executable.
# Cross-cutting Concepts
## Coordinate system and scale
- **Source CRS**: EPSG:26911 (UTM zone 11N). Local origin recorded in `Geo/`.
- **Blender**: metres. East → +X, north → +Y (Blender convention).
- **Unreal**: centimetres. East → +X, north → **−Y** (confirmed from street mesh: `Sidewalk_North` Y −1912..−1053, `Sidewalk_South` Y +718..+1447).
- **Conversion**: every exporter calls the metre→centimetre function. Import presets (`ue_metric_v1`, `ue_character_v1`) are named and repeatable.
Rule: place a building only against a neighbour or street mesh, never in isolation.
## Collision model
- Site meshes (road, sidewalks, kerbs, crossing): `STATIC` mobility, `BlockAll` collision profile.
- Terrain: `STATIC`, `CTF_UseComplexAsSimple` (forced by `UGigLineAssetTools` at build time, saved on the asset — the flag lives on the `UStaticMesh`/`UBodySetup`, not the map).
- Buildings: `STATIC`, simple collision (convex hull from mesh).
- Rule: the collision flag must be saved on the asset. Saving only the `.umap` silently reverts it.
## Lighting
- Dynamic-only: `r.AllowStaticLighting=False`. All lights are `MOVABLE`.
- Fixed daytime rig: directional light (sun, −62° pitch), sky light, exponential height fog, post-process volume with fixed exposure.
- Rationale: avoids "LIGHTING NEEDS TO BE REBUILT" warnings; no bake step; the scene never changes time of day.
## Materials
- All materials authored in Unreal, not carried from Blender (FBX import loses diffuse colours).
- World-space-noise blend nodes for cheap procedural variation (asphalt grain, concrete speckle, stucco roughness).
- Instance parameters where tunable (e.g. wetness, ageing).
## Geographic data provenance
- OSM extract is layout data only — not authoritative for façade, height, or pavement detail.
- DEM from 3DEP 1 m; elevation verified against cross-sections in `Geo/verification/`.
- Reference photography (local, gitignored) drives manual façade work.
## QA harness
- `-qaselftest`: core ticker (not world timer) so pause cannot freeze the test that proves pause works.
- `GigLine SIM` / `GigLine GROUND`: TEMP diagnostic logging, to be removed before release tag.
- Screenshot approval: human must tick `Screenshots/README.md` before visual work is marked done.
# Architecture Decisions
## ADR-1: Dynamic-only lighting for the demo
- **Context**: The demo is a fixed daytime scene. Stationary lights demand a lighting build and produce "LIGHTING NEEDS TO BE REBUILT" warnings.
- **Decision**: `r.AllowStaticLighting=False`, all lights `MOVABLE`.
- **Consequences**: No bake step, no warning, simpler iteration. Slightly higher GPU cost per frame (no baked shadows) — acceptable for the demo scope.
## ADR-2: Materials authored in Unreal, not imported from Blender
- **Context**: FBX→Unreal import maps all Blender diffuse colours to white. Flat colour materials do not survive the pipeline.
- **Decision**: Build all materials (asphalt, concrete, stucco, façade stone, road paint) directly in Unreal with procedural nodes.
- **Consequences**: Materials cannot be previewed in Blender look-dev. Must round-trip to Unreal for visual check. But: full PBR control, world-space noise, no import surprise.
## ADR-3: Complex-as-simple collision on terrain via C++ helper
- **Context**: UE 5.8 removed `bUseComplexAsSimpleCollision`. Python cannot set `CollisionTraceFlag` on `StaticMesh`/`BodySetup` at all. The Interchange default is bbox-only simple collision, which placed an invisible lid 8 m above the street.
- **Decision**: `UGigLineAssetTools::SetComplexCollisionAsSimple` (C++) forces `CTF_UseComplexAsSimple` and saves the asset.
- **Consequences**: One C++ helper class. The flag must be saved on the asset (not just the map). No Python workaround exists.
## ADR-4: Reset captures StartLocation on first grounded frame
- **Context**: `BeginPlay` captures `StartLocation` at the PlayerStart, which is above grade (Z 600) so the capsule does not spawn embedded. Every reset dropped the player 1.4 m back into the air.
- **Decision**: Repeating 0.25 s timer captures `StartLocation` once the character reports `IsMovingOnGround()`, then clears itself.
- **Consequences**: Reset is correct. A one-shot timer at 2 s is wrong (fires after walking begins, records mid-stride position).
## ADR-5: Core ticker for QA self-test, not world timer
- **Context**: Pausing the game stops world timers. A timer-driven test freezes exactly when it proves pause works.
- **Decision**: `FTSTicker::GetCoreTicker()` drives the `-qaselftest` harness.
- **Consequences**: Test runs even while paused. Must be enabled explicitly (`-qaselftest`), never in normal play.
## ADR-6: South = +Y, north = −Y in Unreal
- **Context**: The street mesh established this convention: `Sidewalk_North` has Y range −1912..−1053, `Sidewalk_South` has +718..+1447.
- **Decision**: Adopt it project-wide. Never place a building by assumption; always verify against a street mesh or neighbour.
- **Consequences**: Matches Blender’s north→+Y after the Y-flip in the `ue_metric_v1` export preset.
## ADR-7: Headless Blender via bpy scripts, not MCP
- **Context**: Blender skill packs assume an MCP server; the project does not run one.
- **Decision**: All Blender work driven by Python scripts in `Tools/`. Skill packs used as method guides (checklists, naming, proportions) only.
- **Consequences**: Scripts are version-controlled and repeatable. No live Blender session needed for CI.
## ADR-8: Realistic building façades are a minor milestone, not a patch
- **Context**: `0.1.4` carried the first façade pass as a _patch_, while the release policy says patches contain fixes and refinements and never new scope. The `0.1.6` retail pass then showed what that costs: a façade built in a patch has no release gate of its own, so a first pass that does not yet read as the building (`Screenshots/README.md`, 0.1.6 gaps) can sit inside a "done" patch series. Realism is also the project's leading quality goal, which a patch cannot carry.
- **Decision**: Building realism gets its own minor milestone, `0.9.0 — Realistic buildings`, placed before the feature freeze. Its scope is the façade system (orders, profile library, storefront types, signage as decals), per-building photo-matched models, a measured material library with a texel-density rule, and LODs plus collision proxies. Patches keep fixes and refinements only. Renumbered by this decision: the former `0.9.0` freeze/beta/audit milestone becomes `0.10.0`, its patches `0.10.1`–`0.10.3`, and `1.0.0` moves to weeks 39–44.
- **Consequences**: Façade work now has a release gate — every building measured against its own photograph, every building with a collision proxy and a LOD, no placeholder materials — so "modelled" means verified, not merely present. The price is that realism work stops being sliced into patches, and the schedule shifts by one minor cycle. Blockouts without a photograph stay blockouts and are listed as such, rather than being dressed up to fill the milestone.
## ADR-9: Third-person body is an attachment of the first-person pawn, not a second pawn
- **Context**: `0.2.0` needs a visible body and a third-person camera, while `0.1.0` shipped a first-person pawn with no body and the owner's decision was first person for that release. Two separate pawn classes would duplicate movement, input and reset logic, which is the code most likely to drift.
- **Decision**: one pawn, both rigs. `AGigLineCharacter` carries a skeletal mesh (hidden in first person), a collision-tested spring-arm camera, and a **V** toggle that swaps the active camera and the body's visibility. The shipped default view stays first person; `-thirdperson` starts the pawn in the third-person rig and is what the screenshot run passes, so the review shot is reproducible without a human pressing a key.
- **Consequences**: movement, reset, pause and the QA self-test stay in one place. The body's animation state is driven from `Tick` by speed rather than from input, so being pushed or falling animates correctly. The cost is that the camera swap is not a separate actor, so a future cinematic camera needs its own path rather than reusing the toggle.
# Quality Requirements
## Quality Requirements Overview
Ordered by priority: realism first, performance last. The order decides design trade-offs; it does not license dropping a lower item silently (see the trade-off rule below the table).
| Priority | Category | Requirement |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Realism / Fidelity | Façade identity, proportion, material and lighting read like the reference photographs when compared side by side |
| 2 | Realism / Fidelity | Building placement matches the measured footprints and the photographs (within ~1 m) |
| 2 | Realism / Fidelity | Street scale (lane width, sidewalk width) within ~10 cm of the measured profile |
| 3 | Reliability / Terrain | Zero raycast holes across sidewalks and carriageway (84-sample transect) |
| 3 | Usability | WASD + mouse look, jump, reset (R), pause (Escape) — no tutorial needed |
| 4 | Maintainability | Fresh checkout builds with the documented engine installation |
| 4 | Portability | Linux build packages and runs; Windows build ships |
| 5 | Provenance | Every committed asset has a recorded source and licence |
| 6 | Performance efficiency | 60 FPS at 2560×1440, documented preset, no frame generation |
**Trade-off rule.** Realism leads: when a realism improvement costs frame time, the improvement wins. Performance is still a **floor, not a preference** — 60 FPS at 1440p without frame generation must be met at every release. If realism cannot fit inside that budget, reduce the realism scope deliberately and record the reduction in `CHANGELOG.md`; never ship below the floor without the owner's explicit approval. Walkability outranks realism in one direction: a block the player falls through is not a demo, whatever it looks like.
## Quality Scenarios
| ID | Source/Stimulus | Response | Metric |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| QS-1 | Screenshot is compared against its reference photograph | The render reads as the same building | Similarity score and visual match confirmed by the owner; `Tools/visual_loop.py` reports the deltas |
| QS-2 | A façade is placed from measured data | It sits on its verified footprint | World span probed against `Geo/verification/` within ~1 m |
| QS-3 | Player walks both sides of the demo | No fall-through, character stays at ground Z | 0 raycast holes in 84-sample transect |
| QS-4 | Player holds W for 2 s on flat road | Character moves forward | ≥ 200 cm displacement, Z constant within ±5 cm |
| QS-5 | Player presses R | Character teleports to spawn | < 100 cm from `StartLocation` |
| QS-6 | Player presses Escape | Game pauses, cursor appears | `IsGamePaused()` = true |
| QS-7 | Player presses Escape while paused | Game unpauses, cursor hides | `IsGamePaused()` = false |
| QS-8 | Fresh checkout + engine install | Build succeeds | Exit code 0, runnable binary produced |
| QS-9 | Game runs on dev workstation at 1440p | Frame rate holds the floor | ≥ 60 FPS, 99th percentile ≥ 55 FPS |
> QS-9 is last on purpose. Performance is a floor that every release must meet, not the goal that shapes the content: realism decides what gets built, the frame budget decides how much of it.
### Building realism gate (0.9.0)
| ID | Check | Metric |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BR-1 | A building with a reference photograph has a review shot compared against it | Silhouette and proportion deltas recorded per building in `Screenshots/README.md`; owner approval per shot |
| BR-2 | Every building is either photo-matched or explicitly recorded as an unfounded blockout | List in `TODO.md`; no building in an in-between state |
| BR-3 | Every building has a collision proxy and at least one LOD | Count of buildings missing either = 0 |
| BR-4 | No surface carries a placeholder material | Material audit in `Tools/ue_audit_scene.py` reports 0 placeholder slots |
| BR-5 | The realism pass does not break the floor | QS-9 still holds at 1440p, with the measured cost of the pass recorded |
# Risks and Technical Debts
| ID | Risk / Debt | Priority | Mitigation |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| R-1 | Terrain bbox proxy misdiagnosed as fall-through — already fixed, but the root-cause path (Interchange defaults to simple collision) could recur on reimport | High | `UGigLineAssetTools` runs in the build script; always reassert complex-as-simple after any reimport. Documented in `MEMORY.md` and ADR-3. |
| R-2 | Blosm 3Dsimple on Blender 5.2 — worked around, not resolved; `3Drealistic` mode untested | Medium | Pin Blosm 2.7.28 and Blender 5.2 LTS; test realistic mode before depending on it. |
| R-3 | Kerb height is an assumption (DEM does not resolve it) | Medium | Record the assumption in `Geo/verification/`; measure from reference photography if possible; mark as unresolved until verified. |
| R-5 | `GigLine SIM` / `GigLine GROUND` TEMP diagnostic logging still in `GigLineCharacter.cpp` | Medium | Strip behind a cvar or remove entirely before the `v0.1.0` release tag. |
| TD-1 | Materials are Unreal-only — no Blender preview round-trip | Low | Accepted (ADR-2). Look-dev happens in UE; screenshot review catches issues. |
| TD-2 | No CI pipeline — all builds and QA are manual on the dev workstation | Low | Acceptable for `0.x`. CI is a `0.3.0+` concern. |
# Glossary
| Term | Definition |
| --- | --- |
| Blosm | Blender add-on (2.7.28) that imports OSM data as 3D building and street blockouts. Used for layout only — not authoritative for façade or height. |
| PIE | Play In Editor — an Unreal Editor feature that runs the current map as a live game session inside the editor window, with full game code, input, and physics, without packaging a build. Used for interactive verification (walk, reset, pause) before the scripted QA self-test. |
| Complex-as-simple collision | `CTF_UseComplexAsSimple`: Unreal collision mode where the render mesh triangles are used as the collision surface, instead of a simplified proxy. Required for terrain so the player walks on the actual ground shape. |
| DEM | Digital Elevation Model. 3DEP 1 m resolution GeoTIFF covering the demo bounds. Source of terrain heightfield. |
| El Capitan | El Capitan Entertainment Centre, 6838 Hollywood Blvd. The hero building of the demo. |
| Enhanced Input | Unreal’s modern input system (UE 5+). Uses Input Actions (`IA_*`) and Input Mapping Contexts (`IMC_*`) instead of legacy axis/action bindings. |
| EPSG:26911 | UTM zone 11N, the projected CRS used for the demo area. Local origin recorded in `Geo/`. |
| Hero façade | The detailed, reference-calibrated model of the El Capitan building frontage. |
| MPFB | MakeHuman Plugin for Blender (2.0.18). Generates parametric human base meshes with rigs and baked materials. |
| PlayerStart | Unreal actor that defines where the player pawn spawns. Positioned above grade so the capsule does not embed in the floor on spawn. |
| QA self-test | The `-qaselftest` command-line switch that runs an automated behaviour check (walk, reset, pause, ground transect) via a core ticker. |
| Site | The terrain, road, sidewalks, kerbs, and crossing markings — the ground-level infrastructure of the demo area. |
| Squash merge | Git merge strategy that compresses all branch commits into one commit on `main`, keeping a linear history. |
| Swept transect | A QA technique that raycasts vertically at regular intervals along a path (e.g. every 200 cm along both sidewalks and the carriageway) and counts holes (misses). Zero holes = the block is fully walkable. |
| UE | Unreal Engine — Epic Games' real-time 3D creation platform (version 5.8.4 in this project). Comprises the Unreal Editor (including PIE, content browser, viewport, blueprint editor), a C++ game framework, and runtime systems for rendering (Vulkan RHI on Linux), physics (Chaos), and input (Enhanced Input). The game project is `GigLine.uproject`; game code is a single C++ module in `Game/GigLine/Source/GigLine/`. |
| World Partition | Unreal's world composition system for large open-world levels. Not yet used in `0.1.0` but planned for `0.3.0+` driving routes. |
| Y convention | In Unreal, south = +Y, north = −Y (confirmed from street mesh orientation). In Blender, north = +Y; the `ue_metric_v1` export preset flips Y. |
---
**About arc42**
<div data-wrapper="1" role="lead">
arc42, the template for documentation of software and system architecture.
</div>
Template Version 0.1.0. initial architecture documentation, 2026-11-08
Created, maintained and © by Dr. Peter Hruschka, Dr. Gernot Starke and contributors. See <https://arc42.org>.
Adapted for the Gig Line project (Linux-first walking/driving demo around 6840 Hollywood Blvd).
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@@ -33,8 +33,9 @@ Unreal Engine 5.9 is in preview and Unreal Engine 6 has been announced as of Nov
| --- | --- |
| Package | blender-skills `1.3.0`, upstream commit `8f778d2`, MIT |
| Source | <https://github.com/arjun988/blender-skills> |
| Location | Local only: `.agents/skills/blender-skills/` — not distributed with the repository |
| Installed | 2026-11-06, copied from a local checkout of `.claude/skills/` without edits |
| Location | Local only, common root: `~/.pi/agent/skills/` (93 packs, `references/`, `LICENSE`) — not distributed with the repository |
| Project-specific | `.agents/skills/blender-skills/blender-director/` in this repository |
| Installed | 2026-11-06, copied from a local checkout of `.claude/skills/` without edits; flattened to the common root on 2026-11-10 |
These are instructions and reference notes for agents, not code that runs in a build. Four of them assume a **Blender MCP server**; this project drives Blender headlessly through `bpy` (`Tools/*.py`) instead, so MCP is optional and nothing depends on it.
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