Files
gig-line/Docs/Architecture/09_architecture_decisions.md
zwitschi 50e023f15d merge: bring main (v0.1.6) into anim-body-0.2.0
Conflicts resolved by union, not by picking a side:

- AGENTS.md keeps the stronger visual-review rule (README updated with every visual
  change; a stale section is a defect).
- render_screenshots.sh keeps the absolute engine path from main and adds
  -thirdperson from this branch - both were needed and neither alone worked.
- Screenshots/README.md now lists six shots, retail and third-person both embedded;
  the known-issues tables merged, with the animation defect and unproven camera
  collision added to main's rows.
- visual_targets.json carries both expectations.
- Architecture docs: ADR-8 (realistic buildings) and ADR-9 (third-person body) both
  present and in numeric order; ADR-8 was mis-placed before the Quality Requirements
  heading in the combined document by an earlier edit, now fixed.
- Binary conflicts resolved to main's content, since the retail trim only exists
  there.

Checks: 82 tool tests, prettier clean, six embeds resolve.
2026-11-09 10:43:00 +01:00

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# 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.