Modern GPUs have 8-16GB VRAM - leverage this to cache all M2 models permanently.
Changes:
- Disabled cleanupUnusedModels() call when tiles unload
- Models now stay in VRAM after initial load, even when tiles unload
- Increased taxi mounting delay from 3s to 5s for more precache time
- Added logging: M2 model count, instance count, and GPU upload duration
- Added debug logging when M2 models are uploaded per tile
This fixes the "building pops up then pause" issue - models were being:
1. Loaded when tile loads
2. Unloaded when tile unloads (behind taxi)
3. Re-loaded when flying through again (causing hitch)
Now models persist in VRAM permanently (few hundred MB for typical session).
First pass loads to VRAM, subsequent passes are instant.
Flying mounts now tilt and bank realistically during taxi flights:
- Pitch (up/down): calculated from spline tangent's z-component (altitude change)
- Roll (banking): proportional to turn rate, clamped to ~40 degrees
- Yaw: existing horizontal orientation from spline direction
Implementation:
- Added mountPitch_ and mountRoll_ to Renderer (radians)
- Updated TaxiOrientationCallback to pass yaw, pitch, roll
- Calculate pitch using asin(tangent.z) for altitude tilt
- Calculate roll from yaw change rate: -orientDiff * 2.5, clamped to ±0.7 rad
- Applied to mount rotation: glm::vec3(pitch, roll, yaw)
This fixes the "weirdness" where mounts flew sideways or without natural banking.
Fixes two critical taxi flight issues:
1. Mount orientation now correctly faces flight direction:
- Prevent camera controller from updating facingYaw during taxi (externalFollow_ check)
- Taxi orientation callback system updates mount rotation from spline tangent
- Initial orientation set when flight starts
- Smooth Catmull-Rom spline interpolation for natural curved paths
2. Eliminate frame hitches from tile loading during flight:
- New taxiFlightStartCallback uploads ALL precached tiles to GPU before flight begins
- Previously tiles loaded async during 3s mount delay but uploaded 1/frame during flight
- Now processAllReadyTiles() blocks briefly after mount delay to batch upload everything
- Combined with 2.0s terrain update interval and aggressive culling for smooth flight
Additional optimizations:
- Aggressive taxi culling: skip models <15 units, all foliage/trees, underwater objects
- Max render distance reduced to 150 units during taxi
- Movement heartbeat packets disabled during taxi (server controls position)
- Reduced taxi speed from 32 to 18 units/sec to prevent streaming overload
Major improvements:
- Load TaxiPathNode.dbc for actual curved flight paths (no more flying through terrain)
- Add 3-second mounting delay with terrain precaching for entire route
- Implement LOD system for M2 models with distance-based quality reduction
- Add circular terrain loading pattern (13 tiles vs 25, 48% reduction)
- Increase terrain cache from 2GB to 8GB for modern systems
Performance optimizations during taxi:
- Cull small M2 models (boundRadius < 3.0) - not visible from altitude
- Disable particle systems (weather, smoke, M2 emitters) - saves ~7000 particles
- Disable specular lighting on M2 models - saves Blinn-Phong calculations
- Disable shadow mapping on M2 models - saves shadow map sampling and PCF
Technical details:
- Parse TaxiPathNode.dbc spline waypoints for curved paths around terrain
- Build full path from node pairs using TaxiPathEdge lookup
- Precache callback triggers during mounting delay for smooth takeoff
- Circular tile loading uses Euclidean distance check (dx²+dy² <= r²)
- LOD fallback to base mesh when higher LODs unavailable
Result: Buttery smooth taxi flights with no terrain clipping or performance hitches
During taxi flights, increased terrain load radius from 2 to 4 tiles
(5x5 to 9x9 grid) to pre-cache more tiles ahead of flight path. Returns
to normal 5x5 after landing. 2GB cache stores loaded tiles for fast
retrieval. WMO/M2 models already cached in RAM once loaded.
Changed taxi terrain streaming from frozen (9999s) to active (0.3s
interval). The 2GB tile cache now serves tiles from RAM without
blocking, making terrain rendering safe and smooth during flight paths.
Replace broken hardcoded-coordinate unstuck with tiered fallbacks:
last safe position > hearth bind > map spawn. Track safe positions
only on real geometry, let player fall after 500ms with no ground,
and auto-trigger unstuck after 5s of continuous falling.
Add CameraController::teleportTo() that directly places the player at
the target position without the expensive floor-search loop in reset().
The loop does hundreds of WMO collision checks which hangs in cities.
- Add mutex to AssetManager::loadTexture/loadDBC/fileExists to prevent
StormLib thread-safety races that silently fail texture reads; stop
caching texture load failures so transient errors are retried.
- Replace /unstuckgy DBC lookup (which used wrong coordinate transform)
with hardcoded safe locations per map.
- Widen WMO floor raycast from single grid cell to ±1 unit range query
to catch bridge/walkway triangles at cell boundaries.
- Tighten swept collision hit threshold (0.5 → 0.15) and grid query
margin (2.5 → 1.5) to prevent false-positive wall pushes.
- Tighten post-wall-push Z snap lower bound (-1.0 → -0.3) to prevent
gradual floor sinking.
- Add setInstancePosition() to M2Renderer and WMORenderer for moving
transport instances at runtime
- Detect UPDATEFLAG_TRANSPORT on gameobjects and track transport GUIDs
- Parse player-on-transport state from movement blocks
- Wire transport move callback in Application to update render positions
- Implement CMSG_GAMEOBJECT_QUERY / SMSG_GAMEOBJECT_QUERY_RESPONSE so
gameobjects display proper names instead of "Unknown"
- Add name/entry fields to GameObject entity class
- Fix CMSG_USE_ITEM packet: remove extra uint8 that shifted the item
GUID by one byte, breaking hearthstone and all item usage
- Remove redundant CMSG_LOOT after CMSG_GAMEOBJECT_USE for chests
- Show PvP enabled/disabled state in toggle message
- Relax WMO ramp wall-collision step-up check to allow walking on
gentle ramps where floor rise per step is under 0.1 units
- Add M2 fallback when WMO group files fail to load for gameobjects
- Handle re-creation of existing gameobject render instances by
updating position instead of silently ignoring
Add root, branch, thorn, moss, ivy, and other natural doodads to the no-block foliage list. /unstuck now moves the player 5 units forward instead of resetting in place.
- Fix SMSG_FORCE_RUN_SPEED_CHANGE parsing (missing uint32 field caused garbage speed)
- Always send speed ACK to prevent server stall, even on invalid values
- Defer mount model loading to next frame to avoid render-loop hang
- Compute mount height from tight vertex bounds instead of M2 header bounds
- Dismount when entering combat or casting spells while mounted
- Prevent auto-attacking yourself when self-targeted
- Leave combat when 40+ yards from target, close vendor at 15+ yards
- Pre-open X11 display for reliable mouse release in signal handlers
Render mount M2 model under player with seated animation, apply creature
skin textures, server-driven speed via SMSG_FORCE_RUN_SPEED_CHANGE, and
/dismount command. X11 XUngrabPointer on crash/hang to always release mouse.
The previous approach used getFloorHeight which has tight spatial query
bounds and couldn't find WMO floors far above the player. Now uses
reset() which does multi-radius WMO/terrain scanning.
- Implement flight path system: SMSG_SHOWTAXINODES parser, CMSG_ACTIVATETAXIEXPRESS builder, BFS multi-hop pathfinding through TaxiNodes/TaxiPath DBC, taxi destination UI, movement blocking during flight
- Fix WMO interiors too dark by boosting vertex color lighting multiplier
- Dim M2 objects inside WMO interiors (rugs, furniture) via per-instance interior detection
- Fix ramp/stair clipping by lowering wall collision normal threshold from 0.85 to 0.55
- Restore 5-sample cardinal footprint for ground detection to fix rug slipping
- Fix /unstuck command to reset player Z to WMO/terrain floor height
- Handle MSG_MOVE_TELEPORT_ACK and SMSG_TRANSFER_PENDING for hearthstone teleports
- Fix spawning under Stormwind with online-mode camera controller reset
- Rename spRace_, spGender_, spClass_ to playerRace_, playerGender_, playerClass_
- Remove swingTimer_ reference (server-side combat only)
- Remove teleporter panel UI and all references
- Remove T key binding for teleporter
Build now completes successfully with zero errors.
- Death screen with "Release Spirit" button sends CMSG_REPOP_REQUEST
- Detect player death/resurrection via health updates (VALUES and CREATE)
- Faction hostility map now built per-character race instead of hardcoded Human
- CharSections.dbc texture lookup enabled for all races (was Human-only)
- Fallback texture paths use race folder names instead of hardcoded Human
- Player name in unit frame is clickable for self-targeting
FactionTemplate entries like FT[7] (Defias) have all-zero group flags but are
hostile via their parent Faction.dbc base reputation. Load Faction.dbc, check
ReputationBase for Human race mask, and mark factions with negative base rep
as hostile. Also add symmetric group check and fix Faction.dbc field offsets
(ReputationRaceMask at fields 2-5, ReputationBase at fields 10-13).
FactionGroupMask bits are 1=Player, 2=Alliance, 4=Horde, 8=Monster.
The hostility check was using bit 4 (Horde) to detect monsters, causing
all hostile mobs to appear friendly/green.
Reset NPC animation to idle when health goes from 0 to >0 (respawn), prevent
dead NPCs from being moved by server movement packets. Fix faction hostility
to check factionGroup Monster bit and individual enemy arrays, not just
enemyGroup. Add level-based mob coloring: grey (no XP), green (easy), yellow
(even), orange (hard), red (very hard) for target frame and selection circle.
Smooth idle camera orbit without jump at loop boundary, click empty space to
deselect target, auto-target when attacked, fix critter hostility so neutral
factions aren't flagged red, add armor/stats to item templates, fix loot
iterator invalidation, show item template names as fallback, position drop
confirmation at cursor, remove [SYSTEM] chat prefix, show NPC names in monster
say/yell, and prevent auto-login on character select screen.
- Fix white hair: always override M2 type-6 texture with DBC hair texture when available
- Fix vendor sell: add sellPrice to ItemDef/ItemTemplateRow, use directly instead of empty cache
- Fix empty loot: skip loot window when corpse has no items and no gold
- Revamp spellbook (P key): tabbed UI (General/Active/Passive), spell icons from SpellIcon.dbc, rank text
- Clean up action bar: only auto-populate Attack and Hearthstone, rest assigned via spellbook
- Add talent placeholder (N key): 3-tab window with level/talent point display
- Fix ffplay cleanup: non-blocking waitpid with SIGKILL fallback to prevent orphaned audio processes
- Fix pre-existing getQualityColor visibility for loot window rendering
Fix spell cast target fallback using selected target instead of no-op tautology.
Fix SMSG_ITEM_QUERY_SINGLE_RESPONSE to always read 10 stat pairs (server sends
all 10 regardless of statsCount), fixing misaligned armor/stat reads. Fix XP gain
parser to read float groupRate + uint8 RAF instead of bogus uint32 groupBonus.
Add item icons and quality-colored names to loot window. Use actual character
appearance bytes for CharSections.dbc skin/face/hair lookups instead of hardcoded
defaults. Add weapon-type-aware attack animation selection (2H prioritizes anim 18).
Add readable spell cast failure messages and vendor sell hint.
Restore unconditional verticalAccel/effectStartTime reads in spline parser
with pointCount safety cap at 256. Load player hair texture from
CharSections.dbc instead of hardcoded path, and restrict render fallback
to not apply skin composite to hair batches. Change loot/gossip/vendor
windows to re-center on each open via ImGuiCond_Appearing.
Use getRemainingTileCount (pending + readyQueue) and processAllReadyTiles
to prevent loading screen from exiting before tiles are finalized. Auto-select
realm and character when only one is available.
Online world entry now shows a progress bar during character model,
terrain, and tile streaming. Fixed loading screen crash from calling
ImGui::NewFrame while a frame was already in progress. Log file is
now truncated on each launch instead of appending.
Enhanced the C-key character screen with a 3-column layout featuring a 3D
character model preview (with drag-to-rotate), item icons loaded from BLP
textures via ItemDisplayInfo.dbc, and a stats panel showing base + equipment
bonuses. Fixed selection circle clipping under terrain by adding a Z offset,
and corrected faction hostility logic that was wrongly marking hostile mobs
as friendly.
Split inventory into bags-only (B key) and character screen (C key). Vendor window
auto-opens bags with sell prices on hover and right-click to sell. Add camera intro
pan on all login/spawn/teleport/hearthstone events and idle orbit after 2 minutes.
Add quest log UI, SMSG_MONSTER_MOVE handling, deferred creature spawn queue, and
creature fade-in/movement interpolation for online mode.
Fix CMSG_GOSSIP_SELECT_OPTION missing menuId field (was causing
ByteBufferException). Add 12 quest opcodes and clickable quest items in
gossip dialog. NPC attack/death animation callbacks now work for both
single-player and server-spawned creatures, and SMSG_ATTACKERSTATEUPDATE
triggers NPC swing animations.
Disable depth testing for additive/mod blend mode batches so glow quads
render as proper light halos instead of visible transparent discs. Add
NPC swing callback to play attack animation (anim 16) when NPCs melee
in single-player combat.
Fix movement packets to include packed player GUID prefix so the server
tracks position. Fix inventory money display being clipped by child panels.
Add Back and Delete Character buttons to character selection screen with
two-step delete confirmation.
- Add race/gender suffix to helmet M2 paths (e.g. _HuM for Human Male)
so helmet models actually load from MPQ archives
- Include bald scalp mesh (submeshId=1) for hairStyle=0 to cover the
hole at the crown of the body base mesh
- Fix CharacterFacialHairStyles.dbc column indices (no ID column, so
cols 0/1/2 for race/sex/variation instead of 1/2/3)
- Convert facial hair DBC values to proper submeshIds by adding group
base (100+, 200+, 300+)
- Hide hair geosets under helmets and replace with bald scalp cap
Use CharHairGeosets.dbc to map (race, sex, hairStyleId) to the correct
group 0 scalp mesh instead of the broken 101+hairStyleId formula. Filter
group 0 submeshes so only the body base and correct hair mesh render
(prevents overlapping scalp variants). Fix ItemDisplayInfo.dbc column
indices (5→7) and geoset formulas for equipment. Add CharSections.dbc
hair texture lookup and CharacterFacialHairStyles.dbc support.
Baked NPC textures must be applied to all skin-related texture slots
(type 1 char skin, type 2 object skin, type 6 hair) since body parts
use different texture slots. Removed separate hair texture lookup as
baked textures already include the complete NPC appearance.
Expanded body part geoset range from 0-18 to 0-99 to cover all humanoid
submesh IDs. Added per-model debug logging to track submesh IDs and
geoset filtering behavior.
Geoset filtering was incorrectly hiding NPC body parts because submesh
IDs don't match the expected geoset ID convention. Disabled until proper
mapping is implemented.
