- character_renderer: extract duplicated fallback texture creation
(white/transparent/flat-normal) into createFallbackTextures() — was
copy-pasted between initialize() and clear()
- wmo_renderer: replace magic 8192 with kMaxRetryTracked constant,
add why-comment explaining the fallback-retry set cap (Dalaran has
2000+ unique WMO groups)
- quest_handler: add why-comment on reqCount=0 fallback — escort/event
quests can report kill credit without objective counts in query response
If generateNormalHeightMapCPU threw (e.g., bad_alloc), the pending
counter was never decremented, causing shutdown() to block forever
waiting for a count that would never reach zero. Added try-catch to
guarantee the decrement. Also strengthened the increment from relaxed
to acq_rel so shutdown()'s acquire load sees the count before the
thread body begins executing.
Final sweep across mpq_manager, application, auth_screen, wmo_renderer,
character_renderer, and terrain_manager. All now use the unsigned char
cast pattern. No remaining bare ::tolower/::toupper or std::tolower(c)
calls on signed char in the codebase.
- Replace count()+operator[] double lookups with find() or try_emplace()
in gameObjectInstances_, playerTextureSlotsByModelId_, onlinePlayerAppearance_
- Add Entity::isUnit() helper; replace 5 dynamic_cast<Unit*> in per-frame
UI rendering (nameplates, combat text, pet frame) with isUnit()+static_cast
- Add constexpr kInv255 reciprocal for per-pixel normal map generation loops
in character_renderer and wmo_renderer
- Hoist DBC field index lookups before loops in game_handler (7 DBC iteration loops)
- Cache getSkybox()/getPosition() calls instead of redundant per-frame queries
- Merge textureHasAlphaByPtr_ + textureColorKeyBlackByPtr_ into single map
- Add constexpr for DEG_TO_RAD, reciprocal constants, physics delta
- Add reserve() for WMO/M2 collision grid queries and portal BFS
- Frustum plane normalize: inversesqrt instead of length+divide
- M2 particle emission: inversesqrt for direction normalization
- Parse creature display IDs from query response
- UI: show spell names/IDs as fallback instead of "Unknown"
Squared distance optimizations across 30 files:
- Convert glm::length() comparisons to glm::dot() (no sqrt)
- Use glm::inversesqrt() for check-then-normalize patterns (1 rsqrt vs 2 sqrt)
- Defer sqrt to after early-out checks in collision/movement code
- Hottest paths: camera_controller (21), weather particles, WMO collision,
transport movement, creature interpolation, nameplate culling
Container and algorithm improvements:
- std::map<string> → std::unordered_map for asset/DBC/MPQ/warden caches
- std::mutex → std::shared_mutex for asset_manager and mpq_manager caches
- std::sort → std::partial_sort in lighting_manager (top-2 of N volumes)
- Double-lookup find()+operator[] → insert_or_assign in game_handler
- Add reserve() for per-frame vectors: weather, swim_effects, WMO/M2 collision
Threading and synchronization:
- Replace 1ms busy-wait polling with condition_variable in character_renderer
- Move timestamp capture before mutex in logger
- Use memory_order_acquire/release for normal map completion signaling
API additions:
- DBC getStringView()/getStringViewByOffset() for zero-copy string access
- Parse creature display IDs from SMSG_CREATURE_QUERY_SINGLE_RESPONSE
terrain_manager: replace bare 4096/2048/0x80/0x7F with named constants
ALPHA_MAP_SIZE, ALPHA_MAP_PACKED, ALPHA_FILL_FLAG, ALPHA_COUNT_MASK
— documents the WoW alpha map RLE format.
character_renderer: replace bare 256/512 texture sizes with
kBaseTexSize/kUpscaleTexSize for NPC skin upscaling logic.
- Add kBrightGold, kPaleRed, kBrightRed, kLightBlue, kManaBlue, kCyan to ui_colors.hpp
- Replace 61 inline ImVec4 color literals across game_screen, inventory_screen,
talent_screen, and world_map with named constants
- Remove const_cast in character_renderer render loop by using non-const iteration
Replace ~37 remaining C-style casts with static_cast across 16 files.
Extract named color constants (kColorRed/Green/Yellow/Gray) and dialog
window flags (kDialogFlags) in game_screen.cpp, replacing 72 inline
literals. Normalize keybinding_manager.hpp to #pragma once.
Create a VkPipelineCache at device init, loaded from disk if available.
All 65 pipeline creation calls across 19 renderer files now use the
shared cache. On shutdown, the cache is serialized to disk so subsequent
launches skip redundant shader compilation.
Cache path: ~/.local/share/wowee/pipeline_cache.bin (Linux),
~/Library/Caches/wowee/ (macOS), %APPDATA%\wowee\ (Windows).
Stale/corrupt caches are handled gracefully (fallback to empty cache).
Replace floating-point fmod() with iterative duration subtraction to preserve precision.
When animation time accumulates over many loops, fmod() loses precision with large values,
causing subtle jumps/hitches in looping animations. Subtracting the duration instead keeps
animationTime bounded in [0, duration) and avoids precision loss.
Replace ad-hoc cone-based backface culling with proper view-frustum intersection
testing using Frustum::intersectsSphere(). Characters are now culled based on
visibility within the view frustum, improving accuracy in complex scenes and
reducing overdraw. Maintains distance-based culling for broad radius filtering.
Move envSizeMBOrDefault and envSizeOrDefault from 4 separate rendering
modules (character_renderer, m2_renderer, terrain_renderer, wmo_renderer)
into shared vk_utils.hpp header as inline functions. Use the most robust
version which includes overflow checking for MB-to-bytes conversion. This
eliminates 7 identical local function definitions and improves consistency
across all rendering modules.
Move ShadowPush from 4 separate rendering modules (character_renderer,
m2_renderer, terrain_renderer, wmo_renderer) into shared vk_frame_data.hpp
header. This eliminates 4 identical local struct definitions and ensures
consistency across all shadow rendering passes. Add vk_frame_data.hpp include
to character_renderer.cpp.
Consolidated duplicate attachment point resolution code used by both
attachWeapon() and getAttachmentTransform(). New findAttachmentBone()
helper encapsulates the complete lookup chain: attachment by ID, fallback
scan, key-bone fallback, and validation. Eliminates ~55 lines of duplicate
code while improving maintainability and consistency.
Consolidated identical key-bone lookup logic that appeared at lines 3076
and 3099. Both performed the same search for weapon attachment points
(ID 1/2 for right/left hand). Removed duplication while preserving
behavior and improving code clarity with better comments.
Add fallback logic to use bone 0 for head attachment point (ID 11) when models
don't have it explicitly defined. This improves helmet rendering compatibility
on humanoid NPC models that lack explicit attachment 11 definitions. Re-enable
helmet attachments now that the fallback logic is in place.
- character_renderer: playAnimation now prefers the primary variation
(variationIndex==0) when multiple sequences share the same animation ID;
this fixes hitching on human female run where a variation sequence was
selected first before the base cycle
- character_renderer: move the compositeWithRegions size-mismatch warning
inside the else branch so it only fires when sizes genuinely don't match,
not for every successful 1:1 or scaled blit
Add GhostStateCallback to GameHandler, fired when PLAYER_FLAGS_GHOST
transitions on or off in UPDATE_OBJECT / login detection. Add
setInstanceOpacity() to CharacterRenderer to directly set opacity
without disturbing fade-in state. Application wires the callback to
set opacity 0.5 on ghost entry and 1.0 on resurrect.
When a non-looping animation (e.g. wave, cheer, laugh emote) reaches
its end, transition back to Stand (animation 0) rather than freezing
on the last frame. Death (animation 1) is excluded — it stays on the
final frame as expected.
Fixes NPCs and players getting stuck in emote poses after SMSG_EMOTE.
Remove active file-I/O debug block in character_renderer.cpp that
wrote composite textures as raw binary files to /tmp on every texture
composite generation. Remove the now-unused <fstream> include.
Remove the 10-shot hex dump of decompressed SMSG_MONSTER_MOVE payloads
in game_handler.cpp (dumpCount static); format has been confirmed.
The selection circle was positioned using the entity's game-logic
interpolator (entity->getX/Y/Z), while the actual M2 model is
positioned by CharacterRenderer's independent interpolator (moveInstanceTo).
These two systems can drift apart during movement, causing the circle
to appear under the wrong position relative to the visible model.
Fix: add CharacterRenderer::getInstancePosition / Application::getRenderPositionForGuid
and use the renderer's inst.position for XY (with footZ override for Z)
so the circle always tracks the rendered model exactly. Falls back to
the entity game-logic position when no CharacterRenderer instance exists.
- Normal map CPU work (luminance→blur→Sobel) moved to background threads,
main thread only does GPU upload (~1-2ms vs 15-22ms per texture)
- Load screen warmup now waits until ALL spawn/equipment/gameobject queues
are drained before transitioning (prevents naked character, NPC pop-in)
- Exit condition: min 2s + 5 consecutive empty iterations, hard cap 15s
- Equipment queue processes 8 items per warmup iteration instead of 1
- Added LoadingScreen::renderOverlay() for future world-behind-loading use
Each loadTexture call was generating a normal/height map inline (3 full-image
passes: luminance + blur + Sobel). For models with 15-20 textures this added
30-40ms to the 70ms model upload. Now deferred to a per-frame budget (2/frame
in-game, 10/frame during load screen). Models render without POM until their
normal maps are ready.
Move all DBC lookups (CharSections, ItemDisplayInfo), texture path resolution,
and BLP decoding for humanoid NPCs to background threads. Only GPU texture
uploads remain on the main thread via pre-decoded BLP cache.
Move CPU-heavy BLP texture decoding from main thread to background worker
threads for all hot paths: terrain M2 models, WMO doodad M2s, WMO textures,
creature models, and gameobject WMOs. Each renderer (M2, WMO, Character) now
accepts a pre-decoded BLP cache that loadTexture() checks before falling back
to synchronous decode.
Defer WMO normal/height map generation (3 per-pixel passes: luminance, box
blur, Sobel) during terrain streaming finalization — this was the dominant
remaining bottleneck after BLP pre-decoding.
Terrain streaming stalls: 1576ms → 124ms worst case.
- Replace per-frame VMA alloc/free of material UBOs with a ring buffer in
CharacterRenderer (~500 allocations/frame eliminated)
- Batch all ready terrain tiles into a single GPU upload during load screen
(processAllReadyTiles instead of one-at-a-time with individual fence waits)
- Lift per-frame creature/GO spawn budgets during load screen warmup phase
- Add background world preloader: saves last world position to disk, pre-warms
AssetManager file cache with ADT files starting at app init (login screen)
so terrain workers get instant cache hits when Enter World is clicked
- Distance-filter expensive collision guard to 8-unit melee range
- Merge 3 CharacterRenderer update loops into single pass
- Time-budget instrumentation for slow update stages (>3ms threshold)
- Count-based async creature model upload budget (max 3/frame in-game)
- 1-per-frame game object spawn + per-doodad time budget for transport loading
- Use deque for creature spawn queue to avoid O(n) front-erase
Every uploadBuffer/VkTexture::upload called immediateSubmit which did a
separate vkQueueSubmit + vkWaitForFences. Loading a single creature model
with textures caused 4-8+ fence waits; terrain chunks caused 80+ per batch.
Added beginUploadBatch/endUploadBatch to VkContext: records all upload
commands into a single command buffer, submits once with one fence wait.
Staging buffers are deferred for cleanup after the batch completes.
Wrapped in batch mode:
- CharacterRenderer::loadModel (creature VB/IB + textures)
- M2Renderer::loadModel (doodad VB/IB + textures)
- TerrainRenderer::loadTerrain/loadTerrainIncremental (chunk geometry + textures)
- TerrainRenderer::uploadPreloadedTextures
- WMORenderer::loadModel (group geometry + textures)
- Equipment-driven geoset selection: read GeosetGroup1 from ItemDisplayInfo
for legs/feet/chest to pick covered mesh variants (1302+ pants, 402+ boots,
802+ sleeves) instead of always defaulting to bare geosets
- Prevent per-instance skin override from replacing baked/composited armor
textures on equipped NPCs
- Set bald NPC hair texture slot to skin texture so scalp isn't white
- Skip white fallback textures in per-instance hair overrides
- Remove debug texture dump, reduce NPC logging to DEBUG level
- NPC hair/skin textures now use per-instance overrides instead of shared
model-level textures, so each NPC shows its own hair color/style
- Hair/skin DBC lookup runs for every NPC instance (including cached models)
rather than only on first load
- Fix keyframe binary search to use float comparison matching original
linear scan semantics
- Replace O(n) linear keyframe search with O(log n) binary search in both
M2 and Character renderers (runs thousands of times per frame)
- Smoke particle removal: swap-and-pop instead of O(n²) vector erase
- Character render backface cull: eliminate sqrt via squared comparison
- Quaternion validation: use length² instead of sqrt-based length check
- Glow sprites now use dedicated vertex buffer (glowVB_) separate from
M2 particle buffer to prevent data race when renderM2Particles()
overwrites glow data mid-flight
- Move fadeAlpha from shared material UBO to per-draw push constants,
eliminating cross-instance alpha race on non-double-buffered UBOs
- Smooth adaptive render distance transitions to prevent pop-in/out
at instance count thresholds (1000/2000)
- Distance-tiered character bone throttling: near (<30u) every frame,
mid (30-60u) every 3rd, far (60-120u) every 6th frame
- Skip weapon instance animation updates (transforms set by parent bones)
Reset descriptor pools in CharacterRenderer/M2Renderer/WMORenderer on map
change to prevent VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST from pool exhaustion. Defer re-entrant
SMSG_NEW_WORLD during active world load to avoid recursive cleanup crashes.
Gate swim bubbles on swimming state, skip redundant shadow pipeline re-init,
add WOWEE_SKIP_* env vars for render isolation debugging.
- Add build.ps1/bat, rebuild.ps1/bat, debug_texture.ps1/bat (Windows equivalents
of existing bash scripts, using directory junctions for Data link)
- Fix asset extractor: StormLib is not thread-safe even with separate handles per
thread. Serialize all MPQ reads behind a mutex while keeping CRC computation and
disk writes parallel. Previously caused 99.8% extraction failures with >1 thread.
- Add SFileHasFile() check during enumeration to skip listfile-only entries
- Add diagnostic logging for extraction failures (first 5 per thread + summary)
- Use std::filesystem::temp_directory_path() instead of hardcoded /tmp/ in
character_renderer.cpp debug dumps
- Update debug_texture.sh to use $TMPDIR fallback and glob for actual dump filenames
Character was facing stage-left (yaw 180) instead of toward camera;
corrected default yaw to 90. Added MSAA support to VkRenderTarget with
automatic resolve attachment, and enabled 4x MSAA for the character
preview off-screen pass.
Remove negative cache for transient load failures in M2, terrain, and
character renderers. Failed textures return white and will be retried
on next model/tile load when assets may have finished streaming.
All three shadow renderers (WMO, M2, Character) were iterating every
loaded instance with zero culling. Now skip instances outside the
180-unit shadow frustum radius via squared-distance check.
Raise all texture cache defaults from 1GB to 4GB to reduce rejections.
Cap cache-full warnings (texture + model) to 3 messages per renderer,
and cap update block parse errors to 5 messages.
Strip 26 chrono::now() timing calls per frame from renderer update loop,
periodic LOG_INFO/LOG_DEBUG from terrain/character/quest/heartbeat paths,
and dead m2ProfileCounter variable.
Strip per-frame/periodic logging from CharacterRenderer (batch dump,
instance count) and M2Renderer (frame timing profiler) to avoid
unnecessary string formatting and I/O in render loops.
Hand-painted weapon/armor textures have baked-in lighting that produces
low-contrast gradients in the Sobel filter. Bump strength from 2.0 to
5.0 to extract visible surface detail. Also increase POM scale from
0.03 to 0.06 since character models are small with dense UVs where
the WMO-tuned 0.03 was barely perceptible.
Extends the WMO normal mapping/POM system to character M2 models with
bone-skinned tangents. Auto-generates normal/height maps from diffuse
textures using luminance→height, Sobel→normals (same algorithm as WMO).
- Expand vertex buffer from M2Vertex (48B) to CharVertexGPU (56B) with
tangent vec4 computed via Lengyel's method in setupModelBuffers()
- Tangents are bone-transformed and Gram-Schmidt orthogonalized in the
vertex shader, output as TBN for fragment shader consumption
- Fragment shader gains POM ray marching, normal map blending, and LOD
crossfade via dFdx/dFdy (identical to WMO shader)
- Descriptor set 1 extended with binding 2 for normal/height sampler
- Settings (enable, strength, POM quality) wired from game_screen.cpp
to both WMO and character renderers via shared UI controls
