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 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
- 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.
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.
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.
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
Hide NPC cloak/object-skin mesh when no cape texture resolves by using a transparent texture fallback, preventing skin-texture bleed on cloaks. Tighten NPC equipment region compositing by slot and add safe humanoid geoset selection to avoid robe-over-pants conflicts and odd pants texturing.
Reduce login/runtime hitching by deferring non-critical world-system initialization across frames, lowering per-frame transport doodad spawn budget, and demoting high-volume transport/MO_TRANSPORT diagnostics to debug. Gate M2 glow diagnostics behind WOWEE_M2_GLOW_DIAG and make zone music prewarm opt-in via WOWEE_PREWARM_ZONE_MUSIC.
Selection ring rendering has been upgraded to better match WoW-like target feedback and remain readable across complex geometry.
Visual updates:
- Reworked ring mesh/shader from a simple two-band strip to a unit-disc + radial fragment shaping.
- Implemented a thinner outer ring profile.
- Added an inward color/alpha gradient that fades from the ring toward the center.
Placement/anchoring updates:
- Added CharacterRenderer::getInstanceFootZ() to query model foot plane from instance bounds.
- Added Application::getRenderFootZForGuid() to resolve per-GUID foot height via live instance mapping.
- Updated GameScreen target selection placement to anchor the effect at target foot Z.
Ground/surface stability:
- In renderSelectionCircle(), added floor clamping against terrain, WMO, and M2 floor probes at target XY.
- Raised final placement offset to reduce residual clipping on uneven surfaces.
Depth/visibility behavior:
- Added polygon offset during ring draw to reduce z-fighting.
- Disabled depth testing for the selection effect draw pass (with state restore) so the ring remains visible through terrain/WMO occluders, per requested behavior.
State safety:
- Restored modified GL state after selection pass (depth test / polygon offset / depth mask / cull).
Build validation:
- Verified with cmake build target "wowee" after each stage; final build succeeds.
Corrected CharGeosets group assignments verified via vertex bounding boxes:
- Group 4 (401+) = gloves/forearms, Group 5 (501+) = boots/shins,
Group 8 (801+) = sleeves (chest-controlled), Group 9 = kneepads,
Group 13 (1301+) = pants/trousers, Group 20 (2002) = bare feet
- Changed bare shin default from 501 to 502 for better width match
with thigh mesh (0.39 vs 0.32, thighs are 0.42)
- Added clearCompositeCache() to prevent stale composite textures
from being reused across equipment changes
- Fixed character preview geoset defaults to match corrected mapping
Cache composite textures by input key so identical NPC equipment
combos share one GPU texture. Use DBC layout system for
ItemDisplayInfo texture component fields instead of hardcoded
indices (cross-expansion support). Selective player equipment
re-emission on item query response instead of broadcasting to
all players.
Mount Animation System:
- Property-based jump animation discovery using sequence metadata
- Chain linkage scoring (nextAnimation/aliasNext) for accurate detection
- Correct loop detection: flags & 0x01 == 0 means looping
- Avoids brake/stop animations via blendTime penalties
- Works on any mount model without hardcoded animation IDs
Mount Physics:
- Physics-based jump height: vz = sqrt(2 * g * h)
- Configurable MOUNT_JUMP_HEIGHT constant (1.0m default)
- Procedural lean into turns for ground mounts
- Smooth roll based on turn rate (±14° max, 6x/sec blend)
Audio Improvements:
- State-machine driven mount sounds (jump, land, rear-up)
- Semantic sound methods (no animation ID dependencies)
- Debug logging for missing sound files
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed mount animation sequencing (JumpStart → JumpLoop → JumpEnd)
- Fixed animation loop flag interpretation (0x20 vs 0x21)
- Rider bone attachment working correctly during all mount actions
Add SkySystem coordinator that follows WoW's actual architecture where skyboxes
are authoritative and procedural elements serve as fallbacks. Integrate lighting
system across all renderers (terrain, WMO, M2, character) with unified parameters.
Sky System:
- SkySystem coordinator manages skybox, celestial bodies, stars, clouds, lens flare
- Skybox is authoritative (baked stars from M2 models, procedural fallback only)
- skyboxHasStars flag gates procedural star rendering (prevents double-star bug)
Celestial Bodies (Lore-Accurate):
- Two moons: White Lady (30-day cycle, pale white) + Blue Child (27-day cycle, pale blue)
- Deterministic moon phases from server gameTime (not deltaTime toys)
- Sun positioning driven by LightingManager directionalDir (DBC-sourced)
- Camera-locked sky dome (translation ignored, rotation applied)
Lighting Integration:
- Apply LightingManager params to WMO, M2, character renderers
- Unified lighting: directional light, diffuse color, ambient color, fog
- Star occlusion by cloud density (70% weight) and fog density (30% weight)
Documentation:
- Add comprehensive SKY_SYSTEM.md technical guide
- Update MEMORY.md with sky system architecture and anti-patterns
- Update README.md with WoW-accurate descriptions
Critical design decisions:
- NO latitude-based star rotation (Azeroth not modeled as spherical planet)
- NO always-on procedural stars (skybox authority prevents zone identity loss)
- NO universal dual-moon setup (map-specific celestial configurations)
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.
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.
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.
Anisotropic filtering now queries GL_MAX_TEXTURE_MAX_ANISOTROPY_EXT once
and applies via a single applyAnisotropicFiltering() utility, replacing
hardcoded calls across all renderers. Fog (sky horizon color, 100-600
range) and Blinn-Phong specular highlights are added to WMO, M2, and
character shaders for visual parity with terrain. Shadow sampling
plumbing (sampler2DShadow with 3x3 PCF) is wired into all three shaders
gated by uShadowEnabled, ready for a future shadow map pass.
- Implement orbit camera with smooth zoom and collision detection
- Add 50° slope limiting with sliding (prevents mountain climbing)
- Add first-person mode that hides player model and weapons
- Add floor clearance check to prevent camera clipping through ground
- Improve WMO wall collision with proper height range checks
- Add two-sided floor collision detection for WMO geometry
- Increase M2 render distance slightly for better visibility
