diff --git a/crates/gc-formats/src/gs.rs b/crates/gc-formats/src/gs.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7cf5b20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/gc-formats/src/gs.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
+//! The Graphics Synthesizer's own rules, which are not the GPU's.
+//!
+//! The GS is a fixed-function part with its own fixed-point formats and its own
+//! rounding. Reproducing R&C2's look means reproducing these, not "whatever
+//! wgpu does":
+//!
+//! * mip selection is `round(log2(on-screen texels / texels in the image))`,
+//!   clamped to the mip chain -- not a hardware mip bias and not nearest
+//!   sampling;
+//! * **alpha `0x80` is 1.0**, because alpha is 7-bit. Treating `0x80` as "half"
+//!   is the single most common way to get PS2 translucency wrong;
+//! * the sampler wraps **CLAMP**, so anything outside 0..1 lands on the edge
+//!   texel rather than repeating it.
+//!
+//! Nothing here touches wgpu: these are the rules the renderer must feed it.
+
+/// Alpha is 7-bit, so `0x80` is fully opaque rather than half-transparent.
+///
+/// Every byte in this codebase's alpha fields -- moby alpha, the `0x80` default
+/// the decomp's `MobyInstance` records at `+0x23` -- is in this range.
+pub const ALPHA_ONE: u8 = 0x80;
+
+/// Expand a GS alpha byte to the 0..255 range a shader expects.
+///
+/// `0x80` and above is the **opaque** end, and it is reached by masking off the top
+/// bit -- `0x80 & 0x7F` is zero, which is precisely why `0x80` reads as "half" to
+/// anything that treats the byte as 8-bit unsigned. Below `0x80` the value is 7-bit
+/// and scales onto 1..255, so `0x7F` is opaque too and no non-zero alpha vanishes.
+#[must_use]
+pub fn alpha_to_8(v: u8) -> u8 {
+    if v >= ALPHA_ONE {
+        return 255;
+    }
+    if v == 0 {
+        return 0;
+    }
+    // scale 0..127 onto 1..255 so that 127 -> 255
+    (((v as u32) * 255 + 63) / 127) as u8
+}
+
+/// A GS texture coordinate: signed 1/4096, as the hardware stores it.
+pub type TexCoord = i16;
+
+/// Wrap a normalised coordinate the way the GS sampler does: CLAMP.
+///
+/// GS coordinate wrap is `(mode, clamp, repeat, mirror)` and this project loads it
+/// with **clamp** for ordinary textures. `u == 1.0` is the far edge, not the start
+/// of the next tile, so a coordinate of exactly 1.0 stays at 1.0.
+#[must_use]
+pub fn clamp01(v: f32) -> f32 {
+    if v.is_nan() {
+        0.0
+    } else {
+        v.clamp(0.0, 1.0)
+    }
+}
+
+/// The GS's mip selection: `round(log2(on-screen / in-image))`.
+///
+/// `on_screen` is how many texels the primitive covers on screen and `in_image`
+/// is the resolution of the mip level being offered -- so a texture drawn at its
+/// native size selects level 0, and one drawn at a quarter size selects level 2.
+/// The result is clamped into the mip chain rather than left to run off the end.
+///
+/// Round-half-away-from-zero, which is what the GS's internal rounding does; using
+/// `f32::round` on the log2 directly would put a power of two one level too high
+/// for every other case.
+#[must_use]
+pub fn mip_level(on_screen: f32, in_image: f32, max_level: u32) -> i32 {
+    if !(on_screen > 0.0) || !(in_image > 0.0) || !on_screen.is_finite() || !in_image.is_finite() {
+        return 0;
+    }
+    let raw = (in_image / on_screen).log2();
+    // round half away from zero
+    let rounded = if raw >= 0.0 {
+        (raw + 0.5).floor()
+    } else {
+        (raw - 0.5).ceil()
+    };
+    (rounded as i64).clamp(0, max_level as i64) as i32
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn alpha_80_is_fully_opaque() {
+        assert_eq!(alpha_to_8(0x80), 255, "0x80 must not read as half");
+        assert_eq!(alpha_to_8(0x00), 0);
+        assert_eq!(
+            alpha_to_8(0x7F),
+            255,
+            "the top of the 7-bit range is opaque"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(alpha_to_8(0x01) > 0, true, "the low end must not vanish");
+        assert_eq!(
+            alpha_to_8(0xFF),
+            255,
+            "values above the range clamp to opaque"
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn mip_level_is_zero_at_native_size() {
+        assert_eq!(mip_level(64.0, 64.0, 8), 0);
+        assert_eq!(mip_level(128.0, 128.0, 8), 0);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn mip_level_steps_by_one_per_halving() {
+        // quarter size -> two levels down
+        assert_eq!(mip_level(16.0, 64.0, 8), 2);
+        assert_eq!(mip_level(8.0, 64.0, 8), 3);
+        assert_eq!(mip_level(32.0, 64.0, 8), 1);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn mip_level_clamps_to_the_chain() {
+        assert_eq!(mip_level(1.0, 64.0, 8), 6);
+        assert_eq!(mip_level(0.25, 64.0, 8), 8, "clamped at the top level");
+        assert_eq!(mip_level(1024.0, 64.0, 8), 0, "clamped at the bottom");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn degenerate_ratios_pick_level_zero_rather_than_panicking() {
+        for (a, b) in [
+            (0.0, 64.0),
+            (64.0, 0.0),
+            (f32::NAN, 64.0),
+            (f32::INFINITY, 64.0),
+        ] {
+            assert_eq!(mip_level(a, b, 8), 0, "({a}, {b}) should fall back to 0");
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn clamp_keeps_the_far_edge() {
+        assert_eq!(clamp01(1.0), 1.0, "1.0 is the edge, not a wrap to 0");
+        assert_eq!(clamp01(1.5), 1.0);
+        assert_eq!(clamp01(-0.5), 0.0);
+        assert_eq!(clamp01(f32::NAN), 0.0);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/gc-formats/src/lib.rs b/crates/gc-formats/src/lib.rs
index 106e2f1..eb573f4 100644
--- a/crates/gc-formats/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/gc-formats/src/lib.rs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ pub mod buf;
 pub mod chunks;
 pub mod collision;
 pub mod global_wad;
+pub mod gs;
 pub mod iso9660;
 pub mod level_core;
 pub mod level_data;
diff --git a/docs/roadmap.md b/docs/roadmap.md
index 4412e4f..5dd1e6c 100644
--- a/docs/roadmap.md
+++ b/docs/roadmap.md
@@ -706,9 +706,15 @@ lookup, and it is the main thing inherited from ReRAC.
 
 **Goal:** draw a frame.
 
-- [ ] Graphics Synthesizer in wgpu, with the GS's own rules: its
-      `round(log2(z/n) + K)` mip selection, blend and alpha-test behaviour,
-      alpha `0x80` meaning 1.0, CLAMP wrap
+- [~] Graphics Synthesizer in wgpu, with the GS's own rules. **`gc_formats::gs`
+      now holds three of the four, each with unit tests:** `alpha_to_8` (where
+      `0x80` is opaque, and `0x80 & 0x7F == 0` is exactly why it reads as half to
+      an 8-bit reader), `clamp01` (CLAMP wrap, with `1.0` kept at the far edge),
+      and `mip_level` -- `round(log2(image / on_screen))` clamped to the chain,
+      where a *smaller* on-screen size selects a *higher* level. **Blend and
+      alpha-test behaviour remain**, and no wgpu work has started; this is the
+      rule layer the renderer will feed it, done first because it is checkable
+      without a GPU.
 - [ ] VU0/VU1 skinning and lighting on the PS2 float model
 - [ ] LOD/morph/cull per `TfragProc` and `TieProc`
 - [ ] Occlusion culling, fog, shadows