ReaperOfVeriod 72bbd5da38 Rule out GS packet framing in tie, with a control that nearly fooled me
Range measured: level 0, the 73 tie span bodies (bytes +0x40 onward), 2585856
bytes pooled. Per-position distinct counts, an autocorrelation scan against a
shuffled control, and a GS GIF tag test.

Result 1: the bodies are dense. Every one of the 16 slot positions takes 245 to
256 distinct values, byte 15 zero on 81.3% and byte 7 zero on 78.8%. The best
stride peak is 48 at +0.097, barely above 16 at +0.095 -- no period.

Result 2: no GS GIF framing at 16-byte alignment. Testing whether byte 15's low
three bits fall in 0..4, the GS tag range, gives 97.0%.

That looked like a strong hit until the control was done properly. A uniform
shuffle gives 62.6%, exactly 5/8, what a random byte predicts -- so the naive
comparison reads as a 34-point excess.

The distribution-matched null is 97.0%, identical to the observation. The whole
excess was that byte 15 is 81% zero and (0 & 7) <= 4 is always true. Recomputed
per alignment the null tracks the observation everywhere:

  align 0  97.0%    align 4  75.7%    align 8  96.7%
  align 2  75.5%    align 12 89.3%

This is the control rule earning its place a second time. A uniform shuffle is
not a matched control when the data is skewed, and AGENTS.md already says so;
the near-miss was reading 62.6% as a baseline without checking what the data's
own distribution predicts. The tie bytes concentrate on 0, 1, 2, 3 and 63 --
suggestive in isolation -- and still carry no framing.

What this rules out: the tie bodies are not GS GIF packet streams at 16-byte
alignment and carry no measurable periodicity. With every slot position taking
~256 distinct values they are dense data -- fat vertices, as the roadmap expects
-- and locating the vertex layout needs a reference for this game's instanced
geometry format, not another stride scan.
2026-10-12 02:56:58 +02:00
2026-10-11 20:59:19 +02:00
2026-10-11 20:59:19 +02:00

Going Commando

A native PC reimplementation of Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PlayStation 2, 2003), written in Rust.

The game is reimplemented, not emulated. There is no MIPS interpreter here and no CPU emulator: the systems are ported to Rust so they run as ordinary native code.

Status: initial scaffold. The disc is identified and verified, the workspace builds, and nothing else is implemented yet. See docs/roadmap.md for where things stand and what comes next.

The target

Game Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
Platform PlayStation 2
Disc SCUS_972.68 v1.01, USA Black Label
Video NTSC, 60 Hz
Boot ELF SHA-1 bacda860cbd6723142e86db56f197e47e728970f

Verified against a real disc — see docs/disc-identification.md. This is the build the reference projects pin; Greatest Hits v2.00 is a different binary and is not the target.

No game content

This repository contains no game assets, no disc images, no BIOS dumps and no proprietary toolchains. You supply your own legally obtained copy of the disc as an input, the way the upstream reference projects do.

A pre-commit hook enforces this, blocking disc images, asset directories, container signatures and files over 50 MiB. If you clone elsewhere, enable it:

git config core.hooksPath .githooks

Layout

crates/
  gc-formats/    asset format parsers (pure, no I/O beyond the caller's buffer)
  gc-extract/    disc pipeline: identify, unpack, verify
  gc-game/       game logic: hero, weapons, moby classes, progression, saves
  gc-video/      IPU / MPEG-2 decode
  gc-engine/     Bevy app: Graphics Synthesizer, VU0/VU1, renderer, frame loop
docs/
  disc-identification.md   which disc we build against, verified
  roadmap.md               phases, gates, current status
  plan/                    one file per subsystem, written as work proceeds
  formats/                 format specs, written as formats are reversed
tools/
  identify-disc.py         identify any Going Commando disc image
vendor/
  rerac/                   pinned upstream reference checkout (not tracked)

Building

Requires a Rust toolchain via rustup.

cargo check --workspace
cargo test  --workspace

The host audio backend is disabled in Cargo.toml (see the comment there) so that the workspace builds without system ALSA development headers. Audio decode is the last phase of the port and lives in gc-video; re-enable it and install alsa-lib-devel when that work starts.

Identifying a disc

python3 tools/identify-disc.py <your-disc.iso>

Reports the serial, version and video mode from SYSTEM.CNF, hashes the boot executable, and warns when the disc is not the supported build. Reads only a few megabytes, so it is near-instant.

How it will be verified

Visual and behavioural comparison against PCSX2, replaying recorded input and comparing frames, level by level. The PS2 float model is reproduced rather than approximated — see AGENTS.md.

PCSX2 is installed and working on this machine; the comparison loop that reads the game's own memory over its debug protocol is up, and level 0's and level 1's tfrag lighting are verified byte-exact against it. See docs/plan/pcsx2-verification.md for the setup and how to run it.

Credits and licensing

This project learns from and is built on the work of others. Licences are recorded in PROVENANCE.md and notices must travel with any code derived from them.

  • ReRAC — a native Rust/Bevy port of Ratchet & Clank (2002), the first game. ISC. The architecture this project follows.
  • OpenRAC / rac2-gc-decomp — matching decompilation research for this game. MIT. Source of verified struct layouts and engine documentation.
  • Wrench — community documentation of Insomniac's container formats. GPL, used as a specification reference only; no code is copied.

Ratchet & Clank is a trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment. This is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Sony Interactive Entertainment or Insomniac Games.

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