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Going-Commando/docs/formats/core-data-regions.md
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ReaperOfVeriod db414b3d5f Correct: the gap between collision and moby is texture data
The previous commit claimed ~6.2 MB of unidentified data sat between the
collision header and the first moby class, and speculated it might be
moby_anim. That was wrong, and it came from quoting a size before bounding
the thing it measured.

Looking at the bytes rather than only the offsets: the range is dominated by
8-bit indexed texture data. Byte-value concentration distinguishes them
cleanly -- a texture block draws on a small palette, code and collision data
does not. 18 of 21 sampled 4 KB blocks fall under 200 distinct byte values,
against 249 for tfrags and 209 for collision.

The real layout on level 0:

  collision  2615232 .. 3518544   (header plus its declared 903,248 payload)
  textures   3518848 .. ~8832192
  moby       8832192 ..

The texture table's data_offset values stop at 5326208, which is what made
the gap look genuine. Mip chains extend well past the last entry's offset,
so sizing a region from a table of first-level offsets understates the data
it points at.

Three of the 21 blocks are not texture-like, so something is mixed in that
is still unidentified. It is not 6.2 MB of moby_anim.

This is the third number this session that looked load-bearing and turned
out to rest on an unbounded measurement. The pattern is consistent enough
to be worth stating plainly: sizes derived from tables or offsets are not
evidence until the bytes underneath have been looked at.
2026-10-11 03:05:07 +02:00

91 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown

# core_data region bounds
How a level's `core_data` lump divides up, and how each region is bounded.
## The rule
A region's end is the **next region's start**, never `core_data.len()`. The
last region in a layout is the exception, and when its successor is unknown the
end is `None` rather than a guess.
This exists because region bounds were being re-derived per format during
probing, usually by running from one known offset to the next with the last
span running to the end of the lump. On level 0 that made the final shrub class
a 925,008-byte span absorbing most of the lump's tail. Every aggregate computed
over it -- record counts, value distributions, "this data looks random" -- was
silently wrong, and nothing errored.
`gc_formats::regions::core_layout` computes these once. Callers use it rather
than inventing their own.
## Layout
| region | start | end |
|------------|----------------|----------------------|
| `tfrags` | 0 | `occlusion` |
| `occlusion`| `occlusion` | `sky` |
| `sky` | `sky` | `collision` |
| `collision`| `collision` | first moby class |
| `moby` | first moby | first tie class |
| `tie` | first tie | first shrub class |
| `shrub` | first shrub | **unknown** |
Class regions start at the lowest non-zero geometry offset in their class
table. A zero entry means *absent*, not position zero -- the same trap the
occlusion and collision headers each fell into separately.
Not every level has every region: level 10 has no occlusion and no shrub.
## Open: where shrub ends
The offset ending the shrub region is not in the core index.
Texture texels do **not** bound it. They sit before moby, not after shrub: on
level 0 the texel range is 3539328..5326208 while the last shrub class starts
at 16044288, leaving ~925 KB of real, non-zero data after the last shrub class
that nothing yet accounts for.
`core_layout` reports `end: None` for shrub on the 24 levels that have one, and
the disc test asserts it, so the gap stays visible rather than being papered
over by clamping to the end of the lump.
## Correction: it is mostly texture data, not an unnamed region
Adding the region table to `gc-extract probe` made the gap visible
immediately, which is the point of printing it.
On level 0:
```
collision 2615232 .. 8832192 6216960 bytes
```
but collision's own header declares a payload of 903,248 bytes. So the range
between the collision header and the first moby class is **6.2 MB**, and
almost none of it is collision.
The first conclusion drawn from this -- that ~6.2 MB of unidentified data sat
between collision and moby, possibly `moby_anim` -- **was wrong**, and it was
wrong because of the same failure that produced the other two bad numbers this
session: quoting a figure before bounding it.
Checking the bytes rather than just the sizes: the range is dominated by 8-bit
indexed texture data. Byte-value concentration (a texture block uses a small
palette; code and collision data does not) puts 18 of 21 sampled 4 KB blocks
under 200 distinct byte values, against 249 for tfrags and 209 for collision.
So the real layout is:
| region | start | end |
|------------|----------|------------------|
| collision | 2615232 | 3518544 |
| textures | 3518848 | ~8832192 |
| moby | 8832192 | first tie class |
The texture table's `data_offset` values only reach 5326208, which is why the
gap looked real: mip chains extend well past the last entry's offset. A region
sized from a table of first-level offsets understates the data it points at.
Three of the 21 sampled blocks are not texture-like, so something is mixed in
and is not yet identified, but it is not 6.2 MB of `moby_anim`.