prosolis
f0f2f807a4
The profiles shipped in e4062ed were set far too low. 45 KB/s (sasi) and
75 KB/s (scsi) are 12% and 7% of the respective folklore bus figures. They had
been read off the knee of the rate-distortion curve and then presented as
though bandwidth-derived, which they were not.
Raised to sasi 110 KB/s (lam=60) and scsi 280 KB/s (lam=10) -- 35% and 28%
utilisation. scsi is now within 0.52 dB of the palette ceiling on scene 00020.
Checking the CPU side, which nobody had done for the decode path, produces a
second and more important result. Against the 833k cycle/frame budget at 12fps:
full-frame blit, every frame 319k 38% affordable
LZ4/LZSS decode ~30KB/frame 450k 54%
deflate decode ~30KB/frame 1800k 216% infeasible
So raising the VQ bitrate is nearly free -- RAW, the mode that dominates at
high rate, is the cheapest mode to blit -- but entropy coding is not viable at
all. That demotes the "247 KB/s lossless changed-spans+deflate" figure from
FINDINGS 8 to a compression upper bound rather than a shippable design, and
removes entropy coding from the roadmap. VQ is the right architecture precisely
because its decode is a table copy.
Also confirms the architecture unifies: the hybrid at lam=0 lands within 3% of
the purpose-built lossless coder, so there is no separate lossless path.
Consequence for planning: the blocked disk benchmark is now critical-path, not
optional. If SCSI sustains >=800 KB/s the correct scsi profile is lam=0 --
pixel-exact video at ~450 KB/s and 38% CPU. Whether this port ships transparent
or lossy on SCSI is waiting on one measurement.
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01194oWYW8DQXK1SZ2DnChW6
152 lines
7.4 KiB
Markdown
152 lines
7.4 KiB
Markdown
# Status & next-session handoff — end of session 2 (2026-08-23)
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## Decisions locked
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| decision | value | why |
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| Target CPU | 68000 @ 10MHz (stock) | hardest honest constraint |
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| Display mode | 256 colors, 256x192 in 256x256 CRTC mode | every mode is 1 word-access/pixel, so 256c is free vs 16c |
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| Double buffer | **none** — page 1 sacrificed | enables `movem.l` 24px bursts; delta coding needs a RAM reference frame anyway |
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| **Codec** | **hybrid VQ: SKIP / V1 4x4 / V4 four-2x2 / RAW, per-block rate-distortion** | flat 4x4 VQ was measured and rejected — see FINDINGS 9-10 |
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| **Quality modes** | **two: `sasi` and `scsi`** (USER DECISION, session 2) | one codec, one decoder, one bitstream; only `lam` differs |
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| Framerate | 12 fps, **explicit decimation** | source has zero duplicate frames; no free "twos" win |
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| Emulator | MAME 0.277 x68000 | accurate enough that measured cycles mean something |
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| SNES project reuse | **MIT — cleared** | `data/events/` scene graph is reusable with attribution |
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### The SASI/SCSI question is RESOLVED
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Session 1 left "which machine do we target" open. The user's answer: **ship both**,
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as two quality profiles. This is now implemented rather than hypothetical — the
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bitrate ceiling is a build parameter in `tools/encoder/ratectl.py`:
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| profile | target | lam | quality (00020 / 00146) | bus utilisation | machine |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| `sasi` | 110 KB/s | 60 | 36.9 / 29.6 dB | 35% of 300 KB/s | stock 10MHz ACE/EXPERT |
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| `scsi` | 280 KB/s | 10 | 39.4 / 32.3 dB | 28% of 1 MB/s | Super/XVI, or CZ-6BS1 board |
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`scsi` is now within **0.5 dB of the palette ceiling** on 00020. These were
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initially set at 45 / 75 KB/s, which was 12% / 7% bus utilisation — read off the
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RD curve rather than derived from the hardware. See FINDINGS 17.
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Codebooks are **k=256 with 1-byte indices** in both profiles. k=1024 was measured
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and rejected — see FINDINGS 14, it was a false-good result from a rate model
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that undercharged the index. Do not ship past `lam~800`; FINDINGS 15 has the cliff.
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Because of the RAW escape mode, `lam=0` is **pixel-exact** against the palettised
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frame (measured 0.00 dB loss). The profiles are two points on one continuous
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rate-distortion curve, not two codecs.
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---
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## What session 2 settled
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1. **The critical-path question is answered.** "Does VQ soften Bluth's linework
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unacceptably?" — **flat 4x4 k=256 VQ: yes, badly. Hybrid VQ with k=1024: no.**
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Verified by eye, not just PSNR. See `docs/FINDINGS.md` 9-11.
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2. **Session 1's 12fps bitrate was wrong** (183 KB/s claimed, 340 KB/s measured).
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Halving the framerate does not halve the bitrate. FINDINGS 8.
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2b. **A fourth false-good result was produced and caught this session** — k=1024
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codebooks looked like a +2.4 dB free win because the rate model charged 1 byte
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for a 10-bit index. FINDINGS 14. The k=256 configuration ships.
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3. **The 256-colour palettised frame is the real quality ceiling** and it looks
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excellent. Judge the codec against that, not against 1080p.
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4. Encoder exists and produces a real bitstream: `tools/encoder/`.
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---
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## Encoder — working
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```
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python3 tools/encoder/extract.py 00020 /tmp/fr_00020 12 crop
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python3 tools/encoder/encode.py /tmp/fr_00020 out.dlx --profile sasi --preview p.png
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```
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| file | role |
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| `extract.py` | .m2ts -> 256x192 PNGs, 12fps, spatial-only denoise |
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| `vq.py` | palette, blockify, hand-rolled k-means (no sklearn on this box), PSNR |
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| `vq_hybrid.py` | the codec: 4 block modes + lagrangian mode decision |
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| `ratectl.py` | SASI/SCSI profiles, leaky-bucket rate control |
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| `encode.py` | CLI + `DLX1` container writer |
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`DLX1` container layout is documented in the `encode.py` docstring. All
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multi-byte fields are **big-endian** so the 68000 reads them with a plain `move`.
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### Known encoder gaps
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- **Rate control is written but not yet wired into `encode.py`** — the CLI uses a
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fixed `lam` from the profile. `ratectl.encode_rate_controlled()` exists and
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builds a lam-ladder per frame; it needs hooking up and validating.
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- **Payload is deliberately NOT entropy-coded** — deflate decode does not fit in
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the 68000's frame budget (FINDINGS 17.2). Do not "optimise" this later.
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- Codebooks are per-scene and rebuilt from scratch; no inter-scene reuse.
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- `_paint` is a Python per-block loop — fine for prototyping, slow for a full
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disc encode. Vectorise before the 224-stream run.
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---
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## Working setup (unchanged from session 1, re-verified)
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**MAME ROMs** — `~/mame/roms/x68000.zip`. Must pass **`-bios ipl10`**.
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```
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mame x68000 -bios ipl10 -video none -sound none -nothrottle -seconds_to_run 3
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```
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**Assembler** — `tools/vasm/vasmm68k_mot -Fbin -o out.bin in.s`
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**Blu-ray** — `udisksctl loop-setup -r -f DRAGONS_LAIR.iso` -> `/media/reala-misaki/BDROM`
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(still mounted as of end of session 2).
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**MAME Lua harness** — `tools/bench/*.lua`, working. Three gotchas (retain the
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notifier subscription in a global; the stack register is `SP` not `A7`;
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`autoboot_script` fires at PC=0 before boot) are documented in FINDINGS.
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**Two shell traps, both hit again this session:**
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- piping MAME (or any long job) through `grep` block-buffers — write to a file.
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- `pkill -f <pattern>` matches your own shell and kills it (exit 144).
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Use `pkill -x` or kill by PID.
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---
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## STILL BLOCKED: disk throughput benchmark
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Unchanged from session 1 — `IOCS _B_READ` returns -1 uniformly. Full diagnosis
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and the four untested hypotheses are in session 1's notes (git history of this
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file, commit 65112b9).
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**This is now CRITICAL-PATH, not optional.** Session 1 dismissed it because
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"VQ at 30 KB/s is correct whether SASI does 300 or 600 KB/s". That reasoning is
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dead: the profiles now sit at 110 and 280 KB/s, close enough to the folklore
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ceilings that the error bars change the product. Specifically —
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**If SCSI sustains >=800 KB/s, the correct `scsi` profile is `lam=0`: pixel-exact
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video, ~450 KB/s, and only 38% of the CPU budget.** Whether this port ships
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transparent or lossy on SCSI is waiting on one measurement.
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Next move is the untried SCSI path: `-exp1 cz6bs1 -hard disk.chd`.
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---
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## Next steps, in priority order
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1. **Wire rate control into `encode.py`** and validate that the hard ceiling
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actually holds on an action scene (the whole point of choosing VQ).
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2. ~~Entropy-code the payload~~ — **ABANDONED, see FINDINGS 17.2.** Deflate
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decode is ~216% of the frame budget on a 68000 and LZ4 is ~54%; there is no
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room beside a 38% blit. All bitrates are raw payload. This also demotes the
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"247 KB/s lossless" figure in FINDINGS 8 to a compression bound, not a design.
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3. **68000 decoder skeleton**: parse `DLX1`, expand codebooks to word-per-pixel,
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blit V1/V4/RAW/SKIP. Measure real cycles with the existing MAME Lua harness —
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this is the first time the harness gets used for its actual purpose.
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4. **Full-disc survey** — classify menu vs content first (FINDINGS 13), then
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measure bitrate across all 224 streams per profile.
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5. **Resolve the framing question** (FINDINGS 12: crop vs squash vs wide).
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6. Unblock the disk benchmark via the SCSI path, then re-set profile bitrates.
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7. Import the SNES project's `data/events/` (MIT, cleared) as the scene graph.
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Cross-check against DirkSimple (zlib) which has the same data independently.
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8. ADPCM audio: MSM6258, 15.6kHz mono, 7.8 KB/s — already budgeted in `ratectl`,
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not yet extracted or encoded.
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## Not yet started
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- Any 68000 player code
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- ADPCM audio extraction/encoding
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- Disk image packaging
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- Game logic (scene branching, input windows, death clips)
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