Entry 226

Mutation's saves, its voices, and the recall's black fades

2026-09-27volumes

Filescrates/piney-desktop/src/card.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/savesys.rscrates/piney-gen/src/manifest.rscrates/piney-gen/src/syms.rscrates/piney-data/src/tables/voice.rscrates/piney-audio/src/driver.rscrates/piney-data/src/sound/voice.rscrates/piney-stream/src/draw.rscrates/piney-stream/src/scene.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/layers.rstools/sound_tables.pytools/test_desktop_data_rs.pytools/test_desktop_savemenu_rs.py

This entry covers three pieces of Mutation work: the memory card, which the port knew only in Infection's form; the event voices, which Mutation never played; and the new game's recall, whose pages go black between topics (reported from play).

The memory card by volume

• Save directories. mcDirName holds the four volumes' save directories, indexed by volumeNum - 1. Infection's executable names the later three with placeholders. The table is now generated (title::mc_dir_names). FilesCard and the probes' cards use the disc's own directory, BASLUS-20562DOTHACK on Mutation.
• Slot files. From Mutation on, a slot file is the record followed by the extension, 0x8d84 bytes (savesys::slot_size).
  • MainProccess copies the extension member by member, as it does the record. The copy leaves two padding runs, which a load keeps: ext+0x49b and ext+0x751..0x753 (EXT_KEPT).
  • The index's sum covers the whole file.
  • DataRead takes the volume whose directory it reads.
• The previous volume's saves. The title reads these from directory volumeNum - 1 at 0x8530 bytes. The card supports that read, but the title's import of that data (the rest of the 4096 bytes Mutation's MainProccess grew) is not ported yet.
• The harnesses.
  • They take the directory and size from the executable (volume.card_dir, SLOT_SIZE, number).
  • They place the extension beside the record, with its $gp pointer set (test_save_init_rs.place_save).
  • The clear-data scenarios use the disc's volume number.
  • The save menus' machine has a controller in port 1. Mutation's SaveMenu keeps its input hold after a save only while the game is paused or ccSys.pad[0].status is set.

The Data screen and save menu harnesses pass on Mutation and Infection.

The event voices

Mutation's events are 100-199. The port's ccEvVoiceRequest knew only Infection's 0-99, and the voice tables for the later volumes were never generated, so every Mutation event was silent. The tables are now piney-gen's voice group (tables/voice.rs), and the Python generator no longer writes them.

• files, files_e. These are evVoiceFile(E). The file list is the same on every disc. Mutation adds BOSSTALK.BIN (19).
• events. Each disc's own ccEvVoiceRequest is decoded as the code stands, since the discs differ:
  • The function groups by event / 100. Each lui/addiu table base before a voiceFile store belongs to that store's file, Japanese first.
  • The file names the hundred and the kind: 6 + 3 (v - 1) main, + 1 side, + 2 parody. A base is its table less 4 times the first event.
  • A row is a line (whole-sector offset, positive size) or none (-1, -1). An array ends at the first row that is neither, so padding and placeholder words drop out.
  • Infection's volume 2 has main, side and parody tables, but no English. Mutation's has main and side in both languages; a main event in Parody Mode has no voice there. Infection's tables come out as the old ones did, row for row.
• The driver (voice_request) dispatches by section:
  • The main events take the parody table in Parody Mode, or no voice where there is none.
  • The side events take the side table.
  • English applies when the code has an English table.
  • voiceFile is set whenever the branch runs.
• Checks.
  • Every Mutation event line lies in its file on Mutation's disc.
  • A Mutation line plays headless in both languages.
  • On Infection, requests for volume 2's side events now match the game. The game names a file that disc lacks. Where the game reads past a placeholder table, the port sends nothing.

The field voices (ccVoiceRequest's groups), the skill words and the food voices are still Infection's tables only.

The recall's black fades

Mutation's new game plays stream 23 (str0695E) after the name entry: Helba's recall of Infection. Its 27 pages are planes in front of the camera.

• The pages cross-fade through a black board (MDL_blackbord_a01) 1 unit in front of them, and through a white one for flashes.
• The port drew the board first, and the page behind it failed the depth test, so each fade went black: the page vanished at once and came back as a cut.
• Both are translucent models without a bounding box. ccModel::Draw keys such a model M[2][3] / M[3][3] of world_screen * lw, and ccDLSort draws ascending keys. For planes square to the view, the key is the camera's tilt over the distance.
• The port built the stream camera in f32, so the tilt was noise.

The camera is now VU0-exact: Scene::world_view_bits is SetMatrix_PosRotXYZDebug with the stream's unit matrix (+0xc0). It is checked bit for bit against the game's own function in eemu. The key is taken from it (exact_key), and sorted keys now treat -0 as 0. The camera is pitched 2 ulps short of 90 degrees, so the tilt is real, and the key still orders the board first. By the game's own arithmetic the board draws first, and the Z buffer is 32 bits, so nothing saturates.