Entry 334

"Each mode's tasks and priorities; the port's menu task runs after the world's"

2026-10-01enginedecomp

Filesdocs/engine/overview.mdGAPS.md

15 left open which tasks each mode starts and in what order. 101 noted that a request the menus make reaches the sound task a frame late in the port.

Every ccStartThread(fn, priority, stack) call in the set-ups, read with its arguments (INF SLUS_202.67):

The kernel runs the woken tasks lowest number first, each to its next Breath. So a frame of The World runs:

1. the event task;
2. the game control;
3. the menus;
4. the camera;
5. the party (ccThSpc);
6. the entries (enemies, gimmicks, NPCs);
7. the movie stream, the effects, the skills, the display and the particles;
8. the sound task, last.

A menu's request is acted on by the characters and heard in the same frame.

The port

AreaMode::step (area.rs) runs, in order:

1. the event task;
2. the map button (game control);
3. the ride's slot;
4. world.step_into, which is every world task;
5. the talks, the shows and the menu's rules;
6. the menu task (ui.step_into) and its requests.

WorldMode::step has the same shape. The menu therefore runs after the characters, where the game runs it before them. A menu's request (a skill, an item, an order) reaches the world a frame late, and so does the sound it leads to. That frame is the cause of 101's late words, and it affects every menu-to-world request, not only sound.

Moving the menu task to its place changes the frame on which a talk opens its menu, on which the menu's rules see the battle's shows, on which Data Drain's movie and the item steps are answered, and on which the gate hack starts. Session tests pin all of these to frames. That is a pass of its own, listed in GAPS.md under "Missing in play".