Entry 113

Throws let go at their release; animations over the base; speed

2026-10-1515mplay

Filescrates/rugrats/src/actors/animator.rs crates/rugrats/src/actors/player.rs crates/rugrats/src/world/game/things.rs crates/rugrats/src/world/game/mod.rs crates/rugrats/src/world/game/story.rs crates/rugrats/src/levels/box_toss.rs crates/rugrats/src/levels/aisle_seven.rs crates/rugrats/src/levels/training.rs crates/rugrats/tests/play.rs

30.2 left the animation events that time the grab and the release. The port threw on the button press. Reading them out showed three more things the animator was missing.

Events. Each FRM frame's first halfword (the port's Frame::unknown_0) is its event bits. 0x80055d40 ORs them into +0xe0 when the frame's time runs out. In DB03:

• the throw's track 1 has 0x10 on its third frame: the release, which 0x80060b44 waits for;
• the pick-up's track 1 has 0x820 on its fourth: the grab, 2048;
• 1 marks an animation's last frame.

Animator::events collects them each step.

States over the base. The throw (logical 18, table 26) has no base column. 0x800571d8 plays such a state on track 1, and 0x800561b0 lets tracks 2 and 3 take its columns where it has them, the base's otherwise. Track 0 goes on with the base state, so the legs keep standing or walking while the arms throw. When track 1 completes (0x8005678c), tracks 1-3 go back to the base. The port had reset all four tracks, leaving the legs unanimated and the action over at once. Animator now keeps a base and an upper state.

Speed. 0x800572a8's third argument is the body's animation speed (+0xe4, clamped 2048..16384 by 0x80057214), and a frame's time runs down by dt times it >> 12. The oracle shows D_800c3f1c = 10 and +0xe4 = 4096 while running. The stand handler asks for the throw at 0x2000; the cry is 0x800572a8(player, 16, 2560). start_at / Player::act_at take it. The player update (0x8005a068) enters every state at 4096, or 2048 for a body of template 8, which is Reptar (shape 9). Reptar's animations, his fire included, run at half speed: Animator::written_speed. The fire takes about 70 VSyncs, as in the oracle; the port had it at 38.

The release. A throw is now Game::pending_throw: the press starts the animation, and the thing stays in hand until event 16, or the animation's end. The aim and speed are taken then, as 0x80060b44 does. throw_carried (levels 20-21) goes through it too. A press during a throw is ignored (+0x188 bit 4), which the box toss lacked.

The grab. The pick-up handler (0x800601e4) takes the object (+0x1f0 = +0x1ec) only at event 2048. The port took it on the press. It is now Game::pending_grab, taken at the event (or the animation's end), with the grip measured from the hands at that frame.

Measured in the port, Tommy's throw at 0x2000 lets go on its 12th frame and ends on its 19th (test a_throw_runs_at_its_speed). With the arm forward at the release, level 9's can again comes back into Tommy as in the oracle.

The tests changed with the slower, correct throw rate:

• level 16's toss now replays the oracle's own run, heading 913 and a press every 24 VSyncs. Pressing faster no longer helps: the original ignores presses while throwing;
• levels 20-21's policy no longer restarts its throw by pressing again;
• the camera-after-a-cry test waits the longer cry out.