From-scratch reimplementation of the Sword of the Stars (2006) engine. Clean-room; engine code only — bring your own game copy. Planning/RE evidence live in sots-re.
Find a file
alex 496a5124c9 Z: measure the strategic RNG, do not assume it
The turn's RNG cost has never been measured end to end. combat-done-tail.md
found two draw sites in OnAllCombatDone_Tail that nothing models and that both
run before the autosave, so a reimplementation that reproduces both ProcessTurn
functions exactly still diverges the first turn a node line expires.

RngLedger recovers an ABSOLUTE WORD POSITION from (mt[624], left) alone, by
indexing the forward-only chain of blocks the twist generates. Word deltas
between any two observations are then exact -- across twists, across NextInt
rejection loops, and across draws nobody hooked. That last point is not
theoretical: the image has four draw entry points, one of which (NextUInt
0x004f7670) appears in no previous lane's primitive set, plus inlined draws in
twelve functions. A primitive-counting hook would have undercounted silently.

Six nested trace hooks bracket one End Turn between the two autosaves and
attribute the words: the two turn drivers, the two tail phases that can draw,
and ProcessNodeSpaceTravel because it runs twice a turn. NodeLineDecay carries
a real model -- one word per expired node line under NodePath::RemainingLife --
so compare mode checks the count rather than reporting it.

Corrections from the instruction stream, both load-bearing:
  * StrategyHost::Autosave is ret 8, not ret 4, and returns the std::string* in
    EAX. A void-returning hook would have dropped it at both call sites.
  * node-line decay's 0x20000-fleet skip runs AFTER the Chance(0.5f) call, not
    before, so it cannot change the draw count -- combat-done-tail.md reads as
    if it gated the roll.

fpu.sample_turn releases StrategyServer::ProcessTurn, which the fpu sampler and
this ledger both want and MinHook grants to one of them. Default on: no
existing run changes behaviour.

Host ctest 37/37; shim cross-built on CT111; clean-room check OK.
2026-09-08 09:16:24 -04:00
cmake m0: binkw32 proxy shim, minhook, trace hook on Application::Initialize; build/deploy tooling 2026-09-07 17:22:15 -04:00
docs Z: measure the strategic RNG, do not assume it 2026-09-08 09:16:24 -04:00
include/generated Z: measure the strategic RNG, do not assume it 2026-09-08 09:16:24 -04:00
src Z: measure the strategic RNG, do not assume it 2026-09-08 09:16:24 -04:00
tests Z: measure the strategic RNG, do not assume it 2026-09-08 09:16:24 -04:00
third_party mars/vfs: gob ZIP reader + native override, miniz 3.1.2; oracle-verified 8352+2035 entries 2026-09-07 17:40:51 -04:00
tools b4: colony + movement hooks; 22 formula corrections (growth curve has no capacity term, range margin +0.05f, ties-to-even rounding); 3 verified signatures 2026-09-08 00:57:55 -04:00
.gitignore init commit 2026-09-07 17:07:54 -04:00
CMakeLists.txt Z: measure the strategic RNG, do not assume it 2026-09-08 09:16:24 -04:00
CMakePresets.json m0: binkw32 proxy shim, minhook, trace hook on Application::Initialize; build/deploy tooling 2026-09-07 17:22:15 -04:00
CONTRIBUTING.md CONTRIBUTING: cmake >=3.25 requirement and the uv workaround 2026-09-08 05:13:31 -04:00
LICENSE init commit 2026-09-07 17:07:54 -04:00
README.md b3: research hook + RNG-snapshot compare design; fix draw mapping to y/(2^32-1), NextInt inclusive, float32 odds, spend floor, decay constants 2026-09-07 23:14:08 -04:00

sots-engine

A from-scratch, functional reimplementation of the engine behind Sword of the Stars (2006). Not a byte-for-byte decompilation: behavior-equivalent code, built up one verified piece at a time (OpenRCT2-style) until the tree can build the whole application on its own.

Bring your own game. This repository contains engine code only. Game data, assets, saves, and the original binaries are never included; tests and tools read an owner-supplied copy via $SOTS_DATA_DIR. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the clean-room rules.

Status

Phase 2. M0 done — the shim frontend (src/shim/, a proxy binkw32.dll the original game loads) builds, deploys, hooks, and logs from a real game launch. Engine code accrues under src/mars/ and src/game/; each module is oracle-verified against the owner's game data before merge:

  • mars/parse — brace-block + .effect readers (1,531/1,531 files agree with the reference)
  • mars/text — flat key/value tables, id manifests, CSV (64/64 files agree)
  • game/sim — strategic formulas (economy, research, colonies, movement) as pure functions; 356 hand-computed checks
  • mars/vfs — .gob (ZIP) archive reader + loose-file override; entry counts and bytes verified against unzip
  • mars/stream — the game's self-describing save/serialization format (reader, writer, typed shapes) + gzip; three real saves round-trip byte-identical
  • mars/rng — MT19937 with save-state load/store; layout confirmed against real saves, draw mappings read off the binary (docs/mars-rng.md)
  • game/data — typed catalogs (weapons, ship sections, turrets, id registries, tech tree, strings) with cross-reference checks; 229k values agree with the reference
  • game/design — ship-design assembly/fit/tech-gating rules and derived stats; validates all 127 stock designs from real saves

Build: cmake --preset host && cmake --build --preset host && ctest --preset host (Linux); tools/sync-build.sh cross-builds the shim on the lab box and stages it for deployment.

Layout (grows with the work)

  • src/shim/ — binkw32 proxy + hooks + old-vs-new compare harness (frontend #1)
  • src/mars/, src/game/ — the engine and game reimplementation (accruing)
  • include/generated/sots_addresses.h — binary facts (RVAs/prototypes), generated from the RE repo
  • tests/ — host tests; real-data tests skip unless $SOTS_DATA_DIR is set
  • tools/ — build (MinGW i686 cross) and deploy scripts

Planning, findings, and verification evidence are tracked in the private RE repo (sots-re).