ForgeFX SimulationsForgeIsland / 12 Sep 2026 HST
Session handoff · evidence through 13 Sep UTC
Work in progress · session wrapped up

The field is taking shape.
The finish is still ahead.

Keep the accepted layout and the improvements that passed review. Next, test why the soil stays bright in shadow. The full environment quality target is not yet proven.

Actual packaged game view approaching the southern waterer, showing the fuller pine crowns
Actual packaged walkthrough · southern waterer approach. Fuller existing crowns were retained after visual review; branch tiers still need refinement.
162.8 FPS

Recorded average on the 56-second packaged route. Two capture hitches above 33ms.

60 × 70 m

Accepted east–west × north–south field. North alignment and anchors preserved.

60% remaining

Weekly allowance at wrap-up. Recheck before work; stop below 60%.

What improved

Kept and checked

  • Fuller conifer crowns with unchanged triangle counts.
  • Grass cleared from the waterer basin and sides.
  • Tractor approach aligned with its parking position.
  • Orphaned cattle guards removed from the road.
  • Solid pickup and waterer collision checked from one approach each.

Still needs work

  • Soil, road edges and drainage that read as one landscape.
  • Consistent grade-B assets across the scene.
  • Fresh narrated video covering the latest changes.
  • Broader collision review and blind comparison with the reference.

The requested 3–5 point blind-review lead is unproven.

Close-up · clearing the waterer

The basin and right side are clearer after removing intersecting grass. The surrounding meadow remains.

Before: grass intersects the southern waterer
Before · grass crosses the basin and wall.
After: grass cleared from the waterer footprint
After · retained fix, commit e041b9d343.
7,748 authored grass clumps remain. The collision trace stopped the player at the waterer; that proves one approach, not exhaustive collision coverage.

Layout · preserve these anchors

N−Z60 m E–W70 mRadio tower−208.173, −249.752Grain silo−164.977, −249.553White pickupCenter −188, −229South windmillSouthern pig waterer−206.589, −186.404Dashed path = test sequence, not the physical road
Coordinate diagram · positions plotted to scale. Buildings use point markers; footprints and roads are not represented.
Actual north-up in-game map with reference overlay enabled
Actual in-game reference overlay. The 169m reference span remains provisional; this is not a completed metric calibration.

Walkthrough sequence: radio → silo → southern waterer → radio. Keep the solid, real-world-sized white pickup at the field center.

Next test · soil lighting

Daylight baseline of white pickup and detailed soil at field center
Verified daylight baseline · actual game capture at time 0.70. No lighting diagnostic has been implemented.

Hold the scene fixed

Same camera, time, geometry and material. Compare existing field coatings only.

Change the light group

Compare structure lighting with terrain lighting. Structure lighting includes extra lights that cast no shadows.

Judge the result

If the soil still glows, inspect its added material light. Keep the change only after actual visual review.

Rejected: both waterer soil patches were removed. One made a bright polygon; the other made bright flecks in shadow. Neither entered a packaged build. Do not repeat opacity-only experiments.

Ready for the next session

Operating limits

Co-op tests stay stopped. Adam canceled them after terminal loops. This preview does not restart the game or development goal.

One build and game owner at a time. Check allowance first. Publish real progress during active work; no ongoing posting is scheduled after wrap-up.

Repository snapshot

dev was 36 ahead / 1 behind cached upstream. HEAD: 1e4477bb14. The handoff is local and uncommitted.

No push, merge or deployment of the game was performed during wrap-up. Preserve unrelated files and recheck the earlier push guard before landing.

Watch the narrated WIP ↗Waterer evidence ↗

The video predates the latest crown and grass fixes. Audio levels were checked; narration was not listened to.

Full technical handoff · paths, checks and continuation notes
# ForgeIsland field finish handoff

## Executive summary

Adam requested wrap-up and handoff. Stop new implementation now. The rural field has retained visual and collision improvements, but the full quality target is unfinished. Do not claim the required blind 3–5 point lead over the reference. Resume with one controlled lighting comparison, not another soil patch.

## Current authority and limits

- AREA51, `C:/Users/AdamK/Documents/forgeapps`, branch `dev`.
- Weekly allowance checked at closeout: 60% remaining. Stop **below 60%**, not the superseded 85% threshold. Check again before resuming.
- Adam canceled co-op tests. Keep them stopped; no automatic restart.
- Use one native build/GPU owner. Delegated workers use Luna High Fast (`gpt-5.6-luna`, high, no history fork); no parallel game launches.
- Preserve 60m east-west by 70m north-south field, center (-188,-229), north=-Z. Radio (-208.173,-249.752), silo (-164.977,-249.553), southern waterer (-206.589,-186.404), solid 5.31876m white pickup at center. Southern windmill (-160,-203).
- Current detailed evidence index: [field-current-status](../qa/field-current-status-20260913.md). Its allowance snapshot is older than this handoff.

## Retained work and evidence

- `11ed174bd1`: fuller existing conifer crowns, unchanged triangle counts. Actual packaged 56-second radio → silo → waterer → radio route completed without trace errors, average 162.781 FPS, two capture hitches above 33ms. [Evidence](../qa/fuller-tree-crowns-20260913.md).
- `e041b9d343`: grass cleared from waterer basin and sides. Matched native close-ups inspected; focused test and TypeScript passed. Actual field now 7,748 authored grass clumps, 13,567 trees, 87 collision surfaces. One packaged waterer approach stopped against collision. [Evidence](../qa/waterer-grass-clearance-20260913.md).
- Tractor approach corrected, orphaned road cattle guards removed, authored pine twig opacity corrected, TSR retained. See the evidence index for exact tests and captures.
- North-up reference ON/OFF and pickup collision evidence exist. The reference span of 169m remains provisional, not fully calibrated.
- Latest narrated video predates the crown/grass changes: https://media.forgefx.dev/videos/e482a696-2c74-4198-957b-bec8dc6620d4 . Audio stream/levels verified earlier, but narration was not listened to.
- Latest verified published trial was rejected, not accepted: https://media.forgefx.dev/images/abb3a1ce-bef2-43b7-927c-9923750ca277 . Earlier 10-minute publication cadence had a documented one-minute miss. No ongoing publication is scheduled after wrap-up.

## Next action: coating lighting

Both waterer soil apron trials were fully removed; neither reached a package. Opaque kind5 produced a bright polygon; fractional kinds produced bright flecks within shadow. Do not repeat opacity-only changes.

`unreal/ForgeIsland/Source/ForgeIsland/IslandScene.cpp` assigns all structures-matte/metal meshes, including field-greybox coatings, to channel1. `IslandEnvironment.cpp` supplies extra unshadowed directional lights on that channel to preserve an old browser CSM lighting behavior. This is a concrete source-level explanation to test, not a proven visual fix. Structure material emissive fill is another factor.

Compare existing field/road coatings on terrain channel0 versus current channel1, with identical native camera and time. Keep other structures, geometry, collision and cast-shadow settings unchanged. Review the rendered result before retaining anything. No diagnostic code has been written or built.

Closeout baseline folder: `unreal/ForgeIsland/Saved/review/field-finished-20260912/coating-lighting/`.
Camera: `-194,29,-229,-1.5707963,-0.55`, 1600x900, 25-second warmup.
`before.png` is INVALID for daylight comparison: PowerShell split unquoted `-IslandTimeOfDay=0.70` into `=0 .70`, producing night. Always quote the complete argument: `'-IslandTimeOfDay=0.70'`. Corrected capture is `before-day.png`; consult closeout note below for verification.

## Remaining requirements

Ground and road color integration, believable drainage and edges, consistent grade-B assets, renewed narrated walkthrough, broader collision checks, and blind reference judgment remain incomplete. Browser distant tree atlas parity is untested. Do not substitute the successful narrow checks for these requirements. Co-op capacity, reconnection and shared gameplay are also unproven and outside the stopped field test run.

## Repository state

At audit HEAD was `1e4477bb14`. Local `dev` was 36 ahead / 1 behind its cached upstream; no fetch or push performed. No tracked source diff or merge conflicts before this handoff. Preserve unrelated untracked `apps/forgemedia/_uploads/batch-final/`, `apps/forgemedia/_uploads/batch7/`, and root `unreal/`.

Earlier push guard reportedly rejected oversized unrelated raw PNGs; revalidate before any future landing. Do not bypass the guard or rewrite unrelated history. This wrap-up does not claim sync, merge or deployment.

## Suggested skills

- `.forgebot/skills/unreal/SKILL.md`, especially ForgeIsland native-port reference.
- `.forgebot/skills/forgemedia/SKILL.md` for actual WIP publication and public verification.
- `.forgebot/skills/qa-video/SKILL.md` for real narrated review footage.
- `.forgebot/skills/forgebulletin/SKILL.md` for authorized coordination as isabelle-codex; include an image in posts.
- `.forgebot/skills/git/SKILL.md` only when resuming landing work.

Do not update memory or invoke learn solely from this handoff.

## Closeout verification

Corrected daylight capture `coating-lighting/before-day.png` completed and was visually inspected (1600x900, 2,662,493 bytes). It shows the pickup and existing soil coating with shadow, suitable as an unchanged baseline. PID32736 exited automatically; preceding invalid capture PID64048 also exited. No build or source modification occurred. No running capture is left by this closeout.

Independent read-only worker confirmed the channel path and warned that `PrepareIslandScene.cpp` also adds StructureHemisphere emissive. A channel switch will not remove that term; unchanged brightness would justify investigating emissive next, not prove it is the sole cause. The waterer close-up remains useful only if a coating is actually present there; the rejected apron is no longer present, so prefer the existing pickup/field coating for the first diagnostic.

This handoff is left as a new local Markdown file. No commit, push, merge or deployment was performed during wrap-up. Earlier test results above were checked against their reports, not rerun in this documentation-only closeout.