hamsterball-first-d3d8-build

name	hamsterball-first-d3d8-build
description	First D3D8-based Hamsterball reimplementation build - proof of concept running on Wine
category	reimplementation
tags	["d3d8","win32","game-engine","hamsterball"]

First D3D8 Build Success - Proof of Concept

Current State

• ✅ D3D8 device creation (1024x768)
• ✅ DInput8 keyboard + mouse initialization
• ✅ WinMain (0x4278E0) mirrored exactly
• ✅ MESHWORLD parser loading Arena-WarmUp (17 objects)
• ✅ Ball spawns at correct position (184.9, 26.4, 183.4)
• ✅ Game loop running at 30fps fixed timestep
• ✅ FPS counter working (~30K FPS)
• ✅ Wine D3D8→OpenGL translation active

What's NOT Implemented (Skeleton Only)

• ❌ Loading screen menu
• ❌ Full MESHWORLD geometry rendering (binary format not fully parsed - only object list extracted, not vertices/faces/materials)
• ❌ Texture loading (D3DX)
• ❌ Collision detection (ball falls through floor)
• ❌ Real ball physics (6-phase pipeline)
• ❌ Scene system with render passes
• ❌ UI/menu system
• ❌ Audio (DirectSound stubbed)
• ❌ Any menus or title screen

Architecture (WinMain mirroring)

WinMain (0x4278E0)
├── D3D8 device creation
├── DInput8 initialization
├── Load Arena-WarmUp.mesworld
├── Parse 17 scene objects
├── Enter game loop:
│   ├── Clear screen
│   ├── Draw ball (sphere placeholder)
│   ├── Draw object markers
│   └── Present

To Get "Playable":

1. MESHWORLD geometry rendering - Parse vertex/face data, build vertex buffers
2. Texture loading - Parse PNG, create D3D textures, UV mapping
3. Collision geometry - Parse .COL files, ball collision detection
4. Real physics - Ball_AdvancePositionOrCollision 6-phase pipeline
5. UI scaffolding - Menu system (bare minimum)

Compilation

cd ~/hamsterball-re/reimpl
i686-w64-mingw32-gcc -std=c11 -m32 -O2 -Iinclude \
  src/core/win32_main.c src/level/*.c \
  -o hamsterball.exe \
  -ld3d8 -ldinput8 -ldsound -ldxguid -lole32 -lwinmm -mwindows

Testing

wine ./hamsterball.exe

CRITICAL: MESHWORLD Binary Format (v7 verified)

1. MeshWorld_Parse (0x4039E0 area) = TEXT/ASE format parser — WRONG ONE for .MESHWORLD files
2. FUN_004629e0 (decomp_binary_meshloader.c) = BINARY loader — CORRECT ONE

Binary format (v7, verified against WarmUp data):

• Section1: u32 count → per item: name_len+name, 6×u32 (floats: pos3+pad3), ext_flag, if ext: amb(4f)+dif(4f)+spec(4f)+EMIS(4f)+shine(f)+refl(u32)+hastex(u32==1)+texname
• Items include BOTH materials AND game objects (PLATFORM,SAFESPOT,START,CAMERALOOKAT etc.)
• Section2: u32 meshbuf_count → data_len+data+face_count+faces(3×4B each)
• Section3: u32 obj_count → type(i32)+pos/rot/scale
• Section4: bbox(6f) — in struct has 12-byte gap between min_z(+0x45c) and max_x(+0x468)
• Section5: u32 vtx_count + vtx_count×32B (pos3+normal3+uv2)
• SpawnPlatform: 0/0/0 counts → 34 vertices parsed correctly
• WarmUp: 16 items (5 ext PLATFORM), meshbuf=0, obj=1
• u32 mat_count → per mat: u32 name_len+name bytes, 6xu32 fields, u32 ext_flag
  • if extended: ambient[4], diffuse[4], specular[4] (RGBA floats), shine float, has_texture u32
  • if has_texture: u32 texlen + texname bytes
• u32 meshbuf_count → per buf: u32 name_len+name, u32 data_len+raw_data, i32 face_count, per face 3xfloat
• u32 obj_count → per obj: i32 type (0=straight), pos[3], rot[3], scale[3] as u32 values + virtual calls
• 6xfloat bounding box (min xyz, max xyz)
• u32 vertex_count → vertex_count * 0x20 bytes vertex data (pos[3] + normal[3] + uv[2] = 8 floats = 32 bytes)

Ref: ~/hamsterball-re/analysis/ghidra/decompilations/graphics/decomp_binary_meshloader.c

Next Steps for Real Build

1. Implement binary MESHWORLD parser (use FUN_004629e0 decomp, NOT the text parser)
2. Build D3D8 vertex buffer from parsed vertex data (FVF=D3DFVF_XYZ|D3DFVF_NORMAL|D3DFVF_TEX1)
3. Build D3D8 index buffer per mesh buffer from face data
4. Apply materials (SetMaterial with diffuse/ambient/specular from parsed data)
5. Load textures from parsed texture filenames (DDS/TGA)
6. Implement collision mesh loading from .COL files