nxnative-easy/dm/games/01007300020FA000/README.md

ASTRAL CHAIN (01007300020FA000)

Update 1.0.1 (v65536) over the base game. PlatinumGames' engine, SDK 6.4.0, NVN, Wwise audio through AudioOut; modules main and sdk. The 1.0.1 profile enables a 60 fps gameplay target with corrected game timing; fixed-step cinematics retain 30 fps. Mac testing completes motorcycle combat and reaches the first on-foot checkpoint. An unsigned IPA builds; iPhone testing is pending.

What it needs

Setting	Where	Why
mem_reserve 0xf0000000, mem_alias 0x10000000, mem_stack 0x10000000, app_pool 0xCD500000	game.tsv	3 GB heap region; the first Mac boot requests 2.96 GB, with the game's 191 MB BSS counted as used memory
sys_resource 0x0	game.tsv	the NPDM declares no system resource; no virtual address memory
pad_layout full	game.tsv	movement and camera use both sticks
fps_target 60	game.tsv, patches.py	host-paced gameplay with fractional timer carry, integer input windows and camera smoothing; only the verified 1.0.1 main build
depth_mode zero	game.tsv	the game sets the near = 0 depth mode, so the pipeline bases made before it runs (the NSP script's Mac prebuild, and a pipeline archive made offline for the iPhone when one is built with DM_PSO_GPUS) take its vertex shaders' main0_z entries (the host itself follows the mode the game sets)

Files and shaders

• 82 PKZ archives, version 0x10000, holding 8,556 Zstandard-compressed entries, alongside Bink 2 movies (.bk2) and Wwise banks and streams. The PKZ directory and name-table layout matches version 0x20000; every entry's bounds were checked and one entry per archive was decoded before extending the reader.
• root.pkz contains PlatinumGames DAT shader archives. The full split finds 1,348 distinct shaders: 540 vertex, 738 pixel, 70 compute. Single-stage programs produce 1,620 cover pairs. All 1,348 compile for Mac and iOS, with zero undecoded bindings and zero unfillable driver-bank reads.
• GPU code versions in the root shader archives include 1.9, 1.12 and 1.15, despite the linked SDK being 6.4.0. The game sets upper-left window origin, near-zero depth, a 1600×900 swap chain and present interval 2.

Services and SDK

• Resolved: startup fails, then cleanup reads null at main+0x9c0d1c. main+0x40d6c0 loads hwfillcolor; its vertex shader is version 1.15. The shader loader compares byte 7 with the driver's newest minor at main+0x9e97d0 and rejects the old answer 1.14. A probe at main+0x9dcf28 confirms failure before the subsequent cleanup crash. The host now advertises the translator's supported GPU-code range independently of the linked SDK. No game-code cut is needed.
• Issue #170 independently reports the same initialization crash and PKZ version. Its shader-map generic-type warning was also confirmed: g_shmap holds strings, and its declaration now agrees. Its translator source-hash failure was not reproduced; the pinned translator built all shaders without rebuilding the translator.

Status on the Mac

• ZL+ZR prompt, logos, opening real-time cinematic, character creation (including software-keyboard naming), save creation/reload and the motorcycle tutorial render on an M4 Pro. The original 30 fps run had a warm frame median of 33.34 ms. The 60 fps validation and its limits are below.
• Wwise opens a stereo AudioOut; the 15-minute play03 run reaches 84,000 device callbacks with zero reported underruns. Resident memory grows from 1.44 GB at the title to 2.57 GB on entering the tutorial; Metal allocated memory is about 3.02 GB there.
• The first boot rendered in a Mac window. A later windowed run stalled in the display link; the sustained measurements and screenshots use DM_WINDOW unset and DM_PRESENT_LINK=0. They measure offscreen native rendering, not on-screen presentation quality.
• Current: entering the motorcycle scene reports one cube/2D texture mismatch, handled by the existing zero-cube fallback. The scene renders, but that binding has not been traced to establish whether it is an intentional placeholder.
• Work folder: /Volumes/T7/nsp/ASTRAL CHAIN/01007300020FA000-work. run/boot.py <log-name> <seconds> [KEY=VALUE ...] launches a bounded run, with its control file at run/<log-name>.ctl, logs and saves beside it. The build artifacts and extracted data are in the adjacent 01007300020FA000_build.

Frame rate

Current: 60 fps gameplay target on 1.0.1, main build 4b159f0f7a360669738390ee8657b4f0. The profile uses the host's frame step and pacing instead of simply overriding present interval 2. DM_FPS_TARGET=30 selects a 30 fps cap with the same timing; DM_FPS_TARGET=0 executes the original instructions at every hook.

Resolved: half-frame steps stop integer timers. The earlier four-cut FPSLocker experiment raised the title frame rate, but main+0x48be14 and main+0x57e7e0 truncated the half-frame step to zero. The new clock stores the floating 30 Hz step at clock +0xd0, carries fractional ticks at +0xd4 and publishes whole ticks at +0xd8. Both 60 half-step updates and 30 full-step updates advance integer timers by 30 ticks. Action/input windows, hit-stop, pad repeat and rumble counters consume those whole ticks; camera interpolation uses elapsed-time decay.

The timer and camera helpers are adapted from the MIT-licensed AstralChain-Dynamic-FPS v1.1.1, with its license retained in patches.py. Its measured-time core and interval overrides are replaced by a host-paced clock. All 112 hook sites check their original bytes, and the complete set is build-ID gated. Helpers are relocated into the rewriter's allocated patch area rather than overwriting the upstream code caves. With this main's 191 MB BSS, helpers sit before the module base; frame state is at main+0xccec000, image size 0xccf0000 (the general allocation fix is linked below).

The engine's fixed-step mode (w21 == 0 at main+0x91dc10) sets the host's 30 fps cinematic flag and a two-vsync step. Variable-step gameplay releases that cap and consumes the host's chosen step, including catch-up after late frames. This preserves the fixed-step mode's original clock rather than forcing every cinematic to 60 fps. Other real-time cinematics can use the engine's variable-step mode. Audio/video synchronization across all movies has not been verified; the upstream patch reports some remaining drift and incomplete timer coverage.

Validation on the M4 Pro:

• ARM64 execution tests run the emitted stubs without game files: fractional carry, integer consumers (including the zero-tick branch), first-sample initialization, cinematic cap/release, input-window duration and flags, original behavior with target 0, and camera decay after equal elapsed time. The original integer conversion failed the 60-half-step check before the fix.
• Native timing61 loads a save, passes character creation, completes motorcycle combat with firing, steering and evasion, and reaches the first on-foot checkpoint. Movement and camera rendering work there, with sampled windows reaching 60.0 fps. The warmed title holds 60 fps (16.6 ms median); the fixed-step opening cinematic changes to 30 and character creation releases the cap to 60. Motorcycle rendering reaches 59.7 fps but also dips under concurrent machine load; sustained 60 fps throughout gameplay is not established.
• Host telemetry records 30.00 game seconds in 30.00 real seconds in a 60 fps window. With adaptive holds during motorcycle combat, representative windows are 40.98/40.87 and 61.05/60.93 seconds (ratios 1.003 and 1.002). This checks clock speed, not all combat mechanics or on-screen presentation. Later stalls can exhaust catch-up; it is not an unlimited compensation for arbitrary pauses.
• The run uses offscreen native rendering as described above. Later Legion combat, Bink movies, end credits and iPhone performance remain untested.

Found on this game

• Frame-step state with a front patch area.
• PKZ version 1 archives.
• Newest GPU code version reported by the driver: precompiled shader versions do not follow the linked SDK.

Open

• Validate the unsigned IPA on an iPhone, including memory pressure and touch controls.
• Trace the tutorial's cube placeholder and validate visible effects against the original game.
• Validate later combat input windows, camera behavior and cinematic audio/video sync with the 60 fps profile; establish sustained performance without competing workloads.
• Later levels and Bink movies are untested.