link/v8.md

@@ -169,10 +169,12 @@ application, and a minimal PNG writer over `System.IO.Compression.DeflateStream`
    into a `Bitmap` via `LockBits`, so System.Drawing is in the *decode*, not just the encode — a
    Linux/Mono shard needs libgdiplus even to read a sprite. Writing our own pixels and our own PNG
    makes the feature portable by construction.
-3. **It removes the UOP gap.** ServUO's vendored `Animations` reads legacy `anim*.mul` only. This
+3. **It removes the UOP gap, which lands squarely on the player bodies.** ServUO's vendored
-   client has a full 195 MB `anim.mul` so most bodies resolve — but **gargoyle bodies 666/667
+   `Animations` reads legacy `anim*.mul` only, never `AnimationFrame*.uop`. This client has a full
-   returned nothing**, because gargoyles live in `AnimationFrame*.uop`. A player race missing from
+   195 MB `anim.mul` so most creatures resolve — but **six of the twelve stock player-character
-   an asset store built for "player models and everything" is not a caveat, it is a defect.
+   bodies return nothing**, including every gargoyle and both human ghosts (§5.2). A missing
+   playable race in an asset store built for "player models and everything" is not a caveat, it is
+   a defect, and it is in the highest-attention part of the scope.
 4. **We are already in this business.** §9 writes a cliloc decompressor from scratch regardless.
 
 A2 also ends the dependency on whatever version of `Ultima` a given ServUO happens to vendor,
@@ -210,13 +212,20 @@ Three properties this shape buys:
 ### 5.1 There is no direction segment, because only one direction is wanted
 
 Bodies are stored in **five** directions and the client mirrors three of them to reach eight. Only
-one is needed here — the one facing the viewer — so **direction is fixed by the extractor and is
+one is needed here, so **direction is fixed by the extractor and is not part of the key**. Leaving
-not part of the key**. Leaving it in would advertise a choice nobody is going to make and would
+it in would advertise a choice nobody is going to vary and would five-fold every count in §11 for
-five-fold every count in §11 for nothing.
+nothing.
 
-**The front-facing index is 0.** This was determined by rendering all five for a human, a wolf and
+**Which one depends on whether the body is a player character:**
-a dragon rather than from a table, because the answer is not obvious and the small-thumbnail version
+
-of the same test suggested the opposite:
+| Body | Direction | Why |
+|---|---|---|
+| A player character body | **0** — head-on, facing the viewer | A character is a portrait; it should look at you |
+| Everything else | **1** — front three-quarter | The view that actually reads as a creature (see the caveat below) |
+
+Which index is which was determined by **rendering all five** for a human, a wolf and a dragon
+rather than from a table, because the answer is not obvious and the small-thumbnail version of the
+same test suggested the exact opposite:
 
 | Index | View |
 |---|---|
@@ -226,12 +235,45 @@ of the same test suggested the opposite:
 | 3 | Rear three-quarter |
 | 4 | Directly away — back of the head, and a quadruped's tail toward the camera |
 
-One caveat the render made obvious, and it is the reason this is written down rather than assumed:
+The caveat the render made obvious is what produced the split: **index 0 is the least legible view
-**index 0 is the least legible view for four-legged and long-bodied creatures.** A wolf seen head-on
+for four-legged and long-bodied creatures.** A wolf seen head-on is a dark blob; the same wolf at
-is a dark blob; the same wolf at index 2 is unmistakably a wolf, and at index 1 is the view
+index 1 is unmistakably a wolf, which is also why UOFiddler's own thumbnail list picks that view. A
-UOFiddler's own thumbnail list picks. For a bestiary tile that matters. The extractor therefore
+humanoid has no such problem — it reads fine head-on, and head-on is what a character portrait
-takes the index as a **configuration value defaulting to 0**, so changing the catalogue's mind later
+wants.
-is a setting and a re-import, not a protocol change.
+
+Both indices stay **configuration values** (defaulting to 0 and 1), so changing the catalogue's mind
+later is a setting and a re-import, not a protocol change.
+
+### 5.2 "Player character body" is asked of the shard, never hardcoded
+
+`Server.Race.AllRaces` gives every registered race, and each carries `MaleBody`, `FemaleBody`,
+`MaleGhostBody` and `FemaleGhostBody`. The plugin enumerates those four ids per race and that set —
+nothing else — takes index 0. On stock ServUO 57.4 that is twelve ids:
+
+| Race | Male | Female | Male ghost | Female ghost |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| Human | 400 | 401 | 402 | 403 |
+| Elf | 605 | 606 | 607 | 608 |
+| Gargoyle | 666 | 667 | **695** | **694** |
+
+This is the §8 argument again in miniature: only code inside ServUO can answer it, and asking is
+the only thing that works on a shard with a custom race. Two details make the case that a
+hardcoded list would have been wrong — `RaceDefinitions.cs` passes the gargoyle's ghost bodies in
+the **opposite order** to the other two races (695 male, 694 female), and a shard that calls
+`RegisterRace` adds ids no table of ours would contain.
+
+**Half of that set does not decode with ServUO's vendored library.** Measured:
+
+| Decodes | Does not |
+|---|---|
+| Human male/female (400, 401) | **Human ghosts (402, 403)** |
+| Elf male/female (605, 606) | **Every gargoyle body (666, 667, 694, 695)** |
+| Elf ghosts (607, 608) | |
+
+Six of twelve, including a whole playable race. So the one part of the asset scope with the most
+attention on it — the player character, head-on — is precisely the part the vendored `Animations`
+serves worst, and §4's recommendation to own the decoders is what fixes it. This is the single
+strongest piece of evidence for that choice.
 
 ---
 
@@ -505,8 +547,9 @@ prove byte-identical output *before* building six phases on top of it.
    libgdiplus dependency, the UOP gap and the vendor-drift risk all going away at once.
 2. **§11: gump art deferred.** Confirm that paperdoll and equipment gump art is genuinely
    out of scope for 8, given it is the one kind whose existing decoder crashes.
-3. **§5.1: direction is fixed at index 0** (head-on) and is not in the key — settled 2026-09-10.
+3. **§5.1/§5.2: direction — settled 2026-09-10.** Player character bodies use index 0, everything
-   What is *not* settled is whether the catalogue should default to index 1 or 2 instead, since a
+   else index 1, direction is not in the key, and the player-body set is enumerated from
-   head-on wolf is a dark blob and a side-on wolf is a wolf. It is a setting either way.
+   `Race.AllRaces` rather than hardcoded. Nothing outstanding; recorded here because it changes
+   every count in §11.
 4. **§13: the default audience** for asset serving — inheriting the using page's audience is
    proposed; the operator sets the policy either way.