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core fedac native docs controller-playground.md
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HDMI controller playground #

The October 4, 2026 device session runs a closed-lid ThinkPad on HDMI at 1920×1080/60, drawing a 640×360 canvas at 3× nearest-neighbor scale. These changes are a development checkpoint; no public OTA was built or published.

Display and drawing #

Set AC_HDMI_ONLY=1 AC_PIXEL_SCALE=3 before launching ac-native. HDMI becomes the primary display, using advertised progressive 1080p60 when available, and other CRTCs are disabled after a successful modeset. With no connected HDMI at startup, the primary-display search falls back to the laptop panel. AC_PIXEL_SCALE accepts integers 1–16. HDMI-only mode does not provide live unplug-to-internal-panel handoff; restart the runtime to select another output.

Native paste(painting, dx, dy, sx, sy, width, height) now supports source rectangles with preserved row stride and alpha compositing. Invalid source rectangles are ignored. The original three-argument form is unchanged.

hdmi displays FPS, source size, actual HDMI mode, scale, and the nearest filter. Run sh /mnt/tools/hdmi-monitor.sh to populate its mode readout from DRM debugfs. hdmi-mode-probe.c is an optional diagnostic preload for older mirroring runtimes: it restricts modes to advertised progressive choices and reverts unconfirmed tests after 20 seconds. Do not combine it with HDMI-only mode. It is not loaded by the normal build.

Controller and keyboard #

The tested USB device is the 8BitDo Arcade Controller for Xbox, 2dc8:202c. The device kernel has neither xpad nor loadable modules. The narrowly scoped tools/ac-usb-controller.c reader claims its unbound USB data interface via usbfs, initializes GIP reports, and publishes atomic state to /tmp/ac-controller.json. It never detaches a kernel driver. A lock prevents multiple readers; unplugging clears held controls, and discovery retries. Pieces discard stale state after 1.5 seconds. This is a piece-level bridge, not a general native gamepad API or support for every Xbox controller.

Build the helpers on Linux for the target architecture:

cc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -Werror -static tools/ac-usb-controller.c -o ac-usb-controller
cc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -Werror -static tools/ac-keyboard-remote.c -o ac-keyboard-remote

Install executable copies under /mnt/tools/. Both playground pieces start ac-usb-controller when its heartbeat is missing. Slab launches the keyboard receiver over authenticated SSH; see AC keyboard remote for the Command–Option–L shortcut and per-host configuration. Helpers are installed separately; the image builders do not install these binaries yet.

Starfighter #

starfighter automatically flies and fights in third person. A/RT fires, B shields, X launches a missile, RB boosts, LB rolls, Y restarts, and Menu switches autopilot. Manual input overrides autopilot for four seconds. Keyboard: arrows/Space, B/X/Shift/L, R/P; M mutes immediately; Escape opens prompt. Audio uses at most 16 sine voices for descending lasers, bass explosions and a 96 BPM score. Rocks are visual geometry, without collisions.

api.raycast(shapes, count, uniforms, depth) draws lit ellipsoids into the native framebuffer. Reuse Float64Array shape/uniform buffers and a Float32Array depth buffer. The layouts are documented in src/raycast.h; the binding checks dimensions, lengths, finite values and overlapping inputs. It retains backing buffers only during the call. At 640×360, the piece casts 320×180 environment rays and full-resolution ship rays, with per-pixel depth compositing. Older runtimes use the adaptive JavaScript renderer.

A 35-second live sample with audio measured 1–3 ms raycast time (median 2 ms), 56–60.2 FPS (median 60), and 1–9 active voices. The sample is evidence for this device and scene, not a guaranteed frame rate. C tests cover intersections, occlusion, clipping and framebuffer stride; live binding probes reject short, wrong-size, nonfinite and overlapping arrays. Run the model/audio tests with node --test tests/starfighter.test.mjs and the renderer test with cc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -Werror tests/raycast.c -lm -o /tmp/raycast-test.

The native prompt now uses GNU Unifont at 8×16 with 18-pixel line spacing.

Bunny Hop #

bunny-hop is a 3D platformer with a camera that follows and swings around the route, lifting during jumps. Water shadows anchor turtles and trees; a depth-tested bunny shadow marks its landing spot. Controls are D-pad plus A only (arrows/Space on a keyboard); hold A for a higher hop. Autoplay starts immediately, manual input takes over, and eight idle seconds resume the demo. Visit twelve turtle backs to reach Fia's island. Falling returns the bunny to its last turtle. A restarts after winning; the demo also restarts automatically.

Orchard apples grow sequentially, ripen at seven seconds and fall at twelve. Occasional birds land and shake ripe apples down early. Fruit lands on the turtle shells and can be collected. The demo hops in place at orchard turtles. Run the six gameplay/fruit checks with node --test tests/bunny-hop.test.mjs. The piece needs the native api.raycast build installed during this session.

Pieces #

  • little-platformer: side-scrolling physics at a fixed 120 Hz simulation step. A jumps (hold for height), B shoves, X drops a ball, Y resets, and RB/RT runs. Includes coyote time, buffered jumps, object collisions, spring pads, falling/respawn, held buttons and FPS. Arrows/Space work too.
  • little-world: top-down movement and camera scrolling; A hops, B plants, RB/RT runs, and stars can be collected.
  • doody-blit: four animated sprite types leave persistent stamps. C clears, arrows change stamp count, Space pauses, and M toggles low sine-wave music.
  • fia-stars: the “love u fia” starfield.
  • feral-file-now: a dated October 4 news snapshot with source attribution.

The pieces use lib/saved-wifi.mjs to join visible saved networks without interrupting association/DHCP. Credentials stay in device-local /mnt/wifi_creds.json; none are bundled in these pieces. Image builders and dev-push.sh include the saved-WiFi and platform-physics modules.

On the tested USB, both boot partitions hold copies of the pieces, libraries, helpers and boot configuration. Its device-local init copies /mnt/pieces/*.mjs and /mnt/lib/*.mjs into RAM before launching AC. The platform-physics module is also in its initramfs overlay. These local boot overrides are separate from the repository's stock init. If installing onto another existing image, install the dependencies in its initramfs or equivalent persistent boot hook; a RAM-only /lib upload does not survive reboot.

Evidence and limits #

The running device was inspected at 1080p60 with the laptop panel disabled; HDMI captures showed 60 FPS, transparent sprites and persistent stamps. Actual controller presses moved the top-down character and scrolled its camera; the user confirmed operation. The platformer was inspected on the same TV. The live native binary uses the device's earlier base plus these display/blit changes; it is not a full current-HEAD release. USB archive integrity and piece/helper hashes were checked on both partitions; the final boot overlays have not been cold-boot tested.

Checks:

node --test lib/saved-wifi.test.mjs lib/platform-physics.test.mjs
cc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -Werror tests/framebuffer-scale.c src/framebuffer.c -o /tmp/framebuffer-scale
/tmp/framebuffer-scale
# Linux:
cc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -Werror tools/ac-usb-controller-test.c -o /tmp/controller-test
/tmp/controller-test
cc -O2 -Wall -Wextra -Werror tools/ac-keyboard-remote-test.c -o /tmp/keyboard-test
/tmp/keyboard-test
# macOS, from the repository root:
bash slab/menubar-swift/tests/ac-remote-test.sh

The device also passed a cropped-paste probe covering source bounds, alpha, untouched pixels and no automatic full-frame clears in the blit piece.