VoxelForge/Standalone/Research/WorldAssemblerM3/Round12/REPORT.md

# World assembler S8 / M3 Round 12 — moving region admission and bounded results

**Result:** the S7 region-pending stop is removed for independent tiles. At 6 m/s, the matched
negative control logged 11 global admission skips; the new mode logged none and admitted 110
independent tiles during those windows. All 11 changed support centers had a ready 9/9 walkable
ring. This did not materially change overall moving worker occupancy: about 110 of 150 moving
slot-seconds remained idle. A 60 m/s teleport run admitted unrelated tiles too, but most centers
still outran their walkable ring.

The result queue is now separately bounded at 256 queued results + admitted tile tasks + held
prequeue results. Under one-result-per-frame apply with a 60 m/s run and 400 m teleport, the tracked
result payload peak was 76.2 MB; the uncapped control reached 125.1 MB. Spawn remains about 7.7 s,
not the roughly 4.1 s ideal from 41 worker-seconds / 10 slots. The timeline shows a broad LOD8 tail,
not one abnormally long tile. No safe low-cost spawn fix was supported by this measurement.

## 1. Region gate measurement and change

`BuildCoreDesiredTiles` asks for region pages when the desired tile center changes or its initial
desired region set is established. The old `bCoreRegionCompilePending` path stopped the whole Core
submission pass. The new default `voxel.CoreRegionConcurrentAdmission=1` continues through
`LoadCoreTile` and refuses only keys in `PendingCoreRegionTileSet` or
`CoreRegionCompileTilesInFlight`. `voxel.CoreRegionConcurrentAdmission=0` restores the old global
gate as the negative control. Core tile arithmetic and recipes are unchanged.

Region pages are constructed away from the lookup map and published under `tileRegionMutex` as
immutable shared owners. `generateTile` copies the matching `shared_ptr` while holding the map's
shared lock, then keeps it for the complete read. Map eviction cannot free a page while an already
running tile task holds it. The actor's shared `WorldLock` prevents edits/resets from mutating the
Core world while readers or a region compile are active.

Matched fresh BuildHost processes used the staged owner `SurfaceWorld` settings, seed 0, 25 cm Core
scale, 2,578-key desired set, Legacy order, Dynamic near reserve, apply boost 0, 10 task slots,
Normal priority, `-corelimit=12`, and a +Y move starting at 30 s. Both modes used backlog cap 256.

| Moving 6 m/s | Region CVar 0 | Region CVar 1 |
|---|---:|---:|
| Region requests / completions | 11 / 11 | 11 / 11 |
| Reasons | 1 initial set, 10 center moves | 1 initial set, 10 center moves |
| Whole-scheduler region skips | 11 | 0 |
| Pending interval sum / worst interval | 426.3 / 40.9 ms | 433.1 / 41.4 ms |
| Compile wall sum / slowest compile | 10.8 / 2.5 ms | 10.5 / 2.4 ms |
| Independent tile submissions / dependent declines | 0 / 0 | 110 / 0 |
| Changed support centers ready 9/9 at the change | 11 / 11 | 11 / 11 |
| Walkable lag at those centers | 0 ms | 0 ms |
| Moving frames with an LOD0 key missing | 173 | 163 |
| Moving worker busy / idle slot-seconds (15 s × 10 slots) | 39.7 / 110.3 s | 39.9 / 110.1 s |

The pending interval is the request-to-completion time recorded for each compile; it is not all
global blocking in the new mode. The compiler's measured wall time summed to only about 11 ms over
the run. The default mode removes the full-pass skip and submits keys independent of the entering
region. Its total worker supply remains low: moving work averages about 2.66 of 10 busy workers.
Each of the 11 negative-control whole-pass skips had 92–144 desired keys missing and zero active
tile tasks. The CVar1 run has no corresponding global skip.
Per-LOD counts added to `scheduler_skip` make the LOD0-missing-frame count include the 6 globally
gated frames that had LOD0 work missing in the negative control.

The fast trace used 60 m/s and teleported 400 m after 2 s of the move. It recorded 113 region
requests (initial set plus 112 center moves), all completed, with 381.4 ms aggregate compile wall
time (30.8 ms worst) and 4,523.7 ms accumulated pending interval (69.9 ms worst). Concurrent
admission recorded 782 independent submissions, 983 dependent-key declines, and zero global
region skips. Of 113 changing support centers, 8 were already 9/9 ready on the change event, 3
became ready before the next center change, and 102 did not reach 9/9 before leaving or test end.
The worst resolved lag was 106.3 ms. LOD0 was missing on 480 of 488 moving scheduler frames. This
speed is beyond what the current collision ring can follow.

## 2. Spawn, worker timeline and tail

| Fresh owner-plan spawn | S7 Dynamic reference | Round12 region CVar 0 | Round12 region CVar 1 |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| Full set (2,578 keys, from BeginPlay) | 7.780 s | 7.820 s | 7.706 s |
| Walkable 9/9 ring | 0.581 s | 0.583 s | 0.566 s |
| Full LOD0 (512 tiles) | 1.439 s | 1.442 s | 1.424 s |
| Worker task-seconds to full set | 41.364 | 41.966 | 41.229 |
| Integrated busy workers / 10 (first request → ready) | 5.63 | 5.63 | 5.60 |
| Idle slot-seconds (same interval) | 32.056 | 32.63 | 32.37 |
| `UWorld::Tick` spawn p95 / max | 2.262 / 5.230 ms | 2.387 / 5.273 ms | 2.359 / 5.383 ms |
| `UWorld::Tick` move p95 / max | 2.512 / 28.893 ms | 2.472 / 28.257 ms | 2.377 / 28.967 ms |

The CVar A/B changes the spawn full-set time by only 0.11 s; the region issue occurs during the
later move. The Round12 CVar1 first-request-to-ready span was 7.360 s with 41.229 worker-seconds.
In one-second bins its worker task time was 3.94, 3.91, 3.34, 6.51, 5.73, 7.75 and 7.81 worker-
seconds, followed by 2.24 worker-seconds in the final 0.36 s. Average occupancy was 5.60/10 and
idle capacity was 32.37 slot-seconds. No sustained ten-worker plateau appears. That is about
16.0 ms of elapsed task time per initial tile, similar to S7's 16.04 ms and still about 9% above
the S7 old-path control's 14.62 ms. It does not show whether the difference is CPU contention or
other elapsed-time variation.

The 306 LOD8 jobs consumed 18.798 worker-seconds (45.6% of total), averaging 61.4 ms each; their
worker-time p95 was 79.8 ms and max 94.7 ms. The final 20 completed tile records were all LOD8 and
landed between 7.587 and 7.765 s. This is a group tail of ordinary large jobs, not one serial tile
to split. Across the initial set, worker queue wait averaged 1.71 ms per tile (p95 9.71 ms, max
41.44 ms), and game-thread mesh apply totaled 0.250 s. The trace records elapsed time, not CPU
cycles, cache misses or task-pool wakeup causes; it cannot identify memory bandwidth or thread-local
cache contention. The 10-slot cap reflects 12 logical cores with two cores reserved by
`GetMaxConcurrentTasks`; I left that reserve in place without evidence that using all 12 improves
the spawn while retaining tick time.

The optional actor-tick subsystem markers were not added. The matched run reports the 28.967 ms
maximum walk tick, but this trace has no per-call marker at that maximum, so it remains unattributed.
These are headless/null-RHI actor tick measurements, not rendered frame timings.

## 3. Result backlog bound

`voxel.StreamingResultBacklogCap` defaults to 256 and counts queued results, active tile tasks, and
held visible-LOD0 prequeue results. It is distinct from worker-slot admission; finished results
still do not occupy slots. Zero disables the cap and is the safety negative control.

| Run | Queue cap | Peak result count | Peak payload bytes | Cap stops | Peak private memory |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| 6 m/s normal move | 256 | 116 | 17,024,546 | 0 | 3.48 GB |
| 60 m/s + 400 m teleport | 256 | 114 | 17,153,276 | 0 | 3.80 GB |
| 60 m/s + teleport, one mesh apply/frame | 256 | 256 | 76,201,412 | 843,198 | 3.60 GB |
| Same slow-apply control, cap disabled | 0 | 1,577 | 125,098,792 | 0 | 3.63 GB |

The slow-apply test still reached its initial set: 23.890 s capped versus 23.493 s uncapped. The
cap reduced the tracked peak by 1,321 results and 48.9 MB of payload, at a 0.397 s startup
difference in this pair. `cap_stops` counts repeated admission attempts, not unique tile keys. The
atomic peak tracker saw 256 / 1,577 results; periodic `result_queue_frame` samples saw 255 / 1,576,
respectively, because a frame sample can miss the brief peak. Bytes are result payload estimates,
excluding queue-node and allocator overhead. The default stops new admissions as work drains; it
does not reduce active task capacity when the queue is below the cap.

## 4. Quality, determinism and async audit

- BuildHost Core Off legacy passed at 12.5 cm. HybridV1 and HybridV2 each passed five fixtures and
  same-LOD border checks at 25 cm.
- Final-module SurfaceWorld passed the full actor, collision, anchor-move and carve checks at 25 cm.
  Its W1/W8/W16 worker matrix matched: density `0cd2a1a4152ee4aa`, mesh `80a5b054b904b1a2`, payload
  `bf2f1b40dff38acc`, topology `56074198682d5e18`. S3 ground agreement passed 128 points: far7/8
  maximum error 0.0427 cm, cross-LOD 0.0000 cm, 2 cm tolerance; the 100 cm offset control was
  detected.
- FloatingIslands passed the final BuildHost W1/W8/W16 actor matrix at 25 cm, with fixed water,
  collision, edits and LOD0/1 coverage. The standalone W1/W8/W16 `--stream-hash` runs matched on all
  nine LODs. Its host scheduler clamps `parallel_for` to at most eight actual workers; W16 is the
  requested worker-limit input routed through that eight-thread executor. The S4 audit passed:
  385/385 far-cap bands emitted, 128 agreement points within 0.0504 cm (2 cm tolerance), 100 cm
  offset detected, and 2,520/2,520 coverage rays hit.
- No field, mesh or recipe output changed; recipe version remains unchanged. Water remains fixed
  for the season, and player carve/fill remains unrestricted.

Async review of the diff:

- `FChunkResult::Epoch` and desired/modification epochs remain carried and checked. The region task
  captures generation and desired epochs plus its compile serial.
- All four result queues remain `EQueueMode::Mpsc`; result insertion is centralized in
  `EnqueueStreamingResult`.
- Tile and region workers check `bShuttingDown`; `EndPlay` sets both shutdown flags, waits for
  `ActiveTaskCount` to reach zero, then drains all four result queues.
- `ModsLock` is unchanged. Workers generate data only; UObject and RMC mutation remains on the game
  thread. The region map has its own shared mutex, and readers retain immutable pages with
  `shared_ptr` until their tile job ends.

## 5. Build, commands and run record

BuildHost compiled at Normal priority with 12 actions. Link-safety passed (96,279 dumpbin lines
checked against 421 names); the five staged asset hashes and 18 manifest shims passed. The final
SurfaceWorld quality run took about 10 minutes and peaked at 3.896 GB private memory. The standalone
full build passed with the existing `vswhere.exe` lookup warning and existing C4838 conversions in
`VoxelStrateManager.cpp:3974–3975`.

Build commands:

```powershell
.\Tools\BuildVoxelForgeCoreHost.ps1 -MaxParallelActions 12 -TimeoutSeconds 900
.\Standalone\Build.ps1 -Target All -CompileWorkers 12 -BuildPriority Normal
```

Matched region-gate commands (cap held at 256 for both sides):

```powershell
.\Tools\TestVoxelForgeCoreWorldHost.ps1 -StreamingTraceOnly -StartupApplyBoost 0 -StreamingOrder Legacy -NearReserveMode Dynamic -CoreVoxelSizeCm 25 -CoreRegionConcurrentAdmission 0 -StreamingResultBacklogCap 256 -TestMoveSpeedCmPerSecond 600 -TimeoutSeconds 900
.\Tools\TestVoxelForgeCoreWorldHost.ps1 -StreamingTraceOnly -StartupApplyBoost 0 -StreamingOrder Legacy -NearReserveMode Dynamic -CoreVoxelSizeCm 25 -CoreRegionConcurrentAdmission 1 -StreamingResultBacklogCap 256 -TestMoveSpeedCmPerSecond 600 -TimeoutSeconds 900
.\Tools\TestVoxelForgeCoreWorldHost.ps1 -StreamingTraceOnly -StartupApplyBoost 0 -StreamingOrder Legacy -NearReserveMode Dynamic -CoreVoxelSizeCm 25 -CoreRegionConcurrentAdmission 1 -StreamingResultBacklogCap 256 -TestMoveSpeedCmPerSecond 6000 -TestTeleportAfterSeconds 2 -TestTeleportDistanceCm 40000 -TimeoutSeconds 900
```

Slow-apply backlog controls used these commands; the cap-off run is the backlog negative control:

```powershell
.\Tools\TestVoxelForgeCoreWorldHost.ps1 -StreamingTraceOnly -StartupApplyBoost 0 -StreamingOrder Legacy -NearReserveMode Dynamic -CoreVoxelSizeCm 25 -CoreRegionConcurrentAdmission 1 -StreamingResultBacklogCap 256 -TestMoveSpeedCmPerSecond 6000 -TestTeleportAfterSeconds 2 -TestTeleportDistanceCm 40000 -Step1MaxMeshApplies 1 -TimeoutSeconds 900
.\Tools\TestVoxelForgeCoreWorldHost.ps1 -StreamingTraceOnly -StartupApplyBoost 0 -StreamingOrder Legacy -NearReserveMode Dynamic -CoreVoxelSizeCm 25 -CoreRegionConcurrentAdmission 1 -StreamingResultBacklogCap 0 -TestMoveSpeedCmPerSecond 6000 -TestTeleportAfterSeconds 2 -TestTeleportDistanceCm 40000 -Step1MaxMeshApplies 1 -TimeoutSeconds 900
```

Other BuildHost checks were:

```powershell
.\Tools\TestVoxelForgeCoreWorldHost.ps1 -CoreOffTest -CoreVoxelSizeCm 12.5 -TimeoutSeconds 900
.\Tools\TestVoxelForgeCoreWorldHost.ps1 -HybridFixturesOnly -CoreMesherRecipe WorldAssemblerHybridV1 -CoreVoxelSizeCm 25 -TimeoutSeconds 900
.\Tools\TestVoxelForgeCoreWorldHost.ps1 -HybridFixturesOnly -CoreMesherRecipe WorldAssemblerHybridV2 -CoreVoxelSizeCm 25 -TimeoutSeconds 900
.\Tools\TestVoxelForgeCoreWorldHost.ps1 -CoreVoxelSizeCm 25 -TimeoutSeconds 900
.\Tools\TestVoxelForgeCoreWorldHost.ps1 -FloatingIslandsOnly -CoreVoxelSizeCm 25 -TimeoutSeconds 900
```

Standalone determinism used three fresh processes (`--workers=1`, `8`, and `16`), each with:

```powershell
.\Standalone\bin\VoxelForgeCoreStandalone.exe --workers=1 --world-assembler-prototype --stream-benchmark --stream-hash --force-generate --clip-radius=3 --max-clip-level=8 --camera=0,-35,-487.94,0,-22 --process-priority=Normal --process-affinity=4095 --frame-limit=60
```

The S4 standalone audit command was:

```powershell
.\Standalone\bin\VoxelForgeCoreStandalone.exe --world-assembler-audit --workers=12 --clip-radius=3 --max-clip-level=8 --camera=0,-35,-487.94,0,-22 --process-priority=Normal --process-affinity=4095 --frame-limit=60
```

SHA-256 of the executables/modules used by the final runs:

| Binary | SHA-256 |
|---|---|
| UE 5.7 `UnrealEditor-Cmd.exe` | `ECCE9996191F7F7E69B3D104EECDD0E678AE69176FDCCD79828C3E75A0654D6D` |
| BuildHost `UnrealEditor-VoxelForge.dll` | `8B82EE6C6FBB511AE766EB3D8646A7E9491952F41445CB62D49D71D0B9783418` |
| BuildHost `UnrealEditor-VoxelForgeCore.dll` | `0A1EB7BB27C3C74A4AA0996E0A24E74224D7B8FFFFF113B1071FA42E18E8375A` |
| BuildHost `UnrealEditor-VoxelForgeEditor.dll` | `B3BC5E61172C5B21D928A5ACB5F22F8D9E00179B481B675804838DE9A620010D` |
| `Standalone/bin/VoxelForgeCoreStandalone.exe` | `9C1601D7FCACCAAC16A2BA9DF0E7826E18746028A4D08FD23EEC479D2F5745BE` |

Trace logs and queue records are under
`Saved/BuildHost/HostProject/Plugins/VoxelForge/Saved/CoreWorldValidation/Logs/`. The final quality
logs and standalone determinism/audit stdout are under `Saved/BuildHost/Round12/`. No new file over
300 KB was placed in `Research/`.

BuildHost and standalone launch guards checked free physical memory before each process and waited
for at least 4 GiB. Explicit preflights for the final matched run and SurfaceWorld actor test saw
17.33 and 17.11 GiB free. All processes stayed under 8 GiB and used Normal priority / at most 12
threads. The only crash-folder entry is the pre-existing
`UECC-Windows-F1A3EFD5469F5DD62E68EBBACAC84376_0000` from 2026-09-17; no new UECC or
`0xC0000142` occurred. Three exploratory PowerShell RAM-probe definitions failed before launching
Unreal; after correcting the interop declaration, the probe and all actual build/test runs passed
on attempt 1. There were no failed Unreal runs or retries.

No new source file was added. Likely compile spots are `Source/VoxelForge/Private/VoxelWorld.cpp`,
`Source/VoxelForge/Public/VoxelWorld.h`, `Source/VoxelForgeEditor/Private/VoxelForgeExploreCommandlet.cpp`,
`Standalone/Core/src/VoxelForgeCore.cpp` and its public header, plus the PowerShell harness. I did
not open the owner's editor, build `VoxelM.uproject`, edit any `.uasset`, or modify
RealtimeMeshComponent. No commit, push or stash was made.