Renderer Camera Pose Sweep

This offline M00 diagnostic recovers reproducible checkpoint framing when an original-client screenshot has no recorded camera yaw or pitch. It ranks a bounded grid; it does not change renderer or player-camera defaults and does not prove the exact build 12340 camera pose without human approval.

Camera contract

capture_render_checkpoints.gd accepts additive --camera-yaw-offset and --camera-pitch-offset values in degrees. Yaw rotates the no-roll checkpoint basis around Godot world Vector3.UP; pitch then rotates around the camera-local right axis. Zero offsets preserve the manifest target exactly. --single-pass captures only cold_process and is intended for pose calibration, not performance baselines.

Workflow

.\tools\sweep_render_checkpoint_camera_pose.ps1 `
  -ReferenceDirectory 'D:\private-fixtures\wow-3.3.5a-checkpoints' `
  -Checkpoint elwynn_adt_boundary `
  -YawOffsets -15,-10,-5,0,5,10,15 `
  -PitchOffsets -10,-5,0,5,10 `
  -ViewportWidth 1280 -ViewportHeight 960 `
  -WaitSeconds 2

Each candidate receives its own output directory and comparison report. The viewport must exactly match the reference image dimensions; the runner fails on size_mismatch instead of inventing a score. ranking.json sorts candidates by mean perceptual error and then changed-pixel ratio. Use -PlanOnly to validate the Cartesian grid and output paths without rendering. Run a coarse grid first, then a finer grid around the best candidate.

flowchart LR
    Y[Yaw offsets in degrees] --> G[Bounded Cartesian grid]
    P[Pitch offsets in degrees] --> G
    G --> C[Single-pass checkpoint captures]
    R[Original-client reference] --> D[Perceptual comparator]
    C --> D
    D --> J[ranking.json]
    J --> H[Human framing approval]

Interpretation and recovery

The smallest error is a candidate, not automatic fidelity approval. Geometry, materials, lighting and FOV can move the perceptual optimum away from the true original-client pose. Inspect the best images manually and retain the original reference outside Git. A missing matching reference or candidate is a hard error; correct the checkpoint filter or filenames and rerun. Generated PNG and JSON outputs are disposable local evidence.

Verification

The headless capture dry-run must report requested yaw and pitch offsets. Comparator --self-test covers paired metrics. Sweep -PlanOnly covers deterministic grid expansion and output naming without requiring a display. A real ranked sweep requires a display and a private build 12340 reference image.

Goldshire Inn evidence — 2026-07-12

The private 2560x1440 build 12340 goldshire_inn_large_wmo reference was evaluated at FOV 62 degrees. A coarse 5x5 grid over yaw/pitch [-20, -10, 0, 10, 20] reduced mean error from 0.099632 at (0, 0) to 0.077575 at (-10, -20). Extending pitch produced 0.070901 at (0, -40) and 0.063574 at (0, -60) with changed-pixel ratio 0.549556.

This is not a camera-pose solution. Human inspection shows the original-client reference centered on the Goldshire Inn, while the zero-offset OpenWC candidate contains forest/roads and no inn; negative pitch increasingly fills the frame with grass. The monotonically improving full-frame metric rewards similar green color coverage rather than landmark alignment. Therefore the manifest pose is unchanged and this checkpoint remains spatial/placement-composition evidence. A future registration metric must use approved landmark or region masks before it can select camera pose automatically.

During this run the sweep orchestration was hardened in two ways: expected comparator exit code 1 is now collected through an explicit child process, and viewport dimensions are explicit. A reference/candidate size_mismatch now fails before ranking instead of producing an empty metric.

3.8 KiB Raw Blame History