DM1 Technical Reference

Dungeon Master (DM1) Technical Reference

Scope

DM1 V1 targets the PC 3.4 data model. Behavior is source-locked to ReDMCSB: DUNGEON.C, GROUP.C, COMMAND.C, TIMELINE.C, DUNVIEW.C, DRAWVIEW.C, ENTRANCE.C, and LOADSAVE.C. Generated art is never used when a verified original asset is available.

Data and Layers

The recursive scanner hashes GRAPHICS.DAT and DUNGEON.DAT; filenames and folder layout are not trusted. Archive-backed files are materialized before the runtime opens them. M10 owns dungeon state, Thing chains, sensors, timeline, and saves. M11 owns SDL input and presentation. M12 owns launch selection.

The V1 surface is 320x200 indexed. V2 presentation modes remain display pipelines and must not change original palette indices, timers, dungeon state, or save bytes.

Dungeon, AI, and Rendering

Live chain mutation uses the source-shaped F0267 unlink/append path. Cross-map moves repair both Thing chains and restore caller map context. Timeline handlers retain source ordering; unsupported semantics are blocked rather than guessed.

Group sight follows ReDMCSB F0200/F0197/F0199/F0227: cone direction, fixed-point diagonal traversal, two-corner blocking, wall/fakewall/door rules, Portcullis/Ra exceptions, palette darkness, invisibility, and SEE_INVISIBLE.

M11 gives DM1 only its static Thing chain. DM1 classifies active projectile and explosion instances for the F0115 layer plan. HoC mirror candidates are not ordinary dungeon Things and are excluded from item rendering.

Saves

PC34 imports stage header, party, active groups, event queue, timeline, and optional dungeon tail in a candidate world. Publication occurs only after all ranges, checksums, and queue indexes validate. A bad EVENT/TIMELINE import leaves the active queue untouched.

Verification

cmake --build build --target firestaff --parallel
./build/test_dm1_v1_group_visible_distance_pc34_compat
./build/test_dm1_v1_projectile_explosion_render_pc34_compat
./build/test_dm1_v1_original_save_pc34_handoff

Release visual claims additionally require a real original-data capture through the packaged application path.

For the detailed PC34 chain, timeline, render-plan, and save invariants, see DM1 PC34 Internals.