Arcanum demo

Registry id is arcanum_demo. The exe is test/binaries/candidates/arcanum-demo/installed/arcanum.exe, installed by the demo's own MSI. Load is slow because of the guest's own work. Text files are read byte by byte through fgetc, and every byte costs a full zlib inflate(). A 280s run reaches only about 23k batches at --batch-size=50000.

It is a Direct3D 7 app by default (2026-09-23)

tools/gfx-app-census.js lists only d3dim(name). A traced boot confirms that the default configuration uses it: DirectDrawCreateEx, then IDirectDraw_QueryInterface, then IDirect3D7_CreateDevice, GetCaps, EnumTextureFormats, and a set of SetRenderState and SetTextureStageState calls. The command-line switches -no3d and -3dref exist. The strings 3D: ... are the log of its hardware renderer.

The main menu is the first screen that draws through D3D. It makes 260 IDirect3DDevice7_DrawPrimitive(D3DPT_TRIANGLEFAN, FVF 0x1c4 = XYZRHW|DIFFUSE|SPECULAR|TEX1, 4 verts) calls in batches ~16095-16104 at --batch-size=50000. These are textured quads, with no clicks needed:

node test/run.js --app=arcanum_demo --quiet-api --batch-size=50000 \
  --max-batches=16106 --max-seconds=280 --no-close --input="16105:png:OUT.png"
# WebGL arm: add --headless-gl --d3dim-gpu, and run under `caffeinate -d -u`
# (without it: "WebGL is unavailable" from lib/gpu-backend.js at the first draw)

Both arms give a pixel-identical main menu (tools/png-diff.js: 0 of 307200 differ). The WebGL arm reports draws=260 triangles=520 fallbacks=0 errors=0.

The gameplay route (crash site, gnome dialogue, HUD) needs about 41k batches of clicks driven over --frozen --control-stdin. See memory project-arcanum-gameplay. It was not re-run on the WebGL arm here, because at ~75 batches/s it is a long run.

Call-form census (2026-09-29)

Route. Box2 ran --batch-size=50000, driven over --control --frozen with relmousemove and di-mousedown/di-mouseup for clicks, and di-keydown:27 for Esc:

Census over 45k..54k (idle NPCs, fire; docs/uop-tier-design.md §15.1):

• uop share: 58-59%.
• Guest indirect: 0.23-0.28%, all low-polymorphic.
• jmp [tbl+r*4] switches: 1.3% of entries. The largest is the CRT _output state machine at exe+0x5789a2, at 0.37%.
• The remainder: declined:no-backedge is 16.5%. It is call/ret-heavy straight-line code.