Analysis and reimplementation of Railroad Tycoon 3


The old executable is at ./rt3_wineprefix/drive_c/rt3/RT3.exe

Our first task is to understand the executable's high-level control loops and subsystem boundaries well
enough to choose good rewrite targets. As we go, we document evidence, keep a curated function map,
and stand up Rust tooling that can validate artifacts and later host replacement code.

The long-term direction is still a DLL we can inject into the original executable, patching in
individual functions as we build them out. The active implementation milestone is now a headless
runtime rehost layer that can execute deterministic world work, compare normalized state, and grow
subsystem breadth without depending on the shell or presentation path. The current packed-event
frontier is broader real grouped-descriptor coverage on top of the existing save-slice, snapshot,
overlay-import, compact-control, and symbolic company-target workflows. The runtime already carries
selected-company and controller-role context through overlay imports, and real descriptors `2`
`Company Cash`, `13` `Deactivate Company`, and `16` `Company Track Pieces Buildable` now parse and
execute through the ordinary runtime path, and descriptors `1` `Player Cash` and `14`
`Deactivate Player` now join that batch through the same service engine. Synthetic packed records
still exercise the same runtime without a parallel packed executor. The first grounded
condition-side unlock now exists for negative-sentinel `raw_condition_id = -1` company scopes, and
the first ordinary nonnegative condition batch now executes too: numeric-threshold company
finance, company track, aggregate territory track, and company-territory track rows can import
through overlay-backed runtime context. Exact named-territory binding now executes, and the runtime
now also carries the minimal event-owned train roster and opaque economic-status lane needed for
real descriptors `8` `Economic Status`, `9` `Confiscate All`, and `15` `Retire Train` to execute
through the same path. Descriptor `3`
`Territory - Allow All` now executes too, reinterpreted as company-to-territory access rights
rather than a territory-owned policy bit. Whole-game ordinary-condition execution now exists too:
special-condition thresholds, candidate-availability thresholds, and economic-status-code
thresholds now gate imported runtime records through the same service path, and that world-side
condition batch now decodes from checked-in metadata instead of fixture-only ids: real
special-condition label ids, real economic-status ids, and the recovered `%1 Avail.` candidate
template plus candidate-name side strings all lower into the runtime condition model. Checked-in
whole-game descriptor metadata now drives the first real world-side effect batch too:
special-condition and candidate-availability setters import natively, and descriptor `110`
`Disable Stock Buying and Selling` now lowers into the keyed runtime flag
`world.disable_stock_buying_and_selling`. The recovered whole-game toggle batch is broader now
too: descriptors `111..138`, with descriptor `122` `Limited Track Building Amount` now landing in
the bounded `world_restore.limited_track_building_amount` scalar and the remaining boolean lanes
lowering into keyed `world_flags`, cover finance/trading, construction, and governance
restrictions. Explicit the late recovered special-condition toggles now execute too where current
evidence is equally
strong: `Use Bio-Accelerator Cars`, `Disable Cargo Economy`, `Disable Train Crashes`, `Disable
Train Crashes AND Breakdowns`, and `AI Ignore Territories At Startup`. Whole-game condition decode
is broader now too: checked-in world-flag condition ids can lower into `world_flag_equals` gates
for boolean equality/inequality forms, so real packed records can gate whole-game effects on
existing `world_flags` without fixture-authored placeholder ids. The tracked parity save-slice no
longer depends on a raw `unsupported_framing` placeholder either: its remaining residue is now one
recovered locomotives-page `real_packed_v1` record that lands in the explicit
`blocked_unmapped_world_descriptor` bucket. The next recovered descriptor band is now partially
executable too: descriptors `454..456` (`All Steam/Diesel/Electric Locos Avail.`) now lower
through checked-in metadata into keyed `world_flags`, while the wider locomotive availability/cost
scalar bands are now split more cleanly: the boolean `0/1` availability subset can import through
an overlay-backed `RuntimeState.locomotive_catalog` into
`RuntimeState.named_locomotive_availability`, while non-boolean availability payloads still remain
parity-only. The runtime still carries the save-owned named locomotive availability table directly
too:
checked-in save-slice documents can populate `RuntimeState.named_locomotive_availability`, and
imported runtime effects can mutate that map through the ordinary event-service path without
needing full Trainbuy or live-locomotive parity. A parallel event-owned named locomotive cost map
now exists too: recovered locomotive-cost descriptors from bands `352..451` and `475..500` can
import through the same overlay-backed locomotive catalog into
`RuntimeState.named_locomotive_cost`, while cargo-production and territory-access-cost rows remain
metadata-rich parity-only families until a later slice grounds an honest landing surface. Explicit
unmapped world-condition and world-descriptor frontier buckets still remain where current
checked-in metadata stops. Shell purchase-flow, Trainbuy refresh, cached locomotive-rating
recomputation, and selected-profile parity remain out of scope. Mixed supported/unsupported real
rows still stay parity-only. The PE32 hook remains useful as capture and integration tooling, but
it is no longer the main execution milestone.

## Project Docs

Bootstrap design and workflow documents live in `docs/`.

- `docs/README.md`: handbook index and target hashes
- `docs/control-loop-atlas.md`: compatibility index for the split atlas
- `docs/control-loop-atlas/`: canonical atlas section files
- `docs/setup-workstation.md`: toolchain baseline and local setup
- `docs/re-workflow.md`: repeatable reverse-engineering workflow
- `docs/function-map.md`: canonical function-map schema and conventions

The first committed exports for the canonical 1.06 executable live in `artifacts/exports/rt3-1.06/`.

## Rust Workspace

The Rust workspace is split into focused crates:

- `rrt-model`: shared types for addresses, function-map rows, and control-loop concepts
- `rrt-runtime`: headless runtime state, stepping, normalized event service, and persistence-facing
  runtime types
- `rrt-fixtures`: fixture schemas, loading, normalization, and diff helpers for rehost validation
- `rrt-cli`: validation, runtime fixture execution, state-diff tools, and repo-health checks
- `rrt-hook`: minimal Windows DLL scaffold for low-risk in-process loading, capture, and later
  integration experiments under Wine

For the current headless runtime smoke path, use `cargo run -p rrt-cli -- runtime summarize-fixture
fixtures/runtime/minimal-world-step-smoke.json` or one of the broader runtime fixtures under
`fixtures/runtime/`.

For the current hook smoke test, run `tools/run_hook_smoke_test.sh`. It builds the PE32 proxy,
copies it into the local RT3 install, launches the game briefly under Wine with
`WINEDLLOVERRIDES=dinput8=n,b`, and expects `rrt_hook_attach.log` to appear.