# Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Base title ID `010074F013262000`, update 2.2.1 (`v720896`), SDK 12.3.9, Monolith's engine, NVN. Modules: `main`, `subsdk0` (NintendoSDK_movie), `sdk`. The build IDs are in [game.tsv](game.tsv). ## Current status Opening gameplay tested on an Apple-silicon Mac (2026-10-27). The compact layout renders the title, terrain, characters, lighting and effects. New-game setup, opening movies, the first enemy defeat, destination tutorials, walking and the engagement-area collision boundary work. All 27,055 base/update shaders compile for Mac and iOS. The unsigned IPA is built and its archive checks pass. iOS runtime testing, DLC gameplay and later-game allocation peaks remain open. The supplied four DLC packs are included; their additional shaders have not been integrated into the base/update shader census, so DLC rendering is unvalidated. ## Profile and memory - The NPDM declares a 32 MB system resource. Memory is committed through address regions, without `SetHeapSize`. The profile uses a 5 GB guest block, including a 4.375 GB alias region, and the Switch application pool of `0xCD500000` bytes. - `mem_map_limit on`: startup attempts 1 MB physical commits until allocation fails, then frees its probe. An unlimited host lets it map all 60 GB; enforcing the hardware pool makes that probe stop at the expected physical limit. - **Address-space adaptation:** `nninitStartup` calls `main+0x128e58c`, reserving 60 GB. Its first arena reserves 4 GB + 128 KB (`main+0x1241860`), so reducing only the containing region cannot work. [patches.py](patches.py) changes that arena's bump increment, subtraction and capacity together, to 512 MB + 128 KB, and its containing region to 4 GB. All changes are gated by main build ID `82d187fe9ef9be921b8e1b1cddf7bd28`, also reported for 2.2.0 below. The SDK build takes the existing node-area and large-region alignment cuts. - A 40-second diagnostic run with the original arenas had 2,092.4 MB committed: about 203 MB in the first arena, about 1.8 GB in subsequent windows, and a 64 MB allocation near the end of the reservation. Original-layout opening battle (`boot29wide`) commits 225.44 MB in the first arena. That leaves about 286 MB of capacity in the compact first arena; later-game peaks remain unvalidated. - Compact runs stayed at the title for over ten minutes without an allocator failure. This validates the title allocation pattern, not later gameplay peaks. - `pad_layout full` supplies both sticks and the D-pad. ### Update 2.2.0 and address-space evidence [Issue #847](https://github.com/seedds/nxnative/issues/847) reports update 2.2.0 (`v655360`) with the same main build ID `82d187fe9ef9be921b8e1b1cddf7bd28` and matching original bytes at all six allocator cut sites. Its running title screen says 2.2.1. The existing build-ID gate therefore covers that main too; the package version alone does not select these cuts. The report supplies no SDK or movie-module build IDs, so the registered package and shader version in `game.tsv` remain 2.2.1 pending a complete build survey. The same reporter tested `mmap(PROT_NONE)` in a minimal app on an iPad mini (A17 Pro, iPadOS 27.2), with no extended virtual-address entitlement: 60 GiB failed with `ENOMEM`, while 5, 4 and 3 GiB reservations succeeded. Sizes between 5 and 60 GiB were not probed. This supports the address-space adaptation; the full game's compact layout has not been tested on that iPad. On an M2 Mac with 8 GB RAM and macOS 27.2, the reporter restored the original six instructions and used `DM_ALIAS_SIZE=0x1000000000` (64 GiB). Title, opening, first battle, character/camera movement and Expansion Pass menus ran for 1,173.6 seconds without an allocation failure (2,690 MB footprint, 2,734 MB peak). This extends the evidence for the original layout on Mac. Later-game peaks, iPad gameplay and DLC content beyond those menus remain unvalidated. ## Files and shaders - The merged RomFS is 14.15 GB: 238 WebM movies, nine Wwise PCKs, and `bf3.arh` / `bf3.ard`. The ARH1 index has 76,445 files; the ARD is 9.05 GB. Archive entries and model/map streams use XBC1 (zlib and zstd). - The full base/update split finds 27,055 shader keys: 8,201 vertex, 18,533 pixel, 308 geometry and 13 compute, with 17,648 variation pairs. `main` supplies 204; archive assets supply 26,851. All compile for Mac and iOS with feedback entries (chain `7fbca6dd477d`, profile inputs `2342f43192c3`, after integration with main). - **Resolved, extraction:** six boot shader stages live in one standalone SLCT at `main+0x14e01c0`, without an HCPS header. Control and code offsets are relative to the SLCT itself. Its control sections include assembly text and are aligned to eight bytes. The first pair's keys, `58e2e00d24c6f3ea` and `5d36d4144f49ec9a`, match runtime dumps exactly. - Twelve more keys captured during startup match the extracted archive programs. Equal code can have different compiler identity bytes at control +0x7d0; all such keys are retained, with their original control bytes. - **Resolved, extraction:** `/effect/cmn_assets.wipac` contains complete GLSLC outputs alongside HCPS programs. Reading them adds 914 base-game keys. Captured `6babc936d58fcd8f` (vertex), `7a7eb30dfb6187b5` (geometry) and `b540e3f8e28bd41e` (pixel) match these outputs exactly. - **Resolved, translation:** vertex `4b98320a0f512efe` reads `SubgroupLtMask` through a component pointer; the general one-lane lowering now covers that form. - **Resolved, title rendering:** the black foreground model had valid G-buffer colour and normals, but the separate IMAGE stencil descriptor read empty storage. The general sharing fix restores lighting (`boot17shared`, frame 1200). - **Resolved, opening deadlock:** the output thread held the host decoder mutex while signalling the higher-priority input thread; the handoff waited for that input thread, which was blocked on the same native mutex. Annotating contended native waits restores playback (`boot18movie`, `mv01005100.webm`, 140 seconds). - **Current, native audio setup:** a later real-audio run (`boot25full`) stopped presenting while `AKEventManager` joined the Apple audio-unit setup helper. A native join must release the guest core, just like a contended codec lock; `dm_host_thread_join` now preserves that scheduler accounting. Gated join, nesting and audio-cycle regressions pass. The sample does not establish that Apple audio-unit construction itself would remain blocked indefinitely. The corrected compact run continues for over ten minutes with real output `#0`, without the diagnostic watchdog or reported audio underruns. It does not reopen the output, so the earlier construction stall is not isolated. - **Resolved, nested effect compression:** those four geometry/pixel keys, and vertex `d021f6a3763a9327` / pixel `1c6c6a015f6f3acf`, match GLSLC programs inside `/effect/fld/ma01a.wipac` after its additional `cmp\0zlib` layer is decoded. The expanded base/update census is 27,055 keys (8,201 vertex, 18,533 pixel, 308 geometry, 13 compute), with 17,648 variation pairs. - **Resolved, vertex work under discard:** `cf66cef403c57845` and `36710e69a07e849d` write bone palettes through storage buffers. Running their vertex work restores geometry (`boot21discard`), initially with large distorted surfaces. `boot22full` reproduced this with the complete shader set. A native post-vertex capture of the first `4f6b050575d4de0b` draw gives 2,080 finite vertices inside the clip volume. The remaining corruption was the primitive ordering failure below. - **Resolved, feedback:** effect geometry `c01e3ade8e15a842` captures eleven interleaved generic outputs (172 bytes per vertex). The general feedback path now decodes these byte component counts, captures geometry output and saves GPU draw counts. Native regression checks pass; `boot23feedback` runs this path without missing feedback calls or capture-entry errors. - **Resolved, exploding meshes:** the game orders bone-palette work with `ORDER_PRIMITIVES` barriers (`0x21`). The host only split render encoders for fragment barriers after storage writes. Enforcing primitive ordering removes the exploding model parts (`boot24barrier`). - **Resolved, terrain allocation:** `boot27draw` frame 4000 replays every recorded program bind/draw, with no map shader or rejected draw. CPU probes (`boot28cpu`) find the map owner rejected before visibility because its core buffer at `+0xd18` is null. The 390 MB allocation (`boot30alloc`) needs a 512 MB virtual window. `boot32region` at `main+0x12429a4` records bump `0xe46c0000` → `0x1046c0000`, beyond the compact 4 GB container, before any physical mapping. The heap's byte limit is disabled (`heap31.bin`). Reducing the first arena's reservation from 1 GB to 512 MB frees that window; this retains the Switch physical-memory pool and all map work. The original-layout battle's reservation sequence predicts 159.56 MB of remaining outer space; corrected compact gameplay (`boot33compact512`) confirms bump `0xf6070000`, a 512 MB + 128 KB first-arena capacity and about 225 MB committed there. ## Mac validation and remaining work `boot33compact512` uses the complete shader set, the corrected compact modules and real audio for over ten minutes. It defeats the first enemy, advances through the destination and tips tutorials, then walks across Everblight Plain to the engagement boundary. `run/compact33_terrain.png`, `compact33_move.png` and `compact33_walk.png` retain these milestones. Alias mappings settle near 2,653–2,655 MB during this sequence. Later areas, saves/reloads and DLC have not been exercised. The unsigned iOS app compiles with signing disabled. The IPA is 20,629,976,490 bytes (19.21 GiB), contains all 27,055 base/update shader libraries and four mounted DLC directories, and passes every ZIP CRC. It has no code signature or provisioning profile. No device installation or runtime test was performed. The delivered IPA is the original validated `bab889ccd129` build; integration with main rebuilt both platforms' libraries but did not replace that artifact. After integrating main at `6f58a7d`, `boot34main` repeats the first enemy defeat and destination tutorial with the combined host and shader chain. The full Metal suite, all 48 Python test files, all 178 iOS source compile checks and the pinned lint/type ratchet pass. A fresh launch after shader metadata generation accepts the new library/table stamps. The all-local-game regression harness was started but stopped during its first baseline compilation, before any comparison completed; no cross-game comparison coverage is claimed for that sweep. ### Send-off particles (GitHub issue #1011, resolved) A soldier's remains in Everblight Plain, A to send off. The steering field is a 10x10x10 RGBA8 3D texture (format `0x25`, flags 0, pool flags `0x64`) whose 4,000 bytes of texels the CPU wrote before first use. It is now taken from its storage ([entry](../../../docs/reference/nvn-objects.md#block-compressed-storage-the-cpu-wrote-before-first-use)). A/B on two Mac hosts that differ only by that change, the same save, 120-frame screenshot bursts from the press of A, spark pixels counted against the frame before it: - before: no sparks on the remains before A (3 pixels in the box), and none rise after it; they sink out of sight at once; - after: sparks sit on the remains before A (1,281 pixels), then rise up the rock. Over the second burst their centroid moves up by 153 px and their top edge from y 709 to 418, while the ground band empties (1,358 to 81 pixels). The issue also names a 10x10x10 RGBA16F field; it did not appear in this scene. ## Mac development files The supplied folder is `/Volumes/S790/nsp/Xenoblade Chronicles 3/`. Extraction, the shader packages and isolated hosts are in `010074F013262000_build/`; analysis, private keys, Python tools and isolated runs are in `010074F013262000-work/`. `run/boot.py` accepts a log name, duration and environment assignments. Diagnostic logs `boot01` / `boot02` show the original allocator failure; `boot03wide` through `boot07wide` retain the wider-reservation experiments. `boot07wide` ends cleanly after 40 seconds; it uses an empty shader map and is not a visual test. Use `patched_512/` with `tools/dmhost_512` and `shader/fx_cache/` for the validated Mac layout; the earlier `patched_compact/` has the insufficient 1 GB first-arena reservation. `DM_NVN_SHMAP` points to this profile's `shader_map.tsv`. On the title/new-game screens press A. The auto-attack tip advances with R and closes with A; stand near an enemy to auto-attack and use the left stick to walk. During a movie, Plus then a held X skips it. The diagnostic watchdog is off when `DM_WATCH` is absent; setting it to `0` still enables its default stall threshold. ## Found on this game - [Same-pass feedback through a read-only image](../../../docs/reference/rendering.md#same-pass-feedback-read-through-a-snapshot): lighting shader `15816d836842bfb5` reads its R32Uint zone mask between barriers. Reading the previous frame’s mask made the Colony Sigma cutscene alternate in brightness. Resolved ([#1009](https://github.com/seedds/nxnative/issues/1009)): measured on an Apple M2 in Events Theater chapter 1's Colony Sigma battle, 8 of 10 bursts flipped brightness every frame before (sign-flip fraction 0.83–1.00), at most 0.28 of 11 after. The extra snapshots cost GPU time there: p50 50.4 → 53.0 ms, 18.3 → 17.2 fps. Open: if the shader loads the mask at its own pixel, a tile read (as sampled textures have) would avoid that cost; it needs the translator to record image loads' coordinates. - [Monolith ARH1, XBC1 and HCPS/SLCT shader containers](../../../docs/reference/shaders.md#monolith-arh1-xbc1-and-hcpsslct-shader-containers). - [Subgroup operations rewritten for a one-lane subgroup](../../../docs/reference/shaders.md#subgroup-operations-rewritten-for-a-one-lane-subgroup). - [IMAGE usage does not split texture storage](../../../docs/reference/rendering.md#image-usage-does-not-split-texture-storage). - [Rasterizer discard preserves vertex storage writes](../../../docs/reference/rendering.md#rasterizer-discard-preserves-vertex-storage-writes). - [Primitive barriers order vertex storage writes](../../../docs/reference/rendering.md#primitive-barriers-order-vertex-storage-writes). - [Transform feedback captured by a vertex entry point](../../../docs/reference/rendering.md#transform-feedback-captured-by-a-vertex-entry-point): interleaved outputs and geometry capture. - [A host lock held across a same-core handoff](../../../docs/reference/threads.md#a-host-lock-held-across-a-same-core-handoff): contended native decoder waits must release a handoff. - [oe calls answered without an applet proxy](../../../docs/reference/services.md#oe-calls-answered-without-an-applet-proxy): enabling album-image notifications dereferenced the absent SelfController. - [The SDK's address-region node area](../../../docs/reference/memory.md#the-sdks-address-region-node-area) and [1 GB alignment of regions of 1 GB and more](../../../docs/reference/memory.md#1-gb-alignment-of-regions-of-1-gb-and-more). - [Block-compressed storage the CPU wrote before first use](../../../docs/reference/nvn-objects.md#block-compressed-storage-the-cpu-wrote-before-first-use): uncompressed 3D particle steering fields, taken from their storage too (GitHub issue #1011).