Devil May Cry 3 HD Collection · Evidence-first C++20 research
How to Open and Inspect DMC3 MOD Files — DMC Rengine
Open and inspect DMC3 MOD files through the completed canonical reverse contract. Every relevant serialized/runtime domain has a terminal evidence state, including deliberate PRESERVED_UNDECODED outcomes where stronger semantic names are not proven. Preserve-Layout Writer Gate 1 and real retail PNST reintegration are separate bounded authoring capabilities; retail NBZ selection and original-game acceptance remain open.
MOD reverse complete
- The canonical DMC3 HD MOD reverse is complete: document/object/mesh ABI, hierarchy and ordering, local/world transforms, skinning, topology, texture binding, runtime object projection, post-load relocation and the MOD-side animation boundary all have evidence-backed terminal states.
- Reverse completeness does not require speculative artistic names. PRESERVED_UNDECODED, RESERVED_OBSERVED_ZERO and REJECTED are valid terminal outcomes when the strongest evidence supports preservation, bounded zero observation or rejection rather than a stronger semantic label.
- Header +0x14, BLENDINDICES.x, source flag 0x00200000, mesh +0x0C/+0x38/+0x4C and transform +0x1C therefore no longer represent open MOD reverse work; their preservation/family-sensitive boundaries are the closed result.
Preserve-layout writer and retail PNST gate
- Preserve-Layout Writer Gate 1 starts from an immutable original serialized image and authorizes only fixed-size edits to already-typed spans such as object bounds and existing position, normal and UV streams.
- The provenance-bound no-edit corpus gate passes 38/38 retail MOD files with exact source/output equality across 882,736 source bytes, while one controlled em000_021.mod bounding-radius edit changes exactly three authorized bytes and survives disk reread and canonical reopen.
- PR #372 proves provenance-bound real retail PNST reintegration for the same-size authored MOD child: parent size and slot table remain unchanged, only the expected three child bytes change, and canonical reparse/re-expand returns the exact writer output.
What remains after reverse completion
- A synthetic MOD -> container -> NBZ overlay -> reopen chain is proven through the existing NBZ infrastructure, but provenance-bound retail NBZ selection and original dmc3.exe consumption remain separate acceptance gates.
- Typed-IR-only layout synthesis/reflow, transform and skin authoring, material/source-flag/texture-binding authoring, texture-companion rewriting and broader mutation authority for preservation-only fields remain writer work rather than unfinished reverse.
- The public surface may say MOD reverse complete or fully reverse-engineered within the canonical DMC3 HD scope, but it must not claim a full MOD writer, arbitrary original-game-safe editing or Capcom authoring-tool equivalence.
Evidence boundary
A parser is not automatically a writer. A successful writer is not automatically equivalent to Capcom's offline tools. Synthetic validation does not establish original-game behavioral equivalence.
Use the current status for promoted capabilities and open proof gates.