[DUDUYG]

What

The pipeline notes file (hookshot_pipelines.bin) and the pipeline state list are now opened by the precompile, before play, not at the first new pipeline in play.

• Notes file: pipeline_note opened it at the first pipeline of a run that was not prepared, on the replaying thread. It read every key back with a seek and an 8-byte read per record. With 1150 notes of 27 KB each, that took 142 ms: the one long "pipelines" stall early in play (150-290 ms in earlier runs).
• State list: state_record read and hashed the whole list in the same draw, which took 8-18 ms.

Change (gpu/vk/vk_draw.cpp)

• The opens moved out: each first-open moved into a function of its own, notes_open_locked and state_open_locked, which run with their mutexes held.
• Called by the precompile: precompile_run calls both right after pipe_notes_read, so both files are open before the game draws.
  • The notes' keys come from the notes it has just read.
  • A note pipe_notes_read left out as not sane (note_sane) is written again when its pipeline is met, and the next read takes that one.
• Fallback: where the precompile did not run, notes_open_locked reads the records in order, one seek past the head, a record at a time.
• Switches: RX_VK_NO_PROGRAM_CACHE and RX_VK_NO_STATE_LIST are honoured as before.

Measured

• Setup: RTX 5070 12 GB, Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Windows 11, NVIDIA 621.01, headless runs of a Kokiri Forest save over the same scripted 36 s walk.
• Before: a diagnostic build timed the parts of a new pipeline's path. Its log read: a new pipeline cost the draw 151.0 ms: lock 0.0, the state list 8.5, the notes opened 141.9, written 0.0.
• After: in 3 runs with this change, no new pipeline cost a draw 5 ms or more.
• With vk: render target images reused from a pool, not made and destroyed for each of OoT's shifting transient targets #1416 (the render target image pool): no stall over 30 ms in play in those runs. The worst was 15.7-19.9 ms, at 59.5-60.0 fps.

Not covered

• NVIDIA on Windows only. The first-open cost depends on the disk and on how warm the file is in the OS cache.
• The notes file is still opened lazily, as before, when precompile_run does not run.

Tests

• tests/test_pipeline_notes_open.py (source checks, 4 cases):
  • pipeline_note and state_record open through the shared functions, and no seek is done per record;
  • the keys come from the notes read, or from the records in order;
  • the precompile opens both before program_cache_load_some, under their mutexes, honouring the switches.
• tests/run_all.py on every test that reads vk_draw.cpp: 32 pass. The 2 that fail here fail the same way on main on Windows: test_linux_driver_fault_guard.py needs POSIX signals, and test_precompile_compute_guard.py needs an MSVC-target clang++. The latter only extracts the precompile's compute arm, which this does not change.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[NotRexed]

This landed in the v2.0.12 branch (merged there for testing; it reaches main with that release), so closing. Thanks!

[NotRexed]

Reopened: closing this was a mistake on my side. It was tested in the v2.0.12 branch, and it will be merged into main here, so it shows as merged. Sorry for the noise.