Deterministic Timing for Game Simulation
PCAM-24 is a simulation model that replaces continuous time with a discrete, 24-phase cycle as the authoritative coordinate for action progression.
By elevating Phase to a first-class primitive, PCAM-24 eliminates timing drift between subsystems, simplifies deterministic networking, and provides a shared semantic language for animation, combat, and AI.
Most game engines attempt to infer the "stage" of an action (wind-up, impact, recovery) from wall-clock time or variable frame counts. This leads to Desynchronization:
- Visual Mismatch: Animation playback drifts from hitbox logic.
- Network Desync: Clients disagree on whether a hit landed due to floating-point drift.
- Ambiguity: Fairness is lost when "Who won?" depends on sub-millisecond deltas.
PCAM-24 defines a fixed cycle of 24 integer phases (0–23).
- Phase is Law: It is the only source of truth for action state.
- Discrete Logic: All interaction rules are reduced to simple integer tests.
- Synchronous Views: Animation and VFX subscribe to Phase, ensuring perfect visual alignment.
The v2.0 specification introduces advanced mechanics for high-fidelity combat without sacrificing determinism:
- Phase Elasticity: Support for Stalls (Hit-stop) and Skips (Cancels) that remain perfectly synchronized across any frame rate.
- Property Tiers: A structured Precedence Matrix to resolve overlapping properties (e.g., Armor vs. Active Hits).
- Action Nesting: Support for complex, multi-cycle actions.
- docs/spec.md: The formal normative specification.
- pcam_standard_v1.yaml: The machine-readable data standard.
- docs/whitepaper.md: The conceptual foundation of Phase Authority.
- docs/guide.md: Implementation guide for designers and engineers.
Autonomy, Engineered.
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