PROTOCOL X
Lajkto Engine 0.2 development build

START: double-click ProtocolX.exe
No BAT/CMD launcher is required.

Controls:
WASD move | Mouse look | Shift sprint | Space jump | E hold/interact
LMB crowbar melee attack | ESC pause menu | M minimap | F5 save | F9 load

Graphics Settings:
Ray Tracing: Off/On
Modes: Auto / Hardware / Software GPU / Software CPU
Effects: Ray-traced Shadows / Reflections / Ambient Occlusion
Protocol X detects GPU/CPU capabilities before launch. Explicit unsupported modes are blocked.
Auto prefers Hardware RT, then Software GPU, then Software CPU.

In-game HUD shows the ACTIVE ray-tracing backend and enabled RT effects.

Multi-GPU:
- Off: single GPU only.
- Auto: secondary Vulkan GPU is prepared in standby and engages after the primary exceeds about 70% of its target frame budget; it parks again after sustained light load.
- Split-frame (linked group): Vulkan device-group path for driver-linked multi-GPU systems.
- Explicit unlinked (Lajkto): two separate Vulkan GPUs cooperate without requiring an AMD CrossFire/NVIDIA SLI profile.
- Lajkto uses a D3D12 cross-adapter shared texture imported into Vulkan on both GPUs, avoiding full-frame copies through CPU RAM when supported.
- SFR load split is selectable from 50/50 through 90/10. The current RX 570 x16 + x4 validation rig is fastest at 90/10; symmetric x8/x8 systems should start at 50/50.
- If the secondary explicit worker fails, rendering falls back to the primary GPU.

Upscaling:
- Off / Auto / AMD FSR 3.1 / NVIDIA DLSS
- Quality: Native AA / Quality / Balanced / Performance / Ultra Performance
- Auto prefers supported NVIDIA DLSS on NVIDIA GPUs; otherwise AMD FSR 3.1.
- AMD FidelityFX Vulkan runtime and NVIDIA Streamline/DLSS runtime DLLs are bundled with this package.
- UI/HUD is rendered after scene upscaling in native swapchain resolution, so RT/dynamic resolution cannot crop the interface.

Audio Source at launch:
- Built-in game audio (AI OFF)
- Local ACE-Step AI (4-step direct DiT)
AI Sound Compute:
- Auto (usable NPU -> GPU -> CPU)
- AI chip / NPU
- GPU
- CPU
The launcher detects Windows NPU/AI accelerators through DXCore and shows the detected NPU/GPU/CPU before launch. Explicit unsupported compute modes are blocked.
LNAR runs only on the same PC as the game through the local ACE-Step C++ resident worker.
Both SFX and ambience are fixed to 4 inference steps. The 5Hz song-planning LM is not used.
Short SFX keep at least 32 latent frames of internal context before being trimmed to requested length.
Generator/machinery hum plus E interaction, machine activation and cancel sounds are identical authored WAVs in BOTH audio modes.
AI may vary ambience, footsteps, jump/landing, mission-complete and future variable SFX. Built-in sounds remain the fallback.
Generated assets are cached under runtime/lnar/cache.
The large ACE-Step model runtime is not bundled in this small ZIP; this PC uses L:\ACE-Step-CPP (or LAJKTO_ACE_CPP_ROOT).

Core Facility art pack v1:
- Runtime BaseColor textures for station walls, floors, structural dark metal, exposed metal, hazard markings and containment surfaces are bundled under assets/protocolx/materials/core_facility_v1.
- Source pack also contains Normal, Roughness, Metallic and Emissive maps for the next full PBR shader pass.

Art Pass 2 gameplay HUD:
- 10:00 Service Window countdown; mission expires at 00:00
- dedicated HP 0-100 bar in the lower-left HUD
- critical timer warning during the final 2 minutes
- rebuilt first-person crowbar with visible glove/arm grip

Expanded Service Run objectives:
- Restore reactor, oxygen and communications
- Verify containment interlocks
- Clear 4 Ruin Stalkers from the deep service wing with the crowbar
- Retrieve the backup battery from Power Stores and install it in the auxiliary relay
- Retrieve a clean filter and replace the clogged Filtration Bay cartridge
- Deep service wing begins beyond Life Support; threat lockout blocks service interactions while hostiles remain

In-game menus:
Pause: Resume / Save / Load / Main Menu / Exit
Main Menu: Continue / New Service Run / Load Save / Exit
Mission Complete: Restart Mission / Main Menu

Save file: protocolx_save.pxsave (created beside the EXE)
Settings file: protocolx_settings.ini (created beside the EXE)
ULTRA: 700 m draw distance, safe frustum culling, software occlusion OFF, HLOD collapsing OFF.
