diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/capture/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/capture/mod.rs
index 0cb7803e..695cf898 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/capture/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/capture/mod.rs
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ pub(crate) use probe_look::ProbeLookPlugin;
 pub(crate) fn start_state() -> crate::char_select::ClientState {
     match glue_screen() {
         Some(GlueScreen::CharCreate) => crate::char_select::ClientState::CharCreate,
+        Some(GlueScreen::Login) => crate::char_select::ClientState::Login,
         None if crate::run_mode::scenario_active() => crate::char_select::ClientState::InWorld,
         None => crate::char_select::ClientState::Login,
     }
@@ -505,8 +506,13 @@ impl Plugin for CapturePlugin {
             // The preview pick goes through the existing `WOW_CHARCREATE_PICK` instrument rather
             // than a second path into `CreateSelection` — same reason the map is seeded by env
             // (decision 0743): one route into a fact, whoever is asking.
-            let (race, sex, class) = g.pick;
-            std::env::set_var("WOW_CHARCREATE_PICK", format!("{race},{sex},{class}"));
+            // …and an explicit pick in the environment outranks the scenario's default — the
+            // per-race lever, so one scenario photographs every `UI_*` stage.
+            if let Some((race, sex, class)) = g.pick {
+                if std::env::var_os("WOW_CHARCREATE_PICK").is_none() {
+                    std::env::set_var("WOW_CHARCREATE_PICK", format!("{race},{sex},{class}"));
+                }
+            }
         }
         // The fxview instrument: a synthetic scenario (ground scene, noon) + the fixture
         // request from env. Not in SCENARIOS — `scripts/visual.sh`'s golden sweep must never
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/capture/scenarios.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/capture/scenarios.rs
index 23062de2..1ffd2398 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/capture/scenarios.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/capture/scenarios.rs
@@ -231,27 +231,42 @@ pub(super) struct GlueScenario {
     pub(super) screen: GlueScreen,
     /// The preview's race, sex and class ids — the reference comparisons are per-race, so a
     /// scenario says which one it photographs. Applied through the existing
-    /// `WOW_CHARCREATE_PICK` instrument rather than a second path into `CreateSelection`.
-    pub(super) pick: (u8, u8, u8),
+    /// `WOW_CHARCREATE_PICK` instrument rather than a second path into `CreateSelection` — and
+    /// **that instrument wins when it is already set**, so one scenario photographs any race
+    /// (`WOW_CHARCREATE_PICK=6,0,11 WOW_CAPTURE=glue-charcreate` is the tauren stage). `None` for
+    /// a screen with no preview to pick.
+    pub(super) pick: Option<(u8, u8, u8)>,
 }
 
-/// Which glue screen a [`GlueScenario`] photographs. One today; the select screen wants a roster
-/// (so it needs a server, or a seeded one) and the login screen is nearly static.
+/// Which glue screen a [`GlueScenario`] photographs. The select screen wants a roster (so it
+/// needs a server, or a seeded one) and is not here.
 #[derive(Clone, Copy, PartialEq)]
 pub(crate) enum GlueScreen {
     /// The character-creation screen (decision 0423). Photographs, in one frame: the authored-rig
     /// lighting of the `UI_*` backdrop scene and its per-race fog (the lane 1171 left uncovered),
     /// the preview body in its starting outfit (0527), and the GlueXML panel around them.
     CharCreate,
+    /// The login screen (decision 0539) — `UI_MainMenu` behind the account form. Nearly static,
+    /// which is why it was not here until its framing was the subject (B330, decision 1619): the
+    /// gate's backdrop is the narrowest art of the seven scenes, so it is the one whose edges a
+    /// wide window reaches first. `WOW_WIN=2560x1440` is the reporter's shape.
+    Login,
 }
 
 /// The glue sweep. Human, 1 (Human male warrior) — the race whose scene the reference's own
-/// screenshots use, and the outfit path most exercised elsewhere.
-pub(super) const GLUE_SCENARIOS: &[GlueScenario] = &[GlueScenario {
-    name: "glue-charcreate",
-    screen: GlueScreen::CharCreate,
-    pick: (1, 0, 1),
-}];
+/// screenshots use, and the outfit path most exercised elsewhere — and the login gate.
+pub(super) const GLUE_SCENARIOS: &[GlueScenario] = &[
+    GlueScenario {
+        name: "glue-charcreate",
+        screen: GlueScreen::CharCreate,
+        pick: Some((1, 0, 1)),
+    },
+    GlueScenario {
+        name: "glue-login",
+        screen: GlueScreen::Login,
+        pick: None,
+    },
+];
 
 /// THE golden baseline: **two spots FRAMED BY THE DIRECTOR, each at noon and at night — four
 /// captures, and that is the whole sweep.** Elwynn water and a Felwood hollow on Kalimdor. The
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/char_select/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/char_select/mod.rs
index d2c65bc6..5d4c2e4f 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/char_select/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/char_select/mod.rs
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 //! The IO thread parks after the world handshake and emits the account roster
 //! ([`CharListMessage`]); the **pick policy** here decides what answers it — the pending pick
 //! (seamless reconnect, decision 0065), the `WOW_CHAR` env fast path, or the director's choice on
-//! the screen. The pick travels the [`CharPick`] channel; `Connected` flips us `InWorld`;
+//! the screen, which opens on whoever they last entered the world as (`lastCharacterIndex`,
+//! decision 1622). The pick travels the [`CharPick`] channel; `Connected` flips us `InWorld`;
 //! a `/logout` round-trip ([`LoggedOutMessage`]) flips back to select with the pending pick
 //! cleared, and a **lost** session flips all the way back to the login screen (decision 1262 —
 //! the reference's `DISCONNECTED_FROM_SERVER`).
@@ -112,6 +113,9 @@ impl Plugin for CharSelectPlugin {
                         enter_on_connected,
                         back_on_logout,
                         back_on_disconnect,
+                        // LAST, and outside both `run_if`s: it mirrors the pick this frame ended
+                        // with, and world entry is reached from the create screen too (1622).
+                        persist_last_character,
                     )
                         .chain(),
                     (
@@ -276,6 +280,109 @@ impl Roster {
         self.pending_pick
             .and_then(|g| self.chars.iter().find(|c| c.guid == g))
     }
+
+    /// The **roster position** of the pick in flight — what the reference persists as
+    /// `lastCharacterIndex` at Enter World (decision 1622). By guid rather than by the live
+    /// selection, so the row it names is the one actually being entered even if the selection has
+    /// since moved.
+    pub(super) fn pending_index(&self) -> Option<usize> {
+        let guid = self.pending_pick?;
+        self.chars.iter().position(|c| c.guid == guid)
+    }
+}
+
+// ── The remembered character (`lastCharacterIndex`, decision 1622) ───────────────────────────────
+
+/// The CVar the select screen remembers you by — a **real 1.12 CVar**, byte-verified in wow-re
+/// (registered at `0x402d93`, name `0x82e8f8`, help "Last character selected", default `"0"`,
+/// pointer cached at `[0x882674]`), and written engine-side: no shipped GlueXML names it and the
+/// binary never looks it up by name.
+pub(crate) const CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER: &str = "lastCharacterIndex";
+
+/// The stored index is **0-based**, and `"0"` is the FIRST character — not "nothing remembered".
+///
+/// It is the engine's own selection cell `[0x83856c]` printed with `"%d"`: `SelectCharacter`
+/// (`0x473470`) takes the glue Lua's 1-based row and `dec`s it, and the event back out
+/// (`0x472740`) re-adds the one. So the number on disk is one *less* than the row `CharacterSelect
+/// .selectedIndex` counts in, and it lines up with [`Roster::selected`] exactly.
+///
+/// The registered default being `"0"` is load-bearing rather than incidental: `CVar::SaveConfig`
+/// (`0x63d980`) skips any value equal to its default, so a player who last entered on their first
+/// character has **no such line in `Config.wtf` at all** — and reads back as row 0 anyway. Ours
+/// composes the same way (`cvars::compose_file`), so `config.toml` gets the same shape for the
+/// same reason.
+fn last_character_value(row: usize) -> String {
+    row.to_string()
+}
+
+/// The stored value → a row. `None` only for a value that is not a number at all (a hand edit);
+/// out-of-range is the *caller's* business, because the reference's answer to it is not a clamp.
+fn last_character_row(value: &str) -> Option<usize> {
+    value.trim().parse::<usize>().ok()
+}
+
+/// The remembered row for a roster of `len` characters — the reference's whole selection rule,
+/// `CGlueMgr::SetSelectedCharacter` `0x472740`:
+///
+/// ```text
+/// selected = (stored < 0 || stored >= count) ? 0 : stored
+/// ```
+///
+/// Out of range falls back to the **first** row, never to the nearest one: a character deleted
+/// since you last played, or a realm with fewer characters, puts you at the top of the list rather
+/// than beside where the old row used to be.
+fn remembered_row(persist: &crate::cvars::CvarPersist, len: usize) -> usize {
+    persist
+        .stored(CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER)
+        .and_then(last_character_row)
+        .filter(|&row| row < len)
+        .unwrap_or(0)
+}
+
+/// Mirror the character we are **entering the world as** into [`CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER`].
+///
+/// **At Enter World, not at every click** — which is the difference between "the last character
+/// you logged in as" and "the last row you happened to touch", and it is the reference's own
+/// seam: `CGlueMgr::EnterWorld` (`0x46b500`) formats `[0x83856c]` into the CVar at `0x46b5fa`,
+/// and clicks and arrow keys reach `0x472740` without ever going near it. [`Roster::pending_pick`]
+/// is exactly that moment for us, so [`Roster::pending_index`] is what this reads.
+///
+/// The write goes through [`UiScript::set_cvar_engine`] so it rides the change queue like a Lua
+/// `SetCVar` and the host's sync persists it — the minimap-zoom pattern (1131), already used from
+/// this screen by the AddOns panel's force-load box (1293). **One divergence, stated:** the
+/// reference flushes `Config.wtf` synchronously in the same call (`0x46b6f6`), while ours reaches
+/// disk on the exit edge with every other CVar (1528) — so a crash between entering the world and
+/// quitting loses the memory, where the reference would not. That is the CVar store's shape, not
+/// this key's, and changing it is an autosave design (1528's own "what this does NOT fix").
+fn persist_last_character(
+    roster: Res<Roster>,
+    mut script: Option<NonSendMut<benilla_ui::script::UiScript>>,
+    // Memory about the VM's CVar table, so it dies with the VM (decision 1290). A bare `Local`
+    // here would be betting that `cvars::sync_cvars`'s per-VM seed carries this key into the next
+    // table — true today, and exactly the "correct against one VM, silently wrong against the
+    // next" shape 1290 built its structural gate to refuse. `get_for` because this system also
+    // runs while there is no VM at all.
+    mut mirrored: Local<crate::ui_script::VmMemo<Option<usize>>>,
+) {
+    let Some(row) = roster.pending_index() else {
+        return; // nobody is entering the world — nothing to remember
+    };
+    let mirrored = mirrored.get_for(script.as_deref());
+    if *mirrored == Some(row) {
+        return;
+    }
+    let Some(script) = script.as_deref_mut() else {
+        return;
+    };
+    script.set_cvar_engine(CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER, &last_character_value(row));
+    // Latch only once the table actually took it. An engine write to a name the host has not
+    // registered yet is a deliberate silent no-op (`script::cvars::set_from_engine`), and the
+    // per-VM seed that registers it runs in `cvars::sync_cvars` — a sibling `Update` system with
+    // no ordering against this one. Latching on the frame the write was dropped would swallow
+    // exactly one entry, and it would be the session's first.
+    if script.cvar(CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER).is_some() {
+        *mirrored = Some(row);
+    }
 }
 
 /// Ask the parked IO thread to log in as `guid` (the pick channel) and remember it as pending.
@@ -295,6 +402,11 @@ fn apply_roster_policy(
     mut msgs: MessageReader<CharListMessage>,
     mut roster: ResMut<Roster>,
     pick: Res<CharPick>,
+    // The remembered row (decision 1622) — read off the persist state rather than the VM's table
+    // because it is a value the *file* owns and the session only mirrors, and because reading it
+    // here keeps this system send-able. It is consulted exactly once per process: `selected` is
+    // `None` only before the first roster lands.
+    persist: Res<crate::cvars::CvarPersist>,
     // Is the character pick already spoken for? Present only when a rig is driving this run
     // (decision 1174's always-present run fact) — absent in every ordinary run, which is the
     // player answer and the one this screen was written for.
@@ -332,7 +444,12 @@ fn apply_roster_policy(
         // ref's literal `SELECT_LAST_CHARACTER` → `SelectCharacter(numChars)` and lands on the same
         // character regardless — vmangos enumerates `ORDER BY create_time, guid`, so the new one is
         // last. Otherwise clamp into range, first row default.
-        if roster.just_created.is_some() {
+        // **`SELECT_LAST_CHARACTER` outranks the remembered row** — the reference's own
+        // precedence, and the order is why: the C side restores the CVar and pushes it into Lua
+        // (`0x472563` → `UPDATE_SELECTED_CHARACTER`) *before* firing `CHARACTER_LIST_UPDATE`, and
+        // `UpdateCharacterList`'s deferred `selectLast` flag then overwrites it.
+        let created = roster.just_created.is_some();
+        if created {
             roster.select_created_by_name();
             if let Some(name) = roster.just_created.take() {
                 warn!(
@@ -344,9 +461,18 @@ fn apply_roster_policy(
         }
         if roster.chars.is_empty() {
             roster.select(None);
-        } else {
-            let sel = roster.selected().unwrap_or(0).min(roster.chars.len() - 1);
-            roster.select(Some(sel));
+        } else if !created {
+            // The remembered character (decision 1622), re-applied on **every** roster — the
+            // reference reads the CVar in the char-list rebuild itself (`0x4724d0` → `0x472740`),
+            // not once at startup, so the screen always opens on whoever you last entered the
+            // world as. Out of range falls back to the first row; see `remembered_row`.
+            let row = remembered_row(&persist, roster.chars.len());
+            // Greppable, and it names the character rather than only the index: "the first row
+            // happened to be right" and "the memory worked" are the same picture on screen, and
+            // this line is the only thing that tells them apart in a log.
+            let who = roster.chars[row].name.clone();
+            info!("char select: {CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER} selects row {row} ({who})");
+            roster.select(Some(row));
         }
         // `WOW_CHARSELECT_PICK=<name>` — **select** that row and stay on the screen, the
         // deliberate opposite of `WOW_CHAR`'s enter-the-world fast path. Without it the screen is
@@ -767,37 +893,63 @@ pub(crate) fn class_name(class: u8) -> &'static str {
     }
 }
 
+/// A `Character` with only its identity filled in — enough for any test that cares about *which*
+/// row, not what stands on the stage. `pub(crate)` so [`crate::cvars`]'s end-to-end round trip can
+/// build a roster without a second copy of this list drifting from the real one.
+#[cfg(test)]
+pub(crate) fn test_character(guid: u64, name: &str) -> Character {
+    Character {
+        guid,
+        name: name.to_string(),
+        race: 1,
+        class: 1,
+        gender: 0,
+        skin: 0,
+        face: 0,
+        hair_style: 0,
+        hair_color: 0,
+        facial_hair: 0,
+        level: 1,
+        zone: 0,
+        map: 0,
+        position: benilla_protocol::wire::Vector3d {
+            x: 0.0,
+            y: 0.0,
+            z: 0.0,
+        },
+        flags: 0,
+        equipment: [benilla_protocol::CharEnumItem::default(); 19],
+        pet_display_id: 0,
+        pet_level: 0,
+        pet_family: 0,
+    }
+}
+
+/// The roster policy and its CVar mirror, with none of the screen they normally run under — the
+/// two systems the remembered selection is made of ([`apply_roster_policy`] reads it,
+/// [`persist_last_character`] writes it), wired into a test app.
+///
+/// `pub(crate)` so [`crate::cvars`] can drive them over a **real** CVar host: the seam where a
+/// queued engine write becomes a line in `config.toml` lives entirely in that module, and this
+/// module's own tests stub it. `CharSelectPlugin` itself is not usable there — it wants the whole
+/// glue screen, its art and its sounds.
+#[cfg(test)]
+pub(crate) fn add_test_systems(app: &mut App, pick: crossbeam_channel::Sender<CharRequest>) {
+    app.insert_state(ClientState::CharSelect)
+        .init_resource::<Roster>()
+        .insert_resource(CharPick(pick))
+        .add_message::<CharListMessage>()
+        .add_systems(
+            Update,
+            (apply_roster_policy, persist_last_character).chain(),
+        );
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
 
-    fn character(guid: u64, name: &str) -> Character {
-        Character {
-            guid,
-            name: name.to_string(),
-            race: 1,
-            class: 1,
-            gender: 0,
-            skin: 0,
-            face: 0,
-            hair_style: 0,
-            hair_color: 0,
-            facial_hair: 0,
-            level: 1,
-            zone: 0,
-            map: 0,
-            position: benilla_protocol::wire::Vector3d {
-                x: 0.0,
-                y: 0.0,
-                z: 0.0,
-            },
-            flags: 0,
-            equipment: [benilla_protocol::CharEnumItem::default(); 19],
-            pet_display_id: 0,
-            pet_level: 0,
-            pet_family: 0,
-        }
-    }
+    use super::test_character as character;
 
     /// **A session that dies during world entry does not leave the client in the world**
     /// (decision 1262).
@@ -916,6 +1068,284 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(roster.selected, Some(1));
     }
 
+    // ── The remembered character (`lastCharacterIndex`, decision 1622) ───────────────────────────
+
+    /// Drive the REAL [`apply_roster_policy`] over one roster message, with `config.toml` already
+    /// holding `stored` for `lastCharacterIndex` (`None` = a launch that has never entered a
+    /// world). Returns the row the screen opens on.
+    fn roster_policy_over(
+        stored: Option<&str>,
+        names: &[&str],
+        preselected: Option<usize>,
+    ) -> Option<usize> {
+        let (tx, _rx) = crossbeam_channel::unbounded();
+        let mut app = App::new();
+        app.add_plugins(MinimalPlugins)
+            .init_resource::<Roster>()
+            .insert_resource(CharPick(tx))
+            .insert_resource(match stored {
+                Some(v) => crate::cvars::CvarPersist::with_stored(CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER, v),
+                None => crate::cvars::CvarPersist::default(),
+            })
+            .add_message::<CharListMessage>()
+            .add_message::<AppExit>()
+            .add_systems(Update, apply_roster_policy);
+        if let Some(row) = preselected {
+            app.world_mut().resource_mut::<Roster>().select(Some(row));
+        }
+        app.world_mut().write_message(CharListMessage {
+            characters: names
+                .iter()
+                .enumerate()
+                .map(|(i, n)| character(i as u64 + 1, n))
+                .collect(),
+            realm: None,
+        });
+        app.update();
+        app.world().resource::<Roster>().selected()
+    }
+
+    /// **The report**: the screen must open on the character you last logged in as, as the
+    /// reference does. The stored value is 0-based — the engine's own selection cell, one less
+    /// than the row the glue Lua counts in — so `"2"` IS row 2.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_roster_opens_on_the_remembered_character() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            roster_policy_over(
+                Some("2"),
+                &["Kerwind", "Xero", "Zzbullone", "Wartwof"],
+                None
+            ),
+            Some(2),
+            "a config.toml remembering the third character must select it, not row one",
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A client that has never entered a world stores nothing — and `"0"` is not "nothing", it is
+    /// the FIRST character (the registrar default, which is exactly why the key is absent from a
+    /// `Config.wtf` whose player last played their first character). Both land on row 0, and it
+    /// matters that they land there for the reference's reason.
+    #[test]
+    fn nothing_remembered_and_a_stored_zero_are_both_the_first_row() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            roster_policy_over(None, &["Kerwind", "Xero"], None),
+            Some(0)
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            roster_policy_over(Some("0"), &["Kerwind", "Xero"], None),
+            Some(0),
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The remembered character was deleted (or this realm simply has fewer): the reference's
+    /// `0x472740` sends an out-of-range index to the **first** row — never to the nearest one.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_remembered_row_past_the_end_falls_back_to_the_first() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            roster_policy_over(Some("9"), &["Kerwind", "Xero"], None),
+            Some(0),
+            "the reference clamps to 0, not to the last row — `(idx >= count) ? 0 : idx`",
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A hand-edited or corrupt value is not a crash and not a wrong row: the first row.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_unparseable_remembered_value_is_the_first_row() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            roster_policy_over(Some("Kerwind"), &["Kerwind", "Xero"], None),
+            Some(0),
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// **Every** roster re-applies the stored row, not just the session's first — the reference
+    /// reads the CVar inside the char-list rebuild (`0x4724d0`), so a live selection that was
+    /// never entered as does not survive a re-enum. This is the half that makes the memory mean
+    /// "who you last **logged in** as" rather than "the last row you clicked".
+    #[test]
+    fn a_re_enumerated_roster_returns_to_the_remembered_character() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            roster_policy_over(Some("0"), &["Kerwind", "Xero", "Zzbullone"], Some(2)),
+            Some(0),
+            "row 2 was only ever clicked; the roster rebuild goes back to the remembered row 0",
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// …but a just-created character still wins, which is the reference's precedence and the
+    /// order it comes in: the C side pushes the restored index into Lua first, and
+    /// `UpdateCharacterList`'s deferred `selectLast` flag overwrites it (B119 stays fixed).
+    #[test]
+    fn a_created_character_outranks_the_remembered_one() {
+        let (tx, _rx) = crossbeam_channel::unbounded();
+        let mut app = App::new();
+        app.add_plugins(MinimalPlugins)
+            .init_resource::<Roster>()
+            .insert_resource(CharPick(tx))
+            .insert_resource(crate::cvars::CvarPersist::with_stored(
+                CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER,
+                "0",
+            ))
+            .add_message::<CharListMessage>()
+            .add_message::<AppExit>()
+            .add_systems(Update, apply_roster_policy);
+        // The create result landed before the fresh roster (the order `net::io` does NOT use —
+        // the one `apply_roster_policy` exists to answer).
+        app.world_mut()
+            .resource_mut::<Roster>()
+            .note_created("Zzbullone".into());
+        app.world_mut().write_message(CharListMessage {
+            characters: vec![
+                character(1, "Kerwind"),
+                character(2, "Xero"),
+                character(3, "Zzbullone"),
+            ],
+            realm: None,
+        });
+        app.update();
+        assert_eq!(
+            app.world().resource::<Roster>().selected(),
+            Some(2),
+            "SELECT_LAST_CHARACTER outranks the remembered row 0",
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The base, in the one place it lives, and the value's own spelling for the first character.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_stored_index_is_zero_based_and_round_trips() {
+        for row in [0usize, 1, 4, 9] {
+            assert_eq!(last_character_row(&last_character_value(row)), Some(row));
+        }
+        assert_eq!(
+            last_character_value(0),
+            "0",
+            "row 0 IS the registrar default"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            last_character_row("0"),
+            Some(0),
+            "0 is the first row, not 'none'"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(last_character_row(""), None);
+    }
+
+    /// **The write is at Enter World, not at selection** — the reference's `0x46b500` formats the
+    /// CVar from the index it is about to enter as, while clicks and arrow keys reach `0x472740`
+    /// and never touch it. So "last logged in", exactly as reported.
+    #[test]
+    fn only_entering_the_world_writes_the_cvar() {
+        let (tx, _rx) = crossbeam_channel::unbounded();
+        let mut script = benilla_ui::script::UiScript::new().unwrap();
+        script.register_cvars([(CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER, "0")]);
+
+        let mut app = App::new();
+        app.add_plugins(MinimalPlugins)
+            .init_resource::<Roster>()
+            .insert_resource(CharPick(tx))
+            .insert_non_send_resource(script)
+            .add_systems(Update, persist_last_character);
+        {
+            let mut roster = app.world_mut().resource_mut::<Roster>();
+            roster.chars = vec![
+                character(1, "Kerwind"),
+                character(2, "Xero"),
+                character(3, "Zz"),
+            ];
+            roster.select(Some(2)); // clicked around the list…
+            roster.select(Some(1));
+        }
+        app.update();
+        assert!(
+            app.world_mut()
+                .non_send_resource_mut::<benilla_ui::script::UiScript>()
+                .take_cvar_changes()
+                .is_empty(),
+            "a selection alone must NOT be remembered — the reference writes nothing here",
+        );
+
+        // …and now Enter World, on the row that was selected.
+        app.world_mut().resource_mut::<Roster>().pending_pick = Some(2);
+        app.update();
+        assert_eq!(
+            app.world_mut()
+                .non_send_resource_mut::<benilla_ui::script::UiScript>()
+                .take_cvar_changes(),
+            vec![(CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER.to_string(), "1".to_string())],
+            "guid 2 sits at row 1, and the row is what rides the queue",
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// **The 1290 property, at this call site.** A login replaces the VM, and the memo of "the
+    /// table already says 1" must die with it — otherwise the mirror stays quiet against a table
+    /// that has never been told, and the memory survives only for as long as some *other* module
+    /// happens to carry the key across (`cvars::sync_cvars`'s saved-base seed does, today).
+    #[test]
+    fn a_replaced_vm_is_told_the_remembered_row_again() {
+        let (tx, _rx) = crossbeam_channel::unbounded();
+        let fresh = || {
+            let mut s = benilla_ui::script::UiScript::new().unwrap();
+            s.register_cvars([(CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER, "0")]);
+            s
+        };
+        let mut app = App::new();
+        app.add_plugins(MinimalPlugins)
+            .init_resource::<Roster>()
+            .insert_resource(CharPick(tx))
+            .insert_non_send_resource(fresh())
+            .add_systems(Update, persist_last_character);
+        {
+            let mut roster = app.world_mut().resource_mut::<Roster>();
+            roster.chars = vec![character(1, "Kerwind"), character(2, "Xero")];
+            roster.pending_pick = Some(2);
+        }
+        app.update();
+        app.update(); // steady frames stay quiet — the memo does its job within one VM
+
+        // The login edge: `ui_script::lifecycle` drops the VM and installs a boot VM in its place.
+        app.world_mut()
+            .insert_non_send_resource::<benilla_ui::script::UiScript>(fresh());
+        app.update();
+
+        assert_eq!(
+            app.world_mut()
+                .non_send_resource_mut::<benilla_ui::script::UiScript>()
+                .take_cvar_changes(),
+            vec![(CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER.to_string(), "1".to_string())],
+            "the new VM's table must be told the row too — a memo that outlived the old one \
+             would leave this table on its default and lose the memory at quit",
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The write must survive the frame in which the host has not registered its table yet: an
+    /// engine write to an unregistered name is a deliberate silent no-op, so latching on it would
+    /// swallow the session's FIRST entry — the one launch-to-launch memory exists for.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_entry_made_before_the_cvar_table_exists_is_not_lost() {
+        let (tx, _rx) = crossbeam_channel::unbounded();
+        let mut app = App::new();
+        app.add_plugins(MinimalPlugins)
+            .init_resource::<Roster>()
+            .insert_resource(CharPick(tx))
+            .insert_non_send_resource(benilla_ui::script::UiScript::new().unwrap())
+            .add_systems(Update, persist_last_character);
+        {
+            let mut roster = app.world_mut().resource_mut::<Roster>();
+            roster.chars = vec![character(1, "Kerwind"), character(2, "Xero")];
+            roster.pending_pick = Some(2);
+        }
+
+        app.update(); // the table has no such name yet — the write is dropped
+        app.world_mut()
+            .non_send_resource_mut::<benilla_ui::script::UiScript>()
+            .register_cvars([(CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER, "0")]);
+        app.update(); // ...and the next frame must still catch it up
+
+        assert_eq!(
+            app.world_mut()
+                .non_send_resource_mut::<benilla_ui::script::UiScript>()
+                .take_cvar_changes(),
+            vec![(CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER.to_string(), "1".to_string())],
+        );
+    }
+
     /// The reverse arrival order (result first, roster after) stays armed and is answered by the
     /// roster policy — and a name that still can't be found falls back to the LAST row, which is the
     /// ref's literal `SELECT_LAST_CHARACTER` → `SelectCharacter(numChars)` and the same character
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/cvars.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/cvars.rs
index 6ba737d4..4713fb1d 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/cvars.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/cvars.rs
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ pub(crate) const REGISTERED: &[(&str, &str)] = &[
     // clip. Registered so the fix can be A/B'd live against the defect it fixes.
     ("SoundOutputLimiter", "1"),
     ("uiScale", "0.9"),
-    ("farclip", "777"),
+    ("farclip", "350"),
     // The Controls-page trio (0961). `deselectOnClick`/`mouseInvertPitch` are 1.12's own
     // Interface Options CVars (UIOptionsFrame.lua indices 45/1); their defaults are the
     // reference behaviors benilla already shipped (empty-world click clears the target; no
@@ -219,6 +219,19 @@ pub(crate) const REGISTERED: &[(&str, &str)] = &[
     // ~1.6 ms at 1600×900, 7.6 ms at 4K, per frame while a body pane is open — and the director
     // retested the 30 fps doll as fine. Full-rate is one `SetCVar("boothHalfRate", 0)` away.
     ("boothHalfRate", "1"),
+    // The select screen's memory of who you last entered the world as (decision 1622) — 1.12's
+    // own `lastCharacterIndex`, help string "Last character selected". **No host knob**: the live
+    // value is the character screen's own state ([`crate::char_select::Roster::pending_index`]),
+    // which this row only mirrors — the `statusBarText` posture, and why the arm in
+    // [`apply_to_knobs`] is empty.
+    //
+    // Registered **"0"**, byte-read rather than chosen: `CVar::Register` at `0x402d93` pushes
+    // default string `0x82e570` = "0", category 4, and caches the CVar* at `[0x882674]`. The value
+    // is a **0-based** row (the engine's selection cell `[0x83856c]` under `"%d"`), so "0" is the
+    // FIRST character and not a "no memory" sentinel — which is exactly why a stock `Config.wtf`
+    // has no such line until you have played somebody other than your first character
+    // (`SaveConfig 0x63d980` skips values equal to their default; `compose_file` does the same).
+    (crate::char_select::CVAR_LAST_CHARACTER, "0"),
 ];
 
 /// `config.toml`'s shape: a `[cvars]` table of `Name = "value"` strings (CVars are strings in
@@ -250,16 +263,38 @@ pub(crate) struct CvarPersist {
 }
 
 impl CvarPersist {
-    /// The persisted `checkAddonVersion` (decision 1292) — what the addon load walk gates on.
-    /// Read from the persist state rather than the VM because the walk runs while the VM's CVar
-    /// table does not exist yet (registration is a per-VM `Update` seed, 1291); the 1291 fold
-    /// keeps this current across reloads, so it is the value the reference's live read would see.
-    /// Absent = the registrar default: check ON.
-    pub(crate) fn addon_version_check(&self) -> bool {
+    /// One CVar as `config.toml` holds it — matched case-insensitively, so a hand-edited
+    /// spelling still answers.
+    ///
+    /// Read from the persist state rather than from the VM's table for the callers that want a
+    /// value **before, or outside, a registered table**: the addon load walk runs while the VM's
+    /// CVar table does not exist yet (registration is a per-VM `Update` seed, 1291), and the
+    /// select screen wants its remembered row the moment a roster lands, from a system that has
+    /// no business holding the VM (1622). The 1291 fold keeps this current across VM
+    /// replacements, so it is the value the reference's live read would see.
+    pub(crate) fn stored(&self, name: &str) -> Option<&str> {
         self.file
             .iter()
-            .find(|(k, _)| k.eq_ignore_ascii_case("checkAddonVersion"))
-            .is_none_or(|(_, v)| v != "0")
+            .find(|(k, _)| k.eq_ignore_ascii_case(name))
+            .map(|(_, v)| v.as_str())
+    }
+
+    /// A persist state that already holds one stored value — a launch whose `config.toml` said
+    /// so, without a file. `#[cfg(test)]` and `pub(crate)` because [`Self::file`] is private:
+    /// `char_select`'s restore test drives the real [`apply_roster_policy`] over a real remembered
+    /// row rather than a copy of its logic (the `Roster::with_pending_pick` posture).
+    #[cfg(test)]
+    pub(crate) fn with_stored(name: &str, value: &str) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            file: BTreeMap::from([(name.to_string(), value.to_string())]),
+            ..Self::default()
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The persisted `checkAddonVersion` (decision 1292) — what the addon load walk gates on.
+    /// Absent = the registrar default: check ON.
+    pub(crate) fn addon_version_check(&self) -> bool {
+        self.stored("checkAddonVersion").is_none_or(|v| v != "0")
     }
 }
 
@@ -431,6 +466,10 @@ fn apply_to_knobs(name: &str, value: &str, knobs: &mut Knobs) -> bool {
         // and the gate reads the live table — but a KNOWN key, so a toggle dirties the config
         // and persists (the statusBarText posture).
         "checkaddonversion" => {}
+        // The remembered character row (1622) — same posture again: the live value is the select
+        // screen's own, which writes this key rather than reading it back. Known, so entering the
+        // world dirties the config and the memory survives to the next launch.
+        "lastcharacterindex" => {}
         // Vertical Sync — a flag like every other checkbox here. `video::apply_present_mode`
         // watches the value and pushes it to the window; nothing else reads it.
         "gxvsync" => knobs.video.vsync = v != 0.0,
@@ -783,8 +822,8 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(!sound.reverb, "zone reverb ships off (decision 1153)");
         assert_eq!(d["uiScale"], DEFAULT_UI_SCALE);
         // ViewDistance::default() reads $WOW_FARCLIP; the registered default mirrors the
-        // env-less 777 literal (view.rs doc: "Default 777").
-        assert_eq!(d["farclip"], 777.0);
+        // env-less 350 literal (view.rs doc: "Default 350" — the reference's own, 1624).
+        assert_eq!(d["farclip"], 350.0);
         // The Controls trio (0961) welds to its knob Defaults the same way.
         assert_eq!(
             d["deselectOnClick"] != 0.0,
@@ -859,7 +898,7 @@ mod tests {
     fn apply_parses_clamps_and_reports_unknowns() {
         let mut sound = SoundConfig::default();
         let mut scale = UiScaleCvar(0.9);
-        let mut view = ViewDistance { farclip: 777.0 };
+        let mut view = ViewDistance { farclip: 350.0 };
         let mut look = LookConfig::default();
         let mut click = ClickConfig::default();
         let mut loot = LootConfig::default();
@@ -1002,7 +1041,7 @@ mod tests {
             ("MusicVolume".into(), "0.7".into(), "0.4".into()), // moved: written
             ("MasterVolume".into(), "1".into(), "1".into()),    // default: absent
             ("uiScale".into(), "1.2".into(), "0.9".into()),     // env value: file keeps 0.8
-            ("farclip".into(), "777".into(), "777".into()),     // back to default: removed
+            ("farclip".into(), "350".into(), "350".into()),     // back to default: removed
         ];
         let out = compose_file(&previous, &env, &snapshot);
         assert_eq!(out.get("MusicVolume").map(String::as_str), Some("0.7"));
@@ -1033,26 +1072,7 @@ mod tests {
         )
         .unwrap();
 
-        let mut app = App::new();
-        app.add_plugins(bevy::MinimalPlugins)
-            .insert_resource(SoundConfig::default())
-            .insert_resource(UiScaleCvar(DEFAULT_UI_SCALE))
-            .insert_resource(ViewDistance { farclip: 777.0 })
-            .init_resource::<LookConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<ClickConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<LootConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<NameConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<VPlateMode>()
-            .init_resource::<ClutterConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<MinimapZoom>()
-            .init_resource::<BubbleConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<ZoomLimit>()
-            .init_resource::<FollowConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<VideoConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<PaneRate>()
-            .init_resource::<crate::ui_guild::GuildMemberNotify>()
-            .add_plugins(CvarPlugin);
-        app.insert_non_send_resource(UiScript::new().unwrap());
+        let mut app = cvar_app();
 
         // Startup: the file's MusicVolume reaches the knob; Update: the VM table seeds from it.
         app.update();
@@ -1084,6 +1104,114 @@ mod tests {
         std::fs::remove_dir_all(&tmp).ok();
     }
 
+    /// A client whose CVar host is real: every knob resource the [`KnobParams`] census wants,
+    /// [`CvarPlugin`] itself, and a VM for the table to live in. The three end-to-end tests below
+    /// each stand a whole client up, and the census is one row per knob — copied per test, adding
+    /// a knob meant editing every copy.
+    fn cvar_app() -> App {
+        let mut app = App::new();
+        app.add_plugins(bevy::MinimalPlugins)
+            .insert_resource(SoundConfig::default())
+            .insert_resource(UiScaleCvar(DEFAULT_UI_SCALE))
+            .insert_resource(ViewDistance { farclip: 350.0 })
+            .init_resource::<LookConfig>()
+            .init_resource::<ClickConfig>()
+            .init_resource::<LootConfig>()
+            .init_resource::<NameConfig>()
+            .init_resource::<VPlateMode>()
+            .init_resource::<ClutterConfig>()
+            .init_resource::<MinimapZoom>()
+            .init_resource::<BubbleConfig>()
+            .init_resource::<ZoomLimit>()
+            .init_resource::<FollowConfig>()
+            .init_resource::<VideoConfig>()
+            .init_resource::<PaneRate>()
+            .init_resource::<crate::ui_guild::GuildMemberNotify>()
+            .add_plugins(CvarPlugin);
+        app.insert_non_send_resource(UiScript::new().unwrap());
+        app
+    }
+
+    /// **The reported bug, end to end** (decision 1622): "char screen doesn't remember the last
+    /// logged in char, the ref does". Two launches over one `benilla-config/`, with the real
+    /// [`CvarPlugin`] and the real [`crate::char_select`] systems in between — entering the world
+    /// as somebody has to survive the quit and bring the screen back to them.
+    ///
+    /// The seam this covers and the per-module tests cannot: `set_cvar_engine`'s queued change is
+    /// only *persisted* if [`apply_to_knobs`] answers `true` for the name. A knobless CVar that
+    /// falls through to `_ => return false` reaches the VM's table, reads back correctly all
+    /// session, and is silently dropped at the save — which is this bug again, one layer down.
+    #[test]
+    fn entering_the_world_survives_the_quit_and_comes_back_selected() {
+        use crate::char_select::{ClientState, Roster};
+        use crate::local_state::test_env::{EnvGuard, ENV_LOCK};
+        let _l = ENV_LOCK.lock().unwrap();
+        let tmp = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("benilla-lastchar-{}", std::process::id()));
+        std::fs::remove_dir_all(&tmp).ok();
+        let _c = EnvGuard::unset("WOW_CAPTURE");
+        let _u = EnvGuard::unset("WOW_UI_SCALE");
+        let _f = EnvGuard::unset("WOW_FARCLIP");
+        let _d = EnvGuard::unset("WOW_CLUTTER_DENSITY");
+        let _w = EnvGuard::unset("WOW_CHAR");
+        let _s = EnvGuard::unset("WOW_CHARSELECT_PICK");
+        let _h = EnvGuard::set("BENILLA_HOME", tmp.to_str().unwrap());
+        let roster = || {
+            (1..=4)
+                .map(|g| crate::char_select::test_character(g, &format!("Char{g}")))
+                .collect::<Vec<_>>()
+        };
+
+        // ── Launch 1: the roster lands, and the player enters the world as the third row. ────
+        let (tx, _rx) = crossbeam_channel::unbounded();
+        let mut app = cvar_app();
+        app.add_plugins(bevy::state::app::StatesPlugin);
+        crate::char_select::add_test_systems(&mut app, tx);
+        app.update(); // Startup loads the (absent) file; the first Update seeds the VM table
+        app.world_mut().write_message(crate::net::CharListMessage {
+            characters: roster(),
+            realm: None,
+        });
+        app.update();
+        assert_eq!(
+            app.world().resource::<Roster>().selected(),
+            Some(0),
+            "nothing remembered yet, so the first row — the behaviour that was already right",
+        );
+        app.world_mut().resource_mut::<Roster>().pending_pick = Some(3); // guid 3 = row 2
+        app.update();
+        app.world_mut().write_message(AppExit::Success);
+        app.update();
+
+        let text = std::fs::read_to_string(tmp.join("config.toml")).unwrap();
+        assert!(
+            text.contains("lastCharacterIndex = \"2\""),
+            "entering the world must reach the file, 0-based like Config.wtf:\n{text}"
+        );
+
+        // ── Launch 2: a fresh client over the same folder, and the roster arrives. ───────────
+        let (tx, _rx2) = crossbeam_channel::unbounded();
+        let mut app = cvar_app();
+        app.add_plugins(bevy::state::app::StatesPlugin);
+        crate::char_select::add_test_systems(&mut app, tx);
+        app.update();
+        app.world_mut().write_message(crate::net::CharListMessage {
+            characters: roster(),
+            realm: None,
+        });
+        app.update();
+
+        assert_eq!(
+            app.world().resource::<Roster>().selected(),
+            Some(2),
+            "the second launch must stand the SAME character on the stage — the whole report",
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            *app.world().resource::<State<ClientState>>().get(),
+            ClientState::CharSelect,
+        );
+        std::fs::remove_dir_all(&tmp).ok();
+    }
+
     /// The minimap's zoom rides the same loop, driven from the **engine** rather than a Lua
     /// `SetCVar` (decision 1131): the `+`/`-` buttons call `Minimap:SetZoom`, which writes the live
     /// index and its CVar together — and that has to reach the knob and the file exactly like a
@@ -1106,26 +1234,7 @@ mod tests {
         )
         .unwrap();
 
-        let mut app = App::new();
-        app.add_plugins(bevy::MinimalPlugins)
-            .insert_resource(SoundConfig::default())
-            .insert_resource(UiScaleCvar(DEFAULT_UI_SCALE))
-            .insert_resource(ViewDistance { farclip: 777.0 })
-            .init_resource::<LookConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<ClickConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<LootConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<NameConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<VPlateMode>()
-            .init_resource::<ClutterConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<MinimapZoom>()
-            .init_resource::<BubbleConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<ZoomLimit>()
-            .init_resource::<FollowConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<VideoConfig>()
-            .init_resource::<PaneRate>()
-            .init_resource::<crate::ui_guild::GuildMemberNotify>()
-            .add_plugins(CvarPlugin);
-        app.insert_non_send_resource(UiScript::new().unwrap());
+        let mut app = cvar_app();
         app.update();
 
         // Startup restored the knob, and the VM's table answers with it — which is what the UI-load
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/entities/attach/char_skin.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/entities/attach/char_skin.rs
index d681c425..d87c7d70 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/entities/attach/char_skin.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/entities/attach/char_skin.rs
@@ -309,7 +309,14 @@ pub(super) fn build_char_skin_materials(
                             worn,
                         )
                         .ok()??;
-                    let handle = images.add(repeat_texture_authored(composed, (true, true)));
+                    // Through the upload gate like every other texture: a composite is
+                    // layered texel-by-texel on the CPU so it is already RGBA8, and
+                    // `for_upload` is a no-op on it — but going through it is what makes
+                    // the format and the bytes provably agree (decision 1626).
+                    let handle = images.add(repeat_texture_authored(
+                        benilla_assets::for_upload(composed),
+                        (true, true),
+                    ));
                     skin_cache.insert(key, handle.clone());
                     Some(handle)
                 }
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/hover_log.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/hover_log.rs
index 4458a4c2..5c480eb3 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/hover_log.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/hover_log.rs
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ impl Plugin for HoverLogPlugin {
                 let _ = writeln!(
                     out,
                     "frame_ms,cpu_ms,tick_us,resolve_us,measure_us,extract_us,convert_us,\
-                     diff_us,quads,solves,skipped,measured,measured_texts,tip_owner,tip_lines,\
+                     diff_us,quads,solves,derives,skipped,measured,measured_texts,tip_owner,tip_lines,\
                      tip_first_line,spliced"
                 );
                 info!("hover log: recording every frame to {path}");
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ fn record(
         .unwrap_or_else(|| (String::new(), 0, String::new()));
     let _ = writeln!(
         rec.out,
-        "{frame_ms:.3},{cpu_ms:.3},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{lines},{},{}",
+        "{frame_ms:.3},{cpu_ms:.3},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{lines},{},{}",
         c.tick,
         c.resolve,
         c.measure,
@@ -164,6 +164,7 @@ fn record(
         c.diff,
         c.quads,
         c.solves,
+        c.derives,
         u8::from(c.skipped),
         c.measured,
         cell(&c.measured_texts.join(" ⏎ ")),
@@ -210,6 +211,11 @@ fn summarize(label: &str, rows: &[&Row]) -> String {
     // extract gate skipped the conversion+rasterize loop outright.
     #[allow(clippy::cast_precision_loss)]
     let solves = rows.iter().map(|r| r.cost.solves as f64).sum::<f64>() / f64::from(n);
+    // The term `solves` hides (decision 1625): a solve that had to DERIVE the layout graph first
+    // costs an order of magnitude more than one that used the ledger, and both count as one solve.
+    // The law is zero — anything else is a write site that gave up naming its node, which
+    // `WOW_LAYOUT_DERIVE_TRACE=<secs>:<n>` will backtrace on a live run.
+    let derives = rows.iter().map(|r| r.cost.derives as f64).sum::<f64>() / f64::from(n);
     let skips = 100.0 * rows.iter().filter(|r| r.cost.skipped).count() as f32 / n;
     // Counted against the DROPPED threshold, not the raw budget: synced wall time rails at the
     // display's present grant and jitters around it, so counting frames over 16.7 ms mostly counts
@@ -222,7 +228,7 @@ fn summarize(label: &str, rows: &[&Row]) -> String {
         "  {label:<34} n={:<6} wall p50={:>6.2} p99={:>6.2} max={:>7.2}  cpu p50={:>6.2} \
          p99={:>6.2}  dropped={:>5.1}%\n      ui μs: tick={:>6.0} resolve={:>6.0} \
          measure={:>5.0} extract={:>6.0} convert={:>6.0} diff={:>5.0}\n      solves/frame={:.2} \
-         reshaped/frame={:.2} extract-gate-skipped={:.0}%",
+         derives/frame={:.2} reshaped/frame={:.2} extract-gate-skipped={:.0}%",
         rows.len(),
         pct(&wall, 0.50),
         pct(&wall, 0.99),
@@ -237,6 +243,7 @@ fn summarize(label: &str, rows: &[&Row]) -> String {
         ui_us(|c| c.convert),
         ui_us(|c| c.diff),
         solves,
+        derives,
         measured,
         skips,
     )
@@ -303,20 +310,20 @@ fn parse_row(line: &str) -> Option<Row> {
         }
     }
     fields.push(cur);
-    if fields.len() < 16 {
+    if fields.len() < 17 {
         return None;
     }
     let num = |i: usize| fields[i].parse::<f64>().ok();
-    let owner = fields[13].clone();
+    let owner = fields[14].clone();
     Some(Row {
         frame_ms: num(0)? as f32,
         cpu_ms: num(1)? as f32,
         cost: UiFrameCost {
-            measured: num(11)? as usize,
-            measured_texts: if fields[12].is_empty() {
+            measured: num(12)? as usize,
+            measured_texts: if fields[13].is_empty() {
                 Vec::new()
             } else {
-                fields[12].split(" ⏎ ").map(str::to_string).collect()
+                fields[13].split(" ⏎ ").map(str::to_string).collect()
             },
             tick: num(2)? as u128,
             resolve: num(3)? as u128,
@@ -326,14 +333,15 @@ fn parse_row(line: &str) -> Option<Row> {
             diff: num(7)? as u128,
             quads: num(8)? as usize,
             solves: num(9)? as u64,
-            skipped: num(10)? != 0.0,
+            derives: num(10)? as u64,
+            skipped: num(11)? != 0.0,
             // Appended column (absent in pre-splice recordings — those read back as 0).
-            spliced: fields.get(16).and_then(|f| f.parse().ok()).unwrap_or(0),
+            spliced: fields.get(17).and_then(|f| f.parse().ok()).unwrap_or(0),
         },
         tip: if owner.is_empty() {
             None
         } else {
-            Some((owner, num(14)? as i64, fields[15].clone()))
+            Some((owner, num(15)? as i64, fields[16].clone()))
         },
     })
 }
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/framing.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/framing.rs
index 48b94438..e7609f0f 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/framing.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/framing.rs
@@ -51,8 +51,9 @@ pub(super) fn diag_to_vert(fov: f32, aspect: f32) -> f32 {
 /// It is the client's own reference frame, not a guess. The Lua screen is `768a × 768`
 /// (wow-re `ui/scratch/modelframe-camera-law.md` §12.1), so at the era's default `a = 4/3` the
 /// design space is exactly `1024×768` — the resolution every `UI_<Race>` diorama and its camera-0
-/// framing were authored against.
-pub(super) const GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT: f32 = 4.0 / 3.0;
+/// framing were authored against. One definition, in the crate that also measures the art
+/// against it ([`benilla_formats::glue_art_extent`]).
+pub(super) use benilla_formats::{ArtExtent, GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT};
 
 /// The **glue scene's** vertical opening angle — the authored 4:3 view box, never cropped.
 ///
@@ -77,18 +78,104 @@ pub(super) const GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT: f32 = 4.0 / 3.0;
 /// narrow window opens upward rather than cropping the diorama's sides. Continuous at `4/3`, where
 /// both legs give `0.6·fov`.
 ///
+/// **…as far as the art goes** (decision 1619, B330). Every diorama is finite — a sky card of some
+/// authored width, a ground that stops — and 1587's hor+ had no ceiling: `UI_MainMenu` runs out
+/// of backdrop before 16:9 and the frame past its slanted edges was the clear colour; `UI_Tauren`
+/// runs out at ~2.24:1. **Not one of the seven scenes is drawn wider than about 3:2**
+/// ([`benilla_formats::shipped_glue_art_extent`], measured per texel off the chain: MainMenu 1.54,
+/// Human 1.47, Orc 1.57, Dwarf 1.43, NightElf 1.45, Scourge 1.57, Tauren 1.46 — 1587's "no void at
+/// 21:9 on `UI_Human`" held only because the create screen's side panels stand exactly over it).
+/// So `art` bounds both legs: the wide leg grows the width only to `art.half_w` and past it
+/// **holds the width and closes the vertical** — the zoom the reference does everywhere, done
+/// only where the art forces it — and the narrow leg does the same with `art.half_h`. The
+/// authored box itself is never given up (`max(h0)` / `max(t0)`): a scene whose art does not fill
+/// 4:3 is the art's problem, not a reason to zoom past the composition. `None` is 1587's
+/// unbounded law.
+///
+/// **…and never tighter than the reference at 16:9.** Holding the width zooms faster than the
+/// reference's diagonal law, so left alone it re-crops the character at 21:9 (B242, the report
+/// 1587 closed). The zoom has a floor ([`glue_zoom_floor`]): the reference's own 16:9 opening —
+/// the tightest framing every race has been played at, on the most common panel, for fifteen
+/// years, an empirical bound on "the character still fits", not a mechanism. (A floor of "what
+/// 16:9 needs to reach this scene's art" was tried and clipped the night elf male's hair and
+/// boots at 16:9 — 8% past the reference is past what fits.) Past the aspect where the floor's
+/// opening cannot fill the art's width, the scene is **pillarboxed** — rendered at that aspect,
+/// centred, black either side — which is what the modern client does past 16:9 and the only
+/// honest answer once the art is narrower than the window: not void (B330), not a crop (B242),
+/// a frame.
+///
+/// Where this lands: at 16:9 every scene but one zooms to within a few percent of the reference's
+/// own `0.49·fov`, by construction rather than by a constant, and fills the window; the night
+/// elves' stage — its sky card exactly 4:3 wide, so the box itself is its ceiling — is boxed at
+/// 1.65:1 there, ~3.6% of the width each side, where the reference shows black corners past the
+/// same card. At 21:9 the reference cropped
+/// and 1587 showed void, and every scene now shows its 16:9 framing with bars (~9–13% of the
+/// width, per scene). At 4:3 nothing changes: byte-identical.
+///
 /// Scoped to the full-screen glue scene on purpose. A `<PlayerModel>` pane renders into a fixed
 /// rect that is *not* the window, so its crop is its own `W/H` and stays verbatim ([`diag_to_vert`],
 /// decisions 1089/1543).
-pub(super) fn glue_scene_vert_fov(fov: f32, window_aspect: f32) -> f32 {
+pub(super) fn glue_scene_framing(
+    fov: f32,
+    window_aspect: f32,
+    art: Option<ArtExtent>,
+) -> GlueFraming {
     let authored = diag_to_vert(fov, GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT);
-    if window_aspect >= GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT || window_aspect <= 0.0 {
-        authored
-    } else {
-        // Hold the authored *horizontal* half-extent `tan(authored/2)·(4/3)` and solve for the
-        // vertical that a narrower window needs to keep it.
-        2.0 * ((authored * 0.5).tan() * GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT / window_aspect).atan()
+    let full = |vert_fov: f32| GlueFraming {
+        vert_fov,
+        viewport_aspect: None,
+    };
+    if window_aspect <= 0.0 {
+        return full(authored); // a degenerate (mid-resize) window: the authored opening, finite
     }
+    let t0 = (authored * 0.5).tan(); // the authored vertical half-extent
+    let h0 = t0 * GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT; // …and horizontal
+    if window_aspect >= GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT {
+        // hor+: the authored vertical opening, until the width reaches the art's edge; past it
+        // the width is held there and the vertical closes — down to the 16:9 floor, past which
+        // the window is wider than the framing can honestly fill: pillarbox.
+        let ceiling = art.map_or(f32::INFINITY, |a| a.half_w.max(h0));
+        let half_w = (t0 * window_aspect).min(ceiling);
+        let floor = glue_zoom_floor(fov);
+        let half_h = half_w / window_aspect;
+        if half_h >= floor {
+            full(2.0 * half_h.atan())
+        } else {
+            GlueFraming {
+                vert_fov: 2.0 * floor.atan(),
+                viewport_aspect: Some(half_w / floor),
+            }
+        }
+    } else {
+        // The mirror: hold the authored horizontal half-extent and open upward, until the art's
+        // top/bottom edge; past it the height is held and the sides crop — the stage's edges,
+        // never the character, so no floor and no bars.
+        let ceiling = art.map_or(f32::INFINITY, |a| a.half_h.max(t0));
+        let half_h = (h0 / window_aspect).min(ceiling);
+        full(2.0 * half_h.atan())
+    }
+}
+
+/// What [`glue_scene_framing`] decided for one window.
+#[derive(Clone, Copy, Debug, PartialEq)]
+pub(super) struct GlueFraming {
+    /// The booth camera's vertical opening (radians).
+    pub(super) vert_fov: f32,
+    /// `Some(aspect)`: render into a centred viewport of this aspect instead of the whole window
+    /// (pillarbox — the window is wider than the art can fill at the zoom floor). `None`: the
+    /// whole window.
+    pub(super) viewport_aspect: Option<f32>,
+}
+
+/// The panel the reference was played on without complaint for fifteen years — the aspect whose
+/// reference framing is the zoom floor, and the one the modern client fills before it boxes.
+pub(super) const REFERENCE_PANEL: f32 = 16.0 / 9.0;
+
+/// The **zoom floor** — the vertical half-extent (tan units) the glue scene is never framed
+/// tighter than: the reference's own opening at [`REFERENCE_PANEL`], `tan(½·fov/√((16/9)²+1))`.
+/// See [`glue_scene_framing`].
+pub(super) fn glue_zoom_floor(fov: f32) -> f32 {
+    (diag_to_vert(fov, REFERENCE_PANEL) * 0.5).tan()
 }
 
 /// The real client's portrait/model **projection**: gxumath `0x5c3cc0`, a *diagonal-FOV*
@@ -679,9 +766,9 @@ mod tests {
     /// every window shape, instead of spending height on width the way the reference's
     /// `aspect = a_screen` does.
     ///
-    /// The three numbers that matter: the authored `0.6·fov` survives at 4:3, at 16:9 and at the
-    /// 3440×1440 panel the report came from — where the un-pinned law gives `0.386·fov`, a 1.55×
-    /// zoom, and the character's head and feet leave the frame.
+    /// Unbounded (no art): the authored `0.6·fov` survives at 4:3, at 16:9 and at the 3440×1440
+    /// panel the report came from — where the un-pinned law gives `0.386·fov`, a 1.55× zoom, and
+    /// the character's head and feet leave the frame.
     #[test]
     fn the_glue_scene_holds_its_authored_vertical_on_every_wide_window() {
         let close = |a: f32, b: f32| (a - b).abs() < 5e-4;
@@ -697,9 +784,10 @@ mod tests {
             3440.0 / 1440.0,
             32.0 / 9.0,
         ] {
+            let f = glue_scene_framing(1.0, wide, None);
             assert!(
-                close(glue_scene_vert_fov(1.0, wide), authored),
-                "a{wide} must keep the authored vertical opening"
+                close(f.vert_fov, authored) && f.viewport_aspect.is_none(),
+                "a{wide} must keep the authored vertical opening, unboxed"
             );
         }
         // What we are NOT doing any more — the reference's own numbers, kept here so the size of
@@ -710,7 +798,7 @@ mod tests {
 
     /// The other side of the same clamp: a window NARROWER than 4:3 opens upward rather than
     /// cropping the diorama's sides, so the authored horizontal half-extent is the invariant there.
-    /// Continuous at 4:3, where both legs of [`glue_scene_vert_fov`] agree.
+    /// Continuous at 4:3, where both legs of [`glue_scene_framing`] agree.
     #[test]
     fn a_narrow_glue_window_holds_its_authored_width_instead() {
         let half_width = |vert: f32, a: f32| (vert * 0.5).tan() * a;
@@ -719,16 +807,151 @@ mod tests {
             GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT,
         );
         for narrow in [5.0 / 4.0, 1.0, 3.0 / 4.0] {
-            let got = half_width(glue_scene_vert_fov(1.0, narrow), narrow);
+            let got = half_width(glue_scene_framing(1.0, narrow, None).vert_fov, narrow);
             assert!(
                 (got - authored).abs() < 5e-4,
                 "a{narrow}: authored half-width {authored} vs {got}"
             );
         }
         // …and it never *narrows* the view: a tall window sees more, never less.
-        assert!(glue_scene_vert_fov(1.0, 1.0) > glue_scene_vert_fov(1.0, GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT));
+        assert!(
+            glue_scene_framing(1.0, 1.0, None).vert_fov
+                > glue_scene_framing(1.0, GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT, None).vert_fov
+        );
         // A degenerate window (zero height, mid-resize) must not produce a NaN fov.
-        assert!(glue_scene_vert_fov(1.0, 0.0).is_finite());
+        assert!(glue_scene_framing(1.0, 0.0, None).vert_fov.is_finite());
+    }
+
+    /// The art ceiling (decision 1619): with a measured extent the wide leg widens exactly to the
+    /// art's edge, past it holds that width and closes the vertical, and once the vertical would
+    /// close below the reference's 16:9 opening the window is pillarboxed at the aspect that
+    /// opening fills the art at. At and below the art's aspect nothing differs from 1587's law.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_wide_window_widens_to_the_arts_edge_then_zooms_then_pillarboxes() {
+        let close = |a: f32, b: f32| (a - b).abs() < 5e-4;
+        let authored = diag_to_vert(1.0, GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT);
+        let t0 = (authored * 0.5).tan();
+        // Art that runs out of width at exactly 3:2 (the login gate's shape), tall enough never
+        // to bind.
+        let art = Some(ArtExtent {
+            half_w: t0 * 1.5,
+            half_h: 10.0,
+        });
+        let half_width =
+            |f: GlueFraming, a: f32| (f.vert_fov * 0.5).tan() * f.viewport_aspect.unwrap_or(a);
+        // Up to 3:2 the vertical opening is the authored one — identical to the unbounded law.
+        for a in [GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT, 1.4, 1.5] {
+            let f = glue_scene_framing(1.0, a, art);
+            assert!(
+                close(f.vert_fov, authored) && f.viewport_aspect.is_none(),
+                "a{a}"
+            );
+        }
+        // Past it the width is pinned at the art's edge and the vertical closes: the zoom. At
+        // 16:9 that lands beside the reference's own diagonal-law number (0.490) — a 3:2 edge
+        // gives 2·atan(1.5·t0/(16/9)) — within a few percent, and no constant says so.
+        let f = glue_scene_framing(1.0, 16.0 / 9.0, art);
+        assert!(f.viewport_aspect.is_none(), "16:9 fills the window");
+        assert!(close(half_width(f, 16.0 / 9.0), t0 * 1.5));
+        assert!(
+            f.vert_fov < authored && (f.vert_fov - 0.490_26).abs() < 0.03,
+            "{}",
+            f.vert_fov
+        );
+        assert!(f.vert_fov >= 2.0 * glue_zoom_floor(1.0).atan() - 1e-6);
+        // Wider still, the zoom would pass the reference's 16:9 opening: the floor holds it
+        // there and the scene is boxed at the aspect the floor fills the art at (1.5·t0 / floor),
+        // the same box on any wider window.
+        let floor = glue_zoom_floor(1.0);
+        assert!(close(floor, (diag_to_vert(1.0, 16.0 / 9.0) * 0.5).tan()));
+        for a in [3440.0 / 1440.0, 32.0 / 9.0] {
+            let f = glue_scene_framing(1.0, a, art);
+            assert!(
+                close((f.vert_fov * 0.5).tan(), floor),
+                "a{a} sits on the floor"
+            );
+            let boxed = f.viewport_aspect.expect("pillarboxed");
+            assert!(close(boxed, t0 * 1.5 / floor), "a{a}: box {boxed}");
+            assert!(boxed < a, "the box is narrower than the window");
+            assert!(
+                close(half_width(f, a), t0 * 1.5),
+                "…and still ends at the art"
+            );
+        }
+        // Wide art (a scene drawn out to 21:9) never binds: 1587's answer, unchanged.
+        let wide_art = Some(ArtExtent {
+            half_w: t0 * 4.0,
+            half_h: 10.0,
+        });
+        let f = glue_scene_framing(1.0, 3440.0 / 1440.0, wide_art);
+        assert!(close(f.vert_fov, authored) && f.viewport_aspect.is_none());
+        // Art narrower than 16:9 can reach at the reference's opening (the night elves' sky, a
+        // 4:3 card — 1.31, inside the authored box, so the box's own width is the ceiling): the
+        // floor holds and 16:9 itself is boxed, at the aspect the floor fills the box at — the
+        // same box on any wider window.
+        let narrow_art = Some(ArtExtent {
+            half_w: t0 * 1.31,
+            half_h: 10.0,
+        });
+        let h0 = t0 * GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT;
+        for a in [16.0 / 9.0, 3440.0 / 1440.0] {
+            let f = glue_scene_framing(1.0, a, narrow_art);
+            assert!(
+                close((f.vert_fov * 0.5).tan(), floor),
+                "a{a} sits on the floor"
+            );
+            let boxed = f.viewport_aspect.expect("boxed");
+            assert!((boxed - h0 / floor).abs() < 2e-3, "a{a}: box {boxed}");
+        }
+        // …and 16:10 is not: the box's width still fills it above the floor.
+        assert!(glue_scene_framing(1.0, 1.6, narrow_art)
+            .viewport_aspect
+            .is_none());
+    }
+
+    /// The authored box is never given up: art that does not even reach it (a `0.0` extent, or
+    /// one inside 4:3) leaves the 4:3 framing exactly where 1587 put it — on both legs.
+    #[test]
+    fn art_inside_the_authored_box_never_zooms_past_the_composition() {
+        let close = |a: f32, b: f32| (a - b).abs() < 5e-4;
+        let authored = diag_to_vert(1.0, GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT);
+        let none = Some(ArtExtent {
+            half_w: 0.0,
+            half_h: 0.0,
+        });
+        assert!(close(
+            glue_scene_framing(1.0, GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT, none).vert_fov,
+            authored
+        ));
+        assert!(close(glue_scene_framing(1.0, 1.0, none).vert_fov, authored));
+        // At 16:9 with no art past the box, the box's own width is held — and holding 4:3's
+        // width in a 16:9 window closes the vertical past the reference's 16:9 opening, so the
+        // floor takes it: the authored box at that opening, boxed.
+        let f = glue_scene_framing(1.0, 16.0 / 9.0, none);
+        let t0 = (authored * 0.5).tan();
+        let floor = glue_zoom_floor(1.0);
+        assert!(close((f.vert_fov * 0.5).tan(), floor));
+        let boxed = f.viewport_aspect.expect("boxed");
+        assert!(
+            (boxed - t0 * GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT / floor).abs() < 2e-3,
+            "box {boxed}"
+        );
+        // 16:10 still fills: 4:3's width there is above the floor.
+        assert!(glue_scene_framing(1.0, 1.6, none).viewport_aspect.is_none());
+        // …and a narrow window with a bounded height holds that height, cropping the sides.
+        let short = Some(ArtExtent {
+            half_w: 10.0,
+            half_h: t0 * 1.1,
+        });
+        let v = glue_scene_framing(1.0, 0.75, short).vert_fov;
+        assert!(
+            close((v * 0.5).tan(), t0 * 1.1),
+            "height held at the art's edge"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            glue_scene_framing(1.0, 0.75, None).vert_fov > v,
+            "…below the unbounded law's"
+        );
     }
 
     /// **The portrait bake's projection, pinned against the real client's own GL stream**
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/glue_booth.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/glue_booth.rs
index a995e68a..5141c2ce 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/glue_booth.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/glue_booth.rs
@@ -25,7 +25,10 @@ use crate::entities::Creatures;
 use benilla_assets::m2_url;
 use benilla_assets::materials::WowModelMaterial;
 
-use super::framing::{attachment_point, diag_to_vert, glue_scene_vert_fov, PORTRAIT_ASPECT};
+use super::framing::{
+    attachment_point, diag_to_vert, glue_scene_framing, ArtExtent, GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT,
+    PORTRAIT_ASPECT,
+};
 use super::{
     aim, body_frame, new_target_image, spawn_booth_effects, spawn_booth_model, Booth,
     BoothBillboardSpec, BoothCam, BoothEffects, BoothLight, BoothMotion, BoothPart, BoothRider,
@@ -193,6 +196,14 @@ pub(crate) struct CreateScene {
     spawned: bool,
     /// The authored camera 0, captured at spawn (drives the booth camera while the scene shows).
     cam: Option<benilla_assets::PortraitCamera>,
+    /// How far the scene's art paints around that camera — the shipped scene's measured extent
+    /// ([`benilla_formats::shipped_glue_art_extent`], decision 1619) — the ceiling on the framing
+    /// law's widening ([`glue_scene_framing`]). `None` with no scene.
+    art: Option<ArtExtent>,
+    /// `Some(aspect)` while the framing law pillarboxes the scene (the window is wider than the
+    /// art can fill at the zoom floor): the booth camera renders into a centred viewport of this
+    /// aspect, black either side ([`pillarbox_glue_scene`]). `None`: the whole window.
+    viewport_aspect: Option<f32>,
     /// The character's stage spot — scene attachment 0 (Bevy model space), `ZERO` with no scene.
     /// (Verified for select too: the body seats on attachment **0**, `0x473039` — attachment 1 is
     /// the enum's secondary model, wow-re `glue-select-model.md` TU-B; 0429's attachment-1
@@ -491,6 +502,16 @@ pub(super) fn spawn_glue_booth(
             // composites the character straight over the page, the ref's model-in-the-scene look.
             // FfxGlow's combine carries the scene alpha through for exactly this.
             clear_color: ClearColorConfig::Custom(Color::NONE),
+            // The OUTPUT clear — what the upscaling blit paints on the target OUTSIDE the
+            // camera's viewport, when the framing law boxes the scene (decision 1619,
+            // [`pillarbox_glue_scene`]). Bevy's default here is the global `ClearColor`, which
+            // the world's lighting sets to the day's fog colour every frame — so without this
+            // the bars came out Elwynn-sky blue. Black: a frame, not a page showing through.
+            // With no viewport the blit covers the whole target and this is never seen.
+            output_mode: bevy::camera::CameraOutputMode::Write {
+                blend_state: None,
+                clear_color: ClearColorConfig::Custom(Color::BLACK),
+            },
             ..default()
         },
         bevy::camera::RenderTarget::Image(image.clone().into()),
@@ -549,6 +570,8 @@ pub(super) fn spawn_glue_booth(
         handle: None,
         spawned: false,
         cam: None,
+        art: None,
+        viewport_aspect: None,
         char_spot: Vec3::ZERO,
         char_facing: Quat::IDENTITY,
         char_scale: 1.0,
@@ -610,6 +633,8 @@ pub(super) fn sync_glue_scene(
             scene.handle = None;
             scene.spawned = false;
             scene.cam = None;
+            scene.art = None;
+            scene.viewport_aspect = None;
             scene.char_spot = Vec3::ZERO;
             scene.char_facing = Quat::IDENTITY;
             scene.char_scale = 1.0;
@@ -648,6 +673,8 @@ pub(super) fn sync_glue_scene(
         ))));
         scene.spawned = false;
         scene.cam = None;
+        scene.art = None;
+        scene.viewport_aspect = None;
         scene.char_spot = Vec3::ZERO;
         clear_pet(&mut commands, &mut scene);
         commands.entity(scene.root).despawn_related::<Children>();
@@ -786,6 +813,21 @@ pub(super) fn sync_glue_scene(
         scene_rig.finish(&mut commands);
         scene.spawned = true;
         scene.cam = model.camera0;
+        // The scene's art extent — the shipped table's transcription of what the tool measured
+        // off this very model (decision 1619). Said out loud as the aspects the law acts on.
+        scene.art = benilla_formats::shipped_glue_art_extent(token);
+        if let (Some(art), Some(cam)) = (scene.art, model.camera0.as_ref()) {
+            let t0 = benilla_formats::authored_half_height(cam.fov);
+            info!(
+                "create scene: UI_{token} art extent — half_w {:.4} (widens to {:.2}:1), half_h {:.4} \
+                 (opens to 1:{:.2}); boxes past {:.2}:1",
+                art.half_w,
+                art.half_w / t0,
+                art.half_h,
+                art.half_h / (t0 * GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT),
+                art.half_w.max(t0 * GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT) / super::framing::glue_zoom_floor(cam.fov),
+            );
+        }
         scene.char_spot = stage;
         scene.char_facing = stage_facing;
         scene.char_scale = stage_scale;
@@ -836,13 +878,17 @@ pub(super) fn sync_glue_scene(
         let up = Quat::from_axis_angle(fwd, cam.roll) * Vec3::Y;
         // The record fov is the client's *diagonal* convention. The scene is a FULL-SCREEN pane, so
         // the reference feeds that conversion the display's own aspect and spends height on width —
-        // a 1.55× zoom at 21:9 that crops head and feet (B242). [`glue_scene_vert_fov`] pins the
+        // a 1.55× zoom at 21:9 that crops head and feet (B242). [`glue_scene_framing`] pins the
         // authored 4:3 view box instead; its doc carries the law. Far kept generous: fog is not
         // rendered yet, so the authored far (27.8 on Orc) would slice unfogged geometry.
+        let framing = glue_scene_framing(cam.fov, aspect, scene.art);
+        if scene.viewport_aspect != framing.viewport_aspect {
+            scene.viewport_aspect = framing.viewport_aspect;
+        }
         let rig = (
             Transform::from_translation(cam.eye).looking_at(cam.target, up),
             Projection::from(PerspectiveProjection {
-                fov: glue_scene_vert_fov(cam.fov, aspect),
+                fov: framing.vert_fov,
                 near: cam.near,
                 far: cam.far.max(1000.0),
                 ..default()
@@ -852,6 +898,46 @@ pub(super) fn sync_glue_scene(
     }
 }
 
+/// Apply the framing law's **pillarbox** to the glue booth camera (decision 1619): while
+/// [`CreateScene::viewport_aspect`] is set, the camera renders into a centred viewport of that
+/// aspect on the window-sized target, and the target either side is the camera's black *output*
+/// clear (see [`spawn_glue_booth`]) — a frame. Inside the box nothing changes: the scene's own
+/// unpainted pixels stay transparent over the page, as they always were. Writes only on change —
+/// a `Camera` write re-runs the camera system.
+pub(super) fn pillarbox_glue_scene(
+    scene: Res<CreateScene>,
+    window: Query<&Window, With<PrimaryWindow>>,
+    mut cams: Query<(&BoothCam, &mut Camera)>,
+) {
+    let Ok(w) = window.single() else {
+        return;
+    };
+    let (full_w, full_h) = (w.physical_width().max(1), w.physical_height().max(1));
+    let viewport = scene.viewport_aspect.map(|aspect| {
+        let box_w = ((full_h as f32 * aspect).round() as u32).clamp(1, full_w);
+        bevy::camera::Viewport {
+            physical_position: UVec2::new((full_w - box_w) / 2, 0),
+            physical_size: UVec2::new(box_w, full_h),
+            ..default()
+        }
+    });
+    for (booth, mut cam) in cams.iter_mut() {
+        if booth.0 != GLUE_SLOT {
+            continue;
+        }
+        let same = match (&cam.viewport, &viewport) {
+            (None, None) => true,
+            (Some(a), Some(b)) => {
+                a.physical_position == b.physical_position && a.physical_size == b.physical_size
+            }
+            _ => false,
+        };
+        if !same {
+            cam.viewport = viewport.clone();
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 /// Resize the booth's render target if it isn't already `w`×`h` (content is discarded — the next
 /// frame repaints it whole).
 fn resize_target(images: &mut Assets<Image>, target: &Handle<Image>, w: u32, h: u32) {
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/mod.rs
index 1f710423..91975310 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/portrait/mod.rs
@@ -994,6 +994,8 @@ impl Plugin for PortraitPlugin {
                     sync_petdoll_booth,
                     glue_booth::sync_glue_booth,
                     glue_booth::sync_glue_scene,
+                    // After the scene's framing: the viewport/clear its law decided (1619).
+                    glue_booth::pillarbox_glue_scene,
                     // After the scene: the pet's seat and its light are the scene's to publish.
                     glue_booth::sync_glue_pet,
                     dressup::sync_dressup_booth,
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/extract/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/extract/mod.rs
index fbf9d239..c5393d31 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/extract/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/extract/mod.rs
@@ -390,6 +390,7 @@ pub(super) fn drive_script(
     let printing = ui_cost_enabled();
     let cost_on = printing || ui_cost_wanted.0;
     let solves_before = cost_on.then(|| script.layout_solves());
+    let derives_before = cost_on.then(|| script.layout_derivations());
     // The measure counters are PER FRAME: `measure_fontstrings` adds to them, and both publish
     // sites below carry them forward so the two measure passes sum into one frame's row. Nothing
     // else zeroes them, so without this the recorder's "re-shaped strings" column is a lifetime
@@ -599,6 +600,7 @@ pub(super) fn drive_script(
                 diff: 0,
                 quads: quads.quads.len(),
                 solves,
+                derives: script.layout_derivations() - derives_before.unwrap_or(0),
                 skipped: true,
                 spliced: 0,
             };
@@ -785,6 +787,7 @@ pub(super) fn drive_script(
                 diff: 0,
                 quads: quads.quads.len(),
                 solves,
+                derives: script.layout_derivations() - derives_before.unwrap_or(0),
                 skipped: false,
                 spliced: changed.len(),
             };
@@ -913,6 +916,7 @@ pub(super) fn drive_script(
             diff: us_diff,
             quads: n_quads,
             solves,
+            derives: script.layout_derivations() - derives_before.unwrap_or(0),
             skipped: false,
             spliced: 0,
         };
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/mod.rs
index 09b76cae..31e06694 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/mod.rs
@@ -118,6 +118,12 @@ pub(crate) struct UiFrameCost {
     pub(crate) diff: u128,
     pub(crate) quads: usize,
     pub(crate) solves: u64,
+    /// How many times this frame's resolve DERIVED the layout graph from scratch (decision 1388's
+    /// `layout_derivations`). The law is zero, and it is here because it was not: the recorder was
+    /// built for the hover-cost symptom and reported `solves` — the cheap term — while a
+    /// derivation, ~30× more expensive and paid on the same frames, was invisible to it
+    /// (decision 1625).
+    pub(crate) derives: u64,
     pub(crate) skipped: bool,
     /// How many entries the per-entry splice re-converted this frame — `0` on a settled or
     /// full-conversion frame. Nonzero is the proof the splice path fired (the equivalence tests
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/options_tests.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/options_tests.rs
index 0bf836d1..6abb7f0a 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/options_tests.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/options_tests.rs
@@ -1344,7 +1344,7 @@ fn the_terrain_distance_slider_snaps_to_the_1_12_grid_and_writes_live() {
 }
 
 /// Defaults on the Graphics page: uiScale back to its registered default (0.9) and farclip to
-/// its (777), the rows following, ONLY the moved values queuing — and a pending uiScale edit
+/// its (350), the rows following, ONLY the moved values queuing — and a pending uiScale edit
 /// dies with it (the default write supersedes what Apply would have committed).
 #[test]
 fn defaults_resets_the_graphics_page_to_registered_defaults() {
@@ -1367,7 +1367,7 @@ fn defaults_resets_the_graphics_page_to_registered_defaults() {
         "{changes:?}"
     );
     assert!(
-        changes.contains(&("farclip".to_string(), "777".to_string())),
+        changes.contains(&("farclip".to_string(), "350".to_string())),
         "{changes:?}"
     );
     assert_eq!(
@@ -1380,7 +1380,7 @@ fn defaults_resets_the_graphics_page_to_registered_defaults() {
             "return OptionsFrameContainerBodyGraphicsRowFarclipControlValue:GetText()"
         )
         .unwrap(),
-        "777"
+        "350"
     );
     assert_eq!(
         s.eval::<String>(
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/resolve_bench.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/resolve_bench.rs
index 9da18ee5..023006f1 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/resolve_bench.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/resolve_bench.rs
@@ -494,3 +494,152 @@ fn measure_sweep_steady_state_cost() {
         residual,
     );
 }
+
+/// **The hover-shape law** (decision 1388, ledger B06): a tooltip line that changes ROLE between
+/// WRAPPED and PLAIN must cost **zero** derivations of the layout graph.
+///
+/// `a_tooltip_content_change_costs_exactly_one_layout_solve` above asserts the same zero and could
+/// not see this, because the tooltip it drives always has the same SHAPE — the same lines, the
+/// same wrap flags, only the widths move. A real hover sweep changes shape on every step: one
+/// item's line 2 is a wrapping "Use:" description, the next one's is a plain "Main Hand", and a
+/// spell's line 2 is a plain mana cost where the next spell's is a wrapping tooltip body.
+///
+/// `append_line` re-pins the line's wrap column from that flag on every append, and the write is
+/// gated on a real change — so it fires exactly on the shape flip and nowhere else. It reached the
+/// conservative `Model::touch_layout` (it predates 1388 and was never migrated, being an internal
+/// write rather than a `SetWidth` binding), and the whole graph was therefore re-derived on every
+/// hover from one item to a differently-shaped one: every live frame's scale re-synced, every seed
+/// rect re-filtered, every anchored region re-hashed and its edges rebuilt. Live at 12,465
+/// anchored regions the preamble read `incr=0` on every content-change frame.
+///
+/// The positive control is not optional: "zero derivations" is what a permanently broken counter
+/// reports too, so the flip is driven for a while BEFORE the window opens (a birth is legitimately
+/// structural) and the counter is proved able to move.
+#[test]
+fn a_tooltip_line_flipping_wrapped_to_plain_costs_no_graph_derivation() {
+    let mut s = settled_default_ui();
+    s.run(
+        r#"
+        FlipOwner = CreateFrame("Button", "FlipOwner"); FlipOwner:SetPoint("CENTER", 0, 0)
+        FlipOwner:SetSize(10, 10)
+        flip_n = 0
+        -- The two shapes a hover alternates between. The trailing `1` on the wrap arm is
+        -- `AddLine`'s positional wrapText flag (the byte-pinned 0x531630 signature) — it is what
+        -- pins the line's wrap column, and what un-pins it again on the plain arm.
+        function flip_change()
+            flip_n = flip_n + 1
+            GameTooltip:SetOwner(FlipOwner, "ANCHOR_RIGHT")
+            GameTooltip:AddLine("Item head", 1, 1, 1)
+            if math.mod(flip_n, 2) == 0 then
+                GameTooltip:AddLine("Use: restores health over 21 sec.", 0, 1, 0, 1)
+            else
+                GameTooltip:AddLine("Main Hand", 1, 1, 1)
+            end
+            GameTooltip:Show()
+        end
+        "#,
+    )
+    .unwrap();
+
+    // The positive control, taken across the owner's birth and the line pool's growth — both move
+    // the roster, which is the one thing a per-node ledger cannot describe, so both MUST derive.
+    let born_at = s.layout_derivations();
+    for _ in 0..8 {
+        s.run("flip_change()").unwrap();
+        app_frame(&mut s);
+    }
+    assert!(
+        s.layout_derivations() > born_at,
+        "creating the owner and growing the tooltip's line pool must derive the graph — reading \
+         zero here means `layout_derivations` never moves and the assertion below is vacuous."
+    );
+
+    let derives_before = s.layout_derivations();
+    for _ in 0..10 {
+        s.run("flip_change()").unwrap();
+        app_frame(&mut s);
+    }
+    let derives = s.layout_derivations() - derives_before;
+    assert_eq!(
+        derives, 0,
+        "10 hovers between a wrapped line and a plain one derived the layout graph {derives} \
+         times. The wrap-pin write in `tooltip::append_line` moves ONE region's explicit size and \
+         must name it (`touch_layout_region`); the conservative `touch_layout` re-derives the \
+         whole roster on every hover (decision 1388)."
+    );
+}
+
+/// **The hover-sweep law** (decision 1625, ledger B06): sweeping the cursor across a bag grid or a
+/// spellbook page — a NEW tooltip OWNER on every step — must cost **zero** derivations of the
+/// layout graph.
+///
+/// This is the shape the director's report actually has, and it is the one the guard above still
+/// could not see: that one keeps a single owner and only changes the tooltip's content. A real
+/// sweep does both, and the owner half is the more expensive of the two, because
+/// `GameTooltip:SetOwner` RETARGETS the plate's anchor at the button under the cursor. 1388
+/// classified a retarget as structural — an edge disappears and another appears, which no per-node
+/// hash can describe — and answered it by throwing the cached graph away. That answer cost a full
+/// whole-roster derivation on every slot crossed. 1625 keeps the graph and re-points the one
+/// node's edges instead.
+///
+/// The correctness half of that patch is guarded where it can be *seen*, on rects, by
+/// `benilla-ui`'s `a_retargeted_anchor_follows_its_new_target` (and by `WOW_LAYOUT_VERIFY` behind
+/// every one of that crate's tests). This one guards the COST, on the shipped UI, where the roster
+/// is big enough for the derivation to matter.
+#[test]
+fn a_hover_sweep_across_owners_costs_no_graph_derivation() {
+    let mut s = settled_default_ui();
+    s.run(
+        r#"
+        for i = 1, 12 do
+            local b = CreateFrame("Button", "SweepOwner" .. i)
+            b:SetPoint("CENTER", 0, 0); b:SetSize(10, 10)
+        end
+        sweep_n = 0
+        -- A different owner AND a different line shape every step: the two halves of a real sweep
+        -- across a bag grid, where each slot is its own button and each item its own plate.
+        function sweep_change()
+            sweep_n = sweep_n + 1
+            local slot = math.mod(sweep_n, 12) + 1
+            GameTooltip:SetOwner(getglobal("SweepOwner" .. slot), "ANCHOR_RIGHT")
+            GameTooltip:AddLine("Item " .. slot, 1, 1, 1)
+            if math.mod(sweep_n, 2) == 0 then
+                GameTooltip:AddLine("Use: restores health over 21 sec.", 0, 1, 0, 1)
+            else
+                GameTooltip:AddLine("Main Hand", 1, 1, 1)
+            end
+            GameTooltip:Show()
+        end
+        "#,
+    )
+    .unwrap();
+
+    // The positive control: twelve owner births and the tooltip's line pool growing are all
+    // roster moves, so the settling pass MUST derive. Zero here would make the assertion vacuous.
+    let born_at = s.layout_derivations();
+    for _ in 0..40 {
+        s.run("sweep_change()").unwrap();
+        app_frame(&mut s);
+    }
+    assert!(
+        s.layout_derivations() > born_at,
+        "creating twelve owners and growing the line pool must derive the graph — reading zero \
+         here means `layout_derivations` never moves and the assertion below proves nothing."
+    );
+
+    // Two full laps of the twelve owners, so every step is a re-hover of a button the graph
+    // already knows: nothing structural is left to discover.
+    let derives_before = s.layout_derivations();
+    for _ in 0..24 {
+        s.run("sweep_change()").unwrap();
+        app_frame(&mut s);
+    }
+    let derives = s.layout_derivations() - derives_before;
+    assert_eq!(
+        derives, 0,
+        "24 hovers across 12 owners derived the layout graph {derives} times — one per slot \
+         crossed. `SetOwner` re-points ONE node's anchor and must patch that node's edges \
+         (`Model::touch_layout_retarget_frame`); the conservative touch re-derives the whole \
+         roster on every slot the cursor passes over (decisions 1388, 1625)."
+    );
+}
diff --git a/crates/benilla-assets/src/blp.rs b/crates/benilla-assets/src/blp.rs
index b2f3368d..a3d0b59b 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-assets/src/blp.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-assets/src/blp.rs
@@ -19,7 +19,9 @@ use bevy::reflect::TypePath;
 use bevy::render::render_resource::{Extent3d, TextureDimension, TextureFormat};
 use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 
-use benilla_formats::{blp_bytes_to_mip_chain, blp_to_rgba, BlpMipChain};
+use benilla_formats::{blp_bytes_to_native_chain, blp_to_rgba};
+
+use crate::gpu_blp::{for_upload, UploadChain};
 
 /// Which on-GPU form a BLP decodes to. See the module docs.
 #[derive(Default, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Debug, Serialize, Deserialize)]
@@ -76,7 +78,9 @@ impl AssetLoader for BlpImageLoader {
         let to_io = |e: anyhow::Error| std::io::Error::other(format!("{e:#}"));
         Ok(match settings.variant {
             BlpVariant::WorldArt => world_art_image(
-                blp_bytes_to_mip_chain(&bytes).map_err(to_io)?,
+                // The blocks go straight to the GPU where it can take them (decision 1626);
+                // `for_upload` decodes only when it cannot, and hands back the matching format.
+                for_upload(blp_bytes_to_native_chain(&bytes).map_err(to_io)?),
                 // The address mode rides the asset path (`crate::texture_url`, decision 0763): the
                 // sampler is a property of this upload, and one `.blp` legitimately has two.
                 crate::sampler_mode_of(&ctx.path().to_string()),
@@ -93,9 +97,9 @@ impl AssetLoader for BlpImageLoader {
                 let (w, h, rgba) = blp_to_rgba(&bytes).map_err(to_io)?;
                 effect_image(w, h, rgba)
             }
-            BlpVariant::PointSprite => {
-                point_sprite_image(blp_bytes_to_mip_chain(&bytes).map_err(to_io)?)
-            }
+            BlpVariant::PointSprite => point_sprite_image(for_upload(
+                blp_bytes_to_native_chain(&bytes).map_err(to_io)?,
+            )),
             BlpVariant::Cursor => {
                 let (w, h, rgba) = blp_to_rgba(&bytes).map_err(to_io)?;
                 cursor_image(w, h, rgba)
@@ -108,30 +112,31 @@ impl AssetLoader for BlpImageLoader {
     }
 }
 
-/// Albedo format: non-sRGB `Rgba8Unorm` — the GPU does not linearize albedo on sample, keeping shader
-/// math in WoW's gamma/byte space (the RE'd faithful invariant; `wow-5875-re/system/lighting`).
-fn color_format() -> TextureFormat {
-    TextureFormat::Rgba8Unorm
-}
+/// The gamma-byte lane's uncompressed format — non-sRGB, so the GPU does not linearize on sample
+/// and shader math stays in WoW's byte space (the RE'd faithful invariant;
+/// `wow-5875-re/system/lighting`). Every decoded lane below uploads as this.
+const GAMMA_BYTES: TextureFormat = TextureFormat::Rgba8Unorm;
 
 /// World/model albedo: the BLP's authored mip pyramid laid in verbatim, repeat + trilinear +
 /// anisotropic. (Port of the old `repeat_texture_authored`.)
-fn world_art_image(chain: BlpMipChain, wrap: (bool, bool)) -> Image {
+fn world_art_image(upload: UploadChain, wrap: (bool, bool)) -> Image {
+    let UploadChain { chain, format } = upload;
     let levels = chain.mips.len() as u32;
-    let mip0 = chain.mips[0].clone(); // satisfies Image::new's length assert; full chain set below
     let mut data = Vec::with_capacity(chain.mips.iter().map(Vec::len).sum());
     for mip in &chain.mips {
         data.extend_from_slice(mip);
     }
-    let mut image = Image::new(
+    // `new_uninit` rather than `new`: `Image::new`'s length assert is written for uncompressed
+    // formats (it skips itself when `pixel_size()` errors, which is every BC format), and feeding
+    // it mip 0 just to satisfy that assert cost a clone of the largest level on every load.
+    let mut image = Image::new_uninit(
         Extent3d {
             width: chain.width,
             height: chain.height,
             depth_or_array_layers: 1,
         },
         TextureDimension::D2,
-        mip0,
-        color_format(),
+        format,
         // `RENDER_WORLD`: the render world TAKES the mip chain on extract instead of cloning it and
         // leaving a main-world copy resident for the asset's life (bevy_render `render_asset.rs` —
         // the `asset_usage == RENDER_WORLD` branch moves, every other usage clones). This is the
@@ -203,7 +208,7 @@ fn sprite_image(width: u32, height: u32, rgba: Vec<u8>) -> Image {
 /// linear before the filter weights it, so every blend across an edge lands on a different colour
 /// than the reference's — darker, because averaging in linear space and re-encoding is darker than
 /// averaging the gamma bytes. On a 1-bit-alpha bake whose edges sit against black that is a visible
-/// dark fringe at every alpha boundary. So the tile arrives as gamma bytes ([`color_format`], no
+/// dark fringe at every alpha boundary. So the tile arrives as gamma bytes ([`GAMMA_BYTES`], no
 /// decode) and the shader converts AFTER the filter.
 fn map_tile_image(width: u32, height: u32, rgba: Vec<u8>) -> Image {
     effect_image(width, height, rgba)
@@ -220,7 +225,7 @@ fn effect_image(width: u32, height: u32, rgba: Vec<u8>) -> Image {
         },
         TextureDimension::D2,
         rgba,
-        color_format(),
+        GAMMA_BYTES,
         RenderAssetUsages::RENDER_WORLD,
     );
     image.sampler = ImageSampler::Descriptor(ImageSamplerDescriptor {
@@ -236,22 +241,21 @@ fn effect_image(width: u32, height: u32, rgba: Vec<u8>) -> Image {
 /// Point sprite: [`effect_image`]'s gamma lane and clamp, with the **authored mip pyramid** —
 /// see [`BlpVariant::PointSprite`]. No anisotropy: a point sprite is always screen-axis-aligned
 /// and square, so there is no anisotropic footprint to correct for.
-fn point_sprite_image(chain: BlpMipChain) -> Image {
+fn point_sprite_image(upload: UploadChain) -> Image {
+    let UploadChain { chain, format } = upload;
     let levels = chain.mips.len() as u32;
-    let mip0 = chain.mips[0].clone(); // satisfies Image::new's length assert; full chain set below
     let mut data = Vec::with_capacity(chain.mips.iter().map(Vec::len).sum());
     for mip in &chain.mips {
         data.extend_from_slice(mip);
     }
-    let mut image = Image::new(
+    let mut image = Image::new_uninit(
         Extent3d {
             width: chain.width,
             height: chain.height,
             depth_or_array_layers: 1,
         },
         TextureDimension::D2,
-        mip0,
-        color_format(),
+        format,
         RenderAssetUsages::RENDER_WORLD,
     );
     image.data = Some(data);
diff --git a/crates/benilla-assets/src/gpu_blp.rs b/crates/benilla-assets/src/gpu_blp.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fbfa83e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/benilla-assets/src/gpu_blp.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,221 @@
+//! Where a BLP's stored form meets the GPU: **can we hand the blocks over untouched?**
+//!
+//! WoW ships almost all world art as S3TC (DXT1/DXT3/DXT5) blocks, and the reference client uploads
+//! those blocks verbatim — `glCompressedTexImage2DARB`, with the software DXT decoder existing only
+//! as a 16-bit-device fallback (wow-re `system/image/image.md`: *"raw passthrough — device eats
+//! DXT"*, and `system/models/scratch/wmo-texture-sampling.md` for the per-level upload formats).
+//! benilla used to decode every one of them to `Rgba8Unorm` on the CPU and upload that: **4x the
+//! bytes of DXT1, 2x of DXT3/DXT5**, on the whole resident working set and on every texture fetch
+//! that misses the cache. On a bandwidth-starved integrated GPU that is the frame's dominant cost,
+//! and it is the divergence Liho's Steam Deck reading exposed (decision 1626).
+//!
+//! Two things have to be true before the blocks can go straight over, and this module owns both:
+//!
+//! 1. **The device must accept BC.** [`bc_supported`] is a process-wide fact published once from
+//!    the render device (see [`publish_bc_support`]). Not a guess: `wgpu-hal`'s Metal backend gates
+//!    `TEXTURE_COMPRESSION_BC` on `format_bc: os_is_mac` and the Vulkan backend on the device's
+//!    `textureCompressionBC`, and bevy's `WgpuSettingsPriority::Functionality` (the default) requests
+//!    every feature the adapter reports. Every desktop target we ship has it — but "every target we
+//!    ship" is not "every device", so the fallback stays.
+//! 2. **The dimensions must be whole 4x4 blocks.** A BC texture is addressed in blocks; a BLP whose
+//!    mip 0 is not a multiple of 4 on both axes cannot be uploaded as one. Real 1.12 world art is
+//!    power-of-two, so this practically never fires — it exists so that when it does, the texture
+//!    renders decoded instead of failing.
+//!
+//! When either is false the caller decodes, exactly as before. That is why the fallback lives here
+//! as one function and not as a flag threaded through two loaders: there is one rule, and both the
+//! async `AssetLoader` lane ([`crate::blp`]) and the synchronous `WorldAssets` lane
+//! ([`crate::world_assets`]) ask it the same question.
+
+use std::sync::OnceLock;
+
+use benilla_formats::{BlpMipChain, BlpTexels};
+use bevy::image::{CompressedImageFormatSupport, CompressedImageFormats};
+use bevy::prelude::*;
+use bevy::render::render_resource::TextureFormat;
+
+static BC_SUPPORTED: OnceLock<bool> = OnceLock::new();
+
+/// Publish whether this run's GPU accepts BC textures. Called once, from the app's plugin
+/// `finish()`, after `RenderPlugin` has inserted `CompressedImageFormatSupport` into the main world.
+///
+/// **Ordering is why this is a `OnceLock` and not a resource.** An `AssetLoader` runs on the async
+/// task pool with no world access, and the synchronous `WorldAssets` lane is called from ordinary
+/// systems — neither can read a resource the other can. But every plugin's `finish()` completes
+/// before the runner's first update, and no BLP is loaded before then, so a single process-wide
+/// publish is both sufficient and race-free. Absent a render device (headless tests), nothing
+/// publishes and [`bc_supported`] reports `false` — the decoded path, which is what a test that
+/// inspects pixels wants anyway.
+pub fn publish_bc_support(supported: bool) {
+    let _ = BC_SUPPORTED.set(supported);
+}
+
+/// Does this run's GPU accept BC? `false` until [`publish_bc_support`] says otherwise.
+pub fn bc_supported() -> bool {
+    *BC_SUPPORTED.get().unwrap_or(&false)
+}
+
+/// Publishes [`bc_supported`] from the live render device. Added by
+/// [`crate::register_asset_loaders`], so both the client and the world viewer get it.
+///
+/// **All the work is in `finish`, deliberately.** `RenderPlugin::finish` is what inserts
+/// `CompressedImageFormatSupport` into the main world (bevy_render `lib.rs`, the
+/// `FutureRenderResources` block) — it does not exist at `build` time, and it never exists at all
+/// in a headless app. Reading it here, one plugin later, is the earliest honest moment.
+pub struct BlpGpuSupportPlugin;
+
+impl Plugin for BlpGpuSupportPlugin {
+    fn build(&self, _app: &mut App) {}
+
+    fn finish(&self, app: &mut App) {
+        // `WOW_NO_BC=1` — force the decoded path on a device that could take blocks. The A/B lever
+        // for this whole change: it is the only way to price the passthrough against what it
+        // replaced on one machine in one session, and the first thing to try if a texture ever
+        // looks wrong (hardware block decode is not bit-identical to `texpresso`'s — see 1626).
+        let forced_off = std::env::var("WOW_NO_BC").as_deref() == Ok("1");
+        let device_can = app
+            .world()
+            .get_resource::<CompressedImageFormatSupport>()
+            .is_some_and(|s| s.0.contains(CompressedImageFormats::BC));
+        let supported = device_can && !forced_off;
+        publish_bc_support(supported);
+        // At `info`, not `debug`: "which texture lane am I on?" is the first question any perf or
+        // look report about this change has to answer, and a line that only exists in a debug build
+        // cannot answer it from a player's log.
+        if supported {
+            info!("blp: DXT blocks upload natively (BC)");
+        } else if forced_off {
+            info!("blp: WOW_NO_BC=1 — decoding textures to RGBA8");
+        } else {
+            info!("blp: device reports no BC support — decoding textures to RGBA8");
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Can `chain` be uploaded in the form it is already in?
+fn uploadable_as_blocks(chain: &BlpMipChain) -> bool {
+    chain.texels.is_block_compressed()
+        && bc_supported()
+        && chain.width.is_multiple_of(4)
+        && chain.height.is_multiple_of(4)
+}
+
+/// A chain and the `TextureFormat` it uploads as — **decided together, returned together.**
+///
+/// This pairing is the whole point of the type. The first cut of this module had two functions, one
+/// that picked the chain and one that picked the format, and a caller reached the second without
+/// going through the first: it uploaded DXT3 blocks under an `Rgba8Unorm` descriptor and wgpu
+/// panicked slicing 262144 bytes out of an 87392-byte chain. There is no way to hold one of these
+/// without the other, so that class of mistake cannot recur.
+pub struct UploadChain {
+    pub chain: BlpMipChain,
+    pub format: TextureFormat,
+}
+
+/// A BLP's authored mip chain in the best form this GPU can take, with the format that matches it:
+/// **blocks if it can, pixels if it cannot.**
+///
+/// The format is always in the **gamma-byte (non-sRGB) lane** every world/model albedo lives in —
+/// the RE'd invariant that the GPU must not linearize albedo on sample
+/// (`wow-5875-re/system/lighting`). `Bc1RgbaUnorm` and friends carry that rule exactly as
+/// `Rgba8Unorm` does, which is what makes the passthrough look-neutral.
+pub fn for_upload(chain: BlpMipChain) -> UploadChain {
+    if uploadable_as_blocks(&chain) {
+        let format = match chain.texels {
+            BlpTexels::Bc1 => TextureFormat::Bc1RgbaUnorm,
+            BlpTexels::Bc2 => TextureFormat::Bc2RgbaUnorm,
+            BlpTexels::Bc3 => TextureFormat::Bc3RgbaUnorm,
+            // `uploadable_as_blocks` already excluded this arm.
+            BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm => TextureFormat::Rgba8Unorm,
+        };
+        return UploadChain { chain, format };
+    }
+    // Either it was never blocks, or this device/texture cannot take them. `into_rgba8` is a no-op
+    // in the first case and the decode we were trying to avoid in the second — and it cannot fail,
+    // which is why the format below is unconditionally right.
+    UploadChain {
+        chain: chain.into_rgba8(),
+        format: TextureFormat::Rgba8Unorm,
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    fn chain(texels: BlpTexels, w: u32, h: u32) -> BlpMipChain {
+        let mips = vec![vec![0u8; texels.level_bytes(w, h)]];
+        BlpMipChain {
+            width: w,
+            height: h,
+            texels,
+            mips,
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Without a published device fact we decode. A headless test that reads pixels depends on
+    /// this, and so does any run whose GPU genuinely lacks BC.
+    #[test]
+    fn no_published_support_means_the_decoded_path() {
+        // `publish_bc_support` is never called in this test binary, so the lock stays empty.
+        assert!(!bc_supported());
+        let up = for_upload(chain(BlpTexels::Bc1, 16, 16));
+        assert_eq!(up.format, TextureFormat::Rgba8Unorm);
+        assert!(up.chain.is_rgba8(), "blocks must have been decoded");
+    }
+
+    /// **The invariant this module exists to hold**: whatever comes back, the bytes and the format
+    /// agree about how big mip 0 is. This is the assertion whose absence let block bytes be
+    /// uploaded under an `Rgba8Unorm` descriptor.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_returned_format_always_matches_the_returned_bytes() {
+        for texels in [
+            BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm,
+            BlpTexels::Bc1,
+            BlpTexels::Bc2,
+            BlpTexels::Bc3,
+        ] {
+            for (w, h) in [(16u32, 16u32), (8, 32), (258, 256), (6, 6)] {
+                let up = for_upload(chain(texels, w, h));
+                let expected = match up.format {
+                    TextureFormat::Rgba8Unorm => BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm,
+                    TextureFormat::Bc1RgbaUnorm => BlpTexels::Bc1,
+                    TextureFormat::Bc2RgbaUnorm => BlpTexels::Bc2,
+                    TextureFormat::Bc3RgbaUnorm => BlpTexels::Bc3,
+                    other => panic!("unexpected albedo format {other:?}"),
+                };
+                assert_eq!(up.chain.texels, expected, "{texels:?} at {w}x{h}");
+                assert_eq!(
+                    up.chain.mips[0].len(),
+                    expected.level_bytes(w, h),
+                    "mip 0 bytes must match what {:?} implies at {w}x{h}",
+                    up.format
+                );
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The block-alignment rule is on mip 0's dimensions, both axes. wgpu-core rejects a compressed
+    /// texture whose size is not a whole number of blocks (`NotMultipleOfBlockWidth/Height`), and
+    /// its default error handler makes that a process panic — so this is a hard gate, not a
+    /// preference.
+    #[test]
+    fn non_block_aligned_dimensions_are_refused() {
+        for (w, h) in [(258u32, 256u32), (256, 258), (6, 6), (1, 1)] {
+            assert!(
+                !uploadable_as_blocks(&chain(BlpTexels::Bc1, w, h)),
+                "{w}x{h} is not whole blocks"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// An already-decoded chain is never re-encoded, and never copied through a decode path.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_rgba_chain_passes_through_untouched() {
+        let c = chain(BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm, 8, 8);
+        let before = c.mips[0].len();
+        let up = for_upload(c);
+        assert_eq!(up.format, TextureFormat::Rgba8Unorm);
+        assert_eq!(up.chain.mips[0].len(), before);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/benilla-assets/src/lib.rs b/crates/benilla-assets/src/lib.rs
index 4a681fb1..14c59368 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-assets/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-assets/src/lib.rs
@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@ pub use adt::{chunk_to_mesh, AdtLoader, AdtTile, ChunkShading};
 pub use wdt::{WdtIndex, WdtIndexLoader};
 mod blp;
 pub use blp::{BlpImageLoader, BlpLoaderSettings, BlpVariant};
+/// Whether this run's GPU can eat WoW's stored DXT blocks, and the chain form that follows.
+mod gpu_blp;
+pub use gpu_blp::{bc_supported, for_upload, publish_bc_support, BlpGpuSupportPlugin, UploadChain};
 mod m2;
 pub use m2::{
     EmitterBillboard, M2Model, M2ModelLoader, ModelEmitter, ModelLight, ModelRibbon, PortraitCamera,
@@ -234,6 +237,9 @@ pub fn register_asset_loaders(app: &mut App) {
     app.init_asset::<WmoModel>();
     app.init_asset::<AdtTile>();
     app.init_asset::<WdtIndex>();
+    // Publishes whether this device can eat DXT blocks (decision 1626). A plugin, because the
+    // answer only exists after `RenderPlugin::finish` — see `BlpGpuSupportPlugin`.
+    app.add_plugins(BlpGpuSupportPlugin);
     app.register_asset_loader(BlpImageLoader);
     app.register_asset_loader(M2ModelLoader);
     app.register_asset_loader(WmoModelLoader);
diff --git a/crates/benilla-assets/src/terrain.rs b/crates/benilla-assets/src/terrain.rs
index 6d103ebb..86dbf6bd 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-assets/src/terrain.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-assets/src/terrain.rs
@@ -43,6 +43,15 @@ pub(crate) struct LayerTexture {
 /// smaller mips slotting into the deeper array levels; when its chain runs out the last authored mip
 /// is reused (NEAREST-resampled if the dims still differ).
 pub(crate) fn chain_to_layer(blp: BlpMipChain, target_size: u32) -> LayerTexture {
+    // **This lane cannot take DXT blocks and must not be handed them.** It NEAREST-resamples levels
+    // to a uniform array size and its caller stomps the alpha byte for the matte case — both are
+    // per-texel CPU writes, which is exactly what a block form does not have. So terrain layers
+    // stay decoded while model/WMO albedo passes through (decision 1626); the day this lane wants
+    // the same win, the resample and the alpha stomp are what have to go first.
+    debug_assert!(
+        blp.is_rgba8(),
+        "terrain layer packing indexes texels; it needs a decoded chain"
+    );
     let mut chain = Vec::with_capacity(mip_chain_byte_size(target_size, LAYER_MIP_COUNT));
     for level in 0..LAYER_MIP_COUNT {
         let level_w = (target_size >> level).max(1);
@@ -192,6 +201,7 @@ mod tests {
             })
             .collect();
         BlpMipChain {
+            texels: benilla_formats::BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm,
             width: size,
             height: size,
             mips: levels,
diff --git a/crates/benilla-assets/src/world_assets/images.rs b/crates/benilla-assets/src/world_assets/images.rs
index ab382fa9..8bd21151 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-assets/src/world_assets/images.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-assets/src/world_assets/images.rs
@@ -33,22 +33,24 @@ pub fn color_texture_format() -> TextureFormat {
 /// coverage-correct, leaf-coloured downsample, so we lay them in as-is under the alpha test — no
 /// re-filter, no alpha-to-coverage (1.12 does neither). Mips + anisotropy give the no-shimmer look
 /// at distance without softening the up-close art.
-pub fn repeat_texture_authored(chain: BlpMipChain, wrap: (bool, bool)) -> Image {
+pub fn repeat_texture_authored(upload: crate::gpu_blp::UploadChain, wrap: (bool, bool)) -> Image {
+    let crate::gpu_blp::UploadChain { chain, format } = upload;
     let levels = chain.mips.len() as u32;
-    let mip0 = chain.mips[0].clone(); // satisfies Image::new's length assert; full chain set below
     let mut data = Vec::with_capacity(chain.mips.iter().map(Vec::len).sum());
     for mip in &chain.mips {
         data.extend_from_slice(mip);
     }
-    let mut image = Image::new(
+    // Taking an `UploadChain` rather than a bare chain is deliberate: the format and the bytes are
+    // decided together by `gpu_blp::for_upload`, so this function cannot be handed blocks under an
+    // uncompressed descriptor. It was, once — see `UploadChain`'s doc (decision 1626).
+    let mut image = Image::new_uninit(
         Extent3d {
             width: chain.width,
             height: chain.height,
             depth_or_array_layers: 1,
         },
         TextureDimension::D2,
-        mip0,
-        color_texture_format(),
+        format,
         // `RENDER_WORLD` — see [`image_gpu_bytes`] and the `blp.rs` `WorldArt` variant this is the
         // synchronous twin of: the render world takes the chain rather than cloning it and keeping
         // a main-world copy. Its callers are `WorldAssets::texture` and the character-skin
diff --git a/crates/benilla-assets/src/world_assets/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-assets/src/world_assets/mod.rs
index f342b786..c0db3706 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-assets/src/world_assets/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-assets/src/world_assets/mod.rs
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ use bevy::render::render_resource::{Buffer, Face};
 
 use crate::materials::{WowModelExt, WowModelMaterial, VANILLA_ALPHA_KEY_REF};
 use crate::SpatialCache;
-use benilla_formats::{blp_to_rgba, read_texture_mip_chain, tga_to_rgba, Chain, ModelBlend};
+use benilla_formats::{blp_to_rgba, read_texture_native_chain, tga_to_rgba, Chain, ModelBlend};
 
 /// BLP/RGBA -> Bevy `Image` texture helpers (+ solid/cursor/liquid-frame textures). Split out for
 /// size; re-exported so callers keep using `benilla_assets::{solid_layer_chain, …}`.
@@ -374,8 +374,11 @@ impl WorldAssets {
         if let Some(handle) = self.textures.fetch(&key) {
             return Some(handle);
         }
-        let chain = read_texture_mip_chain(&mut self.chain.lock_recover(), &key.0).ok()?;
-        let handle = images.add(repeat_texture_authored(chain, wrap));
+        // Passthrough: world art is uploaded in the form the BLP stores it (decision 1626).
+        // Nothing reads a world texture main-side — the same reasoning that already makes this
+        // lane `RenderAssetUsages::RENDER_WORLD` — so there are no CPU texels to lose.
+        let chain = read_texture_native_chain(&mut self.chain.lock_recover(), &key.0).ok()?;
+        let handle = images.add(repeat_texture_authored(crate::for_upload(chain), wrap));
         self.textures.insert(key, handle.clone());
         Some(handle)
     }
diff --git a/crates/benilla-blp/src/lib.rs b/crates/benilla-blp/src/lib.rs
index 86798153..1b3ea796 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-blp/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-blp/src/lib.rs
@@ -7,6 +7,13 @@
 //! - **DXTC** — S3TC blocks; `alpha_type` selects DXT1 (0) / DXT3 (1) / DXT5 (7), decoded via the same
 //!   `texpresso` codec `wow-blp` uses, so the output is byte-identical.
 //!
+//! **Two entry points, because the GPU wants the blocks and the CPU wants the pixels.**
+//! [`decode`] always yields `Rgba8Unorm`; [`decode_native`] hands back the DXTC blocks *verbatim*
+//! and only decodes the shapes that have no GPU-native form (Raw1/Raw3). The reference client
+//! uploads the stored blocks untouched (`glCompressedTexImage2DARB`; wow-re `system/image/image.md`
+//! "raw passthrough — device eats DXT"), so the native path is both the faithful one and 4x-8x
+//! cheaper in VRAM and texture bandwidth. Decoding is for consumers that read texels on the CPU.
+//!
 //! Two fidelity points that cost the old `wow-blp` two forks, folded in here natively:
 //! 1. the palette is **BGRA**, not RGBA (reading it as RGBA swaps R↔B on every palettized Blizzard
 //!    atlas — the "Westfall clutter is blue" bug);
@@ -117,8 +124,99 @@ fn level_size(width: u32, height: u32, level: usize) -> (u32, u32) {
     }
 }
 
-/// Decode a BLP2 texture (raw archive bytes) to RGBA8 mip levels.
-pub fn decode(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<DecodedBlp> {
+/// The texel form a [`NativeBlp`] level carries.
+///
+/// A BLP is one of three shapes on disk (module header); only DXTC has a GPU-native form, so the
+/// other two report [`Self::Rgba8Unorm`] and carry decoded pixels. Callers switch on this to pick a
+/// `TextureFormat` and to size a level.
+#[derive(Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Debug)]
+pub enum BlpTexels {
+    /// Decoded pixels — the Raw1 (palettized) and Raw3 (BGRA8) shapes, which have no block form.
+    Rgba8Unorm,
+    /// DXT1 blocks (8 bytes per 4x4), `alpha_type` 0. 1-bit alpha at most.
+    Bc1,
+    /// DXT3 blocks (16 bytes per 4x4), `alpha_type` 1. Explicit 4-bit alpha.
+    Bc2,
+    /// DXT5 blocks (16 bytes per 4x4), `alpha_type` 7. Interpolated alpha.
+    Bc3,
+}
+
+impl BlpTexels {
+    /// Is this a block-compressed form (i.e. can it be uploaded to the GPU verbatim)?
+    pub fn is_block_compressed(self) -> bool {
+        !matches!(self, Self::Rgba8Unorm)
+    }
+
+    /// How many bytes a `width x height` level occupies in this form.
+    ///
+    /// Block forms round **up** to whole 4x4 blocks, which is why a 2x2 or 1x1 tail mip still costs
+    /// one full block — exactly what the BLP stores for it, and what wgpu expects to receive.
+    pub fn level_bytes(self, width: u32, height: u32) -> usize {
+        match self {
+            Self::Rgba8Unorm => (width as usize) * (height as usize) * 4,
+            Self::Bc1 | Self::Bc2 | Self::Bc3 => {
+                let blocks = width.div_ceil(4) as usize * height.div_ceil(4) as usize;
+                blocks * if self == Self::Bc1 { 8 } else { 16 }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The `texpresso` codec for a block form, or `None` for [`Self::Rgba8Unorm`].
+    fn codec(self) -> Option<texpresso::Format> {
+        match self {
+            Self::Rgba8Unorm => None,
+            Self::Bc1 => Some(texpresso::Format::Bc1),
+            Self::Bc2 => Some(texpresso::Format::Bc2),
+            Self::Bc3 => Some(texpresso::Format::Bc3),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// A BLP with its levels in whatever form the file stores them — see [`decode_native`].
+pub struct NativeBlp {
+    pub width: u32,
+    pub height: u32,
+    /// What every entry of `mips` holds.
+    pub texels: BlpTexels,
+    /// One buffer per level, level 0 first. Never empty (same guarantee as [`DecodedBlp::mips`]).
+    pub mips: Vec<NativeMip>,
+    mip_chain_count: usize,
+}
+
+/// One level of a [`NativeBlp`].
+pub struct NativeMip {
+    pub width: u32,
+    pub height: u32,
+    /// Block bytes (DXTC) or RGBA8 pixels — per [`NativeBlp::texels`]. Always exactly
+    /// [`BlpTexels::level_bytes`] long: a short tail level is zero-padded, matching what
+    /// [`decode`] does before handing blocks to the codec.
+    pub bytes: Vec<u8>,
+}
+
+impl NativeBlp {
+    /// See [`DecodedBlp::mip_chain_count`].
+    pub fn mip_chain_count(&self) -> usize {
+        self.mip_chain_count
+    }
+}
+
+/// The header fields both entry points read, parsed once.
+struct Header<'a> {
+    compression: u8,
+    alpha_bits: u32,
+    alpha_type: u8,
+    width: u32,
+    height: u32,
+    offsets: Vec<u32>,
+    sizes: Vec<u32>,
+    palette: &'a [u8],
+    /// The authored chain length, `mip_chain_count(width, height, has_mipmaps)`.
+    chain: usize,
+}
+
+/// Parse and bounds-check the BLP2 header, palette and level table. Shared by [`decode`] and
+/// [`decode_native`] so the two can never disagree about what a file says.
+fn parse_header(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<Header<'_>> {
     if bytes.len() < HEADER_SIZE || &bytes[0..4] != b"BLP2" {
         return Err(Error::NotBlp2);
     }
@@ -153,24 +251,62 @@ pub fn decode(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<DecodedBlp> {
         .ok_or(Error::BadColorMap)?;
 
     let chain = mip_chain_count(width, height, has_mipmaps);
+    Ok(Header {
+        compression,
+        alpha_bits,
+        alpha_type,
+        width,
+        height,
+        offsets,
+        sizes,
+        palette,
+        chain,
+    })
+}
+
+impl Header<'_> {
+    /// The raw stored bytes of level `level`, or `None` when the chain ends early (some textures
+    /// stop before the formula's count).
+    fn level_data<'b>(&self, bytes: &'b [u8], level: usize) -> Result<Option<&'b [u8]>> {
+        let off = self.offsets[level] as usize;
+        let sz = self.sizes[level] as usize;
+        if level > 0 && (sz == 0 || off == 0) {
+            return Ok(None);
+        }
+        bytes
+            .get(off..off + sz)
+            .map(Some)
+            .ok_or(Error::OutOfBounds { level })
+    }
+
+    /// Which block form this file's DXTC levels are in. `alpha_type` 0→DXT1, 1→DXT3, 7→DXT5;
+    /// anything else (a stale byte — e.g. `2` on alpha-less particle atlases) → DXT1, since
+    /// `alpha_bits` already governs whether alpha is meaningful.
+    fn dxt_texels(&self) -> BlpTexels {
+        match self.alpha_type {
+            1 => BlpTexels::Bc2,
+            7 => BlpTexels::Bc3,
+            _ => BlpTexels::Bc1,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Decode a BLP2 texture (raw archive bytes) to RGBA8 mip levels.
+pub fn decode(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<DecodedBlp> {
+    let h = parse_header(bytes)?;
     // Always decode level 0 (blp_to_rgba needs it even when the chain count is 0); then deeper levels
     // up to the chain count, stopping if the file doesn't carry one.
-    let n = chain.clamp(1, 16);
+    let n = h.chain.clamp(1, 16);
 
     let mut mips = Vec::with_capacity(n);
     for level in 0..n {
-        let (lw, lh) = level_size(width, height, level);
-        let off = offsets[level] as usize;
-        let sz = sizes[level] as usize;
-        if level > 0 && (sz == 0 || off == 0) {
-            break; // chain ends early (some textures stop before the formula's count)
-        }
-        let data = bytes
-            .get(off..off + sz)
-            .ok_or(Error::OutOfBounds { level })?;
-        let rgba = match compression {
-            1 => decode_raw1(palette, data, lw, lh, alpha_bits),
-            2 => decode_dxt(data, lw, lh, alpha_type),
+        let (lw, lh) = level_size(h.width, h.height, level);
+        let Some(data) = h.level_data(bytes, level)? else {
+            break;
+        };
+        let rgba = match h.compression {
+            1 => decode_raw1(h.palette, data, lw, lh, h.alpha_bits),
+            2 => decode_dxt(data, lw, lh, h.dxt_texels()),
             3 => decode_raw3(data, lw, lh),
             other => return Err(Error::UnknownCompression(other)),
         }?;
@@ -182,13 +318,84 @@ pub fn decode(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<DecodedBlp> {
     }
 
     Ok(DecodedBlp {
-        width,
-        height,
+        width: h.width,
+        height: h.height,
         mips,
-        mip_chain_count: chain,
+        mip_chain_count: h.chain,
     })
 }
 
+/// Decode a BLP2 texture **keeping its DXTC blocks verbatim** — the form the reference uploads.
+///
+/// DXTC levels come back as block bytes with [`NativeBlp::texels`] naming the variant; Raw1/Raw3
+/// files, which have no block form, are decoded exactly as [`decode`] would and report
+/// [`BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm`]. Either way every level is padded to its full
+/// [`BlpTexels::level_bytes`], so a caller can concatenate the chain and hand it to the GPU without
+/// re-deriving sizes.
+pub fn decode_native(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<NativeBlp> {
+    let h = parse_header(bytes)?;
+    let texels = if h.compression == 2 {
+        h.dxt_texels()
+    } else {
+        BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm
+    };
+    let n = h.chain.clamp(1, 16);
+
+    let mut mips = Vec::with_capacity(n);
+    for level in 0..n {
+        let (lw, lh) = level_size(h.width, h.height, level);
+        let Some(data) = h.level_data(bytes, level)? else {
+            break;
+        };
+        let bytes = match h.compression {
+            1 => decode_raw1(h.palette, data, lw, lh, h.alpha_bits)?,
+            2 => pad_to(data, texels.level_bytes(lw, lh)),
+            3 => decode_raw3(data, lw, lh)?,
+            other => return Err(Error::UnknownCompression(other)),
+        };
+        mips.push(NativeMip {
+            width: lw,
+            height: lh,
+            bytes,
+        });
+    }
+
+    Ok(NativeBlp {
+        width: h.width,
+        height: h.height,
+        texels,
+        mips,
+        mip_chain_count: h.chain,
+    })
+}
+
+/// Decode one block-compressed level to RGBA8 — the inverse of keeping the blocks.
+///
+/// For a caller that took [`decode_native`]'s passthrough and then found it could not upload it
+/// after all (no BC on the device): it can get the pixels without re-reading and re-parsing the
+/// file. `texels` must be a block form; [`BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm`] returns `bytes` unchanged, since
+/// that is already the answer.
+pub fn decode_level(texels: BlpTexels, width: u32, height: u32, bytes: &[u8]) -> Vec<u8> {
+    let Some(fmt) = texels.codec() else {
+        return bytes.to_vec();
+    };
+    let blocks = pad_to(bytes, fmt.compressed_size(width as usize, height as usize));
+    let mut out = vec![0u8; (width as usize) * (height as usize) * 4];
+    fmt.decompress(&blocks, width as usize, height as usize, &mut out);
+    out
+}
+
+/// `data` grown to exactly `need` bytes with zeros (or truncated if the file over-stores).
+///
+/// The pad is what [`decode`] has always done before handing a short tail mip to the codec
+/// (matching wow-blp / SereniaBLPLib); the native path owes the GPU the same full level.
+fn pad_to(data: &[u8], need: usize) -> Vec<u8> {
+    let mut out = vec![0u8; need];
+    let n = data.len().min(need);
+    out[..n].copy_from_slice(&data[..n]);
+    out
+}
+
 /// Palettized: 1-byte indices into a 256-entry BGRA palette, then a packed alpha block (`alpha_bits`).
 fn decode_raw1(palette: &[u8], data: &[u8], w: u32, h: u32, alpha_bits: u32) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
     let px = (w as usize) * (h as usize);
@@ -246,23 +453,12 @@ fn decode_raw3(data: &[u8], w: u32, h: u32) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
     Ok(out)
 }
 
-/// DXTC: alpha_type 0→DXT1(Bc1), 1→DXT3(Bc2), 7→DXT5(Bc3); anything else (stale byte) → DXT1, since
-/// `alpha_bits` already governs whether alpha is meaningful. Undersized small-mip data is zero-padded
-/// to the block size (matching wow-blp / SereniaBLPLib), so a short tail mip still decodes.
-fn decode_dxt(data: &[u8], w: u32, h: u32, alpha_type: u8) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
-    let fmt = match alpha_type {
-        1 => texpresso::Format::Bc2,
-        7 => texpresso::Format::Bc3,
-        _ => texpresso::Format::Bc1,
-    };
-    let need = fmt.compressed_size(w as usize, h as usize);
-    let blocks = if data.len() < need {
-        let mut p = vec![0u8; need];
-        p[..data.len()].copy_from_slice(data);
-        std::borrow::Cow::Owned(p)
-    } else {
-        std::borrow::Cow::Borrowed(data)
-    };
+/// DXTC → RGBA8. The variant comes from [`Header::dxt_texels`]. Undersized small-mip data is
+/// zero-padded to the block size (matching wow-blp / SereniaBLPLib), so a short tail mip still
+/// decodes.
+fn decode_dxt(data: &[u8], w: u32, h: u32, texels: BlpTexels) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
+    let fmt = texels.codec().expect("dxt_texels never returns Rgba8Unorm");
+    let blocks = pad_to(data, fmt.compressed_size(w as usize, h as usize));
     let mut out = vec![0u8; (w as usize) * (h as usize) * 4];
     fmt.decompress(&blocks, w as usize, h as usize, &mut out);
     Ok(out)
@@ -333,6 +529,125 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(matches!(decode(b"not a blp at all"), Err(Error::NotBlp2)));
     }
 
+    /// Build a DXT-compressed (compression 2) BLP with a real mip chain: 8x8 down to 1x1, so the
+    /// tail levels are the sub-block ones that make block handling interesting.
+    fn dxt_blp(alpha_type: u8, block_bytes: usize) -> Vec<u8> {
+        let mut offsets = [0u32; 16];
+        let mut sizes = [0u32; 16];
+        let mut payload = Vec::new();
+        let base = (HEADER_SIZE + PALETTE_SIZE) as u32;
+        // 8x8, 4x4, 2x2, 1x1 — mip_chain_count(8, 8, true) == 3, so both entry points read the
+        // first THREE levels (8x8, 4x4, 2x2); the 1x1 is stored but past the authored count.
+        for (i, (w, h)) in [(8u32, 8u32), (4, 4), (2, 2), (1, 1)]
+            .into_iter()
+            .enumerate()
+        {
+            let blocks = w.div_ceil(4) as usize * h.div_ceil(4) as usize;
+            let n = blocks * block_bytes;
+            offsets[i] = base + payload.len() as u32;
+            sizes[i] = n as u32;
+            // Deterministic non-trivial block payload so a byte swap would show.
+            payload.extend((0..n).map(|k| (k as u32 * 37 + i as u32 * 11) as u8));
+        }
+        let mut b = header(2, 8, alpha_type, 1, 8, 8, offsets, sizes);
+        b.resize(HEADER_SIZE + PALETTE_SIZE, 0);
+        b.extend_from_slice(&payload);
+        b
+    }
+
+    /// The load-bearing equivalence for the native upload path: `decode_native` must hand back the
+    /// file's blocks *verbatim*, and running those blocks through the codec must reproduce exactly
+    /// what `decode` produces. If these ever diverge, a GPU-uploaded texture stops matching what
+    /// every CPU-side consumer sees.
+    #[test]
+    fn native_blocks_are_verbatim_and_decode_to_the_same_pixels() {
+        for (alpha_type, texels, block_bytes) in [
+            (0u8, BlpTexels::Bc1, 8usize),
+            (1, BlpTexels::Bc2, 16),
+            (7, BlpTexels::Bc3, 16),
+            (2, BlpTexels::Bc1, 8), // stale alpha_type byte falls back to DXT1
+        ] {
+            let b = dxt_blp(alpha_type, block_bytes);
+            let native = decode_native(&b).expect("valid DXT BLP decodes natively");
+            let decoded = decode(&b).expect("valid DXT BLP decodes to pixels");
+
+            assert_eq!(native.texels, texels, "alpha_type {alpha_type}");
+            assert!(native.texels.is_block_compressed());
+            assert_eq!(native.mips.len(), decoded.mips.len());
+            assert_eq!(native.mip_chain_count(), decoded.mip_chain_count());
+
+            for (level, (n, d)) in native.mips.iter().zip(&decoded.mips).enumerate() {
+                assert_eq!((n.width, n.height), (d.width, d.height));
+                // Every level is exactly its full block size — including the 2x2 and 1x1 tails,
+                // which occupy one whole block each.
+                assert_eq!(
+                    n.bytes.len(),
+                    texels.level_bytes(n.width, n.height),
+                    "level {level} block size"
+                );
+                // Verbatim: the bytes are the file's, not re-encoded.
+                let off = native_level_offset(&b, level);
+                assert_eq!(
+                    &n.bytes[..],
+                    &b[off..off + n.bytes.len()],
+                    "level {level} must be the file's own blocks"
+                );
+                // And they decode to exactly what the RGBA path produced.
+                let fmt = texels.codec().unwrap();
+                let mut out = vec![0u8; (n.width as usize) * (n.height as usize) * 4];
+                fmt.decompress(&n.bytes, n.width as usize, n.height as usize, &mut out);
+                assert_eq!(out, d.rgba, "level {level} pixels must match decode()");
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Where level `i`'s payload starts, read back out of the header we built.
+    fn native_level_offset(blp: &[u8], level: usize) -> usize {
+        u32::from_le_bytes(blp[20 + level * 4..24 + level * 4].try_into().unwrap()) as usize
+    }
+
+    /// Raw1/Raw3 have no block form, so the native path decodes them and says so — a caller that
+    /// switches on `texels` gets a correct `Rgba8Unorm` upload rather than garbage.
+    #[test]
+    fn native_reports_rgba_for_the_shapes_with_no_block_form() {
+        let pixel_offset = (HEADER_SIZE + PALETTE_SIZE) as u32;
+        let mut offsets = [0u32; 16];
+        let mut sizes = [0u32; 16];
+        offsets[0] = pixel_offset;
+        sizes[0] = 2 * 2 * 4;
+        let mut b = header(3, 8, 0, 0, 2, 2, offsets, sizes);
+        b.resize(HEADER_SIZE + PALETTE_SIZE, 0);
+        b.extend_from_slice(&[
+            10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160,
+        ]);
+
+        let native = decode_native(&b).expect("raw3 decodes natively");
+        assert_eq!(native.texels, BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm);
+        assert!(!native.texels.is_block_compressed());
+        assert_eq!(native.mips[0].bytes, decode(&b).unwrap().mips[0].rgba);
+        assert_eq!(
+            native.mips[0].bytes.len(),
+            BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm.level_bytes(2, 2)
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A tail level the file under-stores is zero-padded to a whole block, so the concatenated
+    /// chain a caller uploads is always exactly the size wgpu expects.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_short_tail_level_is_padded_to_its_full_block() {
+        let mut b = dxt_blp(0, 8);
+        // Level 2 is the 2x2 tail — one whole BC1 block. Shrink its recorded size to 3 bytes.
+        let short = 3u32;
+        b[84 + 2 * 4..88 + 2 * 4].copy_from_slice(&short.to_le_bytes());
+        let native = decode_native(&b).expect("short tail still decodes");
+        let tail = native.mips.last().unwrap();
+        assert_eq!((tail.width, tail.height), (2, 2));
+        assert_eq!(tail.bytes.len(), 8, "one whole BC1 block");
+        assert!(tail.bytes[short as usize..].iter().all(|&x| x == 0));
+        // And decode() survives the same truncation — the two paths pad identically.
+        assert_eq!(decode(&b).unwrap().mips.len(), native.mips.len());
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn tiny_raw3_decodes_expected_pixels() {
         // A 2x2 uncompressed BGRA8 (Raw3) image, no mipmaps: the smallest concrete shape decode()
diff --git a/crates/benilla-formats/src/bin/benilla-extract/glueextent.rs b/crates/benilla-formats/src/bin/benilla-extract/glueextent.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..23513d35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/benilla-formats/src/bin/benilla-extract/glueextent.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,149 @@
+//! `glueextent` — how wide each shipped glue scene's art is, off the chain (decision 1619).
+//!
+//! The instrument behind the glue framing ceiling: for every `UI_*` diorama it prints the measured
+//! [`benilla_formats::ArtExtent`] (the same call the client makes at scene spawn), the authored
+//! 4:3 half-extents it is measured against, and the derived facts the framing law acts on — the
+//! window aspect at which the art runs out of **width** under 1587's hor+ (past it the law zooms
+//! in, holding the width) and the aspect at which it runs out of **height** for a narrow window.
+//!
+//! Beside the law's own reading (opaque batches, front faces) it prints two looser ones — opaque +
+//! alpha-tested, and every batch — so a scene whose measured edge looks wrong against a capture can
+//! be read for *which* batches sit at that edge without a second tool.
+
+use anyhow::{Context, Result};
+use benilla_formats::{
+    authored_half_height, batch_footprint, glue_art_extent, parse_m2_camera,
+    parse_m2_render_submeshes, Chain, Coverage, CoverageReader, ModelBlend, GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT,
+};
+
+/// The seven shipped scenes: the login gate + the six race stages (Gnome→Dwarf, Troll→Orc share).
+const SCENES: [&str; 7] = [
+    "MainMenu", "Human", "Orc", "Dwarf", "NightElf", "Scourge", "Tauren",
+];
+
+pub fn glueextent(chain: &mut Chain, batches: bool) -> Result<()> {
+    println!(
+        "{:<9} {:>6} {:>7} {:>7} | {:>7} {:>7} | {:>9} {:>9} | {:>7} {:>7}",
+        "scene", "fov", "t0", "h0", "half_w", "half_h", "wide@", "narrow@", "opaque", "+all"
+    );
+    for token in SCENES {
+        let name = format!("Interface\\Glues\\Models\\UI_{token}\\UI_{token}.m2");
+        let bytes = chain
+            .read_file(&name)
+            .with_context(|| format!("reading '{name}' from chain"))?;
+        let subs = parse_m2_render_submeshes(&bytes, "", &[])
+            .with_context(|| format!("parsing M2 render submeshes '{name}'"))?;
+        let Some(cam) = parse_m2_camera(&bytes, 0) else {
+            println!("{token:<9} (no camera 0)");
+            continue;
+        };
+        let t0 = authored_half_height(cam.fov);
+        let h0 = t0 * GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT;
+        // The law's reading — every batch painting by its texels (the module's rule) — and the
+        // two readings on either side of it, so a scene whose measured edge looks wrong against
+        // a capture can be read for which rule moved it: opaque batches only, and every batch
+        // as if it painted fully.
+        let mut reader = CoverageReader::new(chain);
+        let mut paints: Vec<Option<Coverage>> = Vec::with_capacity(subs.len());
+        for s in &subs {
+            paints.push(reader.coverage(s)?);
+        }
+        let ext = {
+            let mut i = 0;
+            glue_art_extent(&subs, &cam, |_| {
+                let c = paints[i].clone();
+                i += 1;
+                c
+            })
+        };
+        let opaque_only = glue_art_extent(
+            subs.iter().filter(|s| s.blend == ModelBlend::Opaque),
+            &cam,
+            |_| Some(Coverage::Full),
+        )
+        .half_w
+            / t0;
+        let with_all = glue_art_extent(&subs, &cam, |_| Some(Coverage::Full)).half_w / t0;
+        println!(
+            "{token:<9} {:>6.3} {:>7.4} {:>7.4} | {:>7.4} {:>7.4} | {:>9.3} {:>9.3} | {:>7.3} {:>7.3}",
+            cam.fov,
+            t0,
+            h0,
+            ext.half_w,
+            ext.half_h,
+            ext.half_w / t0,
+            if ext.half_h > 0.0 { h0 / ext.half_h } else { f32::NAN },
+            opaque_only,
+            with_all,
+        );
+        // Which batches sit at the measured edge: every opaque batch, with its blend, so a
+        // suspicious number can be traced to a card without a second command.
+        let mut kinds = [0usize; 5];
+        for s in &subs {
+            kinds[match s.blend {
+                ModelBlend::Opaque => 0,
+                ModelBlend::AlphaTest => 1,
+                ModelBlend::Blend => 2,
+                ModelBlend::Mod => 3,
+                ModelBlend::Mod2x => 4,
+            }] += 1;
+        }
+        println!(
+            "          {} batches: {} opaque, {} alpha-test, {} blend, {} mod, {} mod2x; camera eye {:?} target {:?} near {:.3}",
+            subs.len(),
+            kinds[0],
+            kinds[1],
+            kinds[2],
+            kinds[3],
+            kinds[4],
+            cam.position,
+            cam.target,
+            cam.near_clip,
+        );
+        if batches {
+            // Every batch's footprint in the frame, in units of t0 (so `±1.333` is the authored
+            // 4:3 box's side, `±1.0` its top/bottom): which card sets the edge.
+            println!(
+                "          {:>3} {:<9} {:<3} {:<6} {:>5} {:>5} {:>4}  {:>14}  {:>14}  tex",
+                "idx", "blend", "2s", "paints", "front", "back", "clip", "x'/t0", "y'/t0"
+            );
+            for (i, s) in subs.iter().enumerate() {
+                let fp = batch_footprint(s, &cam);
+                let paints = match &paints[i] {
+                    Some(Coverage::Full) => "full",
+                    Some(Coverage::Alpha(_)) => "alpha",
+                    None => "no",
+                };
+                let range = |r: Option<(f32, f32)>| {
+                    r.map_or("—".to_string(), |(lo, hi)| {
+                        format!("{:+.2}..{:+.2}", lo / t0, hi / t0)
+                    })
+                };
+                println!(
+                    "          {i:>3} {:<9} {:<3} {:<6} {:>5} {:>5} {:>4}  {:>14}  {:>14}  {}",
+                    format!("{:?}", s.blend),
+                    if s.two_sided { "yes" } else { "no" },
+                    paints,
+                    fp.front,
+                    fp.back,
+                    fp.clipped,
+                    range(fp.x),
+                    range(fp.y),
+                    s.texture.as_deref().unwrap_or("-"),
+                );
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    println!();
+    println!(
+        "t0/h0: the authored 4:3 vertical/horizontal half-extents (tan units); half_w/half_h: the"
+    );
+    println!(
+        "opaque art's measured half-extents across the authored opening; wide@: the window aspect"
+    );
+    println!(
+        "past which the law holds the width and zooms (half_w/t0); narrow@: the aspect below which"
+    );
+    println!("it holds the height (h0/half_h). opaque / +all: wide@ counting opaque batches only / every batch.");
+    Ok(())
+}
diff --git a/crates/benilla-formats/src/bin/benilla-extract/main.rs b/crates/benilla-formats/src/bin/benilla-extract/main.rs
index b8e377f0..6f71de86 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-formats/src/bin/benilla-extract/main.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-formats/src/bin/benilla-extract/main.rs
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ use clap::{Parser, Subcommand};
 mod chaincensus;
 mod charatlas;
 mod charprocs;
+mod glueextent;
 mod m2dump;
 mod scan;
 mod shakecensus;
@@ -94,6 +95,17 @@ enum Command {
         #[arg(long)]
         out: Option<PathBuf>,
     },
+    /// Measure every shipped glue scene's **art extent** (decision 1619): how far the opaque art
+    /// of each `UI_*` diorama covers around its authored camera 0, and the window aspects past
+    /// which the glue framing law stops widening and zooms instead. The instrument behind B330
+    /// (the login backdrop's edges showing at 16:9) — the same measurement the client makes at
+    /// scene spawn, printed for all seven scenes with the looser readings beside it.
+    Glueextent {
+        /// Also print every batch's footprint in the frame (front/back/clipped triangle counts,
+        /// projected extents) — which card sets the measured edge.
+        #[arg(long)]
+        batches: bool,
+    },
     /// Dump a DBC table to CSV using our schema for it (headers included).
     Dbc {
         /// Internal path to the `.dbc` (forward or back slashes accepted).
@@ -778,6 +790,7 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
                 output.display()
             );
         }
+        Command::Glueextent { batches } => glueextent::glueextent(&mut chain, batches)?,
         Command::M2coll { internal_path } => m2dump::m2coll(&mut chain, &internal_path)?,
         Command::M2seq { internal_path } => m2dump::m2seq(&mut chain, &internal_path)?,
         Command::M2events { internal_path } => m2dump::m2events(&mut chain, &internal_path)?,
diff --git a/crates/benilla-formats/src/characters/sections.rs b/crates/benilla-formats/src/characters/sections.rs
index 75793a35..45f7bdd5 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-formats/src/characters/sections.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-formats/src/characters/sections.rs
@@ -482,6 +482,14 @@ pub fn equip_region_candidates(layer: usize, name: &str, sex: u8) -> [String; 2]
 /// plain copy (the client's REPLACE), an alpha one blends. Levels past either pyramid's end, and the
 /// sub-pixel remainder of a degenerate deep-mip tile, are clamped/skipped.
 fn blit_over(dst: &mut BlpMipChain, src: &BlpMipChain, tile: Tile) {
+    // The composite is a per-texel source-over blend, so both sides must be decoded pixels. Every
+    // reader here goes through `read_texture_mip_chain` (never the block-passthrough twin) — this
+    // says so out loud, because a chain that arrived as DXT blocks would blend garbage silently
+    // rather than fail (decision 1626).
+    debug_assert!(
+        dst.is_rgba8() && src.is_rgba8(),
+        "character-skin compositing needs decoded chains on both sides"
+    );
     let (tx, ty, tw, th) = tile;
     let levels = dst.mips.len().min(src.mips.len());
     for i in 0..levels {
@@ -863,6 +871,7 @@ mod tests {
         BlpMipChain {
             width,
             height,
+            texels: crate::BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm,
             mips: vec![px],
         }
     }
diff --git a/crates/benilla-formats/src/lib.rs b/crates/benilla-formats/src/lib.rs
index 93f3f1e6..96029e3e 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-formats/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-formats/src/lib.rs
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ use std::path::Path;
 use anyhow::{Context, Result};
 use benilla_dbc::{DbcParser, FieldType, Schema, SchemaField};
 
+/// The BLP texel forms, re-exported so a consumer of [`BlpMipChain`] can switch on
+/// [`BlpMipChain::texels`] without depending on `benilla-blp` directly.
+pub use benilla_blp::BlpTexels;
+
 mod chain;
 pub use chain::{Chain, ChainEntry};
 /// The UI texture table's other half — loose `.tga` art (addon folders; decision 1322).
@@ -206,26 +210,28 @@ pub use value_track::{TrackValue, ValueTrack};
 mod models;
 pub use models::{
     accumulate_wmo_group_camera_collision, accumulate_wmo_group_camera_only_collision,
-    accumulate_wmo_group_collision, hand_grip_finger_poses, load_m2_animation_summary,
-    load_m2_bone_spins, load_m2_bounds, load_m2_collision_hull, load_m2_mesh, load_m2_mesh_skinned,
-    load_object_model, load_wmo, load_wmo_collision_tris, m2_bone_spins, m2_owner_reach,
-    m2_ribbon_emitter_count, m2_sequence_visible_textures, m2_texture_transform_count,
-    non_separable_billboard_bones, owner_last_rung, owner_last_rung_bucket,
-    parse_m2_animation_lookup, parse_m2_animation_summary, parse_m2_animations,
-    parse_m2_attachments, parse_m2_bounds, parse_m2_camera, parse_m2_cch_marker,
-    parse_m2_collision_hull, parse_m2_event_markers, parse_m2_global_sequence_bones,
-    parse_m2_lights, parse_m2_playable_animation_lookup, parse_m2_portrait_camera,
-    parse_m2_render_submeshes, parse_m2_skeleton, parse_m2_string_anchors, parse_wmo_fogs,
-    parse_wmo_lights, parse_wmo_portals, parse_wmo_root, wmo_group_doodad_refs,
-    wmo_group_fixed_colors, wmo_group_footprint_tris, wmo_group_header, wmo_group_light_refs,
-    wmo_group_liquid_mesh, wmo_group_raw_colors, wmo_group_submeshes, wmo_root_id, AlphaAnim,
-    AlphaSeq, AnimEvent, Billboard, BillboardKind, BoneKeys, BoneScaleAnim, BoneSpin, CharSkinSlot,
-    CollisionMesh, EmitterBoneLink, EventMarker, FogPolicy, FootprintTris, GlobalSeqBone,
-    GlobalSeqChannel, GroundQuad, KeyAnim, M2AnimSummary, M2Attachment, M2Bounds, M2Light,
-    M2PortraitCamera, ModelAnimation, ModelBlend, ParentArm, ParentBasis, PlayableAnim,
-    RenderSubmesh, RgbAnim, ScalarAnim, SeqLoops, Skeleton, SkeletonBone, StringAnchors, UvAnim,
-    WmoBatchClass, WmoDoodad, WmoDoodadSet, WmoFog, WmoGroupHeader, WmoGroupInfo, WmoLight,
-    WmoPortalInfo, WmoPortalRef, WmoPortals, WmoRoot, NO_GROUP_LIQUID, OWNER_RUNG_BUCKETS,
+    accumulate_wmo_group_collision, authored_half_height, batch_footprint, glue_art_extent,
+    hand_grip_finger_poses, load_m2_animation_summary, load_m2_bone_spins, load_m2_bounds,
+    load_m2_collision_hull, load_m2_mesh, load_m2_mesh_skinned, load_object_model, load_wmo,
+    load_wmo_collision_tris, m2_bone_spins, m2_owner_reach, m2_ribbon_emitter_count,
+    m2_sequence_visible_textures, m2_texture_transform_count, non_separable_billboard_bones,
+    owner_last_rung, owner_last_rung_bucket, parse_m2_animation_lookup, parse_m2_animation_summary,
+    parse_m2_animations, parse_m2_attachments, parse_m2_bounds, parse_m2_camera,
+    parse_m2_cch_marker, parse_m2_collision_hull, parse_m2_event_markers,
+    parse_m2_global_sequence_bones, parse_m2_lights, parse_m2_playable_animation_lookup,
+    parse_m2_portrait_camera, parse_m2_render_submeshes, parse_m2_skeleton,
+    parse_m2_string_anchors, parse_wmo_fogs, parse_wmo_lights, parse_wmo_portals, parse_wmo_root,
+    shipped_glue_art_extent, wmo_group_doodad_refs, wmo_group_fixed_colors,
+    wmo_group_footprint_tris, wmo_group_header, wmo_group_light_refs, wmo_group_liquid_mesh,
+    wmo_group_raw_colors, wmo_group_submeshes, wmo_root_id, AlphaAnim, AlphaMap, AlphaSeq,
+    AnimEvent, ArtExtent, BatchFootprint, Billboard, BillboardKind, BoneKeys, BoneScaleAnim,
+    BoneSpin, CharSkinSlot, CollisionMesh, Coverage, CoverageReader, EmitterBoneLink, EventMarker,
+    FogPolicy, FootprintTris, GlobalSeqBone, GlobalSeqChannel, GroundQuad, KeyAnim, M2AnimSummary,
+    M2Attachment, M2Bounds, M2Light, M2PortraitCamera, ModelAnimation, ModelBlend, ParentArm,
+    ParentBasis, PlayableAnim, RenderSubmesh, RgbAnim, ScalarAnim, SeqLoops, Skeleton,
+    SkeletonBone, StringAnchors, UvAnim, WmoBatchClass, WmoDoodad, WmoDoodadSet, WmoFog,
+    WmoGroupHeader, WmoGroupInfo, WmoLight, WmoPortalInfo, WmoPortalRef, WmoPortals, WmoRoot,
+    ALPHA_KEY_REF, GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT, NO_GROUP_LIQUID, OWNER_RUNG_BUCKETS,
 };
 mod terrain;
 pub use terrain::{
@@ -360,16 +366,22 @@ pub fn read_texture_rgba(chain: &mut Chain, path: &str) -> Result<(u32, u32, Vec
     blp_to_rgba(&bytes)
 }
 
-/// A decoded BLP, mip-major: each entry is one authored mip level's RGBA8 bytes, level 0 first.
+/// A BLP's authored mip pyramid, mip-major, level 0 first.
 /// **Never empty**: the chain length is `BlpHeader::mipmaps_count().max(1)` — a no-mipmaps BLP (the
 /// count formula reports 0) still yields a 1-level chain (level 0), matching `benilla_blp::decode`'s
 /// own guarantee that `mips` is never empty (see [`blp_bytes_to_mip_chain`]).
+///
+/// [`texels`](Self::texels) says what the buffers hold. [`blp_bytes_to_mip_chain`] always decodes to
+/// `Rgba8Unorm`; [`blp_bytes_to_native_chain`] keeps DXTC blocks verbatim for a GPU that can eat
+/// them. A consumer that reads texels on the CPU must use the former (or check `texels`).
 #[derive(Debug, Clone)]
 pub struct BlpMipChain {
     /// Mip-0 dimensions; level i's dims are `(width >> i).max(1) × (height >> i).max(1)`.
     pub width: u32,
     pub height: u32,
-    /// One RGBA8 buffer per authored mip level, level 0 first. **Authored, not regenerated** —
+    /// What every entry of `mips` holds — decoded pixels, or S3TC blocks.
+    pub texels: BlpTexels,
+    /// One buffer per authored mip level, level 0 first. **Authored, not regenerated** —
     /// the BLP's pre-baked mip levels are what the real 1.12 client uploads ("the BLP's own stored mip
     /// chain is used verbatim — no client-side mip regeneration"). Using these instead of
     /// CPU-resampling mip 0 in gamma byte space is the
@@ -383,6 +395,37 @@ impl BlpMipChain {
     pub fn mip_size(&self, i: u32) -> (u32, u32) {
         ((self.width >> i).max(1), (self.height >> i).max(1))
     }
+
+    /// Are these levels CPU-readable `Rgba8Unorm` pixels? The guard for any consumer that indexes
+    /// into a level (resample, alpha stomp, colour read) — block bytes are not pixels.
+    pub fn is_rgba8(&self) -> bool {
+        !self.texels.is_block_compressed()
+    }
+
+    /// This chain with every level decoded to `Rgba8Unorm`; a no-op if it already is.
+    ///
+    /// The escape hatch for a consumer that asked for the passthrough form and then could not use
+    /// it — it costs the decode it was trying to avoid, but it needs no second read of the file and
+    /// it cannot fail, so the caller is never left holding blocks it must not upload.
+    pub fn into_rgba8(self) -> Self {
+        if self.is_rgba8() {
+            return self;
+        }
+        let mips = self
+            .mips
+            .iter()
+            .enumerate()
+            .map(|(i, level)| {
+                let (w, h) = self.mip_size(i as u32);
+                benilla_blp::decode_level(self.texels, w, h, level)
+            })
+            .collect();
+        Self {
+            texels: BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm,
+            mips,
+            ..self
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 /// Decode every authored mip level of a BLP texture from the chain into `Rgba8Unorm` buffers.
@@ -398,6 +441,16 @@ pub fn read_texture_mip_chain(chain: &mut Chain, path: &str) -> Result<BlpMipCha
     blp_bytes_to_mip_chain(&bytes).with_context(|| format!("decoding texture '{name}'"))
 }
 
+/// Read a texture from the chain by internal path and keep its DXTC blocks verbatim —
+/// [`blp_bytes_to_native_chain`]'s chain-reading wrapper, the twin of [`read_texture_mip_chain`].
+pub fn read_texture_native_chain(chain: &mut Chain, path: &str) -> Result<BlpMipChain> {
+    let name = path.replace('/', "\\");
+    let bytes = chain
+        .read_file(&name)
+        .with_context(|| format!("reading texture '{name}'"))?;
+    blp_bytes_to_native_chain(&bytes).with_context(|| format!("decoding texture '{name}'"))
+}
+
 /// Decode every authored mip level of an **in-memory** BLP into `Rgba8Unorm` buffers — the BLP's own
 /// stored pyramid, used verbatim (no client-side regeneration; the C2-faithful behaviour). This is the
 /// bytes-in entry point used by the Bevy `AssetLoader`; [`read_texture_mip_chain`] is the
@@ -423,6 +476,38 @@ pub fn blp_bytes_to_mip_chain(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<BlpMipChain> {
     Ok(BlpMipChain {
         width,
         height,
+        texels: BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm,
+        mips,
+    })
+}
+
+/// Every authored mip level of an in-memory BLP **with its DXTC blocks kept verbatim** — the form
+/// the reference client uploads (`glCompressedTexImage2DARB`; wow-re `system/image/image.md`).
+///
+/// Raw1/Raw3 BLPs have no block form and come back decoded, reporting
+/// [`BlpTexels::Rgba8Unorm`] — so a caller switches on [`BlpMipChain::texels`] rather than
+/// assuming. Levels are padded to whole blocks, so the concatenated chain is exactly what wgpu
+/// expects for the reported format.
+pub fn blp_bytes_to_native_chain(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<BlpMipChain> {
+    let decoded =
+        benilla_blp::decode_native(bytes).map_err(|e| anyhow::anyhow!("decoding BLP: {e}"))?;
+    // Same floor-at-one reasoning as `blp_bytes_to_mip_chain`.
+    let (width, height, count) = (
+        decoded.width,
+        decoded.height,
+        decoded.mip_chain_count().max(1),
+    );
+    let texels = decoded.texels;
+    let mips: Vec<Vec<u8>> = decoded
+        .mips
+        .into_iter()
+        .take(count)
+        .map(|m| m.bytes)
+        .collect();
+    Ok(BlpMipChain {
+        width,
+        height,
+        texels,
         mips,
     })
 }
diff --git a/crates/benilla-formats/src/models/art_extent.rs b/crates/benilla-formats/src/models/art_extent.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2c27c03a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/benilla-formats/src/models/art_extent.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,870 @@
+//! The **art extent** of a glue scene — how far its art actually paints around its authored
+//! camera, measured off the geometry and the textures (decision 1619).
+//!
+//! Every `UI_<Race>` / `UI_MainMenu` diorama was composed for a 4:3 screen (1587: the Lua design
+//! space is `1024×768`), and its backdrop is *finite*: a sky card of some authored width, a ground
+//! plane that stops. A camera law that widens the view on a wide window (1587's hor+) keeps showing
+//! more of the diorama until the art runs out — and past that edge the frame is the render target's
+//! clear colour, which no taste calls a composition (B330: `UI_MainMenu`'s backdrop edges show at
+//! 16:9, `UI_Tauren`'s at ~2.24:1). The reference never shows that void only because it never
+//! widens; it zooms instead (0116/1543's diagonal-FOV law) and crops the character at 21:9 (B242).
+//!
+//! So the framing law needs one more authored fact per scene: **how wide is the art**. This module
+//! measures it. In camera 0's own tan-space — `x' = x/z`, `y' = y/z` in a right-handed eye frame,
+//! the space a projection's half-extents live in — it rasterises every batch that paints into a
+//! coverage grid and asks:
+//!
+//! - across the authored **vertical** opening (`±tan(fovy/2)` at 4:3), what horizontal half-width
+//!   does *every* row reach, left and right of the axis? → [`ArtExtent::half_w`]
+//! - across the authored **horizontal** opening, what vertical half-height does every column
+//!   reach? → [`ArtExtent::half_h`]
+//!
+//! The minimum over rows is the point: a sky card seen in perspective is a trapezoid on screen, and
+//! the frame runs out of it at the *narrow* row first (MainMenu's edges slant inward toward the
+//! top).
+//!
+//! **What counts as painted is the texel, not the batch.** An `Opaque` batch paints every pixel it
+//! covers. A `Blend`/`AlphaTest` batch paints where its texture's alpha would pass the reference's
+//! own alpha test — **`≥ 224/255`**, the 1.12 alpha-key reference (wow-re `models.md`, not Cata's
+//! 128) — sampled per pixel through the batch's UVs, perspective-correct, with its wrap/clamp mode.
+//! Both halves of that rule matter on the real art: the artists drew `UI_Human`'s street and its
+//! sky card as *blend* batches over opaque textures (so "opaque batches only" measured that scene
+//! at half its authored box), and `UI_NightElf`'s edges are an alpha-tested wall of trees over a
+//! sky card that ends at exactly 4:3 (so "opaque textures only" measured it a full step narrower
+//! than what is on screen). A cloud, a canopy, a ground shadow, `UI_Tauren`'s 0.55 corner vignette
+//! paint only where their texels pass, which is nowhere at their soft edges — the void this
+//! measures for. `Mod`/`Mod2x` only tint what is already drawn. Backfaces of single-sided batches
+//! are skipped the way the renderer skips them (`Face::Back` cull, CCW front — the model's own
+//! winding survives the axis remap, a proper rotation), so a ground plane seen from below does not
+//! count as sky.
+//!
+//! Because the rule reads textures, the measurement runs **offline**, off the chain: `benilla-
+//! extract glueextent` prints every scene's numbers, and the client carries them as
+//! [`shipped_glue_art_extent`] — a transcription of the shipped 1.12.1 art's authored width,
+//! pinned by [`tests::the_shipped_table_matches_the_measurement`], which re-measures every scene
+//! against the table. (A runtime probe at scene spawn would have to wait for every batch texture
+//! to land before it could answer, and until it answered the login gate would open with its void
+//! edges showing, then snap.)
+//!
+//! Positions are the M2's own model space (WoW axes, Z up) and so is the camera — nothing here
+//! needs the engine's frame. The consumer ([`benilla`]'s glue framing) turns the two numbers into a
+//! ceiling on 1587's law.
+
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+use std::sync::Arc;
+
+use anyhow::Result;
+
+use super::records::M2PortraitCamera;
+use super::types::{ModelBlend, RenderSubmesh};
+use crate::Chain;
+
+/// How far a scene's art paints around its authored camera, as projection-space half-extents
+/// (tan units — the same space `tan(fov/2)` lives in).
+///
+/// `half_w` is measured across the authored 4:3 **vertical** opening, `half_h` across the authored
+/// **horizontal** one: each is the widest symmetric box of *that* shape the art still fills. A scene
+/// whose art does not even fill the authored box (an axis row with no painted pixel over it)
+/// reports `0.0` on that axis — the consumer clamps to the authored extent, never below it.
+#[derive(Clone, Copy, Debug, PartialEq)]
+pub struct ArtExtent {
+    pub half_w: f32,
+    pub half_h: f32,
+}
+
+/// The authored aspect every glue composition was made for (1587, `1024×768`).
+pub const GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT: f32 = 4.0 / 3.0;
+
+/// The 1.12 client's alpha-key reference: a texel passes its alpha test at `alpha ≥ 224`
+/// (wow-re `models.md` — `ALPHAREF` 224, `GEQUAL`). The one threshold this module paints by.
+pub const ALPHA_KEY_REF: u8 = 224;
+
+/// The **shipped** scenes' measured extents — `benilla-extract glueextent` on the 1.12.1 (5875)
+/// chain, transcribed. Keyed by the scene token (`UI_<token>.m2`). The test re-measures them.
+///
+/// Read as aspects (`half_w / t0`, the window aspect past which the art runs out of width under
+/// the authored vertical): MainMenu 1.54 · Human 1.47 · Orc 1.57 · Dwarf 1.42 · NightElf 1.31 ·
+/// Scourge 1.57 · Tauren 1.46 — every one of the seven runs out **before 16:9**. Not one diorama
+/// was drawn wider than about 3:2; the reference never showed it because its diagonal law zooms
+/// from 4:3 onward.
+///
+/// `UI_NightElf` is the odd one on both axes, and honestly so: its sky card is exactly 4:3 wide,
+/// and its `half_h` is *inside* the authored box — the gaps between its tree-cutout leaves at the
+/// frame's sides paint nothing even at 4:3. Both are the artist's intent: it is a night scene, and
+/// what shows through is the page behind the scene, near-black, read as sky. The framing law never
+/// opens past the authored box on an axis the art does not reach, so the number costs nothing
+/// there.
+const SHIPPED: [(&str, ArtExtent); 7] = [
+    (
+        "MainMenu",
+        ArtExtent {
+            half_w: 0.7431,
+            half_h: 0.5067,
+        },
+    ),
+    (
+        "Human",
+        ArtExtent {
+            half_w: 0.6548,
+            half_h: 0.4866,
+        },
+    ),
+    (
+        "Orc",
+        ArtExtent {
+            half_w: 0.5573,
+            half_h: 0.3954,
+        },
+    ),
+    (
+        "Dwarf",
+        ArtExtent {
+            half_w: 0.5040,
+            half_h: 0.4272,
+        },
+    ),
+    (
+        "NightElf",
+        ArtExtent {
+            half_w: 0.4262,
+            half_h: 0.1221,
+        },
+    ),
+    (
+        "Scourge",
+        ArtExtent {
+            half_w: 0.5542,
+            half_h: 0.4776,
+        },
+    ),
+    (
+        "Tauren",
+        ArtExtent {
+            half_w: 0.5177,
+            half_h: 0.4066,
+        },
+    ),
+];
+
+/// The shipped scene's measured [`ArtExtent`] by token, `None` for a token that is not one of
+/// the seven `UI_*` dioramas (the consumer then keeps 1587's unbounded law).
+pub fn shipped_glue_art_extent(token: &str) -> Option<ArtExtent> {
+    SHIPPED.iter().find(|(t, _)| *t == token).map(|(_, e)| *e)
+}
+
+/// The authored **vertical** half-extent (tan units) of a glue camera's `fov` at 4:3 — the number
+/// 1587's law pins: `tan(fovy/2)` with `fovy = fov/√((4/3)²+1)`.
+pub fn authored_half_height(fov: f32) -> f32 {
+    (fov / (GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT * GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT + 1.0).sqrt() * 0.5).tan()
+}
+
+/// How a batch paints the pixels it covers.
+#[derive(Clone, Debug)]
+pub enum Coverage {
+    /// Every covered pixel is painted (an opaque batch, or a blend over a texture with no alpha
+    /// below the key).
+    Full,
+    /// Painted where the texture's alpha, sampled through the batch's UVs, is `≥` [`ALPHA_KEY_REF`].
+    Alpha(Arc<AlphaMap>),
+}
+
+/// A texture's alpha channel, for [`Coverage::Alpha`].
+#[derive(Clone, Debug)]
+pub struct AlphaMap {
+    pub width: u32,
+    pub height: u32,
+    /// Row-major, one byte per texel.
+    pub alpha: Vec<u8>,
+}
+
+impl AlphaMap {
+    /// The alpha at `(u, v)` under the batch's wrap (`true`) or clamp-to-edge (`false`) modes,
+    /// nearest texel — the same texel the sampler's mip 0 would return at its centre.
+    fn sample(&self, u: f32, v: f32, wrap_x: bool, wrap_y: bool) -> u8 {
+        let axis = |t: f32, n: u32, wrap: bool| -> u32 {
+            let t = if wrap {
+                t - t.floor()
+            } else {
+                t.clamp(0.0, 1.0)
+            };
+            ((t * n as f32) as u32).min(n - 1)
+        };
+        if self.width == 0 || self.height == 0 {
+            return 0;
+        }
+        let x = axis(u, self.width, wrap_x);
+        let y = axis(v, self.height, wrap_y);
+        self.alpha[(y * self.width + x) as usize]
+    }
+}
+
+/// The coverage rule with the chain in hand: `Opaque` → [`Coverage::Full`]; `Blend`/`AlphaTest`
+/// → the texture's alpha, read once per path (a texture that never dips below the key collapses
+/// to `Full`); no texture, or `Mod`/`Mod2x` → `None` (paints nothing that counts).
+pub struct CoverageReader<'c> {
+    chain: &'c mut Chain,
+    cache: HashMap<String, Option<Coverage>>,
+}
+
+impl<'c> CoverageReader<'c> {
+    pub fn new(chain: &'c mut Chain) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            chain,
+            cache: HashMap::new(),
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// How `sub` paints, or `None` when it counts for nothing.
+    pub fn coverage(&mut self, sub: &RenderSubmesh) -> Result<Option<Coverage>> {
+        match sub.blend {
+            ModelBlend::Opaque => Ok(Some(Coverage::Full)),
+            ModelBlend::Mod | ModelBlend::Mod2x => Ok(None),
+            ModelBlend::AlphaTest | ModelBlend::Blend => {
+                let Some(path) = sub.texture.as_deref() else {
+                    return Ok(None);
+                };
+                if let Some(known) = self.cache.get(path) {
+                    return Ok(known.clone());
+                }
+                let (width, height, rgba) = crate::read_texture_rgba(self.chain, path)?;
+                let alpha: Vec<u8> = rgba.chunks_exact(4).map(|px| px[3]).collect();
+                let cov = if alpha.iter().all(|&a| a >= ALPHA_KEY_REF) {
+                    Some(Coverage::Full)
+                } else if alpha.iter().all(|&a| a < ALPHA_KEY_REF) {
+                    None
+                } else {
+                    Some(Coverage::Alpha(Arc::new(AlphaMap {
+                        width,
+                        height,
+                        alpha,
+                    })))
+                };
+                self.cache.insert(path.to_string(), cov.clone());
+                Ok(cov)
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Measure a scene's [`ArtExtent`]: its batches, its authored camera, and how each batch paints
+/// (`coverage` — [`CoverageReader::coverage`] with the chain, or anything a test hands in).
+///
+/// Front faces only unless two-sided; triangles are clipped to the camera's own near plane,
+/// exactly as the render would clip them.
+pub fn glue_art_extent<'a>(
+    subs: impl IntoIterator<Item = &'a RenderSubmesh>,
+    cam: &M2PortraitCamera,
+    mut coverage: impl FnMut(&RenderSubmesh) -> Option<Coverage>,
+) -> ArtExtent {
+    let t0 = authored_half_height(cam.fov);
+    let h0 = t0 * GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT;
+    let mut grid = Grid::new(t0);
+    if let Some(frame) = EyeFrame::of(cam) {
+        for s in subs {
+            if let Some(cov) = coverage(s) {
+                grid.paint_batch(s, &frame, cam.near_clip.max(1e-3), &cov);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    ArtExtent {
+        half_w: grid.half_extent(Axis::Row, t0),
+        half_h: grid.half_extent(Axis::Column, h0),
+    }
+}
+
+/// The coverage grid over the camera's tan-space: `x' ∈ ±X_SPAN·t0`, `y' ∈ ±Y_SPAN·t0`. The spans
+/// cover what the framing law can ask for — a wide window holds the width at the art's edge, and
+/// the widest edge any diorama has is under `2·t0`; a narrow window opens the height up to the
+/// art's, and `2.7·t0` is a 1:2 window.
+struct Grid {
+    cells: Vec<bool>,
+    /// Tan units per cell, both axes.
+    dx: f32,
+    dy: f32,
+    x_lo: f32,
+    y_lo: f32,
+}
+
+/// Cells per axis. Even, so the axis (`x' = 0`, `y' = 0`) is a cell boundary and the run around
+/// it is read symmetrically. 2048 cells over `4.4·t0` is `0.0021·t0` per cell — 1.5 px at 1440p —
+/// and the reported extent is shortened by half a cell, so the quantisation only ever
+/// under-reports.
+const CELLS: usize = 2048;
+const X_SPAN: f32 = 2.2;
+const Y_SPAN: f32 = 2.7;
+
+impl Grid {
+    fn new(t0: f32) -> Self {
+        let x_lo = -X_SPAN * t0;
+        let y_lo = -Y_SPAN * t0;
+        Self {
+            cells: vec![false; CELLS * CELLS],
+            dx: (2.0 * X_SPAN * t0) / CELLS as f32,
+            dy: (2.0 * Y_SPAN * t0) / CELLS as f32,
+            x_lo,
+            y_lo,
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Rasterise every front-facing, near-clipped triangle of `sub` into the grid.
+    fn paint_batch(&mut self, sub: &RenderSubmesh, frame: &EyeFrame, near: f32, cov: &Coverage) {
+        for tri in sub.indices.chunks_exact(3) {
+            let Some(eye) = tri
+                .iter()
+                .map(|&i| {
+                    let p = sub.positions.get(i as usize)?;
+                    let uv = sub.uvs.get(i as usize).copied().unwrap_or([0.0; 2]);
+                    Some((frame.to_eye(*p), uv))
+                })
+                .collect::<Option<Vec<_>>>()
+            else {
+                continue;
+            };
+            for piece in clip_near(&eye, near) {
+                let proj: [Vert; 3] = piece.map(|((x, y, z), uv)| Vert {
+                    x: x / z,
+                    y: y / z,
+                    inv_z: 1.0 / z,
+                    u_z: uv[0] / z,
+                    v_z: uv[1] / z,
+                });
+                let area = signed_area(&proj);
+                // The renderer culls back faces of single-sided batches: CCW on screen is front.
+                if !sub.two_sided && area <= 0.0 {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                if area == 0.0 {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                self.paint_triangle(&proj, area, sub, cov);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    fn paint_triangle(&mut self, t: &[Vert; 3], area: f32, sub: &RenderSubmesh, cov: &Coverage) {
+        let (x_min, x_max) = t
+            .iter()
+            .fold((f32::INFINITY, f32::NEG_INFINITY), |(lo, hi), v| {
+                (lo.min(v.x), hi.max(v.x))
+            });
+        let (y_min, y_max) = t
+            .iter()
+            .fold((f32::INFINITY, f32::NEG_INFINITY), |(lo, hi), v| {
+                (lo.min(v.y), hi.max(v.y))
+            });
+        let col_of = |x: f32| ((x - self.x_lo) / self.dx).floor();
+        let row_of = |y: f32| ((y - self.y_lo) / self.dy).floor();
+        let c0 = col_of(x_min).max(0.0) as usize;
+        let c1 = (col_of(x_max) as isize).min(CELLS as isize - 1);
+        let r0 = row_of(y_min).max(0.0) as usize;
+        let r1 = (row_of(y_max) as isize).min(CELLS as isize - 1);
+        if c1 < 0 || r1 < 0 || c0 > c1 as usize || r0 > r1 as usize {
+            return;
+        }
+        let inv_area = 1.0 / area;
+        for r in r0..=r1 as usize {
+            let y = self.y_lo + (r as f32 + 0.5) * self.dy;
+            for c in c0..=c1 as usize {
+                let x = self.x_lo + (c as f32 + 0.5) * self.dx;
+                // Barycentrics from the edge functions (all same sign as `area` ⇒ inside).
+                let w0 = edge(&t[1], &t[2], x, y) * inv_area;
+                let w1 = edge(&t[2], &t[0], x, y) * inv_area;
+                let w2 = edge(&t[0], &t[1], x, y) * inv_area;
+                if w0 < 0.0 || w1 < 0.0 || w2 < 0.0 {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                let painted = match cov {
+                    Coverage::Full => true,
+                    Coverage::Alpha(map) => {
+                        // Perspective-correct UV: interpolate u/z, v/z, 1/z, divide.
+                        let inv_z = w0 * t[0].inv_z + w1 * t[1].inv_z + w2 * t[2].inv_z;
+                        let u = (w0 * t[0].u_z + w1 * t[1].u_z + w2 * t[2].u_z) / inv_z;
+                        let v = (w0 * t[0].v_z + w1 * t[1].v_z + w2 * t[2].v_z) / inv_z;
+                        map.sample(u, v, sub.wrap_x, sub.wrap_y) >= ALPHA_KEY_REF
+                    }
+                };
+                if painted {
+                    self.cells[r * CELLS + c] = true;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The largest half-extent along `axis` that every scanline across the authored opening
+    /// (`±opening` on the other axis) reaches on both sides of the axis. `0.0` if any scanline
+    /// leaves the axis unpainted. Shortened by half a cell, so quantisation under-reports.
+    fn half_extent(&self, axis: Axis, opening: f32) -> f32 {
+        let (lines, cells_per_line, step, lo, line_step) = match axis {
+            Axis::Row => (CELLS, CELLS, self.dx, self.y_lo, self.dy),
+            Axis::Column => (CELLS, CELLS, self.dy, self.x_lo, self.dx),
+        };
+        let mut extent = f32::INFINITY;
+        let mut any = false;
+        for line in 0..lines {
+            let pos = lo + (line as f32 + 0.5) * line_step;
+            if pos < -opening || pos > opening {
+                continue;
+            }
+            any = true;
+            let at = |i: usize| match axis {
+                Axis::Row => self.cells[line * CELLS + i],
+                Axis::Column => self.cells[i * CELLS + line],
+            };
+            let mid = cells_per_line / 2; // the axis sits between `mid - 1` and `mid`
+            let mut right = 0usize;
+            while mid + right < cells_per_line && at(mid + right) {
+                right += 1;
+            }
+            let mut left = 0usize;
+            while left < mid && at(mid - 1 - left) {
+                left += 1;
+            }
+            if left == 0 || right == 0 {
+                return 0.0;
+            }
+            extent = extent.min(left.min(right) as f32 * step - step * 0.5);
+        }
+        if any && extent.is_finite() {
+            extent.max(0.0)
+        } else {
+            0.0
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+#[derive(Clone, Copy)]
+enum Axis {
+    /// Scan horizontal rows; the extent is along `x'`.
+    Row,
+    /// Scan vertical columns; the extent is along `y'`.
+    Column,
+}
+
+/// A projected vertex with what perspective-correct interpolation needs.
+#[derive(Clone, Copy)]
+struct Vert {
+    x: f32,
+    y: f32,
+    inv_z: f32,
+    u_z: f32,
+    v_z: f32,
+}
+
+/// The edge function of `a → b` at `(x, y)`: twice the signed area of `(a, b, p)`.
+fn edge(a: &Vert, b: &Vert, x: f32, y: f32) -> f32 {
+    (b.x - a.x) * (y - a.y) - (b.y - a.y) * (x - a.x)
+}
+
+/// Twice the signed area of a projected triangle — positive for counter-clockwise.
+fn signed_area(t: &[Vert; 3]) -> f32 {
+    edge(&t[0], &t[1], t[2].x, t[2].y)
+}
+
+/// Where ONE batch lands in the camera's tan-space — the per-batch diagnostic beside
+/// [`glue_art_extent`]: how many of its triangles face the camera (and so can paint), how many
+/// face away, and the box its front faces cover. `benilla-extract glueextent --batches` prints it,
+/// so a measured edge can be traced to the card that sets it.
+#[derive(Clone, Copy, Debug, PartialEq)]
+pub struct BatchFootprint {
+    /// Triangles in front of the near plane that face the camera (or are two-sided).
+    pub front: usize,
+    /// Single-sided triangles facing away — culled by the renderer, painting nothing.
+    pub back: usize,
+    /// Clipped away entirely (behind the near plane).
+    pub clipped: usize,
+    /// The front faces' `x'` range, `None` with no front face.
+    pub x: Option<(f32, f32)>,
+    /// …and `y'` range.
+    pub y: Option<(f32, f32)>,
+}
+
+/// One batch's [`BatchFootprint`] under `cam`, regardless of how it paints.
+pub fn batch_footprint(sub: &RenderSubmesh, cam: &M2PortraitCamera) -> BatchFootprint {
+    let mut fp = BatchFootprint {
+        front: 0,
+        back: 0,
+        clipped: 0,
+        x: None,
+        y: None,
+    };
+    let Some(frame) = EyeFrame::of(cam) else {
+        return fp;
+    };
+    let near = cam.near_clip.max(1e-3);
+    for tri in sub.indices.chunks_exact(3) {
+        let Some(eye) = tri
+            .iter()
+            .map(|&i| {
+                sub.positions
+                    .get(i as usize)
+                    .map(|&p| (frame.to_eye(p), [0.0; 2]))
+            })
+            .collect::<Option<Vec<_>>>()
+        else {
+            continue;
+        };
+        let pieces = clip_near(&eye, near);
+        if pieces.is_empty() {
+            fp.clipped += 1;
+            continue;
+        }
+        for piece in pieces {
+            let proj: [Vert; 3] = piece.map(|((x, y, z), _)| Vert {
+                x: x / z,
+                y: y / z,
+                inv_z: 1.0 / z,
+                u_z: 0.0,
+                v_z: 0.0,
+            });
+            if !sub.two_sided && signed_area(&proj) <= 0.0 {
+                fp.back += 1;
+                continue;
+            }
+            fp.front += 1;
+            for p in proj {
+                fp.x = Some(fp.x.map_or((p.x, p.x), |(lo, hi)| (lo.min(p.x), hi.max(p.x))));
+                fp.y = Some(fp.y.map_or((p.y, p.y), |(lo, hi)| (lo.min(p.y), hi.max(p.y))));
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    fp
+}
+
+/// An eye-space vertex `(x, y, depth)` with its UV — the unit `clip_near` works on.
+type EyeVert = ((f32, f32, f32), [f32; 2]);
+
+/// Clip an eye-space triangle against `depth = near` (keep `depth ≥ near`), fanning the resulting
+/// polygon (0, 3 or 4 vertices) back into triangles. UVs are interpolated with the position.
+fn clip_near(tri: &[EyeVert], near: f32) -> Vec<[EyeVert; 3]> {
+    let inside = |p: &EyeVert| p.0 .2 >= near;
+    let mut poly: Vec<EyeVert> = Vec::with_capacity(4);
+    for i in 0..3 {
+        let a = tri[i];
+        let b = tri[(i + 1) % 3];
+        let (ia, ib) = (inside(&a), inside(&b));
+        if ia {
+            poly.push(a);
+        }
+        if ia != ib {
+            let t = (near - a.0 .2) / (b.0 .2 - a.0 .2);
+            let lerp = |p: f32, q: f32| p + (q - p) * t;
+            poly.push((
+                (lerp(a.0 .0, b.0 .0), lerp(a.0 .1, b.0 .1), near),
+                [lerp(a.1[0], b.1[0]), lerp(a.1[1], b.1[1])],
+            ));
+        }
+    }
+    match poly.len() {
+        3 => vec![[poly[0], poly[1], poly[2]]],
+        4 => vec![[poly[0], poly[1], poly[2]], [poly[0], poly[2], poly[3]]],
+        _ => Vec::new(),
+    }
+}
+
+/// The camera's eye frame in model space: `right`, `up`, `forward` unit vectors + the eye.
+///
+/// Mirrors the engine's `Transform::looking_at(target, up)` with `up = roll about forward ⋅ +Z`
+/// (the glue booth's own rig): `forward = target − eye`, `right = forward × up`, `up' = right ×
+/// forward`. Model space is WoW's (Z up); the engine's remap is a proper rotation, so cross
+/// products — and with them winding — agree between the two frames.
+struct EyeFrame {
+    eye: [f32; 3],
+    right: [f32; 3],
+    up: [f32; 3],
+    forward: [f32; 3],
+}
+
+impl EyeFrame {
+    fn of(cam: &M2PortraitCamera) -> Option<Self> {
+        let forward = normalize(sub(cam.target, cam.position))?;
+        let up0 = rotate_about(WOW_UP, forward, cam.roll);
+        let right = normalize(cross(forward, up0))?;
+        let up = cross(right, forward);
+        Some(Self {
+            eye: cam.position,
+            right,
+            up,
+            forward,
+        })
+    }
+
+    /// A model-space point in eye coordinates: `(x, y, depth)` with `depth` along `forward`.
+    fn to_eye(&self, p: [f32; 3]) -> (f32, f32, f32) {
+        let d = sub(p, self.eye);
+        (dot(d, self.right), dot(d, self.up), dot(d, self.forward))
+    }
+}
+
+/// WoW model space is Z-up.
+const WOW_UP: [f32; 3] = [0.0, 0.0, 1.0];
+
+// ---- small vector helpers (model space; no engine types in this crate) ----
+
+fn sub(a: [f32; 3], b: [f32; 3]) -> [f32; 3] {
+    [a[0] - b[0], a[1] - b[1], a[2] - b[2]]
+}
+
+fn dot(a: [f32; 3], b: [f32; 3]) -> f32 {
+    a[0] * b[0] + a[1] * b[1] + a[2] * b[2]
+}
+
+fn cross(a: [f32; 3], b: [f32; 3]) -> [f32; 3] {
+    [
+        a[1] * b[2] - a[2] * b[1],
+        a[2] * b[0] - a[0] * b[2],
+        a[0] * b[1] - a[1] * b[0],
+    ]
+}
+
+fn normalize(v: [f32; 3]) -> Option<[f32; 3]> {
+    let len = dot(v, v).sqrt();
+    (len > 1e-6).then(|| [v[0] / len, v[1] / len, v[2] / len])
+}
+
+/// Rodrigues: rotate `v` about the unit `axis` by `angle` radians.
+fn rotate_about(v: [f32; 3], axis: [f32; 3], angle: f32) -> [f32; 3] {
+    if angle == 0.0 {
+        return v;
+    }
+    let (s, c) = angle.sin_cos();
+    let k = cross(axis, v);
+    let d = dot(axis, v);
+    [
+        v[0] * c + k[0] * s + axis[0] * d * (1.0 - c),
+        v[1] * c + k[1] * s + axis[1] * d * (1.0 - c),
+        v[2] * c + k[2] * s + axis[2] * d * (1.0 - c),
+    ]
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// A camera at the origin looking down +X (WoW), Z up: `right` = −Y, `up` = +Z, `forward` = +X.
+    fn cam(fov: f32) -> M2PortraitCamera {
+        M2PortraitCamera {
+            fov,
+            far_clip: 100.0,
+            near_clip: 0.1,
+            position: [0.0, 0.0, 0.0],
+            target: [1.0, 0.0, 0.0],
+            roll: 0.0,
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// An axis-aligned card facing the camera at depth `d`, spanning `±w` horizontally (world −Y
+    /// is screen right) and `±h` vertically (Z), wound CCW as seen from the camera, UVs
+    /// `(0,0)` at screen left-bottom to `(1,1)` at right-top.
+    fn card(d: f32, w: f32, h: f32, blend: ModelBlend, two_sided: bool) -> RenderSubmesh {
+        // Screen-right is −Y: corners in screen order (left-bottom, right-bottom, right-top,
+        // left-top) are y = +w, −w, −w, +w.
+        RenderSubmesh {
+            positions: vec![[d, w, -h], [d, -w, -h], [d, -w, h], [d, w, h]],
+            uvs: vec![[0.0, 0.0], [1.0, 0.0], [1.0, 1.0], [0.0, 1.0]],
+            indices: vec![0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 3],
+            blend,
+            two_sided,
+            ..Default::default()
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// `fov = 1`: `t0 = tan(0.3) = 0.309`, `h0 = 0.413`; the grid spans `±0.68` wide, `±0.84`
+    /// tall. The cards below sit inside the span and outside the authored box.
+    const FOV: f32 = 1.0;
+    /// Two grid cells, the quantisation any extent can be short by.
+    const TOL: f32 = 2.0 * 2.0 * X_SPAN * 0.31 / CELLS as f32;
+
+    fn full(_: &RenderSubmesh) -> Option<Coverage> {
+        Some(Coverage::Full)
+    }
+
+    /// An alpha map opaque only across `lo..hi` of `u`, below the key elsewhere.
+    fn band(lo: f32, hi: f32) -> Arc<AlphaMap> {
+        let (w, h) = (64u32, 16u32);
+        let alpha = (0..w * h)
+            .map(|i| {
+                let u = (i % w) as f32 / w as f32;
+                if (lo..hi).contains(&u) {
+                    255
+                } else {
+                    ALPHA_KEY_REF - 1
+                }
+            })
+            .collect();
+        Arc::new(AlphaMap {
+            width: w,
+            height: h,
+            alpha,
+        })
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_wide_card_reports_its_own_half_extents() {
+        // At depth 10, a card ±5 wide / ±4 tall projects to ±0.5 / ±0.4 — both larger than the
+        // authored box, so the measured extents are the card's.
+        let sub = card(10.0, 5.0, 4.0, ModelBlend::Opaque, false);
+        let ext = glue_art_extent([&sub], &cam(FOV), full);
+        assert!((ext.half_w - 0.5).abs() < TOL, "half_w {}", ext.half_w);
+        assert!((ext.half_h - 0.4).abs() < TOL, "half_h {}", ext.half_h);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_card_narrower_than_the_authored_box_reports_zero() {
+        // ±2 at depth 10 → ±0.2 < t0 = 0.309: the authored vertical opening is not even covered.
+        let sub = card(10.0, 2.0, 2.0, ModelBlend::Opaque, false);
+        let ext = glue_art_extent([&sub], &cam(FOV), full);
+        assert_eq!(
+            ext,
+            ArtExtent {
+                half_w: 0.0,
+                half_h: 0.0
+            }
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn backfaces_are_not_coverage_unless_two_sided() {
+        let mut back = card(10.0, 5.0, 4.0, ModelBlend::Opaque, false);
+        back.indices.reverse(); // now wound CW as seen from the camera
+        assert_eq!(glue_art_extent([&back], &cam(FOV), full).half_w, 0.0);
+        back.two_sided = true;
+        assert!((glue_art_extent([&back], &cam(FOV), full).half_w - 0.5).abs() < TOL);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_batch_that_counts_for_nothing_paints_nothing() {
+        let sub = card(10.0, 5.0, 4.0, ModelBlend::Blend, false);
+        assert_eq!(glue_art_extent([&sub], &cam(FOV), |_| None).half_w, 0.0);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn an_alpha_texture_paints_only_where_it_passes_the_key() {
+        // A ±5 card (±0.5 at depth 10) whose texture is opaque only across u ∈ [0.2, 0.8]: it
+        // paints ±0.3 — the rows read that band; and since ±0.3 is inside the authored ±0.413,
+        // a column of the box goes unpainted and the height reads 0.
+        let sub = card(10.0, 5.0, 4.0, ModelBlend::AlphaTest, false);
+        let map = band(0.2, 0.8);
+        let ext = glue_art_extent([&sub], &cam(FOV), |_| Some(Coverage::Alpha(map.clone())));
+        assert!(
+            (ext.half_w - 0.3).abs() < TOL + 1.0 / 64.0,
+            "half_w {}",
+            ext.half_w
+        );
+        assert_eq!(ext.half_h, 0.0, "a column inside the box is unpainted");
+        // A band wider than the box (u ∈ [0.05, 0.95] → ±0.45) paints the full height.
+        let map = band(0.05, 0.95);
+        let ext = glue_art_extent([&sub], &cam(FOV), |_| Some(Coverage::Alpha(map.clone())));
+        assert!((ext.half_h - 0.4).abs() < TOL, "half_h {}", ext.half_h);
+        assert!(
+            (ext.half_w - 0.45).abs() < TOL + 1.0 / 64.0,
+            "half_w {}",
+            ext.half_w
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_narrowest_row_wins() {
+        // A trapezoid: ±5 wide at the bottom, ±2.5 at the top (depth 10) — the frame's top row
+        // (y' = +t0 = 0.309, i.e. Z = 3.09) sees a half-width interpolated between the two:
+        // at Z = 3.09 of a ±4-tall card, w = 5 − 2.5·(3.09+4)/8 = 2.78 → 0.278.
+        let mut sub = card(10.0, 5.0, 4.0, ModelBlend::Opaque, false);
+        sub.positions[2] = [10.0, -2.5, 4.0];
+        sub.positions[3] = [10.0, 2.5, 4.0];
+        let ext = glue_art_extent([&sub], &cam(FOV), full);
+        let t0 = authored_half_height(FOV);
+        let expect = (5.0 - 2.5 * (t0 * 10.0 + 4.0) / 8.0) / 10.0;
+        assert!(
+            (ext.half_w - expect).abs() < 3e-3,
+            "{} vs {expect}",
+            ext.half_w
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_card_behind_the_camera_is_clipped_away_and_one_straddling_it_is_clipped_to_near() {
+        let behind = card(-10.0, 5.0, 4.0, ModelBlend::Opaque, true);
+        assert_eq!(glue_art_extent([&behind], &cam(FOV), full).half_w, 0.0);
+        // A ground plane running from behind the camera to far ahead, below the eye: its near
+        // clip leaves finite geometry, the projection stays finite, and the covered rows are the
+        // lower half only — so the *full* authored opening is not covered and the extent is 0,
+        // without any NaN or panic on the way.
+        let mut ground = card(0.0, 50.0, 0.0, ModelBlend::Opaque, true);
+        ground.positions = vec![
+            [-5.0, 50.0, -1.0],
+            [-5.0, -50.0, -1.0],
+            [50.0, -50.0, -1.0],
+            [50.0, 50.0, -1.0],
+        ];
+        let ext = glue_art_extent([&ground], &cam(FOV), full);
+        assert!(ext.half_w.is_finite() && ext.half_h.is_finite());
+        assert_eq!(ext.half_w, 0.0);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn adjacent_cards_paint_one_run_across_their_shared_edge() {
+        let mut left = card(10.0, 5.0, 4.0, ModelBlend::Opaque, false);
+        left.positions = vec![
+            [10.0, 5.0, -4.0],
+            [10.0, 0.0, -4.0],
+            [10.0, 0.0, 4.0],
+            [10.0, 5.0, 4.0],
+        ];
+        let mut right = card(10.0, 5.0, 4.0, ModelBlend::Opaque, false);
+        right.positions = vec![
+            [10.0, 0.0, -4.0],
+            [10.0, -5.0, -4.0],
+            [10.0, -5.0, 4.0],
+            [10.0, 0.0, 4.0],
+        ];
+        let ext = glue_art_extent([&left, &right], &cam(FOV), full);
+        assert!((ext.half_w - 0.5).abs() < TOL, "half_w {}", ext.half_w);
+    }
+
+    /// Measure one shipped scene off the chain, the way the tool does.
+    fn measure(chain: &mut Chain, token: &str) -> (ArtExtent, f32) {
+        let name = format!("Interface\\Glues\\Models\\UI_{token}\\UI_{token}.m2");
+        let bytes = chain.read_file(&name).expect("read scene");
+        let subs = crate::parse_m2_render_submeshes(&bytes, "", &[]).expect("parse");
+        let cam = crate::parse_m2_camera(&bytes, 0).expect("camera 0");
+        let mut reader = CoverageReader::new(chain);
+        let ext = glue_art_extent(&subs, &cam, |s| reader.coverage(s).expect("texture"));
+        (ext, authored_half_height(cam.fov))
+    }
+
+    /// The transcription is the measurement: every shipped scene re-measures to the table's
+    /// numbers (within the grid's quantisation), every one covers (about) its authored 4:3 box
+    /// in width, and every one runs out of width before 16:9 — the fact the whole law rests on.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_shipped_table_matches_the_measurement() {
+        let data = crate::wow_data_or_skip!();
+        let mut chain = crate::open_chain(&data).expect("open chain");
+        for (token, shipped) in SHIPPED {
+            let (ext, t0) = measure(&mut chain, token);
+            assert!(
+                (ext.half_w - shipped.half_w).abs() < 2e-3
+                    && (ext.half_h - shipped.half_h).abs() < 2e-3,
+                "UI_{token}: measured {ext:?}, table {shipped:?}"
+            );
+            let runs_out_at = ext.half_w / t0;
+            assert!(
+                (GLUE_AUTHORED_ASPECT - 0.03..16.0 / 9.0).contains(&runs_out_at),
+                "UI_{token} covers up to aspect {runs_out_at:.3}"
+            );
+            // Every stage but the night elves' fills its authored box top to bottom; theirs
+            // shows black night sky between the leaves at its sides (the table's doc).
+            if token == "NightElf" {
+                assert!(
+                    ext.half_h < t0,
+                    "UI_NightElf: half_h {} — leaf gaps closed?",
+                    ext.half_h
+                );
+            } else {
+                assert!(
+                    ext.half_h >= t0,
+                    "UI_{token}: half_h {} < t0 {t0}",
+                    ext.half_h
+                );
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/benilla-formats/src/models/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-formats/src/models/mod.rs
index aa42e676..541af695 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-formats/src/models/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-formats/src/models/mod.rs
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ use crate::Chain;
 
 mod anim;
 mod anim_summary;
+mod art_extent;
 mod bounds;
 mod collision;
 mod key_anim;
@@ -31,6 +32,7 @@ mod types;
 mod wmo;
 pub use anim::*;
 pub use anim_summary::*;
+pub use art_extent::*;
 pub use bounds::*;
 pub use collision::*;
 pub(crate) use key_anim::{bake_track, SeqSlot};
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/layout.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/layout.rs
index 9ce3b700..4eddc04a 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/layout.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/layout.rs
@@ -206,6 +206,10 @@ pub(crate) struct LayoutScope {
     dep_head: Vec<u32>,
     dep_to: Vec<u32>,
     dep_next: Vec<u32>,
+    /// Edge slots freed by [`Self::retarget`], for [`Self::edge`] to reuse. Without it a session
+    /// of hovers would grow `dep_to` by one entry per retarget forever — bounded only by the next
+    /// full derivation, which is exactly the event retargeting exists to avoid.
+    dep_free: Vec<u32>,
     /// Per id: in the dirty closure.
     dirty: Vec<bool>,
     /// The closure's worklist.
@@ -269,6 +273,7 @@ impl LayoutScope {
         self.dirty.resize(n, false);
         self.dep_to.clear();
         self.dep_next.clear();
+        self.dep_free.clear();
         self.stack.clear();
         self.plan.clear();
         self.regions.clear();
@@ -302,12 +307,91 @@ impl LayoutScope {
             return; // an anchor to an id this pass has no node for (the screen root, a dead
                     // target): it cannot become dirty, so it constrains nothing.
         };
-        let e = self.dep_to.len() as u32;
-        self.dep_to.push(from);
-        self.dep_next.push(*head);
+        let e = match self.dep_free.pop() {
+            Some(e) => {
+                self.dep_to[e as usize] = from;
+                self.dep_next[e as usize] = *head;
+                e
+            }
+            None => {
+                let e = self.dep_to.len() as u32;
+                self.dep_to.push(from);
+                self.dep_next.push(*head);
+                e
+            }
+        };
         *head = e;
     }
 
+    /// Re-point node `id`'s outgoing edges after an anchor RETARGET — the write 1388 had to
+    /// classify as structural and answer with a whole-graph derivation.
+    ///
+    /// 1388's reasoning was that "an edge has to disappear and another to appear, and no per-node
+    /// hash can say so, so the cached graph must be thrown away". The first half is true and the
+    /// second does not follow: the write site knows both edge sets, because a node's outgoing
+    /// edges ARE its anchor targets (see the derive's two `scope.edge` loops). What it could not
+    /// do was *say* so — this is the vocabulary that was missing, not a cost that was unavoidable.
+    ///
+    /// It matters because the hottest retarget in the client is `GameTooltip:SetOwner`, which
+    /// re-points the plate at the button under the cursor: every bag slot and every spellbook
+    /// button crossed in a hover sweep was re-deriving the whole roster.
+    ///
+    /// `old`/`new` are the node's FULL anchor-target lists, before and after the write — not the
+    /// one that moved. That is what makes duplicates exact: a node with two anchors onto the same
+    /// target has two edges, and removing one per old entry leaves precisely the right count.
+    ///
+    /// Returns `false` when it cannot do this safely and the caller must fall back to the
+    /// conservative touch. Removing an edge is the only direction that can be WRONG (a missing
+    /// edge under-dirties, and under-dirtying ships a stale rect), so every uncertainty is
+    /// resolved by refusing: an id the cached graph has no node for, or a frame whose edges come
+    /// from a ScrollFrame override rather than from its own anchors (the derive does not consult
+    /// the authored anchors at all in that case). An old target with no edge to remove is NOT an
+    /// uncertainty — `edge` silently drops an anchor onto an id this pass has no node for, so its
+    /// absence is the expected shape, and skipping it removes nothing that exists.
+    pub(crate) fn retarget(&mut self, id: u32, old: &[u32], new: &[u32]) -> bool {
+        let Some(&n) = self.node_of.get(id as usize) else {
+            return false;
+        };
+        if n == u32::MAX {
+            return false;
+        }
+        if n & REGION_TAG == 0 && self.plan[n as usize].2.is_some() {
+            return false; // a ScrollFrame override owns this frame's edges, not its anchors
+        }
+        for &t in old {
+            self.unlink_edge(t, id);
+        }
+        for &t in new {
+            self.edge(id, t);
+        }
+        true
+    }
+
+    /// Unlink ONE `to → from` edge, if the list holds one. The lists are short by construction
+    /// (a node's dependents), and even a hub's is walked in microseconds against the ~1.3 ms
+    /// derivation this is replacing, so no bound is imposed on the walk.
+    fn unlink_edge(&mut self, to: u32, from: u32) {
+        let Some(&head) = self.dep_head.get(to as usize) else {
+            return;
+        };
+        let mut prev = u32::MAX;
+        let mut e = head;
+        while e != u32::MAX {
+            let next = self.dep_next[e as usize];
+            if self.dep_to[e as usize] == from {
+                if prev == u32::MAX {
+                    self.dep_head[to as usize] = next;
+                } else {
+                    self.dep_next[prev as usize] = next;
+                }
+                self.dep_free.push(e);
+                return;
+            }
+            prev = e;
+            e = next;
+        }
+    }
+
     /// Mark `id` dirty and queue it, if it is not already.
     #[inline]
     fn seed(&mut self, id: u32) {
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/model.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/model.rs
index 777214d9..6f4217db 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/model.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/model.rs
@@ -1703,7 +1703,7 @@ impl Model {
         // next resolve must derive it in full. Every site that has NOT been migrated to a precise
         // touch lands here, which is why migration can be incremental and a missed one is slow
         // rather than wrong.
-        self.layout_touched = None;
+        self.give_up_naming();
         self.bump_layout_epoch();
     }
 
@@ -1732,6 +1732,43 @@ impl Model {
         }
     }
 
+    /// An anchor RETARGET that names its node: the write moved node `h`'s (or `rh`'s) set of
+    /// anchor TARGETS, and hands over both target lists so the cached graph's edges can be
+    /// re-pointed instead of thrown away (decision 1625, extending 1388).
+    ///
+    /// `old`/`new` are the node's FULL anchor-target lists either side of the write. Falls back to
+    /// the conservative touch whenever the scope refuses the patch — the same "worst case is a
+    /// derivation" safety the other precise touches have.
+    pub(crate) fn touch_layout_retarget_frame(&mut self, h: FrameHandle, old: &[u32], new: &[u32]) {
+        match self.frame_to_id.get(&h).copied() {
+            // Already conservative ⇒ the next resolve rebuilds every edge from scratch anyway, so
+            // patching them would be work with no reader.
+            Some(id)
+                if self.layout_touched.is_some() && self.layout_scope.retarget(id, old, new) =>
+            {
+                self.touch_layout_node(id);
+            }
+            _ => self.touch_layout(),
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// [`Self::touch_layout_retarget_frame`]'s region twin.
+    pub(crate) fn touch_layout_retarget_region(
+        &mut self,
+        rh: RegionHandle,
+        old: &[u32],
+        new: &[u32],
+    ) {
+        match self.region_to_id.get(&rh).copied() {
+            Some(id)
+                if self.layout_touched.is_some() && self.layout_scope.retarget(id, old, new) =>
+            {
+                self.touch_layout_node(id);
+            }
+            _ => self.touch_layout(),
+        }
+    }
+
     /// A write that could move region `rh`'s measure key — its text, its font face/height/
     /// outline, its text height, its explicit size (the wrap width) — names the region on the
     /// measure ledger ([`Self::measure_dirty`]). Push-only and unfiltered: non-FontStrings and
@@ -1771,7 +1808,7 @@ impl Model {
                         .expect("checked above")
                         .push(id);
                 }
-                _ => self.layout_touched = None,
+                _ => self.give_up_naming(),
             }
         }
     }
@@ -1786,7 +1823,7 @@ impl Model {
                         .expect("checked above")
                         .push(id);
                 }
-                _ => self.layout_touched = None,
+                _ => self.give_up_naming(),
             }
         }
     }
@@ -1798,12 +1835,33 @@ impl Model {
         match &mut self.layout_touched {
             // Already conservative: a precise touch cannot un-say an imprecise one.
             None => {}
-            Some(_) if !in_graph => self.layout_touched = None,
+            Some(_) if !in_graph => self.give_up_naming(),
             Some(list) => list.push(id),
         }
         self.bump_layout_epoch();
     }
 
+    /// Give up naming what this write moved: the cached graph can no longer be trusted, so the
+    /// next resolve derives it in full. **Every** site that sets [`Self::layout_touched`] to
+    /// `None` goes through here, because that transition is the only event worth a name.
+    ///
+    /// `WOW_LAYOUT_DERIVE_TRACE=<secs>:<n>` — backtrace the first `n` of them after `secs`. 1388
+    /// left `layout_derivations` as "the counter to watch", and a non-zero reading as the proof
+    /// that "a write site somewhere fell back to the conservative touch" — but gave nobody a way
+    /// to find out WHICH, and `WOW_LAYOUT_TOUCH_TRACE` cannot answer it: it fires on every touch,
+    /// and the precise ones outnumber the poisoning one by hundreds to one. Only the Some → None
+    /// EDGE is printed: once a frame has given up, the fallbacks behind it are consequences, not
+    /// causes, and printing them buries the one line that matters.
+    fn give_up_naming(&mut self) {
+        if self.layout_touched.is_some() && derive_trace_armed() {
+            eprintln!(
+                "[layout-derive] the ledger gave up naming, at:\n{}",
+                std::backtrace::Backtrace::force_capture()
+            );
+        }
+        self.layout_touched = None;
+    }
+
     /// Tier 1's counter, shared by every touch above. Bumping it is what re-opens the gate; which
     /// of [`Self::layout_touched`]'s two states the caller leaves behind is what decides how much
     /// the re-opened resolve has to derive.
@@ -1843,3 +1901,27 @@ impl Model {
         }
     }
 }
+
+/// `WOW_LAYOUT_DERIVE_TRACE=<secs>:<n>`'s latch — arm after `secs` (past UI load, whose thousands
+/// of legitimate births are all conservative by construction and would eat the budget), then allow
+/// `n` prints. Same spec shape as `WOW_LAYOUT_TOUCH_TRACE`, deliberately: one thing to remember.
+fn derive_trace_armed() -> bool {
+    use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicU32, Ordering};
+    use std::sync::OnceLock;
+    static SPEC: OnceLock<Option<(std::time::Instant, f64, AtomicU32)>> = OnceLock::new();
+    let Some((t0, delay, left)) = SPEC.get_or_init(|| {
+        let v = std::env::var("WOW_LAYOUT_DERIVE_TRACE").ok()?;
+        let (secs, n) = v.split_once(':')?;
+        Some((
+            std::time::Instant::now(),
+            secs.trim().parse().ok()?,
+            AtomicU32::new(n.trim().parse().ok()?),
+        ))
+    }) else {
+        return false;
+    };
+    t0.elapsed().as_secs_f64() >= *delay
+        && left
+            .fetch_update(Ordering::Relaxed, Ordering::Relaxed, |v| v.checked_sub(1))
+            .is_ok()
+}
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/object/layout_methods.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/object/layout_methods.rs
index 4ab17362..d168252f 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/object/layout_methods.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/object/layout_methods.rs
@@ -442,13 +442,26 @@ fn set_point(lua: &Lua, this: &Table, point: &str, rest: [Value; 4]) -> mlua::Re
         // Value-only unless the target moved (decision 1388) — the per-frame `SetPoint` idiom
         // (a dragged window, a moving spark) re-points the SAME anchor at the SAME target with new
         // offsets, so it names its node and the cached graph survives the frame.
+        //
+        // A retarget names its node too now (decision 1625): the edge set is not derivable from a
+        // per-node hash, but it IS derivable from the anchors, and both lists are right here. The
+        // target lists are collected only on the structural path — the value-only one is the hot
+        // idiom and must stay allocation-free.
         let structural = anchor_retarget_is_structural(&input.anchors, &new);
+        let old_targets: Option<Vec<u32>> =
+            structural.then(|| input.anchors.iter().map(|a| a.relative_to).collect());
         input.anchors.retain(|a| a.point != point);
         input.anchors.push(new);
-        if structural {
-            model.touch_layout();
-        } else {
-            model.touch_layout_frame(h);
+        match old_targets {
+            None => model.touch_layout_frame(h),
+            Some(old) => {
+                let new_targets: Vec<u32> = model.layout_inputs[&h]
+                    .anchors
+                    .iter()
+                    .map(|a| a.relative_to)
+                    .collect();
+                model.touch_layout_retarget_frame(h, &old, &new_targets);
+            }
         }
     }
     Ok(())
@@ -460,7 +473,14 @@ fn set_point(lua: &Lua, this: &Table, point: &str, rest: [Value; 4]) -> mlua::Re
 /// node reads that node's rect". An anchor whose OFFSETS moved is a value change — the node
 /// re-solves and nothing else does, which is exactly what a precise touch claims. An anchor whose
 /// TARGET moved is not: an edge has to disappear and another to appear, and no per-node hash can
-/// say so, so the cached graph must be thrown away instead (decision 1388).
+/// say so.
+///
+/// 1388 answered that by throwing the cached graph away. **Since decision 1625 it does not have
+/// to be**: the write site holds both target lists, so the node's edges are re-pointed in place
+/// (`Model::touch_layout_retarget_frame`) and the roster and every other node's hash survive.
+/// What this predicate decides is therefore no longer "value change or catastrophe" but which of
+/// two precise touches to use — and it still earns its place, because the value-only answer is
+/// the hot per-frame idiom and must stay allocation-free.
 ///
 /// Mirrors the `retain(point) + push` the setters do. It is value-only in exactly one shape — one
 /// existing anchor carries this point and keeps the same target. Zero (an edge appears) and two or
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/region.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/region.rs
index 7278383d..81083b98 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/region.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/region.rs
@@ -751,13 +751,22 @@ pub(super) fn region_set_point(
         // The frame twin's law (decision 1388): re-pointing the same anchor at the same target is
         // a VALUE change and names its node; anything that moves the target set is structural.
         // This is the castbar spark's and every combat-text string's per-frame write.
+        // …and a retarget names its node too (decision 1625) — see the frame twin.
         let structural = anchor_retarget_is_structural(&data.anchors, &new);
+        let old_targets: Option<Vec<u32>> =
+            structural.then(|| data.anchors.iter().map(|a| a.relative_to).collect());
         data.anchors.retain(|a| a.point != point);
         data.anchors.push(new);
-        if structural {
-            model.touch_layout();
-        } else {
-            model.touch_layout_region(rh);
+        match old_targets {
+            None => model.touch_layout_region(rh),
+            Some(old) => {
+                let new_targets: Vec<u32> = model.region_data[&rh]
+                    .anchors
+                    .iter()
+                    .map(|a| a.relative_to)
+                    .collect();
+                model.touch_layout_retarget_region(rh, &old, &new_targets);
+            }
         }
     }
     Ok(())
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tests/layout_gate.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tests/layout_gate.rs
index e57e8c8f..e46f04c7 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tests/layout_gate.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tests/layout_gate.rs
@@ -490,3 +490,68 @@ fn a_paint_only_write_leaves_tier_one_closed() {
     s.resolve();
     assert_eq!(solves(&s), before);
 }
+
+/// **The retarget falsifier** (decision 1625): after a node is re-pointed from target A to target
+/// B, the cached graph's EDGES must describe the new shape — moving B must move the node.
+///
+/// This is the one direction that can be silently wrong. 1625 keeps the cached graph across an
+/// anchor retarget by patching one node's edges instead of re-deriving all of them, and a patch
+/// that dropped the *new* edge would under-dirty: the node would sit at a stale rect while the
+/// thing it is anchored to moved. (The other direction — a leftover edge to the OLD target — only
+/// costs a needless re-solve, so it is asserted second and separately.)
+///
+/// It asserts on RECTS, not on counts, because a wrong edge set is a wrong picture: the failure
+/// this guards against is a tooltip left behind at the last button's position.
+#[test]
+fn a_retargeted_anchor_follows_its_new_target() {
+    let mut s = script();
+    s.set_screen_size(800.0, 600.0);
+    s.run(
+        r#"
+        a = CreateFrame("Frame", "A", nil); a:SetWidth(10); a:SetHeight(10)
+        a:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", nil, "TOPLEFT", 0, 0)
+        b = CreateFrame("Frame", "B", nil); b:SetWidth(10); b:SetHeight(10)
+        b:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", nil, "TOPLEFT", 100, 0)
+        plate = CreateFrame("Frame", "Plate", nil)
+        plate:SetWidth(10); plate:SetHeight(10)
+        plate:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", a, "TOPRIGHT", 0, 0)
+        "#,
+    )
+    .expect("setup");
+    s.resolve();
+    s.resolve();
+
+    // The retarget: the plate now hangs off B, exactly as `GameTooltip:SetOwner` re-points the
+    // plate at the next button under the cursor.
+    s.run(r#"plate:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", b, "TOPRIGHT", 0, 0)"#)
+        .expect("retarget");
+    s.resolve();
+    let after_retarget = s.eval::<f64>("return Plate:GetLeft()").expect("plate left");
+    assert!(
+        (after_retarget - 110.0).abs() < 0.01,
+        "the retargeted plate must sit at B's right edge (110), not {after_retarget}"
+    );
+
+    // …and it must keep following B. This is the assertion the edge patch exists to satisfy: the
+    // graph was NOT re-derived across the retarget, so if the new edge never made it into the
+    // cached edge set, B moving reaches nothing and the plate stays put.
+    s.run(r#"b:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", nil, "TOPLEFT", 300, 0)"#)
+        .expect("move B");
+    s.resolve();
+    let after_move = s.eval::<f64>("return Plate:GetLeft()").expect("plate left");
+    assert!(
+        (after_move - 310.0).abs() < 0.01,
+        "moving the NEW target must move the plate (310), not leave it at {after_move} — the \
+         retarget's edge patch dropped the new edge and the node is under-dirtied (decision 1625)"
+    );
+
+    // …and it must NOT follow the old one any more.
+    s.run(r#"a:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", nil, "TOPLEFT", 0, -50)"#)
+        .expect("move A");
+    s.resolve();
+    let plate_now = s.eval::<f64>("return Plate:GetLeft()").expect("plate left");
+    assert!(
+        (plate_now - 310.0).abs() < 0.01,
+        "the plate must not follow its OLD target any more (310), got {plate_now}"
+    );
+}
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tooltip/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tooltip/mod.rs
index 8cfad1e4..48345a31 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tooltip/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tooltip/mod.rs
@@ -601,7 +601,15 @@ pub(super) fn append_line(
     if let Some(d) = model.region_data.get_mut(&lh) {
         if d.size != pin {
             d.size = pin;
-            model.touch_layout();
+            // NAMED, not conservative (decision 1388). This writes one region's EXPLICIT SIZE and
+            // nothing else — no anchor target, no roster membership — which is the exact shape
+            // 1388 migrated every size setter to. It was missed because it is an internal write
+            // rather than a `SetWidth` binding, and the miss is expensive in the one place it can
+            // least afford to be: the pin flips whenever a line changes ROLE between wrapped and
+            // plain, which is what every hover from one item or spell to a differently-shaped one
+            // does. A conservative touch there re-derives the whole layout graph — every live
+            // frame's scale re-synced, every anchored region re-hashed — on each hover.
+            model.touch_layout_region(lh);
             // The wrap pin is the measure key's wrap-width input.
             model.touch_measure(lh);
         }
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tooltip/verbs.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tooltip/verbs.rs
index 956cdec0..a900fb57 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tooltip/verbs.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/tooltip/verbs.rs
@@ -71,8 +71,16 @@ pub(in crate::script) fn install(lua: &Lua) -> mlua::Result<()> {
                             let same = input.anchors.len() == 1
                                 && crate::script::object::anchor_bits_eq(&input.anchors[0], &new);
                             if !same {
+                                // The plate re-points at the button under the cursor, which moves
+                                // an EDGE — structural under 1388, and therefore a whole-graph
+                                // derivation on every bag slot and every spellbook button a hover
+                                // sweep crossed. It names its node now (decision 1625): the old
+                                // and new target lists are both right here, so the cached graph's
+                                // edges are re-pointed instead of thrown away.
+                                let old_targets: Vec<u32> =
+                                    input.anchors.iter().map(|a| a.relative_to).collect();
                                 input.anchors = vec![new];
-                                model.touch_layout();
+                                model.touch_layout_retarget_frame(h, &old_targets, &[owner_id]);
                             }
                         }
                         None if anchor.eq_ignore_ascii_case("ANCHOR_NONE") => {
diff --git a/crates/benilla-visual/src/main.rs b/crates/benilla-visual/src/main.rs
index 385de36c..a5a6130d 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-visual/src/main.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-visual/src/main.rs
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 //!   benilla-visual diff     <a.png> <b.png>   [--out <diff.png>] [--fail <mae>] [--amplify <n>]
 //!   benilla-visual diff-dir <dir_a> <dir_b>   [--out <diff_dir>] [--fail <mae>] [--amplify <n>]
 //!   benilla-visual flicker  <burst_dir>       [--out <envelope.png>] [--fail <mae>] [--amplify <n>]
+//!   benilla-visual stat     <img.png>         [--rect <x>,<y>,<w>,<h>]
 //!
 //! `diff` compares two images; `diff-dir` compares every `*.png` present in *both* directories by name.
 //! Prints the metrics; writes amplified heatmap(s) when `--out` is given; exits non-zero if any image's
@@ -206,6 +207,10 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
                 .context("compose-dir needs --out <dir>")?;
             compose_dir(Path::new(da), Path::new(db), out)?;
         }
+        "stat" => {
+            let [img] = one(rest, "stat")?;
+            stat_cmd(Path::new(img), opts.rect.as_deref())?;
+        }
         "crop" => {
             let [img] = one(rest, "crop")?;
             let rect = opts
@@ -274,6 +279,67 @@ fn series(dir: &Path, at: &str) -> Result<()> {
 /// the frame entirely is an ERROR, never an edge-clamped guess; a rect that only partially fits is
 /// clamped *out loud*; and every pixel sample prints in SOURCE coordinates at source resolution, so
 /// nothing downstream does coordinate math on a zoomed image.
+/// Per-channel min / mean / max over a rect (or the whole frame) — the "is this region flat?"
+/// instrument. A frame edge that shows the render target's clear colour instead of art reads as
+/// `min == max` on every channel (decision 1619, the glue framing's void check); a region of art
+/// never does. Printed, not judged: the caller compares two rects or two captures.
+fn stat_cmd(path: &Path, rect: Option<&str>) -> Result<()> {
+    let img = load(path)?;
+    let (w, h) = img.dimensions();
+    let r = match rect {
+        Some(spec) => {
+            let want = parse_rect(spec)?;
+            if want.x0 >= w || want.y0 >= h {
+                bail!("--rect {spec} starts outside the {w}x{h} frame");
+            }
+            Rect {
+                x0: want.x0,
+                y0: want.y0,
+                x1: want.x1.min(w),
+                y1: want.y1.min(h),
+            }
+        }
+        None => Rect {
+            x0: 0,
+            y0: 0,
+            x1: w,
+            y1: h,
+        },
+    };
+    let mut min = [u8::MAX; 3];
+    let mut max = [u8::MIN; 3];
+    let mut sum = [0u64; 3];
+    for y in r.y0..r.y1 {
+        for x in r.x0..r.x1 {
+            let p = img.get_pixel(x, y).0;
+            for c in 0..3 {
+                min[c] = min[c].min(p[c]);
+                max[c] = max[c].max(p[c]);
+                sum[c] += u64::from(p[c]);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    let n = u64::from(r.width()) * u64::from(r.height());
+    let mean = sum.map(|s| s as f64 / n as f64);
+    let flat = min == max;
+    println!(
+        "{}: {w}x{h} rect [{}..{}, {}..{}] ({} px)  min {:?}  mean [{:.1}, {:.1}, {:.1}]  max {:?}  {}",
+        path.display(),
+        r.x0,
+        r.x1,
+        r.y0,
+        r.y1,
+        n,
+        min,
+        mean[0],
+        mean[1],
+        mean[2],
+        max,
+        if flat { "FLAT" } else { "varied" }
+    );
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 fn crop_cmd(path: &Path, rect: &str, at: Option<&str>, scale: u32, out: &Path) -> Result<()> {
     let img = load(path)?;
     let (w, h) = img.dimensions();
@@ -787,6 +853,7 @@ fn print_usage() {
            benilla-visual hotspot     <burst_dir>     --out <strip.png> [--toggle-delta <n>] [--pad <n>]\n  \
            benilla-visual series      <burst_dir>     --at \"<x>,<y>[;<x>,<y>…]\"\n  \
            benilla-visual compose-dir <dir_a> <dir_b> --out <dir>   (side-by-side `a | b` per image)\n  \
+           benilla-visual stat        <img.png>       [--rect \"<x>,<y>,<w>,<h>\"]\n\
            benilla-visual crop        <img.png>       --rect \"<x>,<y>,<w>,<h>\" --out <crop.png> [--scale <n>] [--at \"<x>,<y>;…\"]\n\
          \n\
          flicker reads a WOW_LIVE_SHOT_COUNT burst (adjacent frames) in shot order and reports both\n\
diff --git a/crates/benilla-world/src/static_gx/pool.rs b/crates/benilla-world/src/static_gx/pool.rs
index 499556a4..16d955b1 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-world/src/static_gx/pool.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-world/src/static_gx/pool.rs
@@ -218,6 +218,7 @@ impl GxTexturePool {
         });
         for class in &mut self.classes {
             for (src, layer) in class.pending.drain(..) {
+                let (block_w, block_h) = class.format.block_dimensions();
                 for mip in 0..class.mips.min(src.mip_level_count()) {
                     let mut dst = class.array.as_image_copy();
                     dst.mip_level = mip;
@@ -227,9 +228,17 @@ impl GxTexturePool {
                     encoder.copy_texture_to_texture(
                         s,
                         dst,
+                        // The **physical** mip extent — rounded up to whole blocks. wgpu-core's
+                        // `validate_texture_copy_range` checks `copy_size % block_dimensions`
+                        // unconditionally (there is no "it's the whole mip" exemption), and a
+                        // BLP's authored chain bottoms out at 2x2 — below a BC block on EVERY
+                        // texture. Uncompressed formats have 1x1 blocks, so this is the identity
+                        // there and the line reads the same for both. Without the round-up, the
+                        // first BC texture pooled here is a validation error, and wgpu's default
+                        // handler makes that a process panic (decision 1626).
                         Extent3d {
-                            width: (class.size.width >> mip).max(1),
-                            height: (class.size.height >> mip).max(1),
+                            width: (class.size.width >> mip).max(1).div_ceil(block_w) * block_w,
+                            height: (class.size.height >> mip).max(1).div_ceil(block_h) * block_h,
                             depth_or_array_layers: 1,
                         },
                     );
diff --git a/crates/benilla-world/src/view.rs b/crates/benilla-world/src/view.rs
index 141088cc..52f8e687 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-world/src/view.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-world/src/view.rs
@@ -97,8 +97,11 @@ impl Viewer {
 /// View distance in yards. `farclip` = WoW's `farclip` CVar — the ONE view distance: the far plane of
 /// the detailed world (geometry beyond it is clipped per-pixel, the wall, and the WDL horizon fills
 /// in beyond) **and** the reach of terrain residency (`terrain_stream::window`, decision 1513).
-/// Default **777** (the vanilla clamp's max; the reference registers 350 — 0954's deliberate
-/// divergence, matching the reference `Config.wtf` most players ran).
+/// Default **350** — the reference client's own registered default (decision 1624, superseding
+/// 0954's divergence to the clamp's max 777). 777 shipped as "the `Config.wtf` most players ran",
+/// but it is the *maximum*, and it is what every player gets before they touch anything: at 777 the
+/// residency window is 24 chunks per axis against 350's 11 ([`terrain_stream::window::inner_radius`]),
+/// ~4.8x the area streamed, drawn and held resident. The slider still reaches 777.
 #[derive(Resource, Clone, Copy)]
 pub struct ViewDistance {
     pub farclip: f32,
@@ -118,7 +121,7 @@ pub const FARCLIP_RANGE: std::ops::RangeInclusive<f32> = 177.0..=777.0;
 pub const CAM_FAR: f32 = 3000.0;
 
 impl Default for ViewDistance {
-    /// `$WOW_FARCLIP` (yd, clamped to [`FARCLIP_RANGE`]) overrides the 777 default. The options row is
+    /// `$WOW_FARCLIP` (yd, clamped to [`FARCLIP_RANGE`]) overrides the 350 default. The options row is
     /// the live lever, but a headless capture has no hands — and a horizon or fog report almost always
     /// arrives with the director's slider somewhere other than the default (the 0684 gap was invisible
     /// at 777 and glaring at 320), so reproducing one must not need a human. Read once at startup, like
@@ -127,7 +130,7 @@ impl Default for ViewDistance {
         let farclip = std::env::var("WOW_FARCLIP")
             .ok()
             .and_then(|v| v.parse::<f32>().ok())
-            .map_or(777.0, |v| {
+            .map_or(350.0, |v| {
                 v.clamp(*FARCLIP_RANGE.start(), *FARCLIP_RANGE.end())
             });
         Self { farclip }