RFD 2136: The gacha critical path, as a ladder

Problem

The prior draft of this RFD ran a PERT network with a chain A → I → D → E → G, and I → D skipped every step that turns a text prompt into a mesh good enough to skin: no image-to-3D via Pixal3D, no EditScore judge, no repair loop. A pull is not a gacha item without those, so the network was drawing a schedule around a pipeline that did not yet exist end to end.

Decision

Rebuild the plan as a ladder, in Gall’s Law’s sense: each rung is a small working system that the next one extends, and no rung is added until the one below it demonstrably runs. That replaces the parallel tracks with a sequence where every step shows something, and it puts Pixal3D and EditScore on the spine where they belong.

The ladder, bottom to top:

  1. Language prompt → image. OmniGen2 renders a reference image from a text prompt. Pixal3D takes an image, not text, so this rung is the ground the rest stands on. An image comes out.
  2. Image → mesh. Pixal3D renders one mesh from the reference image on the desk 3090. A mesh comes out. Whether it is good is the next rung’s problem.
  3. Prompt → mesh → judged. EditScore scores the mesh against the prompt. A number comes out. Whether the number is trusted is the next rung’s problem.
  4. Prompt → mesh → judged → repaired. VoxHammer runs the repair pass on below-threshold meshes; they are rejudged and the loop bounds to N attempts. Every prompt yields a mesh with a passing score, or a recorded refusal.
  5. Prompt → passing mesh → skinned. SkinTokens runs in skin-mode against the canonical ANNY skeleton and produces a rig that bends without collapsing (EditScore on posed frames is the QA gate).
  6. Prompt → skinned mesh → tagged. The canonical See-Through partition (VALID_BODY_PARTS_V3, 23 tags; RFD 1121 audited) is recovered on the mesh by treating the mesh’s partition as corruption: VoxHammer proposes repairs toward the canonical partition, EditScore judges each proposal, the loop bounds to N attempts. Written to the mesh as a per-vertex tag primvar. Parts are addressable.
  7. Prompt → tagged rig → VRM. The seed-to-VRM assembly runs end to end from a single command: a portable, editable character file.
  8. Prompt list → pool. The seed-to-VRM command runs against a list of prompts, gated by rent from the spot-broker when the desk is not enough. About 50 VRMs, judged and reproducible by seed.
  9. Pool → roll button. A page with a roll button dispenses one VRM per pull, downloadable.
  10. Public. The page is hosted with a sponsor link and an automation-disclosure page.

Each rung is a demo you can show. A rung is “done” when it produces its output from the previous rung’s output, and a control run on a known-broken input fails. The order stays fixed: skipping a rung is the failure mode this RFD replaces.

Verification

page.qmd beside this file draws the ladder and pairs each rung with its inputs, its output, and the negative control that certifies it. The spend infrastructure the higher rungs lean on is live (RFDs 2133–2135); the two operator-side blockers (vast.ai key, broker token) bite at rung 7, not before.

Figure

The report as a page