Ownership and resource chain

A braindance review scene is a coordinated set of native resources. Treating the .scene or .scenerid as the whole feature hides the world placement, quest lifecycle, clue-state, and cleanup owners that make playback usable.

Research note: the named vanilla shapes on this page are Observed in vanilla. The mod-owned .questphase/.scene/.scenerid research chain is Structurally validated because each binary serialized and deserialized with WolvenKit 8.19.0. Its in-game playback, seek, rewind, layers, cleanup, interruption, and replay remain Experimental.

Start with owners, not filenames

registered root questphase
  -> child questphase owns entry preparation and scene invocation
       -> questSceneNodeDefinition resolves a mod-owned .scene
            -> scnSceneResource owns screenplay, events, exits, and RID refs
                 -> scnRidResource owns recorded actor/camera animation data
            -> scene props resolve records and support .ent resources
            -> scene markers and clue references resolve placed world nodes
       -> named scene outcome returns to the questphase
  -> questphase restores player/world/UI state and commits durable outcome

No arrow can be replaced by a same-looking identifier from another domain. A scene event ID is not a RID serial number, a scene performer ID is not a community entry name, and a NodeRef is not a depot path.

Native ownership table

This is why cleanup belongs to the questphase even when the last visible event is inside the scene. Scene completion is a signal; it does not automatically restore every state changed before playback.

The six typed joins

Record these joins explicitly in design notes and acceptance evidence.

1. Quest node to scene resource

The scene node’s soft resource reference is a depot path such as mod\my_quest\scenes\my_bd.scene. Its configured scene input and world marker must exist in that exact scene/world pair. Filename similarity cannot satisfy either join.

The owning phase also declares the prefab root needed for its local NodeRefs. Follow Quest prefabs and NodeRefs and Entry, exit, and quest handoff.

2. Scene handler to RID resource

scnSceneResource.ridResources[] contains scnRidResourceHandler values. A handler couples an scnRidResourceId with a .scenerid depot path. Later scene-reference entries use that resource ID again; array position or a file’s basename is not the durable join.

In the current sq012_02a_braindance.scene, three handlers address parts A, B, and C. That is Observed in vanilla for this recording, not a requirement that custom work use three files.

3. RID tag to recorded performer or camera

The .scenerid root is scnRidResource. Its actor and camera entries have an scnRidTag containing a typed signature (CName) and an scnRidSerialNumber. The inspected SQ012 part-A RID is version 5, contains nine actor entries and one camera entry, and has separate body, facial, and in one case cyberware channels. Those counts are Observed in vanilla only.

A scene’s resouresReferences collection maps animation references back to a RID resourceId and animation serial number. Events then select an entry in those scene-local reference arrays. All three levels must agree:

.scenerid tag / animation serial
  <-> scene resourceId + serial reference
       <-> event's scene-local animResRefId or animSRRefId

4. Scene performer to actor acquisition

RID animation events target an scnPerformerId; scene actors use scnActorId, actor names, and acquisition plans. Community-backed performers still require the readiness/acquisition lifecycle described in Activation, readiness, and acquisition. Recorded motion does not spawn a performer.

5. Scene prop to support entity and world marker

The inspected SQ012 scene defines bdview, bdfog, and bdsetup as scnPropDef entries using entityAcquisitionPlan: spawnDespawn. Each entry selects a Props.* TweakDB record and a global spawn-marker NodeRef. The records ultimately select the three .ent resources cited by this section.

The focused entity roots are entEntityTemplate. The BD view and fog resources contain mesh components; the BD setup resource contains a render-to-texture camera component. A successful .ent round trip does not prove that its record exists, its marker resolves, or the scene spawns it.

6. Clue event to world entity, discovery fact, and journal

An scneventsClueEvent owns a timeline interval and analysis layer. Its gameEntityReference may address an actor within a community or a standalone world NodeRef. Scene quest nodes can discover/toggle the clue and write a fact. The owning questphase must deliberately consume that fact and update the journal. See Clue layers, cleanup, and acceptance.

Focused current-archive observation

Use the disposable-project procedure in Inspect a vanilla questphase, but search for these exact paths:

base\quest\side_quests\sq012\scenes\sq012_02a_braindance.scene
base\animations\quest\side_quests\sq012\sq012_braindance\rid\sq012_braindance__part_a.scenerid
base\quest\side_quests\sq012\entities\sq012_02a_braindance_bdview.ent
base\quest\side_quests\sq012\entities\sq012_02a_braindance_bdfog.ent
base\quest\side_quests\sq012\entities\sq012_02a_braindance_bdsetup.ent

Open the current .scene and inspect properties before its graph. Record only focused notes:

Do not copy the extracted resource into a mod project. It contains quest-local actors, records, NodeRefs, facts, scene IDs, and animation references. Retain the path, versions, a small property inventory, and—if useful—a local hash.

Author a mod-owned chain manually in WolvenKit

This is a planning and inspection order, not a claim that every field has a safe from-scratch editor default.

1. Define the terminal quest outcome, replay policy, and cleanup obligations before creating animation.
2. Allocate a mod-owned namespace for depot paths, facts, full NodeRefs, community entries, scene entry/exit names, actor/prop names, RID resource IDs, and serial numbers.
3. Create or place the scene origin, support-prop marker, camera entity, clue entities, and player hold/return anchors in mod-owned world resources.
4. Declare those world roots in the exact questphase that resolves them.
5. Build an ordinary scene shell first: actors, props, entry, exit, interruption scenario, and a non-rewindable diagnostic route.
6. Add a mod-owned .scenerid; inventory every actor/camera tag, animation serial, channel, duration, joint count, and track count.
7. Add scene RID handlers and reference tables, then bind events by typed reference ID. Do not infer array indexes from another scene.
8. Add the rewindable section, its timed events, layer conditions, clue events, and named outputs.
9. Add quest-side preparation, scene invocation, normal cleanup, interrupted cleanup, journal/fact handoff, and replay guard/reset.
10. Round-trip every CR2W with WolvenKit, pack only mod-owned resources, and execute the eight-case matrix from clean saves.

The scene editor may make some of these arrays easier to edit, but the native contract remains the same. If a required table or buffer cannot be authored safely in the current WolvenKit UI, stop at a focused inspection/structural prototype. Do not substitute a hidden generator and call that a reader-facing manual procedure.

Failure routing

Next: RID playback and rewind.