feat: a plot can carry a phosphor density, one image for every acquisition

`Plot::set_density()` gives a plot a **phosphor density**: a screen-sized intensity image behind
its traces, into which each acquisition is deposited and which fades by a time constant or by a
per-acquisition factor. It is the library's and not a host's because the library is the side that
knows a trace's device geometry -- a host would be re-rasterising traces the renderer has already
staged, at a second derivation of the same mapping.

It is an **image and not a set of retained traces**, and that is the whole of its cost: one `f32`
cell per device pixel of the axes rect (`DensityGrid`), a cell's value a *number of sweeps*, so a
display of a thousand acquisitions costs what one costs and there is no depth to get wrong.
Measured on a 640x360 viewport's axes: **573x313 = 179 349 cells, 717 396 bytes** of grid, and one
byte per cell uploaded on the frame the grid moved.

- `Plot::accumulate_density()` deposits the acquisition on screen: every visible trace's window is
  mapped to sample indices and gathered exactly as `Renderer::draw_traces()` maps it, then walked
  column by column -- so the deposit is bounded by the axes' columns and not by the samples behind
  them -- and a cell takes **1.0 once per trace per sweep**, however many of that trace's own
  samples crossed it. Counting the hits instead put a single dense sweep at the ceiling of the
  brightness scale and hid the sweeps behind it, and it made a cell mean "how much the beam moved
  here" rather than "how many acquisitions were here"; the dedupe is a stamp per grid *row* (one
  `u64`, keyed by trace and column) so two sweeps agreeing on a cell still count twice. Dwell is a
  different question the library already answers (`Style::intensity_grading`).
- `decay_density(dt_s)` fades by the clock, `clear_density()` and switching the density off drop
  the image at once. `DensityConfig` carries `full_scale` and `gamma`, applied on the CPU when the
  grid changed: the value a host reads back through `ink()`/`peak()` and the picture it sees are
  one derivation, and a frame whose grid did not move skips the conversion and the upload entirely
  (`FrameStats::density_cells`/`density_upload_bytes`, the latter the *frame's* total over every
  row, which one row's assignment used to overwrite).
- The renderer draws it as one attribute-less quad over the axes rect (`kDensityVS`/`kDensityFS`,
  `DensityProgram`), over the grid and the invalid-span bands and **under the traces**, inside the
  axes' clip: it reserves no layout space and nothing on it can be picked, exactly as
  `Plot::set_invalid_spans()` does. `Style::density` is its tint.
- The two fades are the two questions a persistence display can be asked -- "still visible a second
  later" and "the N-th back is gone" -- so the choice is the caller's.

Six cases, all in the suite: four plot-level ones (the grid's resolution and memory, the
per-acquisition schedule **584 -> 876 -> 1022** ink with `peak_steady=2.000`, `exp(-dt/tau)` off
the ink, and the deposit's own geometry including a NaN as a gap) and one on the real driver
(`a_phosphor_density_is_drawn_under_the_traces`: `cells=179349 uploaded=179349` on the moved frame
and `uploaded=0` on the identical one after it, with the trace's stroke keeping its own colour over
the ink). The suite is **396 cases, 0 failed** and all four ctest entries pass.
This commit is contained in:
Martino Ferrari committed 2026-10-16 17:25:39 +02:00
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@@ -41,8 +41,8 @@ ctest --test-dir build/debug --output-on-failure
ctest registers four tests: `plot_tests` (the test binary), the two header/umbrella build
checks (`plot_headers_self_contained`, `plot_umbrella_covers_public_headers`) and
`plot_umbrella_check`. The `plot_tests` binary itself runs **377 cases** in the `linux-debug`
preset; its harness prints one line per case and a final `377 cases, 0 failed` summary line.
`plot_umbrella_check`. The `plot_tests` binary itself runs **396 cases** in the `linux-debug`
preset; its harness prints one line per case and a final `396 cases, 0 failed` summary line.
The case counts per file are the `PLOT_TEST(...)` declarations under `tests/` — recount them
(`grep -c '^PLOT_TEST(' tests/test_*.cpp`) after adding or removing cases.
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ The case counts per file are the `PLOT_TEST(...)` declarations under `tests/`
is for working *on* a case rather than for checking the library: most of the render cases
create their own EGL context and read pixels back, so the whole binary is far slower than
the one case being edited and its one line of measured output scrolls past 376 others. The
summary line still counts the whole suite, so a filtered run says `377 cases, 0 failed`
summary line still counts the whole suite, so a filtered run says `396 cases, 0 failed`
having run one — it is never evidence that the suite passes. Unset, every case runs.
## Install layout
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ per-file table and the floor verdict live in [docs/coverage.md](coverage.md), wh
`tools/coverage.sh` rewrites from the very run that measured them. Re-run the command for the
live numbers.
**One thing to know about the coverage preset:** it builds **360 of the 377 cases**. The 17
**One thing to know about the coverage preset:** it builds **379 of the 396 cases**. The 17
that are missing are the adapter cases that need an adapter target to exist — 11 in
`test_imgui_widget.cpp` and 6 in `test_glfw_host.cpp` — and the coverage preset turns the
adapters off. The toolkit-free adapter seams still run there: `test_qt_pointer.cpp` (5 cases)