VI thread dereferences a null ViState::mode when a game is started before the first update_vi()

[johvmac]

VI thread dereferences a null ViState::mode when a game is started before the first update_vi()

Symptom

SIGSEGV in the VI thread within ~3s of launch, before the game produces any
output:

Thread 54 "VI Thread" received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x0000555555c42f7b in vi_thread_func() ()

It shows up when the game is started immediately at launch — i.e. a path that
calls recomp::start_game() without waiting on the UI. Starting through the
menu normally gives the VI thread enough iterations to get past it, so it is
easy to miss.

Root cause

ViState::mode (ultramodern/src/events.cpp) has no default initializer,
while its sibling does:

struct ViState {
    const OSViMode* mode;          // no initializer
    ...
    int retrace_count = 1;         // has one
};

events_context has static storage duration, so mode is a deterministic
nullptr at startup rather than indeterminate garbage.

Before the game calls osViSetMode(), the only thing that populates mode is
set_dummy_vi() in vi_thread_func() — and that is inside the not-started
branch, while update_vi() a few lines later dereferences unconditionally:

if (!ultramodern::is_game_started()) {
    set_dummy_vi(odd);             // the only pre-osViSetMode writer of mode
    ...
}
...
events_context.vi.update_vi();     // dereferences mode unconditionally

is_game_started() is game_status.load() != GameStatus::None, and
recomp::start_game() stores GameStatus::Running directly. Nothing on that
path waits for the recompiled game code to reach osViSetMode(). So the flag
can already be true on the VI thread's first iteration — set_dummy_vi()
never runs, and update_vi() dereferences null.

It is specifically a first-iteration race. update_vi() ends with

cur_state ^= 1;
*get_next_state() = *get_cur_state();

so one pre-start set_dummy_vi() propagates a non-null mode into both slots
permanently. The window is only ever that first iteration, which is why it
looks intermittent and why an autostart path makes it near-deterministic.

Evidence

From the unfixed build:

si_addr = 0x1c
=> 0x555555c42f7b <vi_thread_func+779>:  mov  0x1c(%r15),%edx     # %r15 = 0

0x1c is OSViMode::comRegs.hStart (3 bytes padding + type, then ctrl at
offset 4). Note the two preceding &-expressions, &next_mode->comRegs and
&next_mode->fldRegs[field], are only address arithmetic and do not fault; the
first real load through next_mode is what dies.

Measured on a recompilation of Sin and Punishment, 3 isolated runs per arm,
with the two binaries built from the same tree and differing only in whether
this path is guarded (build is bit-reproducible, so each arm was confirmed by
SHA-256):

arm	runs	time to SIGSEGV	faulting thread	game output first
unguarded	3	2s, 2s, 3s	vi_thread_func()	none — log ends at font/asset init
guarded	3	never faults	—	30 display lists/s, sustained 156s+

A fourth unguarded run with all optional debug instrumentation disabled also
died at 3s, so this is not an artifact of local probes.

Worth flagging for anyone reproducing: our guarded build eventually hits a
separate, pre-existing crash in the recompiled game's own code at ~158s. So the
discriminator is time and faulting thread, not crash/no-crash — a plain
"does it still crash?" comparison would wrongly conclude nothing changed.

Environment

• N64ModernRuntime at 589bbf0
• Linux, x86-64, Release build

Note on how this was found

This investigation was AI-assisted, which I'm flagging up front given
CONTRIBUTING.md. I'm therefore filing it as a bug report only, with no patch
attached — the analysis and fix decision are yours. The run data above was
gathered on real builds on my machine rather than asserted.

[DarioSamo]

This issue was already fixed in this PR which will be merged later: #153

And please refrain from submitting AI-generated issue reports, as no further time will be spent reading them.