fix(highway): the paused-frame throttle was throttling the whole venue

Pausing the song dropped the venue, the crowd and the stage to ~10 fps —
"everything around the highway drops fps by a lot".

draw() caps paused frames to one per _PAUSED_FRAME_INTERVAL_MS (100ms), on an
assumption stated plainly in highway-constants.js: a heavy WebGL renderer "does
a full render every frame even while paused. That is pure waste." That was true
when a paused chart was a still picture.

The venue broke the assumption. Its video backdrop keeps playing and its crowd
reacts on a clock of their own, and BOTH are drawn into the same canvas as the
notes — so a throttle aimed at static notes throttled the entire room. The
scene only got a texture upload 10 times a second while the transport sat
paused.

Renderers can now declare that their picture is not static while the chart
clock is stopped: an optional needsContinuousFrames(). The throttle is skipped
only when it returns exactly true, and the probe fails closed — a renderer that
doesn't implement it, or one that throws, keeps the throttle unchanged. So the
GPU saving that motivated #654 survives everywhere it was actually valid.

highway_3d implements it and claims continuous frames ONLY while a crowd video
is genuinely rolling (bound, unpaused, not ended, readyState >= 2). With no
venue pack — the common case — the paused scene really is static, so it keeps
the throttle and the GPU still idles.

Tests extend tests/js/highway_pause_throttle.test.js, which guards this code
path source-level (the draw loop owns the rAF + WebGL lifecycle and is
deliberately not reproduced in a vm — see the file header). The new guards pin
that the capability GATES the early return rather than merely being called near
it, that the probe fails closed on absent/non-function/throwing/truthy-but-not-
true, and that the 3D renderer keys off the real video elements and can still
return false. All 3 fail against the pre-fix source.

eslint 0 errors; JS 1202/1202; pytest 2597 passed.

plugins/highway_3d/screen.js

@@ -15388,6 +15388,27 @@
                 });
             },
 
+            // The host throttles paused frames to ~10 fps, on the assumption
+            // that a paused chart is a static picture and re-rendering it is
+            // pure waste (highway-constants._PAUSED_FRAME_INTERVAL_MS).
+            //
+            // That stopped being true when the venue landed. The venue backdrop
+            // is a PLAYING VIDEO and the crowd reacts on its own clock, and they
+            // are drawn into this same canvas as the highway — so throttling the
+            // highway throttled the whole room. Pausing the song dropped the
+            // venue, the crowd and the stage to 10 fps.
+            //
+            // Only claim continuous frames while a crowd video is actually
+            // rolling: with no venue pack (the common case) the paused scene IS
+            // static and the throttle should still save the GPU.
+            needsContinuousFrames() {
+                if (!_isReady || _ctxLost) return false;
+                for (const v of _venueCrowdVideos) {
+                    if (v && !v.paused && !v.ended && v.readyState >= 2) return true;
+                }
+                return false;
+            },
+
             draw(bundle) {
                 if (!_isReady) return;
                 if (_ctxLost) return;   // GPU context lost (alt-tab / reset) — skip until restored

static/highway.js

@@ -1159,6 +1159,17 @@ function createHighway() {
             ' (user ' + hwState._renderScale.toFixed(2) + ' / auto ' + hwState._autoScale.toFixed(2) + ')';
     }
 
+    // Optional renderer capability: "my picture keeps moving even when the chart
+    // clock is stopped". Anything a renderer animates on its own clock (the 3D
+    // highway's venue video + crowd) has to opt out of the paused-frame throttle
+    // or it renders at 10 fps while the song is paused. Absent / throwing =
+    // false, so every existing renderer keeps the throttle unchanged.
+    function _rendererNeedsContinuousFrames() {
+        const r = hwState._renderer;
+        if (!r || typeof r.needsContinuousFrames !== 'function') return false;
+        try { return r.needsContinuousFrames() === true; } catch (_) { return false; }
+    }
+
     function draw() {
         hwState.animFrame = requestAnimationFrame(draw);
         if (!hwState.canvas || !hwState._renderer) return;
@@ -1223,7 +1234,15 @@ function createHighway() {
             const _nowP = performance.now();
             if (_nowP - hwState._chartLastAdvanceAt > _CHART_MAX_INTERP_MS) {
                 _paused = true;
-                if (_nowP - hwState._lastPausedDrawAt < _PAUSED_FRAME_INTERVAL_MS) return;
+                // ...unless the renderer says its picture is NOT static while
+                // paused. The throttle assumes a paused chart is a still frame,
+                // but a renderer can own content on a clock of its own — the 3D
+                // highway draws the venue's video backdrop and its reactive crowd
+                // into this same canvas, so throttling the highway throttled the
+                // whole room to 10 fps whenever the song was paused. Optional
+                // method: renderers that don't implement it keep the throttle.
+                if (!_rendererNeedsContinuousFrames()
+                    && _nowP - hwState._lastPausedDrawAt < _PAUSED_FRAME_INTERVAL_MS) return;
                 hwState._lastPausedDrawAt = _nowP;
             }
         }

tests/js/highway_pause_throttle.test.js

@@ -77,3 +77,50 @@ test('throttle runs after the ready gate, before bundle/draw', () => {
     assert.ok(readyIdx < throttleIdx, 'throttle must come after the ready gate');
     assert.ok(throttleIdx < drawIdx, 'throttle must come before the renderer draw');
 });
+
+// ── The throttle must not starve a renderer that animates on its own clock ──
+//
+// The throttle assumes a paused chart is a still picture, so re-rendering it is
+// waste. That stopped being true when the venue landed: the 3D highway draws the
+// venue's VIDEO backdrop and its reactive crowd into the same canvas as the
+// notes, so capping paused frames capped the whole room — pausing the song
+// dropped the venue to ~10 fps ("everything around the highway drops fps").
+//
+// Renderers now opt out via an optional needsContinuousFrames(). Absent or
+// throwing must mean false, so every other renderer keeps the throttle.
+
+test('paused throttle defers to a renderer that needs continuous frames', () => {
+    const src = highwaySources();
+    const fn = extractBlock(src, 'function draw()');
+    assert.match(fn, /_rendererNeedsContinuousFrames\s*\(\s*\)/,
+        'the paused throttle must consult the renderer capability');
+    // The capability must GATE the early-return, not merely be called near it:
+    // the throttle only applies when the renderer does NOT need every frame.
+    assert.match(
+        fn,
+        /!\s*_rendererNeedsContinuousFrames\s*\(\s*\)[\s\S]{0,160}_PAUSED_FRAME_INTERVAL_MS[\s\S]{0,40}return;/,
+        'throttle must be skipped when the renderer needs continuous frames',
+    );
+});
+
+test('the capability probe fails closed (absent / non-function / throwing)', () => {
+    const src = highwaySources();
+    const fn = extractBlock(src, 'function _rendererNeedsContinuousFrames()');
+    assert.match(fn, /typeof\s+r\.needsContinuousFrames\s*!==\s*'function'[\s\S]{0,40}return false/,
+        'a renderer without the method must keep the throttle');
+    assert.match(fn, /catch[\s\S]{0,40}return false/,
+        'a throwing renderer must keep the throttle, not crash the draw loop');
+    assert.match(fn, /===\s*true/,
+        'only an explicit true opts out — a truthy accident must not disable the throttle');
+});
+
+test('3D highway claims continuous frames only while a crowd video is rolling', () => {
+    const h3d = fs.readFileSync(
+        path.join(__dirname, '..', '..', 'plugins', 'highway_3d', 'screen.js'), 'utf8');
+    const fn = extractBlock(h3d, 'needsContinuousFrames()');
+    assert.match(fn, /_venueCrowdVideos/, 'must key off the actual crowd video elements');
+    assert.match(fn, /\.paused/, 'a paused video is a still frame — throttle should still apply');
+    // With no venue pack (the common case) the paused scene really is static and
+    // the GPU saving must survive: the method has to be able to return false.
+    assert.match(fn, /return false;/, 'must fall through to false with no live video');
+});