Always render player name when under the cursor

src/client/render/gl/Renderer.ts

@@ -919,6 +919,7 @@ export class GPURenderer {
   setHighlightOwner(ownerID: number): void {
     this.borderPass.setHighlightOwner(ownerID);
     this.territoryPass.setHighlightOwner(ownerID);
+    this.namePass.setHighlightOwner(ownerID);
   }
   setHighlightStructureTypes(unitTypes: string[] | null): void {
     this.structurePass.setHighlightTypes(unitTypes);

src/client/render/gl/passes/name-pass/TextProgram.ts

@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ export class TextProgram {
   private uNameScaleFactor: WebGLUniformLocation;
   private uNameScaleCap: WebGLUniformLocation;
   private uTroopSizeMultiplier: WebGLUniformLocation;
+  private uHighlightOwnerID: WebGLUniformLocation;
   private uOutlineWidth: WebGLUniformLocation;
   private uNightAmbient: WebGLUniformLocation;
   private uOutlineColor: WebGLUniformLocation;
@@ -105,6 +106,10 @@ export class TextProgram {
       this.program,
       "uTroopSizeMultiplier",
     )!;
+    this.uHighlightOwnerID = gl.getUniformLocation(
+      this.program,
+      "uHighlightOwnerID",
+    )!;
     this.uOutlineWidth = gl.getUniformLocation(this.program, "uOutlineWidth")!;
     this.uNightAmbient = gl.getUniformLocation(this.program, "uNightAmbient")!;
     this.uOutlineColor = gl.getUniformLocation(this.program, "uOutlineColor")!;
@@ -148,6 +153,7 @@ export class TextProgram {
     vao: WebGLVertexArrayObject,
     maxPlayers: number,
     ambient: number,
+    highlightOwnerID: number,
   ): void {
     if (!this.atlasReady) return;
 
@@ -163,6 +169,7 @@ export class TextProgram {
     gl.uniform1f(this.uNameScaleFactor, ns.nameScaleFactor);
     gl.uniform1f(this.uNameScaleCap, ns.nameScaleCap);
     gl.uniform1f(this.uTroopSizeMultiplier, ns.troopSizeMultiplier);
+    gl.uniform1f(this.uHighlightOwnerID, highlightOwnerID);
     gl.uniform1f(this.uOutlineWidth, ns.outlineWidth);
     gl.uniform1f(this.uNightAmbient, ambient);
     gl.uniform3f(this.uOutlineColor, ns.outlineR, ns.outlineG, ns.outlineB);

src/client/render/gl/passes/name-pass/index.ts

@@ -98,6 +98,9 @@ export class NamePass {
   // Reusable per-tick lookup maps (avoid allocation + GC)
   private alivePlayerIDs = new Set<string>();
   private troopsByPlayerID = new Map<string, number>();
+
+  // Hovered player's small ID (0 = no highlight, matches TerritoryPass).
+  private highlightOwnerID = 0;
   private playerStateByID = new Map<string, PlayerState>();
 
   constructor(
@@ -498,7 +501,7 @@ export class NamePass {
     // Column 4: flagLayerIdx, emojiAtlasIdx, [free], [free]
     d[off + 16] = slot.flagLayerIdx;
     d[off + 17] = slot.emojiAtlasIdx;
-    d[off + 18] = 0;
+    d[off + 18] = slot.static.smallID;
     d[off + 19] = 0;
 
     // Column 5: crown, traitor, disconnected, alliance
@@ -526,6 +529,10 @@ export class NamePass {
   // Render
   // -------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+  setHighlightOwner(ownerID: number): void {
+    this.highlightOwnerID = ownerID;
+  }
+
   draw(cameraMatrix: Float32Array, ambient: number): void {
     if (!this.textProgram.ready) return;
     if (this.slots.size === 0) return;
@@ -583,6 +590,7 @@ export class NamePass {
       this.vao,
       this.maxPlayers,
       ambient,
+      this.highlightOwnerID,
     );
     this.statusIconProgram.draw(cameraMatrix, this.settings, this.vao);
     this.iconProgram.draw(cameraMatrix, this.settings, this.vao);

src/client/render/gl/shaders/name/name.vert.glsl

@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ uniform float uCullThreshold;
 uniform float uNameScaleFactor;
 uniform float uNameScaleCap;
 uniform float uTroopSizeMultiplier;
+uniform float uHighlightOwnerID;
 
 out vec2 vUV;
 out vec4 vPlayerColor;  // player territory color (rgb) + alpha
@@ -45,6 +46,8 @@ void main() {
   vec4 pd1 = texelFetch(uPlayerData, ivec2(1, playerIdx), 0); // tgtX, tgtY, tgtScale, alive
   vec4 pd2 = texelFetch(uPlayerData, ivec2(2, playerIdx), 0); // r, g, b, a
   vec4 pd3 = texelFetch(uPlayerData, ivec2(3, playerIdx), 0); // nameLen, troopLen, isHuman, 0
+  vec4 pd4 = texelFetch(uPlayerData, ivec2(4, playerIdx), 0); // flagLayerIdx, emojiAtlasIdx, smallID, 0
+  float smallID = pd4.z;
 
   // Early out: dead player
   if (pd1.w <= 0.0) {
@@ -90,16 +93,19 @@ void main() {
   float nameWorldScale = (nameSize * nameScale) / uFontSize;
   float worldScale = nameWorldScale;
 
+  bool isHighlighted = uHighlightOwnerID > 0.0 && smallID == uHighlightOwnerID;
+
   // Troop count is smaller
   if (lineIdx == 1) {
     worldScale *= uTroopSizeMultiplier;
   }
 
-  // Zoom-based culling: compute screen-space size and skip if too small
+  // Zoom-based culling: compute screen-space size and skip if too small.
+  // Highlighted (hovered) names bypass the cull so they're always visible.
   // uCamera[0][0] is the x-scale component of the camera matrix
   float cameraScale = length(vec2(uCamera[0][0], uCamera[1][0]));
   float screenSize = nameWorldScale * uBase * cameraScale;
-  if (screenSize < uCullThreshold) {
+  if (screenSize < uCullThreshold && !isHighlighted) {
     gl_Position = vec4(0.0);
     vUV = vec2(0.0);
     vPlayerColor = vec4(0.0);