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v0.5.73 source work — Arcade drift combo acceptance

Intended player feature

The real car's chassis velocities already feed DrivingSessionStats. A new engine-independent DriftComboMeter observes the same finite, bounded sample without mutating the vehicle. It is a deliberately fictional arcade score, not a measured competition record or a safety/driving lesson.

  • No combo exists without sustained high-speed in-game lateral slip over a short contiguous qualification window. A single sudden skid, brake input or invalid frame earns nothing.
  • A short loss of slip permits continuity after the combo has qualified; any interruption before qualification resets the candidate. Sustained recovery to grip, pause, focus loss, paid recovery or physics invalidity ends and banks the current provisional combo without double counting.
  • The live racing HUD shows the running combo and its current time-based arcade scoring multiplier on spacious displays. Compact phones may also show a short drift score/multiplier after official time, gate and guidance rows if spare HUD space exists. The paged finished Results menu shows run-local total arcade points, combo count, best combo and qualified sample seconds, but ONLY if a real valid awardable race finish exists.
  • The screen explicitly says NO CREDITS. These points do not go into career progression, saved records, unlocks, rewards, cloud accounts, race classification or any public leaderboard.
  • Every race restart clears all combo statistics through the existing real Car->ResetDrivingStats() pathway; recovery does not reset legitimate points already earned in the current session.
  • No new device controls, physics forces, source assets or third-party content are introduced.

Source verification

cmake -S Tests/Standalone -B Tests/Standalone/build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build Tests/Standalone/build --config Release
ctest --test-dir Tests/Standalone/build -C Release \
  -R '^DriftComboMeter$' --output-on-failure
python3 -m unittest discover -s Tests/Editor -p '*Tests.py' -v

Strict C++20 tests include no-combo quick slides, qualified sustained combos, continued scoring, brief break versus real termination, idempotent suspension, second combo after a restartable interval, invalid delta/velocity and lateral speed, speed/ratio thresholds, reset and the fact that unqualified samples never score.

Python source contracts verify the actual Unreal pawn observes only after physics readiness and finite chassis velocity, suspends on recovery and blocked driving, resets via real GameMode, and only renders the arcade meter through the safe bounded UI. None of these tests are UE game runtime or physical chassis playtests.

Unfinished engine and real-device QA

  • Compile real Unreal Engine 5.8 Editor and Game targets through UHT/engine toolchain, cook the original LateBrake circuit and verify package identity with source SHA.
  • Validate actually rendered meter on Win64 and Android across HUD sizes, pause/results pages, normal racing, source-set arcade/ simulation handling modes, focus loss, restart and teleport.
  • Ensure sustained virtual slip increments score predictably, common turns do not generate phantom combos and actual invalid/teleport motion breaks continuity. Check parked car, reverse and obstacle collision cases for falsely positive samples.
  • Demonstrate a valid finished race before results claims are drawn; no credit balance change may be caused by arcade drift points.
  • Attach actual screenshots, engine logs, package hashes, device models/versions and QA to Playable-release gate #148 as appropriate.

v0.5.73 is a published SOURCE-ONLY pre-release with zero executable game assets. It remains unqualified in UE 5.8 and on real Windows/Android installs, and is not a playable or stable release.