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Player stability assist display — source QA

Development only. This is a race-local visual indicator for the prototype Arcade car, not a playable release, independent driving qualification or a real tire/ABS/ESC sensor. No authorized Unreal Engine 5.8 compilation, genuine map cooking or installed Win64/Android driving test has validated this change.

Driver-facing change

The existing human spin traction policy limits positive motor demand only when real Chaos forward motion, lateral slip and angular yaw jointly indicate a severe high-speed spin. Previously that intervention was invisible to the driver.

The expanded desktop HUD now conditionally shows:

SPIN ASSIST  45% POSITIVE THROTTLE TRIM

This means the measured, existing spin guard reduced the already corner-moderated positive throttle by 45% on the most recently accepted live frame. It does not mean total engine power was reduced 45% from a normal straight-line driver request: corner assist, damaged chassis, surface motor scaling and gear-aware power may also affect the actual force. This is not a tire adhesion or braking measurement.

The row appears only while live intervention is at least 5% and when the race HUD is expanded with enough vertical telemetry room. Compact mobile/touch layouts, stopped/paused/recovering races, no eligible human driver, intentional held handbrake slides, service braking, Simulation Inspired and AI rivals cannot show the hint.

The read-only HumanSpinAssistMeter validates elapsed frame time, positive before/after throttle, and the established maximum 70% spin guard reduction. Nonfinite, implausible or interrupted samples clear the current HUD indicator, never creating gameplay permission.

Run-local lifecycle and limits

The meter records a bounded session peak and saturating intervention activation count for source QA. Neither is persisted, added to race results nor used by the physics controller. Pausing, focus loss, touch interruption, invalid physics and recovery immediately suspend live display. A real race restart resets its peak and count. Display feedback never influences acceleration, score, lap, checkpoint, garage, reward, SaveGame, or controller input.

Portable regression

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 HumanSpinAssistMeter --output-on-failure
python3 -m unittest discover -s Tests/Editor -p HumanSpinAssistHudBindingTests.py -v

The portable suite runs 200,000 deterministic sample frames, including activation transitions, no duplicate event counting during held intervention, threshold behavior, full race restart, numeric outliers, frame hitches, human eligibility and saturating counts. Python source contracts ensure the actual final spin-adjusted throttle is observed after measured Chaos yaw and before any nitro, drafting or base AddForce call. The full HUD line still uses the existing bounded vertical layout mechanism.

Required Unreal Engine 5.8 gameplay QA

  1. Build and cook the actual project through authorized Unreal Editor/UHT/UAT on a Windows workstation with the exact source and map hashes retained; do not substitute portable CMake executables.
  2. On a real installed game, reproduce a sideways high-speed spin while recording signed forward speed, lateral speed, physical yaw and actual before/after motor throttle values. Verify the displayed percentage matches the recorded values without false indicators.
  3. Compare normal high-speed turning, straight acceleration, intentional handbrake drifting, service braking, reverse and Simulation Inspired. Ineligible states should display no spin assist hint.
  4. Verify the hint disappears immediately on pause/focus loss, restart, recovery, menu interruption, invalid frame and car swap. Confirm no stale reading after a race restart.
  5. Verify HUD overflow on low-height Windows resolutions and Android compact/touch mode; authoritative lap, time and controls take precedence over this optional row.
  6. Confirm race records, progression, rewards and physical handling remain unchanged by this observation-only addition.

Keep the playable release qualification issue #148 open until actual compiled game, owned circuit, installed gameplay and QA evidence exist.