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Quick Race — choose opponent circuit or solo Time Attack

Unreal Engine 5.8 SOURCE ONLY. Existing C++ gameplay and UI wiring is not yet validated in a licensed Unreal 5.8 editor/game package.

What players can do

Open the main menu and navigate to Quick Race. Use the existing BROWSE action: N on keyboard, gamepad D-pad Right or the Android menu Browse touch pad (actual device unverified). The choices cycle:

  1. STANDARD CIRCUIT (default): 3 laps, one prototype physical AI rival.
  2. EXPERT CIRCUIT: same real 3-lap event with a slightly more aggressive straight-line physical AI throttle policy.
  3. SOLO TIME ATTACK: the existing genuine one-lap event, no AI rival, using the real time-attack personal-best record.
  4. ROOKIE CIRCUIT: 3 laps, one prototype rival with lower allowed forward throttle demand; then cycles to Standard.

Press Select/Enter (or the existing on-screen menu button) to start the selected event. It uses the ordinary authoritative event configuration: real checkpoint count, race reset, full start-light countdown and the correct spawned/destroyed rival lifecycle. A second RestartRace() is not issued if event selection already restarted the race.

Changing the highlighted choice while the menu is open changes only the pending menu selection. It cannot change the running event, cause racing rewards or retune the existing rival until the player explicitly starts a NEW session. Previous keyboard shortcuts 3 for Circuit and 4 for Time Attack remain valid.

Fairness and limits

  • Existing career/championship/challenges remain separate. Career always runs Standard AI when it requests an opponent.
  • No new circuit map, opponents, physics objects, SaveGame fields, rewards or purchases are created by this change.
  • Malformed option data falls back to the original Standard circuit.
  • The AI throttle difficulty is not an official competition ranking, live place/position, measured performance benchmark or guarantee.
  • QuickRaceModePicker C++20 tests exercise all four cyclic choices, real one-lap / three-lap event policies, invalid inputs and repeated browse stress. Python source checks verify engine binding, menu visibility and existing keyboard/gamepad/mobile input paths.

Still required: licensed Unreal 5.8/UHT compile, real menu interaction, installed Windows/Android playtest, original cooked track and physical rival/graphics QA (see GitHub issue #148).