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LateBrake v0.5.86 — Engine Heat and Verified Rival Pace

SOURCE-ONLY GitHub pre-release. This is NOT a playable game build. No compiled Win64 EXE, Android APK/AAB or installed game is included. GitHub-generated source archives are not installers. This snapshot contains zero executable binaries and cannot be treated as a verified Unreal Engine 5.8 installation or gameplay release.

Changes since the published v0.5.85 source preview

ENGINE HEAT — shared bounded motor performance

  • The physical player and AI rival rigid-body pawn now update a race-local, deterministic arcade heat fraction using qualified chassis forward speed, effective propulsion demand, and independently authorized human nitro. This is a gameplay abstraction, not engine oil/coolant temperature.
  • Sustained propulsion above the synthetic 67% heat threshold reduces base acceleration, nitro and slipstream power by the same multiplier, down to no less than 82% of their prior force. Steering, ordinary service braking, opposite-throttle damping and final speed limits remain separate and unchanged.
  • Coasting permits cooling. Invalid physics, frame hitches, focus loss, paused input and recovery never apply a stale penalty or silently create elapsed heat time; new racing sessions reset heat to ambient.
  • The expanded desktop HUD offers conditional ENGINE HEAT and available motor readouts. Compact touch layouts are not enlarged.
  • Engine heat implementation and hardware QA.

RIVAL HEAT PACE — observed real-rival cooldown

  • The physical rival reads its previous qualified engine-heat sample after existing route, grip, surface and impact-aware decisions.
  • At least 1,200 cm/s, heat above 70% can gradually reduce the requested throttle, with a conservative 0.30 lower hot cap. This source policy never invents rival rank, assists steering, applies new brakes, grants checkpoints or boosts motor force.
  • Low-speed recovery, ordinary corner/traffic braking and verified route arrival remain authoritative; invalid physical samples fail closed. The base pawn retains its separate bounded engine-power model.
  • Rival heat pacing and installed-game QA.

VERIFIED GATE GAP — honest discrete race feedback

  • The experimental physical rival and player can be compared by independently accepted forward directional checkpoint counts on the same circuit event. The expanded desktop HUD displays GATE GAP: YOU +N VERIFIED, GATE GAP: RIVAL +N VERIFIED or GATE GAP: SAME VERIFIED COUNT, each explicitly saying (NOT RACE PLACE). The counts are not official classification, timing difference or physical road lead.
  • Invalid lap/gate values, unavailable or unqualified chassis, pause, incorrect event, interrupted race and mismatch in circuit geometry suppress the comparison; it cannot change awards, save data or checkpoint authority.
  • Rival gate-gap verification.

Other source racing improvements since v0.5.85

  • Autonomous rivals must cross the real forward 3D checkpoint gate; a generic 440cm proximity arrival cannot credit a lap. The pilot aims through the gate instead of braking at the old radius.
  • Additional source-level AI corner, surface, impact, yaw-rate and low-speed recovery guards; speed-aware motor taper, spin-aware human throttle reduction and advisory driving statistics.
  • The legacy BRAKE HEAT, IMPACT DAMAGE, OFF-PAVEMENT TRACTION, ARCADE TIRE, NITRO BOOST, SLIPSTREAM and RIVAL GRIP systems remain bounded. No official player time, money, race-result, saved-profile, career reward or lap-clock format change is claimed.

Exact source-qualification gates

  • Compile and execute the complete portable C++20 suite on Ubuntu, Windows and macOS at the same immutable source commit.
  • Explicit nonempty ArcadeEngineHeat, RivalEngineHeatPace, RivalGateGap, RivalDirectionalGate, and RivalGateRunThrough CTests in all three platform jobs. Preserve nonempty brake heat, impact, paved traction, tire condition, nitro, slipstream, grip and boost-arbitration gates.
  • Run Python Unreal-source binding regressions, PowerShell source/package provenance and synthetic fake-archive policy tests, plus exact MkDocs rendering and site verification.
  • Publish only after every CI job succeeds. Fail if main advances, if the prior source pre-release does not qualify, if another tag already points elsewhere, or if any game executable asset appears.
  • GitHub's automatic source ZIP and tarball are source snapshots, not compiled games or installers.

Still REQUIRED for playable quality

  1. Compile real Unreal Engine 5.8 Editor/Game targets via UHT in an authorized engine environment and record the engine/source identity.
  2. Author and cook the project-owned circuit and verify genuine physics collision, player/rival forward gates and live HUD visuals.
  3. Drive complete races on an installed genuine Win64 package, measure actual engine-heat handling, rival gate completion, responsiveness, braking, recovery, presentation and performance.
  4. Qualify Android APK/AAB installation and physical-device touch, pauses, thermal behavior and saved progression separately.
  5. Preserve open playable-release gate #148 and Android-device gate #13 until evidence is attached for the exact installed package hashes.

SOURCE-ONLY — NOT a playable game build — zero executable binaries. GitHub source archives are not installers.

LateBrake authored source is BSD-3-Clause. Unreal Engine and other separately licensed assets remain under their applicable terms.