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LateBrake v0.5.89 — Racing Instruments, Six-Car Garage, Matched Rival Splits and AI Difficulty

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 source ZIP/tarball archives are not installers and contain zero executable binaries. This milestone is source-level development and does NOT prove Unreal Engine 5.8/UHT compilation, cookable project maps, rendered car materials, installed Windows gameplay or Android QA.

Source improvements since published v0.5.88

GATE PROGRESS: discrete real-race HUD gauge — PR #261

  • The expanded desktop race instruments show accepted checkpoint/lap progress as GATES completed/total with a bounded fraction. Only player-authoritative RaceProgress checkpoint counters are used.
  • Real checkpoint collisions/physical running, record qualification and finish classification remain unchanged. It does not pretend to be a continuous physical distance indicator or a leaderboard.
  • Targeted C++20 RaceGateProgressGauge and Python source-binding tests reject bad counters, invalid/unfinished boundaries and overflow.

GARAGE COMPARISON: six original fictional cars — PR #262

  • Every existing Arrow/Kestrel/Phantom/Tempest/Glider/Nova catalogue row now includes a signed relative comparison against the equipped car for arcade acceleration, grip and speed multipliers, not measured 0–100 km/h performance. Locked cars remain read-only previews.
  • The next engine/grip upgrade tier displays its exact established GarageState cost, affordability, shortage or MAX indication.
  • Existing two-press purchase confirmation, SaveGame rollback, vehicle ownership and credit authority remain untouched.
  • Qualified targets: GarageComparisonView, GarageCatalogView.

RIVAL SPLITS: accepted same-lap/same-gate time — PR #263

  • The local rival and human car may present SPLIT L1 G2: RIVAL +2.00s (NOT PLACE) after both have physically passed the same forward directional gate for the same lap.
  • A fixed-memory, 32-sample-per-driver ring protects against crossed attempts, stale ring slots, reversed timestamps and malformed samples. Uses a shared post-GO timing source without artificial player recovery penalties for the observation only; official Race clock and penalties are unchanged.
  • These are retrospective gate timestamps, not live vehicle position, official standings, opponent track distance or network race results.
  • Qualified target: RivalMatchedGateSplits.

RIVAL DIFFICULTY: Rookie, Standard, Expert quick race — PR #264

  • Reuse existing BROWSE/N (keyboard, gamepad D-pad right and mobile menu Browse) to select the next Quick Race local rival tier. Changing a pending selection never retunes a running race.
  • ROOKIE reduces physical rival planner throttle, STANDARD preserves the original tuning, EXPERT slightly increases planned acceleration on eligible moderate-speed straights only.
  • Career always retains STANDARD regardless of Quick Race selection. Existing tire/road/traffic/heat/yaw/spin governors and accepted checkpoint rules still override the difficulty policy as necessary.
  • No new SaveGame fields, event rewards or server multiplayer.
  • Qualified target: RivalDifficultyPreset.

Retained earlier source policies

All v0.5.88 source policies are retained: ARCADE TIRE, NITRO BOOST, SLIPSTREAM, RIVAL GRIP, OFF-PAVEMENT TRACTION, BRAKE HEAT, IMPACT DAMAGE, ENGINE HEAT, RIVAL HEAT PACE, VERIFIED GATE GAP, UNREAL PIT SERVICE, MENU INPUT, SIX-CAR BODY KITS, PIT RADAR, ANDROID PIT HOLD and SIX-CAR PAINT. A conventional dynamic mesh Color material parameter remains unverified in Unreal Editor.

Mandatory immutable source publication checks

The v0.5.89 publisher must build and pass the complete C++20 CTest suite on Windows, Ubuntu and macOS, and individually require RaceGateProgressGauge, GarageComparisonView, RivalMatchedGateSplits, RivalDifficultyPreset plus the prior physical-pit, Android-touch and six-car paint targets to exist/pass. The previous v0.5.88 gameplay policy targets are individually required as well: RacePitService, RacePitVehicleService, VehicleBodyKit, RacePitRadar, TouchPitHold, TouchControlLayout and VehiclePaintRecipe. Their exact CTest names are audited before any source-only publication.

Python Unreal-source binding tests, real documentation rendering, PowerShell syntax and synthetic packaging/provenance rejection tests must pass. The release requires an unchanged, CI-qualified main SHA, published asset-free v0.5.88 predecessor and immutable v0.5.89 tag.

The source code license remains BSD-3-Clause; Unreal and any underlying engine assets have their own terms.

What is not in this release

  • No compiled Win64 EXE, Windows setup installer, macOS/Linux executable, Android APK/AAB or tested installed game.
  • No proven licensed UE 5.8 Editor/UHT/Game compilation, original cooked circuit .umap, controller/touch hardware testing or GPU performance.
  • No mature 3D art, online match invitations or official rival race results.

The GitHub Pages documentation site is a documentation deployment, not game software or an executable release.

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

See Windows playable-release gate #148 and Android hardware qualification gate #13.