Midnight
Race

Any driver can create a map by placing GPS waypoints on a real road. Maps have:

• Waypoints with configurable detection radii (default 30 m)
• One Start, any number of Checkpoints, one Finish
• Car classes (BMW M Series, Porsche 911, Mercedes AMG, Audi RS, etc.)
• Difficulty rating: Scenic / Technical / Fast
• Estimated distance auto-calculated from waypoint coordinates

Maps are distributed over the Meshtastic mesh network (peer-to-peer over LoRa radio) — no internet required to receive a new map at a race meet.

Midnight Race uses Meshtastic LoRa devices as the transport layer. Every message is a 228-byte binary packet broadcast over the mesh using the Meshtastic BLE protobuf wire format (service UUID 6BA4F3E0-4DE8-11EA-B77F-2E728CE88125).

Custom packet types:

• MCDC — Duel Challenge broadcast
• MCDA — Duel Accept
• MCDN — Duel Decline
• MCDR — Race result broadcast
• MCLC — Live location share
• MCMF / MCRQ — Content sync manifest

LoRa range: typically 2–10 km in urban areas, up to 40 km with line of sight. No internet, no GSM.

Any user with a Meshtastic device can challenge another user within mesh range to a Live Duel:

• Challenger broadcasts MCDC with map, car class, and a 4-byte session ID — costs 1 messaging credit
• Acceptor receives the challenge as a push notification-style sheet; accepting costs 1 messaging credit
• Both parties race the same map simultaneously (independently, verified by GPS)
• Results are broadcast as MCDR packets; both parties see the split comparison

The credit system (8 messaging credits / hour, hard cap 10 mesh operations / hour) prevents spam across the mesh.

Score is calculated from time + penalty deductions:

• Base score starts at 10,000 points
• −100 pts per second over the reference (best known) time
• +200 pts bonus for a clean run (zero penalties)
• Disqualification if any waypoint is missed or the route deviates more than the anti-cheat threshold

Rankings sort by best time per map (map-specific) or total score across all maps (global).

Midnight Race uses AntiCheatValidator — a multi-layer GPS validation engine:

• Speed cap: recorded speed must stay below the GPS-derived maximum for the car class. Exceeding it by more than 15% flags disqualification.
• Waypoint order: must be hit in strict sequence; skipping any checkpoint is an instant DQ
• Location continuity: GPS samples must be physically plausible — teleportation (>200 m / s gap) is flagged
• Min sample rate: GPS must be sampled at ≥1 Hz; races with large gaps are disqualified
• Background state: app must remain active throughout the race window

Scores from disqualified sessions are never submitted to rankings.

Mesh radio bandwidth is finite. Credits prevent spam:

• 8 messaging credits refill every hour
• Hard cap: 10 mesh operations per hour regardless of credits
• Sending a duel challenge: 1 credit
• Accepting a duel: 1 credit (both parties have skin in the game)
• Declining a duel: free
• Broadcasting a race result: free

Ghost races (vs simulated opponent) are always free and require no Meshtastic device.

Registered users (OTP email sign-in) get automatic cloud backup:

• Every completed race result is synced to mi-su.me/api/race_sync.php in the background
• New events created in the app appear on this website automatically
• Race maps are backed up with full waypoint data
• Guest mode users race locally only — no rankings, no backup

Syncs are fire-and-forget: the UI never blocks on network. If offline, the sync is silently skipped (next run will sync again).

Authentication is passwordless OTP — email only, 6-digit code, 15-minute expiry. Long-lived session tokens stored locally.

• No passwords stored anywhere
• Guests race without any account — only a device ID is used locally
• Display names are chosen by the user; emails are never shown publicly
• Race GPS routes are stored on-device only; only aggregate scores and times are synced