Native Secret Slide pilot and Star-box runtime verification - 2026-10-24

Status: VERIFIED pilot navigation, box collision/hit, reward spawn and collection.
Save/reload/no-duplicate-credit and ordinary castle-to-slide entrance remain open.

The original radius-only input pilot missed a marker while sliding and steered
back toward it. The new opt-in SM64DS_PC_TEST_SLIDE_ROUTE follows projected
segment progress with bounded lateral acceptance and forward lookahead. It only
supplies controller inputs during St_ButtSlide; other gameplay and existing
walking routes use their previous behavior. It never edits player positions,
velocities, physics, actor states, collisions, rewards or saves.

Changed: main.cpp, hal/replay_path.h, tests/smoke_replay_path.cpp, CMakeLists.txt.
The private muted runner exposes SlideRoute and records that choice per run.
The pure helper tests cover overshot markers, out-of-corridor rejection, corner
lookahead, mandatory final arrival and repeated points. Native build and eight
focused CTests passed. No matched original source/header changed this milestone.

Current EXE SHA256:
c3d1225d3d68b94947f526bf68a03b1b859139ad4f74c73760a584f573f356d7

Four accepted muted runtime cases: slide approach, jump onto box, jump/pound,
and original title/File A/castle/painting/Battlefield Mission 1/pause regression.
The first approach has its own earlier executable hash; evidence retains that
identity. Jump, pound and regression use the current executable. Each exits 0,
reports zero mixer errors and zero nonzero device samples; isolated saves remain
unchanged. The first regression invocation omitted mission-selection automation
and route settling, stopped at the selector, and is explicitly rejected.

The original native actor21 is visible and supports the player on its top.
Ordinary jump followed by midair R starts ground pound; block changes to bounce
and releases native actor178, parameter0x41, StarId1 at runtime tick3663.
Collection changes total Stars1->2 and the original in-memory course mask0->2;
the game returns to castle. This run ends before saving: on-disk save is unchanged.
The test uses Mario, development level selection and real inputs, not original
castle-slide entry. Do not imply Yoshi coverage, persistence or full-course QA.

Private evidence: work/check-slide-pilot-box-20261024.py,
work/slide-pilot-box-acceptance-20261024.json and associated case directories.
Screenshots show approach, standing on box, reward and collection, and original
pause regression. All screenshots/logs/ROM-derived evidence stay private.
A separate StarId2 is visible near the finish and looks large in the foreground;
camera perspective may explain that appearance. It is not a confirmed scale bug.
Its timed-release criteria, finish-line rendering and timer HUD need separate QA.

No F install, stable promotion or public release yet. Next bounded task: extend
the proven pound replay through the original save choice, relaunch that isolated
save, repeat the same collection and verify persistent credit stays at2.
The difficult navigation investigation is complete; Luna Medium is appropriate
for those bounded replay/save checks. Escalate if new code/ABI problems emerge.
