#gameplay-ai | Unreal Source | Page 142

flint trail May 25, 2021, 3:28 AM

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https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/AnimatingObjects/SkeletalMeshAnimation/AnimHowTo/AdditiveAnimations/index.html

Demonstrates how to blend animations together, in this case, a character that can move and fire a weapon at the same time.

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this is exact setup I have

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and it doesn't work

cold trout May 25, 2021, 3:41 AM

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It sounds like your default slot node is being overridden by the locomotion state machine

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In animBP

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Or looks like you're using an upper body slot rather

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Either way locomotion is taking precedence over slot

flint trail May 25, 2021, 3:52 AM

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@cold trout nah, I had Stop Montages node in my custom Move To BTT

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so every time AI was on the move it would block montages from playing

dense halo May 25, 2021, 6:30 AM

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are there any tutorials on how to setup a utility ai system?

simple crest May 25, 2021, 6:33 AM

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the internet is full of tidbits, but that's about it. most helpful thing for me was watching Dave Mark's two GDC presentations. i'm hoping one day i'll be able to confidently github mine but it's not quite ready for that yet [and i'm going through a life period where i can't work on it much peeposad ]

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to make a good one that might rival the functionality level of UE's built-in BT would be quite an undertaking

dense halo May 25, 2021, 6:35 AM

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this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCf1GdRrerw

YouTube

GDC

Winding Road Ahead: Designing Utility AI with Curvature

In this 2018 GDC talk, ArenaNet's Mike Lewis discusses how designers can craft behaviors in as intuitive manner as possible using AI systems.

Join the GDC mailing list: http://www.gdconf.com/subscribe

Follow GDC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Official_GDC

GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, a...

▶ Play video

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?

simple crest May 25, 2021, 6:36 AM

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nope, dave mark. I haven't seen this one, I would say watch any you can find

dense halo May 25, 2021, 6:37 AM

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSjlHvdq7SM

YouTube

GDC

AI Wish List: What Do Designers Want out of AI?

In this 2018 GDC panel, designers Raph Koster, Dave Mark, Richard Lemarchand, Laralyn McWilliams, Noah Falstein & Robin Hunicke discuss what problems they wish artifical intelligence could solve for them when making games. These concepts include character AI, procedural content, animation, speech, or "director"-style pacing and content delivery....

▶ Play video

lyric flint May 25, 2021, 6:38 AM

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@dense halo I've seen some unreal implementation of utility AI on github over the years, did you get a chance to check out some?

dense halo May 25, 2021, 6:40 AM

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I only found one but it hasn't been updated in 5 years, I found some other links in forum threads but they seem to be taken down now

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do you know any that are at least partially complete?

lyric flint May 25, 2021, 6:41 AM

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I think Tom Looman also has an article or two about it...

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I have one under NDA I can't share I made a while back.... 😦 but I'm pretty sure the starting point was a repository on Github, I don't remember which one though...:(

dense halo May 25, 2021, 6:45 AM

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https://github.com/iskorotkov/UtilityAI was it this one? this seems to be the one that has the most content

GitHub

iskorotkov/UtilityAI

Utility AI plugin for complex AI decision-making. Contribute to iskorotkov/UtilityAI development by creating an account on GitHub.

lyric flint May 25, 2021, 6:45 AM

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Sounds familiar, maybe. Can't hurt to check it out, right? 🙂

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The one I used, used numbers as weight, and it was very easy to drag-and-drop into the BT. It had one or two tasks and decorators, but enough to point me in the right direction.

dense halo May 25, 2021, 6:51 AM

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😫 kinda confused, do you use the utility AI scoring system to select the branch in BT?

flat dome May 25, 2021, 7:46 AM

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Anyone ever have issues with EQS not filtering visibility traces properly? I have it set to filter out traces that are visible to the player, but it doesnt filter them out at all

dull loom May 25, 2021, 1:28 PM

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hey guys, is there a smarter way of using the nav link proxy? I've created a simple jump logic, but it looks like I've got to add a bunch of smart links in the whole map

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You know, I guessed by the name that it would connect every point in a specific area, but the ai only goes to the same spot before jump up or fall down

low oak May 25, 2021, 3:58 PM

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anyone know how to do "Finish execute for BT Task in C++"

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 4:45 PM

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https://gdcvault.com/play/1021848/Building-a-Better-Centaur-AI

Building a Better Centaur: AI at Massive Scale

Today's MMOs often have hundreds of types of agents in their game world - each with potentially dozens of actions they can take. Hand crafting the AI for every agent can be a time-consuming process fraught with brittle, unpredictable results....

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Probably this one? @simple crest @dense halo

misty wharf May 25, 2021, 4:49 PM

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low oak anyone know how to do "Finish execute for BT Task in C++"

iirc I saw a "BT tasks in C++" guide somewhere, you could probably find it by googling something like that... If not, if you check one of the existing BT tasks, like BTTask_MoveTo, you can probably find out how it does that

simple crest May 25, 2021, 4:50 PM

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yeah, and this one @ebon zenith https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1012410/Improving-AI-Decision-Modeling-Through

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 4:51 PM

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Thanks, I haven't seen these yet so will take a look. Obviously from the outline there will be pitfalls of this type of system.

simple crest May 25, 2021, 4:54 PM

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utility AI is harder to "design" than a BT

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because it's a balancing act

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 4:54 PM

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Yeah, tweaking as well

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I remember when I was doing very simple AIs I thought about this before.

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But it's very hard to do once your parameters starts to piling up.

simple crest May 25, 2021, 4:55 PM

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yeah, I didn't make mine exactly like his

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 4:55 PM

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Maybe not the same but the wiki mentioned score and probability

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That's what I was doing. It takes forever to tweak and test so I abandoned that

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But they are smarter than I am so I will read what they do to deal with this issue

simple crest May 25, 2021, 4:57 PM

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I still used scoring with curves in mine

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it's still young and I'm finding things about it I want to redesign otherwise I'd have it on github. needs more debug capability too above all

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cons of building your own junk in UE

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 4:58 PM

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Hehe

simple crest May 25, 2021, 4:59 PM

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most important thing for me was setting it up so the scoring could be designed fairly intuitively

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like, Dave Mark normalizes all his "inputs" so everything is scored 0->1 ... I didn't do that, I let designers input e.g. 100 -> 5000 for the X axis for things like distance

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 5:00 PM

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Like the jrpg ability/skill chart?

simple crest May 25, 2021, 5:02 PM

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the details pane editor I have is asstastic... I need to make a custom window, but e.g. for a decision to shoot at a target, some considerations are percentage or stepwise (0-->1 for target health, or 0/1 for dead/alive), others such as distance are in unreal units, or time could be in seconds. https://i.gyazo.com/b36690eda19b71a0bf26e9ab7b3d3fd5.png

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 5:04 PM

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Interesting, so you build your own curve tweaking widget?

simple crest May 25, 2021, 5:05 PM

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yeah I made that

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(just don't ask how long i spent on this thing) https://i.gyazo.com/9e8eaa7d3c1d2008ac88c0f463e39e82.mp4

▶ Play video

low oak May 25, 2021, 5:08 PM

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I tried to use inprogress , but the execute task only call one time, I cant find which function will loop if I return in progress

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 5:08 PM

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No I won't. It sounds simple to build curves, but actually the UI part is painful

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I built one in early days with opengl

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It sucks so bad even though ue4's older curve sucks I still don't want to touch it.

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Like some long term trauma embedded in my brain.

simple crest May 25, 2021, 5:10 PM

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the curves are pure formulas, another important thing for sped GottaGoFast no curve sampling, which actually makes it a bit easier lol

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 5:12 PM

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I know, the plotting part is the easiest part.

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It's the setting up those tangent knobs that are painful.

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I was doing some 3d curve building so the tangent is actually a point normal?(that decides plane is)

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Thus you need widgets to handle mouse clicks in 3d.

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That's back in like 2000 ish as my practice for opengl UI programming

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It's off topic but it's painful with only basic API support from those older opengl supporting libs.(like glut)

soft mantle May 25, 2021, 7:06 PM

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Hi everybody! one questin with disabling AI.
i'm working on procedural generation within a big map, i want to disable all the AI by default and only activate when player is near (most likely going to handle this with a sphere collision and on overlap activate the AI).

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Calling the AI controller and just "Deactivate" would be enough or i need to do something else?

glossy spire May 25, 2021, 8:04 PM

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@soft mantle This might be what you want

soft mantle May 25, 2021, 8:07 PM

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Oh i gave up on that approach and i'm doing spawners that activate / deactivate when player in range and kill all creeps after player abandones range

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but i'm gonna try that one and add it too

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 9:28 PM

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I think the reason is that it takes time to process even do nothing AIs if he has lots of creeps that goes in/out of range.

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Also, destroy/spawn new one is a lot of overhead. So deactivate is actually nice. (I did a wave shooting thing before and even with simple AI and pathfinding I can only supporting up to about 90-100 agent pooled)

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Even like spawning 10 AIs takes a hit on frame rate.

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In my case it's the usual one pawn per AI controller. I guess if you need to go even higher agent count you probably need to cluster them so the far/ambient AI controller can possess multiple and just do some wandering actions.

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One of the tricks that capcom do with monster hunter world/iceborne huge map and lot ambient life AI is that when you are far enough, their animation skip ticks.

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(they probably have like thousands of actual AI agents in a single map, most you can shoot/capture)

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So it's a good compromise compare to popping/fading in agent, they just cut the animation to like 10 frames per second.

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Thus they don't have to sacrifice draw distance for those flying agents.

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I think epic should have video talking about this when they still developing Paragon

soft mantle May 25, 2021, 9:43 PM

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ebon zenith One of the tricks that capcom do with monster hunter world/iceborne huge map and...

this is a very interesting approach, i'm gonna investigate more into that one, this way you could have all the agents moving even when they are offscreen and not hit that hard in performance.

glossy spire May 25, 2021, 9:59 PM

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We do something similar where enemies progressively turn off features as they get farther away or are no longer in connected rooms.

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Deleting and spawning added too much of a performance hit

junior quest May 25, 2021, 10:46 PM

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Hello!
I have been searching for quite long how to make patrolling AI character that follows the spline (using Behavior tree of course).
Any ideas how to make it happen?

misty wharf May 25, 2021, 11:03 PM

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Depends on how exactly you want it to follow the spline

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For example, you could lock its position to a spline, or have it use character movement to move to different spline points

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 11:09 PM

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one of the things I did before is to intentionally limit my distance and add some random offsets so AI don't look like robot walking a straight line.

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but that requires some trickery so they don't walk/stop/walk/stop when they reach the radius(ie. I have service to update target position when AI is far enough from last update, so the position updates before they reach the current position. all the way until AI is about to reach actual target.)

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so to walk on a spline I would assume you can do EQS query and then base on distance to the spline and the spline position(I don't know how it was represented in UE4, let's just say curveU follows the spline direction.)

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then you can filter out points you don't want and pick the next likely position as your walk to position.

junior quest May 25, 2021, 11:38 PM

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Yep. What I would like to achieve is that my character wouldn't move in straight line. So as far as I understand, I could do the following:

get the distance between two spline points - last one and the next one,
query player distance between these spline points
if closer to 0, move straight to next spline - if 0,5, then move to the midpoint of next spline point and the next-next spline point, if 1, then move to next-next spline point

I might have gone crazy or something, but that's how I see it now. Maybe I totally misunderstood. 😄

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Maybe my "great" paint skills represent the idea a bit better. 1 - is when player starts moving and target location is next spline point, 2 - player is midway, target location is the point between the next spline point and the next-next spline point, 3 - player is at next spline point, target is next next-next spline point.

This really doesn't work as the player never ends up in position 3, but I don't know, maybe there is something that I am missing.

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 11:46 PM

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if you can run your EQS and generate points like I colored

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you can filter out points that are "in front" and "closer to spline"

junior quest May 25, 2021, 11:48 PM

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so I would run this query quite often to keep the movement smooth?

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 11:48 PM

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then pick like 3~4 green dots that are in a distance range(ie. in front but between 500~800 range)

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yeah, you essentially want to keep updating the target location before your agent reach the current target

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of course if your spline have like hairpin turns then this won't work properly

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but for general map plots it should be fine.

junior quest May 25, 2021, 11:50 PM

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Okay. That sounds promising. In a bigger picture, I have a whole formation of characters that should follow the spline like that, so I don't know if it would add extra complexity or not.

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The idea is to create a wave-based game, so 😛

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 11:51 PM

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yeah, part of making it smooth is in the tweaking

junior quest May 25, 2021, 11:52 PM

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Okay. So it would run as a service (I haven't used that many EQS queries lately)

ebon zenith May 25, 2021, 11:53 PM

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there are 3 deciding factor. 1. look ahead decides how closely you can stay on curve, too far then you could cut through curve 2. placing current target with in look ahead distance that make sense so it won't immediately success(with in the reach radius) 3. how frequent you update from previous one so your agent don't look like it's constantly adjusting(jittery)

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the above also depends on the fasted moving speed your agent can do. the slower your agent max speed is, the longer you can delay the update.

junior quest May 25, 2021, 11:57 PM

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Yep. I currently have some AI movement set up and I think it also looks quite jittery, because it is updating too often. It takes tweaking to get it right I guess 😛

ebon zenith May 26, 2021, 12:00 AM

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also you need to have some random range as well so they don't all update at the same time, the default spread is pretty good. 0.2~0.6 I think.

junior quest May 26, 2021, 12:00 AM

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As far as I can see, only the patrol "leader" in unit group should update the unit group location periodically (unit group then updates all unit positions locally). When update is done, then unit starts moving towards the updated position.

ebon zenith May 26, 2021, 12:01 AM

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you can just have the AI controller keeping the points otherwise if your leader getting taken off(say, player sniped the leader) you will be in trouble

junior quest May 26, 2021, 12:02 AM

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Yea. Or make some other unit in the group the new leader

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But good point

ebon zenith May 26, 2021, 12:02 AM

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you could but you could have race condition

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ie. the time before you assign a new leader and non-leader pulling for position to go to

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or a non-leader becoming a new leader and stuck in weird situation(trying to fetch your own location while you aren't suppose to fetch as you are leader now)

junior quest May 26, 2021, 12:04 AM

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ah yes. It might get quite complicated.

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Anyways, interesting idea how to solve the issue. Thanks alot for your time 😛

ebon zenith May 26, 2021, 12:05 AM

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np, have fun.

jade haven May 26, 2021, 7:46 AM

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Okay, figured it out. attached weapon actor was colliding against the character. Disabling collision allowed movement to return to normal

old adder May 26, 2021, 10:25 AM

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Anyway we can have GameplayTag as Blackboard key?

misty wharf May 26, 2021, 10:26 AM

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you can store it as a Name

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You may need to create some helper decorators or such to compare it as a gameplay tag, but other than that it'll work just fine

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(you can of course compare it using a regular bb decorator as a name, but you won't get the handy gameplay tag selector dropdown then)

old adder May 26, 2021, 10:28 AM

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But then you can't have a TagContainer right?

misty wharf May 26, 2021, 10:28 AM

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you mean saved as a BB value or?

old adder May 26, 2021, 10:28 AM

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Translate TagContainer to Name then convert it back to TagContainer when need?

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Yes, as BB value

misty wharf May 26, 2021, 10:29 AM

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Oh, yeah not sure about that one. You said gameplay tag so I assumed a plain gameplay tag :)

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tag container can contain more than one so I don't think it's quite as simple with that

old adder May 26, 2021, 10:30 AM

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Yeah... I can translate from TagContainer to String then somehow translate it back to TagContainer when needed.

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But that is such a hassle.

misty wharf May 26, 2021, 10:30 AM

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Is the tag container part of some actor or such? If so, you could store a reference to the actor

old adder May 26, 2021, 10:32 AM

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I am creating an order system like in RTS.

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And order has data and Tag is one of them.

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When order is queued, the data is written into the Blackboard and use inside BT.

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It is possible that I can write the TagContainer to pawn instead of BB, and change the BTTask to read the pawn instead.

misty wharf May 26, 2021, 10:34 AM

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you could probably store the order in the BB and then create some decorators that you can use to work with the data in the order object

old adder May 26, 2021, 10:35 AM

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But dam, that is quite weird.

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Oh maybe I can do that. instead.

old adder May 26, 2021, 11:39 AM

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Unfortunately I can't do that. As the data is in the form of C++ struct.

dull loom May 26, 2021, 12:54 PM

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Hey guys, about the NavLinkProxy, there can only be one smart link linking two nav areas?

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I mean, I've set up a platform and two smart links linking the ground to this platform

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however, the event on smart link reached is only triggered in one of those smart links

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or maybe I'm missing something?

rustic nova May 26, 2021, 2:44 PM

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@old adder have you looked at https://github.com/DaedalicEntertainment/ue4-orders-abilities

GitHub

DaedalicEntertainment/ue4-orders-abilities

Sample code of the talk "Hero AI: Gameplay Abilities Meet Behaviour Trees" at Unreal Fest Europe 2019. - DaedalicEntertainment/ue4-orders-abilities

old adder May 26, 2021, 2:54 PM

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Yes, they use Index for ablity activation.

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Would be nice to use Tag instead for reusability of BT.

flint trail May 26, 2021, 3:59 PM

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I am guessing UE5 doesn't bring anything new for AI

devout plume May 26, 2021, 4:05 PM

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Yeah doesn't look like it for now

glacial sapphire May 26, 2021, 10:35 PM

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I'm trying to do an AI, but I don't know if a move is done by RootMotion or if it's done by AI Move To

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i'm trying to make a Zombie

ebon zenith May 26, 2021, 11:24 PM

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root motion are mostly for going across places where navmesh can't do shit with.

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(ie, if you want to climb over an obstacle, climb a ladder to a different place, etc)

storm zephyr May 27, 2021, 12:21 PM

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hello, i have my nav mesh in the persistent level and i have sub levels that i toggle visibility during gameplay (they are always loaded), but when i set the sub levels to visible, the navmesh doesn't update to take those levels into account. Right now the only solution i've found for that is to set the recast nav mesh to be dynamic, but that hurts the performance quite a lot. Is there a way to have the recast nav mesh be dynamic modifiers only and on a callback once the sub levels have been set to visible, tell the nav mesh to rebuild completely?

ebon zenith May 27, 2021, 3:49 PM

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how about teleport your player/AIs around 2 set of level, they are loaded anyway.

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You would need to update a lot of blackboard values on teleport, but it should be a lot less headache.

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Hopefully you don't have other physics actors as well.

low oak May 28, 2021, 4:52 AM

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is that a way to know when the AI reach the goal when using MoveToLocation in c++?

wet ether May 28, 2021, 5:32 AM

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Is there a way to make static mesh not block AI sight perception?

misty wharf May 28, 2021, 10:21 AM

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low oak is that a way to know when the AI reach the goal when using MoveToLocation in c+...

Yes, move tos should have delegates you can assign to for events

misty wharf May 28, 2021, 10:22 AM

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wet ether Is there a way to make static mesh not block AI sight perception?

Change the collision settings on the static mesh so it either overlaps or ignores the trace channel you use for sight

wet ether May 28, 2021, 11:02 AM

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misty wharf Change the collision settings on the static mesh so it either overlaps or ignore...

But how can i know what channel is using for sight?

misty wharf May 28, 2021, 11:04 AM

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Hmm did it not have the trace channel option in its settings 🤔

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@wet ether check in project settings under AI system

wet ether May 28, 2021, 11:16 AM

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Yea, it says that my default trace channel is visibility too. But when i set its response to ignore or overlap nothing happens

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If this way is correct by default, then is it possible that this is not working because i was overriding CanBeSeenFrom(or something like that) function in C++ from AI controller, which also used a linetrace?

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I can show you the code if its necessary

misty wharf May 28, 2021, 11:18 AM

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Oh yeah if you used a different linetrace channel than visibility for CanBeSeenFrom, then it wouldn't work I think

wet ether May 28, 2021, 11:19 AM

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The problem is i don't actually know a lot about C++. Some good person just told to what and where to put and all worked perfectly

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Give me a sec

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bool AEnemyCharacter::CanBeSeenFrom(const FVector& ObserverLocation, FVector& OutSeenLocation, int32& NumberOfLoSChecksPerformed, float& OutSightStrength, const AActor* IgnoreActor) const
{
    const FName NAME_AILineOfSight = FName(TEXT("TestPawnLineOfSight"));

    FHitResult HitResult;

    const bool bHit = GetWorld()->LineTraceSingleByObjectType(HitResult, ObserverLocation, GetPawnViewLocation()
        , FCollisionObjectQueryParams(ECC_TO_BITFIELD(ECC_WorldStatic) | ECC_TO_BITFIELD(ECC_WorldDynamic))
        , FCollisionQueryParams(NAME_AILineOfSight, true, IgnoreActor));

    NumberOfLoSChecksPerformed++;

    if (bHit == false || (HitResult.Actor.IsValid() && HitResult.Actor.Get() == this))
    {
        OutSeenLocation = GetActorLocation();
        OutSightStrength = 1;
        return true;
    }

    OutSightStrength = 0;
    return false;
}

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Here it is

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Wait. I see that is it linetrace by object type, not by channel

misty wharf May 28, 2021, 11:24 AM

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Yeah I think that would collide with WorldStatic or WorldDynamic

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the default sight implementation uses LineTraceSingleByChannel if CanBeSeenFrom isn't defined

wet ether May 28, 2021, 11:29 AM

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Well i just set every single collision responce type to ingore just to be sure and the AI still doesn't see me. This thing basically has no collision, it ignores everything, but still blocks the AI sight

misty wharf May 28, 2021, 11:29 AM

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Try checking with the gameplay debugger

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it should draw some debug info for sight if you turn it on

wet ether May 28, 2021, 11:30 AM

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You mean that thing on ' ?

misty wharf May 28, 2021, 11:30 AM

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yep

wet ether May 28, 2021, 11:34 AM

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And what am i supposed to find in there? I see that this guy does not see me and that's it

misty wharf May 28, 2021, 11:35 AM

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it should draw a line from the guy to where you are

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does it look like it's going into the correct place? and is it showing it's being blocked by the object in front?

wet ether May 28, 2021, 11:39 AM

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The Sight line draws only when the AI sees you, right? In this case he doesn't see me so there's no line

misty wharf May 28, 2021, 11:39 AM

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Oh does it 🤔 I thought it would draw every time it's attempting to see you

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Maybe you can just try disabling the CanBeSeenFrom and remove the Sight interface from the player?

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Because it definitely should work

wet ether May 28, 2021, 11:41 AM

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Well yes, but overriding this function fixed that problem with AI sees only the middle part of the player. Not the head or legs. Only the middle

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Guess i need to contact that good guy who helped with the function. Maybe all i need is replace LineTraceByObject with LineTraceByChannel

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Hey @pine steeple, are you busy right now? I need a little help here with the function you gave me a long time ago.

low oak May 28, 2021, 1:04 PM

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misty wharf Yes, move tos should have delegates you can assign to for events

the assign event for delegate is only work on BP? or thatz another way to make it work in c++

misty wharf May 28, 2021, 1:05 PM

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It depends on the type of the delegate, but you can usually just do Whatever->OnSomeDelegate.AddDynamic or something along those lines

celest python May 28, 2021, 6:50 PM

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Can blackboard based conditions make nullptr check?

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misty wharf May 28, 2021, 6:55 PM

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Yes, if SelectedTarget is nullptr then it's "not set"

midnight quartz May 28, 2021, 7:10 PM

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Has anyone packaged for shipping build with AiModule in 4.26? I am getting a "Expecting to find a type to be declared in a module rules named 'AIMODULE' in UE4Rules..." error.

patent hornet May 28, 2021, 7:13 PM

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error pretty much tells you everything

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needs to be added to build.cs

midnight quartz May 28, 2021, 7:15 PM

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midnight quartz Has anyone packaged for shipping build with AiModule in 4.26? I am getting a "Ex...

nm, solved. "AIMODULE" should be "AIModule"

ebon zenith May 28, 2021, 9:53 PM

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going through those gdc vault about utility theory now. @simple crest will try pop question here if I don't understand.

simple crest May 28, 2021, 9:55 PM

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ohno you're going down the rabbit hole too

ebon zenith May 28, 2021, 9:59 PM

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so far so good, but realizing it is gonna be a different beast.

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it's also kinda what drives the neural network/deep learning from what I imagine so far(10 mins in to the gdc 2010 one)

ebon zenith May 28, 2021, 10:18 PM

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it just keep piling up. XD

ebon zenith May 28, 2021, 11:38 PM

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moving on to the 2nd clip from 2015

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the first clip is very conceptualized and doesn't really talked about "tweaking" strategy wise. it says how you define those parameters and how to approach the overall decision flow, but doesn't mention how you tweak once you have that system in place.(you know how to tweak individual parameters and how to do a combination of scores, but doesn't mention if the system make the AI into a loop then how you tweak such.)

#

(ie. it mentioned about distance scores, but doesn't mention if a prior decision cause AI to move into another place where the score biased back to a decision that could lead into a loop.)

ebon zenith May 29, 2021, 12:00 AM

#

half way into 2nd clip from 2015, so far I think both traditional BT and this approach all missed the "planning" part of AI.

#

ie. I do this because it would be more advantageous in the long run. (ie. say in arena shooter, you shoot rockets to armor spawns while moving into another part of map because you want to scare off opponent that might going there or baiting them to wait for you going for the armor) shooting into empty spot is just something I never see AI do. unless it's hand crafted or mimic human players based on replay data.(some bots can be trained with human player replays.)

ebon zenith May 29, 2021, 12:54 AM

#

https://youtu.be/Qq_xX1JCreI?t=1160

YouTube

GDC

AI Arborist: Proper Cultivation and Care for Your Behavior Trees

In this 2017 GDC talk, Bobby Anguelov, Mika Vehkala, and Ben Weber outline core principles to get the most out of your behavior trees while avoiding common issues.

Register for GDC: https://ubm.io/2yWXW38

Join the GDC mailing list: http://www.gdconf.com/subscribe

Follow GDC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Official_GDC

GDC talks cover a rang...

▶ Play video

#

I found this section from Bobby is very informative. 🙂

spare raven May 29, 2021, 3:24 PM

#

Is there a limit to navmeshboundvolume, when i change the scale from 100 to 1000, it doesn't generate the navigation data

#

I have a navidation invoker on my NPC

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 4:50 PM

#

I've been fighting my mesh not responding to AI move commands. after days of watching youtube videos, and reading about others with AI move control issues, Mine is different, And I hope someone here can help me.

#

my character is creating a bubble around it that will not allow it to touch the Nav mesh bounds.

#

no matter where I move it. I get the error message 'Attempting to move a fully simulated skeletal mesh CharacterMesh0. Please use the Teleport flag' which I have others seen fix that same error by chaning the root-bone to something else. I've updated nav mesh bounds, I have changed it's location, deleted whole blue prints rebuilt them. Ive even re-created the entire character from scratch, matching every setting. and the rebult one dosent have this particular issue. Just so strange.

alpine path May 29, 2021, 5:22 PM

#

@frozen pawnCheck navigation settings of your character.

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 5:23 PM

#

Thanks for responding, What am I looking for?

alpine path May 29, 2021, 5:25 PM

#

For example, Can Affect Navigation, Dynamic Obstacle

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 5:29 PM

#

checking

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 5:48 PM

#

both NAV settings are exactly the same, Under Nav, CapsuleComponant, Area Class, NavArea_obstacle is set. and underneath Dynamic Obstacle is checked.

#

#

vast wharf May 29, 2021, 5:56 PM

#

Is you character deleting the nav-mesh undeneath itself?

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 5:57 PM

#

yeah, I can raise it up and it will fill in.

#

How can i get it so stop doing this?

vast wharf May 29, 2021, 6:15 PM

#

Don't check Dynamic Obstacle (maybe, not sure off the top of my head, but that's the issue, if you figure out what settings does that, turn it off)

static crystal May 29, 2021, 6:20 PM

#

Do people build enemy ai using GAS? Or is it mainly meant for player controlled characters?

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 6:21 PM

#

Both of the Characters have the same settings checked, and selected, yet the other one isn't deleting the nav mesh underneath it.

grand atlas May 29, 2021, 6:59 PM

#

If I call "Get blackboard Asset" on a BT component, isn't that supposed to return the BB that is associated with that BT? BT Component is in an actor.

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 7:00 PM

#

GAS doesn't have much to do with AI. It's an ability system that could be used by players and AI

grand atlas May 29, 2021, 7:00 PM

#

Actually, I had to get the "default BT asset".

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 7:01 PM

#

Characters aren't typically meant to be obstacles. It's going to force the navmesh to rebuild that tile constantly as they move around.

#

Turn off "can affect navigation" until you find what is responsible.

You can also change the area type. Iirc the obstacles area type removes navigation, while another area type that just increases cost will just be colored differently and have a cost penalty for traversing. If you need characters to be obstacles they will need to be cost based modifiers and not obstacles In order to allow themselves to navigate.

But again, dynamic nav mesh obstacles on characters is not recommended.

grand atlas May 29, 2021, 7:15 PM

#

I am so confused by the BB/BT system. I can get the BB Data object from a BT with the "Get Blackboard Asset" interface, but how do I actually use that, to set values in the BB? The Set Value as.. functions requires the BB Comp.

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 7:24 PM

#

There should be a get blackboard. The blackboard asset is something else. Get blackboard may be on the ai controller iirc.

https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/57329/how-to-set-blackboard-entries-in-blueprint-not-par.html

#

Behavior trees are assets, as such they don't hold instance level data like a reference to a blackboard, because that differs for each AI

grand atlas May 29, 2021, 7:25 PM

#

What if I'm trying to get a BT to run on an Actor? Is that just not possible?

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 7:27 PM

#

Should be able to do that. It's user responsibility to call initialize behavior tree and pass in a blackboard instance. I'm not at my pc atm to remember the entire process but I think you should be able to put the plumbing into an actor to run a BT on it.

grand atlas May 29, 2021, 7:29 PM

#

The BT is running, it's just that I can't access anything useful on the associated BB, since it's not a component. And I can't find any way to assign my BB Comp to the BT.

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 7:33 PM

#

#

#JSwigart, I have changed the settings you suggested, but still no change.

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 7:35 PM

#

Look for a get blackboard component on the brain component

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 7:36 PM

#

frozen pawn #JSwigart, I have changed the settings you suggested, but still no change.

Is that nav hole associated with the character or that box collision sitting on top of it?

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 7:37 PM

#

hmmm.. its a collision to trigger a sound clip.

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 7:39 PM

#

If you move it does the hole move

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 7:39 PM

#

#

no i just tried.. nothing different

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 7:40 PM

#

Just trying to verify it's the character

#

Also did you check settings for all the meshes? If there are any attachments with that flag on

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 7:41 PM

#

ill go through and look at the barrels settings, they obviosly also block the nav mesh, see if there is anything simular.

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 7:41 PM

#

Any primitive component actually. The capsule and the skeletal mesh are different components that could have can effect navigation turned on

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 7:42 PM

#

yeah, i have gone through all the componants

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 7:42 PM

#

But that also includes all separate meshes as well like if anything is modularly piecing the character together

#

You have a mesh parented under your skeletal mesh for instance

grand atlas May 29, 2021, 8:08 PM

#

Oh. so all that was needed was a BT comp and a BB component on an Actor. That's it, ~it just works~.

frozen pawn May 29, 2021, 8:14 PM

#

#JSwigart Aw.. man.. Thanks for pointing me in the right Direction, There was one more componant I didnt see, one middle wheel click down hidden by the bottom of the window. It was a destroy actor componant.. it was causing the hole. Finally!

#

alpine path May 29, 2021, 8:16 PM

#

Does anyone know how to solve problem with dynamic nav meshes if destination point is further than invoker's radius?

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 8:22 PM

#

Do you need to use an invoker? It creates more issues than if you just had a nav bounds around your level.

vast wharf May 29, 2021, 8:23 PM

#

I'm having issues with Sight sense updating it's location. I can see the green debug balls changing, however only the very first time a sight sense is triggered does it trigger an event, and when sight sense fails, nothing in between... Comparing this to Hearing sense, which triggers an update for any intermediary step...

alpine path May 29, 2021, 8:25 PM

#

@devout geyserIf level is very big. Does it make sense to build nav mesh before?

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 8:29 PM

#

I would use a big nav mesh even in large levels. Navmesh data isn't that big. It would take some extraordinary circumstances to rely on a nav invoker and deal with the issues it introduces imo.

alpine path May 29, 2021, 8:31 PM

#

What kind of issues it has? After quick look it seems to work properly

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 8:35 PM

#

Having to work around its limited range if you need longer distance pathing. Sounds like that's what you are running into?

#

It works but the way it works create issues that don't exist if you have a global navmesh. Fine when you are good with those limitations but I see quite a few people trying to use invokers and then they to "solve" for long distance pathing separately.

#

Maybe I misunderstood your situation

alpine path May 29, 2021, 8:39 PM

#

That was my initial question is there solution to this limitation? Full bounds do not scale well

#

Maybe 2 nav meshes with diffrent level of details etc

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 8:44 PM

#

Depending on the type of world I would probably create temporary actors at intervals towards the destinations with invokers on it to temporarily ensure navigation exists

vast wharf May 29, 2021, 8:48 PM

#

Is there any way to ensure that sight sense is being triggered whenver it is updated? Currently it only triggers on begin and lose sight, this is how I'm checking for the sense differences.

alpine path May 29, 2021, 8:49 PM

#

@devout geyserI am looking for more advanced solution than that. For example POV navigation, NavLinkProxiy already can be used for it

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 8:49 PM

#

Are you listening to the events off the perception component?

vast wharf May 29, 2021, 8:50 PM

#

2021-05-29_16_49_56-RetroFPSStarter_-_Unreal_Editor.png

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 8:51 PM

#

Isn't there another event ? Sorry I'm not at pc atm

vast wharf May 29, 2021, 8:51 PM

#

Does it not trigger anything in between start and end by default?

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 8:51 PM

#

I dont think it does no

vast wharf May 29, 2021, 8:52 PM

#

OK, I see that probably explains it then

#

I was being thrown off by the footsteps sound which I'm triggering, on every footstep, but that is done through blueprints manually

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 8:52 PM

#

I think the other event might

#

@alpine path advanced in what way?

alpine path May 29, 2021, 9:01 PM

#

@devout geyserSome kind of fallback to low res navigation system. Second nav mesh (lower density) or way points

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 9:22 PM

#

That sounds way more complicated and probably involves a preprocessing step. I'm not aware of anything like that in engine.

Temporarily expanding the scope of the invokers when a destination is outside the invoker radius seems about the easiest thing possible that doesnt add a bunch more complexity.

devout geyser May 29, 2021, 10:35 PM

#

Did you add the vector variable to the blackboard asset by the same name?.

wet ether May 30, 2021, 1:30 AM

#

How can i set AI Sight radius from blueprint on event?

stiff gale May 30, 2021, 6:00 AM

#

On AI death, do I need to do anything else beside Destroy Actor?

wary ivy May 30, 2021, 8:19 AM

#

why would my ai controlled pawns move only when they're in view?

#

I'm confused 😄

#

I'm simply getting random reachable point inside a navigable radius and doing ai move to there

#

this is without any kind of dedicated server or network play, just a local client that's in control of everything

#

this is how the pawns have moved after starting playing + 20 seconds or so

#

starting positions

#

I started playing in the middle of the left group of characters

#

oh and this is using the crowd manager

wild hill May 30, 2021, 1:27 PM

#

Hello! We're using dynamic navigation rebuild during runtime and our AI gets stuck in its own collision. Anyone know a way to prevent this?

simple crest May 30, 2021, 2:01 PM

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Your AI shouldn't be cutting holes in the nav mesh like this, fix/turn that off

wild hill May 30, 2021, 2:27 PM

#

simple crest Your AI shouldn't be cutting holes in the nav mesh like this, fix/turn that off

How would one go about doing that? :)

#

Our ai is based on the Character Class and is a Capsule with the Collision preset Pawn.

wild hill May 30, 2021, 3:02 PM

#

Solved it. Thanks anyway!

ebon zenith May 30, 2021, 4:30 PM

#

wary ivy oh and this is using the crowd manager

You probably have a avoidance radius too big compare to your unit.

wary ivy May 30, 2021, 4:32 PM

#

That can make them not move?

ebon zenith May 30, 2021, 4:33 PM

#

Yeah, but don't go too low otherwise they might pick a location too close to another character, also I think it hurts performance if you go too low.

wary ivy May 30, 2021, 4:34 PM

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The thing is they start to move once they get in view 🤔

ebon zenith May 30, 2021, 4:34 PM

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I think default is 1.5 times the capsule radius

#

So they aren't moving if you are not controlling?(but are controlled by a AI controller?) Also not in view?

rich marsh May 30, 2021, 4:36 PM

#

What is the best way to get an AI's perception component from a custom AI Sense?

ebon zenith May 30, 2021, 4:36 PM

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Why the right group not doing anything ?

rich marsh May 30, 2021, 4:36 PM

#

AIOwner on a FPerceptionListener is private

wary ivy May 30, 2021, 4:37 PM

#

They are controlled by an ai controller always. I want the pawns to wander and that only works after the pawn has been in player view (as in rendered). It is as if I have some frustum culling going on for the ai controller here

rich marsh May 30, 2021, 4:37 PM

#

That would've been convenient lol. I could cast the body actor to pawn and get the controller that way, but it seems like there would be a better way.

ebon zenith May 30, 2021, 4:37 PM

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Lol, ahhh okay, yes there probably is

#

They mentioned it somewhere during a paragon or fortnite talk.

#

So if no one is watching, the ai cuts a lot of things or even not moving.

#

They calculate this by viewing and actual distance.

#

So, that's beyond me and you should try find out where it controls this parameter.

wary ivy May 30, 2021, 4:40 PM

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Hmm, makes sense because I have a top down camera with a low FOV and it is really high up

ebon zenith May 30, 2021, 4:41 PM

#

Yeah, if you ever do is single player local you can probably turn those off first and that would be easier to measure your AI performance impact.

#

Anyway, have fun.

wary ivy May 30, 2021, 4:42 PM

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Cheers

rich marsh May 30, 2021, 5:16 PM

#

IAIPerceptionListenerInterface* PerceptionListener = nullptr;
        const APawn* BodyListenerPawn = Cast<APawn>(ListenerBodyActor);
        if(BodyListenerPawn == nullptr) continue;
        IAIPerceptionListenerInterface* PerceptionListener = Cast<IAIPerceptionListenerInterface>(BodyListenerPawn->GetController());

Is there anyway to get the body actor but not as const?

#

I'm trying to write an idle sense, and I am close, but I can't use the body listener pawn, because RegisterStimulus requires the source to not be const

#

if (SenseProperties.LastKnownPosition.IsNearlyZero())
            {
                // First time grabbing the target's position, so it can't be determined whether or not it is idle.
                SenseProperties.LastKnownPosition = CurrentLocation;
                continue;
            }
            else
            {
                if (SenseProperties.LastKnownPosition == CurrentLocation)
                {
                    // Target is currently idle
                    
                    if (Listener.HasSense(GetSenseID()))
                    {
                        Listener.RegisterStimulus(BodyListenerPawn, FAIStimulus(*this, 1.0, CurrentLocation, CurrentLocation));
                    }
                }
            }

pine steeple May 30, 2021, 6:40 PM

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not sure i follower @rich marsh

#

if the "pawn" becomes idle, you set the last known position right

#

but you should not be registering stimuli when they become idle

#

that stimulus should be registered by default

#

then you return either 1 or 0 strength based on if they are idle/moving

#

feels like you are going a really hard way around things

rich marsh May 30, 2021, 6:45 PM

#

I might be. I'm looking at some of the current built in AI senses and trying to mimic what they are doing

#

So register stimulus is not the right method to call in order to make the AI's perception component register updated stimulus data?

#

and yes, I am tracking the pawn being idle as you guessed

#

void UAISense_IdleTarget::OnNewListenerImpl(const FPerceptionListener& NewListener)
{
#if WITH_EDITOR
    GLog->Log(FName("AI"), ELogVerbosity::Log, FString("IdleTarget listener added!"));
#endif
    check(NewListener.Listener.IsValid());
    UAISenseConfig* ListenerConfig = NewListener.Listener->GetSenseConfig(GetSenseID());
    const UAIConfig_IdleTarget* IdleConfig = Cast<const UAIConfig_IdleTarget>(ListenerConfig);
    check(IdleConfig);
    // Consume the properties for the idle config instance
    FAISenseIdleTargetProperties PropertyDigest(*IdleConfig);
    PropertyDigest.OwningActor = NewListener.Listener->GetOwner();
    DigestedProperties.Add(PropertyDigest);
    RequestImmediateUpdate();
}

void UAISense_IdleTarget::OnListenerRemovedImpl(const FPerceptionListener& UpdatedListener)
{
#if WITH_EDITOR
    GLog->Log(FName("AI"), ELogVerbosity::Log, FString("IdleTarget listener removed!"));
#endif
}

#

Those get called during the registration / removal of the sense.

#

Well, I guess that information doesn't matter. I guess the most important question is the one I asked about if I should be calling RegisterStimulus

magic coral May 30, 2021, 8:22 PM

#

Does anybody have any idea why my zombies are vibrating lol. It's a group collision issue but aside from collision presets I'm not really sure where to look
https://gyazo.com/b34a6c8ce194da68ff3007b0590993b6

Gyazo

▶ Play video

alpine path May 30, 2021, 8:48 PM

#

@magic coralThey lose focus for short time that is why you see glitch. You should debug BHT and make sure they stay focused

magic coral May 30, 2021, 9:01 PM

#

@alpine path Seems to go away after switching to the mannequin. Could it be mesh related some how?
https://gyazo.com/25e8e41f420a410488b20e0747fdbc6e

Gyazo

▶ Play video

alpine path May 30, 2021, 9:02 PM

#

Movement component or animation blueprint

#

Not mesh for sure

magic coral May 30, 2021, 9:11 PM

#

Ah anim blueprint makes sense, I don't know much about any of that haha. I know the walk blendspace only takes into account speed rather than speed/direction seeing as how there is only one walk anim. Oh well. Thank you 🙂

alpine path May 30, 2021, 9:18 PM

#

Just replace ABP with loop animation and check result

#

@magic coralBut I think real issue in BHT

magic coral May 30, 2021, 9:22 PM

#

No sign of any kind of vibration on looped animation so looks like it may indeed be the anim BP
https://gyazo.com/9d0b4b096c4b5c8eacd7b69f61f37242

alpine path May 30, 2021, 9:24 PM

#

@devout geyserI took almost day, but now I have LOD system for navigation. I have multiple nav agents with different density nav meshes. Every path request start from highest density and reduces it until path is found.

#

@magic coralABP could be ok, but data you fed to it is wrong. It is easy to debug with 1 actor

pine steeple May 30, 2021, 9:29 PM

#

@magic coral using Crowd avoidance?

#

Detour?

#

could also be because strafing is enabled and you have no strafing animations

rich marsh May 30, 2021, 9:35 PM

#

I'm pretty sure kaos that RegisterStimulus is the right move, because you pass in the stimuli strength into the FAIStimulus

#

not sure what I am missing

devout geyser May 30, 2021, 9:36 PM

#

What's a "different density" nav mesh?

magic coral May 30, 2021, 9:38 PM

#

@alpine path any idea how I can go about checking for loss of focus? the only thing the animbp really takes into account is speed
@pine steeple I'm not aware of crowd avoidance? not using detour controller, I did it try it at one point though and it only seemed to help a little. Strafing is not enabled either

alpine path May 30, 2021, 9:43 PM

#

@devout geyserRecastNavMesh has many parameter to reduce computation load. For example, cell size. So I can build full level of low res nav mesh and high res dynamic for camera view

#

@alpine path As I said reduce zombie count and try to reproduce. Use pause and check on what value of speed it has issue. You just need to debug it.

#

Time dilation and pause really help to debug animations

lyric flint May 30, 2021, 10:36 PM

#

Anyone know why pressing P doesnt show the nav mesh?

alpine path May 30, 2021, 11:11 PM

#

It always shows. But you do not have nav mesh.

celest python May 30, 2021, 11:15 PM

#

Anyone knows if there is a way to freeze BT?

rich marsh May 30, 2021, 11:15 PM

#

*freeze

celest python May 30, 2021, 11:15 PM

#

Thanks 😄

rich marsh May 30, 2021, 11:15 PM

#

Not sure if it freezes the BT, but you could try to pause the brain component and see if that does the trick

#

or, maybe there is a way to do that from the blackboard component?

#

meaning, from AI, grab the bb component, and then call a method on there that would do that? I've never looked into this, so I'm just throwing guesses out there

celest python May 30, 2021, 11:16 PM

#

I couldnt find anything on the BB, I saw BP montages using BrainComponent->LockResource() but it didn't worked. Gonna try pausing now

celest python May 30, 2021, 11:53 PM

#

rich marsh Not sure if it freezes the BT, but you could try to pause the brain component an...

That seems to worked, thanks (sorry took me a while to test it lol)

rich marsh May 30, 2021, 11:53 PM

#

Yay

#

Glad I could be of assistance

#

and no worries

stiff gale May 31, 2021, 8:00 AM

#

How can I prevent AI from keep attacking my character after its dead?

alpine path May 31, 2021, 8:45 AM

#

Add decorator to BHT

low oak May 31, 2021, 3:35 PM

#

quick quesiton, is ScheduleNextTick can change the tick rate for beheviour tree forever? is that also affect bt task tick rate?

rich marsh May 31, 2021, 3:46 PM

#

@stiff galeYep, what @alpine path said

#

#

The decorator is pretty simple. Here I have it in C++, but it would be very easy to replicate in blueprint

#

// Copyright © 2020 Digital Sync Labs, LLC


#include "BTTask_IsDead.h"
#include "BehaviorTree/BehaviorTreeTypes.h"
#include "RaevinCharacterEnemy.h"

EBTNodeResult::Type UBTTask_IsDead::ExecuteTaskInternal()
{
    ARaevinCharacterEnemy* AICharacter = GetAICharacter();
    if (AICharacter == nullptr) return EBTNodeResult::Failed;

    const bool IsDead = AICharacter->IsDead();
    if (!InvertedResult)
    {
        return (IsDead) ? EBTNodeResult::Succeeded : EBTNodeResult::Failed;
    }
    else
    {
        return (!IsDead) ? EBTNodeResult::Succeeded : EBTNodeResult::Failed;
    }
}

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:15 PM

#

@pine steeple here's my hilariously stupid workaround to that navlink bug.

#

Mileage of this technique may vary 😄

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:16 PM

#

well

#

its for ziplines

#

that expand across distances of the map

#

just want the ai to attempt to use them

#

if the end point is near the player

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:17 PM

#

yeah this was a similar thing.. portals in this case

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:17 PM

#

they are following

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:17 PM

#

Such a dumb bug

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:17 PM

#

hmm

#

might have to nick that idea off you

#

so the plane is just an invisble floor

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:17 PM

#

I just made a BP where I could chain up these invisible platforms with navlinks on them.

#

Yeah

#

I don't know why the links have no limits in Z, but they do in XY

#

so odd

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:18 PM

#

how does that actually work tho

#

the multiple points

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:19 PM

#

they're just linked up to each other like this

#

then have a really low-cost nav area or something applied to them so the AI paths through it

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:20 PM

#

so it just creates a path which makes them walk on teleporter that is it

#

teleporter just teleports them to the end

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:20 PM

#

yeah they never actually follow the path, but the navliks at least let the AI generate a path from one teleporter to another, then they go through the first one and BAM

#

instantly at the end of the path

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:21 PM

#

yeah thats like the zipline, as soon as they hit the trigger

#

the zipline moves them down

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:21 PM

#

yeah

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:21 PM

#

so its same kinda thing

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:21 PM

#

It's like a bethesda-level hack 😄

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:21 PM

#

couldnt it just be a normal navmesh walkable plane?

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:21 PM

#

train heads on NPC's kind of stupid

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:21 PM

#

oh

#

ofc not, cause the end link

#

needs to be linked to a link

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:22 PM

#

Yeah maybe it could work if there was a long plane on top, then a link at the start and end maybe

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:22 PM

#

what i was thinking hmmCat

#

ill try it out, thanks for the ideas

magic jasper May 31, 2021, 8:23 PM

#

disclaimer I haven't opened this project for a while though 😄

pine steeple May 31, 2021, 8:24 PM

#

heh i was kinda thinking the same route

#

when i was discussing with zlo, like just faking a path

marsh aspen May 31, 2021, 8:56 PM

#

Hey guys, so i think i've just lost my entire day, trying to updrade my NPC with a behavior tree because... I've followed a tutorial on youtube, did exactly like the guy BUT... the guy didn't use datatables. (he just wrote directly on the BT, under a text section he made on editable) And now, i'm trying to get this BT work with a datatable but i can't figure out how to display a line according to this datatable. (and also upgrade this line according to the ID of the datatable would be great) SO, do you know a video or any tutorial which could help me with that?

patent hornet May 31, 2021, 9:18 PM

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@magic jasper i would expect bethesda level hack to corrupt your save games, at least

rocky bison May 31, 2021, 9:36 PM

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is there a way to make an EQS return null/none if there are no matching results?

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it'd be really frustrating if I had to do another overlap check on top of my custom EQS Query Generator

ebon zenith May 31, 2021, 10:19 PM

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magic jasper disclaimer I haven't opened this project for a while though 😄

So, I am curious, can we just make an target location to a teleport trigger if the place/actor to go needs to go through teleporters?

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Ie a selector so if actor location path returns fail, then next task start searching teleporters in a tree like structure to the target location/actor and return the closest teleporter trigger.

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But yeah, they should fix the navlink bug.(maybe the link zapping might cause some weird shit so they limit the x/y distance?)

cold trout Jun 1, 2021, 1:19 AM

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what does it mean for a variable in a BT task/service to replicate?

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how would a client access that var?

ebon zenith Jun 1, 2021, 4:52 AM

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cold trout how would a client access that var?

Why would/should a client access that?

cold trout Jun 1, 2021, 4:59 AM

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i have no idea, but im curious why the option is available to make them replicated

magic jasper Jun 1, 2021, 7:41 AM

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ebon zenith So, I am curious, can we just make an target location to a teleport trigger if t...

Because I need them to pathfind through the teleporter to follow other objects. I could tell them to go through the teleporter directly, but not to follow an object through a teleporter for example

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I want the AI to use them on their own rather than me have to manually tell it to do so

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 7:47 AM

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has anyone managed to get the crowd manager working with anything else than a character movement component / character class pawn?

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I figured I could just make a simple pawn with a subclass of floating pawn movement component that implements the avoidance interface that the crowd manager uses to move stuff around

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but.. nothing works anymore 😄

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I'm not at my computer right now so I can't really elaborate. Just wondering if anyone has tried the same

ebon zenith Jun 1, 2021, 8:21 AM

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wary ivy has anyone managed to get the crowd manager working with anything else than a ch...

there will be a lot more work to make it work. I think during the first time they release that, they mentioned it only works if your pawn uses character movement component.(that's like really long time ago. ) I don't know if they even update it anymore after paragon ceased development. But yeah, it's more or less a C++ work to see why it only work on character movement component.

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 8:22 AM

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it doesn't use CMC in the code anymore, instead it uses a pointer to anything that implements IRVOAvoidanceInterface or something

ebon zenith Jun 1, 2021, 8:23 AM

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cold trout i have no idea, but im curious why the option is available to make them replicat...

I think that's because they don't want to write a special attribute class that only the BT ones can't replicate. it makes maintain say, float for normal BP and float for BHT/blackboard special ones, would be maintenance headaches

ebon zenith Jun 1, 2021, 8:24 AM

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wary ivy it doesn't use CMC in the code anymore, instead it uses a pointer to anything th...

the other thing to check is can your floating one using navmesh? cause their crowd manager depends on navmesh.( I should say was, cause like I said it was really long time ago I did crowd manager crowd)

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 8:29 AM

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I don't think it uses but I was under the impression that it could follow a navigation path just like CMC (albeit in a floating motion) 🤔

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but I have no idea really

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gotta study it more

cold trout Jun 1, 2021, 8:30 AM

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ebon zenith I think that's because they don't want to write a special attribute class that o...

is the same thing true of AnimBP variables. Ive found they dont replicate either, but i might be wrong there

misty wharf Jun 1, 2021, 11:08 AM

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@wary ivy at least for me ICrowdAgentInterface works with CrowdManager. You register the actor with CrowdManager->RegisterAgent and need to implement a few of the functions in ICrowdAgentInterface in order for it to do anything

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 11:13 AM

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gotta recheck, I probably did something stupid 😄

misty wharf Jun 1, 2021, 2:21 PM

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TIL maybe all my AI enemies should not perceive each other because it takes time for them to do all those linetraces :P

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implemented some Generic Team Interface stuff that just tells the player is in a hostile team and it sped up AI reaction time quite significantly

kindred ruin Jun 1, 2021, 3:26 PM

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could someone please explain me with few words what those options i marked with red check marks mean?

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could someone please explain me with few words what these option with red checkmarks mean

misty wharf Jun 1, 2021, 3:28 PM

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if you hover over the items I think it should explain some of them at least

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anyway - lock ai logic: stops ai logic like BT from running during move, continuous goal tracking: if target is actor, it will update move position if target moves, project goal on navigation: attempts to make sure the target position is on the navmesh, async task: the async task which is executing the move, don't recall what the type of this value is but you might be able to use it to abort the move or such if needed

kindred ruin Jun 1, 2021, 3:53 PM

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it doesnt explain anything on hover, about "Project goal on navigation" dont quite understand still what it does, if the target is not on nav mesh it will not move to it anyway by default, so this option seems redundant

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"Async task" still dont quite get how to use it, maybe someone can explain

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 4:33 PM

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misty wharf <@!283940114252693504> at least for me ICrowdAgentInterface works with CrowdMana...

everything seems to work okay but for some reason detour obstacle avoidance decides that my floating movement component pawn should have a new velocity of 0,0,0 every frame 🤔

misty wharf Jun 1, 2021, 4:39 PM

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did you implement the get velocity function

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 4:40 PM

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yeah

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hmm, actually it looks like it might be calculating the stuff okay in the detour component 🤔

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so it's probably my movement component

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I really, really dislike how movement input handling is spread over pawns, characters, movement components and controllers

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 5:27 PM

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yea it was my pawn and how it was done -_-

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six hours well spent

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default pawn does what I need 😄

uncut rune Jun 1, 2021, 5:43 PM

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I’m using the AIPerception component for my AI character and using sight as one of the senses. The issue is that the PeripheralVisionHaflAngleDegrees only defines the horizontal FOV of the AI’s sight, but not the vertical FOV. This causes the AI to lose sight of the player just by crouching or jumping. Is there a way to increase the vertical FOV so that the AI can see up and down as well?

ebon zenith Jun 1, 2021, 5:51 PM

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I don't really think that be the case? At least when I implement a cannon AI on a tower, it was able to sense a crowd running below on a terrain.

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But I didn't do and C++ at the time.

olive crown Jun 1, 2021, 5:53 PM

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Can anyone here recommend me some good starter ai tutorials? There are a lot out there that I have found but if anyone has a particular favorite then do tell.

uncut rune Jun 1, 2021, 6:02 PM

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ebon zenith I don't really think that be the case? At least when I implement a cannon AI on ...

yeah, just tested it just to make sure. The horizontal FOV is definitly too small for me for some reason. Im not sure how to change it.

ebon zenith Jun 1, 2021, 6:07 PM

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olive crown Can anyone here recommend me some good starter ai tutorials? There are a lot out...

Just follow the epic channel ones.

ebon zenith Jun 1, 2021, 6:09 PM

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uncut rune yeah, just tested it just to make sure. The horizontal FOV is definitly too smal...

I can't be at my computer right now, but if you still haven't figure out later when I can, I will try check it out.

uncut rune Jun 1, 2021, 6:10 PM

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ebon zenith I can't be at my computer right now, but if you still haven't figure out later w...

ok, please let me know. It could be a huge help to me.

vast wharf Jun 1, 2021, 6:52 PM

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uncut rune I’m using the AIPerception component for my AI character and using sight as one ...

The green ball shows that the sight sense has perceived the actor at that location.

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 7:09 PM

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now my navmesh doesn't get built at all

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siiigh

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okay I got it building

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but this is also weird: the destination is the green sphere that I get by "get random point in navigable/reachable radius" or so

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then the path is that grey line there

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this is the random path part in the controller

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this is really bizarre 😄

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 7:48 PM

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navigation works fine if I use an actor as a destination

vast wharf Jun 1, 2021, 7:51 PM

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I've switched to using this for navigation because of my streaming levels setup which was causing too many headaches with the usual navigation system https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.26/en-US/BlueprintAPI/AI/Navigation/RegisterNavigationInvoker/

Register Navigation Invoker

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2021-06-01_15_52_09-RetroFPSStarter_-_Unreal_Editor.png

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Simple setup on AI Characters

2021-06-01_16_02_44-RetroFPSStarter_-_Unreal_Editor.png

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 8:12 PM

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is that directed to me? 😄

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so, the pathing works if I spawn an actor at the random reachable location

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if I move to the location directly it does not

light blade Jun 1, 2021, 8:41 PM

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hello there folks. How can I stop behavior tree? take it if we killed the enemy and wait for dead animation to end before destroy actor. Currently it's stand up a little bit before it got destroyed, and it could be better if I don't have to use more forceful method like make the enemy do animation stay dead. For now I think it's fine but in the future when my game getting more complex it's gonna become big problem instead. Thank you in advance.

wary ivy Jun 1, 2021, 8:46 PM

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I even tried projecting the destination vector to the navmesh and it returns true as the success boolean :\

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now I tried using "find path to location synchronously" and that returns yet a different path

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da fuq

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random reachable point is the big green sphere, then there's the sync pathfinding result with the orange spheres and connecting line and then the ai debug view path

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is pathfinding completely broken in 4.26.2? o_O

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I'll sleep on it..

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yea I'm guessing it's not that wide spread 😄

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I gotta try this again with a fresh project

vast wharf Jun 1, 2021, 11:02 PM

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wary ivy I'll sleep on it..

This is one of the better AI tutorials I've seen: https://youtu.be/iY1jnFvHgbE Might help, not sure.

YouTube

Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine AI with Behavior Trees | Unreal Engine

In this presentation, Epic's Paulo Souza uses Unreal Engine's built-in AI features to build smart enemy behaviors for a game with stealth-like mechanics.

By relying on the Gameplay Framework in Unreal, we're able to quickly create convincing AI using Behavior Trees. Behavior Trees are great for creating complex AI that can be presented in a way...

▶ Play video

cursive igloo Jun 2, 2021, 12:48 AM

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Hi all
I made BB value as object, but it won't be shown in "Rotate to face BB entry" node
Why?? how to fix it?

flint trail Jun 2, 2021, 4:07 AM

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how can I stop AI from moving and also resume movement after stopping it ?

atomic badge Jun 2, 2021, 6:12 AM

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flint trail how can I stop AI from moving and also resume movement after stopping it ?

You can use a decorator to abort the MoveTo if you're using a behavior tree and when that decorator changes it can then resume its movement

wary ivy Jun 2, 2021, 6:19 AM

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@vast wharf I'm not sure what that has got to do with my issue

flint trail Jun 2, 2021, 12:00 PM

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@atomic badge thanks, although in the attack branch of my BT there is no MoveTo anywhere and yet NPC moves

atomic badge Jun 2, 2021, 12:05 PM

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flint trail <@485109841711464449> thanks, although in the attack branch of my BT there is no...

Are you using an AIMoveTo node in your NPC blueprint instead then?

flint trail Jun 2, 2021, 12:05 PM

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No

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I use BTT with AI Move To in another branch of BT

atomic badge Jun 2, 2021, 12:08 PM

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flint trail I use BTT with AI Move To in another branch of BT

Then make a decorator that can cut that off, if it is the only place you are moving the AI

flint trail Jun 2, 2021, 12:11 PM

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So if AI is moving already on one branch and then BT is switched to another branch, AI will continue moving anyway?

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@atomic badge ^^

atomic badge Jun 2, 2021, 12:21 PM

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flint trail So if AI is moving already on one branch and then BT is switched to another bran...

Yes I think it'll continue that task until its completed.
Im sensing that you might be using a AIMoveTo node within a task. I dont recommend mixing the behavior tree and manual nodes like that. You should be using the MoveTo component in the behavior tree rather within a task. That way you have more control.

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Like this

flint trail Jun 2, 2021, 12:23 PM

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Stock Move To task is not flexible and I don't want bloated tree. So I made custom Move To task and it worked fine so far. I'll mess with decorator that aborts my custom Move To task, thanks.

misty wharf Jun 2, 2021, 12:23 PM

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You can also use lock ai resource

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or whatever it was called

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you can lock the movement resource for the AI using it, and this stops it from moving until you unlock it

flint trail Jun 2, 2021, 12:24 PM

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I never heard of that @misty wharf

misty wharf Jun 2, 2021, 12:27 PM

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yeah you can use it to lock and unlock ai resources like movement

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I don't remember what the exact node was called, but I'm using it in one of my projects to stop ai's from moving before they should be able to

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eg. when they're talking or such

flint trail Jun 2, 2021, 1:26 PM

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cool.. If only you remembered how to use it in BP/BTT 😛

misty wharf Jun 2, 2021, 1:27 PM

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I mean there's a node for it in BP's I just don't remember what exactly it was called lol

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something about lock resource or claim resource I think

flint trail Jun 2, 2021, 1:30 PM

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I'll check, thanks

wary ivy Jun 2, 2021, 3:38 PM

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guess what it was

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it was because my path target fvector wasn't stored in any variable

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as soon as I promoted the path start and end points into variables everything started working

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to me it sounds like bandaid for a blueprint VM bug or something 😄

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I did?

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oh wait

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is it because the nodes are pure....?

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goddamn I had forgotten about that completely

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😄

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good thing I slept on it

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yup

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maybe I'll someday learn that pure in blueprints isn't the same as pure in other programming languages

misty wharf Jun 2, 2021, 3:43 PM

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all "pure" in BP means is that you don't get exec pins

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the "const" flag makes it behave a little bit more like what the word "pure" might imply

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Oh yeah and that^

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My unsafePerformIO would disagree with that statement alex

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Yeah I mean the const flag actually enforces constness to some degree

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pure doesn't enforce anything

wary ivy Jun 2, 2021, 3:45 PM

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yea in BP pure just means "does not modify the owning object"

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whatever that means

misty wharf Jun 2, 2021, 3:45 PM

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it doesn't even mean that

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const is the one that actually somewhat means that

wary ivy Jun 2, 2021, 3:45 PM

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yea it should

misty wharf Jun 2, 2021, 3:46 PM

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But yeah the random node behavior is extremely confusing unless you just know

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literally a beginner's footgun

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(and also when you're not quite paying attention to how you're wiring things)

wary ivy Jun 2, 2021, 3:49 PM

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yeah looks like GetRandomReachablePointInRadius should accept some sort of seed value to make it work as you might expect

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right now it just does

NavQuery.findRandomPointAroundCircle(OriginPolyID, &RecastOrigin.X, Radius, QueryFilter, FMath::FRand, &Poly, RandPt);

misty wharf Jun 2, 2021, 3:50 PM

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Well it behaves as designed and expected, it's just not clear that multiple pins on pure nodes will pull multiple randoms unless you've ran into this problem before and know that it behaves in that fashion

wary ivy Jun 2, 2021, 3:50 PM

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or the BP node could just not be pure 🤷

misty wharf Jun 2, 2021, 3:50 PM

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It's especially extra confusing if you have one pin coming off the node and that pin is split into multiple via redirect nodes

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which feels like it should only call once but nope it won't

wary ivy Jun 2, 2021, 3:51 PM

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exactly what I did 😄

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yeah, I have this vague memory of some forum post or reddit post that said "this does not do what you think it does" and it had a picture of a similar graph setup

wary ivy Jun 2, 2021, 4:14 PM

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5.0 could be a nice milestone for such a breaking change

misty wharf Jun 2, 2021, 4:32 PM

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Yeah the behavior is a bit strange, not sure if there's an actual use case for it 🤔

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one line from the pin should be one value, if you wanted multiple values, you should be able to just pull multiple lines from it

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imo this would make more sense and also allow for it to produce multiple values from one node if it was needed for some reason I can't think of

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But yeah it probably won't change, it's easy enough to work around anyway

crystal vigil Jun 2, 2021, 5:52 PM

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hello i have a question!

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can i have a ai auto generate my maps?

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pls ping

steady elm Jun 2, 2021, 7:31 PM

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can anyone help me out, i'm trying to build my own goal oriented action planner but i'm struggling to figure out how to build it in c++, i managed in c# with the dynamic type but thats not a thing in c++ apperently 😩

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or my actual problem is that for an actions required state and satisfying state i'd need to use partial versions of the entire global state and thats why in c# i used a dictionary of type Dictionary<State, dynamic> where State is an enum representing the state names, so that i could easily update the state in the actual path finding algorythem and so that i can just use maps for the required and satisfied state, but thats obviously not possible in c++ so how else do i do it 🥺 ?

sick raven Jun 2, 2021, 7:54 PM

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so you really cant change the ai sight distance except in the general ai controller? 😦

flint trail Jun 3, 2021, 2:57 AM

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so, what worked for me is Stop Movement node in BTT when attacking @misty wharf @atomic badge

wary ivy Jun 3, 2021, 7:25 AM

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yea I'm kinda annoyed that 5.0 just seems to be a rendering + physics + audio overhaul so far with minimal if any changes to AI + other gameplay systems 😄

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 8:39 AM

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they should just fucking document the existing AI systems

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that would be such a big improvement

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right now they're just a black hole and they're so complex you can't easily figure it out by looking at the code either

wary ivy Jun 3, 2021, 8:54 AM

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yup

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I just stumbled upon "Ai tasks"

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wtf are ai tasks and how is the "transition to ai tasks" going?

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😄

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that's what the tooltip somewhere in editor says

plush ether Jun 3, 2021, 12:55 PM

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Has anyone implemented Neural Networks before in UE4?

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if yes what tips do you have?

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I'm still following a basic Neural Networks tutorial in c++, not related to games, just trying to understand the basics

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i get how it works, but do i really have to understand all the calculations? I mean I barely passes Calculus 1

static dew Jun 3, 2021, 1:44 PM

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I have not done much with AI or BT - so i got a rather vague question.

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Would it be just adding a needless extra layer to say... think about working a BT around checking actors for component. to track for variables. sorta like has tag but you can put some code in it.

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 1:56 PM

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The question I'd have is why would you need to use a BT for that?

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unless you mean you'd have a BT node or decorator to test for it, which could make sense in some cases I guess

vivid drift Jun 3, 2021, 2:13 PM

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@plush ether with all due respect, I'm not sure you do understand how neural nets work. Supposing you did understand the basics of how to train and test a machine learning model, translating that into something that can read the current state of the game, and make decisions to takes steps towards achieving a goal is a difficult task and not a well defined one either. A neural net isn't a general brain you can just dump into something with math. To pull off a neural net well in a game you need significant effort into thinking about your data structures and what you actually want to achieve, and then on top of that, it's pretty rare that you want a machine learning model driving your ai if your goal is to make the ai fun.

flint trail Jun 3, 2021, 2:16 PM

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how does simple parallel work ? I tried it to make NPC shoot and walk (with shooting on primary), but something seemed off

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actually I need NPC to shoot, walk and face target (player in this case)

plush ether Jun 3, 2021, 2:27 PM

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vivid drift <@!723345886305845248> with all due respect, I'm not sure you do understand how ...

First of all, you are 100% right, i do not understand NN clearly and honestly wasn't interested in learning it.
I'm making a game as a project for uni, and unfortunately my "prof." Isn't satisfied with it being "just a game" . He's an old dude can't blame him.
He suggested adding something to do with ai and machine learning.
Obviously i used unreal's amazing behavioural tree system and 3 different enemies, but my man wants to see code and not bp (which brings me to question, can i make the tasks in cpp rather than bp, just for his sake?)
Anyway so i thought that maybe i can make a level and then teach an AI to learn to play it.
So far, people have told that it would be a pain to do all that, especially since I'm nowhere near experienced in this, so what do advise me?
Anything would be appreciated.

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I it's totally fine, if i find it too overwhelming, I'll skip it and focus on something that I'm actually good at

vivid drift Jun 3, 2021, 2:33 PM

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I would advise you to push back, HARD, on your professor because it sounds like he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. Machine learning in games is pretty rare. If you have no way out of this, I would advise you to create a game with discrete choices so your "model" can just pick one of them rather than trying to make an open ended decision.

plush ether Jun 3, 2021, 2:34 PM

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I'll probably do that, thanks 😁

vivid drift Jun 3, 2021, 2:34 PM

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I'm a data scientist for a career and I would not feel confident trying to implement a NN based video game AI 🙂

plush ether Jun 3, 2021, 2:35 PM

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Kinda of a reliefbto hear that😆

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I just want to a simple game developer

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Get that away from me😆

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 2:38 PM

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vivid drift I'm a data scientist for a career and I would not feel confident trying to imple...

You can create custom BT nodes in C++. That might be something at least

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oh sorry wrong reply/ping

vivid drift Jun 3, 2021, 2:38 PM

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lol

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 2:38 PM

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@plush ether that was for you

plush ether Jun 3, 2021, 2:38 PM

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misty wharf <@!723345886305845248> that was for you

Oh i just saw it

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Thanks

plush ether Jun 3, 2021, 2:48 PM

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misty wharf <@!723345886305845248> that was for you

That's actually perfect, when i showed my prof what i've done, he wasn't satisfied since there was not enough "coding". I asked him afterwards, "so it would've been good if i did all that in c++ rather than bp?", he said "it would be GREAT"

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So i guess problem solved, thanks again

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 2:49 PM

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You can also tell him that now that they're in C++ they have higher performance, maybe that'll get you an extra point lol

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Yeah so it seems based on the few times I've seen folks ask about them

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I guess if you're doing something really complicated in one it might be worth the effort, or if you're writing a service that gets ticked often?

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:28 PM

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[C++]

I've been creating my custom BT nodes in C++, but for the love of god I can't find something like 'beginplay' for a node (in this case the UBTDecorator node)

I tried postinitproperties GameplayTaskInit``initializeFromAsset, but none of them work since they are being called inside the editor, which I don't want

so far my only solution is treating SetOwner as beginplay because it's being called because I set bCreateNodeInstance = true; in the constructor

false would not call this

any clue what I'm looking for?

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also is there a way to slow the 'tick' of the behaviour tree itself? That the behaviour tree 'runs' every 5 ticks instead of every tick?

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 3:33 PM

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Why are you looking for a BeginPlay on a BT decorator?

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It kind of sounds like you might be doing something weird :D

plush ether Jun 3, 2021, 3:34 PM

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misty wharf You can also tell him that now that they're in C++ they have higher performance,...

Sounds about right lol

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:35 PM

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misty wharf It kind of sounds like you might be doing something weird :D

maybe, I'm just squaring the distance lol

#

#

so the input in the decorator node for the distance is still a nonsquared value

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but under the hood it gets squared

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less troublesome to think about for the designers and less mistakes

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😂

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 3:37 PM

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Ah

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That doesn't seem too strange I guess 🤔

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:37 PM

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haha xD

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 3:37 PM

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since those are uobjects they don't have any lifecycle methods of their own, unless it's in the BTDecorator base class

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:38 PM

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there's no begin play for sure

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and I couldn't figure out any other similar functions

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if I would put it anywhere else than setowner (like the constructor, postinit, or initializeFromAsset) it would square the input value I gave in the decorator node because it's being called in the editor lol

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so it would get squared inside the editor and fuck up the values basically

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and I refuse to use a second variable for it 😂

ebon zenith Jun 3, 2021, 3:41 PM

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~~So, why can't you pass in a different blackboard value that are squared?~~

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I just finished typing before seeing last sentence.

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 3:41 PM

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maybe you can use DescribeRuntimeValues or InitializeMemory

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not sure, but at least those seem like they'd run once for that sort of purpose

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:41 PM

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i won't touch initMemory since it's better to use SetOwner then lol

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 3:42 PM

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there is also OnInstanceCreated "Called when node instance is added to tree"

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:42 PM

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hmm

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I could try that ye

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 3:42 PM

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these are in UBTNode

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:42 PM

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btw what does this do ?

bCreateNodeInstance = true;

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like would it mean kind of like the variables would be static if false?

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that they all share the same values?

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like the same return type

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 3:43 PM

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I think it makes the node have its own memory instead of sharing with other nodes

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which you'd want to use when you need it to remember unique info about its things

#

(I think)

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:43 PM

#

because SetOwner (setting the AIController) isn't called if bCreateNodeInstance is false

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:44 PM

#

misty wharf which you'd want to use when you need it to remember unique info about its thing...

yeah, I guess, kind of behaving like a static decorator

#

going to try those two functions out and see what they do

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 3:47 PM

#

the memory one with bCreateNodeInstance might be the one to use... since this is instance-specific data you're storing... but I haven't really done anything with C++ decorators, only read a few things online about it so not 100% sure

#

at the end of the day the method that works is usually good lol

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:48 PM

#

DescribeRuntimeValues never gets called, OnInstanceCreated does get called only on begin play (not in the editor ever), so it seems that's the begin play ish

#

so that seems like a good solution 😛

#

Thanks!

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 3:49 PM

#

looks like DescribeRuntimeValues is actually a debugging feature

#

it's only called in a couple of places gated with #if USE_BEHAVIORTREE_DEBUGGER

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:55 PM

#

I see 😛

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:55 PM

#

delicate hazel also is there a way to slow the 'tick' of the behaviour tree itself? That the be...

any idea about this too btw?

#

@misty wharf

misty wharf Jun 3, 2021, 3:55 PM

#

nope, not really sure what even triggers the ticking of the BT in that way

#

maybe there's something in BrainComponent or BehaviorTreeComponent, or in BehaviorTree itself which you could use to control that

#

I guess it could even be as simple as reducing the tick speed of the BrainComponent (which is a BehaviorTreeComponent by default)

delicate hazel Jun 3, 2021, 3:58 PM

#

misty wharf I guess it could even be as simple as reducing the tick speed of the BrainCompon...

hmm yeah maybe, I'll check it out later, thanks for the help ^^

olive crown Jun 3, 2021, 5:33 PM

#

Been learning AI stuff the past few days and I've run into a problem. My behavior tree refuses to abort a task. I have a bool that is set when the AI sees the player, and is instantly set to false when it no longer sees you. This should cause the task that relies on the bool to self-abort, but the abort event is never called for some reason. In the ShootTargetActor task I have a receive execute ai event and a receive abort ai event. But as I said the latter is never triggered. And I print the CanSeePlayer bool to make sure it flips to false correctly.
When the player is spotted the task starts as it should but despite the bool being set to false it keeps going. Any ideas?

flint trail Jun 3, 2021, 5:52 PM

#

do you folks even use simple parallel in your BTs ?

olive crown Jun 3, 2021, 6:11 PM

#

So does an object key where the object is null still count as the key being set or something? Since I really can't figure out why this isn't working. I've tried to abort both tasks pictured and neither work. And having the decorator in the sequence doesn't help either.

Seems like it has to do with me having a "finish execute" node when I apparently shouldnt. But not entire sure, gonna keep testing this.

Edit:
Yep that was the problem. I misunderstood the usage of the finish execute node.

lyric flint Jun 3, 2021, 6:16 PM

#

I am making a TPS game and I have got some sort of AI

#

But they don’t move, they just stand in place and shoot, how would I fix this?

#

I don’t know if I did something wrong but I can send screenshots of the blackboard and blueprint of it

olive crown Jun 3, 2021, 6:20 PM

#

I am a ue4 ai novice but my guess is the order of the tasks makes it so it chooses to shoot over moving. But that entirely depends on how you set it up. If you want moving to take priority over shooting you should let moving abort shooting. Or if you want both to happen at the same time you can put them in a sequence or something perhaps?

ebon zenith Jun 3, 2021, 9:55 PM

#

Or use the simple parallel which is perfect for this task(move and shooting at the same time)

flint trail Jun 4, 2021, 1:09 AM

#

I need for my NPC to shoot a target (player for example) and also move as it does so (or occasionally stand and shoot). Would it be better to use Simple Parallel with shooting on Primary and the rest is in background, or just have selector with Service to determine whether player shoots and moves, or stands and shoots ?

glossy spire Jun 4, 2021, 1:34 AM

#

@flint trail The best I've gotten is move on the main task and attack on background

#

I also use a service that automatically moves my characters to their preferred distance from their target.

#

So for me, it depends on the type of attack.

flint trail Jun 4, 2021, 2:07 AM

#

glossy spire <@!223204723031932929> The best I've gotten is move on the main task and attack ...

from AnswerHub I gathered that primary task can only be a single task, while background one can be a sequence or selector or whole subtree. So I wanted shooting to be on primary one so I could run several tasks on secondary (set speed, face target, move to target, etc.)

ebon zenith Jun 4, 2021, 2:14 AM

#

You can put service on the parallel node to update those so your tree is simpler.

flint trail Jun 4, 2021, 2:15 AM

#

true, but I already have those tasks made and used all over my BT, so I don't really want to duplicate the code 😦

#

I guess I am just gonna dive into it and see whatever works

#

thanks

ebon zenith Jun 4, 2021, 2:20 AM

#

Don't fall for the sunken cost, if there is better ways to do things to make your life easier down the road, it is worth the time to learn do those properly. Otherwise you are gonna get stuck pretty soon as you run out of option to force your way through.

flint trail Jun 4, 2021, 2:23 AM

#

well, I've been learning from the best, supposedly 😅 (Epic, some AAA devs, etc.) and making/reusing a crap load of custom BTTs apparently the thing to do 🤷‍♂️

glossy spire Jun 4, 2021, 2:48 AM

#

@flint trail Yes but you can can use sub trees

#

flint trail Jun 4, 2021, 2:49 AM

#

oh, I see

glossy spire Jun 4, 2021, 2:49 AM

#

although it can get a bit wonky

#

not sure if I would recommend it for most things, but it can be done!

#

Let me know what you decide on, I'd be interested to know

flint trail Jun 4, 2021, 3:04 AM

#

will do

ebon zenith Jun 4, 2021, 4:12 AM

#

I am basically saying that to point out always have that "something might change down the road" when you are planning and implement pretty much any aspect of things. Even for things that only happen for this one project.

#

#gameplay-ai message

#

I linked this one as it shown even the best learn how to improve their design and setups, not just simply following one approach.

wary ivy Jun 4, 2021, 11:00 AM

#

@edgy sierra continuing from #cpp: you should probably use the crowd manager

#

and then have the AIs move about using normal ai move to commands

edgy sierra Jun 4, 2021, 11:03 AM

#

Ok. Was hoping to simulate AIs circling around an exhibit using forces (some being more interested/closer than others). But I guess I can just simulate that with MoveTo commands as well

wary ivy Jun 4, 2021, 11:04 AM

#

yea the crowd manager then handles the pushing of other pawns as they move about

edgy sierra Jun 4, 2021, 11:06 AM

#

👍

vivid drift Jun 4, 2021, 1:40 PM

#

I made a setup for generic animal ai that is meant to use dynamic subtrees, so each animal can have a unique approach to fighting or fleeing or whatever, but all of them have the same general framework:

#

The test cases worked, but now I'm finding that subtrees that don't have the same blackboard as the parent don't run. Is that supposed to happen?

#

Correction, subtrees that either have the same blackboard as the root tree OR subtrees that have no blackboard assigned at all.

#

I get that there is a reason to want overlap, but it seems stupid that I can't use an extension of the parent blackboard class which should inherit all of the same variables.

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 2:41 PM

#

@magic jasper are you around? Having a weird issue with navlink

#

        {
            PointLinks.Empty();
            PointLinks.SetNum(2);
            
            PointLinks[0].SetAreaClass(NavLinkClass);
            //PointLinks[0].Direction = ENavLinkDirection::LeftToRight;
            
            PointLinks[1].SetAreaClass(NavLinkClass);
            //PointLinks[1].Direction = ENavLinkDirection::RightToLeft;
        }


        PointLinks[0].Left = NavlinkStart->GetRelativeLocation();
        PointLinks[0].Right = GetActorTransform().InverseTransformPosition(StartPointLinkEnd);

        PointLinks[1].Left = NavlinkEnd->GetRelativeLocation();
        PointLinks[1].Right = GetActorTransform().InverseTransformPosition(EndPointLinkEnd);``` if i enable the directions on the links

#

the path finding time jumps to 800ms, and fails to find a path on one of the end points

#

#

#

if i set them to both: http://www.thegames.dev/snaps/UE4Editor-Win64-DebugGame_RdX0TvinBp.png

#

if i enable the directions: http://www.thegames.dev/snaps/UE4Editor-Win64-DebugGame_AyhPqwA5ua.png

magic jasper Jun 4, 2021, 2:50 PM

#

Ah man I don't know, I only had very limited experience with them some time ago

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 2:50 PM

#

its odd

#

if i leave them set to both

#

it works fine..

#

but that is not ideal

magic jasper Jun 4, 2021, 2:50 PM

#

Yeah that is really high..

#

I guess the directionality must make it harder to pathfind but.. to that extreme :/

#

Is that 823 seconds??

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 2:51 PM

#

ms

magic jasper Jun 4, 2021, 2:51 PM

#

Oh ms 😄

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 2:51 PM

#

problem is tho

magic jasper Jun 4, 2021, 2:51 PM

#

thank god for async

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 2:51 PM

#

it does not find a path through the links

#

if enable both, it finds the links

magic jasper Jun 4, 2021, 2:51 PM

#

wtf

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 2:52 PM

#

yeah, banging my head right now 😄

#

thinking this is a bug tbh

magic jasper Jun 4, 2021, 2:53 PM

#

yeah almost definitely

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 2:53 PM

#

going to switch the end point around

#

so left is on floor, right is air, and see if that fixes it

#

just have a feeling

#

nope still broken 😦

#

#

hmm :/

rapid hound Jun 4, 2021, 3:00 PM

#

I'm trying to get my AI to walk around more smoothly, and I need a way of checking whether the point it's trying to walk to is reachable, but I can't find the best way to do this. I'm currently trying to use something like UNavigationSystemV1::GetRandomPointInNavigableRadius, but I'm having a lot of trouble with getting the ANavigationData reference for it and I can't find a good tutorial. Is it a stupid way of trying to do that? Any advice or tutorials covering the right thing would be very much appreciated!

ebon zenith Jun 4, 2021, 3:41 PM

#

pine steeple hmm :/

I noticed that the path finding steps is way too high as if it couldn't find a path when the cost are low when it found one. maybe if there is a way to visualize how it traverse the navmesh could help you debug this.

#

also another possibility might be bugged if you set it to directional you might want to check the cost of the navlink. It could have really high cost travelling somehow after enabled?

ebon zenith Jun 4, 2021, 4:36 PM

#

rapid hound I'm trying to get my AI to walk around more smoothly, and I need a way of checki...

the AI move to blueprint node/task is using navmesh, so it already built in the reachable check.

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 4:36 PM

#

i got it solved in the end, was the point was being placed off navmesh when not in BothWays

#

due to a bug in RecastNavMesh where it only projects the links properly in BothWays

#

not in direction

#

going to make a PR for it

ebon zenith Jun 4, 2021, 4:37 PM

#

lol, yeah, I had that before.

#

off navmesh

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 4:37 PM

#

yeah

ebon zenith Jun 4, 2021, 4:37 PM

#

I later did a sanity check script so all the link point should be on mesh

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 4:37 PM

#

still fighting one more issue

ebon zenith Jun 4, 2021, 4:37 PM

#

but I probably lost the script somewhere.

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 4:37 PM

#

and this one is odd also 😄

rapid hound Jun 4, 2021, 4:48 PM

#

ebon zenith the AI move to blueprint node/task is using navmesh, so it already built in the ...

So I have to use blueprints for this, and set up calling blueprint functions from c++ to access it? Surely there's a way of checking reachability from c++?

#

Thank you for taking the time to reply

ebon zenith Jun 4, 2021, 5:20 PM

#

rapid hound So I have to use blueprints for this, and set up calling blueprint functions fro...

maybe you want to check the source code of those nodes and see how there were implemented?

olive crown Jun 4, 2021, 8:26 PM

#

Anyone experience situations where eqs queries just fail but still set their assigned key to some garbage value so the BT still thinks it is valid? I have characters that just query for all other characters around them and then face the one the EQS chooses. But one character always fails and just stares along the positive X axis instead of working like the rest. Always (at least) one and if I delete the character that fails then one of the previously functioning ones start failing instead. It is really weird.

ebon zenith Jun 4, 2021, 8:41 PM

#

olive crown Anyone experience situations where eqs queries just fail but still set their ass...

check your initialization then, maybe you missed one from the array or something

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 8:45 PM

#

it sets the key to InvalidVector

#

FVector(MAX_FLT)

#

not a garbage value

olive crown Jun 4, 2021, 8:46 PM

#

I figured the init was fine since the majority of them work. And it is just an open area so there is nothing that should cause one to randomly fail

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 8:46 PM

#

also the EQS task will return false

#

if it fails query

#

so it will break any sequence

olive crown Jun 4, 2021, 8:46 PM

#

Yeah that is what I thought but the ones that break still seem to return a valid target

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 8:46 PM

#

show me how you are using it?

olive crown Jun 4, 2021, 8:46 PM

#

I just check if the blackboard key which is an actor is set

#

I regret reverting my changes now, but I'll set something up, give me like 5 minutes

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 8:47 PM

#

i mean

#

i tend to not use the Run EQS BT node

#

if that is what you are using

olive crown Jun 4, 2021, 8:47 PM

#

yeah that is what I do

pine steeple Jun 4, 2021, 8:47 PM

#

i made my own BTTask which does the EQS query

#

and sets the key

#

gives me more fine control

olive crown Jun 4, 2021, 8:47 PM

#

ah, true that is possible too

#

I produced the issue twice on separate occasions and now I cant even get the EQS to run 🤦🏿‍♂️. But basically I just scan for all characters in a radius and then choose to face one. And evidently the initialization fails for whatever reason so I'll suppose I'll try and make my own task that runs the EQS for me and maybe that way I can debug it.

#

this is all I do at the moment (Got it to work) https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/321006598044778496/850482365158785045/unknown.png?width=869&height=220

#

the two highlighted characters work but the other one (which always appears to be the first one placed) does not focus on a target. The EQS testing pawn shows that it should detect targets properly. The one not working doesn't stare down X+ for whatever reason now though but previous attempts it seemed to think it had a valid target even if it didn't. (I did have decorators before to prevent focusing when no target is available but it didn't help but didn't add them now when I remade it since Im just testing)

#

But I'll try and make my own task and see if that can help, I've often run into various issues that only happen on start because stuff isnt initialized and this feels like a similar issue.

olive crown Jun 4, 2021, 9:18 PM

#

Looking at the EQS node that you can use yourself, it is so much better, I'll be sure to make use of it tomorrow and hoepfully get better results. Thanks for the tip.

olive ore Jun 5, 2021, 2:48 AM

#


When I press "P" with the nav volume highlighted, no green vizualizer for the nav mesh appears. When I build paths, it finishes instantly, which makes me think the build didn't find any surfaces to draw the nav mesh on.

This issue only happens in one project, nav mesh generation works fine in a blank project.

I wonder if something like custom collision channels I've created or generating mesh distance fields has messed with the nav mesh generation?```

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 10:08 AM

#

For anyone curious about my issue earlier, I figured it out. Turns out the EQS also returns the querier so the ones that ended up not working tried to focus on themselves. I wonder if there is a way to filter out the querier? (I can do it manually by checking but would have been nice if the querier wasn't even a part of the results to begin with)

Edit: Adding a minimum distance of 1 to the query filters out the querier.

obtuse spoke Jun 5, 2021, 2:02 PM

#

Does anyone have a good guide / documentation on C++ AI Team Perception? I'm not a giga noob when it comes to coding / dev but this part has been much harder to self-serve than others.

Currently trying to chew on with this post on the ue forums: https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-do-i-use-the-ai-perception-teams/120837/2 but I'm not quite seasoned enough to digest it at a reasonable rate for a learner

Unreal Engine Forums

How do I use the AI Perception Teams?

Hi Rainbow! Don’t feel bad about been confused by this system, it’s a bit of a learning cliff. I had to read through quite a lot of code in order to figure it out. The ordering of this might be a little off, because I’m working on memory that’s a little old. First up, we need to define the Teams. I found the best way was to create a new UENUM...

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 2:14 PM

#

That thread does explain it pretty much

#

If you want the very very most basic implementation, I think you need the AttitudeSolver, and implement the interface on your actors that need to belong to teams

#

ETeamAttitude::Type UBillysTeamSystem::GetAttitude(FGenericTeamId Of, FGenericTeamId To)
{
    if(Of.GetId() == static_cast<uint8>(EBillysTeamId::IrvingForce) || To.GetId() == static_cast<uint8>(EBillysTeamId::IrvingForce))
    {
        return ETeamAttitude::Hostile;
    }

    return ETeamAttitude::Neutral;
}

This is the simplest possible attitude solver from what I can tell - this one returns hostile for anything that compares against the IrvingForce team

#

FGenericTeamId ABillysCharacterBase::GetGenericTeamId() const
{
    return static_cast<uint8>(EBillysTeamId::IrvingForce);
}

And this is the simplest possible implementation for the team interface, in my case this is on my player character

#

it simply says the player is in this team, and since everything else is hostile towards this team, it makes the player show up as enemy for everyone

solar pebble Jun 5, 2021, 2:24 PM

#

Hey guys, I'm trying to figure out what would be a clean approach regarding having lots of different character types like zombies, vampires, werewolfs, etc.
Now, these characters in theory should have the same objective which is to get rid of the humans, so, they can search, chase, attack, etc. but there might be differences, for example the zombi can wander around searching for humans whereas the vampire already knows their location and can chase them directly.

My question is: Would you recommend creating an AI Stack for each of these characters or should I create only one? like having AI Controllers, BTs, etc for each character type or just one and enabling or disabling their tasks depending on the type?

obtuse spoke Jun 5, 2021, 3:37 PM

#

misty wharf ```cpp FGenericTeamId ABillysCharacterBase::GetGenericTeamId() const { retur...

So you're saying for this most basic Implementation I just need to implement the interface on my Base Character class, no need to mess around with the AI controller class or anything?

I will keep tinkering and let you know if I succeed or have additional questions

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 3:38 PM

#

Yep if you set the AttitudeSolver like I showed

#

everything by default reports they belong to NoTeam or whatever it was called, so the attitude solver will just set everyone as an enemy for the player team, including NoTeam

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 3:41 PM

#

obtuse spoke Does anyone have a good guide / documentation on C++ AI Team Perception? I'm not...

Incidentally I came across this a few days ago and I've used it successfully. https://www.thinkandbuild.it/ue4-ai-perception-system/

Think And Build

Yari D'areglia

UE4 AI Perception System – with just a little bit of C++

In this article I’ll go down the rabbit hole, showing how to setup and use the AI perception system. The official documentation about this topic is good but I had to scrape other needed information from various forum threads, Unreal-Answers posts and a lot of try-fail attempts. This article will condense my experience and findings into a single ...

#

Most likely quite similar but he explains it in a quick and concise manner.

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 3:44 PM

#

Interesting, I could never get it working properly without the attitudesolver

obtuse spoke Jun 5, 2021, 3:45 PM

#

Thanks for the feedback, both of you!

obtuse spoke Jun 5, 2021, 4:17 PM

#

olive crown Incidentally I came across this a few days ago and I've used it successfully. ht...

Woof, that is also linked at the bottom of the thread that I was first reading through.. convergence of people seeking knowledge is funny (I only just noticed, haha)

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 4:19 PM

#

obtuse spoke Woof, that is also linked at the bottom of the thread that I was first reading t...

ah didnt notice myself 😛 But yeah the one I linked was pretty helpful to get going at least.

last mango Jun 5, 2021, 5:33 PM

#

Does anyone here actually use EQS with GameplayTags? They seem fundamentally broken in a very obvious way and now I'm wondering if my thoughts of how it should work are what is broken.

#

My main problem is here: https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/blob/release/Engine/Source/Runtime/AIModule/Private/EnvironmentQuery/Tests/EnvQueryTest_GameplayTags.cpp#L108. When performing a query, if an actor doesn't match the gameplay tag filter, it just marks it as succeeded. If you are scoring based on the query, it's ok since an actor with the tag(s) will get a 0 score. However if you're doing a filter query, it turns the filter into a no-op because it marks everything as succeeded. Simply changing this line of code to fail actors without the tag(s) makes the entire system work how I expect.

last mango Jun 5, 2021, 6:10 PM

#

I filed a UDN post on it

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 6:43 PM

#

When I run a behaviour tree, will it stop any trees that were running previously on that same ai?

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 7:46 PM

#

If you do get blackboard value as actor, does it not give you a reference or something?

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 7:46 PM

#

It gives you a pointer

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 7:48 PM

#

Well then I am very confused. When my characters die they set a tag that indicates they are dead, but for some reason my behavior tree services do not detect it

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 7:49 PM

#

Which nodes are you using to detect it?

#

If you're using the builtins, they check for gameplay tags, but nothing really implements the gameplay tag interface by default, so you're probably setting a regular string based tag on the actor

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 7:50 PM

#

I have a tag container, sec

#

wait if I set a blackboard key as object, can I then read it as an actor?

#

Actors are objects, no?

#

you cant even set keys as actors I assume that is the case

#

basically I set the key like this inside a service

#

and when the actor dies it runs some logic and sets a dead tag which i check for in another service

#

like so, but the tag check always fails even though I am 100% certain the tag is set

#

I must be doing something wrong since despite the target actor (that is held in the key) being dead and the tag being set, it still contains outdated information somehow. The key is set by the EQS and that should also be pointers so it should reflect any changes.

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:03 PM

#

This never returns a successful query. I tested the EQS with the eqs testing pawn and everything looks fine. It doesn't work in BP

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 8:04 PM

#

I dont use the wrapper class parameter myself, no idea what it does yet. It seems you have set it to something?

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:04 PM

#

Tried it without that as well, doesn't work

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 8:04 PM

#

check the query status enum, see what it says

#

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:05 PM

#

failed

#

It says

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 8:05 PM

#

then the problem lies elsewhere

#

sadly I have no idea

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:06 PM

#

Thanks for your time

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 8:06 PM

#

hopefully someone more experienced knows, Im stuck myself atm 😛

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:17 PM

#

The tag thing looks like it oughta work 🤔

#

Have you doublechecked that the key is actually the object you think it is?

#

You could probably also try printing all the tags to check whether they've been set as expected

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:19 PM

#

cerulean sky Thanks for your time

What is Self in this case? If you're trying to run the query with a querier that isn't an actor or such it might behave strangely

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:19 PM

#

@misty wharf It's a character

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:19 PM

#

Okay that should be fine then

#

What does the query itself look like?

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:20 PM

#

#

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 8:20 PM

#

misty wharf You could probably also try printing all the tags to check whether they've been ...

Just checked via printing, the tag is set the moment it dies. And it does work sometimes but rarely. Im wondering if my custom EQS test is the culprit. But Im busy debugging everything at the moment so we'll see soon hopefully.

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:22 PM

#

If it works sometimes then it sounds like it could be a race condition

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 8:22 PM

#

misty wharf If it works sometimes then it sounds like it could be a race condition

Could be, I run the status check service right after the one that sets it

#

albeit not as frequently

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:23 PM

#

cerulean sky

have you tried removing the wrapper class? I've never seen that used lol

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:23 PM

#

I did, it doesn't work at all

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:24 PM

#

what do you mean? it doesn't compile?

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:24 PM

#

I just meant it doesn't work like that either

#

It returns failed

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:25 PM

#

That's strange, especially since it works with the EQS tester pawn it seems the problem should be in the way you're running the query

#

so the query node is in your BP_WhateverCharacter ?

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:26 PM

#

exactly

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:28 PM

#

Try running the gameplay debugger or visual logger before you run the query and see if there's anything of use in them

#

visual logger might have some extra debug logging for it

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:32 PM

#

This is what I got after the eqs run

#

I think I'm fixing it :d

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:32 PM

#

I wonder if it counts it as a failure because it gave you no results

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:34 PM

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I think the eqs testing pawn and my character's capsule heights were different

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And so the "project down" wasn't reaching below enough

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And wasn't working

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:34 PM

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Ah

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Tbh I assumed zero results would just be zero results and not "failed"

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:35 PM

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Yep, it's working, thank you guys for all the help

cerulean sky Jun 5, 2021, 8:35 PM

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misty wharf Tbh I assumed zero results would just be zero results and not "failed"

I think it returns failed when there are no valid results

misty wharf Jun 5, 2021, 8:35 PM

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Yeah seems that way

olive crown Jun 5, 2021, 8:37 PM

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My issues are related to the team interface that ai controllers and whatnot can have. If I have two teams all is well, but if I have 3 or more then one character (or more) can never detect that its target has died for whatever reason.

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So that's a fun bug to investigate

lyric flint Jun 5, 2021, 11:20 PM

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What's the difference between QuerierObject and QuerierActor in UEnvQueryContext_BlueprintBase::ProvideSingleLocation?

cold trout Jun 6, 2021, 1:25 AM

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cerulean sky This never returns a successful query. I tested the EQS with the eqs testing paw...

who is the querier here

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id guess the PathExist requirement is failing all items

cold trout Jun 6, 2021, 1:33 AM

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lyric flint What's the difference between QuerierObject and QuerierActor in UEnvQueryContext...

just in case your querier isnt an actor, still gives you a plug

cerulean sky Jun 6, 2021, 2:59 AM

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@cold trout The box extent was too short to overlap with anything, increasing that solved the problem

olive crown Jun 6, 2021, 12:21 PM

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Seems like using EQS for ai perception is a bad idea. It is a huge mess trying to get this to work. Made an EQS query that finds suitable targets (and a custom eqs test that filters based on team), but looks like you aren't really supposed to use eqs in this way.

misty wharf Jun 6, 2021, 12:23 PM

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How so?

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Tbh I'm not quite sure how you'd make that work given you'd probably want it to perceive targets when they come into line of sight, and with EQS you'd need to run it repeatedly to keep scanning

olive crown Jun 6, 2021, 12:24 PM

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Just a myriad of cascading issues no matter what I do. All tutorials just do "get player character" and call it a day when it comes to AI targeting. But I want to have teams so multiple ai can fight each other etc. And it became a huge mess.

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And yeah I basically check in front of the character if any characters are found, then check their team and filter on that

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I guess I should just abandon this and use the ai perception component like I should have

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and just use EQS for movement/finding cover etc

misty wharf Jun 6, 2021, 12:25 PM

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I guess you could in theory use EQS for scoring available targets

olive crown Jun 6, 2021, 12:25 PM

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I put the EQS targeting in a service

misty wharf Jun 6, 2021, 12:25 PM

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Use AI perception to track targets, then create an EQS context that gives those as positions

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You could then use an EQS to score them I guess

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or otherwise perform some kind of filtering

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but yeah not really sure if that's useful

olive crown Jun 6, 2021, 12:26 PM

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yeah the target tracking is my main issue

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but I learnt a lot about eqs at least

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gotta find some good guides on the perception components

misty wharf Jun 6, 2021, 12:26 PM

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it's fairly straightforward, you just stick an ai perception component on it and give it a sight sense and set it up

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you get some events and functions like when perception updates, or get perceived info about some actor

olive crown Jun 6, 2021, 12:28 PM

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yeah I have used it a little but the reason I moved to EQS was that it didn't seem to update properly. But maybe I hadn't configured it right. Say the AI is looking at a target, I step into its FOV and then the target dies. It then doesn't seem to update its target and look at me instead. But I probably just did something wrong. I'll have to give it another go.

misty wharf Jun 6, 2021, 12:29 PM

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it doesn't send events unless the target goes in or out of perception

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so if the target dies but remains within the view cone, you don't get a perception update event

olive crown Jun 6, 2021, 12:30 PM

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yeah I guess then I should check if it has died like I did with my eqs stuff

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and clear the target

misty wharf Jun 6, 2021, 12:30 PM

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Yeah

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It might be possible to also unregister the dead pawn from the perception system

olive crown Jun 6, 2021, 12:31 PM

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Thanks for the tips. My unreal dev life has gotten so much better since I joined this discord. 😛

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ah yeah I did that too earlier

cursive igloo Jun 6, 2021, 2:54 PM

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Hi I have a question
Can I change variables of EQS generator in behavior tree?

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I want to change this variables in BT, but Idk how to do it

alpine path Jun 6, 2021, 3:04 PM

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How can I connect NavLink to NavMesh in runtime?

faint hare Jun 6, 2021, 3:08 PM

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I have a question. Is it possible to unload a level but still allow the AI to travel through it? If not what method can I use to make that possible?

misty wharf Jun 6, 2021, 3:09 PM

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cursive igloo Hi I have a question Can I change variables of EQS generator in behavior tree?

I'm not a 100% sure, but it might be possible to use those with EQS parameters... but you would need to create a custom generator which supports parameters

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I have no idea why none of the builtins have parameters on almost anything when they seem like a fairly common thing to use

cursive igloo Jun 6, 2021, 3:10 PM

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misty wharf I'm not a 100% sure, but it might be possible to use those with EQS parameters.....

how to support parameters...?
It always grey out...

alpine path Jun 6, 2021, 3:10 PM

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@faint hareWhen level is unloaded you transfer actor to another level and control it

misty wharf Jun 6, 2021, 3:12 PM

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cursive igloo how to support parameters...? It always grey out...

You would need to add a parameter into one of the tests or generators where they support it. But most of them don't for some reason... you can create custom ones with parameter support in C++

cursive igloo Jun 6, 2021, 3:13 PM

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ah sh@t I can't C++...
Okay thank you!

faint hare Jun 6, 2021, 3:15 PM

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alpine path <@!209023561640181771>When level is unloaded you transfer actor to another level...

Okay thank you. I'll try that out

shadow vortex Jun 7, 2021, 6:21 AM

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Is there a way to move the pawn sensing component or is it stuck in place?

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 8:16 AM

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What do you mean move it? It's an actor component, it doesn't move

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(compared to scene components, which you can position in the component tree, and adjust the location of)

flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 3:34 PM

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I finally got my NPC to use anims and shoot the way I need it to ... almost

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in my BT when I get to attacking branch and then select whether it's range combat, I run custom BTT that uses BPI to trigger shooting montage playback in NPC character. Montage has anim notifiy which also via BPI triggers shot spawning code in NPC.

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the issue I have is that BTT fires constantly while AI is in range attack mode. I need for it to fire only once. How can I do that ?

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should I use some bool, like startedShooting, and then add decorator on my shooting BTT to fail it if bool is true ?

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this way looping montage anim will continue doing its thing, but the BTT that started the cycle won't be executed until next time AI is in range combat mode?

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 3:43 PM

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@flint trail the way I've done it for most actions is that the pawn has an event dispatcher like OnAttackEnded and the BTT listens to the event and it will not Finish Execute until it fires

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this way it never starts anything else until whatever action has finished

flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 3:45 PM

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in my case BT is the one that ends attack (when AI branch switches from, say, Attack to Chase)

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 3:45 PM

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Ah

flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 3:45 PM

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shooting anim just loops until reloads kicks in and then go back to shooting loop

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and it goes on until player is dead (not implemented yet), or NPC dies (not implemented yet), or NPC takes enough damage to go into Pain branch (not yet implemented) or player runs away (then attack switches to chase)

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 3:46 PM

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you could probably implement something to abort the montage in that case 🤔

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I have an enemy who has a "burst fire" type attack and he just fires three times on the BTT_Attack regardless of what happens

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and once the BTT_Attack is done it decides what else to do

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flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 3:47 PM

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misty wharf you could probably implement something to abort the montage in that case 🤔

what I am saying is montage keeps getting retriggered by Task being continuously executed

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Task > BPI > play montage

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 3:48 PM

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Ah

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I mean just put some other task into the tree after it, that should fix it

flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 3:48 PM

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so I need for the task to execute only once

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 3:48 PM

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you can see in the screenshot I posted it will keep attacking in a loop, unless the player is too close

flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 3:49 PM

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right, but once second task succeeds ir fails, it will loop back to Attack task

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 3:49 PM

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Yeah so you just need to decide what else it should be doing and plug those nodes into the tree

flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 3:49 PM

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ah, I see

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 3:49 PM

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or have it exit the attack branch entirely once one attack is done if that's what it should do

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in my case the attack branch loops infinitely, but it has another branch in the tree which aborts it which gets triggered if it loses line of sight on player

flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 3:50 PM

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what triggers attack montage anim in your BT ?

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 3:51 PM

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BTT_AttackTarget

flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 3:52 PM

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so if it loops infinitely, how come montage doesn't get retriggered ?

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 3:52 PM

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I'm not quite sure I follow? If it repeats the attack, the montage should play again, no?

flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 3:55 PM

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not if montage has looped section

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when you trigger montage that has looped anim, it just keeps playing.. No need to trigger Play Montage node anymore

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 3:58 PM

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Ohh I see

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Yeah I'm not actually using montages, it uses paper flipbooks for animations

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But if the montage loops when you don't want it to loop, it sounds like you need to fix the montage, or abort it somehow

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 4:18 PM

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Doesn't that depend 100% on what you're trying to do

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I haven't used utility AI's but they seem more suitable for cases where the choices between AI behavior isn't very linear and the decision is affected by more factors

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you could certainly do that with BT's as well but perhaps not quite as convenient

ebon zenith Jun 7, 2021, 4:50 PM

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Utility is going to be hard to formulate to solve edge cases and honestly you could implement some of it into your BT instead of doing it whole with Utility AI

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It almost feel like you are wiring up a neural network of parameters and their threshold/dependencies. And it could be easy to pile on the rules, but hard to debug/fine tune behaviors.

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But it's easier to run lots of AI as all the rules can be executed in batches. (Even share some general info like health amount so they can appear to be collaborate, ie casting heal spell shoot covering fire)

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Ie, imagine you have a distance/threat, engage ammo check, what to do if under threat or not.

flint trail Jun 7, 2021, 5:03 PM

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is it possible that anim notifies are not reliable and won't always trigger ?

ebon zenith Jun 7, 2021, 5:04 PM

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Sometimes you could have numbers that just happen to do one thing after another in a loop(ie, 1. I need to go forward to engage enemy, 2. Found out ammo isn't enough to engage safely, 3. Retreat to cover to reload, 4 oh engage takes priority again.)

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Now you need to add another rule so your engagement requires enough ammo in clip, so new temp parameters that saves new weight value in your execution

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This is while things are still simple and easy

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Now imagine you have a network of 40-50 parameters/rules depends on each other, how do you debug or find out what's wrong, and tweak them?

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BT have it's own issues but at least the execution sequence and conditions are layout in a tree.

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That's why I say you can implement the concept into some tasks checking conditions so different AI behaves slightly differently and still predicable

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Human players loves predicable AIs

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Cause you play game to feel smart and powerful.

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Yeah, feel free to do it.

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It should be good learning experience.

misty wharf Jun 7, 2021, 6:35 PM

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^no, that's probably why :P

devout geyser Jun 7, 2021, 7:34 PM

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Anyone have an idea why UNavLinkCustomComponent would not be blueprint spawnable?

obtuse spoke Jun 8, 2021, 1:02 AM

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nvm I'm dumb I figured it out

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GetPerceptionComponent()->OnPerceptionUpdated.AddDynamic(this, &AFTS_AI_Controller::OnPawnDetected);

or something

flint trail Jun 8, 2021, 1:37 AM

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ah, finally made some measurable progress with AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyXn8EGnA7Q

YouTube

motorsep

Oculus Quest 2 project: Progress with AI

Finally making some measurable progress with AI in UE4

▶ Play video

cursive igloo Jun 8, 2021, 4:51 AM

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I have a question~
Will "Attach to Pawn" cause performance loss?

median mica Jun 8, 2021, 5:53 AM

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hi guys

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im really stuck

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suddenly my AI stopped working wont move even with nav mesh is there

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its just stuck with simple commands like AI move to

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i dunno what to do please help i even created new project and did simple AI still doesnt move

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what seem to be the problem please if someone can help me i will really be appreciated

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😫

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its like AI doesnt want to work for me

silver belfry Jun 8, 2021, 6:10 AM

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maybe you need a destination? 🤔

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im a complete noob at this and need help with AI aswell if someone got a few minutes

cursive igloo Jun 8, 2021, 9:11 AM

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I need help
Can I get bool value from EQS? how to do it??

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I just set bool value as BB key but not working

misty wharf Jun 8, 2021, 9:17 AM

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Bool value based on what? EQS returns a list of results

cursive igloo Jun 8, 2021, 9:19 AM

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based on trace

misty wharf Jun 8, 2021, 9:19 AM

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Ah, so if the trace hit something or not?

cursive igloo Jun 8, 2021, 9:20 AM

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yes

misty wharf Jun 8, 2021, 9:20 AM

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Maybe you could just do a normal line trace if you want to check for something like that?

cursive igloo Jun 8, 2021, 9:21 AM

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hmmm... so I can't do it only using EQS?

misty wharf Jun 8, 2021, 9:21 AM

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Well, you could I guess, but you would need to check how many results you got if you wanted a bool value from it

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Eg. if you got one result then return true, otherwise false

cursive igloo Jun 8, 2021, 9:22 AM

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I use actor of class

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so I think there won't be many results

misty wharf Jun 8, 2021, 9:23 AM

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Yeah it depends on how many actors are within the range, and how many are filtered out by your tests

high summit Jun 8, 2021, 10:29 PM

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@median mica did you created AI player controller and assigned to your npc? and can you try to print string on begin play to make sure it is working : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il7WMwPd-qw&ab_channel=TechnoNerd

YouTube

Techno Nerd

How to use AI MOVE TO node in UE4 || BLUEPRINTS || UE4 TUTORIALS

Check out my Patreon: http://bit.ly/TechnoNerd_Patreon

DON'T CLICK THIS: bit.ly/2vBhU2s

PLEASE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE

And feel free to request Tutorials.

#UnrealEngineTutorials
#AiMoveTo

How to use AI MOVE TO node in UE4

▶ Play video

silver belfry Jun 9, 2021, 1:01 AM

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drag and drop seems really neat for people who are new, I cant seem to be able to do what he does in the video though 😅

crystal haven Jun 9, 2021, 12:07 PM

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https://streamable.com/inhl2j

Having an issue with Move to Location, as the AI gets close it stutters. I've tried playing around with the delay and acceptance radius but I can't figure it out. It worked smoothly as AIMoveTo moving to an actor rather than a moving destination, is there anything I can do to smooth out the stuttering?

(Nodes are messy, sorry. I'm learning as I go)

Streamable

AI Stutter

▶ Play video

misty wharf Jun 9, 2021, 12:09 PM

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To me it looks like they're simply reaching the destination and slowing down

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and then as the destination gets further away from them they move faster again

crystal haven Jun 9, 2021, 12:12 PM

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Yeah, their walk speed is increased when they aren't being controlled so they stay in formation. This method worked for me before when they were following a dummy actor sphere instead of a location. https://streamable.com/wjc1zr Is there anything I can do to keep them moving?

Streamable

AI

▶ Play video

misty wharf Jun 9, 2021, 12:20 PM

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Hmm, maybe if you continuously update the position they need to follow? The delays would likely make this problem worse

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Tbh using a dummy actor for it seems entirely fine if it works around issues like this :D

crystal haven Jun 9, 2021, 12:25 PM

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Yeah the dummy actor was nice but it would clip through terrain and obstacles so the AI would lose track and stop moving. Spring arms at least get displaced by obstacles but components can't be used as an actor for AIMoveTo, I have to get the location and use that as the destination. Maybe I can slow the AI as it approaches the destination or something

umbral musk Jun 9, 2021, 12:39 PM

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Does anyone have good intermediate AI tutorials with behavior trees? By this, I mean that I have the concepts of behavior trees down, and I've followed some beginning tutorials where I can get things to work. I'm just not sure that my implementation when things get a little complex is correct. It might "work" but I have run into weird issues (one even where things worked in the PIE but not in a packaged game?) To me, there's this relationship between the NPC, NPC AI, NPC AnimBP, behavior tree and blackboard that just feels like it's held together by duct tape. As a start, I suppose I'm looking for help on things like how to make the look at user (or object) non-robotic for the NPC, how to carry out more complex tasks and animations properly (like do you have to put a wait on the behavior tree for the length of the animation and if not, how do you know when the animation is complete?) and what should a more complex behavior tree look like?

misty wharf Jun 9, 2021, 12:48 PM

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crystal haven Yeah the dummy actor was nice but it would clip through terrain and obstacles so...

You could probably move the dummy actor so its position is projected to the navmesh so it would remain in a reasonable position for them to follow

flint trail Jun 9, 2021, 3:00 PM

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any idea folks https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/anim-notify-fires-during-montage-segment-to-segment-transition-before-reaching-actual-notify-why/234314 ?

Unreal Engine Forums

Anim notify fires during montage segment-to-segment transition befo...

My anim montage has first section that goes from holding weapon up to aiming it at target (player) and then second section is looped shooting anim with anim notify at the beginning of it (which makes projectiles spawn when triggered). Blend times are 0. Why would anim notify fire when animation is still in the first segment and not yet on the s...

lyric flint Jun 9, 2021, 5:16 PM

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Hey guys, i have some simple ball enemys that just need to follow the player, damage it and increment the score if deleted.
I'm using a pawn for that because it has the simple AI "moveTo"-node, but at around 300 enemys the frame just get decimated.
Does anyone know how to optimize this? I guess the pawn actor has a lot of overhead and the AI Agents aren't helping either.

pine steeple Jun 9, 2021, 5:29 PM

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its not the pawn actor

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its the moving of the actor in the world

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disable generates overlaps, reduce the amount of scene components

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tick further away balls (balls not in the players view) at a higher rate (like .1f instead of every frame), etc

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have the player detect if a ball hits him

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not the ball detect the player

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@lyric flint