gameplay-ai

[ocean wren]

The lack of examples and documentation

Then for some weird reason a ton of people seem to want flying AI

There's not a lot of AI toolchain stuff. I know there's statetree now, but there really should be a planner properly supported, along with a Utility system and if we're being real, there needs to be an ML setup now

Basically, if AI got the love that Graphics got, or even a fraction of it, the toolchain would be far more developed

[granite vault]

Did not Epic added the gym ML last year or 2 years ago?

I forgot where. I was sure i saw it

[ocean wren]

There's an ML thing in the same way there's a HTN planner thing

i.e. not really 🙂

[granite vault]

Yeah i definitely agree with the smartlink and especially doorways. Heard too many complains about stuck in doors here

In google search too regards the door.

I would like to try to make an ai moving around areas with door sometime later

[granite vault]

Ah too bad

[misty wharf]

Yeah doors are a bit annoying depending on how you want them to work

In my fps project doors just don't exist on navmesh and if npc's bump into them they just automatically open lol

[ocean wren]

Yeah, we did that too 🙂

[granite vault]

Yeah that's smart way to design it. However, many cases i think people want to have it "realistic" lock

Interesting one to play around

[misty wharf]

Yeah my other project would kinda need something like that ideally

Ie. the AI doesn't know the door is locked until it walks up to it to try it

[granite vault]

Is there any games with AI and "realistic" door lock? It would be nice to see what are they doing

I think Fortnite's ai open doors automatically

[misty wharf]

I don't think I've ever noticed it in any game

[granite vault]

Make sense people tend to avoid this kind of complex door and ai combination

[misty wharf]

I think even in my other game you might not notice it so it might be kinda pointless for it to exist as a complicated feature :P

[granite vault]

Agree

[misty wharf]

Simply having the AI not go through locked doors is easy enough, just change the navlink area class

They'll stop trying to pathfind through the link, now you have a locked door

(assuming you've set up your nav query filters correctly)

[granite vault]

But what if is it a dynamic lock/unlock door?

[misty wharf]

Just toggle it at runtime, at least with dynamic navmesh it should just regenerate and work

[granite vault]

Navlink area class can be toggled?

[misty wharf]

Yeah you can change it to something else, say you have two nav areas NavArea_Normal and NavArea_LockedDoor or something

You can just switch between the two depending on whether it's locked or not

[granite vault]

Oh interesting. I thought that would confuse/break the ai by having 2 different Navlink area in same location.

[misty wharf]

I've not tested it a lot but at least with the testing I did it basically just does the same as if you change it in editor (with runtime navmesh generation enabled)

[granite vault]

Thanks for the letting me know. Appreciate the additional details

[misty wharf]

You could probably also just disable it altogether, but with this method you can optionally have certain npc types that are allowed to navigate through locked doors (perhaps they have keys)

[main heart]

https://youtu.be/qC5KtatMcUw?t=411 do you mean a lever or sorts?

I don't think it is about improvement. It is more about the need of hour type of thing. For instance, the latest Crowd AI is a novel introduction.

ML should be on priority list, in my POV, but they are just tooo reluctant to learn from limited or special cases.

they need large number of test cases to learn which is already annoying for real time

[granite vault]

I did not meant that. But after seeing that, i want to try that too for Ai lol.

[main heart]

other than Atari type games which can run loops in berserk mode

[granite vault]

Crowd type of Ai. I find that even the old cpu can run 100 ai easily. Moving only, i never tested beyond that. I suppose by crowd you all want above 10,000 ai?

[main heart]

I haven't explored UE's take on that

but I'd like to imagine something like Boids Algorithm

Simple rules for large number of entities to generate controlable complex behaviors

[granite vault]

I see. Complex behavior surely has high added cost

[main heart]

yeah tell me about that

that not only introduces unpredictability (which is desired in some cases) but self-harming tendencies

that is unacceptable

[thorny jay]

Hi everyone, quick conceptual question: what is the main difference between hierarchical path finding and regular path finding? I noticed that using EPathFindingMode::Hierarchical is significantly faster than EPathFindingMode::Regular, but I'm assuming there must be a trade-off? Currently using hierarchical for everything, but not sure if I'm missing a trick in doing that

[gritty pebble]

There is a way to generate navmesh runtime on a spawned mesh? Is pretty expensive to activate navmesh rebuild runtime, so I just want to rebuild it on a small part of the map.

[misty gale]

Invokers could do that i believe

[slow bobcat]

Hello!
I'm testing the new StateTree outside mass and I have two questions:

• Does anybody know about any documentation or thread explaining how to use EStateTreeStorage? or at least the difference between internal and external?
• I can't see any way to check what a state tree is doing that is not set a breakpoint in code or use the visual logger. Does anybody know if there anything else?

[desert dagger]

Is there an event that you can call when navmesh has finished loading?

[main heart]

there could be

try looking into the source

[celest python]

Wdym by "loading"?

Literally getting loaded in a map or some other functionality?

[misty wharf]

There are delegates on the navigation system for it

Including for when the navmesh has been regenerated if using runtime generation

[slow bobcat]

You have some in the RecastNavMesh.h

[misty wharf]

Anyone have any idea what is the intended usage of the perception Team sense?

[harsh storm]

My guess would be that it'd only be useful if you have teams already configured (which requires C++ IRC). Then it'd only notice pawns on the "Blue" team for example.

[misty wharf]

It doesn't seem to really "notice" anything per se, it just receives events

[harsh storm]

It'd only get those events if w/e team triggers it though, no?

[visual silo]

Is it just for coordinating team stuff? Like if you had a team leader call for everyone to advance

[misty wharf]

🤔

Possibly some kind of send random data to team thing yeah

[sharp junco]

I'm trying to get a character to move to location (current position Y + 100), but he just does not move...I have a NavMeshBoundsVolume which encompasses the entire map. If i use Set Actor Location I can instantly move the character, but I want him to walk/run there....any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Note that I'm using the ThirdpersonCharacter template. The character is spawned in but not yet possessed by any controller. (I've tried using Get AI Controller instead of player controller, but that also does not work)

[desert dagger]

loaded in the map yes. I discovered that when using streamed levels the level streams load faster and complete sooner and navmesh takes a bit more time to calculate. (I set navmesh to dynamic)
Seems like i got some replies but if possible i'd like to know if i can access delegates using blueprints too or not..

[celest python]

Highly doubt you can

Not sure about specific to navmesh, but FWorldDelegates has a delegate firing when assets loaded or spawned in map

Or at least when map loaded

[desert dagger]

hmm.. okay.

[sharp junco]

I figured out my problem...I needed to set "Auto Possess AI" to "Spawned" on the character, so that when I spawn it in, it gets an AI controller, then plugin the Get AI Controller into the Move to Location

[sharp junco]

Now I have the problem that the character moves, (rotates correct and moves), but his walk animation does not play? I've tried with both "Move to Location or Actor" and "Simple Move to Location". But when i possess him with player controller and run around the animation works fine

[celest python]

@ocean wren I guess you were right EQS only returns items if you select "All Matching", and just returns one in others

[ocean wren]

🙂

[ocean wren]

Needs to be possessed to have a BT work

[slate beacon]

Hello! I've a problem with my AI. Another person made a level and the AI would not move. I've done debug, they have target as character, all the keys are correct in BB, but they fail the move to task and just stand there.

the logic inside BT is correct and on any other levels they move just fine

Nav mesh is there and i see no issues

what might be the cause?

[celest python]

Check visual logger

[slate beacon]

what is that?

the BT flow or debug in game?

i googled it and i never used it before XD

[celest python]

It's in Tools -> Debug -> Visual logger

[slate beacon]

ye i found it, gone run it in a sec

hm

so it's navmesh...

i though so , but idk why

this how it goes on the other level

same AI same nav mesh options

(just fresh nav mesh all defaults)

[celest python]

Print the move goal

Either actor or location

its not on nav mesh

[slate beacon]

i kinda find a fix

still confused what causes this

but smaller navmesh volume works

she made big level with several flores and 1 huge mesh around it

if i put a smaller one into a room it works

[celest python]

No idea tbh 🤷‍♂️ you gotta provide more context and info. What visual logger says is your location is either invalid or not on nav mesh

[slate beacon]

the key is there, it just fail to use pathfinding

all i can say is that both bot and player were in same 'room' inside of navmesh

idk why this happened, but using smaller nav meshes seem to help

[silk fulcrum]

Is there a way to determine if a character is actively pathfinding or not? I.e. on route via Simple Move To location

[magic jasper]

You can get the controller, then get the path following component to query it

[deft hound]

Anyone know why these two uses of a "Move To Location Or Actor" give very different results?

https://gyazo.com/3fa4171d80fb1918c6692300f12399e6

https://gyazo.com/b192762be37fc78e6469adeda78f3bd6

The second one shows it going to an actor I've placed in the level - this works completely fine.

The first one is going to a location (the exact location of the actor I used in the second one)! So it should go to the same spot.

FYI gravity is off, it's in flying mode. (Vertical movement in a 2d platform game)

I ideally need to use the first one, i.e. a calculated Vector for the AI character to move to. I suppose every time I want to do this I could spawn an object where I want it to go to and use the second example, so it actually gets there.

I just can't fathom how they are different (not being able to see the code as I'm in blueprints).

[abstract ember]

Is the issue that the first example isn't going to that same location that the actor is placed in world space even though you manually entered the position?

[deft hound]

yep exactly that

[abstract ember]

Can you give me a ring to stream the test example?

[deft hound]

I've also tried giving it a vector + another vector that's way above, but it doesn't help it get any further. Sorry... a ring?

[abstract ember]

Call me..? Like ring the phone..?

[deft hound]

Ah - i don't have a headset atm + didn't realise you could do that in Discord!

I can show a video clip of it occuring if that helps

[abstract ember]

You don't need to talk per se, just stream your computer screen to me so I can see what's going on. It really helps.

[deft hound]

Thanks. I'll make a clip - 1 mo.

[abstract ember]

Streaming allows me to interact real time when I see an issue.

[deft hound]

I understand - I can't really do that atm. But I can make 2 quick clips which will show the issue

[abstract ember]

We can try

[deft hound]

This is when i'm telling it to go to the object:

(which is way above where he should go (he's supposed to be climbing the ladder))

https://gyazo.com/b814f4f11fd7af063ffdf4a7e9109eef

And this is the one where i tell it to go the position of the spawned object way above:

https://gyazo.com/167bd9a418d52b9b7df87d7610145cf5

It looks like he's getting stuck on the platform, but considering the only change I am making is the goal location to a goal actor (both the same world pos), I can't see how

Do the videos help?

I wish there was a way to have vertical navmesh up my ladders, this would be so much easier. I'm having to blueprint hack my way of telling AI to do eveything through blueprint... i.e. if the player is above and it can't get there, but there is a ladder, find the base, go to it, move up in flying mode, etc etc

@abstract ember Do the vids help?

[abstract ember]

Break down the actor component and get actor location. Try again.

Sorry. Don't know what else to say.

[deft hound]

np - thanks for looking. Do you think there's a chance that any of the code runs differently based on whether you choose location rather than actor?

hmm just had a thought of something to try...

bah - didn't work.

[abstract ember]

I really wish you could stream it.

[misty gale]

Wouldn't it be easier to spline it and lerp its location moving upwards?

Setting up platforms and ladders in a graph, and suddenly its just about applying a regular pathfinding algorithm

Or a navlink proxie might work

Never used those so not sure how usable it is for this scenario

[deft hound]

@misty gale Sorry i was away. Navlink proxies don't work consistently from what I've found. I also have objects in the world (e.g. a rope) that you can create a new up/down path with, so whateverI do it needs to be realtime nav.

[misty gale]

Setting it up in a graph is realtime

[deft hound]

(I can get navlinks to wrok fine in 3D - they are much more problematic in 2D at a small scale from what I've found

[misty gale]

Adding new paths/ladders at runtime, no problem

[deft hound]

how do you mean? In a graph? Sounds intriguing

Sorry I haven't heard of this before. Is a "graph" a sort of network of splines?

[misty gale]

A graph is a set of nodes and edges, connecting the nodes together

A node in your case would be a platform, and an edge would be a traversal method from one node to another

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_(discrete_mathematics)

[deft hound]

thanks - is this a feature of UE4 or would it require a lot of non-BP code?

[misty gale]

It would be some extra work to set up, for sure

I guess it can be overkill for this, depending on complexity of the levels

[deft hound]

@misty gale I think given my design it's not overkill - it's more complex than my example shows.

do you know of any tutorials or examples out there?

[misty gale]

I have yet to see it in a pure bp setup

Mostly one uses c++ for this sort of thing

[deft hound]

Yep - I can code enough in C++ to probably do a bit of it... but i'm from a Scripting and Design industry background. If it was in LUA or similar i would be fine :0

What would this be referred to as? "Building your own navigation graph"?

[misty gale]

Along those lines yes

https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/API/Runtime/NavigationSystem/NavGraph/

https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/8pnpaw/unreal_didnt_have_proper_point_graph_navigation/

[deft hound]

thanks that reddit post looks illuminating!

[misty gale]

http://jceipek.com/Olin-Coding-Tutorials/pathing.html

This seem to cover a lot aswell

[deft hound]

Thanks. So why might i ask can the UE4 system not do this? Is it just it can't do vertical navmesh?

[misty gale]

Sounds about right yes

But

In your case

I would almost think it'd be easier to just have your world flat?

And use the flat navmesh

Tradeoff would probably be worth it, not needing to implement your own path algo etc

[deft hound]

!

[misty gale]

Instead of up being Z, let up be X

And just modify nav as ladders are added

[deft hound]

that's a clever idea

thank you very much indeed. Need to ponder all of this

trying to think of a reason why the world can't be flat...

[misty gale]

Jumping

Must be changed

Gravity must be changed

[deft hound]

what if the nav was flat, but the world was normal - could i transform the numbers?

hmm no forget that one

gravity is already "not normal" - so faking it wouldn't be a bad thing - i'm not happy with my character movement atm anyway

Thanks a lot I really appreciate the advice. I shall have to investigate which path to take... ironic eh 😉

[misty gale]

Heh , served on a silver platter :p

[ocean wren]

Honestly, I think this kind of case would be better if you just wrote your own navigation graph system.. Its already a tile based world after all.. so you know where tiles are etc.

[misty gale]

Probably, but there is a certain ease using built in systems :p

[ocean wren]

So build it in then 🙂

the engine and editor is freely extensible

in fact, its pretty good for that kind of thing to be honest..

aside from the lack of documentation

[misty gale]

Im doing my own nav system, it was just an alternative suggestion that one can get away with without to much trouble :)

[deft hound]

I'm not sure on the implications yet for pursuing the "flat world" approach. I'm using Pixel2D which also uses Tilemaps (their own i think).

[deft hound]

would this kinda work?

https://michaeljcole.github.io/wiki.unrealengine.com/AI_Navigation_in_C++,_Customize_Path_Following_Every_Tick/

instead of jumping I would have walking

would it make going up/down valid in pathfinding?

(assume it is done in flying movement mode)

@ocean wren @misty gale What about a Flying Navmesh?

There appears to be some in the store

e.g.

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/don-s-3d-pathfinding-flying-ai

[deft hound]

or maybe SVON?

https://github.com/midgen/uesvon/wiki

[cedar dust]

question

do you guys use more behaviour trees or just code without it

[misty wharf]

I use it if it makes sense for what I'm trying to do

[cedar dust]

lets say a melee ai that is evaluating an incoming attack

dodge, block whatever

[celest python]

BT might not be able to handle it

BTs are all about prioritizing (why English is so difficult to write ) behaviors

You can not jump from a node to another node

So you have to evaluate that blocking behaviors condition in everything and thats not suitable

You can either make a very minimalistic state logic in (or outside of the) BTs or handle this outside of the BT

[cedar dust]

yeah i kinda got something working with bt but it seems a pain to handle this stuff with it

[celest python]

Have a const function in character class that determines if AI can dodge or not

And handle blocking logic inside the character if BT gets too complex

Dodge looks like a "reaction" rather than a behavior

If your AI had some specific sequence of actions to do when dodging and if it would be easy enough to handle with BT elements (selector, sequence, decorators etc) you could do it in BT

But for a simple reaction-like action, you just disable BT for a while and enable it again when you are done

Like after dodge anim finished etc

You can do state-machine logic for this in character class but dont do it in BT

[cedar dust]

make sense

[celest python]

And dont communicate with BT directly

BT should gather data on its own from environment and character

[cedar dust]

alright thank you

[celest python]

If you would do that in BT; you would use simple parallel and check for these conditions in a child BT

and on the second task (the right one, non-pink output) you would handle the behavior

[cedar dust]

its a mess

[celest python]

If it's not a very dynamic system its not a problem

If you can cover everything in a single child BT, its alright

If the behaviors does not rely/change on game progression or environment its alright imo

[cedar dust]

i tried with something similar but as i said, it became a mess once the ai got more complex

[celest python]

Gotcha, then do it in character class

Some studios I've joined was strictly trying to do everything in BT so slowly I decayed towards "try keep everything in BT" mode 😄

It really depends tbh

[harsh storm]

idk - I find that I don't have much issue doing pretty much everything in BT. Even super simple stuff. I like the workflow more personally.

[celest python]

Real problem is you can not cover everything in BT, it's very static and declarative

Execution flow makes you create thousands of nodes

But if you really organize everything properly it can be a workable workflow

[cedar dust]

thats true, it does have the power to do almost everything i think

[harsh storm]

I feel like @misty wharf and I are like the only ones here who appreciate the BT's sometimes 😅

[misty wharf]

lol

[celest python]

Sorry I just cant stop hating some parts of the engine sometimes

[cedar dust]

well at least has enough stuff so you can actually complain about something 👀

[celest python]

You gotta write so much things to make AI module serve at its %100 potential/capacity

Its only thing I'm blaming in this server

Didnt even blamed hot reload yet

[harsh storm]

Sorry, Lorash has a monopoly on complaining about that in #cpp

[cedar dust]

hot reload is not that bad

[harsh storm]

It's pretty bad. Live++ on the other hand...

[cedar dust]

sorry was trying to bait like #cpp does

[misty wharf]

https://tenor.com/3qu5.gif

[cedar dust]

thats actually pretty scary

i think im gonna stop

[misty wharf]

lol

[harsh storm]

My initial way of solving the dodge thing in BT would be as such. Seq2 would have a decorator on it making sure it could only be entered if a BB value was set, bShouldDodge or something. Then sele3 would have a decorator where it would only enter if that value is not set, and will abort immediately when the value is changed. Simple.

Could even just replace Sele3 with a RunBT node and have your non-evasive stuff be in another BT entirely.

[celest python]

That's what I would try to avoid though

It's a fine approach, its just you have to repeat this for all behavior sequences once you do it

[harsh storm]

Not really.

[celest python]

But on the other hand Sele1 is root selector so yeah not

[harsh storm]

Yeah, at scale, something like this could be a nightmare, but so could most other things. So I'm still in the camp of, just do what works best for you.

I prefer BT's because they're quite descriptive and easily reusable when done right. At least, the way I do things. Don't know about others.

[celest python]

I'm working on a BT that I must implement states (hopefully zoombapup wont kill me at night), and having logics like this forces me to place seq2 to everywhere

That's why I mostly avoid reaction-like things

[harsh storm]

Half the time I just feel like people care too much about perfection. If it solves the problem and gives acceptable performance, ship it.

"Oh this detail has a flaw in it!" - who cares. It works. Problem solved. Move on.

[celest python]

You're right

[rugged talon]

can you increase the senstitvity of the hearing of an Ai or only radius of the the hearing

[cedar dust]

yeah this is the kind of issue im facing

[celest python]

Then either dont do states or avoid it, in your situation you dont have a choice except having a confusing BT

(assuming your BT is big enough, otherwise go brrr)

[cedar dust]

i cant stare at more then two sequences and two selectors without getting confused

throw a simple parallel in and im lost

i guess its just preference anyway

[celest python]

lol it shouldnt be that confusing

[harsh storm]

Here's the BT for The Division 🙃

[cedar dust]

you can do it but not out of the box, at least i think

[celest python]

There is even worse in this graph

They are right to left (logic starts from right, reverse of the BP execution flow)

[cedar dust]

at this point you dont even look at it, thats not confusing anymore

[cedar dust]

right? 😬

[rugged talon]

how would i do it? is it very complicated ?

[celest python]

I wonder what happens here

[cedar dust]

ahahha

[rugged talon]

begin play

[cedar dust]

i remember doing something similar with sight using curves as "sight strength" and playing with the float thing(i think its strength(in the report sound event i mean)) im not too confident with ai tho

[harsh storm]

BT's are my favorite way to write AI currently. I'm interested in HTN stuff as well. But just don't have the time 😭

[rugged talon]

alright

[celest python]

BT + Utility + FSM ❤️

as a combo

[harsh storm]

I'm very interested in the HTN plugin on the marketplace, it's just overkill for like...all of my games 😅

[rugged talon]

what is this Lo SHearing

[celest python]

Its LoSHearing but UE parsed the variable name incorrectly

Probably hearing radius specifically for the things in line of sight

[rugged talon]

i see

thanks

this node makes the singal for hearing right ?

like even if sound is playing ai wont hear unless this is used

[cedar dust]

yes

i used loudness for doing the custom hearing stuff. i have no idea if is intended to be used in another way but worked for me

you have the location the loudness and the instigator

you can do your stuff

[misty gale]

I think loudness is related to the range it can be heard on , and at what strength(?)

Pretty sure i just altered it for sneaking, which reduced the range i was noticed at

[full lotus]

Is there any way for me to just make a character move for longer? It looks pretty artificial when they move a lil bit and then stop and idle

I'm using Behavior Trees

[misty wharf]

Move longer than what?

If you're using MoveTo or something then if you want them to move longer.. just move them further

[main heart]

Maybe they need easing function introduction.

[mint terrace]

iirc there's a timeout on Move to, and you should use Observe Blackboard value on that so it continuously updates instead of going to where the target was when the moveto started

probably the latter that is your issue

[full lotus]

Thank you!

[full lotus]

It's a randomized location

[misty wharf]

you could use EQS to get a position that's at least a minimum distance away, or select a new position if it's too close

[mint terrace]

yeah if the position changes then observe Blackboard value will be helpful. If it does not change, then it won't be helpful.

by the way, as a reminder to any aspiring behaviortree developer out there-- seriously make sure your actors are valid when you run move to actor-- unless things have improved since 4.27, the whole game crashes when the actor reference on the blackboard is invalid, and its rather difficult to understand this

of particular import is when the pointer is valid, but the actor is destroyed

(which happens, if say, it dies)

[misty wharf]

Really 🤔

I've never ran into that and I'm pretty sure I've tried to move to booleans and all kindsa things lol

[mint terrace]

specifically what plagued me was Move To with Blackboard Key set to a value of type Object, passing an Actor in to that, when the actor is destroyed prior when the Move To starts, it crashes

[misty wharf]

Interesting, seems strange they wouldn't have handled target actor being nullptr

[mint terrace]

i agree. i would hope this has been fixed by now

in my case i fixed it by ensuring that I maintain the blackboard values that point to actors properly -- if you destroy said actor, the other actor should probably stop "pursuing" him according to the blackboard

(ie just unset so its unambiguously invalid) [lol at my edit chain]

[main heart]

that is way too careless if true

[mint terrace]

i think nullptr is fine, its destroyed actor

ie stale pointer

[main heart]

so what be the true reason for crash?

[ocean wren]

Who mentioned states in behaviour trees? <sharpens knives>

I don't mind reacting TO states in BT's btw.. having a state machine elsewhere etc

but states IN BT's I have a strong objection to.. usually because people trying to do it are mixing mental models and are going to shoot themselves in the foot with it

[celest python]

Client wants an AI that requires to have states but also hired me for a short time so not have time to build a FSM framework from scratch

I had to commit this crime

[ocean wren]

burn the heretic! 🙂

[alpine pecan]

Afternoon all, I've been searching for something all morning and I'm either using the wrong terms or this isn't a thing.

Is it possible to tell my AI to run an EQS from an arbitrary location?

I'm basically trying to get my AI to look behind walls. I have an initial EQS query that I want to get my AI to look at and I want to build a second EQS query to find a location near to that where my AI should stand in order to see that hidden location.

[misty wharf]

EQS queries don't have a location per-se, it depends on which contexts you use within your query. So if you want it to query from an arbitrary point, the easiest way to do that would be to save the point into a variable in your AI, and create a new EQS context which casts the querier into your AI class, and returns the variable as the location value

Yeah, it feels like it should be possible to just send this as a parameter to the query, but it's not (except with great great difficulty)

[alpine pecan]

yeah it feels very much like the whole EQS system is actually quite hindered by this and I don't know why

[misty wharf]

It seems to have been designed kind of half-way through :)

[alpine pecan]

Is it possible to get EQS to pump out two locations?

[misty wharf]

It works quite well but you have to sometimes work around these kinds of strange API choices

Yeah, you can have it return the entire set of items that are valid

[alpine pecan]

That might work - perhaps it's even more streamlined

rather than having two EQS queries one after the other

https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/InteractiveExperiences/ArtificialIntelligence/EQS/EQSNodeReference/EQSNodeReferenceContexts/#envquerycontext_blueprintbase

I guess this is what I need

[misty wharf]

Yep

You can create a custom context (even in BP's) and just have it return whatever point you want

[alpine pecan]

Looks like I can pull the location of my first point by hardcoding a grab from the actor's blackboard inside the context which feels a little weird but should technically work

[main heart]

are you doing this for a client?

[alpine pecan]

No, just learning 🙂

Works though - EPSPawn on the right, a test pawn on the left

(ignore my unfinished EQS query)

test stuff at the bottom

[main heart]

so gauge the redundancy

[alpine pecan]

hmm?

[main heart]

I don't see result location being used

why is node even there

in the cluster

[alpine pecan]

the nodes at the bottom are just for testing in editor at the moment, will be replaced by the blackboard entries at the top when i get my query working

which seems to be now...

[tidal pelican]

Hi all. Is multiple navmesh agent types (ie Supported Agents) a broken, missing, or hidden feature? I can create multiple agent types easily enough in settings but can't find a single place to set an actor's agent type or Agent Name. A solution in either C++ or Blueprint will do.

I've tried googling but all I can find are people asking this question and never getting an actual answer.

[misty wharf]

I vaguely remember fiddling with it in my other project

Look at the C++ interfaces and classes used for navigation, it's somewhere in there

like.. NavAgent something or other

iirc there's a function which returns the nav agent properties for an actor or the ai controller, something like that

[night panther]

Trying to use tags in EQS

tag check

my problem is I cant just say has to match this

which it asks for

I need more like doesnt match mine

cause mine will always be different based on who played me

[celest python]

There should be an inversed condition check

A boolean

[night panther]

usually but not for this and it asks for what tags to match

i was hoping I could just leave it at dont match but

requires input

im just creating my own

same onjective through a service

[misty wharf]

🤔

I could've sworn the tags decorator had a inverse checkbox but maybe not

[night panther]

no that is decorators in a bt

EQS gameplay tag checker has reject incompatible

But I need to be able to change what is rejecting based on what I am

[misty wharf]

Ohh right the EQS one

Yeah sounds like it should be a fairly trivial custom test

No idea why they wouldn't support that out of the box

[night panther]

yeah bummer

woould work great if everything was set

like check for an enemy type or object type thats always the same

but for checking if it matches my own which could always be differnet as well has nothing

I got it working through a service

[misty wharf]

You could probably literally just copypaste the existing tag check test and flip the condition inside it :D

[night panther]

I dont need to flip the condition I need to have it be changeable

If if player one do my tags match

if im player two do my tags match that

but im not always just player one or 2

so unless I want to make seperate bts per player

lol

service worked all the same

[misty wharf]

Ahh right

[latent coral]

Guys. I need your help. I am for a quite while trying something stupid and have looked on forums, tried what exist etc etc etc. But THIS is not working at all.

What I am trying to do: When the player overlaps the overlap thing it should spawn a AI. And this AI should follow and shoot the player.

Whats happening: The AI is being spawned, but player cant see the AI and shoots are working fine. Just the AI itself is not being shown tot he player.

The location and rotation of AI and the shooting is fine. But he is a invisible object to player.

help

[rugged talon]

i am using report noise event but it doesnt work. what could be the reason

[misty wharf]

Incorrectly configured hearing sense or too far from whoever is supposed to hear it

[rugged talon]

would it show the noise sphere in the debug menu if regarless of ai setup ?

im in the yellow circle

for hearing

[misty wharf]

if you haven't set up the team stuff you need to set it to hear all the teams

that might also affect it

[cedar dust]

they havent exposed the team stuff to bp with ue5 right?

i didnt actually checked

[rugged talon]

this was it thankksss

[cedar dust]

nice

its a shame they didnt exposed this to bp, i heared more then one people say that is bugged when it actually just need to be setted up

[rugged talon]

how do i make the instigator in report noise the actor holding the gun. im making the sound on the gun class. is there a way i can set the character holding the gun the noise target? like for player i would just do get player character but if its another AI character shooting the gun then waht @cedar dust @misty wharf

i think get attached parent actor worked

[cedar dust]

it depens on how you have setup stuff. you need a reference to who is holding the gun

[rugged talon]

@cedar dust how do i switch between the debug info for actors? like i want to see the hearing and vision circles for enemy but it shows for my ai partner not enemy

i have to remove partner for it to show enemy

can i like switch between them or show all ?

[cedar dust]

i dont know if you can switch

if you look directly at who you want to debug it should debug that one

[rugged talon]

how would i do that

[cedar dust]

you point your camera at it and press the debug keu

[rugged talon]

ah

ok

thanks

it doesnt seem to work tho only works if the enemy is the only ai in the map

ill try to look around tho

see if i can get it to work

[ebon lagoon]

is EQS important in the grand scheme of things? I was following a course that had an EQS section but I found it tough to understand and resulted in many weird bugs (like viewport eqs visualization being broken among other things).
I wonder, what can EQS do that cannot be done with BT/C++?

[night panther]

YOu can switch

its like Shift ]

or something like that

im pretty sure it says on the debug screen for ai

to cycle through

@rugged talon

[rugged talon]

i tried to look for it i couldnt find it but ill check again

[night panther]

right bracket and then 6 is for perceptoin and shift + ] should work to switch between them but it should say

did you do the C++ setup for your perception?

[night panther]

#include "CoreMinimal.h"
#include "AIController.h"
#include "GenericTeamAgentInterface.h"
#include "TeamPerceptionAIController.generated.h"

UCLASS()
class POLYGOD_ALPHA_API ATeamPerceptionAIController : public AAIController
{
GENERATED_BODY()
ATeamPerceptionAIController();

public:
ETeamAttitude::Type GetTeamAttitudeTowards(const AActor& Other) const override;

};

what wrong wit this ai team perception thing

always says build failed

https://www.thinkandbuild.it/ue4-ai-perception-system/

this guys tutorial never works to set it up

[ocean wren]

"Tutorial" 🙂 hahaha

FYI you can change the AI being debugged by selecting it from the dropdown in the BT editor

[placid bloom]

Hey all, Im doing my first attempt at ai and im a bit stuck and cant seem to find an answer anywhere. Basically i have some ai doing a standard roam and when they are activated they chance the player. Most of the time their pathing works fine but they cant seem to work out the ramp. Any ideas on how i can fix this?

[ocean wren]

are you sure the navmesh is on the ramp? have you fixed the step height of the agent? Have you used the visual debugger to have a look? Have you created some test cases to work out the problem?

[night panther]

Anybody set up the AI Team perception successfully yet?

[misty wharf]

?

the team sense or just the ability for the senses to differentiate between teams

[main heart]

I'd like to imagine collective sense, in the sense, look what I did here, where, for instance, if a member or entity of patrolling team senses intruder, then entire team of entities start executing a sequence of actions. Making formation to strike down the intruders by making formations and whatnot.

But yeah I don't think it would need special Engine side work. I have been wrong before though 😄

[ocean wren]

Yeah, its really not that hard. There was a bug where the team wasn't being properly set, so the Id was set and then being overwritten by some CDO or something. I fixed that in my code, but don't know if anyone fixed it in the actual code.

[night panther]

Do you have a base class that I could inherhit my AI from to get it working?

[night panther]

lmk ❤️

[wary kraken]

Hello, is there a reason why UE not creating navmesh on some parts on landscape? Tried to change tile size, slope angle and other settings

[west talon]

Hard to see, but it looks like your Nav Mesh Bounds Volume needs to be taller

[wary kraken]

I tried to make it any size, but nothing helps.
I can see that ignored area has exact size as our landscape tile, so it basically ignores some of our tiles. We do not use world composition or something else, just standard landscape.

Also navmesh works ok on roads that were creating using landscape spline tool

[night panther]

is somebody can give me base class for AI to use for proper Team Detection lmk

[main heart]

here you go buddy
https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/blob/release/Engine/Source/Runtime/AIModule/Classes/GenericTeamAgentInterface.h

[night panther]

wow thank you

[night panther]

its from like 5 years ago tho you know it works ?

and no cpp file do I just create this and inherhit from it?

[misty wharf]

That's the engine's interface for it

Just inheriting from it doesn't do anything

[night panther]

so still not what I need?

[misty wharf]

It will be what you need if you implement the GetTeamAttitudeTowards function

That's what gets called to determine the attitude towards other perceived actors

[night panther]

thats the one I inherhit from?

what do I do with this one?

[ocean wren]

It already has an implementation doesn't it? don't you need to just call SetTeamID or some such? been a while

[night panther]

is that why when I build the AI controller with that function it never builds?

[misty wharf]

@ocean wren no, the default implementation returns everything as neutral

[night panther]

im no C++ pro

[ocean wren]

ah, ok, so you need to implement the attitude function and set the different team id's

[misty wharf]

The team attitude function gets called with the other actor that's being perceived

So you need to check what it is and determine what the attitude should be (eg. hostile, neutral or friendly)

Once you've done that you then just return the appropriate attitude value

If you don't have a complicated system, you could check for example if the target is the player pawn and then return it as hostile

And return everything else as friendly or neutral

But if you need a more complex team system then your checks will need to be more complex

[night panther]

I just need if not matched team ID is enemy

[ocean wren]

its really just an integer comparison

[night panther]

and I need to be able to set the ID by who spawned that actor

[ocean wren]

yeah

[misty wharf]

Implement a function that lets you set the team ID, and save it in a variable in your class

[night panther]

I believe I need that function set up through a Parent for my AI controller in a custom class

[misty wharf]

Then you can compare that to the team ID value on what is being perceived

[night panther]

my problem is getting the enemy detection set up

yeah I need to be able to get perceived hostiles instead so less time weeding out

my tag system works which I did the C++ for

[misty wharf]

Tbh you could just do it in BP's too :)

[night panther]

but it could be btter

[misty wharf]

Simply have everyone neutral and check in your perception function what the pawn was

it won't work with the team values in perception, but the implementation is easier if you don't know C++

[night panther]

yeah using gameplay tags

did that

works but leaves me with gaps

[misty wharf]

Gaps?

[night panther]

where they are cycling through none enemies

waiting to get to th e proper one

to act on it

[misty wharf]

well it's not going to be magically fixed if you implement it in C++

[night panther]

no its not but doesnt change the fact that I still need to do that part

[misty wharf]

well the only benefit from the C++ implementation is that it saves you some linetraces

which is not really a problem unless you have a lot of AI's trying to perceive everything

[ocean wren]

Was reminded about this and thought of Mass system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biYOHAEbn40

That's a lot of AI

[night panther]

Cant get my AI move to to end

just gets stuck on this task

[night panther]

fixed it \

[main heart]

Man o Man! The implications are profound!

[mint sundial]

Hi! Is there a simple way to move some pawns with a Move To Location node, but using different paths on the nav mesh? (by default all pawn controllers are calculating the same path)

I want that each pawn moves to the player but using different paths

example: https://youtu.be/id2FfoIF5KE?t=280

[rugged talon]

what is the ideal place to put a selector in a behaviour tree? if my AI has 3 states whihc are shootig player , losing sight of player and following when spotting player where would i use a selector or should i just put it all in 1 sequence? would the shooting part come under a selector ?

[dry oxide]

show me your Behaviour tree

[dry oxide]

try using sequence

[rugged talon]

i was gonna add the shooting next

ok

so right on the left of these

so if enemy is not spotted then i go to the rest of the tree

[dry oxide]

If enemy seen then shoot ?

[rugged talon]

basically im making this for an AI partner

if it sees the enemy ai it shoots it

i did it with alot of branches but it got v messy so wanted to implement using tree

[dry oxide]

Add new sequence and try adding Decorder

[rugged talon]

like the ones i have for the other 2 right

which will have bool

[dry oxide]

Add Sequence and then add Decorator

and select condition if seen == true then

your program

[rugged talon]

alright thanks

i will ty it

@dry oxide if i add 2 decorators then it will go into tree if both conditions are met right

[main heart]

I think so, if both decorators agree.

[gilded basalt]

yeah i would say the same

[rugged talon]

ok thankyou

what is the diff bw these 2 pins. the first one is the controller bp? and the second one the actor the controller is controlling ?

[dry oxide]

Controlled Pawn is the Pawn / Character which is being controlled by the controller

in this case its probably your ai character

[rugged talon]

so i pick owner controller ?

and then cast

or controlled pawn

[dry oxide]

Owner Controller is like AI Controller

Player Controller

[rugged talon]

ahhh

so which one is normally used

for the thing im doing rn

cuz ive been using controller then casting to ai character

[dry oxide]

its fine

try compiling

[rugged talon]

it works

[misty wharf]

🤔

So the pin you use depends on which object you need. If you need the AI controller, you use the controller pin, if you need the pawn the AI controls, you use the other

I don't really know how casting the controller into a character works but... :D

[rugged talon]

i see. so if there are soem variables i want to use in task from controller then i do the first pin and cast

right

[misty wharf]

Yep

[rugged talon]

ok thanks

[rugged talon]

so ive gotten the thing to work but i have 2 ai in my level atm. one is friendly and 1 is enemy. the friendly does shoot enemy ai but as soon as it senses me it starts shooting me. how do i get it to only sense and shoot the enemy from everyone it is sensing

@misty wharf @dry oxide

[dry oxide]

are they separate characters ?

character class

[rugged talon]

yes

[dry oxide]

you have a function or custom event to shoot ?

for the ai to shoot

[rugged talon]

yes

so bascially when focus is set it starts shooting

my focus fucntion call is in the tree

branch

like in the pic

[dry oxide]

it shoot the focused player ?

[rugged talon]

yes

i want it to stop focusing me

on every parception update

[dry oxide]

try setting the sensed actor

[rugged talon]

i put tags but it doesnt work

ok

[dry oxide]

you want the friendly ai to shoot your enemy ai ?

[rugged talon]

i set the sensed actor right after perception

[rugged talon]

yes

[rugged talon]

should i make 2 variables? one for me and one for enemy so if it sees enemy then set it to enemy or if it sees me then set it to me

[dry oxide]

show me your shooting code

ai shooting code

[rugged talon]

so when focus is set it sets aiming to true

[mossy nexus]

@celest python you seen this?

[rugged talon]

aiming sets the char to start shooting

[dry oxide]

show me the start shooting code

you must copy this for the friendly ai

and change the target to enemy

[celest python]

I haven't

[rugged talon]

this is in the controller class

[celest python]

You want your pawns to move offsets to target players location?

[rugged talon]

im casting to get variables from the class controller is controlling

[dry oxide]

then use the function and change the ai ref

put inside your friendly ai character

[mossy nexus]

isn't that... your game?

[celest python]

A very slow-paced version of it

[rugged talon]

ok

[mossy nexus]

fair, but looks interesting

[rugged talon]

i wil try

[celest python]

Yes, horde mechanics and reward system(?) looks promising to study on

[rugged talon]

@dry oxide i have this bool set from the sensing stimulus. so when it senses it sets it and when it doesnt sense it un sets its ?

or i have to unset it manually

[visual silo]

Vampire Survivors is only like $2. Has a very long progression/upgrade system. Reminds me of the flash games era. It's definitely compelling but I'm not sure I'd describe it exactly as fun? I think it's been very successful, though.

Definitely worth playing if you're making something similar. Lessons to learn in both directions.

[celest python]

We were just talking about it at #lounge

[visual silo]

Ah 🙂

[celest python]

But I think there are some mechanics I could cherry pick

It's more similar to my game in sense of being horde survival

[granite vault]

That game is clone of some Korean developer's mobile game.

Surprisingly that game is more popular when the original was released few years ago on mobile

It is called Magic Survivor i think. On mobile store

[rugged talon]

can i do an OR condtion before going into a task in a behaviour tree

[misty wharf]

composite decorator

[rugged talon]

how do i use this

where do i set conditions

[misty wharf]

doubleclick it

it opens a node editor

[rugged talon]

ok im there how do i make the conditions like OR

o i think i found it

this right

[mint sundial]

omg nobody can help?

https://couchlearn.com/easy-dynamic-pathfinding-in-unreal-engine-4/

if the pawns are also obstacles for the others pawns...I think it would work like in vampire survivor, using dynamic pathfinding

[celest python]

@mint sundial ??

[celest python]

That wont work

You have to use RVO Avoidance

[misty wharf]

Yeah I don't think the enemies in that video are really doing any kind of fancy pathfinding

they're literally just moving directly towards the player

[celest python]

Probably boxes are not even doing pathfinding

They couldnt move while being an obstacle

There isnt any path at their origin

[main heart]

You may want to look into the source. I hope there be relevant parameters to introduce variations. My wishful thinking be something like
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyapunov_exponent

I love it though

[celest python]

Anyone knows if path velocity overrides impulse or force in CMC? i.e. pending forces

[mint sundial]

yeah but in unreal....they are calculating the exact path findind....in vampire survivor, each pawn has its own path towards the player

[misty wharf]

Do they? It looks like they're literally just moving in a straight line towards the player

[mint sundial]

for example....in unreal....they follow the player in straight line one after the other...is a pity

that never hapens in vampire survivor

[misty wharf]

You might have better luck if you enable RVO avoidance

[mint sundial]

I will do it thanks!

[celest python]

They probably have a tile based A* for pathfinding tbh

Engine difference

[ocean wren]

There's plenty of information out there on pathfinding

But yeah, A* and its variants like HPA* are pretty standard

[opal crest]

Yeah, pretty sure Vampire Survivors is just using 'Go straight toward player' + RVO + rigid body collision. You can see it when you get a big wave and bats/mini beholders fly through.

[ocean wren]

There are other avoidance approaches than RVO btw 🙂

[opal crest]

I use (but have absolutely no understanding of) Detour. But it seems to do a much higher quality job than RVO (and never seems to push characters off the navmesh).

[ocean wren]

yeah, honestly RVO is a bit.. crap 🙂

it was one of the first "popular" avoidance algorithms in games. But its been ages since it came out. So there's plenty of better options

Even though the games industry tends to move as fast as a glacier with things like that 🙂

[celest python]

And UE is a very fancy engine with various implementations to not make people lack modern algoritms coughs blood

[ocean wren]

Well, they are algorithms, just not always complete ones 🙂

[celest python]

Never innovative as other engines

Mass was an exception

[ocean wren]

None of them are 🙂

[celest python]

It'a beautiful

[ocean wren]

I wonder what would feel like leading edge for stuff like AI in UE you know?

I mean sure, the nanite stuff is good, but lumen is just now being on par with cryengine and frostbite from maybe 4-5 years back

Would be interesting to see what the state of the art in AI is for all these engines. I suspect not particularly user friendly 🙂

[celest python]

id Tech still using FSM

[ocean wren]

I must say, this new modelling toolset in UE5 is pretty nice

especially the block modelling thingy..

[celest python]

CubeGrid?

Yeah I was just using it

[ocean wren]

I mean for blockout levels its amazing!

[old flame]

Hi guys! Why is this not valid?

[ocean wren]

Did you look at the inputs (blackboard, key) and verify they're as expected?

Pretty simple debug stuff.. print out the values.. check they're not null etc.

[old flame]

i set the enemy key in blackboard. how can i check the blackboard itself

[ocean wren]

check its not null

check the enemy key is correct

stuff like that..

[tepid cove]

Guys I have an Event dispatcher in my Base Ability, which is called in OnEndAbility, but sometimes it never reaches this finishExecute
and therefore it hangs in there infinitely. Does someone know what could it be?
Also I'm using non instanciated abilities

[rugged talon]

i have a friendly ai and multiple enemy AIs. how do i get the friendly AI to start shooting next target after the first one is dead

[tepid cove]

you have to clear the target of your AI when it is not valid, and then set a new target

[rugged talon]

i set the character to get destroy itself when it dies

also which one should i be using

[brazen abyss]

Is an AI Controller+BehaviorTree more efficient than using just straight Blueprints for ordering separate AI characters around?
(Context, Units in an RTS game, ordering them to move, attack, etc)

Because doing it with BPs seems way more straight forward, but I don't want there to be a ton of overhead, since there could possibly be hundreds on screen at a time depending.

[misty wharf]

It depends entirely on what kind of logic you're running and how... behavior trees tick and can have overheads of their own

[brazen abyss]

Essentially, and bear with my inexperience here, all any given unit needs to do is move to a location, attack a target, perform an ability, and auto attack any enemy within range (if it passes an enemy for example). I have found one way using the "Move AI to actor or location" node in BP, and another that assigns a blackboard value for a vector location, then has the behavior tree do "move to location" with a variety of checks.
I see the way the behavior tree is doing it, and it just seems way more complicated. But I don't want to be making myself more work in the long run not using an AI system or something.

[misty wharf]

If you don't feel like you get any benefit from using BT's then don't use them :)

Doing AI logic without it is entirely fine if it works for what you need to do

[harsh storm]

Is there a way for the sight sense to see through pawns?

Trying to get my AI to see through the pawn in front of them, so they can still see the player.

Pawns don't auto register as a stimuli

[main heart]

I'd imagine tagging the player and feeding that into the sensing condition.

[harsh storm]

Where can you feed in a tag in the sight sense?

[fossil sentinel]

Hello, there. I'm trying to develop a simple project, based on the Third Person Tutorial, that involves collecting coins (which are meant to be AI-controlled pawns that travel around the stage.) However, when I load the project, the coins don't move. https://imgur.com/a/5gD9COy Here's the AI Controller, Behavior Tree, BT service, and Blackboard. Is there something wrong in how I'm planning on executing?

[main heart]

Ok let me get this straight, pawn and player have different affiliations?

[harsh storm]

I'm not sure what the confusing part is to be honest. Enemy B is standing behind enemy A. Enemy B's sight is not detecting the player because it cannot see through Enemy A; even though it enemies are not a stimuli source.

[main heart]

you need in-editor debugging procedures.

I believe there is some video.

[harsh storm]

You talkin' about showing the perception stuff?

And even more clear picture of what is happening.

[main heart]

I'd first try with single AI and enemy setup.

[harsh storm]

Why on Earth would I try a single AI setup when the issue is DIRECTLY with more than one?

[main heart]

dude, that is basic debuggin procedure. You do ground-up debugging

maybe something is not getting stored properly

Once that is done, by process of elimination, you can be sure that pawn in front is essentially blocking

[harsh storm]

Cool - already done.

The issue is impossible to exist in a single AI setup

[main heart]

show me the screen

[harsh storm]

Because the issue is specifically that the AI is being blocked by the other AI

[main heart]

ok

so do you have aiperceptionstimulisource on AI's enemy i.e player

[harsh storm]

Yes. And it is the only pawn in the entire game that has it.

[main heart]

would you mind posting the relevant section

[harsh storm]

And I have turned off pawns auto registering as source, as explained initially

[main heart]

https://youtu.be/X5l0u7M-ILo?t=602

[harsh storm]

That video is useless in my situation

I have 2 ai

The one in the front works as expected

The one in the back has his sight blocked by the one in the front, not detecting the player

[main heart]

hmm

[harsh storm]

I legitimately do not understand what part you are lost on

[main heart]

I get the picture. I didn't write the ai perception

I don't know if it sends raycasts or something else

if raycasting is being done, then the ai pawn in front needs to be insensitive to raycasts

you know the collision PRESETS

[charred glade]

Hey, has anyone else had the issue of UE4's hearing sense not detecting team affiliation properly? It treats every noise as friendly regardless of instigator's team, sight sense however is detecting fine.

[main heart]

woow, I love this channel

[kindred ruin]

Question, how would I go by doing this, in run time the player ( you ) draws out a path for the AI to follow ?

[main heart]

Interesting direction!

I did monkey with that in UT2004

tentatively though

basically it is a series of "hold this position" commands

now I think you can do that with unreal script to store the so generated "nodes".

[harsh storm]

So I figured out the issue. If you're using the sight config, they have it configured to use visibility trace channel for doing things. In the UAISystem class, there is a field for DefaultSightCollisionChannel. So, mess with the visibility channel. For anyone in the future who may be curious.

Oops - didn't mean to reply to you 🤣

[main heart]

there you go!

np

[harsh storm]

Simple solution would be to just have the player add it's current location periodically to a list that the AI can access. Then iterate through that.

[main heart]

https://tenor.com/view/pirates-jacksparrow-johnny-depp-by-your-leave-gif-5583948

[kindred ruin]

Yeah I have something like that but the ai stops at all the points making it looks rough

I tried using the array of the locations to make a spline

But couldn't get it to work

[fossil sentinel]

OK, so now I changed the Pawn to a Character and gave it an AIMoveTo after setting a mesh, but it isn't moving now either!

I have the coin I'm trying to move set as a Third Person Character, and gave it this algorithm, but yet the item I'm trying to move won't move! Please help...

I really need to figure this out because I procrastinated for a school project, and this needs to be figured out by tomorrow...

Guess you could call me a real Unreal Slacker there.

Or is this better in #blueprint?

[charred glade]

Your radius is 0, you are also every tick trying to move it which is cancelling itself over and over

[fossil sentinel]

Oh. I see.

[fossil sentinel]

OK, now I've adjusted the radius and took away the Event Tick, but it's still not moving.

[charred glade]

Do you have a navmesh bounds volume in your level covering the area?

[fossil sentinel]

Yes, I do.

[charred glade]

Is your character being possessed by AI?

[fossil sentinel]

No.

Should I have it so it is?

[charred glade]

yes

[fossil sentinel]

Do I give it an AI Controller Class?

[charred glade]

Yes

[fossil sentinel]

OK! Now it moves, but it gets to a point and just stops. I want it to go all around, so what would I do next?

[charred glade]

All around where? What you have here just gets a random point in a radius and goes there on beginplay, do you want it to keep doing this or go around the entire map in a route?

[fossil sentinel]

I was hoping for it to go all around the map.

[charred glade]

Well that's more complicated and would probably be better fit for something other than AI

[fossil sentinel]

OK.

I could probably tell my professor that the objective is to chase after the coin and collect it.

The idea is once you collect it, the game will spawn another that you have to go find and collect.

Now the trick is to make it collectable, and then do the whole "Spawn another coin upon collection" thing.

[ornate pagoda]

@fossil sentinelTo collect the coin use on hit component, then you spawn an actor, to get a random point you use the function get random point in radius and then you use the function destroy actor.

[rugged talon]

if im setting up a prediction sense how and where would i implement it in the behaviour tree

[bleak lance]

how do i make an AI go arround an obstacle

right now hes just going into the obstacle but he can easily go arround it

[fossil sentinel]

Where would I put the Get Random Point in Radius? Would it connect to the Spawn Actor? And if so, where?

No, wait, I've got it.

[old flame]

How can i have an actor be owned by the player and also an ai? I need to get line traces from the actor but i only get it from one or the other owner

[celest python]

Explain what you are trying to do

[old flame]

Trying to make ai and player combat but my weapon is using a bp class and it gets confused who owns it

I mean this is a complex topic

[harsh storm]

It really isn't. Spawn an instance of the BP class per actor, set the owner if necessary.

An actor shouldn't be owned by multiple actors. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure it isn't even allowed.

[celest python]

Yeah

[harsh storm]

So, without more information, that's about the most accurate answer you'll get.

[old flame]

Okay i got it somewhat working. Now the problem is when the player and ai traces touch they activate at the same time.

[old flame]

I'm using the same characterbp for the ai

[celest python]

Anyone knows a cool trick to select a random sequence from selector without having tons of BB keys to randomize indexes?

[misty wharf]

you could probably create a decorator or service to force a specific child node execution

I think that's doable in C++, ie. similar to how the loop nodes work

a simple way to do it would also be to use a service to generate a random number and assign it to a BB key and select based on that

[opal crest]

A decorator that just fails randomly (attach it to each node except the rightmost) would work, but it'd be a headache to control the relative prob of the nodes.

[harsh storm]

zomg's simple way would be a better solution than that epigraph imo

[celest python]

I ended up doing what zomg said

It would be nice if we had a Random composite

[opal crest]

Oh agreed. Was just trying to find a way to avoid adding to the BB.

[harsh storm]

Be the change you want to see in the world.

[celest python]

I made one but couldn't solve the slate part

Not sure how can I make multiple outputs like in the simple parallel

Source code is terrible to read btw 😂

It's a very bad implementation with no comments

Barely understood some parts of it

[celest python]

@ocean wren is there any possibility you know anything about this?

Since you are also familiar with slate black magic

[ocean wren]

its a function in FEdGraphNode you'll need to override

So you're trying to create a node with multiple outputs?

its basically just a set of SGraphPin ... pins being the input output connectors

[celest python]

How can I tell composite to select a specific pin

[ocean wren]

have you got an edgraphnode derived class?

[celest python]

I got aUBTCompositeNode derived class only

It's essentially same with sequence composite

[ocean wren]

hmm, whats the base class of that?

[celest python]

UBTNode

[ocean wren]

which is derived from?

[celest python]

It's the abstract BT Node, derives from UObject

All nodes derive from UBTNode in BT

From task nodes to decorators, services etc

With some extra layers like UBTAuxilaryNode etc

[ocean wren]

ah right.. yeah, thats the "logical" node, not the visible one

[celest python]

Yep

[ocean wren]

it'll be wrapped in a slate version somewhere

but there'll be a list of inputs and outputs in UBTNode right?

[celest python]

Can't really see anything relevant

[opal crest]

This project claims to work, it doesn't seem to have much magic at all. https://github.com/bretvincent/UnrealBehaviorTreeExtension

[celest python]

Oh god

[ocean wren]

kind of surprised it doesn't inherit from FGraphNodeBase

Think I'm having a seizure, state machine selector.... ugh... <dies>

[opal crest]

Haha. Sorry, didn't mean to summon unthinkable horrors into the channel.

[ocean wren]

I'm crossing myself right now

The power of christ compels you!

[celest python]

I just thought about you when I see that

[harsh storm]

I'd say use it just so you can see zoom's eye twitch in any screenshots you post with it 🤣

[ocean wren]

That's just mean 🙂

Thing is, I'm actually a fan of FSM, but mixing them with BT sets me off 🙂

[celest python]

I love FSM too but until it gets a sphagetti hell

[ocean wren]

Usually pretty quick 🙂

actually, no, I tell a lie. Statecharts could get quite complex and still maintain usability

but nobody uses them 🙂

[lyric flint]

hey would anybody have any ideas on how I can make the detection animation smooter and somehow turn towards the player when he moves?

[night panther]

Why do my MoveTo nodes not show all my blackboard options

my two other keys show but not the new object one I made

I have a object and vector I can choose from and selfactor

but my new object wont show unless its a custom move too or a different node

only on the simple moveto does it not appear as a optoin

[misty wharf]

try specifying that the object's type is actor

[tropic flume]

Has anyone seen the Visual Logger record to file (-EnableAILogging) getting capped? Seems like maybe there's a ~1GB file size limit...

[night panther]

thanks @misty wharf i felt like I missed that let me double check that

yeah was forgetting that thanks

you know why Icant get my custom move tos to ever finish execution? I have it fail or succeed depedning on the outcome of the moveto and it always just runs forever.

[rugged talon]

what is the benefit of pawn sensing over AI perception

[harsh storm]

It's older. AI perception replaces it. https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/pawn-sensing-vs-ai-perception/361144/3

[main heart]

touche, almost!

[main heart]

@ocean wren what do you think about this issue?

[ocean wren]

Pawn Sensing was... not great. If AIPerception is half baked, Pawn Sensing was quarter baked

[main heart]

tut tut

how are they gonna proceed?

[main heart]

I mean the pawn sensing guys. I hear Tom has it in his tutorials

[ocean wren]

Tom?

Who Tom?

But yeah, pawn sensing was superceded pretty quickly by the perception system. Which needs a good rewrite at this stage.

[celest python]

Looman iirc

[wheat arch]

hey guys I've got a question regarding AI behaviour. So my blueprint coder has suggested to me that a hostile AI circling around the player controller will be difficult and I should consider 'smoke and mirrors' methods to trick players into believing what is happening is happening, but in reality it's a trick

the desired mechanic involves a barrier or area around the player that project which stops the AI pawn from getting closer, so they will circle around waiting until they can get at you

how would one go about doing this? how difficult, and what measures would need to be taken for multiplayer open world compatibility?

[ocean wren]

circle strafing the player is something you'd do with EQS pretty easily. They used that approach for a Square Enix title.. sadly the presentation online is in Japanese, but I saw the english one and using EQS queries would work fine.

[main heart]

dude

you don't know tom

Tom Looman

[ocean wren]

I didn't know WHICH Tom 🙂

[main heart]

I think only one Tom has pawn sensing tutorial

in entire universe

or even multiverse

[ocean wren]

ah, possibly.. I haven't seen it

[main heart]

it is on udemy

[ocean wren]

oh right, probably why then

[main heart]

hehe

you also dislike proprietary stuff

[ocean wren]

Not always, but I'm suspicious of it 🙂

[main heart]

good

FOSS is fun FOSS is life

[wheat arch]

so I'm not a coder I'm just the boss trying to do my own research and better word my requests to my guys, could you explain what a EQS is>?

[main heart]

read the book

but yeah

[ocean wren]

its the environment query system.. so the example was that you use that to select a position around the player, using EQS you can get the player relative positions on a circle and move to that

[main heart]

it is about sensing stimulus generated within the environment of a pawn

I am invisible

just so it is clear

[ocean wren]

if you look for environment query system on the UE docs you'll see some examples of what it does

[wheat arch]

okay that makes sense, and how costly would that be in a large open world multiplayer project?

just to throw this out there on the mechanic itself so whatever is suggested would suit the needs;
player has a torch and shadow monsters cannot come within the radius of the light. it's not a hard block on the radius they can still come into it, for example to 'test' how much it hurts or make a quick swipe at the character even if it means taking damage, or being forced into a corner and then the torch light shined on them.
otherwise when not being hostile they will circle the player and wait for an opening like a predator circling a group of prey in a defensive position

light in general modifies where the AI pawn can and can't go, so environmental lights as well or the sun BP

[ocean wren]

There's an example of this in action if you look for the EQS might be pinned in this channel. You won't understand the logic, but you'll maybe understand what its doing

[wheat arch]

I can grasp what I'm visually presented, yea

I'll look up the EQS documents right now, if you'd be able to provide any point to said pinned note that would be wonderful

[ocean wren]

There was a square enix presentation, by Eric.... can't remember his name. If you're around later I'll dig it out for you

[main heart]

you may need to redefine how shadows are produced

[ocean wren]

Eric Johnson I think?

might be on youtube, but I'm not at my PC right now

in meeting at work 🙂

[wheat arch]

I'm on graveyard shift for the next 8 1/2 hours, I have all the time in the world 🙂

[ocean wren]

Well, give me about 4 hours 🙂

[wheat arch]

sitting here all night I may as well manage and research for my project know what I'm saying? aside from catching up on my books haha

[wheat arch]

I'll hold you to that! just flick ya a quick DM so you can find me easily

[ocean wren]

fairy nuff

[main heart]

aaand I am invisible

again

[ocean wren]

you are?

[main heart]

lul

I am AI?!

[ocean wren]

semi transparent?

[main heart]

maybee

it is raining cats and dogs here

[main heart]

actually there is a material which can make character semi-transparent

I may provide its link to you zoombapup

[ocean wren]

You can make characters do all sorts of fun rendering stuff..

[celest python]

-> Create a circle either with EQS or just pure math by projecting points to navigation
-> Store locations in an array
-> Move to each location and when you reach increment the index integer and move to next location in array
-> Before you move do a path finding test by FindPathSync function, if path is not reachable skip the index and increment again to move to next circle point
-> If index is > length - 1 set the index to 0 and loop again

[main heart]

hehe yeah

[celest python]

That's how I did it a few weeks ago for my client

Pretty much same mechanic

[main heart]

huh

what is happenning

[celest python]

?

[frail gulch]

i've got my my AI to follow the player effectively but they will just stand still every second or so for some reason, the screenshot below fixes the stopping problem but then makes the movement of the AI extremely jittery, is it easy enough to add "Move To" code to a task or is there a better solution?

[main heart]

define jittery

[main heart]

How do you define shadows?

[frail gulch]

the character literally shakes left and right which i'm guessing is due to the find player task running twice

[main heart]

mhmmm

[frail gulch]

I tried just connecting move to and the task with a parallel but then they don't move at all

[celest python]

No idea what you are talking about, I replied to "circle around player controller" question

[main heart]

is that so

[main heart]

I think that was original question

but if you wanna ignore, your choice

[celest python]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[frail gulch]

which is weird because surely if i'm making the find location task the priority in the parallel then it should work fine

[frail gulch]

right so the question is why isn't the move to node working in this scenario?

[main heart]

well check the blackboard

[untold jolt]

hy everyone ,
im having here a problem with my random ai spawn code :
glad if i cant get some help

thats my code who is i made inside the level blueprint and somehow it doesnt work

[misty wharf]

It's a bit difficult to say without more details, but my guess is that your player pawn is not a SimpleAI

[rugged talon]

How does dominant sense in ai perception work

[ocean wren]

Pretty sure its just a sort index, so that if you get competing senses there's a tiebreaker value for which one has priority? vague memory of it though, so check the code.

[rugged talon]

ok thanks

also im trying to get my ai zombie to go towards the target thats closest to it. how would i set that up

i already have set up the logic for the zombie to only detect friendlies and store them in a variable

[ocean wren]

friendlies??

you want it to eat other zombies?

Anyway, that question is the kind of thing you'll find in literally every AI tutorial on YouTube, so suggest you avail yourself of those. It'll be easier.

[hybrid grove]

Question. Is the EQS system an alternative to Behavior Trees?

[harsh storm]

Not really. It's used to get data about the environment. It's more of a compliment to AI systems overall.

[hybrid grove]

Ok thanks.

Does it require a navmesh? Or could it detect objects that are not in a navmesh environment? like a vehicle, or aircraft?

[misty wharf]

It depends on what generators and tests you're using

Some of them make use of navigation data, but many don't

[misty wharf]

Has anyone figured out how to force an update on AI perception if the FGenericTeamId of some actor changes?

Eg. I want certain actions to make the player to be perceived as hostile

It seems the only way to do it is to unregister the player from the entire perception system, and then re-register? Seems kinda iffy to do that :P

Ah, looks like you can do

PerceptionComp->ForgetActor(ActorWhoIsNowHostile);
PerceptionComp->RequestStimuliListenerUpdate();

Oh. Actually you don't even need to ForgetActor, just request the stimuli listener update

I thought I tried it and it didn't work but it would appear to be working now :P

[rain wyvern]

Is it possible to have a navmesh on land and a navmesh on a boat and link the two while the boat moves so enemies can go between land and boat (if the boat is nearby)?

[rain wyvern]

Or have a baked navmesh on a moving object?

[celest python]

@ocean wren Can you add me to your friend list if possible? I've mentioned a studio about you and would like to send their message to you, I remember you were interested in job offers a few weeks ago

[main heart]

cmon

you think it is coincidence that I lost my job and the message just pops here

[ocean wren]

morning all

[ocean wren]

It says you're not accepting friend requests

You can add me apparently 🙂 its what my students usually do

goddam it, its python time again 😦

Parsing imdb data from a zip file, turns out the imdb scraping library I was using was waaaaay too slow. I've got thousands of movies to get through

So, its back to zip file unpacking json files because there's the same info in the archive. But now I need to add a MovieNet import settings dialogue in PyQT so it isn't quite so goddam poor usability wise

[celest python]

Sorry, still couldnt figure out that functionality of Discord. I've sent you one

[celest python]

Is this for your actor AI

[ocean wren]

Yeah, for the automated cinematography initially, then for AI behaviour generation later

But generally useful for being able to learn from video

i.e. for robotics demonstrations, or for storytelling, or for action recognition or captioning