blueprint

[zealous moth]

but it's still amazing stuff

[barren flower]

Thats you?

[zealous moth]

yeah

[barren flower]

I was looking at your realtime livelink data video a year ago, its on my watched list haha

[zealous moth]

well we were a team of 2

that's my bud

I focused mainly on performance and tests

[zealous moth]

Like the tests on the HISM splines and the vertex anims

[barren flower]

Ive watched a few apparently

Thats kinda cool

Oh my god

you have one on vertex animations in materials?

[zealous moth]

yeah we tried to pump out videos weekly or so but the views never went past 1k so we gave up

[barren flower]

Thats litterally what im trying to do

[zealous moth]

yeah, but it's only simple rotations, we aren't super pros on it

[barren flower]

Well, the serious game dev audience, as just demonstrated, is pretty small

but that said, you do it for a while, then you hit critical mass

dunno man, maybe you should keep at it

[zealous moth]

there is an awesome plugin I bought on the market place that makes material animations in UE4, it's quite efficient in my testing.

nah, I make more $ with assets 😄

this is what you want to watch btw

how to randomize mats on HISM

ah! even better! 😄

[barren flower]

Im actually gonna be a jerk and keep that a little quite for a little bit

[zealous moth]

hahahahahahaha

sure thing

[barren flower]

I'll make a tutorial on it at some stage

Oh, do you have a link to that tool by any chance?

[zealous moth]

for the mat anims?

yeah sec i will dm you

[barren flower]

sweet cheers

[silk rampart]

Does anyone know of a good example blueprint that allows me to make a button to say cycles through meshes? similar to a character creator, picking hairstyles and such

Trying for a simple one, not tied to a playable character

[maiden wadi]

@silk rampart Do you just want to see the hair, or see the hair on a character?

To be fair that doesn't really matter. The simple answer is that you need to tie your data to the mesh, most likely in a datatable or data asset. A TMap of GameplayTag/StaticMeshSoftObjectPtr in a dataasset would probably be the easiest to start off with.

Then you can just get that asset, get the map. Use the tag(Can also use FName if you want. GameplayTags are much better), look up the data and get the mesh, resolve it, and set it.

[zealous moth]

I don't have an example but I have the steps. I do this for customizations and upgrades or mesh swapping.
Make an array of those meshes.
on input 1, add to int index up to array final index - afterwards reset to 0
do the inverse on input 2, decrement and reset to final index
Everytime, change mesh to new mesh in array at index whatever
and there you have it.

[maiden wadi]

I'd probably do a datatable struct personally. Use GameplayTags as the lookup. CharacterCustomization.Hair.HairNameHere. You can lookup the table via a map of datatables by getting the map for CharacterCustomization, find the table that matches your tag, which will match a table connected to a tag of CharacterCustomization.Hair. Use that table to look up the struct. Then you have access to the struct which should have the soft object pointer of the hair, the name of it, description maybe, etc.

Widget can get the same table, and just populate an array of the datatable's names. Then you'll have access to easily look up every hair by index in the table.

Whole process is very easily extended for any sort of customization by little more than an additional datatable, added to the lookup map, and minor widget customization.

[dawn gazelle]

Don't data tables always use "Name" variable type as the look up?

[maiden wadi]

They do. But GameplayTags have a function to convert to FName.

[dawn gazelle]

So then in the datatable itself, you'd still have to input the gameplay tags as Fnames? :/

[maiden wadi]

Yep. But you get to sort your tables for easier lookup.

For example, say you have a bunch of things that are similar, but you need different logic for them based on their data. You could put a bool in a struct and look that up in the table, but often it can be a lot easier to associate it via it's tag.

Item.Consumable.Apple for instance. You could look up Apple in a few different tables, find that it's in the items table, and get that it's a consumable. Or in gameplay logic you can simply check if Item.Consumable.Apple matches tag Item.Consumable on use, do consumable logic.

Also quicker to map tables to tags and find the right table to iterate than search through a composite datatable.

[silk rampart]

thanks for the info guys, will have to look some of that up

Now if I can just figure out to setup a parameter collection to be quickly swappable I think I be good for my plans this month

[tight pollen]

Anyone know how to set it up for a bone without hiding bone?

[odd ember]

set it up for a bone without hiding bone

what

[tight pollen]

i want only set Phys Body Option for a bone

😓

[odd ember]

isn't that something you configure for the skeletal mesh?

there might be some issues with only a partial physics body I suppose

[tight pollen]

just need this to fix the problems

i have PBO Term

and i want set to PBO None after something

can it be set using BP or do I need C ++

[odd ember]

I don't think it does what you think it does

PBO None has a tooltip that says Don't do anything

so that would suggest that when you choose that option, nothing different happens

[tight pollen]

I'm just asking if it can be set or not, i need this 😓

[odd ember]

but it doesn't do anything lol

it only makes sense in the context of the function

void USkinnedMeshComponent::HideBone( int32 BoneIndex, EPhysBodyOp PhysBodyOption)
{
    TArray<uint8>& EditableBoneVisibilityStates = GetEditableBoneVisibilityStates();
    if (ShouldUpdateBoneVisibility() && BoneIndex < EditableBoneVisibilityStates.Num())
    {
        checkSlow ( BoneIndex != INDEX_NONE );
        EditableBoneVisibilityStates[ BoneIndex ] = BVS_ExplicitlyHidden;
        RebuildVisibilityArray();
    }
}```

the parameter isn't even used in the function it would seem

[tight pollen]

okay then how do i change back to PBO None when set to PBO Term

[odd ember]

you can't

it says in the tooltip

but being that the parameter isn't even used, it shouldn't make a difference?

[tight pollen]

I need PBO Term to permeate, but when the AI ​​dies problems arise with Decals, their location changes

when i have PBO None then is ok

[icy dragon]

I smell an XY problem here.

[tight pollen]

I do not know what to do

[icy dragon]

Are you trying to have some kind of skeletal wound system?

[tight pollen]

no

i mean Niagara

Niagara location changed after AI dies

when i have PBO Term

[odd ember]

then... don't do PBO Term?

I've showed you the function that uses it

but it doesn't actually seem to use the parameter

so I don't even know how you are getting differences

[tight pollen]

I do not know either

but I get differences

[true valve]

How do you remove a specific foliage actor?

I've an instanced component as component class in my foliage type.

I'm trying to remove the foliage from the component.

[odd ember]

you can click select it with the foliage tool

but uh

not really blueprint relevant?

[tight pollen]

PBO Term makes the difference

[odd ember]

multi line trace, check for bone is hidden, ignore if so, otherwise hit?

[rain egret]

how do i rotate an object, with a physics handle, in a way that it, regardless of its base rotation, rotates either left right up down.
its difficult to explain what i mean

[tight pollen]

i checked it, and it looks like if i shoot through a hidden bone at a non-hidden bone it looks like i'm shooting a hidden bone

if you know what i mean

[odd ember]

I don't

but I don't know your use cases either way

sounds like you're doing something that either isn't possible by default, or requires advanced effort in cpp to make work

[tight pollen]

ok I keep looking, thanks for help 😉

[glad compass]

I am getting this error, I think my blueprint is returning null.

Blueprint Runtime Error: "Accessed None trying to read property CallFunc_GetGrabbableObjectNearMotionControllerGripPosition_NearestComponent_1". Blueprint:  VREntity Function:  Execute Ubergraph VREntity Graph:  EventGraph Node:  Attempt Grab

[icy dragon]

That's #audio

[cerulean fog]

ah ok I'll put it there thanks

[odd ember]

you are correct. your blueprint is returning null

[glad compass]

I dont see a issue in it. How would I send the blueprint?

[odd ember]

how would you what the blueprint?

[glad compass]

well, with things like normal programming, you can simply copy and paste the code, and then it is easier for others to debug, but I cant do that with blueprints. Just screenshots?

[odd ember]

ohh like that

[icy dragon]

Screenshots.

[glad compass]

alright

[odd ember]

there's also that website

[glad compass]

that?

[icy dragon]

https://blueprintue.com

[odd ember]

blueprint ui ? something

ah

yes

[glad compass]

https://blueprintue.com/blueprint/-knzwu7j/

I am doing stuff in VR, and I am using unreal engine 5 btw

[faint pasture]

What do you mean by rotate left right up down. Do you mean you want to only be able to rotate it and the three global axies or in the axes defined by the camera view or what?

[odd ember]

you should probably check if your component is valid

inbetween get component and the looping it may invalidate potentially

[glad compass]

alright

[odd ember]

literally there is a node called IsValid

ah

actually

don't use a sequence node there

put the return at the end of the loop

[glad compass]

ok, and also, most of this code is made by unreal lol

[rain egret]

exactly

[odd ember]

you can still check for validity, that's worth, but the sequence node is screwing you here

[faint pasture]

Which one? I gave you two options.

[odd ember]

yes

[faint pasture]

There's actually three reference frames and play here, the camera, the world, and the object. Which one do you want to be rotating in those directions in?

[rain egret]

the camera

[odd ember]

did your character die

because that seems like unhandled death

[faint pasture]

I don't recall the specific nodes but there are some nodes to generate rotations given an axis and angle. Use the cameras forward up and right axes and you'll be in business

[odd ember]

the internal quat function we used a few days ago

[faint pasture]

You'll want to combine rotators. Handle rotation equals handle rotation combined with the output of that rotator from axis and angle.

[odd ember]

what a marvel of engineering

[faint pasture]

Angle will be driven by your inputs and Delta time if that's a thing. I don't know if you are trying to rotate in 90° chunks or what

For mouse driven rotation like Garry's mod, I would say angle equals mouse axis input x someconstant

[rain egret]

best example would be in space engineer the way you can rotate things there

[odd ember]

ah yes, rotating things

[faint pasture]

Never played it but if it's anything like Garry's mod or starbase I know what you're talkin about. If you're trying to build some sort of a vehicle building system, we can probably talk about that sometime. I'm working on a game with that type of stuff.

[rain egret]

thatd be great, the building part i already have, i trashed my previous rotation function because it wasnt very intuitive to use

[dawn gazelle]

You said here "Use that table to look up the struct".... How would one do so? The only means I know of getting the structure of a table is by defining the actual table in something like the "Get Data Table Row" and the Out Row pin would have the appropriate structure assigned. Using a variable for the Table leaves it as a wildcard, and will automatically set the pin as soon as any single structure is fed into it, so it can't be used to feed into similar execution paths.

I know workarounds for this, like using a switch node using a gameplay tag and then defining the table directly for each tag (example below, perhaps this is what you meant anyway?) but I'm curious if you have a different way of accomplishing this?

[rain egret]

my building system is rather interesting id say, its based on procedual meshes and editing of mesh data at runtime. each dot on this "default ship" its like a knot connecting structure beams.

you can arrange the dots in a way that it creates your ship shape. essentially it turns this:

into this

and each pannel is its own object that can be removed and attached

[faint pasture]

Hey bud you're still in Blueprint and not in the p.m. lol

[rain egret]

aaaaaaaaaaa

[dawn gazelle]

Nice work tho 😉

[maiden wadi]

To be fair I do this in C++ via a lookup function. Tag's baser tags look up the tables in a dataasset. Just tables mapped to tags. Rows are the same in these tables because they all return the same data but it's stored in different tables for organization. Realistically it's possibly overkill. You could very likely achieve the same thing with simply using composite tables.

Actually in BP you could do the same. Use the tag, pass it to a data asset function. Return the row type struct from that function. Use the tag in the function to find the datatable in the datasset's map of tags/Datatables, then just put that return table into GetDatatableRow if it's valid. Return the data afterwards.

Make a map in the dataasset to map the tables to tags. Then you can get a reference to the dataasset anywhere you want via a set variable or a static return function.

Pure easy lookup of data for any gameplay tag's ui data in any widget you want to use it in.

[icy dragon]

Gotta stole the idea

Nah, jk, I don't do procedural building, it's out of my design docs.

[gusty shuttle]

When using my keyboard, the UI works wonderfully, however, when using a controller, it's far to quick and overshoots focus on buttons. Any tips to slow it down?

[odd ember]

use different control schemes for different input devices

implement deadzones

etc.

[gusty shuttle]

Ayeeee, so far I'm just using keyboard and controller. Ideally I could use both. It is working, just the deadzone thing I think. I need to do a >.3 or <.3 me thinks. I forget the nodes

[odd ember]

there's... no node?

just constrain the axis input

[rain egret]

haha jokes on you i stole the concept of a dead game

worlds adrift, was also a airship building sim. but it died because no more money

[buoyant stratus]

I just want to set a scalar parameter on my material instance but this doesn't work, so I have no idea how to make it work, any help?

[mental robin]

Not sure if I am dumb as hell or something is broken. In debug the subtraction 'always' equals 0. Despite it clearly showing (for example) 12 - 7

[icy dragon]

Why not turn the materials into Material Instance Dynamic first, apply them back, and then set the params of the MIDs?

[buoyant stratus]

I barely have any idea how blueprints work

[odd ember]

are you using breakpoints?

[tawdry surge]

I think it would pry be easier to use a parameter collection and change the value in there. It's how dynamic wind/wetness is usually handled for foliage/ outside environments

[buoyant stratus]

Do you mean like this, or am I doing this wrong?

[brazen merlin]

im afraid your missing a key aspect: https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/RenderingAndGraphics/Materials/MaterialInstances/ - Scroll to the bottom

[buoyant stratus]

what section?

[brazen merlin]

last picture, Material Instance Dynamic

[buoyant stratus]

that's what I just tried doing here, in the event graph

[green eagle]

Trying to retarget an anim for a different skelly but I can't seem to find the skelly as an option but it is in the project and the all that. Any ideas?

[brazen merlin]

look closely, the output of the MID is using a set parameter which has the target of the MID - you have target mesh component

[icy dragon]

#animation

[green eagle]

well played 😉

[brazen merlin]

tick off Show only compatible skeletons

[green eagle]

Thanks homie

[buoyant stratus]

I don't get it, I just have a bool as my value and I just wanna mke my alpha 0 when that's false, and 1 if true

[buoyant stratus]

what's this Base Color thing that the picture has

[brazen merlin]

thats not the important bit, it's the Target case

[burnt trench]

is there a way to detect if you're using a controller or keyboard as input?

I know how to do it for action buttons

[buoyant stratus]

I get that part now, so should I just make the target from the material instance dynamic my mesh or what do I do there?

[burnt trench]

but not for axis ones

[brazen merlin]

replace the "set parameter" nodes you have with ones that target mid

[buoyant stratus]

never mind the picture and my unreal engine is different

what do I put here

[brazen merlin]

thats the reference to the material you want to base it on

[buoyant stratus]

k I' mjust selecting the material instance from the dropdown

[brazen merlin]

yeah that works fine, dragging a pin out would make it a variable instead, either is fine in my eyes

[ripe lake]

Just made a macro 🙂

[buoyant stratus]

this didn't work

[ripe lake]

Useful 🙂

[buoyant stratus]

@brazen merlin what did I do wrong that this did nothing to my material instance?

[brazen merlin]

sec, thinking

[brazen merlin]

after creating the mid, assign it to the mesh

[buoyant stratus]

how do I do that

Set Material?

[dusk cave]

is there a node that will give me a random number between certain numbers? Like if I need it to return a random number from only these numbers 0, 4, 7, 9

[brazen merlin]

the top is in begin play, the set parameter call is when you need it

[buoyant stratus]

move what I have to beginplay? I'll do that

[unreal quail]

anyone knows why my animation blueprint is not getting my player pawn?

[dusk cave]

@brazen merlin Thank you!

[buoyant stratus]

I assume the MID you have in your blueprints is a variable

[brazen merlin]

just the mid part, you dont need to make an mid everytime you call the input, just once. then you can change the param whenever

[brazen merlin]

i would make it a variable so you can reference it on the input call

[unreal quail]

I tried adding a breakpoint in blueprint to see what it's getting but it's never my player pawn (even though I double checked that my player pawn is using that anim blueprint as you can see on the right)

[buoyant stratus]

I'm just trying to figure out what colour that MID node is in your image

[brazen merlin]

copy what is in this and paste into yours

[buoyant stratus]

what is this

[brazen merlin]

its the nodes from the picture copied as text

[buoyant stratus]

it's an object reference I think

[brazen merlin]

the convention is to use TryGetOwnerPawn

[unreal quail]

yeah that's what it was using but it's always returning None

and after closing the window the breakpoint isn't even opening so I assume it's not even being called

[brazen merlin]

does the bp have the animbp hooked up to it?

[rough cedar]

Just wanted to say thanks for the help the other day @faint pasture , @icy dragon, @odd ember, @zealous moth

I was the guy having a problem with jumping not working. Anways I had to rebuild my busted BP but its all good now!

[unreal quail]

yup as you can see on the right screen

I think the issue is that the update tick isn't calling

void AYmenokCharacter::UpdatePawnMeshes()
{
    bool const bFirstPerson = IsFirstPerson();

    FirstPersonMesh->VisibilityBasedAnimTickOption = !bFirstPerson ? EVisibilityBasedAnimTickOption::OnlyTickPoseWhenRendered : EVisibilityBasedAnimTickOption::AlwaysTickPoseAndRefreshBones;
    FirstPersonMesh->SetOwnerNoSee(!bFirstPerson);

    GetMesh()->VisibilityBasedAnimTickOption = bFirstPerson ? EVisibilityBasedAnimTickOption::OnlyTickPoseWhenRendered : EVisibilityBasedAnimTickOption::AlwaysTickPoseAndRefreshBones;
    GetMesh()->SetOwnerNoSee(bFirstPerson);
}

I think this might be the issue

[brazen merlin]

someone else was having the same issue, though i dont know if they were using cpp, that's outside my wheelhouse

i dont believe it got solved either

[buoyant stratus]

what do I do with this and how do I put it in blueprints, tried your picture above, it didn't work

I tried this for beginplay then

this

for my key press

oh

no parameter name

brb

[brazen merlin]

lol!

[buoyant stratus]

yeah I can confirm it didn't work

[brazen merlin]

aw what?

[ancient atlas]

I only want my door to open when it detects my player (who has the tag player) as it was triggering off my projectile but now it wont open. i have given my character the tag Player but no good.. thanks

[brazen merlin]

and whats your material graph?

[unreal quail]

well it's working now somehow

[buoyant stratus]

very long

I don't really understand shaders either

even less so in unreal

[brazen merlin]

alright well..

[buoyant stratus]

but the variables

[brazen merlin]

in the material, you have a scalar parameter with the same name as what you have in the parameter call?

[buoyant stratus]

that's what they look like

[unreal quail]

I added a set visibility based anim tick option on begin play to make it always tick then removed it and somehow it's working now

[buoyant stratus]

yeah Alpha is a scalar

[brazen merlin]

what are these parameter defaults, you're using a param collection?

[buoyant stratus]

I'd like to double check that though

I don't know anything about unreal I literally just followed a tutorial for the material and blueprints

[ancient atlas]

dont worry about my question i had added the tag in the wrong place 😛

[buoyant stratus]

I'm more comfortable and set with Unity but we have to use unreal for this college "group" project (they have done nothing)

[brazen merlin]

well for this to work, you need a scalar parameter node in the material network, is that there somewhere?

[unreal quail]

also breakpoints on animbps seems to not work whatsoever

they only (annoyingly) get triggered by the preview

[buoyant stratus]

how do I check this

[unreal quail]

but when you PIE they never trigger

[buoyant stratus]

I found it

[brazen merlin]

great, now you said you're not super sure what's going on, so do you know that when set to 0 or 1 there is an effect noticeable? Not in the editor, but on the mesh

[buoyant stratus]

it renders through wall so I called it look through wall

this is what it looks like in the viewport @brazen merlin

[brazen merlin]

hmm okay... well, i see you have the parameter set properly in the material, that's set as the parent for the mid, that's set onto the material, and when the input call happens it should be setting the param

so do know for sure that the input fires?

[buoyant stratus]

I would much rather be using like a code editor or something but I tried that once and every error just closed unreal engine with a message warning error so I am forced to stick with blueprints

even if I don't get it

I'm sure my input fires when I press the button, I have it printing when it occurs

[brazen merlin]

yes, its like knowing the right line of code, but the code is a node in bp

[buoyant stratus]

yeah but there's no autocomplete

[brazen merlin]

okay, just trying to see where anything might be going wrong

[buoyant stratus]

unless you look for obscure nodes

[brazen merlin]

well, there's the context menu, and the context specific search filters out what's not necessary

its different for sure

the parameter name is case sensitive

[buoyant stratus]

its named the exact same

[brazen merlin]

from what we've gone through, i cant see why it doesn't work yet it doesn't

[buoyant stratus]

this is my beginplay

[brazen merlin]

yep, looks right

[buoyant stratus]

I should note that the parent is the instance, not the base material

[brazen merlin]

dont think that matters

you can try the base to see

[buoyant stratus]

I did

doesn't work

[brazen merlin]

so i guess ill start asking wilder questions, there's only one material slot on this cube?

[brazen merlin]

not sure what the ToggleAlpha bool is for, that doesn't speak to the material param

[buoyant stratus]

this is the blurprint

blueprint

only one material slot, it's just a cube in blueprint and that has a material, it is an actor that has this blueprint on it that I just posted, I just want to toggle vision for the cube through walls

[brazen merlin]

alright and yeah i know, i want that for you too, its perplexing

you can try an engine restart if you want

[buoyant stratus]

if it doesn't work I'll probably just stop for now and experiemt with procedural animations in unity

cos its about to be the next day

[brazen merlin]

i getcha, sorry we couldnt fix it

[buoyant stratus]

engine restart doesn't work so I'll leave it at that

[buoyant kindle]

Before I get blasted, is there a posted or implied way a question may be asked? I'm fairly new to UE4.

[icy dragon]

Just ask.
Specify what you want to do, what you're trying to do, what's the issue, show the issue in action (if asked), and show the thing you do.

[buoyant kindle]

Alright, thank you @icy dragon

[green eagle]

have an on hit trigger that works with certain objs but not with others.
The collisions are set to ignore all except WorldStatic and WorldDynamic which are set to block. Its category is WorldDynamic.
The objects I want it to trigger the hit with are WorldStatic and WorldDynamic set to block all.
Simulate hit and overlap events is toggled on everything.

Any ideas?

[cursive apex]

am making a stone that gradually changes color when hit with spell particle collision but I am having difficulties on the particle blueprint part

don't really know where to go from here

I know what to do one the box blueprint part ... I think

[indigo bough]

I have a blueprint actor with something like 4000 static mesh components. Almost every mesh is unique (so they can't be instanced). How do I break this down to be more performant? The blueprint editor is so slow to work with in this state, and frankly prone to making transform errors because it freezes after any action. I haven't even worried about it yet, but if the editor is running slow, I can't imagine what spawning one of these actors at runtime would be like. Any advice would be appreciated.

To add: Almost all of these meshes can be Nanite (there are literally 20 or so that can't be). Would I be better off combining these meshes into larger chunks?

I was under the impression separate meshes would be better for frustum culling, but it appears that's irrelevant if they are nanite meshes (hence the added context above)

[odd ember]

I don't know that for such specific case that there would be a blueprint only solution

seems to me you'd have to do a lot of custom work to make it functional

like a custom actor, custom ISM component perhaps

but that's only really possible in cpp

nanite stuff you're probably better asking people in #nanite since most people here aren't on UE5

[indigo bough]

Thank you! You might be right, I've checked in on the nanite channel though, as it's more relevant there probably. Cheers!

[ripe lake]

Is it possible to enable blueprint graphs in game?

[glad compass]

can anyone tell me what node this is? I saw it in a video and the person doesnt explain how to get it.

[ripe lake]

It's a blendspace, used in anim nodes

You create it in the content drawer, Animation > Blendspace 1D

[static charm]

No, but someone did make their own "blueprints" to run in game

so i guess the answer is yes, if you're willing to re-make blueprints work in game.

https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/q2eyp0/i_wanted_to_remake_my_old_ingame_visual_scripting/

[glad compass]

thank you!

that is what it was

[ripe lake]

Ah cool - thanks for the answer 🙂

[static charm]

oh yeah found it, someone made a free open source version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL6fOXXktd4

[cursive apex]

what is he using on target is player base ?

[dark crow]

Eh?

[cursive apex]

player died

[dark crow]

Ok? The Cast connects to it, basically calls the function in Player Base

[cursive apex]

what is player base ?

Or is that the name he is using for the character

because I can't find it

[dark crow]

Probably his own Character

[cursive apex]

btw thank you for helping, I know these are stupid questions

[dark crow]

So he's just Casting to his own Character class

[cursive apex]

yep, thx

[dark crow]

Most likely called it like that cause it could hold the base functions for all deriving Characters from it

For example Cow and Human could derive from Player Base

What happens there is exactly this:

Player enters Kill Test so it generates a Overlap Event -> Check if Other Actor (Actor Overlapping) is Player Base -> Wait 0,1 Seconds and check if Player Base is dead with Player Died (Check is done in Player Base)

[empty needle]

Does anyone know if there is a node to select objects within the Editor for Blueprints?

[cursive apex]

I thought player died would be a custom event used on the character blueprint but that shown there isn't a custom event

[icy dragon]

Edtor Utility Widgets?

[empty needle]

Agree, but still need the node that actually selects the objects.

[dark crow]

Most likely a Function in Player Base

[empty needle]

I'm trying to find out what actors has a "Tag"

[dawn gazelle]

You can drag and drop references to objects in the level blueprint, but otherwise, you need some way to get a reference to the actor you're wanting to reference.
You could do "Get Actor(s) of class" but that's typically pretty heavy as it loops through all actors in the scene to find one.

You can get references in other ways too, like doing traces, overlaps, or having exposed variables that you can set a reference to directly on actors within the level.

[cursive apex]

ah yes, I understand now. Thankyou for explain the why as well

[dark crow]

There's Get All Actors with Tag if specifically searching Actors with a Tag iirc

[dawn gazelle]

^ same problem with that one too. Fairly heavy.

[empty needle]

I have an idea.

I created a simple actor class, and exposed an array.

[static charm]

I don't believe that get actors of class loops through all actors in the scene

get actors of class can be slow, if you have lots of actors of that class

but i could be wrong and just never had it be slow for me?

[dawn gazelle]

It does.

        for(TActorIterator<AActor> It(World, ActorClass); It; ++It)
        {
            AActor* Actor = *It;
                OutActors.Add(Actor);
            }
        }

[static charm]

if i close my eyes, then its not true

[dawn gazelle]

XD

[cursive apex]

why can't I get the player died function on the box blueprint even though I have it in the character blueprint, shouldn't I be able to call it ?

[mystic mist]

How would one make a BP for two physics balls striking together generating a sound?

Ive got two balls, I want them to make a sound when they collide only with each other.

[cursive apex]

nvm

[brazen merlin]

what is your current setup for the ball logic?

[icy dragon]

Event OnHit -> if hit actor class is the same as the ball, play a sound with volume scaled by the impulse.

[mystic mist]

@brazen merlin the ball I control is a separate BP from the other ball.

I suppose I could actually put them together. What would you advise?

@icy dragon I will try that out thanks!

[mystic mist]

Im still getting some serious feedback, because its trying to play the sound when it collides with the surface as well, how would I make it specifically play only when the balls are interacting with each other?

[open crypt]

I'm getting an error when I am trying to destroy an actor - that it is pending kill - that's all well and good but it never actually destroys it

[idle sandal]

can i ask a question about splines in here? im trying to get a cave spline in ue5 but for some reason i cant seem to get it to work

or pm someone

[sonic crow]

How does one get the "TopDownCharacter" controller inputs to work with a xbox controller (get hit result under cursor by channel) ?

[brazen merlin]

when the hit event fires, check the resulting hit actor to make sure it matches the ball only, rather than any kind of it. This would be a branch to allow it to happen.

[brazen merlin]

this kind of message tends to indicate the actor it is trying to access is already being destroyed, thus failing to get a reference to it. This is usually solved by checking to see if the actor in question IsValid before attempting to reference it. As for the specifics, the message does not tell me, but that is the usual cause and solution. As for where, again, im without that information from just this warning dialogue

[brazen merlin]

i dont know splines so i cant help sorry. you may also try the #ue5-general channel

[idle sandal]

i legit just figured it out, turns out im just an idiot lmao thanks tho

[brazen merlin]

cursor refers to the mouse position, are you somehow allowing the controller to move the mouse cursor? I've never done this, so i don't entirely know if it's even possible

[sonic crow]

the idea is to have the same setup as divinity original sin 2 (you can use the mouse or a controller)

[brazen merlin]

im not familiar with the game, can you move the cursor around using a gamepad joystick?

[sonic crow]

awesome game, recommend you get it when on sale. you can move the character by clicking the mouse or you can use and exbos controller and move the character with a joystick without clicking anything

[brazen merlin]

ah, i think i understand then. There is a node to check if using the gamepad or not. That can help determine which input logic to allow

[zinc blade]

do I really have to use and make a PlayerController blueprint in order to access its Inputs, or can I just use a GameMode blueprint to use Input Events?

[brazen merlin]

no you don't but also no I wouldn't put them in game mode. You can put input events in the player character/pawn

[brazen merlin]

though as a followup, do you plan on having the player control different characters/pawns?

[open crypt]

Yeah, my problem is I'm trying to clear out a certain type of actor if a volume is present - but my overlap logic must not be good - if I simulate and drag them out of the volume (they are starting in it), it works

[brazen merlin]

so it is solved?

[zinc blade]

no, not really

[zinc blade]

so is putting Input Events on GameMode will not make it work?

[brazen merlin]

then it should be fine to keep input events within the player character. some of the template projects start this way (without a controller)

[sonic crow]

thanks i managed to google a solution after you helped give direction 🙂

[brazen merlin]

Game mode is not really for inputs, its for handling base features of the game, typically we don't do much with it

[brazen merlin]

great!

[zinc blade]

but can you use it for inputs? or will it be nullified?

I just wanna know their relation/s

I know having a controller blueprint would be best

[brazen merlin]

Ive not tried, it's not occurred to me as something to do. More info about game mode and game state, they are rather abstract: https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/InteractiveExperiences/Framework/GameMode/

[brazen merlin]

well, for example, I've used the third person template where all inputs on the character and never had a controller

iirc, top down template uses a controller

[zinc blade]

ooh right

alright thanks man

[open crypt]

Can't figure out what the order of spawning is - I even have some begin play delays in the Volume where I toggle on it's collision and off, to try to trigger the overlap event which deletes the actors - all the overlap logic works and they get deleted, it's a matter of timing

[brazen merlin]

based on the error, if you click the last link which brings you to the node in questions, you can work back up the chain from there to see where things might be going wrong

[brazen merlin]

sure thing

[open crypt]

lol it's a long convoluted chain - what's the way to determine whether a volume or an actor when placed in the volume, how do you guarantee that volume gets triggered?

without doing something hacky like placing the actor above it so it falls it at begin play

[somber wadi]

Does anyone know how i can set constraints on values for example say i change the ENUM here to another value, can i hardset the quantity to say like 1 only?

[open crypt]

You'd have to go to the event where the lookup name is pulled and just set the quantity to one

[somber wadi]

unless..

Its more like is it just a constructor thing?

Cause its an Struct, and i just want too make it too where if the enum is set to Armor. The Quantity is one, and how i can do that.. and if there is an event what is it called.

[open crypt]

Just remember if you are using structs and getting the values, you need to "break struct open" and not using the "split struct" @somber wadi

[brazen merlin]

that its a long convoluted chain, its tough to say for sure, im not even fully aware of the entirety that you're aiming to implement (do i want to know 🤨 ?)

[open crypt]

this seems important

[brazen merlin]

well lay it on me, ill go make a sandwich while you break it down

[supple bane]

what is this?

[sharp rapids]

It converts a 2d vector into a 3d one

[supple bane]

yes, what's it called?

[sharp rapids]

ToVector(Vector2d)

I think

[supple bane]

yes i found it, ty

[distant rain]

Hi guys I have been stuck on a problem for 2 days wondering if I can get some advice.
I'm trying to add weight to my third person bp from an item when picked up but for some reason I cant get the item weight variable to add to the player weight variable both are float

Do I need to cast or interface?? Or do I need to do something else completely I'm not sure how I can reference the item class in the character weight function. Iv tried several different ways. I can get the master parent item class to add the weight but I cant get it to work for the children with different defaults

[timber knoll]

Interface won’t help you, it just gives you function templates to implement

But yes you will most likely need to cast the reference of the item picked up to get it’s value

Which you can just do upon interacting with it

[distant rain]

I need it to handle the weight variable differently for each instance is this possible without calling every item individually, like if i just reference the parent then would it still change the variable on interact? i have an interact interface set up and I can collect the item to inventory

[timber knoll]

No that wouldn’t work

A class doesn’t change values at runtime

[distant rain]

ahhhh that might be my issue then

[timber knoll]

You usually have classes just to create actors in unreal

[distant rain]

so maybe i need to set up an array list with all instanced child actors?

[timber knoll]

The actor itself is what you use to have runtime changes

That could work, depends on your use case

Or you can do GetAllActorsOfClass

[distant rain]

thanks for the help I have been trying to do this for 2-3 days and its not even possible lmao

[timber knoll]

Wouldn’t you just want to pick up > get the weight from picked up item > add it to player?

[distant rain]

yeah i think thats what im trying to do here

I had 2 inputs

third person character & ItemParent BP

[timber knoll]

Your character should probably handle all input

[distant rain]

So I have it like this roughly

ThirdpersoncharacterBP>>WeightFunction>>inputs-itemclass+characterclass

I think i might need to strip it back and start again with the knowledge of requiring all actors to be referenced individually

I think i was trying to shortcut it as much as i could

[timber knoll]

yes but I don't see how your case would even need "all actors"

just the ones you are interacting with

[distant rain]

yeah 100% agree

[timber knoll]

you have to think the way the engine is structured

your input will be handled by player, but your player will have to know if he can pick something up

so you usually have some sort of overlap in the item

then the item has an oncomponentoverlap > other actor cast to player

and then when player interacts you pick up the item > using the reference you add the values

[distant rain]

ahhhh ok i think i know what you mean

I will have to ponder this for a bit and work out how i can do it

very much appreciated i was getting pretty frustrated lol

[timber knoll]

no worries 😛

[dusk arrow]

Using Set Timer by Function Name and Call Function by Name nodes bad programming?

[cursive apex]

Why can't I call the death function on the second image ?

the error was from something I added by mistake that it's no longer there

shouldn't I be able to find the function I created before ?

thank you

haven't slept all night didn't even noticed I had selected character and not charcaterBlueprint

[dusk arrow]

Some say it's dangerous and is considered a questionable coding practice.

[visual vigil]

any1 knows how to make camera focus on two targets . like in fighting games like tekken

[maiden wadi]

Make an actor class, add a camera, give it an array of actors, and average it's look direction and distance to keep the actors in view.

It's fairly simple math if you're looking at like side scroller fighting game style. The widest distance on screen mixed with the camera's fov can get you how long a spring arm needs to be, and then it's just a matter of interpolating the actor's location to the average of the actor's positions.

[visual vigil]

how do you get widest diestance on screen??

[faint pasture]

Uh wat

Define widest distance

Oh you're talking the fighting cam. Use trig or even just a ratio approximation. The simplest dynamic fighting cam for a 2D game I can think of is...

CamPositionY = (Fighter1Y + Fighter2Y)/2

CamPositionZ= (Fighter1Z + Fighter2Z)/2

CamPositionX = SomeScalar x DistanceBetweenFighters

Tune the scalar by feel. Something like 1.3 will feel good for a 90deg FOV

That's for X being into the screen and fighters move in Y and Z

[visual vigil]

my char moves in x and y. They dont jump. They can move towards each other and encircle each other

This is what i have. It doesnt give me best result

Is it adivsable to create a new camera actor should i use the one attached to player??

[timber knoll]

wouldn't you want the rendered area to always be the same width?

when you define it using camera, it would also depend on screen resolution

[faint pasture]

Is it top down then? Is there always 2 characters or can you not have a target etc

[visual vigil]

This is how it is now. Left char is player

i am using the camera attached to spring arm in the player

[timber knoll]

oh you want it to be in middle of the two?

[visual vigil]

there is always two chars

[timber knoll]

yeah you have to seperate it from player then ye

[visual vigil]

oh

[timber knoll]

and simple get both position

then take the center of it

[visual vigil]

k let me try

[cerulean raft]

Hi, What are these parent nodes and what do they do?

[maiden wadi]

Do you know what class hierarchy is?

[cerulean raft]

I do, yes

[maiden wadi]

If you have a virtual function in a parent class, then override it in the child class, you have to call the parent class function if you still want the parent's functionality. If you know C++, it's the same as calling Super

[cerulean raft]

I see and how do we call it in blueprint?

[maiden wadi]

How do you get the parent call you mean?

[cerulean raft]

yeah

[cerulean raft]

ah right, I appreciate the help!

Another question, does the order we put it in matters?

Like in this place

[odd ember]

yes order matters

have you tried #virtual-reality ?

seems more apt than here

[shy river]

ok cheers, will post it there!

[visual vigil]

This works but the problem of player going offscreen if i move apart too much. How to adjust spring arm length depending upon the player not in screen??

[timber knoll]

I would calculate the distance between both characters

and multiply that by a certain value, then clamp it between let's say 500, 1200 or so

play around with clamp and multiplier value to see what fits 🙂

[maiden wadi]

Pretty sure that ((DistanceBetweenActors*FOV) / 2) * 1.2 should be about right if memory serves.

Er

[timber knoll]

/ AR * FOV

or well actually no that would be for square screens

but that 1.2 is supposed to be your aspect ratio in your case, right?

[maiden wadi]

((DistanceBetweenActors*(FOV/90)) / 2) * 1.2

No, that's extra padding.

So that the actors aren't always at the very edge of screen.

I remember that math working relatively well with some clamps for minimum distance.

[timber knoll]

could be, my brain is melted with all those FOV/Aspect Ratio math atm xd

graphics programming is giving me headaches haha

[maiden wadi]

More or less just takes CameraFOV /90. So for a camera at 90 fov it's 1. For a camerafov at 130 it's 1.44, etc. Use that multiplier to multiply the distance found between the actors. Half that, and then add some slight padding.

[visual vigil]

works thanks

[formal wren]

Is there a conveniant way of seeing what blueprint takes how much ms on the game thread? I find the profiler extremely confusing.

[odd ember]

the profiler is the convenient way. but there's also the ingame stat command

[formal wren]

The data in the profiler is overwhelming

where do I see actual blueprint / function names?

[odd ember]

I would look online for a tutorial for using it

perhaps MathewW has a video on it

[formal wren]

😮

[cerulean raft]

What are the reasons a cast could fail?
The BP class I'm trying to cast to is Game Instance but the cast keeps failing (I have another project where it works fine)

[timber knoll]

it will fail as long as your instance does not inherit from/is BP_GameInstance

so you probably forgot to change your game instance in project settings

[maiden wadi]

Looks like this is in a static library. Get World Context, and like Eezeh said, make sure your project game instance is set correctly.

[cerulean raft]

God, you are a genius. Forgot to change it in the new project😅

[timber knoll]

happens 😛

[formal wren]

Seems like I found the reason my game is slow. But I havent made any changes to my meshes o.O My game just randomly dropped from 120 fps to 35 ...

[timber knoll]

have you first checked more simple stats to pinpoint your bottleneck?

console: stat unit as an example

[icy dragon]

Unreal Insights is a bit more difficult to narrow down the problematic thread.

[maiden wadi]

Not sure you're supposed to have that much anim calculation on the Gamethread though.

[fiery glen]

'Stat uobject' gang rise up

[icy dragon]

stat uobjects

[fiery glen]

Ah, thanks

[spark bridge]

Greetings everyone. I have a smol problem and would really appreciate any help.

This returns true in editor play but not in packaged. 😦

[odd ember]

sounds like a #packaging issue

[spark bridge]

All I want is to be able to load certain objects in a folder..

oh. I thought it was about "packaging failures"

[odd ember]

subsystems are not exposed to blueprint

[clever helm]

y962al

[odd ember]

so we can't really help out here

[spark bridge]

Alrighty, imma try packaging section. Cheers!

[gentle urchin]

How would one normally make an NPC 'stick' to a road while overlapping?
Im using nav mesh,. and pathfinding, doing some small adjustments to the path along the way (height, snapping, sub-dividing etc), but cant think of a clever way to make them snap to a road for a given 'length' without a bunch of nasty casting and whatnot

[formal wren]

Shows exactly what I need 🙂

[odd ember]

I don't know what you mean by this. like a car?

[gentle urchin]

Guess this is more of an AI thing, but feels very cross realm. This is what it could look like;

Currently a cube, but at some point a walking npc.

the lines are debuging paths

[odd ember]

yeah it's more AI, give road navmesh a cheaper cost than otherwise

[gentle urchin]

That part is fine, it's already covered, hence the path aligning to the road

But i want them to stick directly to the spline that exist there, for the given period they are on the road

[odd ember]

then... make them stick to the spline?

[gentle urchin]

If only it were that easy

[odd ember]

why wouldn't it be?

[gentle urchin]

partial road manipulation based on some overlap?

[odd ember]

you could even have a check for navmesh type and align behavior based on that

but again, this is AI

[gentle urchin]

vector manipulation, but sure, ai i guess

[odd ember]

and tbh I'm not sure how much of this is BP exposed

no, no vertex manipulation

at least nothing manual

you could make a denser navmesh

but I wouldn't recommend it

[gentle urchin]

It wouldnt solve step 2 anyways

which is right and left side

i'll solve both if i do the path vector adjustments

align to spline for a given distance,

hmm...

now we're onto something

[odd ember]

conditional navmeshtype > get spline by direction heuristic > done

but again, sounds very much like this won't be exposed to BP

[gentle urchin]

We'll see how far i get. Currently testing the AI from last night with 600 pathfinders ,

so i'lll need to fine tune my setup. Its way to expensive currently

[odd ember]

RVO is going to be an issue at that amount

[gentle urchin]

could be. Depends on size of the map

but with choke points, sure

[odd ember]

in either case 600 AI is something that requires custom code and optimization

[gentle urchin]

Which is what im doing 😛

[odd ember]

why are you asking in #blueprint then

[gentle urchin]

havnt moved it to cpp yet ^^

[odd ember]

so you're not doing custom code and optimization

[gentle urchin]

Define custom code. Sounds like you define that as cpp

Anyways. Thanks, you gave me a pointer.

[odd ember]

of course. BP doesn't allow for that degree of customization

[gentle urchin]

We'll see. Ill get as far as i get before i move it over

[odd ember]

just keep in midn the longer you wait, the more you paint yourself into a corner

things like this need to be planned for far ahead of implementation

[gentle urchin]

True that

[quasi frost]

I followed a tutorial to ragdoll, nothing happens when I hit F though. Like literally no change. Anyone see if I messed something up?

[fallen blaze]

you definitely set the action mapping right? lol

[odd ember]

a direct keybinding doesn't need an action mapping

it's even in the character so it should technically be fine, unless you use F anywhere else

[obtuse herald]

yeah, check if it fires with printing

[quasi frost]

It prints

[obtuse herald]

Ok, has your sk mesh collisions?

[odd ember]

try enabling per poly collision

and see if the mesh responds

[faint pasture]

Show the physics asset for that mesh/skeleton

[quasi frost]

No change

[quasi frost]

What do you want to see specifically?

[faint pasture]

Just see that you have one. If you simulate in the Physics asset editor does it ragdoll?

[quasi frost]

I'm not quite sure what that means. What is the physics asset editor?

[faint pasture]

Open the skeletal mesh up, it'll be one of the tabs.

[quasi frost]

Which tab?

[obtuse herald]

One of the ones at the top right corner

[quasi frost]

Ah okay found it

I don't see a simulate button or anything

[storm vigil]

Hi just want to confirm, is validated get is same as a get variable that you hook up to an is valid node? No difference in performance or inherent problems? Thank you

[obtuse herald]

It's the same

[faint pasture]

Yeah this is ue5, it all looks totally different lmao. But it'll be in there somewhere. Do your bones have colliders?

[quasi frost]

If you guide me where to look I promise I will check haha

[remote obsidian]

Hi all, I have a widget added to an actor blueprint and setup, but now I want to pass a variable from the blueprint to the widget

I can't find any way to cast from the widget variable to its actual class in order to set any variables though, is there any way to do this?

[thorn tide]

Hello!
Any1 knows how i can render ScreenSpace UI in to a render target with USceneCaptureComponent2D? o:

I made a marker system using Screen Space widgets. But they don't get rendered on my USceneCaptureComponent2D TextureTarget

[timber knoll]

that should just work, you do have to expose some UI elements to be variables tho (the checkbox topright, details panel)

[formal wren]

The problem was the collision setup on some of my meshes which lead to a lot of uneccessary overlap events

[remote obsidian]

Is there any way to do that without creating the widget in the bp if I already have the component setup?

[crimson depot]

Trying to make a name tag for an actor. I can see it in the editor, but once I hit play it doesn't show. If I change the Blend Mode to Opaque under Rendering it shows a black box when playing the game where the name tag should be but without the text so I know the widget is sort of working. I just can't get the text to show up by itself.

[proper crest]

Hey everyone, anyone knows a reason for primary data assets for not being included in the packaging?

[devout crow]

Guys,I'm pretty sure my settings are exactly the same as tutorial, but my montage still not working...😥 😥 😥 😥

[surreal peak]

You have to supply the SkeletalMeshComponent this should play on

[devout crow]

Now it can run, but there is a new problem, after the evade animation has finished ,character is pulled back to the position before evade.

[surreal peak]

You need to enable Root Motion on the AnimationSequence

So basically open the asset, and on the left there is something about Root Motion

If in doubt, google for that setting, should be findable

[devout crow]

thank you!

[unique harness]

What the heck is this pin?

[earnest tangle]

Hover over it and find out (I think it's "copy")

[unique harness]

yea I realized that

seems this will avoid multiple calls to pure methods?

[earnest tangle]

Never tried it but I guess in theory it might 🤔

I'm not sure if I would use it for that purpose because it seems kind of confusing if used like that, better to assign the value into a variable

[unique harness]

yea I guess it still doesn't solve the problem of multiple outputs calling the method multiple times

[cursive apex]

How do I set blueprint events so that on particle collision doesn't trigger everything but just one specific object?

Is creating a function on the object and then call it on the character blueprint, liked to on particle collision?

[cursive apex]

will this wok to make the object which is being called turn red when the particles collide with it ?

[odd ember]

possibly?

[crimson depot]

How can I dynamically change the position of a textbox in a widget?

[fading raptor]

Anyone know a way to have the same camera that the player uses in a cutscne? Similar to god of war how the whole game only uses one camera

I'm looking for a smooth transition, i found one tutorial but it took like an hour to finally get it working

is there anything simpler? a node perhaps

[timber knoll]

if I'm not mistaken you can blend cameras into eachother

but that might not be what you're looking for

[obtuse herald]

just create a new camera at the transform of the current one, change the view to your new camera and lerp the transform to the cutscenes camera transform

[faint pasture]

Figure out what values you can change to get it to behave the way you want it to and automate that. What kind of behavior are you after?

[fading raptor]

thats it?

dang i overcomplicated it

[faint pasture]

@fading raptor set view target with blend

You don't have to manually move anything

[timber knoll]

^ this

[obtuse herald]

Oh

even easier

[timber knoll]

the node also gives you a time

[crimson depot]

@faint pasture
Trying to convert actor locations to screen location and use that to draw name tags. I just can't really see where I can pass in and x,y to an animation.

[fading raptor]

ok ill try it out, ty homie

[obtuse herald]

maybe widget components are what you're looking for

[faint pasture]

You might be after the UMG widget component

It can be attached to actor and draw a widget in world or screen space

[crimson depot]

@faint pasture
I was actually trying to do that at first, but the widget wouldn't show up. I could see it existed in the bp viewport or if I selected opaque in the rendering menu. I got something working by just adding a text component to the actor but rotating it to face the camera every tick was kind of clunky I figured just having a HUD with 2d labels would be easier

[opal pulsar]

hey guys, im trying to find a way to get a .wav file from a string (the string stores its location) and set it as the audio wave on an audiocomponent, but havent found anything yet. is it even possible to do what im trying to do in blueprints?

[timber knoll]

well there's a lot more that goes into game dev than just learning how the engine works

the engine is just a tool to make your life easier

the logic behind it all is indentical between all these tools

and usually tutorials will hold your hand through the logic, only really teaching you how the engine works

yep exactly, that's where tutorials lack

I would recommend starting really small

and honestly in unity, not unreal

[tawdry surge]

Eww

[timber knoll]

a lot of people might be "ooh no code", or "unity bad"

[tawdry surge]

Terrible advice

[fading raptor]

unity bad 🐒

[timber knoll]

but it does get you more used to coding and game logic

[fading raptor]

true

[tawdry surge]

No

[fading raptor]

or just watch the right videos

ue4 has so many tutorials

[timber knoll]

don't just say no, give better advice then

🤷‍♂️

[fading raptor]

I learned game dev from scratch, then construct, then jumped to unreal

enable use pawn control rotation in the camera

[tawdry surge]

Starting in blueprint is a better way to grasp the basics of code b4 moving to text based language

[timber knoll]

nodes hold your hand

[tawdry surge]

Yeah

[timber knoll]

they do a lot of logic behind the scenes

[tawdry surge]

Training wheels

[fading raptor]

your camera isnt shaking, the gun is

[faint pasture]

Do you know anything about programming at all?

[timber knoll]

well I guess it really depends from person to person

[fading raptor]

thats gonna be a problem in how you set up your blend scape

space*

[timber knoll]

I learned my way from scratch into game dev in less than a year
Starting with C++ and C# before even touching a single game engine

[faint pasture]

Oof. You can definitely start in Unreal but start SMALL. Like Block Dude or Pong or flappy Bird small

[timber knoll]

then moving into unity and only doing unreal once I got quite comfortable with the basic logic

[tawdry surge]

Understanding the flow of code and the basics of how you have to think about problems is really step one and blueprint is better to visualize with

[timber knoll]

unity was 10x easier to learn and get into

[fading raptor]

i went from making side scrollers, to infinite runners, to simple retro fps shooters

now im working on a whole dark souls like game

[timber knoll]

but once you have the basics down, they are very similar and it's just getting used to the interfaces

[tawdry surge]

Idk how..
I personally can't stand how unity works

[timber knoll]

neither can I now that I understand how unreal works, but it forces you to write all the logic because there's barely any

but I can understand some people prefer to learn visually

[faint pasture]

I only had a semester of java a few years prior and dove in to BP and then transitioned to C++. It's doable but you need to wrap your head around software design concepts and just strugglebus your way through doing something on your own instead of following videos.

[fading raptor]

i mean get the basics down and ur good

ur not looking in the right place

[faint pasture]

I wouldn't watch a single damn video besides the WTF is stuff when you get stuck. Just do one tiny thing from beginning to end.

[fading raptor]

theres a channel on yt dedicated to every node in ue4

[timber knoll]

Imo you're better off just taking it one step at a time and figuring stuff out yourself together with documentation rather than following step by step tutorials

[fading raptor]

nah

[faint pasture]

WTF is... Those are the best.

Also, RTFM.

[obtuse herald]

If you want to know how specific nodes work and how to use them, he does some really good tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/c/MathewWadsteinTutorials

[tawdry surge]

@trim matrix go watch the cs50 series on youtube. It's from like Harvard or MIT or something but its great if you have no idea about anything code related

[obtuse herald]

perfect we are all talking about the same one

[timber knoll]

you will only learn through practice

[paper galleon]

That is actually good. When you learn how languages work. You can't expect tutorials to do all the work

[timber knoll]

game jams is what learned me the most

[faint pasture]

Read this
https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/ProgrammingAndScripting/ProgrammingWithCPP/UnrealArchitecture/

Then open up a simple template project, think of a simple mechanic you want to add, do it, and if you get stuck, use the Google.

[keen wedge]

Hi all, using the default player character, with the Movement component, I see there's a setting for "Jump Z Velocity". I was hoping to be able to control kind both the height and speed of a jump, where-as incrementing this affects both. Any thoughts?

[obtuse herald]

for game development knowing how object oriented programming works is pretty important aswell

[faint pasture]

You could have googled "what is a string programming" already

[timber knoll]

that's because height is affected by gravity

so if you want to control both, you would have to manually recalculate some values

[paper galleon]

Launch character might be better then. Gives you a little more control. Or AddForce

[faint pasture]

Jump is basically ballistic I'm pretty sure. Turn up gravity if you want higher speed for a given height

Launch and jump will perform the same ish.

[tawdry surge]

If they don't know what a string is, they probably need basic cs info b4 trying to make games

[faint pasture]

Yeah but you can learn as you go if you're a self starter and aren't afraid to Google. I didn't know what a structure or interface were when I started.

[paper galleon]

the ish part. I recall being able to control jumping by incrementally adding force. But I agree the same effect can be achieved by adjusting jump height and gravity scale over time

[faint pasture]

I just knew the old object-animal-dog inheritance concept and that's about it.

[timber knoll]

there's a whole GDC talk about how you could go about implementing a jump

[keen wedge]

I've yoinked the gravity scale up to 5 and increased the Jump Z Velocity to 1680, its giving me more of what I wanted... quicker up/quicker down without soaring through the air like a bird etc 🙂

[faint pasture]

You can do that but it'll be really wonky especially in multiplayer. If it's a constant force then that basically achieved a gravity override for a single character.

[obtuse herald]

sometimes people have to much time

[timber knoll]

depending on what you are making, it's often a good idea to know exact numbers

how long does your character stay in the air

how high is the apex of the jump etc...

[fading raptor]

when u realize that ue has no way to transform two meshes

[paper galleon]

Yeah, that's true. Multiplayer is a different ball game

[faint pasture]

Yeah it all depends. A realistic jump is ballistic (parabola shaped). Anything beyond is gonna get more weird and varied really quickly.

[keen wedge]

around about 1 second..

not sure about the apex etc..

[timber knoll]

so if youre making a platformer

that would make your level design a struggle

[keen wedge]

its a 3D fps..

[timber knoll]

because you're not entirely sure where to place the platforms for good jumping puzzles

[keen wedge]

(uni project)

[marble warren]

i never even tried BP before, i first saw BP at 2017, had to look at documentation, unreal online learning and watch others do it just to get my basic understanding

[keen wedge]

now I know how to affect it, I can play with the values to still allow for jumping on/over objects in the game.

[faint pasture]

Jump height = Zvel^2/2G

[keen wedge]

uh oh... its gone a bit "mathsy"... not my strong point 😦

the 2G being 2 x (gravity x gravity scale) etc? (e.g 2 x 9.blah x 5 in this case) ?

[faint pasture]

Yeah something like that.

Just realize that turning up jump Z increases height, turning up gravity decreases height, and turning up gravity increases speed

So I would modify gravity till the speed felt good then dial in Z velocity till the height feels good

But if you wanna hit an exact height apex you'd do that math.

[keen wedge]

Zvel^2 = 1,6801,680 = 2,822,40
2G = -9805 = -4,900
Jump Height = -576
?

Guessing I don't need the "negative" for the gravity?

[faint pasture]

Ignoring signs, yes.

[keen wedge]

aha! coolio...

[faint pasture]

So dude jumps 5.8m in the air like Halo

[keen wedge]

So,with the normal UE4 scale, thats 576cm (5.76m)

[fading raptor]

ue45 units are cm?

[paper galleon]

yep

[fading raptor]

YOOO

[covert chasm]

How do I get a different Location everytime I run this?

[fading raptor]

Hey ozy how u doin

[faint pasture]

Yes. Force is CentiNewton, torque is Centinewton-centimeter

[paper galleon]

Lmao. Good

[fading raptor]

cool cool

[faint pasture]

Are you not? What's it giving you?

10 is a tiny radius

10cm

[covert chasm]

Wait i try it with a bigger Value

[keen wedge]

So, in reality, there's probably a few other things in effect, there's a block in the template level thats got a Z scale of 3, so, 3m tall. The player character can now "just" get on to it... guessing other things like the acceleration/decelerating settings and so on are all playing their part too

[paper galleon]

Yeah, there's air friction, aircontrol, stuff like that. But they shouldn't affect the original calculation. You just tune values

[keen wedge]

Thank you, appreciate all the help from everyone and the quick maths lesson! 😄

[paper galleon]

You'll be back here, don't worry. 😅

[keen wedge]

I dont doubt it! 😄

[quasi frost]

So I want to call this parameter to adjust it at run time, but I can't find a way to name it in order to call it. How can I use a param with a name so I can call it when I want to set its value?

[faint pasture]

I spend more time here than I do with the editor open

[spark steppe]

that's a constant, you have to add a scalar parameter

[quasi frost]

Ah thanks

new to materials

[spark steppe]

"variable" settings always have parameter in their name (for materials)

[paper galleon]

Same here.🤣. I came to make a simple inquiry and ended up sticking around

[quasi frost]

One more question. I'm not quite sure how to connect these two. I want to change all of the materials on a mesh to my "fade" material and then start a time line to go from 0->1 on my fade param to make it disappear. How do I plug my new materials into the "collection" area to start this process? I can't seem to just plug in my for each loop on materials to the set scalar param value.

[spark steppe]

you need to create a dynamic material instance (DMI) from your material and assign it to the mesh

on that DMI you can change parameters then

[quasi frost]

Gotcha will try that, thanks

[faint pasture]

@quasi frost make a master material that supports the fade if it's a thing that has to blend with your regular material.

[green eagle]

Is there a way to have a Class run a function to set variables and then have it remove all the function data? Like a fire and forget type thing. So if you are using a huge inventory map through unique instancing you can have the instance save on data as it will never be changed hence forth.

[dawn gazelle]

Function local variables are always instanced for the function. You can still manipulate the class's variables within the function as well.

[faint pasture]

Not trying to poke fun but this is relevant around here every day.
https://www.theonion.com/man-wishes-computer-could-do-thing-it-already-can-do-1819574776

[brazen merlin]

this dude is living in the future

[formal wren]

Anyone have a conveniant way to initialize a ComboBox using an Enum?

I was thinking I could simply pass the enum asset as a variable somehow, but didnt manage to find out how or if it is even possible

[faint pasture]

You mean like enum -> text?

EMyTeam::Blue -> "Blue"?

[formal wren]

No I mean like: I have this Enum and want to create a combobox containing all of the enums values

And it could be any enum

So basically I would like to convert any enum asset into an array of strings

[native willow]

for each enum and convert to string

[maiden wadi]

This only sort of works if you don't care about localization.

[native willow]

if you care about localization you would not use the enum values itself

maybe a TMap<Enum, FText>

[maiden wadi]

Yeah. Not very weildy for all enums though. 😄 So as I said, that only works if you don't care about localization.

I've personally started hating enums. Used to love them. GameplayTags are just so much nicer.

[formal wren]

Yes, that's how I do it currently 🙂 But I have to create a function like this for any Enum I'd like to create a combobox from

[native willow]

what so good about it?

[native willow]

you cannot make a generic enum function from bp

you can do it but in cpp

[maiden wadi]

GameplayTags are basically FNames. FNames are basically named integers just like Enums. They have almost the lookup speed of integers. FNames aren't grouped like enums which is a small problem and why they're not so widely used. GameplayTags on the other hand can be nested with multiple tiers and share the same lookup and comparison speed of FNames. Which means you can group your tags together however you like without being limited by their group. Take Gosling's issue. If you have multiple tables and need a name for the data, you need multiple lookup functions for enums. With GameplayTags, you can set it up to look up the datatable or dataasset you store the tag's relevant name in. Look up the table/array/map directly based on the tag's hierarchy and then get the data from it.

They're also stored in ini files, so looking them up and selecting them from a list is a lot more foolproof than remembering to type FNames correctly.

[quasi frost]

So I created my Dynamic material inst but I'm still not exactly sure how to get that into collection

[native willow]

hmm, I will take a look into it, but I dont think they can completely replace enums

[brazen merlin]

thats not the right node for working with DMI, drag off from the variable you have there and then search for set param. There should be an underlying text that says Target is Dynamic Material Instance on the node

[dawn gazelle]

This apparently won't work in a packaged game. The friendly names for Enums are completely stripped from what I've heard. Your best bet is to make a select statement that contains the appropriate display names you want (either string, text or name, however you wanna do it)..

[native willow]

ofc it will work for a packaged game

friendly names != actual enum

[dawn gazelle]

If you're converting an enum to a string, you're getting it's friendly name, no?

[native willow]

when you create a UEnum unreal reflection system will collect its name and that's what you are getting here

[maiden wadi]

Replace? No. At least not entirely. But I would argue that enums are really shitty. You cannot change their order. Meaning if you need to extend them your only choice is at the end of the enum. They're limited to 255 entries, not usually an issue in most places they're used, but you cannot always predict where gameplay design will take things. And as far as holding data for player faced data? I personally HATE enums. I have several functions at work that converts them to FText, and I'm sour every time I have to change one or make a new one versus just adding an entry to a datatable.

[green eagle]

Like man I know I still struggle with the whole over concerned optimization syndrome but looking at some pro work has me just sitting here like "am I from the stoneage?" like.. im awful!

[novel robin]

soooo can anyone tell me what is going on?

can't find information from researching...

working with movie render queue and have some cvar set up

[native willow]

/** List of pairs of all enum names and values. */
TArray<TPair<FName, int64>> Names;

an FName is converted to a string, idk what you mean by friendly names

[green eagle]

looks like your bios is flagging your gpu as a runtime FE

[dawn gazelle]

Sorry, should've said user friendly name.

[green eagle]

as having*

well you know what i mean

[novel robin]

fascinating...

i am purely using sequencer, but quality graphics

dialing this in slowly

[green eagle]

mmm

those aren't literally indiviidual bills stacked ontop of each other in 4k right?

if you don't have that set up right it is probably trying to render out and process each face through that whole stack and at far too unnecessary texel densitdy

[novel robin]

not that high res lol

but good enough where i can do closeups like this

the two sided material ambient occlusion crap has troubled me... i will send 2 pictures

[green eagle]

woah think i stroked out for a moment

[native willow]

oh, so that's what gameplay tags do, I honestly never used enums for things like this, I always used FNames and coded any system for fetching, reordering etc myself, I didn't know that gameplay tags are almost exactly what I need just out of the box in unreal and I don't need to code any system for them myself

[novel robin]

you good?>

[native willow]

hmm, I need to look into it

[maiden wadi]

😄 They're fantastic. Like I wouldn't bother making tags for like a ui button's pressed/hovered state. But for most gameplay related data, they are just amazing at organizing data.

[green eagle]

take advantage of that blur and fade away effects and make it overlay with your maps that way where its blurred its literally nothing and where you want the eyes to land is crisp. Also might wanna try using a tighter atlas and setting your thingy(cant remembr what it is) where if the face is away from the camera is doesn't even cach it.

[novel robin]

i am commissioned to set this stack ablaze like the dark knight scene

but the shadows have been driving me nuts all day

i dialed the shadows and the environment lighting and my post processing / cinematic camera's Postprocessing to where it looks very high quality

but i noticed that lits of errors

and while it doesn't inhibit me right now

it is still flagging and i want to know why

[native willow]

maaan you just saved me hours of work 😄

❤️

[green eagle]

Well if its running fine done sweat it

[novel robin]

"Fine"

i may be brute forcing it

[green eagle]

Engine and Bios have safety nets that our systems sometimes greatly exceed

[novel robin]

oh fascinating

[brazen merlin]

where's the fire?

[novel robin]

that was next once i perfected the shadows

[faint pasture]

Everybody here once they finish their 100% Dragon science-based MMO

only 2,999,950 more man-hours to go

[green eagle]

If its not crashing and you just need the render you can try going into your bios and changing the run time fail safe. Using houdini and zbrush i had to up mine to 5mins for some sims.

[novel robin]

cost me $2 and 2 hours of tweaking to make UE ready

[novel robin]

oh wow sooo much to learn still.

[novel robin]

thanks for the nudge btw
on it now

[native willow]

okay, so I checked the source function that is responsible for getting that name and the conclusion is:
it will work for packaged game
it may differ from what you see in the editor if you use some editor only localization

[brazen merlin]

somewhat suprised but also glad to hear, get that fire in there, im sure you'll figure out the lighting too

[native willow]

if in cpp you have declared an enum entry with metadata chaning its display name, in editor it will return that display name but in packed game it will return the actual enum name

the display name is stripped out

[novel robin]

had a sleepless night working on this

was focusing on something that is not detremental to the final delivery is not worth worrying about right now...until the time it is lololol

il report back

i have to make a zippo light
have it light a molotov cocktail

have a burst ignition over the pile

[brazen merlin]

that all sounds splendidly fun, fire!

[green eagle]

Yeah man if they just want final renders who cares how fried your systems is from the cook the end results all they pay for!

[novel robin]

i messed up my raytracing settings...blagh

[odd ember]

where are listable FNames when you need them

it is a crying shame epic did not make that a thing

(or they did, but not for function names, and not in editor, except for GetDataTableRow)

[green eagle]

brudder I can't even spell reitraiseen 😉

[native willow]

in not sure if I understand you correctly but unreal has the entire reflection system

for functions, properties, enums etc

[green eagle]

man the past 3 months have really made me regret turning away from coding and using BP primarily with how things that just make sense in OOP some reason aren't doable in UE Scripting

[odd ember]

nah that's not what I'm talking about

[native willow]

bps are very limited compared to what you can do in cpp

[novel robin]

ahhhh skylight's raytraced shadows got enabled

[green eagle]

tragically and I def lost the confidence I had 2 years ago with cpp.. I blame getting into teaching highschoolers for quick cash.. that and I got really hooked on houdini for a bit im too phucking lazy

[knotty sequoia]

how can i create global blueprint event that can be called from everywhere?

[odd ember]

I'm talking about FName pins in BP not being a list instead of a textbox

[green eagle]

great question... while we are on the topic of cpp/bp limitations..

[odd ember]

now you can make them into a pin but it's a pain in the ass

just like generics in BP

[brazen merlin]

we all have our own priorities, lazy or not, are your goals to be a programmer or to make a game?

[brazen merlin]

by everywhere do you mean any blueprint?

[green eagle]

Make games..

[knotty sequoia]

yes

[green eagle]

Like a global reference pointer

[brazen merlin]

you can make a macro or function library, those can be accessed by any bp

[native willow]

would you like to have the list of all of the FNames used in the engine? if you make your own custom node you can make a pin with such a list and you supply an array of FNames that have to be displayed in such a list

[knotty sequoia]

ok thanks

[brazen merlin]

hope it helps for your needs!

[maiden wadi]

Honestly, if you follow a couple of minor rules, learning to use C++ with Unreal is incredibly simple. Coupled with knowing how Unreal is generally supposed to work from Blueprints, it's quick to learn the basics.

[green eagle]

I was just about to say if you give him a good answer imma be pissed cause like a month ago you told me id have to code something out but come to think of it.. contextually I can see why those options didnt come up.. thank you both you may have made my day

[odd ember]

yeah if I made my own custom node. but that's what I said

[brazen merlin]

my kryptonite is syntax memorization while also being the artist

[green eagle]

Some people get it easily and some are nightmares.. past 2 years of teaching people literally the most basic FOC and OOP logic has taught me not to think its easy for anyone... Partner never touched a computer started coding faster than me.. friend who works IT.. it didnt go well.. blew my mind...

[brazen merlin]

XD well I'd say its very common to want to make your own solution than to learn how the system works, it's definitely not always clear, by term or concept

[green eagle]

I have come to find thati f you can get the person to understand design pattern theory and break down to them that its all the same code just difference variables then the rest is like butter

[brazen merlin]

design, now there's a heavy topic

[green eagle]

hey gotta love google am i right?! What kind of art mediums you use?

[cursive apex]

can anyone tell me what set is being used and what equal is being used in this image

[brazen merlin]

in the past it was traditional drawing, painting and sculpting but nowadays its 3d and photobashing

[maiden wadi]

That doesn't remotely surprise me with the way you've phrased that. Inability to learn often comes from fear or pride. While people that have no knowledge have no prejudice against not knowing something.

[green eagle]

I spent 20 bucks on a course to learn design patterns only to learn that it was the shit I was already doing and didnt know it had names!!! Good course material though.

[brazen merlin]

this graph is checking to see if the player has overlapped this actor (Player == actor) and if so, cast to the Player to clear the Bush variable that exists on the player

[brazen merlin]

thanks datura, tag team!

[green eagle]

Yeah honestly.. that single dude was the only person that literally quit on it before getting it down.. like.. the harder it is to make it make sense to someone the more fricken exhilerating it becomes

[green eagle]

You ever play with Houdini?

[brazen merlin]

that's not too bad considering it gave you the justified awareness

[odd ember]

and also dont talk as if they couldn't specify this further with UMACROs

[brazen merlin]

no i hate anything node based 😛

[green eagle]

like I gasped and then thought oh wait thats a joke but then was like hold on wait phuck bp..

lol

[native willow]

whats a UMacro?

[brazen merlin]

hahah yes

[odd ember]

they kind of already do it with GameplayTags which are basically glorified FNames

[cursive apex]

but I can't find it

[odd ember]

so I don't see any issue creating a custom derived FName type and go like that

[brazen merlin]

no ive not had access to the software, ive used substance designer, bp ofc, and some other node systems

[odd ember]

FName_SkeletalMesh

etc.

[native willow]

still dont know whats a UMacro is

[odd ember]

it's the function specifiers

[brazen merlin]

drag off the actor's pin then in the search type =

[odd ember]

or rather just the generic term for specifiers

UFUNCTION, UPROPERTY etc.

and I suppose you could also class stuff like GENERATED_BODY() under the same, since it's the same thing

[native willow]

instead of focusing on what the engine is lacking just focus on thousnds of features that the engine actually has

[odd ember]

dude

are you really going to argue that

that's low

anyway because it's the BP channel and this discussion has no bearing here I'll stop

[native willow]

i mean, you seem quite mad at the epic atm

[green eagle]

substances was my first tickle into the art side of games and then the guys that got me into ue4 suggested I get houdini and my investor agreed and told me im not allowed to say im not an artist anymore... been using blender.. it hurts..

[odd ember]

I just think it's a missed opportunity

and I don't believe in trying to defend poor decisions, I'd rather see how they can be improved

anyway end of discussion for me

[native willow]

there are many missed oportunities in this engine, and the whole FName thing is just missed oportunity, its still replicated with a string

[brazen merlin]

well i suppose when its just tools, ie sliders and connections, its not very artsy, but I dunno, expression is not limited, any artist on a computer could be rationalized to be considered doing the same, it's pixels at the end of the day, it's 0's and 1's, if there's creative stuff being done, that's art to me

[green eagle]

yeah I kinda have/hadish a problem veiwing the work I was doing procedurally as "artistic" think a lot of it had to do with the Artist friends of mine that resented it. I just enjoy being a story teller and driving emotions in people with words and sound and narrative. I miss dungeon and dragons sessions.. I was a pretty passionate visual artist in my youth actually it kinda died off in highschool. Shame I didnt have the confidence to try learning programming back then..

[cursive apex]

i am trying to make a mana pool

[green eagle]

now im so all over the place idk whats gonna get done.. this is my workflow chart between softwares though I havent renewed SideFX

[cursive apex]

setting mana cost and linking it to spells on character blueprint

creating a estore mana function to be called on the pool object

and calling it on the object

but when it enters the pools starts automatically the animation withouth having spent any mana

[green eagle]

whats your problem?

[dawn gazelle]

Recursion.

[green eagle]

oh sorry

[cursive apex]

idk what that is : p

[dawn gazelle]

When something you're calling is calling itself.

[brazen merlin]

as a workaholic, i would take a step back, maybe even for a day or so (a time that feels uncomfortably too long to step away from something, then double it) and allow yourself to evaluate yourself, not to jump on immediate ideas, but to figure out what you enjoy. When you get back to it, it will all come crashing down, remember what was reflected on during that time, confidence is what gets us through, that builds talent as it is not natural

[cursive apex]

... do you know where that is

[brazen merlin]

we may need to take this convo elsewhere also

[green eagle]

true that i gotta actually run some errands was a lot of fun chatting.. its so nice to be human some times 😄

[cursive apex]

can i dm you ?

[brazen merlin]

hu-man?

[odd ember]

did you mean Recursion?

[dawn gazelle]

No I mean Recursion.

[dawn gazelle]

Here's all you really need...

[cursive apex]

I don't undestand whee the max mana value is set

[dawn gazelle]

You create it yourself. You can just change the default value, you don't necessarily need to set it anywhere.

[cursive apex]

also sorry for misspells I am having trouble with my keyboard

[dawn gazelle]

Currently it'll always tick every 2 seconds, so if you cast at 1.5 seconds into that tick, mana would be regenerated in 0.5 seconds... If you want to have a little more control over it, then you can do this, and call StartRegenTimer every time you cast so it resets the timer.

[cursive apex]

and that is on the charcater event editor ?

[dawn gazelle]

Yep

[cursive apex]

umm... how do I make it so that it only regenerates when it is inside the pool ? Don't I have to call something in the pool blueprint ?

I was following the same logic I used to make a death zone

[brazen merlin]

its sort of the same, what Datura has provided you is two event calls one that Starts and another that Stops, so your other blueprint can call this (ie the pool)