blueprint

[onyx token]

basically the screenshotted code is this function

"pick item"

but when i do this

i get this

because my inventory is trying to access an actor that is destroyed

[hardy fable]

So then copy the data you want from the apple before deleting it

[bright harbor]

^^

[onyx token]

do i really have to make an entirely new actor / struct / whatever in my inventory and copy all the data over there, is there no way to keep my object reference?
Because that way i could save additional information in my apple that is unique to that one apple

[hardy fable]

Give the apple a struct called itemdata or an uobject with the data but no you cannot expect the apple to be both be deleted and exist

[onyx token]

is it a stupid idea to turn the visibility of my apple off, and set it as a child of my player character when i pick it up?

[hardy fable]

I mean. Yes that can work. It's not elegant but for a simple system you might get away with it

[onyx token]

is that gonna eat alot of performance?

[hardy fable]

Do you expect to have hundreds of these items. Then maybe? Only one way to find out.

A couple dozen? Nah you fine

[onyx token]

hm.
I'll try the struct way, you're right, that's probably more elegant before i start fucking around with hundreds of child objects

[hardy fable]

Yes keep data in a struct or a data asset or a data table. Each has its pros and cons

But generally an actor is not the best place for canonical item data

[onyx token]

hm i see

thanks!

[hardy fable]

Actors are for visualization of the item when dropped, sure. But for saving and loading the game or multi-player, a unified inventory data system is a lot cleaner than a hundred actors each controlling a fragment of your data

I personally like using data assets. They can be subclassed for specialized types of items, unlike structs and don't come with the management horror of huge data tables.

[onyx token]

can't use c++ tho

[hardy fable]

You can make BP data assets...

[onyx token]

oh i can? I thought i needed c++ for it

so can i add a data asset to an actor?

[hardy fable]

Nope. Create a new blueprint and search for data asset

Actors can reference a data asset yes. They do not create them

Data assets are unique entities like meshes or textures that other things can reference.

You normally don't create them at runtime

[onyx token]

ooh i can use it as a data asset variable...

[hardy fable]

Yes

[onyx token]

I don't like structs very much because they're often buggy in blueprint

to the point where they bricked an entire project once

[hardy fable]

Yeah lol I feel you there

I only use c++ structs now for that very reason

*but also source control. Use it

[onyx token]

i know, am lazy, i should set it up

damn so that means i wouldn't have to make a child of my item for every item i use-
But i could just have 1 Item actor, and a bunch of data assets

[gusty cypress]

Is there anyway to force a teleport, my character won't teleport since target is slightly in ground but I want player to teleport flat and not fall down to ground

I think I did this before but it was so long ago

[hybrid ether]

How to make that happen? I have set of current planes that I have purchased. The I have current plane int.

[trim matrix]

how can I has something have Collision but not affect the NacMesh ??

I need to allow AI to roam where needed but not collide or have patch obstructed by object

if anyone has an idea

please

[hybrid ether]

My question is how to set "set" value for example key 2

[safe narwhal]

hello i need help with a bluperint

basically i have this blueprint that toggles between Run and Dodge/roll

the idea is that if you hold shift you run, but if yyou tap it once it makes a roll

i can print a message and the functionality works perfectly

but im having trouble with adding what to do when each input is done

i followed a tutorial on how to implement the dodging animation but when i put it in the bluieprint it wont work

[manic flint]

okay, I manage to work it out. But it may me think that, instead of using a pawn class for a ship, that I should really look at something like a default pawn or even character as the ship. Does anyone have a recommendation on how to approach this?

[dawn gazelle]

Key 2 as your Key within your map?

If so, just add it to your map again. The keys of a map are unique and if you add the same key again, it'll overwrite the existing value.

[sonic crow]

is using enums efficient for tracking character level, weapon and weapon variation?

Weapon being pistol, machin gun etc...weapon varation being a sub menu within pistol

[odd ember]

enums aren't generally super useful when dealing with infinite sets

at least not without some degree of reflection... which again leads us to FName

[sonic crow]

there would be about 5 levels to the characterm 25 weapons and upto 25varations of each weapon would it be effective to use 3 enums? Alternatively what is the best way to do this

[odd ember]

there isn't a great way to do this

maybe gameplay tags

[maiden wadi]

Level should probably just be an integer. Who knows how many addons you'll end up with. Level 10 in four years can end up being level 600. For weapons, I personally say GameplayTags

[sonic crow]

ty i will research gameplay tags

[odd ember]

gameplay tags being glorified FNames anyway

[maiden wadi]

GameplayTags are the most amazing data management tool.

[odd ember]

well they're FNames at 50% of their potential

[drowsy peak]

So I have this question... I want to get an array from my Plate blueprint, the array is called "Boxes in plates" and it's just made from the boxes are overlapping the plates. I would wish to use it my doors as I want to check if the boxes that are on plates have a certain color (and then the door will open), but I don't know how to share this information (having in mind that I will need to reuse this and it is not a one time and that the number of boxes and plates may change).

I can share images if needed

[odd ember]

this sounds extremely confusing

can you, in a non technical way, describe what you want to do

[drowsy peak]

Yeah

I want a door to open only when the player puts a box of a certain color in a plate

[odd ember]

ok cool

[drowsy peak]

The door may require multiple boxes

[odd ember]

can any of the colored boxes go on any of the plates?

[drowsy peak]

Go as in they overlap or what do you mean?

[odd ember]

so if you have two plates requiring two boxes, red and yellow, does it work for red and yellow to be on any of those plates?

[drowsy peak]

Yeah

Any plate

[odd ember]

ok

how many colors do you have in total?

[drowsy peak]

4

[odd ember]

do you have an enumerator for your colors?

[drowsy peak]

Yeah

ColorEnum that is it

[odd ember]

ok so one way of doing it would be to expose a map of ColorEnum, PlateActor

but that locks color to your PlateActor

[drowsy peak]

To expose it?

[odd ember]

expose as in make Instance Editable

[drowsy peak]

Alright

[supple bane]

is there a way I can rotate the parent so the child moves, but stop the child from rotating?

[drowsy peak]

But I don't want to lock color to my Plates

[supple bane]

I have a parent object with a sphere on it, I am rotating the parent so the sphere moves in a circle, But that makes the child sphere rotate aswell, anyway to fix this?

[odd ember]

in that case, have an array of ColorEnum, and an array of PlateActor

[brazen merlin]

inversely set/add the rotation of the parent's delta

[drowsy peak]

I thought about that, but then what do I do?

[supple bane]

But I want to keep adding rotation to the child, just not from the parent

[brazen merlin]

then it would be add and not set

[sonic crow]

Appreciate the tip on gameplay tags I will use it for my weapon system and character level. Would I use Gameplay tags or an Enum for a item powerups, I have about 25 powerups and the enum is setup but is it better to stick with gameplay tags for everything?

[supple bane]

alright

[odd ember]

so every time you place a box on a plate, loop over the array of plate actors. for each unique color, add that color to the ColorEnum array (check if it is in the array first). then at the end, test to see if the ColorEnum array has the required colors

[drowsy peak]

And if it does?

How do I share this as to open the door?

[odd ember]

do whatever you want to do to open the gate. if it's a door, open the door

[supple bane]

ty, it works now

wait nvm

I found a new wierd problem

[odd ember]

well you could have it as a component on the door, you could have it in a class that the door actor inherits from. you could have it in the level blueprint. depends on how unique or systemic whatever you're making is

[drowsy peak]

I will try that now

Thanks for your help

[sonic crow]

would gameplay tags be the better system because of the data tables?

[odd ember]

it's mostly the better system because there aren't really any alternatives

[fair magnet]

Hey everyone :o
I wanna make a world-level-selection...
so you're in a 3D world and the levels kind of lie on the floor.
I also want to connect them with lines that sort of charge up like they do in super mario :o
not too hard but my problem is I also wanna merge and split these lines so there are several paths the player can take...

this is what I have for now...

[odd ember]

so like... assemble your own level?

[fair magnet]

nah it's like super mario you enter this world and you can click on any level :o
and I want to connect them with lines but I don't know how I make them "find" a path

[odd ember]

like visual lines

[odd ember]

that have no effect?

[fair magnet]

yea

only visual

[odd ember]

that's a #graphics question then. but for the level question, you can just have a collision box with the Open Level node

[fair magnet]

uh yea that's not the problem :o I just need some math or anything to connect something like a mesh in a procedual manner so it's always connected no matter where I put these widgets

[odd ember]

a spline mesh I guess?

but like if you want to insert boxes like that you'll have to customize it a bit

[fair magnet]

I tried that and it works well as long as the line is straight :o but if the level widget becomes offset it should have corners

[odd ember]

if you create points before and after corner curves you should be fine

[brazen merlin]

this sounds like a waypoint system

[faint pasture]

@fair magnet as long as you're not doing anything too exotic like seamless transitions or whatever, just your classic overworld system like super mario, you're basically going to be making a separate level with its own mechanics and entering a level is basically a hard load. In terms of layout, you can either do it by hand or have some sort of data representing your game levels in the connections between them and parsing that. I would start with just laying out your overworld by hand and figure out how you want it to look and behave. Splines and spline meshes are going to be your key.

You could start with just pathfinding to portals to levels, we don't know anything about your game mechanics so we don't know exactly what type of movement you would want.

[fair magnet]

it's literally just a level selection :o player can float around and click on the "level 1" or "level 2" to enter them if unlocked

since spline meshes are using relative locations I can't really figure out how to do it

[faint pasture]

So what's your question? How to load the level when they click on the widget or what exactly?

[fair magnet]

how to do the math so these widgets are connected with lines

[odd ember]

tbh the easiest thing you could do, which kind of saves you a headache, is to create the spline lines as you want them, and then for each point, spawn a widget at the location of the point

[faint pasture]

Yeah for that you're going to want splines.

[fair magnet]

like that but with corners if level 2 is more to the right for example

[odd ember]

replace widget with mesh as necessary

[brazen merlin]

dont use widgets?

[fair magnet]

why not ?

[odd ember]

let them use what they want tbh

doesn't make a difference

[fair magnet]

whats wrong with my widgets q-q

[odd ember]

try this though

[fair magnet]

so should I just make like an "line actor" with a spline ?

[odd ember]

yeah

[fair magnet]

and the logic?

k will try

[odd ember]

on begin play you can have the logic spawn widgets

or actors or components or whatever you need

[trim matrix]

whats best way of checking if there is an actor at a specific location obvs for loop but without having multiple collision boxes everywhere for each individual area how could i do it more effectively

for example if I already know location where each actor is at game start is there something in the engine that can use location to see if actor is at that locaion ?

[fair magnet]

@trim matrix am I just stupid rn or... is the equal node what you're looking for ?

[odd ember]

what's your use case?

[trim matrix]

equal ??

[fair magnet]

yea

[odd ember]

I'm not even sure what you're asking lol

[trim matrix]

so i'm bassicaly trying to make Pak man like

[trim matrix]

in the game you collect the fruit and all the powerpellets respawn for next round

[fair magnet]

however this just takes an exact value if it's even one 0.1 off it will give false

[trim matrix]

what I need is a way to check does a powerpellets already exit at location X if no then spawn one

becuase there is alot of power pellets to run collision checks would be heavyto do

[odd ember]

how do you determine the spawn for normal pellets?

[trim matrix]

as in ??

[odd ember]

I assume you spawn them in... or are they manually placed?

[trim matrix]

manually placed on map

[odd ember]

I see

[trim matrix]

then when they need to respawn at the min I have the engine remove all of them

like get all actors etc and destroy

[static charm]

save the default starting locations, then add the ones that are used/collected/missing, and respawn as needed.

[trim matrix]

so far i have been using an array which there all saved in at start of the game

[odd ember]

well basically you're making a powerup spawner. so I'd make an actor with a trigger box and in each location, that spawns a power pellet. you can query the trigger box actor to see if there still is a power pellet or if it's been taken

it can also handle a cooldown so that it automatically respawns

[static charm]

i'd just save the pellet info when the pellets are used/taken by the player

[fair magnet]

or just make one actor add an vector array with 3d widget and iterate over it

then make another array that just saves the pellet state

[odd ember]

there is such thing as over engineering

[fair magnet]

future proof

[static charm]

a trigger box for each pellet sounds like overkill though, especially if this is mobile game

[odd ember]

future proof is what I suggested

[trim matrix]

so I would have a spawning actor

[odd ember]

since it's in an actor that's contained

[dreamy ice]

Best practice for storing code that externally effects a players health/speed/ect... would be as an event on the player or in a seperate object that manipulates the character itself?

[odd ember]

component, hands down

can be put on other actors too

[dreamy ice]

its triggered by a component.

so maybe in an object triggered by the component?

[odd ember]

basically you'd place down an actor, and use that actor as your spawner.

[dreamy ice]

spawned during use then destroyed when out of use.

[odd ember]

can you give an example of what you're doing?

[trim matrix]

how would i link each pellet to it's location as at the moment I kinda know the spawning process

it's making sure if there pellet is valid but location it is on it dosen't just skip over the location when there is actually no pellet there

[fair magnet]

done

very basic

[odd ember]

so inside your actor you would have something like a spawn location and a type of actor to spawn. then have an internal variable for the actor, check if that's null, and if so, spawn an actor on the spawn location and set the internal variable to be that actor

[fair magnet]

if false then add

if true do nothing

or whatever you like

[trim matrix]

arr so didn't mention this the Game Mode atm is handling this haha

so lets change that

[odd ember]

well to be honest, the spawner actor is something you might need any how

you can always let some system spawn a pellet spawner

which gets a bit meta

[trim matrix]

as would we be actor component or just actor ?

[odd ember]

actor

you have to place it in world

[trim matrix]

i've done that

[odd ember]

right but you need to add logic to it

[trim matrix]

so guessing on begin play we need to get the ones in the level so far which is fine

I can use get all actors

[odd ember]

I don't know which method you're using

[fair magnet]

I think... that's what you want isn't it ?

that you can put into an actor place it at like... 0,0,0 and then create the vector locations using the 3D widget

[odd ember]

that setup can lead to double spawn bugs tho

[fair magnet]

like how

[trim matrix]

well thats what i'm thinking

[odd ember]

because you don't have a good way of checking what already exists at that location

[trim matrix]

so far I have already had that kinda of workflow break the game as it rtys spawning based on location and if it dosen't know an actor is there it will spawn mulple time

it bricks the game like haha

[odd ember]

that's why I am suggesting the spawner actor

since it spawns the actual powerpellet, it has knowledge of whether the powerpellet is in world or not. you can query it for whether the power pellet is currently spawned or not

[trim matrix]

if you kinda work me through this spawner thing I kinda get it it's linking between the various pellets and there locations

ohhhhh

[odd ember]

it's very similar to something like a weapon spawner in unreal tournament or what have you

in this case just being a power pellet instead

[trim matrix]

cause I can spawn actor at each Pellet location and as it does this remove the location from the array so it dosen't double spawn

[odd ember]

well you dont even have to check location

you can just ask the spawner to respawn a pellet and let the spawner itself work out if a pellet already exists or not

[trim matrix]

thats the bit I kinda get stuck on

who would the spawner check is there a pellet at the location ?

[static charm]

why are the pellets missing in the first place?

just save which ones are missing

[odd ember]

I'm not sure what you mean by this

[trim matrix]

so the spawner will just have an array of pellet locations and array of SpawnedActors from start of the game. When it respawns I don't know what code is needed to have it check at Loc 0,0,0 is there a pellet

[odd ember]

no the spawner spawns just one pellet

so you'd put down a spawner where you want it in the level

[trim matrix]

ohhh right

[odd ember]

and then you can do, as you suggested, get all actors of class for the spawner

[trim matrix]

and then iterate through the spawners in the level to say

[odd ember]

go over them and call Respawn

[trim matrix]

if there is not a Pellet then spawn one

[odd ember]

and the spawner then decides if it needs to respawn, or if the pellet already existed

[trim matrix]

so I would need a collision box for the main spawner

[odd ember]

well you might not need one

if the pellet has a collision then you can just create a binding

[trim matrix]

hmmm not done that before

please elaborate

also the pellet does have collision

[odd ember]

it's basically an event dispatcher

[trim matrix]

the player uses it to collide with pellet to destroy it

[odd ember]

that you bind after you spawn the pellet. then when the pellet gets eaten, the dispatcher gets called, and the spawner then knows that the pellet has been eaten

[trim matrix]

would it now it's specific pellet was eaten. and not one across other side of the map ??

[odd ember]

it only controls one pellet

only one pellet per spawner

[trim matrix]

so the spawner would have a child actor technically the pellet

[odd ember]

if you then want to create a spawner manager that manages these actors across the level, feel free

but game mode can do this for you tooo

[trim matrix]

well i was planning to use that tbd

tbf

[odd ember]

not a child actor, just a spawned actor

[fair magnet]

what about that? :o any better?
gotta admit using 2 arrays theres can lead to problems if one index doesn't fit the other

[odd ember]

still seems very error prone

[static charm]

wait if all he's trying to do is respawn destroyred pellets

[fair magnet]

like how? xd

[static charm]

....

[odd ember]

same way as before

[trim matrix]

So i would have my spawners like so each on is it's own actor

then at start of level it spawns the pellet at it's location

[odd ember]

because you're not controlling how an actor is spawned, it doesn't matter how many arrays of locations you are keeping

[fair magnet]

but that's exactly what I'm doing lol

[odd ember]

yep

[fair magnet]

this controls how they are spawned ? o.o

obviously he can't use like another spawner or smth then? but if he just uses that it's fine

[static charm]

On Pellet destroyed, save location/pellet index to an array, then respawn from that.

simple and done.

[fair magnet]

oh btw @odd ember I tried what you told me with the spline and spline mesh :o it... sort off works but sort of doesn't

it kinda drifts off for some reason

[odd ember]

you need more polygons

in your spline mesh

[icy dragon]

Looks like not enough polys to be more bendy

[fair magnet]

how do I increase them? :o

[icy dragon]

That's entirely depends on how you make the mesh for the spline to begin with.

[odd ember]

I think the point is they're coming from a point of having tried setups like these where double spawns are an issue. I'm just trying to solve that problem and keeping everything manageable. having a manager looping over locations or whatever isn't great in situations like these. it's better to have the actor itself be aware of its location and passing this on.

[odd ember]

create a more polygon dense mesh

use blender or what have you

[fair magnet]

hmm

[icy dragon]

In Blender, make a plane, go to edit mode, make 32 or more edge loops, export as FBX, then profit

[faint pasture]

@trim matrix If you have a grid like setup, use a map

[static charm]

🦇 🐴 ☠️

[faint pasture]

A map of int vector 2d to enum or actor reference would make anything you're doing on a grid way easier.

[keen prairie]

super newb question - how can i get my player character's movement speed so that i can check if they are moving?

[odd ember]

character movement component holds that information. you can use GetVelocity

otherwise if you're looking for if the player has movement input, check the axis values

[keen prairie]

i thought this but how do i compare a 3 vector with a single number?

[odd ember]

VectorLength

and you'll have a float

[keen prairie]

oh. i'll try that, thank you

[haughty axle]

have a question, is there anyway to delay player spawning, cuz now i have rng map and i get the location but can't figure out way to delay the spawn time

[dim robin]

use delay

[odd ember]

are you using the default spawn points?

[haughty axle]

nope, i set my own spawn location, but due it takes 1-2sec to generate map, he puts player to soon and in goes under map 😄

[odd ember]

so you're manually spawning the player?

[haughty axle]

ummm... yes/no 😄 i just set it's location. and then it spawns 😄 being honest idk how to control spawning

[odd ember]

it's kind of important if you want an answer. if you are spawning it manually then add a delay

if you're not spawning it manually

you'll have to do a little extra

[haughty axle]

i'll have to do little extra

[odd ember]

in the game mode there's an override function called SpawnDefaultPawnFor that allows you create your own pawn spawning functionality

[keen prairie]

i have a sprint toggle system. when the player stops moving, i want the player to walk the next time they move. BUT using the 'movement released' means that if they are strafing with WA/WD keys, and choose to drop the direction/sprint forward only, they return to walking again, since a movement key has been released.
i thought that replacing the input with a check to see if the character is moving would fix the problem but it does not. what other ways could i try? sorry for the long message

[faint pasture]

@haughty axle look into the spectator pawn class and the game/match state functions in GameMode. I don't remember the specifics but you can wait until your map is ready then call Start Game or Begin Game or whatever it's called, them it'll give the players the default pawns.

[wooden tiger]

Hey hey! I’m trying to make something like this…
I need a drop down that allows me to change its value on each instance of an object. Anyone have a video or screen shot of how to do that?
In this example it’s of an npc where you can change the weapon it’s using. I didn’t create the BP so I haven’t a clue how to do it.

[odd ember]

I don't know what you're doing inside of your functions

[dim robin]

sorry not sure if this is the right channel, but is there a way to model a loft nurb with splines in blueprints?

[keen prairie]

here is the sprint function. the macros are simply setting the max walk speed

[odd ember]

but tbh just use if (MoveForward == 0 && MoveRight == 0) { IsSprinting = false; }

[faint pasture]

Detect the stopping of the movement instead of the release of an input.

Keep track of speed (velocity length) and do logic on that.

[keen prairie]

i don't know how to use this, sorry! 😅

[keen prairie]

I have tried this but couldn't get it to work

[odd ember]

MoveForward and MoveRight are input values for your respective movement axes. if both of those are 0, then you can assert the player is standing still

[keen prairie]

i've not really ever touched blueprints before so i'm unsure what this would look like. i understand the logic tho, at least. i really appreciate all of this help, thank you

[odd ember]

well if you look for those keywords that would be a start

they're also on the Input events

[wooden tiger]

Any idea about my post?

Is it too vague?

[odd ember]

it's just an exposed enum

create an enum

expose it

done

[wooden tiger]

Okay, that’s a good start

Thanks

[keen prairie]

? 😅

[fair magnet]

just use one branch with "and"

:o

[odd ember]

yeah use boolean and

[keen prairie]

like this?

where do i put this in my graph?

[odd ember]

where your input events are

or in a function so you can call it in multiple places

idk

[keen prairie]

omg it works :O

thank you so much 😭

[haughty axle]

@odd ember so i did this, removed default pawn class, and did in game mode BP to get location and spawn actor from class, it works. and it doesn't matter how long it takes to generate map it spawns after. BUT.. if I put delay it messes up (overall I don't care about it tho 😄 ). so idk what the hell is happening but now works 😄

also i can't go huge numbers in for loop's and i get inf loop 😄

[odd ember]

I don't know what you're doing in that function but it sounds like you could make it easier on yourself

[haughty axle]

@odd ember it's fine cranked up loop iterations in project so he generates larger map just for testing

[light token]

Anybody got an idea why my material is showing up translucent?

[odd ember]

#graphics

[light token]

Alright will go there, I'm always very confused as to where to ask questions. Thanks!

[dreamy ice]

So in my abilities I have an actor component that holds the data on which abilities to cast, and I was going to store the ability logic itself within objects, but I can't spawn actors from an object, which poses a problem. Any suggestions?

[static charm]

you can make a spawner actor/manager

or just make your object an actor

[icy dragon]

This is the easier solution.

[dreamy ice]

is there any major performance difference between an actor or object?

[static charm]

making it an actor doesn't add much overhead

[dreamy ice]

alr thanks!

[pine idol]

How would you create a road system that generates itself, including intersections. During editor, or runtime. This is the closest I've found to what I want, but I've never been able to figure it out, or find a released product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uQwSx7m3CE

BP or CPP

[latent ginkgo]

hi, I have videos that plays as an outro and intro for my game and several videos that are in game aswell.

my problem is, when they play, it shows the previos video for a split second before playing the actual video

any idea how to prevent this?

[silk cosmos]

You have nothing plugged into target for the anim montage, so it's playing on nothing

[silk cosmos]

Those are called enums. They hold separate states that you can switch between

[wooden rapids]

does anyone know why DemoNetDriver Console Comand demoplay test give me a Black screen no lights .... i set everything to replicated

[cerulean raft]

Hi, weird issue.
So when I press left mouse button and this condition is true then this should call the print node. But it doesn't, it only calls when I double click.
Why??

The logic seems pretty straightforward

[dawn gazelle]

Well, this intersection thing.... They had a link in the comments to their plugin which is free... https://github.com/ydrive/StreetArch/releases

[pine idol]

yes, but that's a very old version, and it's just the plugin. no source or BP.

[pine idol]

<@&213101288538374145>

welp, beat me to it

lol

my bad. haha

[trim matrix]

Guys, is there a way to disable collision on a specific area of a mesh at runtime? I want to be able to put doors at runtime, so hiding the part of the mesh and disable the collision there seems like a good idea

[zinc blade]

what's the difference of Spawn Sound 2D and Play Sound 2D?

[brazen merlin]

Spawn Sound 2D will create a new sound and play it, there is a Return Value to store that as a variable. Play Sound 2D will play the sound input, there is no return value output

[zinc blade]

ohhhh alrighty, thanks!

[atomic salmon]

Yes but not in Blueprints. You need to write a contact modify callback. In your case it may be easier to look into procedural meshes. Or solve it with a modular environment where each piece has its own collisions and you can re-arrange them to create doors and passages.

[trim matrix]

Thanks! Do BP procedural meshes allow for runtime editing of the mesh? If so, that might be the way to deal with doors, windows etc, indeed.

[atomic salmon]

@trim matrixProcedural meshes can be used, among other applications, to create sliceable elements or mesh modifiable at runtime. Sounds close to your use case. I would also have a look at modular elements though. You can take a wall (or portion of it) and, at runtime, swap into place a different element with a door and appropriate collisions.

[trim matrix]

I don't think modular parts will work, as the gameplay element consists of dragging walls out and placing a door at non specific position, kind of like how it happens in the Sims games. Currently, I made it so dragging the walls out is done by scaling a cube in x,y,z + using world aligned textures so UV's won't mess them up. Now I have to figure out a way to make holes in them at non specific position.

[gentle urchin]

Procedural mesh

hit location, door size, wall bottom and calculate the verts

So you can use the current wall, and when door is placed you replace it by procedural mesh

Or you can fake it with smaller wall segments and some material wizzardy

when a door is placed, you segment the wall into 3 (or more) pieces

the door can even contain the top part(2) in case you have some curved door top

I think this approach is easier, and prooobably more performant

[trim matrix]

That's cool! So, do I just use the bp slicing on the procedural mesh to segment it?

[gentle urchin]

Think so,

havn't really used it... I ment segmenting it by replacing singular wall segment with several smaller ones, but slicing proc mesh surely would work aswell

[obtuse herald]

If that doesn't work you can also try a more hackier approach via collision channels and overlap boxes

[trim matrix]

My current approach is something similar, doors come with hitboxes that disable the wall's collision on overlap, but it's indeed a bit hacky + opacity masking the particular area of the wall is annoying

[obtuse herald]

Yeah, I would've done it via a 'Wall' Collision channel that gets disabled/enable on the player charactee

And I would use render targets for the masking

[gentle urchin]

wouldnt that be relatively expensive?

Render targets.. maybe they are cheap and im just doing it wrong lol

[obtuse herald]

I don't think render targets are expensive

The thing that renders the scene into one are

[gentle urchin]

Ah alright

[obtuse herald]

But using a 256x256 render targets for masking should be no problem

You just need to get the stretching right

[gentle urchin]

align it with simple snapping, and nobody will ever know 😛

I'd still imagine some ISM method would be the cheapest method to go about this

but could get complicated with materials

[raw orbit]

question, if im casting to an actor is it a little cheaper to cast to the highest parent possible? lets say i want to retrieve the player, would it be cheaper to cast to pawn(assuming pawn is sufficient for my purposes) or would it be a little cheaper to cast to the lower member, the last child, like myplayercharacter instead of pawn or character

[gentle urchin]

depends on how much you've extended on the subclass i think ?

Im a bit curious about this aswell

In a scenario where you'd use a parent class that holds all the possible events and callbacks that a child has, but 0 implementation. Would this be relatively cheap to keep a reference to, or will it be equal to the child with the implementations somehow?

[heavy ravine]

Hello people!
How do I find out the maximum number of visible characters in a text widget?
Link to the question in answehab
https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/1058371/how-do-i-find-out-the-maximum-number-of-visible-ch.html
Need help:)

[gentle urchin]

its tricky if the font is non-uniform

In such case i think you're best off just assuming worst case (max width char)

If its unisized, then .. well unisize 😛

for size;

think this is more #umg tho

[heavy ravine]

@gentle urchin Thanks! I use mono-sized font

[gentle urchin]

that's the name of it.. mono-sized! 😄

[heavy ravine]

🙂

[blissful widget]

Has anyone done unit tests for BP, especially function libraries? Surely it should be a thing 🤷

[small cloak]

Hello. Is it possible to use a line trace on a dynamically deforming object (like with world position offset in shader) I want to implement something like digging into sand. Thanks

[azure bolt]

Hi I've got a spline mesh which i am adding a new spline point to which works, but the mesh doesn't update... only if I do it from the editor. (turning the finalize railway boolean on or off) Does anyone know how i can get this to work in blueprint?

spline mesh variable is this

[naive grail]

This is a variable of a structure. Can i get widgets from engine and give to this variable or must i create slate?

TSharedPtr<class SWidget> WidgetLoadingScreen;

[gentle urchin]

you need a new component per spline point

[azure bolt]

Like a new mesh component?

[gentle urchin]

yeah

[azure bolt]

Alright I'll try that out, thanks

[azure bolt]

Sweet did the trick. cheers

[visual vigil]

Does monatge on interupted works. Currently it seems to not working for me. If my player interrupts enemy attack by hitting him 1st my enemy doesnt sets its state to idle??

[gentle urchin]

Probably if you call Montage Stop ?

[celest steppe]

Very important question about LevelScriptActor and Level blueprints in general.

I have sometimes heard that the level blueprints should not really be used. Is that correct and what are the reasons for it?

I noticed that the level blueprint is also just an Actor (LevelScriptActor), which would be one more reason to use them for scripting (because they are easy to use etc).

[atomic salmon]

@celest steppethere aren't many reasons for using Level Blueprints except maybe some quick hacks/test code and to handle/tweak level streaming

[celest steppe]

ok, thank you for clarification

[azure sparrow]

Hey, how to set material for each face of a cube through code? (Blueprint)

[celest steppe]

DopDie: you don't set the material for a face, but for the material slot

if your faces all belong to the same material slot you can set the material for the slot and it's applied to all faces

(exception: the procedural meshes you can generate through blueprints)

(I guess there you can set the material ID per face or something like that)

[bronze hinge]

It's a long shot, but I don't suppose any has done a LineTraceByChannel that has an Actors to Trace instead of Actors to Ignore before? Got a workaround doing a 'valid' loop on the hit objects, but feel this isn't efficient

[finite flax]

I need to add snap rotation to The “Add Controller Yaw Input”

Like 45 degree angle snap, please just tell me what to add to get it working with the “Yaw Input” because as for now, the rotation it has is smooth rotation with no jumps, i need the jumps like 30,45 degrees thing add to it specifically.
thanks for the help everyone

[dim robin]

can you redirect me to any sort of guide/tutorial/resource to be able to create a sort of "battle pass" system for my project?

[odd ember]

what is a battle pass system?

[odd ember]

AxisValue.Sign() * degrees

[dim robin]

something like you get rewarded with assets in game for completing quests (for example getting a new skin for the character) and a shop to download dlcs

[odd ember]

I don't think there's tutorials for that because it's very high level

[finite flax]

@odd ember pardon my ignorance

[odd ember]

you have the axis value already lol

look at the name of the float you get

[finite flax]

what should I search for?
and from which node it's coming out exactly

[dim robin]

unfortunately i was expecting that. but thanks anyway, i'll try to research some infos

[odd ember]

from the node you're picking. I gave you all the info you need

[random plaza]

the best way to have NPC positions saved is having a master array of saved npcs and loading them based on what map you're in and if their variable says they're dead or not, right? its been working for me and its a lot easier then having different arrays for different levels.

[tawdry surge]

Hey, I'm trying to set up a 3d widget for the player to click on. Everything works fine in stand alone, but I can't get the click events to fire in listen server or client modes

[gentle urchin]

Loading them based on... sounds interesting. I prefer to let the npc's register by themself

[tawdry surge]

Searching a massive array of all the enemies in the game sounds inefficient

[bright harbor]

hey so i have a player who plays an attack animation and has a combo system, it all works fine, but i want it to be able to affect physics objects in the level, so i turned on collision during the animation, but when you hit the phyisics objects, it hits them WAY too hard, is there any way to fix that?

like the objects go flying across the map

[gentle urchin]

How massive can it really be. 100's ? 1000s? Large enough you probably wanna consider a map or something

[spare pike]

Is this the best way for sending an interface message to all available actors? Or is there a more efficient way?

[gentle urchin]

If its something you wanna do alot, subscribing to dispatchers should be considered imo

[maiden wadi]

This is probably only easier because you don't have a function set up for it. Instead of one array, you could have an array of structs. Each struct could have data about the level it belongs to, and another array that is your npc data. Then your function just needs to look up in the first array for the correct struct, open that struct, and use that much smaller NPC list.

Alternatively, at least parse the larger array into a much smaller one for runtime use.

[tawdry surge]

Does anyone have a clue about my 3d widget issue?
I've been searching and can't find anything about it specifically.
And since it's not owned by any particular player the usual method of deceminating 2d widget interaction to the players doesn't apply

[odd ember]

there is always a better way, and GetAllActorsOfClass should never be used

[obtuse herald]

GetAllActorsOfClass is not that inefficient like everyone says

GetAllActorsWith [...] however is

[supple dome]

Oops, i thought you meant With... was faster, ignore me

[odd ember]

in both cases there are better ways than requesting references across architecture. it's not a robust way of doing things

[obtuse herald]

true

[odd ember]

and I doubt the speed is much faster if I am being honest. maybe there's an interface lookup table somewhere that is smaller than the list of actors in level, though I'd still not think it necessarily faster

[obtuse herald]

No, GetAllActorsWithIInterface is slower because it actually iterates through every actor and checks if it implements this specific interface.

GetAllActorsOfClass uses a hashmap

[odd ember]

a lookup table isn't necessarily fast either

[safe narwhal]

hi

[fiery glen]

does the animbp have the default montage slot in it?

[vast finch]

hi, im intressted in the limitations to make bluprints in to full C++ code. Anyone that culd elaborate on this wuld be mutch appriciated

[tawdry surge]

If you mean nativization, it's pretty limited.
If you mean what can you manually transfer from blueprint into C++ code, pretty much anything

[silk cosmos]

You need to plug a skeletal mesh into target, or else you're not telling the anim montage what to play on. You also need to set up your slots in your abim bp

[vast finch]

@tawdry surge okey thx for reply, pls explain abit about nativisation 🙂

[gentle urchin]

Isnt nativization deprecated?

[tawdry surge]

Yeah, cuz it's terrible

[faint pasture]

Yeah don't do it.

[tawdry surge]

Idk what specifically it breaks but I know its too many things for anyone to use it really.
Best way to find out would be make a copy of your project and try it

[faint pasture]

If your code is too heavy for blueprint, manually bring it to c++. If it's not a problem, who cares, ship it. It's not like anyone's going to give you extra points for moving a mechanic to c++, just do what needs doing to make your game hit performance targets

[tawdry surge]

Or try to refactor so your code is lighter.
Either way it's easier to optimize the flow in BP

[odd ember]

it's good to establish code practices for this early on

e.g. make your own components in bp, inheriting from its cpp counterpart

then one can gradually move code over

function by function even

[vast finch]

👍🏻

[tawdry surge]

Ideally your BP will just call cpp functions and pass variables around

[odd ember]

bp functions are just wrapped cpp code anyway

[tawdry surge]

I meant functions declared and defined in the cpp parents as opposed to one created in BP

[odd ember]

does it make a difference if those functions are from the parent or from any other part of the engine? ... not really

[tawdry surge]

Correct, as long as it isn't another BP graph wrapped in a function node, and it's actually calling the function from a cpp file, it doesn't matter where its stored really

[odd ember]

I mean you're still only paying a fractional cost. BP cost is high when considering all BP calls are about 10x more expensive. but in reality, there real takeaway is that you don't really see those 10x except under extraneous circumstances. BP wrapped graph may double the cost, but in the graph scope of things that's still fairly minimal

[sonic oak]

I read from DataTables pretty often and wanted to consolidate the 'read all rows and return them as an array' to a single function so I created a macro for it but it seems that I can't make an array within the macro, add to the array, then return it all within the macro. Any ideas how I can achieve this?

[odd ember]

just make a class that is commonly available read from the data table and store it there

[dim robin]

first time i see a "make array" attached to the "add"

[twilit heath]

this is a point in your life where you should consider using c++ 😄

[sonic oak]

yeahh I figured this is the limitation of BP only

time to fire up the monster that is VS

[faint pasture]

Rider

[twilit heath]

datatable already has GetAllRows function, its templated, so blueprints can't stomach it

[sonic oak]

Rider is for C#/.NET though

[twilit heath]

VS without intellisense upgrade is something you will regret

[faint pasture]

https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/rider-unreal/

I love it. But then again I don't really have any muscle memory with either one, the ide I used the most before any of this Game Dev stuff was eclipse LMAO

[sonic oak]

Oh wow that's convenient, I used Rider for years with Unity

[fiery glen]

it's not going to be free forever just fyi

[faint pasture]

I can't speak for the greybeards, but in my experience, it's f****** awesome.

[odd ember]

vs22 is pretty good

[dim robin]

if u attach a struct array instead of that "make array" you can collapse to macro

[frosty berry]

Can anyone tell me what the Node type is for the circled node?

[faint pasture]

@frosty berry that's the one minus. It says right there.

[odd ember]

#graphics tho

[odd ember]

https://tenor.com/view/why-huh-but-why-gif-13199396

[dim robin]

i just honestly don't know the difference between a "make array" or creating a variable of whatever type i need, set it to array, and populate it. i find it easier, faster, and also "easier to read" but disclaimer: i'm a noob, i just do what i can the way i can 😄

[frosty berry]

Why? it was a general blueprint node question.

[odd ember]

that's material graph

[frosty berry]

Thanks. New to this and dont know all the node types

[frosty berry]

ok... i just call all the "node" based stuff a blueprint.

[sonic oak]

What do you mean by 'attach'? I ended up going with this, which looks like what you showed but specifically I had to use the local array of * node to 'attach' the array.

[odd ember]

it's not. there's different graphs managed by different things. it's not at all comparable

[dim robin]

i meant attach (the connection) to the "add" node.. the way you did it works fine as well if you need the array of wildcards

[zealous moth]

can i make a rotator from a forward vector?

[odd ember]

yes

rotation from x vector

[zealous moth]

got it

hey it works

ty

[past spoke]

hey guys

does anyone know how to replace the default character BP jump animation with one from mixamo

trying to replace this

[fiery glen]

change the animbp

[zealous moth]

the animation is set in the anim bp - go to the skeletal mesh and select it

[fiery glen]

to use your new jump animations when entering the jump state

[past spoke]

yeah its already there

[odd ember]

that will stay the same

you have to retarget skeletons, ask in #animation

[past spoke]

i did all that already

[odd ember]

then change the state machine

the jump mechanic doesn't change in BP

it's all animation based

[odd ember]

#animation

[maiden wadi]

Out of curiosity, what is the point of this? Generally dumping datatables into an array is not a good idea.

[brazen merlin]

sometimes make array has to be used. One example is if you have a bunch of widgets that you've placed for ui, but want to reference them via array, these are existing objects. I'm sure there would be the argument that they should be generated procedurally, but some cases dont merit this. By using Make Array, these specific objects can then be set to an array for future referencing.
Another example is on a line trace where a the collision filter type is an array. Using make array lets you plug in the one or two collision channels without needing to make a variable (unless it is suppose to by dynamic).
Another example is referencing pre-placed objects, such as waypoints in a level that an AI will access to follow. These are not made at runtime, yet a reference to them is needed, therefore Make Array can work to plug in each of those waypoints.
As you point out, it's not always needed and in some cases not using it is better than using it.

[sonic oak]

It's <20 rows in each of these files, 5 total files only read once at the relevant init time, and it's just used for placeholder content.
In Unity I would've used the ScriptableObject for this.

[dim robin]

didn't know any of this! thanks for the examples

[odd ember]

why aren't you loading it into the game mode and just querying that from there?

[maiden wadi]

No experience with unity. But Datatable lookup is extremely fast.

[sonic oak]

Some of the data tables have data relevant to specific actor variants. It would feel odd to me to place that in game mode.

I am completely new to UE though, it's a pretty different game from the many years I have in Unity

[odd ember]

if it's data you get all the time game mode is one ofthe few common places it matters

[maiden wadi]

Why not just have the actors themselves look up the data they need? Datatables are static data, so anything in blueprint can get access to it.

If it's for spawning, definitely game mode. Safety concerns, etc. If it's for runtime stuff, the actor itself can look it up.

[sonic oak]

I do have it attached to the actors themselves at runtime for some, but I have some datatable data used in a widget also which is what my question was originally intended for

[odd ember]

sounds like it is within gamemode scope regardless

and it saves you having to query it all the time

which is just weird

[sonic oak]

I don't query it all the time though

[odd ember]

do you query it more than once?

[maiden wadi]

Not really necessary to keep it in GameMode. A pointer to it in the widget or actor is perfectly fine.

[sonic oak]

I don't query it more than once. However, I do load data for each 'player type'. I suppose in a multiplayer context, the client may end up trying to query for more than just the client's player, so I will look into that.

[odd ember]

if it's something you access more than once, having it in a common class that is easily accessible makes more than sense

[maiden wadi]

Game mode is actually a really terrible place to be keeping static data unless it is only ever required for guarded things like spawning gameplay actors with specific stats. Widget implies UI. That's definitely not guarded data. It's perfectly fine to just have a static pointer to the datatable in the widget to use for setup by pulling the struct it needs from the table on construct or an init function.

[faint pasture]

For a camera not attached to the possessed pawn, would you guys recommend a separate actor or can we just use the player controller for this purpose. We don't want camera implicitly tied to the pawn because reasons.

[odd ember]

I said an accessible class. if not game mode then PC or game instance. arguing semantics isn't my point

[maiden wadi]

I don't personally see the point of tying static data to a game class.

[dim robin]

i don't know your specific case, but in my last project i had a pawn without camera, different cameras across the level, and i was just using the player controller to achieve the camera change.. so it might work

[odd ember]

for ease of lookup? I certainly do

[maiden wadi]

How is that easier to GetGameState, CastToMyGameState, GetDataTable easier than just making a pointer of datatable type and setting it?

[odd ember]

you're assuming that getting datatable data is free

[maiden wadi]

I'm assuming that it's going to be loaded whether it's on the GameState, or a Widget. And the GetDataTableRow/FindRow<>() is the same regardless of whether it's a static pointer in the Widget or on GameState. So going through GameState is just unnecessary indirection.

[odd ember]

you're also assuming it's only going to be used in one place, which is what I said it was predicated on

[maiden wadi]

Pointers are extremely cheap. Having thousands of widgets with a pointer to the same datatable really isn't going to be an issue.

[odd ember]

you're making a case for copying code if nothing else. all this because you dont wanna do "needless indirection". ok. you do you

I would always centralize data for use between different actors multiple times

more performant, less repeat code

[maiden wadi]

Personally. I have a single DataAsset pointer on GameInstance and a lot of getters that access that asset, sub assets and any tables on them. Which I do prefer because most of thema re designed not to even copy the full struct when returning data. But in regards to being newer to Unreal, having pointers to static data is a very easy way to work.

[odd ember]

it's still not advise I would give out as it adds more tech debt than it is worth

[wanton sun]

I integrated another project into my own and theres a drag inventory widget however when i drag the widget the title bar text offsets to the right a bit, any idea on how to fix that problem

[odd ember]

there's a faster way and there is a better way. and as you know most often those two are mutually exclusive

[errant terrace]

Hey guys, I have a working clock/Calendar in my build, and I have a day/night cycle, does anyone know how I would go about syncing them together?... I know it's a bit of an ask without seeing the BPs, but there are probably too many BPs to show..

[maiden wadi]

DayNight should have access to the clock. DayNight should eitherr poll clock when it's set to update, and check for time of day to update itself. Clock should work as intended and not care about DayNight

[faint pasture]

When at all possible, dependencies should flow in one direction

Character knows about gun, gun doesn't need to know about character. Sun knows about time, time doesn't need to know about sun, etc.

[errant terrace]

My Day/Night is currently using Event Tick and Delta Seconds, so what should I be using?

[dim robin]

and what is the clock output? a string?

[faint pasture]

Didn't you just say you already have a working clock? Just get the time from that

[dim robin]

i don't have time to watch this, but... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3xBtPIVWEs

[halcyon grove]

I'm looking for a resource for how to approach item stat rolls, does anyone have any suggestion I can look at?

instead of having predetermined stats from a csv file for example

[odd ember]

random?

[halcyon grove]

semi

for example

say some armoured boots would have a "primary stat" which it would always roll such as armour + X

but sometimes it could roll + X Dexterity

or if they were very heavy even - X dexterity

[odd ember]

sounds like random

[halcyon grove]

so ive worked out all my stat modifiers

and am happy to work it out on my own but maybe instead of reinventing the wheel there would be a common way to approach this?

yes even if there is a random example

I can fix it to suit my needs

[unreal quail]

I'm having an issue with my projectiles, I have a crossbow that shoots projectiles that initially don't have simulated physics but when they hit something I want them to simulate physics, however this seems to be making characters able to step on them (which leads to them being able to move characters when they shouldn't)

does anyone have an idea on how I could fix that?

CanCharacterStepUpOn is set to No on all every component

[dawn gazelle]

You want to look into procedurally generated / pseudorandom generation.

[sonic crow]

I have successfully imported Data Tables into ue4, my question is how do I create branch logic based on integer data on specific rows (one column has the level of the character the other has the level of the weapon experience) I would like to use if else logic to determine a specific result based 2 columns of a row

[halcyon grove]

tahnk you @dawn gazelle I'll do some digging into that

the closest thing I could find was weighted loot tables

which definitely can be used for some of what I'm trying to do

[sonic crow]

a weighted loot table is not what I am looking for, I want to modify my bomb explosions based on the level of the character and the level of the experience with the weapon. I do not need the loot to drop. (I will use a weighted loot table somewhere else thanks for making me aware of this but not the solution I am looking for)

[halcyon grove]

@sonic crow we were having separate conversations I wasn't replying to your question

[faint pasture]

Save the numbers you're interested in to local variables and then after getting them, do your magic math and combine them

[sonic crow]

lol oh sorry

[halcyon grove]

no worries 🙂

[faint pasture]

@halcyon grove here's how we roll our items.

We start with the level. It is plus minus one level of the current map level.

Given the item level, we have a weighted roll table to choose the item base.

We roll for rarity. In our case, rarity is just the number of mods.

We roll for mods. In our case mods are multiplicative only so the item level doesn't come into play. If it did, you would have some sort of function per mod to determine the mod stat values given item level.

At the end we have our super flaming minigun of piercing or whatever

[trim matrix]

Is this the correct channel to ask about materials?

[brazen merlin]

nope, #graphics

[trim matrix]

Cool thanks

[eternal drum]

does anyone know why my ocean is completely frozen'

[halcyon grove]

so very helpful, thank you!

this is exactly what I was looking for

last thing is for "item abilities" presumably these are stored as functions?

[eternal drum]

turns out i had just changed the Material Paramer collection to clouds

[halcyon grove]

or macros if they happen over time

[faint pasture]

We just have a BP class per item base that is composed of a bunch of functionality. Your approach will probably differ but that's what we went with.

[halcyon grove]

yea for sure

thanks for that

[faint pasture]

GAS is probably the "best" way to go but it can be a handful

[sonic crow]

I am trying to use a data table row number which is set to an integer already to determine which switch int to use, the problem is I am not sure how to get my datatable to feed that information from my Row column

[halcyon grove]

GAS?

ability system using C++ ?

thge integrated one?

[faint pasture]

Ya. It's great but a pretty big undertaking. If you're nooby idk if I'd bother with it.

[halcyon grove]

yea im not getting into that

[odd ember]

no offense but... why aren't you using a select node here?

[sonic crow]

ty will look into that, literally my second week in ue4, appreciate the point of direction, honestly i am learning so fast 🙂

[gentle urchin]

Select? How about multiply? 😅

100 + (100*row)

[faint pasture]

We branchless now

[gentle urchin]

I prefer to avoid them if i can really, but not for any cost obv

Ending in some obscure formula is just weird

[odd ember]

I'm not sure of intention I just don't like seeing random switches

[high ocean]

Is this possible in blueprint function library? I'd like to make a function that defaults to self (of specified class)

[gentle urchin]

Dont think so. Whats the intent?

Target here is the owner of the function.. in a library, the library is the owner of it...

[maiden wadi]

@high oceanYou can hide the world context pin, if that's what you're after?

[surreal peak]

One required step is to ensure the exec pins (white triangles) on your node are properly used

oh frik

I didn't scroll hehe

[sonic crow]

Would you use a select node with a data table? It does not seem to be designed for many inputs lead to many outputs. Each input leads to one output with a select node. Specifically I am trying to use my data table over an enum for code efficiency. ETC... Depending on the row determines the size of the explosion

[faint pasture]

You should try playing Starbase. It's all concurrent and branchless programming due to their in-game programming language restrictions.

[odd ember]

no use it instead of the switch node

[surreal peak]

;_; why is the GetDataTableRow node not connected

[odd ember]

also no node corresponds from many inputs to many outputs, it's not desirable

[maiden wadi]

I had a lot of fun playing Stationeers. Writing the low level machine code. 😄

[odd ember]

seems like there's an increase in titles ending in -eers

yet here we playing #blueprint volunteers

[high ocean]

@gentle urchinUnified hover mechanics for UI buttons/text/whatnot with some exposed parameters. But since ALL buttons will use it, I wanted to skip connecting the "self" for various button presets I have.

@maiden wadiI don't think so, I'm not even sure what "worldcontext" does really 😅

[odd ember]

it's the context of the world, duh

[high ocean]

Yes... Still nothing 😅

[surreal peak]

For stuff like this you usually make a Button Widget

[odd ember]

no it means that you're ensuring that you're calling this inside a world

[surreal peak]

And then reuse it

[sonic crow]

Apologies I did connect it, just disconnected it while playing with blueprints to figure out how to pull row data into the switch so that the correct information is pulled from the data Table, however it seems datatables are a bad way to go and it is easier to define the varaibles or use enums, however I was told the right way would be with data tables, it is just trickier to setup.

[surreal peak]

So you wrap the native one into your own

[high ocean]

Made several @surreal peak And I'm reusing them.

[surreal peak]

You will only not need to connect "self" if you are calling it inside the instance

If you call teh function on a different instance, you need to connect that one to the target pin

[high ocean]

I always left it unplugged, never seemed to have any need for it 🤷‍♂️

[surreal peak]

Not much to get around that

[sonic crow]

how does one use data table row to get a specific outcome if the select node only give you one outcome

[surreal peak]

WorldContext is a UObject* you can provide that the function uses to get the UWorld, so the current World from.

[odd ember]

that's the secret, even if you leave it unplugged it still gets world context through the actor it is on

[surreal peak]

Static functions have no access to World function otherwise

[odd ember]

there are cases sadly where you can't get world context

[high ocean]

yep, never used one, can't see a scenario where I would (ofc I'm no programmer/any good with anything tho)

[odd ember]

for instance in utility blueprints or widgets

[odd ember]

you dont use it explicitly, but the engine uses it internally lol

[surreal peak]

It's more of a C++ thing tbf

In BPs you usally don't get in contact with it

Your Blueprint Function Libraries utilize it

[high ocean]

figures, read up on them and they seem useless in bps since you basically use functions to reuse functionality which beats the purpose of them being constant - unless they're just refs, which I usually handle through interfaces+flibrary anyway

[surreal peak]

Not sure what your goal is, but it might be easier to first define what you want to do and then to learn what a DataTable is for.

[surreal peak]

Just forget about the WorldContext stuff. It's more confusing to you than it should

The SetRenderOpacity node is defined in the UWidget class

[high ocean]

Ok, so all in all, I can't simulate the "self" by default behavior I see in native functions

[surreal peak]

Which ultimately all your Widgets inherit from Iirc

You need to connect the Target pin by hand

[high ocean]

@surreal peakGreat, thanks for the help 🙂

[surreal peak]

The only automated way is "self" itself. Which is a blueprint thing to make it easier.
All that does is pass the current isntance this function is called on into the Target.
It's the same as you manually connecting the "self" node to it

[high ocean]

@surreal peakThat's what I'll do really, just wanted to get it EVEN faster 😅

[surreal peak]

Only "faster" thing is to put your Widgets into an array

and connect the array to the target pin

UE actually allows you to do that without a for loop

IsValid checks are missing then though :P

[sonic crow]

I created a datatable with 116 rows and 5 columns, The infomration on the Row states the character level, weapon level, row number and some description string. The purpose is to use it to determine which weapon you can use based on the character level and what impact the weaon has based on the weapon experience. The example is a blast radius. I want to use my datatable to identify the character level and weapon level so that it impacts the blast radius. I only need to use the row number for this but it needs to pick up the column row and the ro it is in to get the row number to know how large the explosion needs to be

[high ocean]

I know that (found out by mistake) - however, @odd ember was skeptinc of it, and he was - guess what, right... Sometimes doing that can break things in a grand way in silence, w/o anything seeming wrong, I'll never do it again 😄

[surreal peak]

Does of course require you to have all the widget instances in the same BP :P

Yeah, could break stuff

I guess

[high ocean]

@surreal peakNah, it's fine, just wanted that bit of info, thanks for the help 😄

[odd ember]

goes back to the idea that programming is solving wicked problems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem

[surreal peak]

What is the actually Row of your DT?

The CharacterLevel?

Cause a DT is meant to be a key value pair

You have to give it a Key to get the correct Value

Value here being the Struct

[high ocean]

@odd emberRead that and watched a game design wicked problem session (he called it cursed) - pretty funny and scary+accurate 😄

[surreal peak]

Key being the Name

Your Screenshot shows it's a simple number, but what does the number mean?

[sonic crow]

Attached a screenshot

[surreal peak]

Ahh................

I think one single DT won't work here

At least not pretty

You could try to cut this up a bit

[sonic crow]

if i can just use the row number i can make it work i think

[surreal peak]

Yeah I mean

I'm not sure what the RowNumber is for tbh

You have WeaponLevel and CharacterLevel of that row

Why is that not enough info?

[sonic crow]

purely to reference the row if i could not use to columns i could use the row

[odd ember]

.

when generating data bases the same notion goes

[surreal peak]

Rows are referenced via the Name you provide

[faint pasture]

Wtf is your function here, you want to get some weapon stuff given a character and weapon level?

[sonic crow]

what resource should I look into, from the sounds of things Datatables is pointless if you cant reference a cell and make a specific output based on the cell

[surreal peak]

Well you can reference a cell

[odd ember]

well you can

[surreal peak]

The Key/RowName is your Row

And the Varaible of your struct is your cell of that row

[odd ember]

as long as it is within a table, you have a one to many relationship

one key, many values

[sonic crow]

yes that would be the row column cell number bot it does not work when trying to use it even when connected

[faint pasture]

@sonic crow In plain English, describe what the inputs and outputs of this mechanic should be. For example "Given weapon and character levels, return a weapon effect mod"

[surreal peak]

Okay so to put a bit simpler first: DataTable are meant to hold static information one can look up but not alter during runtime.

You usually have a DataTable that holds specific information about one thing.

E.g. You can have a DT_BasicBomb that holds all Levels of that specific Weapon

So each row could be a level of BasicBomb

And the row then holds all the data about that

You can reference that row in other DTs

Anything that is a result of like two variables, like char level and bomb level, would probably better fit a math equation if possible

Not sure that big DT there is doing you any favors

Also still not sure what you are doing with that row int

The whole thing is meant for you to give it a RowName (e.g. 1) and that gives you all the data of that row

And that's all

I think your problem is that you are trying to do this the wrong way round with DTs

You want to somehow figure out the row via Char level and Weapon level or?

at least from the looks of your spreadsheet

[sonic crow]

We on the same page I should make multiple data-tables, similar to what would have to be done with Enum. That being said just so that I know how to reference a cell (being the row number) how do I connect it

[odd ember]

right click on out row, split pin?

[sonic crow]

Yup but then a switch would make more sense than a select node as a select node is opposite?

[sonic crow]

ty 🙂

[odd ember]

a select node is a switch node without the execution pin

[surreal peak]

Your setup

makes the whole DT kinda redundant I think >.>

You get Row Number 1

Then get the Data in that Row

Grab the Row int, which is 1

and then you swtich on that int to get data

Like, you already know you are providing row number 1

[odd ember]

all to make some extra spaghetti

[surreal peak]

the whole DT is pointless then

The more I think about it

[faint pasture]

@sonic crow please explain what you're trying to get and what you already have coming into this. Do you know the character and weapon levels and need to get the effect or what?

[surreal peak]

All you need is math the levels together

and map that to a blast radius

[odd ember]

but that would be too easy

[surreal peak]

Can be done pretty with some curve

If you want it even prettier, you could have a look at I think CurveTables. That's what GAS uses for mapping like these

Can only be created via importing spreadsheets

Can use ScalableFloat variable type

Which allows a scale and a CurveTable to put into I think

And then you can ask it for the float value based on the input

E.g. CharLevel+WeaponLevel

[sonic crow]

I got the blast radius working, everything is done. I have manually tested with different integers that it works. I am just trying to input the integer from the datatable.

[sonic crow]

In short I have a bomb that explodes, the size of the explosion is determined by the first row which is an integer, i just need to pull this infomration from the data table, once this works I will create the relevant blueprints so that it can do a check, i realize now datatables are glorified enums and I should probably stick to enums because there seems to be no cost to using enums

[odd ember]

wait till you realize enums are just numbers behind the scenes

[sonic crow]

i just need to know how to reference this row correctly

[vestal plank]

hi is there a way to make the event overlap to read more than one other actor?

[sonic crow]

I know enums have a bad rap in this community but it is honestly super simple and it works first time compared to datatables

[faint pasture]

If you're going to do that use a select float on enum

[trim matrix]

need help guys. So i've sorted the spawning thing of pellets I know how I will do it now

However I need to give GameMode the ability to fire the function for respawn that lives on the PelletSpawnManager

If i cast to I am unsure what I would use as my wildcard for the cast as I'm using game mode I am not able to select the PelletSpawnManager actor that lives within the level

[static charm]

there ya go

[trim matrix]

That what i get when i try casting to the PelletSpawnManager

just the the cast won't work when it runs

[static charm]

where are you setting the variable itself

[vestal plank]

let said i have box 1 2 and 3, that cant connect to the same target tho?

[trim matrix]

that to me ??

if so on game mode

[static charm]

yes

how are you setting the Pellet manager reference variable

[trim matrix]

referencing the Pellet Spawner Manager for the variable

i can see where i have gone wrong and i can never get the casting right if i'm honest

[sonic crow]

i cant find any documentation within blueprints to convert an enum into a float, i know the set values is from 0, 1,2,3,4,5. But there is no infomration online that i can find to "select float on enum" There are some resources in c++ and within unity but nothing that I can find for blueprints. I assume you suggesting turning it into a float so that I can do math and have less mess and cleaner code, I really like the idea but I am not sure how to do it.

[trim matrix]

unless i'm casting to player then it's fine haha

it's an actor in the world but obvs thats gonna be epensive keep calling get all actors. I could do it once on game start

[faint pasture]

Just drag off that enum, type in switch, and figure it out.

[trim matrix]

then save the variable

but was wondering what would be correct way of casting to something that need wildcard etc like

[static charm]

the variable is empty until it's set

so you can either call Gamemode and set the variable from Pellet manager

[trim matrix]

tbf I got that but I can't set that in game mode and thats where the respawn on pellet spawner manager is called from

[sonic crow]

thanks 🙂

[static charm]

or in gamemode get actor of class pellet manager and then set the variable

[trim matrix]

i was thinking that, what would be less expensive to do

[static charm]

you do it once, after the level is loaded

[trim matrix]

So that bassicalt

then I can call it repeatly throughout the game once set

[static charm]

yes but you might have to put a delay because game mode is spawned before other stuff sometimes

[trim matrix]

would i delay on the add pellets function

or on the get all actors of class bit

[static charm]

just a delay before get actors of class

[trim matrix]

okay

let's see what happens

so that works pretty well

a question if i didn't use get all actors

how would i set a variable for something that when I cast to it i can pull the variable

as to have loads of things all cast to something else to set a variable so the that thing then has a wildcard to use sounds like it would be lengthy process and pull alot of uneeded resources like

[distant scroll]

sooo... i just drink a good beer enought to solve a "character" switch issue which i had for months and didn't even do that in unreal (instead looked for other stuffs like particles 😄 )

[static charm]

lol yes see the "study" rumor from microsft - Ballmer Peak https://xkcd.com/323/

[distant scroll]

huh xD nice,

[static charm]

you can set the variables directly from the actors themselves, by calling Get game mode inside Pellet manager for example

So in Pellet Manager - On Begin Play - Get game mode - get variable - set variable to self(pellet manager)

there's not really any other way around setting the variables

[trim matrix]

lets say the gamemode was a workshop table

the workshop table would need a wildcard as i would be able to go from pallet manager to the workshop table to the set it's variable

or would this be were people would use line traces etc to pull the actor ref from the world

to them use as wildcard

[sonic crow]

I managed to get the same affect a slightly different way most likely due to lack of know how but i got it working, thanks for the idea 🙂

[static charm]

yes you need to already have a list of variables in gamemode in order to set them.

dont know what you really want to accomplish, this is just how programming is

i mean im not saying its impossible to do it another way, but the above method is just the most common and straight forward to do.

[trim matrix]

i've done method you've suggested, I'm dyslexic so I explain things so wierd to me it makes sense but won't to some hahah

if I come across it i'll let you know haha

[static charm]

haha nice

[odd ember]

you can still use a select node lol

I don't know why you insist on the switch

[odd ember]

just FYI, you can also have the Game Mode spawn the Pellet Spawner Manager instead of placing it in world

although I don't know your current implementation so I'm not sure if you have configured the instance

[trim matrix]

PelletSpawnerManager is in game from start

so it PelletSpawners

the pellets are however on game start spawned in by the spawners

[odd ember]

yep that sounds correct

so you did get it all working?

[trim matrix]

i'm using a box trace when respawn is called to check if there is a pellet as spawner location if not it spawns one

if there is it will do nothing

the PelletSpawnerManager will go through array of spawners calling the function

so at the moment i ask manager it goes through loops calling functions of the other actors

[odd ember]

but each spawner is aware of its own state?

[trim matrix]

technically yeah

[odd ember]

cool, that's the most important part

[trim matrix]

one of them runs on Tick to monitor if pellet is eatan or not

[odd ember]

yeah I see PelletEaten, nice work

[trim matrix]

and the other runs only when respawn is called

[odd ember]

you can bind an event dispatcher instead of going per tick

[trim matrix]

spawn pellet if find no actor in trace box

[odd ember]

which might save you a bit of performance

[trim matrix]

how would i do that

i did think this earlier

[odd ember]

inside your pellet, create an event dispatcher

[trim matrix]

what i want to do now is check when all pellets in level are eaten

[odd ember]

called something like OnEaten

[trim matrix]

okay one momen

[odd ember]

when the pellet gets eaten, call the dispatcher

[trim matrix]

Yep got that

[odd ember]

so I guess you're using interface for this yeah?

[trim matrix]

i'm not this is child of the main collectable item

[odd ember]

ah I see

[trim matrix]

This is collectable base

[odd ember]

I would override the implementation for OnCollect locally then, so that you can add the dispatch call before you call super

[trim matrix]

would i remove the event on here then ?

[odd ember]

no no

[trim matrix]

or leave it and just overide like you said

[odd ember]

everything stays the same

we're doing the same as before, we're just ensuring that we can call our dispatcher first

[trim matrix]

i can't seem to overide the on collect ??

i can implement but not overide

[odd ember]

hmm I'm not sure how it works with interfaces tbh

[trim matrix]

it is interface as well

[odd ember]

ah try implement

lol

I'm mincing words here

[trim matrix]

i'll try implement see what happens

[odd ember]

if you right click on the function node after implement, see if you can Add Call to Parent function

[odd ember]

yep

[trim matrix]

now how would i link this to the specific pellet spawned that spawned the pellet

[odd ember]

so when you spawn the pellet from the spawner

you also get a reference to it

so go back inside your spawner actor

to the spawn node itself

[trim matrix]

so that essentailly

[odd ember]

yep. so after you set the variable, pull out a wire and type bind PelletEaten

[odd ember]

yep

you should now have a node with a red socket

[odd ember]

from that socket you can pull out a CreateEvent node

yes, but we can make it a little nicer with the CreateEvent node

so it's not pulling wires across entire thing

[trim matrix]

i did create event

no i didn't haha

i have now though

[odd ember]

select the event from the drop down

and voila

[trim matrix]

soo now what would be best way to track when all pellets are eaten

would on tick on manager work

[odd ember]

you don't need to

[trim matrix]

would i noy ?

[odd ember]

well now that you have seen how delegates work, you can add the same delegates for your spawner

[trim matrix]

cause after alll pellets eaten PacMan speeds up you see

[odd ember]

and then in your SpawnerManager, you can run a loop through every single spawner any time the eaten delegate has been called

so instead of doing this every frame, you're just doing it every time a pellet gets eaten

[trim matrix]

So i have that

[odd ember]

where does it connect from?

[trim matrix]

oh so use dispacther to call on manager the something has been ate and use that to trigger to loop event so it's not running on tick

to tick at the moment

[odd ember]

bingo

[trim matrix]

okay barewith lets see if I get it first go

[odd ember]

I'm confident you will 😎

[trim matrix]

hmmm

i have a catch

the manager dosen't spawn the spawners only has an array of them all in level

would i be able to grab a copy of one to get ref to one

[odd ember]

yeah so on beginplay or where ever, loop through them all and create bindings

[trim matrix]

barewith please

So were getting there

what's best way to do the if all pellets eaten check could I increment until amount shown as eaten matches amount of spawners in level ??

[odd ember]

you could, though it's somewhat unsafe. you can run into situations where it is not stateful enough

[trim matrix]

which ??

[odd ember]

like for instance you might pick up a pellet from a respawn that alters the counter

[trim matrix]

thats what i'm thinking at moment

[odd ember]

yeah I mean go for it

I would actually use Modulo here if you're not resetting the count

[trim matrix]

modulo whats that ??

[odd ember]

so basically if you're replaying the level, and respawning it, but want to keep the counter going (for whatever reason, for instance if it's tied to scoring). the modulo node would allow you keep incrementing.

so let's say you have 50 pellets

at 50 pellets you could check that the modulo between the count and the amount of spawners

and if it is 1, that means you've gotten all the pellets. for the next try, the score would be 100, so the modulo value would be 2

etc.

[trim matrix]

hmm, I think for this reseting to 0 on restart would be prob normal to occur

[odd ember]

sure

[trim matrix]

as unless the game you respawn with possible less then start of game I would think once PacMan dead he would need reviving haha

[odd ember]

I mean as long as you do either, you're good

the integer way is good as a base, but there are other ways to make it more stateful in case you get bugs

[trim matrix]

i'm gonna try it now

so once all have been ate hopefully it should make PacMan go super fast

[thick dirge]

is there a way to SetActorLocation to 200 units before the BoxTrace hit location?

[odd ember]

(GetActorForwardVector * -1 * 200) + GetActorLocation

[trim matrix]

I have issue

when i'm collecting pellets the number increase seems to be off

[odd ember]

by how much?

[trim matrix]

3

so i collect 1 pellet thats fine

[odd ember]

ah that's right, you're looping over this right

[trim matrix]

i collect another it adds 2 so i end up with 3

then again i end up with 6 on 3rd pellet collec

[odd ember]

so we can do a little improvement here

[trim matrix]

i need pre value

[odd ember]

inside your spawner

[trim matrix]

yes

[odd ember]

on the dispatcher, you can add a parameter

[trim matrix]

i have

[odd ember]

it's a bit obnoxious. it's on the top instead of the bottom

[trim matrix]

Spawner Child Ate then 0

so that on right

[odd ember]

yep upper right corner, the +

[trim matrix]

okay and with this what would i be doing with that

obvs taking Int i'm guessing ??

[odd ember]

make the variable of the type of your pellet spawner

and compile

[trim matrix]

yeah

[odd ember]

you should get an error

[trim matrix]

i did

i have input pin for pellet spawner on the call for dispatcher now

[odd ember]

right click on the spawner child ate