blueprint

[odd ember]

as in C# properties? no

even cpp doesn't have that

[topaz badger]

If you need to call a function on an actor, would it be better to use blueprint interface messages rather than casting?

[odd ember]

casting would be preferred almost always

interfaces are expensive compared to casts and given that they lack logical implementations, it's rare that they need to be used

[topaz badger]

I thought casting loads the entire object including meshes, components etc., so interfaces are still worse?

[odd ember]

I don't know where you heard that, but casting does no such thing

casting runs up (or down) the hierarchy in search of the class to see if it's compatible

[thin panther]

Ive heard many people say it, as an explanation for soft object references

[odd ember]

so at worst you're looking at a running time of O(n) where n is the size of the hierarchy

[odd ember]

it's nonsense

the variable in question is a pointer

loading an object and casting it are two separate things

[topaz badger]

i read it from epics website, saying that even if the casts fail everything has to be loaded

[odd ember]

by the time you're casting an object it's already loaded, unless it's a static class cast

[thin panther]

thought so, it reeked of bs or misinformation

[odd ember]

see my reply above

[topaz badger]

gotcha, thanks

[odd ember]

a BP cast costs about as much performance as a branch

a little more than that

but ballpark

[topaz badger]

very intresting

i did not know that

[thin panther]

I assumed the way casts work is it would find the pointer to the UObject you need, and if you are getting a pointer, that means its in memory

[topaz badger]

most things from epic treat casting as the boogie man

[thin panther]

i thought it was a load of crap

could always avoid casting and make everything in 1 bp

[topaz badger]

haha

[thin panther]

character, weapon systems, timers, all in one AActor

[odd ember]

in general casting should be performed with some degree of caution, especially in code

but it's nonsense to say that it's more expensive than an interface call

the rule of thumb is if you can make it a hierarchy, use the hierarchy

if you can't, use an interface

[topaz badger]

gotcha, thanks a ton for the clarification

[thin panther]

I don't think i have ever needed an interface

I generally have interactables stem from one master class, then specialise that logic where needed

[odd ember]

there's different ways of doing it

having a hierarchy of interactables is an OK way of doing things

I tend to use components to give interactables interaction and contain the logic, which allows them to register themselves to the player's interaction manger

which makes the workflow as simple as adding an interactable component any time I need that level of functionality

[gentle nebula]

Are there more ways to integrate c++ into blueprint other than inheriting a custom class ?

[odd ember]

and that will be the same whether it's an NPC or an item

[odd ember]

what do you want to integrate?

[thin panther]

I don't know why this was aimed at me, but you can make custom blueprint nodes

[gentle nebula]

Accidently

[thin panther]

ah lol

[gentle nebula]

Yea sorry i wanted to reply to something you've said about interfaces but ended up writhing another thing

[gentle nebula]

set of variables?

[thin panther]

use a struct then in c++

[odd ember]

I think I need more context to understand the situation

you can already have a set of variables in BP

[gentle nebula]

could be what i was looking for

[thin panther]

you can make bp structs but then the people over at #cpp might want a chat

[odd ember]

if you can explain what you're trying to do you may get better answers

[gentle nebula]

It is related to the get/set question i had

[odd ember]

you can't make C# properties

[gentle nebula]

i've seen an example to something like i wanted to do

[odd ember]

you can approximate them

but they can't be generic

in the way you have them in C#

BP doesn't even support generics

and cpp doesn't support properties

so you'd have to make them based on a custom class

and then you're in macro or function library territory

[thin panther]

but you could always write a struct in c++ and use the provided get set methods

[odd ember]

structs in BP are generally meant to be read only

writing to a BP struct is not recommended

and a struct isn't the same as a C# property

which is basically a variable that allows for special custom get/set methods that can do more than conventional get/set methods

[thin panther]

ah, not done much c# outside of very basics, but doesn't change the fact that it doesn't exist in c++

[odd ember]

I mean epic made interfaces for UE, as those don't exist in cpp either

so I guess they could make properties at some point

but I wouldn't bank on it

it would also require BPs to have access to generics, which I'm not sure they are willing to do

[gentle nebula]

i really appreciate all of the information, even though i struggle with the definition of some words

[odd ember]

I assume you're coming from unity because of the concepts you're mentioning

[gentle nebula]

Yes

although even with unity i was never an advanced c# programmer

[odd ember]

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/fundamentals/types/generics

a generic is a type of parameter that takes any type of variable

[gentle nebula]

Ohh i see

So no generics ?

[odd ember]

no generics

in macros they are available, but macros suffer from other issues

you could try using a macro as a custom getter/setter

[gentle nebula]

There can be a macro in blueprint with generics?

[odd ember]

yeah they're called wildcards

but it's limited functionality

[gentle nebula]

very interesting

[odd ember]

it's the closest thing you get

[gentle nebula]

If i want to simply have one specific variable of a specific type, it would be much simpler?

[odd ember]

also of course arrays, maps and sets allow for any types

[odd ember]

do you have actual use cases for what you want to do? it would be much easier to explain then

[gentle nebula]

lets say i have a string, each time it gets updated i want to run a save function

[odd ember]

give me an example where you would use that in a game

because maybe you're trying to take a unity technical concept and translate it directly

which may not be possible

that's why I'm asking for use cases

rather than technical questions

[gentle nebula]

I know there are other ways of doing it, but for example you've changed the character name, it would automatically update

Because the string "character name" had changed

[odd ember]

if you change a character's name you don't need to change it until the user commits

so when they press "enter", that's when you can do that functionality

[gentle nebula]

that's why character name is not the best example

In my case,

i make a productivity software using ue4

[odd ember]

well then give me the example you want to use it in

[gentle nebula]

i have notes

i want text to save at any edit

[odd ember]

I think widgets have some delegates exposed for that. but other than that you'd have to create your own widget type

in cpp

[gentle nebula]

ofcourse there would be a countdown that would figure if you left it alone for few second before saving

[gentle nebula]

So inheritance is the solution here

[odd ember]

...no

[gentle nebula]

you didn't meant inheriting a widget class? "creating your own widget type"

sorry i misunderstood

[odd ember]

you could do that but it's got nothing to do with what you want to do. but OK, sure. let's say you inherit from the text block widget. you'd still need to create a delegate that is called every time text is entered

you would then be able to bind that delegate to any function you would need

first step would be to see which delegates are already available for textblock/rich text block

[gentle nebula]

I think my questions were answered, thank you very much

[odd ember]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zncQpFk88tA

2:07, there's an OnTextChanged delegate

so you could try using that

[gentle nebula]

That's probably the best way to achieve what i wanted to do

[trim matrix]

sorry, whats the event thing that starts when the blueprint enters the scene?

I thought it was event ready but no, its not

found it, beginplay i think, please lmk if its not and im dumb for using it otherwise thank you

[granite scaffold]

Hi all, im trying to make a very simple quest state system that progresses in a linear stage (stage 1 to 2 to 3 etc). I have the logic for progressing the stages and all that done, but I'm struggling to come up with a good way to have things happen when progressing to a new stage (such as activating/deactivating objects, spawning/despawning, etc).

What i have now is just a big switch that uses the stage index, and it works ok, but if i need to rearrange the order of the quest or add new stages in it's very unwieldy. Picture attached

Does anybody have any ideas how I could make this a little more user friendly? It does not need to be overly robust - im not building an RPG.

[untold mist]

maybe a structure array? the structure could contain an index for each logic and the array index would be the order?. kinda confusing but it would look like this...

then you could insert new array indexs or even set array element

[granite scaffold]

Yep, I think thats a winner. thanks heaps!

actually, maybe even better, i can switch on string instead and use the stage names

[topaz badger]

do collision objects parented to a mesh in a player character not have collision?

[trim matrix]

I think they have to be children of the character?

ive only ever seen it set up like this or something along those lines

but they should have collisions at least, perhaps your checking for collisions too low down the hierarchy? idk

[upbeat inlet]

Does it matter what year version I get?

[trim matrix]

the engine recommends 2019

also make sure you have the right .net code or whatever

[topaz badger]

yeah but if you wanted to add collision to certain mesh components, how would that work?

[trim matrix]

Well here the collision is done by capsule component here. I'm hardly profficient but I'd imagine you'd need more collision objects like the capsule

[topaz badger]

yeah, ill look around, thanks for the help

[trim matrix]

no worries

[gentle nebula]

Is it possible to remotely bind events?
Lets say i have actor A, and it has some logic that at some point,
would use actor B reference to bind "actor B event" to "actor B dispatcher", and all that at actor A event graph.

I can open actor A event graph, add cast to actor B node => bind event to "actor B dispatcher".
But now how do i reference the event(actor B event) i want to bind? Not possible?

[placid moat]

I'm using instance static meshes in a blueprint actor to create a procedurally generated map. I've gotten what I need from that but I need a way to procedurally place lights around the map and cannot find a way to do so. I have a blueprint actor with the static mesh/light source but I don't know how to repeat it throughout the map without hand placing all of them. Any ideas?

[brazen merlin]

you should try bpi instead, you broadcast and send it any receivers however you like. No need to get and bind. Just need to know of bpi and have the event setup for when it should fire.

[high sapphire]

Oh jeez, I'm only just now seeing this, sorry
Yeah, I'm not sure why though. Did I set it up incorrectly?

[trim matrix]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAem3gztZ7g&ab_channel=Crimson @gentle nebula ~11:00 this part covers that if i understand your question right

Which leads into my question, so i have an object detect when it is interacted with, is there any way to get which blueprint interacted with it?

In this case i have a piece of food that the player can select by pressing e while pointing at it, I would like its response to be altering the players health in this occassion (and in this case the player blueprint is the thing that casts the ray that selects it)

or i guess the better way to phrase it is how do i find the actor that is colliding with my box collision?

[surreal peak]

Interaction systems are usually done via Interfaces, where the player doesn't have to care about what they trace

They simply call an Interface function on the traced actor

And if that actor implements the interface and that function, it can do stuff

E.g. your piece of food can implement something like OnInteract, which passes the Player who interacted along, and change the heath in the override

I haven't looked at that video though

[trim matrix]

this uses interfaces

I think the issue may actually be print not... well printing?

anywhere at all

wait now its working

wat lol

[dawn gazelle]

You could always update your interaction interface to include the interacting actor, then when you interact, you just pass a reference to self through it.

[gentle urchin]

Then im sure you might aswell just cast it from the get go

[trim matrix]

i think ive narrowed down the problem

this is when i cast the ray, i see it collide but the print statement never prints

[gentle urchin]

so the hit actor doesnt implement

[trim matrix]

the does have the interface

[gentle urchin]

interface is none aswell

you must select an interface to check for

[dawn gazelle]

^

[trim matrix]

wdym?

[trim matrix]

the guy in the video didnt select that either

doing it now

ah that works! He musta cut it

[gentle urchin]

never trust youtube tuts 😄

[trim matrix]

Or maybe im too blind, but i did look at that part specifically so idk

[gentle urchin]

trust us 😈

[trim matrix]

well thank you! Saved my from scrapping this one

well.. the validating check is breaking, but it should be on a layer where the only thing that can collide is the the interaction sooo

goodby validated get ig

oop bad idea

lmao

[gentle urchin]

got ue5?

[trim matrix]

yep

[gentle urchin]

Stack'O'Bot can be a nice project to look at

relatively well commented

there's a livestream going through it aswell

[trim matrix]

ooh maybe, but right now I'm just trying to learn as i code. Tutorials are usually pretty rough for me which is why im struggling here but the docs for unreal are..

well not much compared to past engines?

[gentle urchin]

the docs for unreal are.. unreal indeed

[trim matrix]

oh back to square zero, i've got the interaction working, i just need a reference to whoever is doing the interacting

and for some reason a variable with my player character just doesnt work

[gentle urchin]

How come you need that reference?

[trim matrix]

so character raycasts object using interact

then i try to call back to the character to add a variable

[gentle urchin]

looooopdiloop ?

What variable are you adding

[trim matrix]

then the character receives

[gentle urchin]

right so you do implementation both ways

[trim matrix]

Variable is a reference to a character

Idk how to hand over the reference through the interface

[gentle urchin]

im just not sure this is the way i suppose ?

If this is some consumable

Either you consume it directly,

or you add it to some inventory

if its ment to be added to an inventory

it'd be better to use some struct of GameplayTag and just pass that to the character

[trim matrix]

And what would the better way to consume it directly? Ideally I'd be able to select it with a raycast and be able to pull info from it

GameplayTag? havent heard of that, I'll take a look

[gentle urchin]

Its a Tag in a nice hierarchy

Item.Fish.Fillet 😄

has a few handy functions to it aswell, with compare tag, compare exact etc

there's also containers for them

which can contain several at the same time etc

[trim matrix]

I'll have to look into that, looks good

But would there be a way included with that to detect which tag im selecting with the raycast?

[gentle urchin]

The object would return its tag

[trim matrix]

okay good good

[gentle urchin]

there are many ways to do this, im generally not using interfaces so im not sure whats common here ,

[dawn gazelle]

If you want the interaction code on the actor that is being interacted with, but want to manipulate something with the actor that did the interaction, you can add an input pin on the interface. If you have a common class that all your characters share, then use that class as the input type for the interactor. You can then pass back whatever you like to the interactor, or get whatever data you need from it.

[trim matrix]

Oh I appreciate the suggestions

I'll have to look into that, already scrapped the code but doing it properly from the start may result in a better outcome lol

[sharp rapids]

I think using the 'Create Event' node should work
Pass in Actor B as the 'Object' parameter and select the event that you want to bind from the dropdown list

[gentle urchin]

Less accuracy

[trim matrix]

I'm not entirely sure but I can imagine stretched textures?

[gentle urchin]

if thats fine, then no

[trim matrix]

oh that too

what is the primary impact of landscapes? Polygon density or textures?

[pale iris]

I need some help when I drag and drop a pawn from the content browser onto the level the movement works but when I spawn a pawn onto the level it does not move and I turned auto possess AI to placed in world or spawned but that doesnt seem to work

[maiden wadi]

Are you using Spawn Actor From Class?

[pale iris]

yes this is inside my UI widget that I am using to spawn the actor

[maiden wadi]

Or wait, that's set actor location. I'm confused. You asked about a pawn moving, but this is spawning a building and setting actor location directly?

[pale iris]

Sorry I meant spawning actors and then getting them to move

[trim matrix]

Hey, is it hard to replace the character in the ue4 templates with, idk, for example a cube?

so I can move that around instead

[last coral]

attempting to select a texture based off the vertexcolor i have stored... cant seem to figure out a way in the material editor. Anyone have suggestions? I'm hoping for somewhat of a multiplexor, where i can put in 0-255 and get one of 256 textures...

[inland gust]

Hi guys, I need your help. I would like to measure how many time different control rig takes when my level is launched.
I start to take a look to the Timers, is it a good way? Are there other ways?

[neat stream]

Hey guys, Is there a correct way to insert at "index" when using a map? without generating 2 arrays...

yes yes I was using it the wrong way

If I want index it has to be the key

thanks

[burnt citrus]

hey Can I use "attach component to component" with "Blend"?

[icy dragon]

As in interp moving to socket position?

[burnt citrus]

yes

[icy dragon]

You could keep the world position when attaching to component, get the relative position, and then do the VInterp To the socket position.

[burnt citrus]

ummm I can't understand

is there good example?

[unreal quail]

is there a way to pause a behaviour tree after starting it?

[dusk rapids]

Hey, how can i get the location of the sequencer camera in a blueprint file?
I'm currently using the level blueprint and directly referencing the camera actor but it doesnt actually update the location when my sequence is playing, it just says x:0,y:0,z:0

youll notice it says 'unknown' this keeps happening every few minutes

as well

where the reference to the actor just becomes 'unknown'

[gentle urchin]

What are you trying to do?

wouldnt it make sense to just make a level sequence?

[dusk rapids]

trying to have an object in the scene always face the camera

i am using a level sequence

thing ive circled in red is what im trying to get always face the cine camera

[gentle urchin]

Is it a component? widget?

getting camera manager should suffice should it not

[indigo bough]

Hey folks, I'm capturing world depth into a RT to use as a rain occlusion method. You can see here it is working, but because of the fact the capture is happening out of sync with the character movement, you can see it flicker/wobble as you move around. Is there any decent way around this?

One thought I did have, was to snap the scene capture between 'grid' coordinates instead of moving perfectly with the character. It would mean less RT draws as well of course. As the player moves around, the 'nearest' grid point is taken, set the position of the scene capture 2d, and update the material on it's location?

(For what it's worth this RT will be used for other things as well, not just rain occlusion)

Moving the tick group did help a little (makes it less intense), but it's still there sadly

Reason I'm asking here is the grid snapping approach will take some time, and I don't want to overcomplicate it if there is an easier way to stabalise the result

[odd ember]

I think at this point you may be fighting with the graphics renderer

which for good reason isn't exposed to BP

probably some variation on z fighting

[drowsy flame]

hi I have event dispatcher in a widget, and it is successfuly binding, all casting is fine but for some reason when i call the dispatcher from the widget the custom even it's bound to isn't firing pls help

F insulin isn't firing

[odd ember]

time to get the epipen ready 😔

[odd ember]

can you show the full code? what is setting up the dispatcher?

[drowsy flame]

ill have you sign an nda

this is from the widget

[odd ember]

right but what is setting up the bind event? which event is that? and where is that being called from?

[drowsy flame]

bind event is setting up by begin play in level blueprint.

this is getting called from a widget. I have its ref in widget controll bcs its easier for me

[odd ember]

right but like I said I can't see what's going on so it's really hard to give any sort of advice

if you're under NDA I'd take it up with the team you're working with instead of posting here

[drowsy flame]

I was joking about NDA, but sure I can show you all my bp

its a mess though

[gentle urchin]

Really sounds like the binding isnt working in the first place

[odd ember]

I'd suggest to clean it up, if not for everyone else then for your own sanity

[gentle urchin]

As in not bound

there's not much blocking a dispatcher from firing once its bound

[drowsy flame]

hm maybe i have two instances of a widget one on top of the other and I am binding to one but trying to fire from the other one

on accident

[tender gorge]

Having an issue. I made a function to spawn a Tile Map and then a function to spawn a background behind it. I then added a Delay and Destroy Actor to delete these after 20 seconds. My issue is the Tile Map gets destroyed but not the Background. Why could this be?

[slow pewter]

How to get Widgets they was Added dynamically on Viewport, get Fullsized ? , like in Editor i can doo it easily per Anchor, but at Runtime its not that easy, even if i edit Anchor Data thats not working like in editor

[drowsy flame]

maybe you are spawning the background not as a component of this actor so it doesn't belong to tile map, but maybe you are spawning it as is it's own actor.
While when you call destroy actor, its pointing to itself so it just destroys the actor where it's called from.
Show the background event

[tender gorge]

The Background is a component of the actor in this Blueprint. I have it so the Background spawns at the same time as the Tile Map via the same trigger. Both the Background and Tile Map are components of the same actor.

[indigo bough]

Turns out it was incredibly easy. Just snap the scene capture to grid in the X+Y on tick, and splice in the player location for Z height, and use this as the world location for the texture rather than the player's. Completely seamless and no stuttering/wobble 🙂

[tender gorge]

Both are components in the same Blueprint

[drowsy flame]

yeah you can set it up in editor like that but when you call bp functions you can spawn it but it doesn't necesarilly belong to the actor where you call the function from.
show spawn background event.

I think you probably spawn it on accident as a seperate thing

[tender gorge]

So I couldn't put them both in their own function in the same Blueprint?

[tender gorge]

This is what I have. Maybe I have it setup wrong.

[drowsy flame]

can you double click on spawn background?

and show me

[tender gorge]

It's just a simple setup to spawn the background.

[drowsy flame]

oh yeah you see, you are calling spawn actor, Actors are independant from each other unless you create something like child actor component

[tender gorge]

Ok. So in this case what should I do?

[drowsy flame]

so you are making a background actor which doesn't belong to the tile map actor

[tender gorge]

OK. I did not realize this. Blueprints are still new to me.

[tender gorge]

So do I add a Child Actor Component to the Component of the Tile Map?

[odd ember]

I would recommend steering clear of child actor components

[drowsy flame]

lol i use them a lot in my project

i heard they were unstable

but seems fine

[odd ember]

they're bulky, buggy and perform terribly

spawning and attaching an actor is infinitely better

[tender gorge]

No sure how to do that.

[odd ember]

spawn actor and then attach it

[tender gorge]

How do I attach?

Do I do it in the same Blueprint?

I've never done it before so I have no clue.

[odd ember]

if you look for nodes with attach I think it's pretty self explanatory?

unless UE5 does things differently

[drowsy flame]

try this

for the parent actor just write self and attach that, for target use your new spawned background actor

i think thats should work, never used it

[tender gorge]

So do I just use my next function after this? Like Spawn Tile Map Function --> Attack Actor --> Spawn Background Fucntion?

[drowsy flame]

just put it after spawn actor in your spawn background event

[tender gorge]

Inside the function like Spawn Actor --> Attach?

[drowsy flame]

yeah spawn actor to attachactortoactor

[tender gorge]

Ok. Like this?

[drowsy flame]

oh yeah try that

[tender gorge]

It doesn't destroy it and it makes the Background spawn ahead of where it should be.

[tiny frost]

does any one know how to get the velocity moving away from a point

[drowsy flame]

ok maybe instead of spawn actor you can do this
and remove attach actor to actor

[tender gorge]

It won't allow me to put a select node in the Class input. I have it selecting a background from 7 different backgrounds.

It won't even let me select a class that I have

[drowsy flame]

ah ok I see

[tender gorge]

I tried searching up videos on YouTube but couldn't find anything, but I also just could not know what to look up exactly.

[odd ember]

try snapping it to target instead of keeping it relative?

[tender gorge]

But where in the Blueprint do I put the Attach node?

Is there another way that I could do this where it still spawns as background and gets destroyed that I'm not thinking of?

Keep in mind that I'm not a Blueprint vetern, just a noob.

[odd ember]

next to the spawn actor node? where else would you put it?

you spawn an actor, then you attach it

[tender gorge]

in the Background function?

[odd ember]

what does the background function do? where is it located? how does it relate to spawning the actor?

[tender gorge]

Can't snap it to target because they'll overlap.

[odd ember]

isn't that what you wanted?

[tender gorge]

No I want it to spawn where it is suppose to and then be destroyed after the 20 second delay. It's a background I don't want it to spawn ontop of the Tile Map in front of it

[drowsy flame]

Ok I figured out the reason why my event wasnt firing so it's binding the event to the dispatcher which it didn't manage to create yet (lol)
basically it did step 2 before step 1.

delay fixed my issue

[odd ember]

I don't know where "it is supposed to" spawn

code generally does what you tell it to do

[untold mist]

Another way is so set a variable of the spawned actorBP then destroy actor using that variable

[tender gorge]

It's supposeot spawn behind the Tile map -50 units behind the Tile Map.

[odd ember]

so if you don't want it spawned where you have it, change the transform to spawn where you want it

[drowsy flame]

yeah you just call function called transform on the actor

[tender gorge]

It is spawning where I want it to. The problem is it won't be destroyed. Setting it to snap parent like you said makes it spawn ontop of the Tile Map which is not what I want.

[odd ember]

where are you setting it to destroy?

[tender gorge]

What do you mean?

[odd ember]

well if you want it to be destroyed, you have to set it to be destroyed

where is that being set? in which class?

[tender gorge]

I have it in the image I posted earlier but I'll upload another one

[odd ember]

yeah that doesn't show which event is triggering that

also that just destroys the tilemap

[tender gorge]

I have no iodea what to show you then

[odd ember]

so if that's what you want, sure

[tender gorge]

But I need the background to be destroyed too

Which is the issue I'm having

[odd ember]

okay. set the background to be destroyed as well then?

[odd ember]

the red box at the beginning of that execution is what we're looking for. that will tell us when the event is triggered

[tender gorge]

How? Where do I put that? I already put another destroy actor in there ontop of that one and it doesn't work.

That's at Begin Play.

[odd ember]

cool

so 20 secs after beginplay you want it destroyed

when you spawn the background actor

take out the spawn pin and promote it to a variable

you can forego attaching it as it doesn't have relevance here

unless you want it to move with the tilemap

[tender gorge]

I have no idea what you mean by take out spawn pin and promote it to a variable.

[odd ember]

the pin on the spawn node

[tender gorge]

No each spawn Tile Map has its own background and thus needs to be destroyed when the Tile Map is.

[odd ember]

cool, so keeping that in mind can you try the above?

[tender gorge]

Yeah no problem, just don't know what you mean. What pin on the spawn nide?

[odd ember]

the actor that is spawned

[tender gorge]

The Class pin?

[odd ember]

the other side of the node

return value?

[tender gorge]

Return Value?

[odd ember]

pull it out, promote it to a variable

[tender gorge]

Ok.

[inland gust]

Hello, I would like to input the letter F for example and print string hello, impossible to do it in a project from scratch but it works on the ThirdPersonCharacter in a Top View Project.
Only, impossible to redo it from 0 in an empty project

[tender gorge]

then target that variable with a destroy actor?

[odd ember]

that would immediately destroy it

it was my understanding you want it destroy WITH the tilemap?

[tender gorge]

Ok. I'll check it out.

YES

[echo salmon]

Hello i have a questiont that bothers me . Lets say you get the Vector location of a static mesh and you get its Z value , and compare it with the same static mesh but this time you get the VectorUp location . Whats the difference between those 2 ??

[odd ember]

so once you have the variable, you can pull that variable string out and "bind to on destroyed" I believe

[odd ember]

if the mesh is rotated, its local vector up will be relative to the rotation

[echo salmon]

so basically it will always pointing "up"

[odd ember]

what?

what do you mean by that?

[untold mist]

Up vector is a direction. The direction point up

Similar to forward vector and right vector

[echo salmon]

ok ty all

[tender gorge]

It works but ran into an issue though. I'm not sure how to describe this issue. I'll make a quick video for it.

[echo salmon]

@untold mist basically is always the Z positive ?

locally

[untold mist]

No. 1=up. -1=down

[odd ember]

the up direction is relative to the rotation. you can look at the blue arrow on the pivot

that's the local up vector

[echo salmon]

! perfect ty

[odd ember]

note that your pivot needs to be in local mode for that to work

[tender gorge]

So here is the issue. It's towards the end of the video, but it shows it does destroy both the Tile Map and Background after 20 seconds but later it messes up.

[odd ember]

global pivots will always point towards global up (0,0,1)

[odd ember]

well the code performs as instructed. the tilemap gets destroyed after 20 seconds

[tender gorge]

Ok, so just increase the time.

[odd ember]

or destroy it relative to player position?

[tender gorge]

That would work too, but how do I do that?

[odd ember]

you could have a collision component on the tilemap positioned in such way that when the player overlaps, the tilemap gets destroyed

I don't know the parameters for your game, but if it's an endless runner I'd consider that

or equally, if the player leaves a collision volume, the tilemap gets destroyed

[tender gorge]

So just make another Collision Box and set it to Overlap Event and destroy said actors?

Wait that would just do the same thing

[odd ember]

for coherence I'd probably do it on leaving the volume

so on collision end overlap > cast to player character > destroy tilemap

[tender gorge]

I see that there is an end overlap. Just put in the delay to make sure it doesn't destroy the current one the player is on and it should work

[odd ember]

well no

[tender gorge]

OH?

[odd ember]

delays are going to give you more issues like the one in the video

rather extend the collision box a little past the tilemap so you can be certain that the player is past it

[tender gorge]

OH. I never thought of that. My brain kept saying it couldn't go past but yeah of course it can.

I've never used the End Overlap before so I had no clue to even use it

[odd ember]

just remember to cast to the player character

otherwise it will trigger on any overlap

including other tilemaps

[tender gorge]

Yes.

I'll do that now. Thank you for the help. Trying to learn something new sucks sometimes. I'm a 3D artist, just wanting to learn Blueprints so I can make my own games and not just games for other people.

[drowsy flame]

Is this dumb?

[odd ember]

yesn't

[drowsy flame]

have to wait till widget control does its stuff duno how else to do this

[spark steppe]

yes

add a dispatcher or event

[odd ember]

the idea of polling is not bad, but you don't need to poll in this case

[glass stump]

What's the opposite of 'Destroy Components'?

[gentle nebula]

How can i get "hitresult under cursor" of two actors, one behind the other?

[odd ember]

hit result is just a single trace so it will only return the first actor

[odd ember]

add component?

[gentle nebula]

Any alternative function to get the result i'm looking for?

[odd ember]

you can extend the hit result trace by making another trace, ignoring the actor just hit and seeing about hitting the next

or make your own hit result under cursor implementation

[sharp rapids]

There's also a Multi Trace node which returns all the hit actors in the trace line, not just the first one

[glass stump]

hmmm, actually here's a better question that would solve most of my problems: is there a way to reset a BP so it goes back to how it was at the start?

[odd ember]

that's what I meant by making your own implementation. hit result under cursor isn't compatible with multiline trace

[odd ember]

kill it and spawn a new one in its place?

[gentle nebula]

Sounds like a useful implementation to have, with the cursor

[glass stump]

OH of course!! 🤦‍♂️ Thank you! :D

[sharp rapids]

so 'Hit Result under cusor' is its own separate function?
I thought they were just asking how to get the hit result under cursor (as in the way of doing that)

[odd ember]

it's an actual node yes

[sharp rapids]

I didn't know that. I've been implementing it from scratch every time 😞

[odd ember]

well now you know 😎

[tender gorge]

So it does work but the problem is they will destroy the current one the player is one. A delay could fix this but you said don't use a delay.

[odd ember]

how have you placed the collisions?

in relation to the tilemaps?

[wide quiver]

during playtime in my game if you accidentally click on an enemy the game seems to lose focus. What could cause this

[tender gorge]

I placed it like this and it overlapping the edge, the problem is it'll just destroy the Tile Map and Background that the player is currently on.

Maybe I misunderstood you?

[odd ember]

the placement looks good, how is your logic?

[tender gorge]

Just a sec

[odd ember]

try putting a DoOnce after the cast

[tender gorge]

OK.

OH I added the Delay for testing. I'll take it out

[gentle nebula]

what does the "profile" stands for in the multi line trace by profile? Is that a collision preset?

[tender gorge]

So that didn't work. I'll take another video for you to see.

[gentle nebula]

After looking into it, seems like it is

[tender gorge]

The beginning Tile Map just ignore that. That one is a separate Blueprint and is working properly.

[odd ember]

I don't know why the second one is destroying at that point in time. do you still have a timer active?

can you put a print statement instead of the DoOnce?

[tender gorge]

No I don't have a timer active.

I can check.

[odd ember]

I meant the initial 20 second delay

[tender gorge]

Oh I took that out because you said earlier that I shouldn't use it.

[odd ember]

yeah just making sure it's not there

[tender gorge]

Nah it isn't. What is a Print Statement? Do you mean Print String?

[odd ember]

yes

[tender gorge]

You just want it to say something on the end overlap?

[odd ember]

after the cast yes

if you can get display name of the tilemap

and hook it into the print string

[tender gorge]

How do I get it to display the name of the tilemap? I have 10 different ones it chooses from.

[odd ember]

this is inside the tilemap actor

[tender gorge]

Oh I see just a sec

[odd ember]

there is a function called get display name

[tender gorge]

But how do i get it to display the right one? It's a blue icon not a purple one

[cold sinew]

Hello Guys How I have a problem with this Gauge the rotation going from -180 to 180 once it reach -180 its start rotating weird i want to do the rotation from 0-360 ?

[odd ember]

use quaternions

[topaz plover]

Hi I'm facing an issue, where if I have a widget open, very fast key presses don't always fire "released" events

is this a common thing?

[odd ember]

I believe rotate around axis uses quaternions internally and will preserve correct rotation

[odd ember]

yeah if you don't have an input buffer you can only have one released event per frame

[topaz plover]

so i have to make an .. input buffer? is that hard? 😄

[odd ember]

it's not easy

[tender gorge]

So I have the Get Display Name into the Print String but I don't know how to get it to display the name of whichever Tile Map it chose of the 10.

[odd ember]

the print string is inside the tilemap actor yes?

[tender gorge]

Yes

[odd ember]

the tilemap actor knows its own name

[glass stump]

'EventBeginPlay' activates when the game begins, right, not necessarily when the blueprint is created? Is there a 'EvenActorCreated' node or something that activates when an actor is created?

[topaz plover]

@glass stump its when the BP is created

[odd ember]

beginplay activates when an actor begins play (e.g. when spawned) or when triggered by the game mode's begin play

the game mode is responsible for trigger beginplay on all other actors

[tender gorge]

It tells me I have to choose something int he Get Display Name

[odd ember]

show me

[glass stump]

ooooh. weird. 🤔 i do spawn actor, destroy actor to destroy an enemy and spawn a new one in it's place but the new one just stands there doing nothing.

[odd ember]

sounds like you haven't setup some variables that you need for it

[tender gorge]

I have both Get Display Name Nodes in there.

[odd ember]

use the blue one

leave it blank

[tender gorge]

But what do I put in there then because it only allows me to select sprites and images

[odd ember]

.

[tender gorge]

Oh wait I see it allows me to select more

But still not sure what to put in there because I have 10 tile mapos and 7 backgrounds

[odd ember]

are you not reading what I'm writing?

[tender gorge]

You said it knows its own name but when I play it doesn't print anything

[gentle nebula]

Any simple way to have an actor constrained to a spline "rail"?

[tender gorge]

Nor when it end overlap

[odd ember]

strange. in that case try with a "self" node hooked into the pin

[odd ember]

I'm sure you can google this first

but simple? no

[tender gorge]

That works. You want a video for it?

[odd ember]

just tell me what it prints

how many instances it prints, and what those instances are

[tender gorge]

It prints the name of the current Tile Map that was destroyed.

Only one instance

[odd ember]

even when 2 are destroyed like in your case?

[tender gorge]

Yes. Just the Tile Map. Should I put it after the Destroy Actor Nodes. Maybe that's why it only displays the Tile Map and not the Background with it.

[odd ember]

it will give you an error if you put it after the destroy node

[tender gorge]

OK>

[odd ember]

you're destroying the tilemap from inside the tilemap

so there is no execution past that point

[tender gorge]

OK

I'll tell you the bright side of this process is I'm learning stuff.

[odd ember]

experience is the bitterest teacher

[tender gorge]

True to that.

So what should I do to fix this?

[odd ember]

if it's only triggering once, then the end overlap is working as intended

which the code also suggests

[tender gorge]

Agreed

[odd ember]

so I don't know why the other tilemap gets destroyed at that point

it may be because where (as in, which class) the logic is situated in

[tender gorge]

I can put a delay again and see what happens.

[odd ember]

the delay doesn't change anything

it just delays what happens anyway

[tender gorge]

To me it makes sense why it destroys the current one the player is on because this blueprint constantly spawns a new tilemap at begin overlap and thus it would destroy the current one and new one upon end overlap of the other collision box.

I could be wrong

so it should always destroy the one you're on.

[odd ember]

you didn't tell me it spawned a new one on begin overlap

[tender gorge]

I thought I did a long time ago.

There are 2 Collision boxes. One is always set to begin overlap spawn a new Tile Map and Background, and then there is the new Collsion Box you told me to put in to overlap the edge so when it ends overlap it destroys the actor

One has to always spawn a new tile map hence the infinite runner

[odd ember]

make the collision box extend the entire tilemap plus a buffer zone on each side and see if that works

[gentle nebula]

Is it possible to have colliders interacting with each other based relation based rules?
Like having two balls roll down an hill, at the bottom there is a wall, one ball collide with the wall the other doesn't.
From my understanding colliders are set to either collide or not

[tender gorge]

The one that destroys I assume?

[icy dragon]

Yes. You can use additional collision channel and make the wall disregard said collision channel used by the other ball.

[odd ember]

oh it's two separate ones? yes

but have it extend beyond the tilemap itself

[tender gorge]

Yeah two separate collision boxes. I did that and now I'll test it.

[odd ember]

not just to edge of it

it only triggers once though

so the collision seems to work as intended

[obtuse herald]

https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/InteractiveExperiences/Physics/Collision/Reference/

You can add your own response channels in ProjectSettings -> Collison

[tender gorge]

Didn't work.

Something I might have forgotten to tell you. The beginning Tile Map uses the same Tile Map Base Blueprint so it inherits the Collision Box that is for destroying. I think that may be the problem. Maybe if I create to different Tile Map Base Classes where one doesn't have that and that may solve the issue

[gentle nebula]

i was about to reply, "Very helpful for me 🙂 ", thank you!

[odd ember]

you're not working with classes here, you're working with spawned instances

each instance has its own logic

and components

and each instance should be responsible for its own destruction

[tender gorge]

Ok. Sorry I use wrong terminology. I have the one Blueprint called BP_TileMapBase and every single Tile Map is a Child of that BP to Inherit from it. There is the Start Tile Map and Middle Tile Map BP's as Childs. The Start Tile Map spawn uses a different BP to spawn it on Begin Play while the Collision Box responsible for spawning a new Middle Tile Map spawns a new one after it is overlapped.

My thoughts are is that because the Start Tile Map has that Collision Box maybe it is causing the issue? Or should it only destroy that one and that one only and not that one and the next one that already spawned in?

I'm not sure if this helps.

[odd ember]

what kind of children do you have? are these component children? are they attached?

[tender gorge]

The Tile Maps are just legit Child BPs of the the BP_TileMapBase as in Separate BPs, but this shouldn't be what's causing it because if that's the case then I'll never be able to get it working period. I want Inheritance to make my life easier if I want to change something among all of them.

[odd ember]

okay so

there is a distinction between calling something a child and having it be inherited

when it's inheritance the better way to refer to them is super class and subclass

[tender gorge]

I just right click on the base BP and click Create Child Blueprint

OK

Again sorry for not knowing the correct terminology

[odd ember]

so you have several subclasses

[tender gorge]

Yes

[odd ember]

that's fine

this has nothing to do with the subclasses

we're concerned with how the instances are spawned, and where the logic for those instances are happening

each instance should be responsible for its own behavior only

[tender gorge]

OK..

The Start Tile Maps are spawned using a BP Actor class that I setup to always spawn a Start Tile Map on Begin Play. I have it Spawn Actor From Class and it is Selected from 10 Tile Maps and then spawns a Background from a selection of 7 Backgrounds. Once the Player reaches the Collision Box on Overlap it spawns a new Tile Map from the Middle Tile Map selection and Background.

I have the Start Tile Map on a delay of 20 seconds to Destroy Actor which always works, but after adding the Collison Box to Destroy Actor it destroys itself and then immediately the new Middle Tile Map.

I hope this helps. If not I'm not sure.,

[odd ember]

if you still have the 20s delay thats probably whats killing it?

[tender gorge]

I took it out and now no Tile Map spawn.

Just give me a minute

I can't figure out why no Tile Map for the start is spawning. All variables have a Tile Map and the spawner is in the level. I already had to start over once. I don't want to have to again.

[obtuse herald]

it's good to take a 30 min break from code sometimes

and you guys seem to be working on it for a longer time already

[tender gorge]

Need to figure it out. Been having an issue with it for days.

[icy dragon]

Try 24 hours

[tender gorge]

So after taking out the Delay it no longer spawns a Start Tile Map, but if I put it back in without delay and take out one Destroy Actor and the references on the Target for Destroy Actor it now Spawns.

[tender gorge]

I got spawning to work again, but it has that Delay. without it it won't spawn for some reason.

[odd ember]

I don't know what you're doing with that delay tbh. you'll have to deal with that yourself. removing delays should not cause these kinds of issues

[tender gorge]

It all started when trying to do a background separate from the Tile Map. Maybe to make my life easier I should just put a background directly on the Tile Maps. I wanted more randomness but screw it i guess.

[odd ember]

you can have both. I don't think it's the backgrounds that are not working here

it's just whatever you're doing with that delay function

[tender gorge]

I have no idea how to fix it. No idea why taking that out would make it so the Start Tile Map wouldn't spawn.

[odd ember]

I'd try using breakpoints and go from there

[tender gorge]

I'll have to look up what those are.

[odd ember]

Mathew Wadstein has a good tutorial on them if you look for him

[tender gorge]

I've seen videos from him before. Good at explaining.

Like I said earlier this all started after doing backgrounds separate from Tile Maps. Before then everything worked fine even with delays.

I'll take a look at Breakpoints and see what happens.

[odd ember]

right but I want to impress the point that regardless of whether it was working before doesn't preclude it from having issues that were just not visible then

[tender gorge]

Oh I know.

Is there another name for break points because I can't find videos from Mathew on it.

So Breakpoints is for debugging?

[odd ember]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTF1cZvVdYQ

yes

breakpoints are for debugging issues at runtime

[tender gorge]

Thank you for the link. I couldn't find it because I was looking up breakpoints and not debugging.

[odd ember]

I did think he had one on breakpoint specifically but I can't find it now either, sadly

[tender gorge]

Might have taken it down.

So I think what I'm going to do is go back to the beginning. Take out the spawn backgrounds and make sure there is nothing wrong with the Tile Map spawning and despawning first and then move forward.

[unkempt musk]

@tender gorge You're trying to do something like this, correct?

[tender gorge]

Yes. I got it to work but I wanted to make Background Tile Maps to go along with it and that has created this whole issue. Of course there could have been something else for all I know.

Before I did the background tile maps I successfuly had a Start Tile Map spawn and then successfully had other Tile Maps spawn after and destroy themselves, but after trying to backgrounds that do the same thing there has been nothing but issues.

[tender gorge]

I did what I said with starting over. Took out the background stuff and delay and it all works 100%

[odd ember]

very strange

[tender gorge]

The previous Tile Map is destroyed on End overlap

[odd ember]

are the background just static meshes?

[tender gorge]

No they're Tile Maps as well.

[odd ember]

I see

[tender gorge]

This is extremely strange I think. But it's the spawning and what not for the Backgrounds that are the issue.

I could have a separate spawning and BPs for them entirely just have a Overlap and End Overlap Collision Boxes that the player goes through to trigger those. This makes them independant of the Tile Maps the player runs on

In theory that should work 100%

Honeslty would make it more organized too

Ok but there is one issue I'm unsure about. So for the spawning of the Start Tile Maps they are suppose to spawn a Tile Map from a selection of 10 which are different from the Middle Tile Maps, but the strange thing is sometimes it will spawn one from the Middle Tile Map even though the variables it's pulling from are only for Start Tile Map.

I messed up. The BP had the wrong tile map.

I'm just going to make the background tile maps independent.

Still good to know about Breakpoints. In the end this is helping me learn more and I'm grateful for that, as well with the help that everyone has given me here today.

[gritty trout]

How would I be able to detect when my AI Agent can't reach the target?
IE a player leaving the nav mesh volume

Or detect a player outside the nav current nav mesh volume

Currently I'm detecting the closest player to designate as a target but if the player walks off the navmash platform it still registers as being a close player

I've looked in the nav mesh nodes and I don't see any nodes regarding if a point is reachable on mesh

[odd ember]

I believe there's some pathing functions for the navmesh like "get nav path to target"

or something along those lines

[gritty trout]

Using this I found Get Path Cost and it returns a 0.0 float if it's unreachable

[tame pecan]

Found this old system when diggin through the project, Unreal Blueprints inside a Unreal game. It's shelved now. Hopefully it makes a return 😄

It's in c++ though, but thought it would be fun to share here

[gentle nebula]

Very cool!

[obtuse herald]

pretty sure this node did exactly that

[icy dragon]

You can made your own modding tools for your game, or custom game creation thing with that

[tame pecan]

Yea, I hope it sometimes gets re-added

😄

[shy plover]

how can i make this work on multiplayer its day/night cycle from ytb

[gentle nebula]

any way to fix "get mouse position" that gives wrong value when testing in the editor viewport?

[icy dragon]

Not "wrong". It's just giving mouse position scaled into 1920x1080 canvas.

[gentle nebula]

I checked the viewport size, it is 1518x992, i can click on a corner and get 1629x1059

which shouldn't be possible

[icy dragon]

Are you running the game in editor?

[gentle nebula]

yes

no way to get accurate numbers in the editor?

[icy dragon]

Figures.

Try testing in Standalone process instead.

Editor's Slate UI is put into account if you test right in editor or just use New Window.

[gentle nebula]

Yes i've stated that this is my problem, editor, but everytime launching the game is taking time

Ill try new window

[icy dragon]

I'd rather go with the latter.

Standalone process is free of editor overheads and quirks.

[gentle nebula]

But really would you rather wait that huge load time difference

[icy dragon]

By huge, you mean 5 to 30 seconds, absolutely. FWIW you get debugging results closer to shipping/actual consumer play environment.

[gentle nebula]

Maybe i just like to tweek stuff a lot so that this 15 seconds feels like long time

[gentle nebula]

Any way thank you for the help

[wraith eagle]

anyone willing to answer a few noob questions, please DM me. Its about camera movement in a topdown game

[coral terrace]

Hello guys, i just started with unreal engine 4 and i did some animations for my 2d game but i came across a problem: how can i do a falling animation?, cuz i cant find a vector that checks the z value and i also tried searching it on the internet

[icy dragon]

https://www.dontasktoask.com

[maiden wadi]

If you're using a character, you're probably looking for Velocity. You want to dot product their velocity with VectorUp. < 0, you're falling. Though CMC also has an IsFalling function as well that may interest you.

[gentle nebula]

Would it cause problems if i don't unbind events before destroying an actor? It shows an error in the log, but is that harmful?

[gentle urchin]

I would think it wouldnt be gced due to still being referenced..

[wraith eagle]

@icy dragon
Point taken:
Im fooling around in a topdown game, I made it so when I input Mouse X into axismapping it makes my camera move around my character. Problem is that I only want it to work when I have right mousebutton pressed, but right now it works with any mousebutton pressed

[gentle urchin]

Plus if your destroying it you can always just "unbind all"

[coral terrace]

im currently using the "is falling" thing and thats the problem cuz i want a jumping and falling animation and with this method u can only get one of those

[maiden wadi]

Noted. DotProduct the velocity then. If you DotProduct a normalized velocity with VectorUp, it will be below zero when velocity is going towards gravity.

[coral terrace]

ok thx

[maiden wadi]

Get the local controller, and check if IsInputKeyDown, Key==RightMouseButton

[odd ember]

I'm curious if that works with the default scheme setup for most of the templates where you have to hold down a button for the camera to work

[maiden wadi]

It should on an AxisMapping. Basically tick.

[odd ember]

the button press is not listed under action mappings, even though it is required

[maiden wadi]

Not following?

[wicked osprey]

Hi guys. Where is it more correct to create a main widget. In character or in HUD?

[odd ember]

there's basically a mapping that's unaccounted for in the mappings where you have to press (and hold) down a mouse button to move the camera around. this is never explicitly mentioned as an action mapping, but it is required to do so anyway

[maiden wadi]

Personal opinion is that most widgets should never be created outside of other widgets or the HUD class. Exceptions being stuff like a blank map with a main menu, or widgets that get auto created in WidgetComponents.

[wraith eagle]

@maiden wadi Got it to work like this, thanks 🙂

[maiden wadi]

You can check if an action mapping button is required too. GetInputSettings, GetActionMappingsByName, ForEach through them and check if their key is pressed.

[wicked osprey]

How i can refer to HUD class without cast?

[maiden wadi]

Why would you avoid casting? HUD is always loaded.

[odd ember]

right but like I said, the action mapping isn't there. but the input is required regardless

[glad coral]

Hey guys i have a problem with holding the weapon.Here's a video of the problem

[glass stump]

How do I edit to set a target point in the game as the default target point for the target point in the blueprints?

[swift kestrel]

If your using a Aim Offset add some intermediate transition point.

[swift kestrel]

Is the variable instance editable?

[glass stump]

Indeed.

[maiden wadi]

The CDO is the default object in which things are copied from to exist in world. This means you're trying to change this in the class. You can only edit this in an instance.

And Instance being a copy of the class that's been dropped into the world in the editor.

[glass stump]

So I should edit the blueprints of the target points that have been dropped into the world?

[maiden wadi]

Not sure. I don't know what you're doing. What is this actor with the TargetPoint1 property?

[glass stump]

An enemy that uses the target points as a patrol path.

[maiden wadi]

And you've dropped the enemy into the world in the viewport?

[glass stump]

Yeah. But I need the enemy to get destroyed and spawn another of itself as a reset. It does that at the moment but it screws up the patrol path and just moves to the center of the map, then the game starts lagging massively for some reason.

I assumed it was because the patrol points aren't set on the new enemy that spawns.

[maiden wadi]

Possibly a ton of movement update attempts.

Hard to say what best case is there. Initial thought is you could pass what you need to the spawner like the target point and set that in the next spawned enemy. Could also fake the death with a skeletal mesh spawn and not actually kill it but hide it and just reset it back to it's original state which means that pointer never gets nulled.

[glass stump]

Ah, faking the death sounds good! I don't actually want it to get destroyed, but I didn't know how else to reset it back to it's beginning state.

Hmmmm, is it possible to do a component spawn?

To restore a destroyed component?

[maiden wadi]

I think it's called AddComponent in blueprint.

Should have a list of all of them that are blueprintspawnable.

[glass stump]

Hmmm, thank you I'll try this method! :)

[white field]

anyone know a tool that can screenshot giant bp?

instead of manually panning and screenshotting and reassembling

[woven hearth]

Hi, is there a way to destroy actor inside an function?

[maiden wadi]

Yes. But not in a Const function.

[woven hearth]

hmm

[gentle nebula]

I have a timer macro, inside it creates an event.
But i can only use that macro one time on the event graph other wise i get an error for two events with the same name.

Anything i can do to fix this? Or am i doing it wrong?

[maiden wadi]

Const implies that you have no intention of altering any state in an object with the function. This means affecting it in any way. Usually const functions are getters that simply retrieve information about the object.

[maiden wadi]

Why are you creating the event there? Is this for binding a delegate?

[gentle nebula]

i wanted to set a timer

So yes for a delegate i think

[serene sand]

I am trying to spawn objects and rotate them. I notice they are clipping. How do I write something: if they clip to each other, to reposition the object to a position where they DON'T clip?
I've been trying sweep & teleport but to no avail, my items still clip & clip

[maiden wadi]

Can you show the Macro? Because you should be able to use CreateEvent to specify the same function from multiple places in the same graph. You cannot have the same actual CustomEvent with the same name though.

[gentle nebula]

It is bit messy

[dawn gazelle]

I can tell you why this happens - When dealing with macros, you need to think of them as the compiler copying and pasting the code where you've created said macro. By the sounds of it, you placed a Red event within the macro itself which will not function correctly.

[gentle nebula]

Yep

[dawn gazelle]

And there it is.

[gentle nebula]

I think i should use a function instead

[dawn gazelle]

Since it's in a macro, you could potentially use a delay node to simulate the timer. Just would require a bit of rework if you only want it to fire so many times.

[gentle nebula]

Delay with a loop?

[dawn gazelle]

Yep

[gentle nebula]

Last time i tried doing it it gave me an infinite loop error

Probably done something wrong

Some one explained me that the loop has to end before next frame

[maiden wadi]

More correctly, the next frame won't ever happen if you cause an infinite loop. This used to crash entire systems. Modern operating systems just close the offending application now.

[odd ember]

UE has a max limit of loop iterations

[gentle nebula]

Would be difficult to describe the amount?

[spark steppe]

https://tenor.com/view/dr-evil-one-billion-mike-meyers-austin-powers-hehe-gif-11108917

or million? i think million

but wanted to use the gif 😛

[odd ember]

it's listed in... the project settings? the editor settings?

[maiden wadi]

I think default is like 500,000. But it also depends on the UE4 version and whether they've fixed the counter. That 500,000 on some versions is more like 50,000.

[gentle nebula]

I expected it to be much much larger

[spark steppe]

well we can all agree that it's over 9000

[gentle nebula]

Wait, if i use set timer by function, i cannot input parameters to the function at every timer "tick"?

[odd ember]

https://tenor.com/view/top-kek-gif-13818632

[gentle nebula]

Anyway, i decided to just duplicate the entire macro so it would have an original event, since i couldn't think of another solution, even though it would've been nice to have

[wraith eagle]

Hi again!
So, I made a topdown click to move game. Now I made it so that I can move the camera around the player, and also its possible to reset the camera by double click. But when I doubleclick, the camera is resetting instant, is there a way to make the camera-reset a little bit more smooth?

[odd ember]

you'll have to do it over time

[wraith eagle]

yeah, what action do I use for that?

[odd ember]

there are different ways of doing that

I do something completely over the top because I have a complex camera system

but for starters using a timer or tick is fine

probably a timer is better just because it's easier to turn on and off

[wraith eagle]

hmm, not really sure where to add that or the action name?

[odd ember]

SetTimerByEvent

[tender gorge]

@odd ember I just did made the Backgrounds completely independent from the rest and now everything works 100%.Actors are destroyed when they should be, no delays are used either. Also it feels more organized too.

[odd ember]

good stuff

[trim marsh]

hello guys, i have this horizontal box, and im adding a child box, how can center this box dynamically?

cause if a i have 5 theire not in the center of teh screeen

[odd ember]

size to fit?

[wraith eagle]

hmm

[odd ember]

well you need to supply an event

[gentle urchin]

Foreachloopwait is identical to foreachloop except it has an additional input where you manually can move to the next body if the loop (replacing bottom part of internal sequence)

[gentle nebula]

the question is, can it persist for more than one frame

[odd ember]

what are you trying to do

[wraith eagle]

Sure, this makes it not reset insta, but my goal is for the reset to go back smooth, not like teleport back

[gentle nebula]

i wanted to have a macro that work over time

i tried using set timer by event but then i limited to one macro for an event graph

[odd ember]

so you probably want to loop it and then also use something like RinterpTo

[odd ember]

again not what you want to do technically

what do you want to achieve

because right now you're trying to break the engine I'm pretty sure

[gentle nebula]

I got it, i spoke technically because i achieved it but i just couldn't duplicate it.

[gentle urchin]

Ye, it can persist as long as you desire

[gentle nebula]

I want a countdown system that i can easily call whereever

[maiden wadi]

Breaking the engine? Well that's easy. Just create an FText from an FString, and pass it back through a function, call that function and .ToString() the return in a Loop initation.

[odd ember]

what do you want the countdown system to do?

is it a stop timer?

does the user invoke it?

[gentle nebula]

I want to invoke it at many different situations

[odd ember]

isn't this just... a timer?

[maiden wadi]

Not actually joking by the way. 😄 That crashes in shipping builds.

[gentle nebula]

a complex one

[odd ember]

https://tenor.com/view/thonk-thinking-sun-thonk-sun-thinking-sun-gif-14999983

have you heard of timelines?

[gentle nebula]

actually no

[odd ember]

I would suggest looking them up

[gentle nebula]

Already at it!

[odd ember]

but also if you just need a countdown you don't even need a timer

you can just compare game time at two points

[gentle nebula]

but i want to to execute stuff at each moment

Timelines seems interesting

[odd ember]

then timer, tick or timeline

[maiden wadi]

Is this for UI or something else?

[gentle nebula]

The countdown macro i wanted?

[maiden wadi]

Yeah.

[trim marsh]

this xd #blueprint message

[maiden wadi]

What is your HorizontalBox's containing parent?

[trim marsh]

another widget

[maiden wadi]

Yeah. Which widget?

Different answer if it's a CanvasPanel or a VerticalBox for instance.

[trim marsh]

a canvas

[maiden wadi]

Make your HorizontalBox SizeToFit, and set it's X alignment to 0.5

Anchor it to center point or topcenter or whatever.

Will keep it in the center.

[trim marsh]

size to content = size to fit?

[maiden wadi]

Yeah

[trim marsh]

thx it work

[crimson hornet]

Does anyone has an easy way on how to stop the camera in first person view clipping through walls?

[odd ember]

move the camera back

or extend the collision cylinder

[maiden wadi]

The near clip plane in project settings is pretty high by default too. Can lower that to avoid it quite a bit more.

[crimson hornet]

alr ill try those

thanks

[cold sinew]

Hello guys i used the quaternion to get 360 degree rotation for the Gauge but also still broken .
I want relative rotation + Some value = set relative rotation

[odd ember]

did you try with rotate around axis?

[wraith eagle]

@odd ember So proud I actually got it to work like this! 😄

[cold sinew]

this is my Equation

[cold sinew]

I tried a function i will show you one sec

First i got a function from youtube converting Euler rotation to Quaternion

// Formula to convert a Euler angle in degrees to a quaternion rotation
FQuat URotation_Quat::Euler_To_Quaternion(FRotator Current_Rotation)
{
    FQuat q;                                            // Declare output quaternion
    float yaw = Current_Rotation.Yaw * PI / 180;        // Convert degrees to radians 
    float roll = Current_Rotation.Roll * PI / 180;
    float pitch = Current_Rotation.Pitch * PI / 180;

    double cy = cos(yaw * 0.5);
    double sy = sin(yaw * 0.5);
    double cr = cos(roll * 0.5);
    double sr = sin(roll * 0.5);
    double cp = cos(pitch * 0.5);
    double sp = sin(pitch * 0.5);

    q.W = cy * cr * cp + sy * sr * sp;
    q.X = cy * sr * cp - sy * cr * sp;
    q.Y = cy * cr * sp + sy * sr * cp;
    q.Z = sy * cr * cp - cy * sr * sp;

    return q;                                           // Return the quaternion of the input Euler rotation
}

[quick lark]

Hi all, I'm having difficulty figuring out how to load a level with a specific game mode. Does anyone know?

i.e. During runtime, I want to be able to open Level_A with either GameMode_Foo or GameMode_Bar

[honest wolf]

Hey everybody, quick question about player camera setup. I'm trying to get the player / capsule to move towards the camera facing direction once the player starts moving, but rotation does not behave like I expect it to.

Here is my setup:

Use Pawn Control Rotation: off
Use Controller Rotation Yawn: on

When I move camera 90 degrees, the capsule only seems to move 45 degrees. What am I missing here?

[odd ember]

just use rotate around axis

[quick lark]

I think this contains the solution: https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/gameinfo/41805

[honest wolf]

I guess "Get Control Rotation" returns full aim rotation which works on a different "scale" than "Get Actor Rotation"? If so, how would I normalize those values?

[hot lotus]

Hello everyone,
I made an inventory system recently and the way I initialise the chests is bothering me.

I have a list of structs containing a datatable (like equipments) and a name (the row line of the item), then I loop through to fill the chest with the items info. Is there a simple way to have a scrolling menu lets say when I select the datatable to choose the items from? (Right now I need to manually write the name without typo)

[odd ember]

control rotation is the rotation of the player controller

which can be different than actor rotation

[honest wolf]

Is there a way of getting them onto the same scale?

[odd ember]

Get data table rows?

[glass stump]

hmmm, is there really no way to set the target point variable as a specific target point?

or access target point actors from a blueprint?

[hot lotus]

What do you mean?

[odd ember]

the node

[odd ember]

what are you trying to do?

[glass stump]

Set the default target point variable within a BP as a target point that's in the level.

[odd ember]

you cant use level specific actors on a template level

you can expose the variable and once placed in the level you can then add it

[glass stump]

Exposing is this, right?

[odd ember]

yes

[hot lotus]

Yes this is what I am using at initialisation, I was just thinking to simplify the way I am entering the names of the items. Is there a way to have a scrolling menu to choose from all the rows in the datatable? In the editor I mean, sorry I was not precise.

[odd ember]

once you place that actor with the variable in world

you can look in the details panel and set that target point to be an actor in world

[odd ember]

it has that built in

[glass stump]

yeah but the actor gets destroyed and spawned again, so it loses the target point information from that specific iteration.

[odd ember]

well then you need somehow find a way to transition that information

[glass stump]

any ideas on how to put me in the right path?

[odd ember]

I don't know enough about your project to say what would be a good way

[glass stump]

ah fair enough, thank you

[hot lotus]

Oh yes thank you, I found the variable "Datatable row handle" !

[honest wolf]

Using "Set Absolute" it works

[odd ember]

if you're spawning the actor somewhere you can expose the target point as a parameter on the spawn node

that is half the battle

the rest you have to find out yourself

[glass stump]

ah thank you i'll look into it. :)

[crimson hornet]

Hello I got an really tricky question. For example I got an collision sphere and if the player overlaps the collision sphere it will kill him. Then I got an wall but the collision sphere is really big. How can I make it that the wall will block the collision sphere for overlapping with the player?

[gentle urchin]

Before you kill the player, lintrace

If trace hits player, theres no obstacles

[crimson hornet]

Okay and then I make an boolean with CanHit for example and set it to true.

right?

[gentle urchin]

I wouodnt bother with a variable, but sure

If theres a chance the player peeks over/around the wall, and thats supposed to kill him, you need to trace on tick btw

And if the trace ever hits the player -> byebye

[crimson hornet]

alr

thx

[lusty shard]

how do i get the angle of a surface hit by a line trace?

[crimson hornet]

Ill set of the collision sphere generate overlap event to true or false

[maiden wadi]

Compare trace start and end as a unit vector dot product to the hit normal.

[gentle urchin]

OnOverlap -> start timer
EndOverlap-> stop timer

Timer -> trace @crimson hornet

[lusty shard]

this is currently changing what is printed depending on elevation level.. Ive seen printed values of 400, and 4000 lol

[woven hearth]

Yet again i have a problem

[crimson hornet]

alr

[gentle urchin]

Refresh the event

[maiden wadi]

Make a UnitVector. Start should be End, and Ending should be Start. You want it to point in the opposite direction that your trace was. Then you replace your Location in the current DotProduct with that.

[lusty shard]

which one is Unit Vector?

[maiden wadi]

GetUnitDirection I believe.

[maiden wadi]

Yeah. From should be End on your HitResults.

To should be Start.

Basically creates a 1.0 length vector facing the opposing direction of your trace. If you use that in your DotProduct it should give you something > 1 usually since it's pretty difficult to hit from the other side. The closer to 1 this is, the more direct hit it was.

[woven hearth]

https://tenor.com/view/elcen-edel-aoshima-cat-how-gif-21166143

[gentle urchin]

Right click it -> refresh node

[woven hearth]

error is still there

after i compile it

and refresh it

[gentle urchin]

Signature mismatch

Did you change signature?

[woven hearth]

what signature?

[lusty shard]

To should be Start, meaning the start of the hit location? I dont use impact normal at all?

[gentle urchin]

The interface event

[woven hearth]

i belive that i changed it only in the interface

[maiden wadi]

Should be this.

[woven hearth]

but that was only the interactor

nothing else

[lusty shard]

wow thanks for the screenshot. that is not what I understood at all

[gentle urchin]

Delete and re-add the event ?

[woven hearth]

i will try it

still

even if it is not in anything connected)

[lusty shard]

so this assumes I am sending a trace from the hit location bouncing outward, and outputing a value of 0-1? guess I should print the dot product and see.. Because the get unit direction node is using trace start which is just in front of the players camera

wish unreal slackers would allow 15 minute threads or something..

[maiden wadi]

The idea is that you're basically putting a stick where you shot the trace and another stick facing directly out from the surface you hit. The closer your sticks are to facing the same direction the closer to 1 that float should be.

[lusty shard]

wow. Get unit direction node is 1 stick... where is the other one?

[gentle urchin]

Impact normal

Is the other stick

Dot compares the two sticks

[woven hearth]

https://blueprintue.com/blueprint/9tnqs2wg/ This is whole Item BP

[gentle urchin]

Going from 1 (identical direction) to -1 (opposing direction)

[maiden wadi]

Facing directly out of the surface. For example if you shoot flat ground, that would be straight up.

[lusty shard]

impact normal dot product is the other stick?

[gentle urchin]

Impact normal is the other stick.

Dot compares the two sticks

[lusty shard]

ooo

[gentle urchin]

"How mich alike are these two vectors?"

[lusty shard]

dot product outputs a value of 0-1 depending on the difference then?

[gentle urchin]

Answer come in a range -1 to 1

From totally opposite, to identical

[maiden wadi]

Yeah. Normally a DotProduct will be -1 to 1. In this case, you'll pretty much always be above zero. Hitting a surface from any angle enough to produce a zero or negative result would be rare.

[lusty shard]

so im trying to prevent players from placing a firepit on the underside of a roof lol

might make for a nice ceiling light

but that would output negative dotproduct yeah?

[maiden wadi]

Yeah, that's a different check. 😄 In that case you want to check if your Normal is DotProduct to VectorUp greater than zero

[gentle urchin]

Compare impact normal to world up

[lusty shard]

o gosh haha

[gentle urchin]

You can dodge a step if the player is pointing upwards in general

In no situation can you aim upwards and hit placeable location for a firepit

[lusty shard]

to be clear, i do want to disable that kind of placement

[gentle urchin]

Yeah

[odd ember]

why not just prevent that based on surface normal

[gentle urchin]

But instead of extra math

Id just check the aim direction initially

If aim direction is downwards, then check the surface normal

Probably a micro optimization, ignore it 😄

[rain fractal]

Which component would make an object be given physics so it can fall down?

[lusty shard]

collision sphere, capsule, or box with physics checkbox on.

[maiden wadi]

VectorUp in this case is your UnitDirection. So you just DotProduct VectorUp with the ImpactNormal.

[gentle urchin]

.5 would be 45 degrees

[lusty shard]

working beautifully

[pulsar valve]

Hi. Looks like variables exposed from Designer by Is Variable are always public. What's the point? why can't it be made private?

[timber knoll]

60 degrees*

[timber knoll]

45 degrees is .707

[gentle urchin]

Oh?

Dang

[lusty shard]

heck yes. thanks so much guys/non-binaries.

[timber knoll]

Yeah, it's basically the sin(a)

[gentle urchin]

Ah, the more you know! i stand corrected:)

[timber knoll]

I mean cos... 😅

[gentle nebula]

Any way to dismiss all error messages at once?

[gentle urchin]

No

[odd ember]

yes, fixing them

[gentle nebula]

That's wrong

I already fixed them

Still floating around

[odd ember]

then you didn't fix them 🙂

[gentle nebula]

I did..

[odd ember]

not if they show up no

[gentle nebula]

You are wrong, these are from previous sessions, still showing

[odd ember]

restart the editor

but also why didn't you just clear them when they first appeared

some very strange workflows

[trim marsh]

guys sorry , how can i pick a unique random value with a for loop ?, is picking but this repeat values

[gentle nebula]

Because, i was testing how my blueprint works, it required me to press the mouse many time, which generated those errors.
Yes you could say i should have fixed the error before continuing to test.
Is that what you think?

[odd ember]

I don't think anything. I'm working with the information you give

either you get the error again or you didn't clean up your errors

[gentle nebula]

You asked, so i answered

[gentle nebula]

and of course *i tried to understand why it is strange

[odd ember]

I don't need to really

[keen hearth]

Anyone know of a way I can set Self Shadow Only at runtime? By default you can only access the get. Not sure if it's modifiable via another function call.

[coral terrace]

guys can someone plz send me a blueprint of how to switch between a jumping and falling animation in 2d cuz i tried all day and its not working

[odd ember]

I wouldn't know if it's exposed to set via blueprint or properties. have you checked the documentation?

[odd ember]

perhaps you could try in #animation ?

[gentle nebula]

You mean only with collisions coming from one direction?

[coral terrace]

plz tell me what i did wrong here

[gentle nebula]

there's one thing coming to my mind(maybe others would provide a better solution)
Make the logic to determine the direction of collision by calculating the relative speed(either of two object, if both are moving, or the one object that is moving), and if it is from the direction you want, set the channel for the collision

[coral terrace]

my animations just stop when i walk and jump

[glass stump]

what does 'Deactivate' actually do?

Just tried to use it to deactivate a couple of components and it seemingly had no effect.