blueprint

[royal trellis]

probably is one of those fancy ones, that are trying to cram logic into a controller so you can use it on different enemies

[trim matrix]

tutorials did me more harm then good trying to learn unreal for real

[thick zenith]

so, you are sugesting to just move the code to the enemy ?

[brazen spear]

That is what happens when I press play but just not in sequencer, but i haven't tried movie render queue! So I will def give that a go. Thank you!!

[royal trellis]

yes. start simple, like make a box collision, if player is inside the box, call attack event

(this inside the enemy bp class)

[maiden wadi]

That's not fancy. That's stupid. That is what base classes for the Pawns is for. Putting "Attack" in the AI controller is about as sensible as putting MoveForward in the PlayerController.

[grand valve]

Yea movie render queue should behave the same way. There is a more workaround way to get the animation to update in the sequence player but its a lot of restructuring unfortunately.

[royal trellis]

hey, ur not wrong - i think its dumb too

[brazen spear]

Ahhh totally! Thank you a million Vassili! I will update you haha 😄

[thick zenith]

i have now put the code from the controller blueprint into my enemy blueprint instead. Only thing that doesent translate is the reference to my blackboard.. so same problem in the end. thank you for trying though

[maiden wadi]

What are you trying to do?

Just set a blackboard value for the pawn?

[cedar bridge]

Hi, sorry for barging in. I'm making a puzzle where in order to unlock a door, player must lit torchers around the room. I made the door open and close (still issues with sound), torchs lit and unlit, but the logic to unlock the door is flawed. Will apreciate any help, link and docs to solve this.

[thick zenith]

@maiden wadi i am trying to call a function from my controller blueprint which is located in my enemy blueprint. or accessing my blackboard from my enemy blueprint. i am simply trying to get my enemy to attack the player when he is close enough

[maiden wadi]

You can access the blueprint in the Pawn by right clicking the graph and doing "GetBlackboard". You'll need to also reference Self and plug that into the input.

[thick zenith]

Dosent getblackboard need a target ? what if i got 2 difrent blackboards, how does it know which one i want?

[maiden wadi]

Self

[thick zenith]

self is enemy blueprint, or am i missing something ?

[maiden wadi]

It is. GetBlackboard with Self as target gets the blackboard relating to that Pawn.

[thick zenith]

and how do i relate it then ?

sry im lost. ill go read some more

[maiden wadi]

It's all handled for you when you run a behavior tree on an AI.

[white elbow]

Are there more pre-built components like character movement component or projectile movement component?

[maiden wadi]

Rotating and Floating Movement.

[white elbow]

Something that already exists and could be used instead of doing it from scratch

[undone surge]

if i have 2 meshes in a class and when i do spawn actor from class how do i specific which mesh from that class to spawn?

[still delta]

Anyone else having trouble in UE5 regarding button styling? I've currently got a prompt that pops up whenever my character nears an object that is interactable, but instead of setting the button's background opacity to 0 (making the button completely transparent, save for the text) as it should, it seems to just highlight the text within whenever the button in question is pressed.

[maiden wadi]

Try SetColorAndOpacity instead.

[haughty temple]

so what exactly do you need help with just setting up the logic in general? seems you are saying nothing is working the way you want

[still delta]

Was wondering if they had mixed the two but yea, looks like it just works properly on button content if I use color/opacity (button text changes as it should, just not button background)

[maiden wadi]

Sounds like you have two mesh assets and one StaticMeshComponent. and you just want to SetStaticMesh on the StaticMeshComponent after selecting one of the two StaticMesh Assets

[fleet cedar]

Hello! Can anyone help me understand how I would go about placing tiles that lock into the correct slot and then understand how they join together like this?

Just looking for an abstract explanation to get me started!

[gentle urchin]

Tiles have entrypoints /directions

Fluid just tries to walk it out

[thick zenith]

Got it to work, in case someone else might have similar issues. To reference a enemy blueprint from its controller blueprint, you have to create a Ref property, and set it like this

Thanks for the help guys !

[kindred remnant]

So i'm integrating sounds into Unreal from Wwise and I just can't seem to get this message to go away. Has anyone dealt with this before?

[fleet cedar]

Do you know how I could snap them together if I'm not using a grid system?

Thanks for the help

[pine trellis]

I am having problems with my blueprints, does anyone know what this red circle means when its on a node?

[onyx token]

is there a function to wait exactly 1 frame?

I have code that does a little push, while i'm blocking with my sword.

Like i'm blocking, and if i press leftclick, my character pushes a little bit, and returns to a block.

Now if i press leftclick again while pushing - the animation resets and pushes again, which i want.

But i did it like this, which is kinda ugly...

i would like to just wait 1 frame and then switch from "Block" to "BlockHit"

these 3 nodes get played if my state is currently "BlockHit"

it sets to "Block" for 0.05 seconds - and then to "BlockHit" again - resetting the animation

---

Turns out if you set the Delay node to 0 - it skips exactly to the next frame

[odd ember]

why bother making it frame dependent

just have it work through event dispatchers

[onyx token]

i have to set it to something else tho to reset the animation

and i thought frame dependant would be better... because if i wait 0.05s, and the framerate is lower than that - doesn't it mean the waittime is 0 and it doesn't reset?

[odd ember]

how do you mean?

[onyx token]

basically i have a block pose

and a block hit animation

hang on, i'll just record it

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/847253861403197471/962484028781518949/UE4Editor_Itq9HY07n0.mp4

[odd ember]

not sure what I am supposed to understand from the video. you wanted something to end exactly 1 frame after the animation?

or sooner?

[onyx token]

no i just want to cancel and restart the animation when i press a button

my solution works, but it's not pretty

[odd ember]

okay, where does the 1 frame factor in?

[onyx token]

if i just set it to some other state for 1 frame - the animation gets cancelled

[elder mango]

How can I make first person animations, I've been trying to do it for a while but I still can't figure out how

[onyx token]

make arms, animate arms, put arms infront of camera

[odd ember]

right but why don't you just cancel into whatever the next animation is?

[elder mango]

actually it's the animating part that's hard

[onyx token]

because it's the same animation as i'm in right now

[onyx token]

true

[elder mango]

i made the arms

but idk how to animate

and tutorials are so complicated to follow

[onyx token]

grab blender, get a neat beginner friendly tutorial

[odd ember]

that should be solvable though, without delay

[onyx token]

is there a way to restart an animation without doing a bunch of stuff?

[odd ember]

where do you check for state in your animBP?

[elder mango]

well i kind of know blender already, it's just animating

[odd ember]

I mean where do you actually do the state switching

[onyx token]

oh here

and here

[odd ember]

why would you not use a switch in the animBP

or a select node

[onyx token]

i'm not sure if a switch or a select blends

[odd ember]

the blending on the anim side is fine. I'm talking about the logic side of the animBP

[onyx token]

oh

there i just do this

[odd ember]

right now it seems you are coupling the player character with the anim states

[odd ember]

when really all you need is the animBP to listen to the character's actions

incidentally that will solve your issue as well

[onyx token]

wut? You mean shit like "LeftMouseButton pressed" just sends a signal to the animBP and the animBP is the only thing with the enum?

[odd ember]

nope, sending a signal would be a coupling. you want to decouple it

allowing the animBP to subscribe to the player character makes this work

[white elbow]

What is construction script? I saw a guy use it to set up variables or something but I've been using BeginPlay event for this stuff xd

[onyx token]

afaik it runs in the editor too, not just when the game is playing

[odd ember]

construction script runs in editor as well

as well as when the actor spawns, and under some other circumstances

[broken wadi]

Construction script is really the first thing to run, event beginplay happens after.

[white elbow]

What editor? The one we're working in?

[odd ember]

no the other editor

||of course the one we're working in||

[white elbow]

Don't troll me I'm new and gullible 😖

I don't understand wdym by runs in the editor

[odd ember]

if you take an actor from the asset browser and move it into a level

construction script runs

if you move/rotate/transform an actor around in the level

construction script runs

if you change any variables on an actor in a level

construction script runs

[white elbow]

Forgive my dumbassery but I don't see how it could be used yet

[odd ember]

that's fine, just forget about it then

[onyx token]

Okay so you'd say it'd be better to use event dispatchers to send signals from my characterBP to my animBP?

[odd ember]

well

you have to understand

[onyx token]

instead of just casting to my parent characterBP in my parent animBP and get the information that way

[odd ember]

you're not sending signals to something

the entire point of event dispatchers is indirection

all an event dispatcher does is say "this happened"

[onyx token]

but on beginplay i have to connect it don't i?

and have the target too, so in the end i'm casting one way or another...

[odd ember]

yes, other objects can then bind themselves (subscribe themselves) to certain events

so whenever one object goes "this happened", the other objects subscribed are like "that happened, now I can do this"

but equally the subscription is not necessarily permanent, and the object sending the "this happened" event has no idea who the subscribers are

[thin panther]

say if you wanted to randomly assign a mesh to an actor when you place it in the editor, you would use the construction script

its just useful cause it runs in game as well as in the editor

[broken wadi]

Say you have a generic cat actor. All cats are similar but unique at the same time. If you want their appearance to be randomized you could setup some blueprint logic using the constructor to adjust the fur colour, size, tail length etc but keep the event beginplay and other blueprint logic to handle all the shared logic between them such as sitting, purring and walking.

[white elbow]

I see

[onyx token]

sure-
So i make an event dispatcher on my animBP called "SwitchAnimationState"

And in my AnimBP I then do this?

[odd ember]

yeah. I mean you'll want to listen to events in the character

and you can use the CreateEvent node for ease of use

instead of linking events directly

[onyx token]

i don't understand.

[odd ember]

it's basically a way to ensure that classes can communicate with each other without having to know who they communicate with

so if you ever needed to swap the animBP for the player character

you could do so without any issue

without having to rewrite logic whatsoever

just as an example

[onyx token]

so do i make the event dispatcher on my character or on my animBP?

[odd ember]

your character

[onyx token]

right.
So i make the event dispacher on my character, and i bind it there and i call it there?

[odd ember]

your character makes the call

you bind it in the animBP

[onyx token]

but it's not there tho

this is my anim bp

and this is my character bp:

[odd ember]

you do the try get pawn and the cast that you did before

[onyx token]

wait so i do have to cast

[odd ember]

yes

casting is an inevitable part of OOP

nothing wrong with it

[onyx token]

ok this works

But why is this better than just casting to the character and getting the enum?

wouldn't i have to bind a bunch of events for every single enum case?

[odd ember]

because it gives you the moment it changes

[onyx token]

hmm that's true

okay but i'm gonna have like... 50 different animations...

And all will have their own enum state

[odd ember]

make a single event dispatcher

and add the state as a parameter

[onyx token]

oooh you mean an event dispatcher with an input

ok now i get it

ok but-

i won't be able to do these kind of branches anymore...

[odd ember]

you never needed those branches in the first place

[onyx token]

i.. i didn't?

[odd ember]

I can't imagine a situation where you'd want to hang onto 50 sequential branches

(or however many you have)

[onyx token]

well-
This is basically
"If i'm not blocking... and i'm not pushing... but i still leftclick - i want to attack"

"if i'm blocking, i want to push"

"and if i'm pushing, i want to reset push, and push again"

[spark steppe]

so i was about to try the math expression node... but this doesn't give me an output node?!
( vec(0, 0, length) + (diameter * vec(diameterX, diameterY, 0)) ) * scale

[odd ember]

you can make the same thing happen with a few select nodes

[odd ember]

you should be able to double click it to check the inside of it

[spark steppe]

yea it looks weird 😄

[odd ember]

well... fix it? 🙂

[spark steppe]

it's read only!?

[thin panther]

ive had issues with those too ngl

theyre funky

[onyx token]

your profile picture is funky

[thin panther]

youre funky ;-;

[onyx token]

my code is funky

[odd ember]

hmm I'm pretty sure I've been able to rewire stuff inside math nodes

[spark steppe]

(vec(0, 0, 0)) + (((vec(0, 0, length)) + ((vec(diameter, diameter, 0)) * (vec(diameterX, diameterY, 0)))) * (vec(scale, scale, scale))) so this works...

so does (( vec(0, 0, length * scale) + (vec(diameter * diameterX * scale, diameter * diameterY * scale, 0)) ))

so i guess it can't really work with mixed types?

[odd ember]

maybe you have to cast explicitly

[spark steppe]

yes

((vec(0, 0, length)) + ((vec(diameter)) * (vec(diameterX, diameterY, 0)))) * (vec(scale)) so that works, too

where i changed for example scale to vec(scale)

but hold up

that's f*cked up in the node preview

so that only connects to the vector.x value

[odd ember]

it put the value into x? 😂

yeah I mean that's what you wrote

[onyx token]

okay but if i'm just sending the signals to the animBP, and i don't keep the actual enum variable in my characterBP - how will i do selects or branches or anything with it?

like i still need some variable....

[odd ember]

okay first: you are not sending signals. this is really important to understand

[onyx token]

ok i'm dispatching events then

[odd ember]

not directly to a class, anyway

yes

so using the state parameter

[onyx token]

fine, when i'm dispatching events

[odd ember]

you can use a select node

then based on that, you can do things

[onyx token]

okay, but where do i get the state parameter from if it's just in my animBP?

after all i need it in my characterBP don't i?

[odd ember]

you've bound the event, right?

[onyx token]

wait, so i should do all of those code in the animBP?

but depending on those animation states i also change the speed of my character...

and do other stuff too

[spark steppe]

you can also run functions if you statemachine changes to another state

[odd ember]

the animBP will handle the anim side of things

the rest you can handle inside of your character

[onyx token]

yeah, but how

[spark steppe]

which could in theory directly inform your character (which you shouldn't do) but also set variables which you sync to the character in the UpdateGraph

[onyx token]

i don't have the enum... or should i have it twice?

[odd ember]

make the dispatcher call, then do the rest of the code for your character?

didn't you just have the enum? 👀

[onyx token]

in the animBP i do

should i also make it in the characterBP and just have it twice?

[odd ember]

it'd be better not to have in the character BP at all

[onyx token]

ok, hang on, maybe i'm explaining wrong

[odd ember]

but you'd still need to pass a parameter

[onyx token]

so let's start simple, i click LMB, and i wanna attack.

this is just an event that gets shot into the aether

[odd ember]

yep

[onyx token]

cool, so here in my animBP i pick it up and read it

[odd ember]

yep

again, I would encourage using the CreateEvent node

just because you don't need wires going anywhere then

[onyx token]

ok this then

right

[odd ember]

yep

so what I would do is

[onyx token]

So let's say i wanna do

how

how do i get the animation state?

[odd ember]

the animation state is part of the animBP

[onyx token]

sure

can i cast to my animBP?

[odd ember]

okay perhaps it's better to rephrase the anim states. you have one set of anim states that correspond to actual animations

then in the character you have some that correspond to actions

the character doesn't care about which animation you're in, it just wants the animBP to attack

the animBP registers this information, and says "OK we did this attack before, now we do this"

[onyx token]

alright, but i care what animation state i'm in, and depending on it, i wanna change stuff...
Like what if i wanna do this incase my character does the... idk... "equip roller skates" animation

[odd ember]

you have to let the animBP handle the animations

so anything that is animation related has to happen in the animBP

if you have stuff that happens to the player character you can have anim notify events, or just handle it through the initial inputaction

[onyx token]

oof

brain hurty

i guess that could work

man that requires alot of re-think

it's like playing portal for the first time

am not thinking in portals

[odd ember]

it's getting into the mentality of having every class only be responsible for its own actions

[onyx token]

thanks so much for teaching me

[odd ember]

as long as you're learning it's all good 👍

[onyx token]

so all of this code

put all of it in the animBP?

[odd ember]

well

I want to say yes to the idea

but no to the execution

put in the logic, but clean it up

[onyx token]

i copied that logic from epic games and their paragon asset pack

[odd ember]

right, I can imagine they left it at a prototype level

but just looking at it it's not easy to read

[onyx token]

yeah it kinda revolves around a boolean...
The idea is to have multiple notifies, and once it passes the "save" one - and you leftclick - it plays the current animation till a point, and then switches to attack2

that way you can hit left-right-left-right

[odd ember]

I get the logic, it makes sense. it's just that there's a bunch of things that could have been cleaner

like for instance you could assume any other state than "attack1" would give you the first attack. only "attack1" links into "attack2"

[rotund marlin]

so i'm doing a seamless transfer, and the HUD and all comes with.. how does one.. prevent that from happening and what transfers is it possible to use?

[odd ember]

what is a seamless transfer

[zealous fog]

Ce how do you ever get personal work done answering all the questions here 😂

[onyx token]

CE is a mega trooper

so neat to help us all

[odd ember]

I don't 😎 but I've been burnt out a bit on my personal project so it's all good

if you know please tell me

[trim matrix]

He’s talking about that multiplayer feature seamless travel

[odd ember]

I would not have made that leap 😂

especially talking about UI HUD

[onyx token]

okay so this is how you meant it?

and then a bunch of

(btw the selects were genius)

[odd ember]

for instance, yes

[rotund marlin]

yup lorash, Execly what i ment, i find it more fittin in BP then anything rn, as i'm honestly stuck in alot of BP edits lol

[odd ember]

you can also link selects into other selects in case you want to modulate behavior futher

[onyx token]

that sounds scary... but also neat

[trim matrix]

I’ve never tried seamless travel so I’m not sure.

But if your ui is persisting across the level change, and you don’t want it to, can’t you just remove your hud before the level change?

Again I don’t know anything about the feature so I am just speculating on how I imagine it would work

[dry monolith]

Anyone one know why my water seems to be using my perspective and bugging out because of it?

[radiant pawn]

I made a random generator for monsters that walk around using different skeletal mesh components (inside of a Character BP type). What should I do for collision? I can't seem to find any way to adjust the default Capsule collision since it's the root. Should I just make it non-collision and add a separate collision component for the skeletal meshes I'm using?

Can I just ignore the default capsule basically?

[still delta]

Anyone using UE5 know if they removed the ability to create interfaces? I can't seem to find the option to create one when searching through the lists

[spark steppe]

New => Blueprints => Blueprint Interface

in the list

[still delta]

I am apparently blind as a bad. tyvm lol

[rain egret]

is using a tick to update something really a bad thing?

[odd ember]

depends

[rain egret]

i just want to update a position

[odd ember]

tick is very easy to abuse, and many people do

[spark steppe]

how would one figure out the forward vector of a bone in parent bone space? is it just socketLocation - parentSocketLocation and normalize it?

[odd ember]

but generally you can and should use tick for certain things that are meant to be done per frame

[odd ember]

I believe there are special transform nodes for bones

[rain egret]

i am using a dynamic material instance with a boxmask to mask a window space into a procedurally generated wall. the material receives a location of the window and would need to run every tick to update the material window location

[spark steppe]

yes there is one to get the location in parent bone space, so it's just that normalized?

[odd ember]

both locations would need to be in the same space, then you can even do Find Unit Vector or some such

[spark steppe]

well i can get a whole transform in parent bone space, but i guess that wont help me much alone

[odd ember]

if you know the location of the parent bone and you have the child bone's transform in parent bone space you have two locations

alternatively you could try getting them both in world space if it doesn't work in bone space

[spark steppe]

the thing is, that would give me the unit vector of the parent

but what do i do if the bone doesn't have a child

[odd ember]

only do the calculation if there is a child

and you get the unit vector of the position you start with

[spark steppe]

hmm, can't i just use the rotator of the bone in parent bone space? Oo

i'm a bit confused as you can see 😄

[odd ember]

it doesn't matter what you use

so if you want to use the rotator, feel free

[spark steppe]

xD

[onyx token]

hang on-
Does it make sense then to put notifies into my animations, like when i attack, i want the character to rotate with my camera-

So i put a notify in my attack anim that says "attack start"
And i call that in my animBP and send it over to the characterBP to do stuff with it? @odd ember

[odd ember]

if you want your animations to drive actions, yes

[onyx token]

neato, turns out this way of doing things is actually pretty nice and solid

also it is less spaghett.

[odd ember]

you could probably still make that cleaner, but if it works for now that's good

[onyx token]

even cleaner

[odd ember]

(for instance, select nodes work with bools as well)

[onyx token]

like that?

[odd ember]

for instance, yes

that's what I was saying before with having select nodes link into other select nodes

[onyx token]

i see

[vocal urchin]

What's the deal with trying to import a .csv saved in Excel? I can open the exact same thing in Notepad++, save as a .csv from there, and import fine. But doing so with Excel throws an error in the editor

Using "CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv)" in Excel

[odd ember]

have you tried opening both CSV and seeing if they are identical?

[vocal urchin]

Yep, they are

[odd ember]

in that case it might be that excel adds some meta data somewhere

could be an extra blank space or something that's not immediately visible

[vocal urchin]

I have a feeling it's something I've done, but can't see how or why

[odd ember]

it might be just based on the file type. if there are other CSV types you could try and see if those work

equally you can double check that the notepad++ version actually shows the correct values in game

[vocal urchin]

Yeah, it's coming in correct. Just seems like anything saved by Excel is hosed. Weird

[odd ember]

are both files the same size in your OS?

[vocal urchin]

yep, down to the byte

Which is what really doesn't make sense 😄

I open then both side by side in Notepad++ and they're identical

[odd ember]

yeah that does sound weird

[vocal urchin]

Not a huge deal I guess. Can edit in Excel, open in Notepad, then save a final version. I shall accept the jank.

[odd ember]

might still be worth throwing the issue up on the forums and see if other people have similar issues

could be a bug

especially if it's UE5

[vocal urchin]

Latest version of UE4

Yeah I'll tinker with it and see if I can figure it

[torpid mulch]

How can I build strings with variables etc? I'm trying to print how many jumps I have done but the numbers alone with other prints makes me confuse :(

[jaunty summit]

You mean append

[torpid mulch]

Oh okay I can convert things and then use append, that's exactly what I wanted!!! Thank you so much again :')

[radiant pawn]

Is it possible to set an Animation Blueprint inside of Blueprints?

[onyx frigate]

Hello ! I have an issue with a VRpawn. I am trying to switch the camera but it doesn't work. Used activate / deactivate...

Tried with set view with blend but can't set it up correctly also ... I don't understand why

[jaunty summit]

If you mean to assign an animation BP to a certain mesh then yes. Simply press on the mesh and you see that in the details tab

[radiant pawn]

I'm trying to do it outside of the detail tabs and within the BP itself so I don't have to make separate actor BPs for each animation set if possible

[jaunty summit]

but can't set it up correctly
What do you mean by this. Also provide context(code and stuff) so we can help

[radiant pawn]

Found it from a video

[onyx frigate]

Well I am trying to create to have 2 different views inside a pawn in VR.
I have now 2 cameras inside. Camera one is auto activated, camera 2 is not.
Activate / deactivate doesn't seem to do anything except freezing the view (it doesn't switch).
Setviewtargetwith blend doesn't allow me to select the camera (because it's a component)

Should I combine both like deactivate cam 1, activate cam 2 ans set view target to self ? I tried different stuff but none worked up to now ...

[jaunty summit]

Ok you have 3 ways to implement this:

1. ToggleActive(which simply activates/deactivates). Though you would need to toggle activity on your spring arms too if you have any.
2. SetViewTargetWithBlend. Though you would need to make your cameras as child actor components instead of components.
3. Leave it as it is and suffer

[trim matrix]

Hello, I'm new to UE4
What should I connect on target?
I'm trying to reference a variable from third person character in the animation blueprint

[onyx frigate]

Thanks man, I'll try that !

Appreciated

[jaunty summit]

Are you sure you are casting to your BP class where this variable is defined?
Also why are you using GetPlayerPawn instead of TryGetPawnOwner?

[onyx frigate]

Other question: I am trying to create a thruster for a ship, and I want it to have a static mesh, and a thruster component (maybe more later).
I will have more than one thruster and I don't want to have to change/add each one individually by adding a thruster component and a child static mesh for each in the main actor ...
Scene and actor components doesn't have geometry capabilities.
I once used a child actor for that (which helps because I can do anything in it) and attached it on begin play to the main actor (ship).
Would you advise to do that ? Any other solution?

The main issue with child actor is I can't visualise it in the viewport of my main actor, and have to create it dynamically ... Which is not ideal

[jaunty summit]

TryGetPawnOwner is the right way to get the pawn in such a class

[trim matrix]

I think so

[onyx frigate]

Trygetpawnowner ...! Alright, good to know

[trim matrix]

Anyways, I'm trying to get a variable that tells if my character is on the ground inside the animation bp

[jaunty summit]

Where did you get that IsGrounded variable from?

If you really have that variable in that class then drag the pin out of the cast node and get that variable(search for it in the context menu)

[jaunty summit]

change/add each one individually
You don't. You simply add the thruster static mesh component to ship actor in editor(before runtime) and that gets added to each actor you spawn on runtime

[trim matrix]

ThirdPersonCharacterBP

[trim matrix]

When I do that It comes with target

[onyx frigate]

Yes but I want more than one thruster on my ship, and I want all to appear / behave the same (have a mesh, Appy thrust, showing a glowing cone when active for example)

[jaunty summit]

Ok that's from another BP, so it won't work

[onyx frigate]

If I were to add 4 thrusters in a pawn, I would have to add 4 mesh, 4 thruster comp, 4 Niagara emmiters ...

[jaunty summit]

Turn on Context Sensitive checkbox so you don't get a variable that isn't yours when you drag that pin out

[onyx frigate]

That's why in those cases I prefer to have one compound object is separate BP) with functions,that's why a child actor seems to be a good solution but before committing to that I would have liked to have your advice / view on it

I might have to create sockets (or use scene comp) to find the correct location when spawning then dynamically also

[jaunty summit]

I see. Yeah child actor components would provide you with the modularity you want, so I say have a go with them

[radiant pawn]

How would I want to set up basic AI components that I can add to different actors? Like I have a Random Roam setup on a character, but I'd like to be able to add it to characters who need it without every character holding that code if they don't need it.

[jaunty summit]

I'm not sure if there are better options though

[jaunty summit]

I haven't used them myself, so I can't tell if you need a scene component to spawn them in there, but if that's the case then yes the methods you mentioned might help you

[onyx frigate]

Thanks! have a good night here !

[jaunty summit]

Random Roam...that is done using a behavior tree and not a component, and simply every AI agent that is controlled by an AI controller that runs that behavior tree roams accordingly

[radiant pawn]

I stumbled on a tutorial on Behavior Trees right after I posted that lol, completely forgot about them because I haven't used UE in like 5 years

[jaunty summit]

Haha all good

[trim matrix]

thanks for the help, I fixed it

i love u

[silk inlet]

Hi, I am trying to export my gameplay into an mp4 within the game itself. I am using render target to work around it but there are some hiccups.

1. Is it even possible to export image sequence or better mp4 instead from the render target?
2. I am reading the replay system and it seems very complex and it still far from exporting the data into a rendered mp4

Another idea is to use level sequence, althought I am not very sure if this steps is possible:

1. Create blank level sequencer
2. Add tracks into the level sequence based on the gameplay
3. Export the level sequence later from the menu

Appreciate some suggestions on this!

[muted sapphire]

Im starting with something simple but im stuck, i have this cube that is red and when i shoot it it should turn green but it doesnt turn green when the bullet hits it only when my chracter collides with it.

using the fps template

[silk inlet]

Is this eventactorbeginoverlap on the bulletBP or characterBP?

[muted sapphire]

its on the cube

[gusty scroll]

i'm not expert, but what i do here is from other actor, cast to bullet, then set material. the event overlap will check if the cube and bullet overlap then continue with its path.

[gusty scroll]

hey, would something like this work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te_cP7PJdcA

[vapid grotto]

I have only one "Character Class" for both " AIcontroller and CharacterController " and I want to access hand sphere collision component from overlap event from pin Other Actor from Character Class. for example short video but two char clss(AI+char) https://youtu.be/vi1zY4TqTHk?t=108 he use cast to 3rd person class from npc char class which i dont have 2 class to differentiate for casting to get component & variable. Can't use AI controler to get hand sphere collision comp bcoz hand sphere collision component is present in Character Class.

How can i get reference to hand collision comp ?

[gentle urchin]

Isnt it part of your char?

[vapid grotto]

yes it is

i need pass other actor (AIController ) detect hit in npc char in overlap event node

[gentle urchin]

O.o

Doubt you can hit the aicontroller

[vapid grotto]

Why?

[gentle urchin]

Its a controller

Not ment to be hit?

[vapid grotto]

but npc will posses char class which has capsule right to detect

[gentle urchin]

So you wanna hit the char class

[vapid grotto]

of npc

[gentle urchin]

Soo... char class 😄

Or basically whatever actor that the npc is

[vapid grotto]

yes

[gentle urchin]

No need for the aicontroller at all

[vapid grotto]

how do I do it ?

when I set other actor pin to sphere component it it trigger montage in all npc and player character when game start. than it will not detect on player capsule as well as on NPc capsule

[gentle urchin]

Show some code

[gentle urchin]

Not even sure where to begin

[silk inlet]

Nope i want the recording to happen in the game environment almost like a replay system

[vapid grotto]

middle section from overlap event pin only rest other stuff

[silk inlet]

You need to make the overlap actor about the bullet not the actor inside the cube bp. Or you can make the cube bp overlap inside the bullet bp

[vapid grotto]

highlighted nodes only

[gentle urchin]

Not what I ment but ok 😅 the incoming actor(other actor) is gonna be whoever you hit

If you're using ue4s default damage interface, ypu can simply call "apply damage"

With the other actor as the target

[vapid grotto]

it showing error

[gentle urchin]

Why are you casting?

Dont cast

[vapid grotto]

did but still self geting in start game

[gentle urchin]

You should consider filtwring out self

[gentle urchin]

And perhaps activating/deactivating the collision when passive..

So to filter self just do != self on the othet actor

So BeginOverlap -> branch(OtherActor != Self) -TRUE> apply damage

[vapid grotto]

not working

[timid thunder]

Instead of using a not equal you could make a ref to the thing your seeing what is not equal to
(Get all actors of class on begin play)
(The array loop through all of them then make the ref)
(If you want it to be equal make an == not an !=)

[gentle urchin]

It should not be equal

Good practice to work off true paths of branches

Must connect Other actor to the chevk tho

And no need for the second comparator

[vapid grotto]

tried that too

[gentle urchin]

Then on true, apply damage

[vapid grotto]

yes i tried this one

[gentle urchin]

This is the way 😄

This would work

And if it doesnt, then there are other bugs to fix aswell

[gentle urchin]

Still not connected

Other actor

[vapid grotto]

check this one out 😂

[gentle urchin]

Hardcoding for a specific actor in a dynamic damage system is a pretty bad advice imho. Should rarely if ever be done

[vapid grotto]

ok

[gentle urchin]

Did you connect the other actor pin?

If so, show me

[vapid grotto]

no left apply damage node as you told before

[gentle urchin]

This is not what my image showed....

[vapid grotto]

if equal AI controler with AND its not working even to detect

[gentle urchin]

Its not gonna be aicontroller. Forget that

[vapid grotto]

i didn't blue line

i check

[gentle urchin]

If you follow my drawing, it will work..

[vapid grotto]

it works but it hit own capsule similar as 👆🏼

[gentle urchin]

Disable collision when hands are passive?

[vapid grotto]

i don't understand what you mean by passive hand

[gentle urchin]

When he's just holding it to his face

He's in a passive stance

No damage being applied

What id do is disable collision untill explicitly enabled

And use a notifystate to enable it during a montage

[vapid grotto]

ok i will try notifystate

[oblique siren]

Is there a way to get the pixel-color(or any way to get the colour) under the cursor ?

[fleet cedar]

I have a blueprint with two box collisions in it. I'm trying to check which one is being overlapped on a custom event. I did "Get Overlapping Actors" and "Get overlapping Component", how can I see if the component is the box collision?

[zealous fog]

I'm not 100% sure and can't test now but I believe if you drag the component into the blueprint you can then drag off a get overlapping actors node

[gentle urchin]

Could you not detect on begin overlap?

Looking like a tunnel, it would probably have a custom collision channel anyways?

[fleet cedar]

I can't do begin overlap because the actors are overlapping before I want to call the event

And I can't drag the component in because it's in a different blueprint 😦

[gentle urchin]

Only if you have collision enabled

[fleet cedar]

hmmm

If I turned the collision on and they're already overlapping would that get called?

[gentle urchin]

I believe so

You could also trace it

On place, trace , ignore self, and get the hit piece , if any

If you wanted to go for a trace id place sockets on the tunnel/pipe mesh, and do a trace per socket :)

[fleet cedar]

Thank you!

[maiden wadi]

I don't think that this is possible with blueprints only. You could probably use C++ to pull the actual pixel color at the cursor location on screen.

[oblique siren]

Thanks mate. I can do C++, I just need the direction to it. I'll ask in that channel

[dapper iron]

Is there anything similar to a branch/switch node that can be used in pure functions?
I have a function that I want to keep pure as it only calculates a value and makes no changes to the class, but I want the value to be different based on the value of a boolean variable.
Basically a if (a) return aVal; else return bVal;
Does anything like this exist?

[maiden wadi]

You can have branches and switches in pure functions.

If you're looking for something already created, that sounds like a Select node.

[dapper iron]

Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for, thanks 🙂

[fleet cedar]

Getting there, thanks @gentle urchin

[gentle urchin]

Sweet

[dapper iron]

@maiden wadi Not sure I understand your first point though.
My understanding was that pure functions have no exec pins, which the branch node requires. How can a pure function have a branch node in that case?

[maiden wadi]

Pure implies that the function itself doesn't have execution lines. You can have execution switching inside of the pure function itself.

[dapper iron]

But what triggers them then? Since you can't have any initial exec edge to connect to the first node.

[mental trellis]

You need some event to trigger it.

That won't ever be called in its current state

[maiden wadi]

You can't do that in a macro. Macros aren't Functions exactly.

[mental trellis]

Can you not do select on bool?

Involves no exec pins

[gentle urchin]

Usually there can be a oneline statement for whatever you're trying to do anyways 😄

[dapper iron]

Ooh, a function always has an input exec pin even if it's pure and not connected by the calling graph.
That's what I was missing.

[mental trellis]

A pure function shouldn't have an exec pin when you place it in the graph, though

[dapper iron]

That's what I was confused about. I didn't realize it still HAD one internally. Even if it doesn't show when the function is called.

[mental trellis]

Also select on bool

[maiden wadi]

Most times macros have very niche uses. I don't think I've even had a use for them at work. 😄

[dapper iron]

And yes, I can, that's what @maiden wadi showed me before. Was just curious about this point he made 🙂

[gentle urchin]

Manual forloops? 😄

[dapper iron]

That wasn't even a macro actually, just a collapsed node group 😅

[gentle urchin]

ForEachLoopWait etc 😄

ForEachWaitLoop may be more accurate really 🤔

[dapper iron]

Anyway, thanks for all your help, now I both have the answer I was looking for AND a bit more info on the engine on the way 😛

[undone surge]

is there a specific recommnded limit to the number of variables before it starts causing problems

[mental trellis]

17

[undone surge]

damn

[mental trellis]

(no)

[undone surge]

xD

[gentle urchin]

Its a problem when you run out of memory

So you should be fine up untill some millions

Yeah you'll prob cap that way before memory is an issue

[weak widget]

Is it possible to pass a value into a binding?

I have to bind a bunch of images and all the binding functions do essentially the same thing just for different item IDs

So I would rather just use the same bind function for all of them while just passing in a different ID for each.. if that's possible?

[dapper iron]

You know, this comment made me think, what exactly is the difference between a collapsed node group and a macro?
They're both basically converted in-line for compilation, and are both private only, aren't they?
I can't seem to find info on this on google, just macros vs functions stuff.

[gentle urchin]

Yes

Just add the input to the signature

[weak widget]

How do I do that?

[gentle urchin]

In the declaration of the dispatcher

[weak widget]

I understand none of those words sorry um

[tight schooner]

Other than the reusability of macros, I can't think of a difference

[gentle urchin]

Click on the dispatcher in the left side panel, look in the right side details panel for the + sign that adds variables almost at the very top

[dapper iron]

Eh, I guess that's enough of a reason actually.

[weak widget]

I see nothing in dispatchers

Oh wait

OnVisibilityChanged?

[gentle urchin]

Noo, show me what you see I guess

[weak widget]

Alright

So for example on binding this Text

This is what I see

[gentle urchin]

First , dont use bindings for that 😬

[weak widget]

Oh why not?

[gentle urchin]

They give you a penalty in performance for no good at all

You should update it event-driven

[weak widget]

Oh um alright

[gentle urchin]

So like a custom event -> "Update"which has the pins you need

[weak widget]

Rightt I see

[gentle urchin]

Then you call that whenever appropriate

[weak widget]

But then

Can that event be seen across different classes?

[gentle urchin]

Well yes,

But hopefully you dont need it being called from all over the place 🤞

[maiden wadi]

Collapsed graphs can't have local variables. Other than that and the reusability that Seanny mentioned, there's no real difference.

[weak widget]

Right yeah it's just that each item slot is a widget and then the inventory UI itself is another widget

[dapper iron]

Macros can't have them either though, since they're treated by the engine as part of the main graph.

[weak widget]

So I'd need to update the values firstly when the item slot is clicked (when something is updated) and also when the inventory is opened

[gentle urchin]

You update it when an item is added, removed

[tight schooner]

Well, if you bust open the For Loop macro, you might see an unusual node...

[weak widget]

No yeah but this is specifically for the display of the currently equipped items

Sorry should've specified that

[gentle urchin]

Updated on equip

And the same idea for hovering with a single widget

[dapper iron]

There's a node for defining local variables? ._.
Doesn't that go against the way blueprints are structured?

But you can hide variables from showing in the details panels anyway.
Still, weird that functions have actual local variables while macros need to use these nodes. Confusing for sure.

[maiden wadi]

I didn't find it very weird. But then I've never developed outside of UE4. So it all kinda just makes sense to me. 😄

[gentle urchin]

No experience with other engines? Me neither, was wondering if I should try some just for the sake of it 😅

[dapper iron]

Oh, I would very much recommend Unity then 😄

[maiden wadi]

I have had Unity and CryEngine installed at one point. Even subscribed to UE4 when it first released. Never did anything with them though. I think I drug a few meshes into levels.

[dapper iron]

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying Unreal so far, some of the things here are SUPER cool.
But Unity is just SO much easier to do things in. Unreal tends to complicate a lot even the very simplest of tasks.

[earnest tangle]

If you understand what macros actually do it makes more sense

You can think of a macro as something that just gets copypasted into the graph where you use it

that's why you can't have variables in them

[dapper iron]

Also, imagine an engine that lets you compile code without having to close it, how crazy is that? 😄

[dapper iron]

Which is why the existence of the local variable node is confusing to me.
But I guess that's why it's needed since it can't just be a simple variable for that very reason, so it's just simulating it somehow.

[earnest tangle]

Yeah

[gentle urchin]

That IS crazy!

Live coding is on its path tho^^

[lucid nebula]

Wait wrong channel lemme delete

[dapper iron]

My biggest peeve with Unreal so far.
Not even gonna call it a pet one 😄

[summer jetty]

What's the best practice for saving variables on shutdown (I've seen several different methods)? I save everything to the game instance during play, then update the savegameslot variables with that data on a manual log out. However, what about random shutdowns where the logout process isn't used? Do I just do a savegametoslot based off the game instance shutting down?

(the above doesn't seem to save the pawn location, so I'm wondering what order things shut down in and if I need to save in a different order?)

[empty needle]

Does anyone know the blueprint binding that you use to get the rotation of an Oculus VR Thumbstick?

[lucid nebula]

you can make a autosave system

[summer jetty]

Ok, I've never heard of that. I'll look it up. Cheers!

[lucid nebula]

i have a really messy system i gotta fix up but this is what ive done

to call it i use this code and it displays a autosave icon

[true valve]

How do increase swim speed?

[stable steeple]

Hello, if anyone has experience with Unity Bolt, please tell me.
I am now resenting Unity and I refuse to use code, I want to use visual programming, however I have come across some bugs and limitations in Unity.
Many people tell me that there are more training videos and materials on Unity, as well as Unity itself is easier to learn. Is it really true? I will say again that I want to use visual programming and nothing else.
I hope I asked a question there)

[quartz glade]

Can anyone here explain why child actors are "so bad"? I was searching for some stuff, and all the comments in here keep saying they are "so bad" to and to avoid them, but I cant see any specific reasons why that is the case?

[valid hill]

I'm trying to grab an object, it can be one of three objects. Right now when I try to grab I'm casting it to each three (goes on next when it fails) but that seems clunky. How would I check better if the object is one of the three I need?

Is it something with enumeration or structure?

[quartz glade]

Sorry - thats what I meant. So if I have Blueprint A, and I drag Blueprint B into it as a child - that is "bad"?

Is the correct way to instead spawn Blueprint B and attach it manually during EventBeginPlay and save a reference to it?

But why is that "better"?

ok thanks

[icy dragon]

In terms of Unity's C# scripting, yes, more plentiful training videos and (relatively) easy to learn. But scaling that up and you could be more dependant on the asset store than you should be.

In terms of visual scripting, Bolt is still in a messy affair, compared to Unreal's Blueprint. BP is more stable, feature rich, and even extendable with C++.

[mental trellis]

Unity one seems a bit of a... bolt on ?

[icy dragon]

Please, I don't have a personal drum kit yet 😢

[stable steeple]

@trim matrix @icy dragon Thank you for your responsiveness. There is also an opinion that you can’t create games on Unity Bolt, except for the simplest ones. Is there a similar opinion regarding the Unreal engine?
I am currently creating a 2D platformer on Unity (by the way, does the Unreal engine support 2D spaces?) with an open world and NPCs that travel between locations in real time, as well as NPCs interacting with objects and the player. In the case of NPC pathfinding, I use an asset, I work out the rest on my own, do you want to say that there are already ready-made solutions in the Unreal engine or did I misunderstand?

[mental trellis]

Not necessarily complexity, but just features.

Certain things you just can't do in BPs

[icy dragon]

I personally don't use Unity Bolt apart from just shits and giggles.
But with your proposed gameplay, which sounds like Zelda 2, it's possible to do so in UE. If BP isn't up to task, you can always make functions in C++ and then expose it to BP.

[stable steeple]

And what about 2D space and built-in ready-made solutions (for example, the same pathfinding (Unity has a built-in, but it does not support 2D))

sounds intriguing

[gentle urchin]

assuming there's a navmesh^

[icy dragon]

It only took few clicks to put navmesh on the map, so no big deal

[gentle urchin]

yes* (not a straight forward answer)

Kine was just mentioned

"good" game is a very personal matter

advanced is relatively generic

what is considered advanced?

Proc gen? Will benefit greatly from c++, but is it a must? Not with a very sophisticated code I suppose

You'll have to work around performance bumps from time to time, which may or may not be a problem in c++ aswell,

and there's certain limits to what you can do/access/control in BP alone, altho you can almost always get around this somehow

Bright Memory is apparently blueprint only project

Into the stars is close to pure bp

For those things you cannot directly do in bp already, there's pretty much always a plugin ready for you

Custom gravity being one of the things that comes to mind that is if not impossible, atleast difficult to make in bp alone

Im a bit surprised that theres no "lists" of bp only games

Would be nice with some overview of some sort

[stable steeple]

I'll ask a little differently (sorry for the slightly incomprehensible text, I use google translate). In Unity, to create a game in 2D, you had to use a lot of crutches. I had difficulty with character physics in 2D space.

1. Is there support for 2D space with corresponding functionality support? (This question exists because Unity 2D has support, but built-in features like "pathfinding" and a huge number of "assets" are not supported.)
2. Is there shader support for sprites?
3. I'm extremely disappointed with Unity Bolt, it's what got me into game development. But at the same time, I can't think of people who would say that Baa2 satisfies the needs for 2D space well.
   I can turn to YouTube, but tell me, is the 2D support full or incomplete?
   These are my last questions.

[icy dragon]

Probably, but in Unreal, it's best if you think of it like 2.5D.
Paper2D is the one that gave you sprites, but it's a bitch to work with, and AFAIK not supporting materials.

[broken wadi]

I remember Zak Parrish from Epic saying something like 90% of Fortnite is made using BP during one of his dev days presentations.

[stable steeple]

@icy dragon By the way, lighting exists only in 3D view?
So there are no other types of lighting designed for 2D?

[icy dragon]

Pretty much, yeah.
Again, it's way easier if you think of it as 2.5D

[gentle urchin]

like Sackboy 😄

[stable steeple]

@trim matrix @icy dragon I appreciate your answers, thank you.

[icy dragon]

Or that one 2.5D pixel game that got presented in one of those Unreal events

I forgot what it's called, but IIRC the MC was an anthropomorphic raccoon

[digital palm]

Hello guys, need help on these. I have an array of enum with all available weapons. And another variable (with the same enum) of the current selected weapon. On mouse wheel up and down, I want to incr/decr this value. Any idea?

[gentle urchin]

Backbone?

[icy dragon]

Yes!

That's what I'm referring to

[stable steeple]

I saw the development details of this game when I started learning about Unity. This game is a full 3D space. It looks nice and stylish, but it's not 2D.

[gentle urchin]

most things is full 3d space

[icy dragon]

Can't help but felt you're proactively avoiding the term "2.5D"

[gentle urchin]

doesnt mean you have to use its depth

unless its like some pixel engine

[icy dragon]

Also FWIW 2D in Unity is still 3D

(even Shovel Knight's engine is an ortho 3D engine)

Though I should say this:
Orthographic view in Unreal sucks

Perspective 3D with super narrow FOV is better than trying to get true ortho view

[undone surge]

if i am in a parent class and want to get variable values from a child class when i cast to the child do i reference to self ?

[icy dragon]

Parent class have no idea about child classes by itself. You should still give it the reference to them, save for the need to do casting.

(at most you'd replace casting with just IsValid for housekeeping)

[stable steeple]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean this misunderstanding. I realize that in Unity, too, everything is in 3D space. I just emphasize that tools sharpened for 3D will not produce the result that we would like for pixel art. Maybe I don't know Unreal enough.

[gentle urchin]

You dont cast to the child class

Usually I'd think you'd have some function for this value

keeping some unknown logic in the parent can then use this function which may have been overriden in a child class to give a different value

the parent will get the correct child value

so to speak

[mild pine]

Hey guys, anyone able to tell me how this is printing different values?:
The location of the SpawnDecalAttached is the ImpactPoint of my trace. But, when I get the location of the spawned decal its completely off:

Impact VFX works, so this is odd

[undone surge]

so like my parent class a different value for a variable but my child class had a different one , how do i get it to get the variable value of the child

[icy dragon]

I'd say you have to think out of the box a bit.
Unless you have your game to be rendered in true low resolution (with integer upscaling), need pixel perfect movement, you can do what you want to do in Unreal just fine, regardless of the sprite art style.

[gentle urchin]

Let me show you an example

[undone surge]

ok

[gentle urchin]

in my parent class i do this logic on beginplay

parent has declared the function for retrieving the value

return 0

in my child, i've overriden this

which now will return 5

the same would be true for a variable really,

modified in the child, the "parent logic" would still read the real child value,

if its in fact an instance of that child

[stable steeple]

@icy dragon Okay, I'll try, anyway, it's better to try it yourself. Thank you.

[undone surge]

but since i have same name variables for all my child classes how will i tell whihc one is returnng which

[gentle urchin]

same name? what do you mean?

[undone surge]

this is my parent class for guns and each child class for the gun has diff ammo and stuff so if i am doing the function in parent class how would i get the variable values for the different guns

[undone surge]

^

[gentle urchin]

You'd just read the values from the variables

if this a child instance, it will be the childs value

[undone surge]

this is in the parent class

[gentle urchin]

right

but the variables are editable in children

[undone surge]

yes

[gentle urchin]

so you can read them straight up with the parent logic

[undone surge]

but then how will it know which one to read

[mental trellis]

If you edit the child class variables, it will only change to that in instances of the child class

[gentle urchin]

In the parent again, i can have a MaxAmmo variable, and print on beginplay

which I in the child modify

the parent logic will now read 5, if the spawned actor is in fact of the child type

[undone surge]

ahhhh

i see

so even if i initalize parent variable value to 0 but if in child class my value is 5 and i do get ammo it will give me 5 ?

[gentle urchin]

yes

even if the cast were to be to the parent class

assuming there's a cast in the picture

[undone surge]

i see

ok

thanks ill try this

[gentle urchin]

I'm horrible at explaining this tho, sorry about that 😄

[undone surge]

no its fine ill do what i need to and if something happens il let u know

[mental trellis]

You should really learn about polymorphism!

[undone surge]

yea im new to this sorrryy

[gentle urchin]

big word 😛

[odd ember]

well if you're doing inheritance anyway polymorphism is basically the concept of that

[dawn quarry]

you can do inheritance without polymorphism at first though

the concept that A is really just B isnt obvious to beginners

[mental trellis]

That's why you should learn about it! 😄

[undone surge]

@mental trellis @gentle urchin one more thing im confused about. lets say if i hav ammo variable in parent and i have it in gun1 child and gun2 child and in parent i want to call ammo variable for both how will it know whether to get gun1 ammo or gun2 ammo

[mental trellis]

Because you specify what ammo it is in the gun1 or gun2 child class.

Or how much ammo or whatever.

[undone surge]

how do i speciffy whihc child to get from

[gentle urchin]

you dont

[undone surge]

oh

[mental trellis]

You create an actor

That actor has a class

If it's gun1, it will be your gun1 stuff

If it's gun2, it will be your gun2 stuff.

[gentle urchin]

^

[dawn quarry]

your ammo variable is the same as that of the parent

[undone surge]

i see

[dawn quarry]

it refers to the same data

[mental trellis]

Sort of.

[dawn quarry]

i mean there isnt aditionnal data created between the parent and the child as far as the variable is concerned

which is basically the idea behind the name blueprint

the blueprint for the child is based on the blueprint of its parent but in the end you have one product

[gentle urchin]

If you dont modify the child(or override the method) in a child, it will be the same as the parents aswell

so "Fire Gun" could exist in the parent

with some default one shot one bullet logic

[mental trellis]

It's basically built on layers.

[gentle urchin]

but then you could override this function in a child_shotgun which could do this differently

[mental trellis]

One on top of the other.

[gentle urchin]

while child_pistol could still use the default method (defined in the parent)

[undone surge]

ooo so basically in bp_thirdperson im casting to a special child class for a certain gun so itll get the variable from that child class i select when i do spawn actor from class

[mental trellis]

If you don't change something in the child layer, it will look down to the layer below. If that doesn't change it, the next one. And so on until it finds the most "recent" version.

[gentle urchin]

You would usually just cast to a Master_Gun class,

[deep gale]

Hi everyone, I'm a new indie dev learning Unreal Engine 5 with Blueprint. I am trying to get the Kill Z from the world settings and have the player respawn at start once colliding with it. Can someone help me understand what im doing wrong?

[gentle urchin]

Can you even read the KillZ in blueprint??

[mental trellis]

I mean, why would you need the killz, doesn't the player just automatically die when they get there?

It's just a case of respawning them.

[gentle urchin]

True that

If dead -> respawn 😛

[deep gale]

How would I do that? Im new to Unreal.

[mental trellis]

It'd be in your game mode somewhere I guess.

[deep gale]

Im using the template for third person if that helps

[gentle urchin]

you can fetch it with "Destroyed" if you want to react inside the same bp, altho i dont think you can "cancel" its destruction

[broken wadi]

There are a few different ways to “respawn” you can for instance use a DestroyActor node then SpawnActorFromClass or another way is to instead teleport your character via a SetActorTransform node. If you choose to do destroy and spawn then you’ll also need to Posses the characters after. There’s lots of resources out there for this type of thing.

[gentle urchin]

Many also prefer not actually destroying the actor in the first place, due to stuff being saved in the char that you'd then need to reload etc etc

so it may be easier to just fake destroy it, teleport it, and go from there

[deep gale]

Okay, thanks for the help everyone

[dawn quarry]

how do you prevent destruction when reaching killz?

[odd ember]

how do you mean?

you want to kill something and leave a body?

[dawn quarry]

how to you prevent the actor from being destroyed

i mean where does the logic happens in the first place

[odd ember]

just don't call destroy? 😂

[gentle urchin]

You'd need to block it before it reaches killZ

[odd ember]

oh kill Z

my bad

[gentle urchin]

it's done in the level I think?

[odd ember]

world setting sets kill z

I believe setting it to 0 disables it

[dawn quarry]

nope

[odd ember]

https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/g1axwx/can_the_kill_z_volume_be_toggled/

quick google reveals this

you can do so in world settings under "enable world bounds check"

[gentle urchin]

but not where the logic exist

[dawn quarry]

so you cant just really overide the logic

before it gets destroyed

[odd ember]

right but what good is the logic to you

[gentle urchin]

it is virtual, so should be possible to override?

[dawn quarry]

oh nice

[odd ember]

not in BP

[dawn quarry]

yeah

[gentle urchin]

in c++, without engine modification

[odd ember]

but yeah if you're doing cpp

but you might as well make a custom volume with your own logic?

[gentle urchin]

true

was mostly checking for curiosity

[dawn quarry]

^

[maiden wadi]

"And handle the situation." ~Dun-Dun-Dun!

[gentle urchin]

Unrelated but i must come clean and confess. I got Sushi today aswell.

[mental trellis]

Sushiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Join us in #food

[slow flint]

Hello i dont understand why i can not call the function updatehealth from the other blueprint . it just doesnt appear . ( nothing appears ) . pls help this is killing me

[undone surge]

referenced variables update immediately right ? would i matter if i connected the same variable to multiple conditions ?

[mental trellis]

It would not.

[undone surge]

thank you

[maiden wadi]

Compile the HUD BP

[undone surge]

How do i get a delay node inside a function

[mental trellis]

You don't.

[undone surge]

rip

[mental trellis]

Create an event, add the event trigger to your main graph and do it that way

[undone surge]

alrigh thnx

[slow flint]

i did already many times . saved. restarted . compiled . it wont see any functions inside that playerhud blueprint

[maiden wadi]

Odd. Looks like it's the correct type.

[grand valve]

Not sure if its related but why is your HUD an Editor Utility Widget not a User Widget

[maiden wadi]

Oh, that'll do it. I didn't even look at the base class. 😄

That's odd though. I could see it not working, but I wonder why it stops function calls in other graphs.

[jaunty jolt]

Im using Vinterp To to move my rabbit instances.
Thats working great. However now i need to also make them hop while they Vinterp To.
Should i add another Vinterp To that does this, like in the middle of the moving vinterp?
How can i make this work?

[gentle urchin]

Do a sine on tick? 😄

Add delta, subtract delta

[vivid sedge]

Hello guys, a little question right now i make the movment forward/backward and rotation left and right so its all working but when i look right the movment goes strait and doesnt change the directory.
First picture rotation, second move forward

[gentle urchin]

Wouldnt one do this purely in the animBP?

The jump anim that is

[jaunty jolt]

I'm doing all by vinterp to. I thought instances didnt allow movement other way. Should i do it all with animation? I didnt study that part yet too well.

[fathom birch]

has anyone attempted the wave function collapse algorithm in blueprints?

[odd ember]

timelines are really good for this

[gentle urchin]

If this is ISM/HISM you could look at baked vertex animations

https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/vertex-animation-toolset-crowd-rendering/132246

[jaunty jolt]

yes its an instanced static mesh

thank you all. will try to do an animation first

[gentle urchin]

May i ask why its an ism? Are you doing a rabbit farm? 😄

[jaunty jolt]

its a rabbit war. and they reproduce like they do 🙂

so i decided to make them instances. because they are many

but its very good on performance, right?

[gentle urchin]

Nah doing it in the material is pretty cheap

Ah, yeah

Moving ism/hism easily becomes costly

[jaunty jolt]

because of the vinterp to ?

[slow flint]

Hello i dont understand why i can not call the function updatehealth from the other blueprint . it just doesnt appear . ( nothing appears ) . pls help this is killing me

[gentle urchin]

A good chunk of the cost simply comes from sending the new transforms to the gpu , or whatever magic happens in the "UpdateInstanceTransform" node

[jaunty jolt]

that is what im doing 😦 . i thought it was better than creating thousands of rabits and moving them around

[gentle urchin]

It is

By far

But still not free

[jaunty jolt]

i saw a video of a lot of characters being animated in youtube. using instances

that is why i decided to go this route

[gentle urchin]

How many do you need?

[jaunty jolt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUnbiPCl78Q

this was the video

[gentle urchin]

Heheh

Dont get fooled by this

[jaunty jolt]

i need many many. like in the video

[gentle urchin]

Its no easy feat

[jaunty jolt]

but they are instances right?

[gentle urchin]

Very custom ones

Not sure if this was using the custom instanced skel mesh?

Cant recall

[jaunty jolt]

i another video it says instance skeletal mesh

instance skeletal mesh is different from instanced static mesh?

[gentle urchin]

Yes

And its custom custom

With a lot of tinkering

[jaunty jolt]

mine are sprites, so i dont need skeletal right?

[gentle urchin]

True

[jaunty jolt]

so im on the right way 🙂

thats also an option

[gentle urchin]

But how many flipbooks can one do before issues arise i wonder

Swapping them for imposters might be something to consider aswell

Unless flipbooks got logic for that internally..

Which i doubt

[obtuse yoke]

Is it possible to get the Emitter to spawn at a specific socket from the given skeletal mesh?

I thought so but then there is this function where it specifically says Socket Name

Aah ok ok

I'll give it a go then

[jaunty jolt]

What do you mean switching by imposters?

converting them to actors and move them?

[gentle urchin]

Swapping flipbooks out for regular sprites, if it saves you performance

[deft nimbus]

Hello people! What's the best way to limit a top down cameras (working with spring arm) area where you can scroll around? Like the cam in League of Legends

[restive token]

what's a good way to mimic wasd/dpad movement on a stick? to limit the stick movement to 8 directions only

[odd ember]

clamp input to nearest half value

[deft nimbus]

Oh I found something called camera blocking volume.... xD

[restive token]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si2FOOkvwus&ab_channel=MathewWadstein

[misty tulip]

Does anyone know why I can add a timeline node to some actor components but not others?

[odd ember]

I don't think timeline components work within actor components at all

only within actors

I'm also pretty sure they require a world

just like actors do

[misty tulip]

ah i see the problem I was trying to use it in an interface actually

it works in the event graph

[gentle urchin]

While not the best of advices, you can pass a timer handle in to a component 😄

[scenic magnet]

Is it set to public?

Is there a shortcut to connecting the execution wire, if I have A->C and want to insert/remove node B between them, without having to manually re-wire everything? (Also is there one when you remove, can you delete B and have it reconnect A to C automatically?)

[odd ember]

timer requires world as well

[gentle urchin]

Theres a plugin

[gentle urchin]

I ment timeline* not sure why i said timer

[scenic magnet]

Cool, any idea what it's called? 🙂

[gentle urchin]

Cant recall, sorry

Node Graph assistant?

Yeah seems like it

[odd ember]

same issue

[smoky surge]

Hello world i have a very important question how could i make a stacking mechanic? i want it to be so one player jumps on a actor and you control the actor that you jumped on.

[gentle urchin]

Not an issue when you pass it in from the owning actor , circumventing the issue

[wooden wagon]

If you have problems with Tileable Textures and don't know how to fix the size of the texture (for example: for a floor), you can copy that blueprint.

my bad. thought i can post it here bc of blueprint

[elder mango]

so I have multiple animations for a fps character. there are ones like walking, walking forward/sideways etc... What would be the easiest way to smoothly transition between these animations?

[undone surge]

What is the construction script supposed to hold

[gentle urchin]

Anything and nothing

Things like simple procedural actors may do their magic there

Its ran in editor whenever an actor is constructed(or moved)

[undone surge]

i se

e

[jade agate]

Hey ya'll--why am I not getting the '? is Valid' version here?

[gentle urchin]

Its an array

You must fetch an element first

[raven oxide]

Got a question regarding possessing a Pawn that has another pawn in it.

I have a vehicle that is controlled by the player (BP Pawn) and I have a socket in the mesh for a Camera which sits elsewhere that is populated by another Pawn that I want to have another player control or:

1 Pawn = 2 different player inputs (one driver, and one camera operator)

Vehicle is the parent to the camera

[earnest tangle]

Only one controller can possess a pawn a a time so you'd have to come up with some kind of other system than possessing it

[gentle urchin]

Two pawns , so it should be fine

[earnest tangle]

Alternatively you could have the camera be a separate actor attached to the car, so it could be possessed individually

[gentle urchin]

^ thats how i read it but perhaps im mistaken^^

[earnest tangle]

Yeah not sure, it sounded like it was part of the same pawn given 1 pawn=2 diff inputs :)

[gentle urchin]

True, it was an interesting explanation^^

[raven oxide]

Sorry I could have been clearer, but the idea is that I have a vehicle Pawn that has a camera that's attached to it

[gentle urchin]

I was thinking like battlefield car driving etc but not sure if thats even close to it

[raven oxide]

but from what you're saying I can just make the camera a child of the vehicle so you can have individual inputs

in the world editor I assume

[raven oxide]

That's pretty close

Following your battlefield example it's the same idea as you and X number of players riding in the vehicle with their own functions like shooting, guiding, just riding, etc.

[gentle urchin]

Right

So each spot has a set of inputs to the car, or just a seat

[kindred remnant]

I've got a ball in my game and when I kick it, it flies off and destroys itself. I've tried to make a system where it respawns it back where it was, except when it comes back it barely moves as if the mass settings have made it way heavier. Anyone ran into an issue like this before? https://gyazo.com/b0de3f6533d22bcfca37a4a400ef9732

[gentle urchin]

They really just control their own camera, is some free mode

[raven oxide]

Yes

and going off what @earnest tangle said I can't do that unless I just have the BP Components childed-together?

(as separate pawns in the world editor)

[earnest tangle]

You can also spawn an actor from your car BP and attach it at runtime without having to set it up in the world editor

[raven oxide]

ah via the "AttachActorComponent" function?

[gentle urchin]

Right but the first player to enter (or whoever is in seat numero uno) should have control of the car

[raven oxide]

Yep, makes sense

I'll give that a shot, thanks y'all!

[kindred remnant]

I'd be very grateful if anyone could check out my question just above, any advice would be lovely pls

[earnest tangle]

Have you checked that the BP settings for it are correct? As in, you didn't update the ball's settings on the instance that is in the world and then forget to update it in the BP

Because if you're spawning the exact same BP it should behave the same as the first one did 🤔

[kindred remnant]

I'm not really sure to be honest! https://gyazo.com/b0de3f6533d22bcfca37a4a400ef9732

That's the blueprint for it, and it doesn't mention anything about changing any of the settings, All instances of the ball in the level have the exact same settings as well so I don't know how this could have happened!

Is there something in the blueprints where I need to tell it the specific settings?

[earnest tangle]

Well I mean if you change any of the settings like the weight in the details panel

If you adjust that in the one that's in the world, it won't change those settings in the blueprint it's based on, only on the one that's in the world

[kindred remnant]

Yeah for sure. I'm just trying to find the original blueprint now to see if that's any different (which, in theory it pretty much has to be LUL)

I'm actually an idiot. Yep, the weight is insanely different in the original BP. Thank you so much @earnest tangle !

[earnest tangle]

There's usually a small arrow indicator next to properties which have had their values changed, it's helpful for spotting these

[kindred remnant]

AH!!

Thank you!

[dusky thicket]

So... level blueprints. How do y'all prevent them from going out of control. My normal technique is to isolate independent parts and make subclasses of them... compose them in parts... but what's a good way to do this while maintaining level references?

My gut says:

• Create actors (or simple uobjects, but actors are flexible) for the specific things you want to do (ex: one class may control a set of level sequences).
• Drag all the references into the level blueprint.
• Have a function in the level blueprint to connect the level references with each thing's corresponding member variable reference (if it cares about that thing).
• Call the various methods (and handle the various events) from the actors in the level sequence.

Of course "just have a messy level blueprint" is a valid approach, but I'm curious what tricks have been thought of already... or if Epic has something already.

[smoky surge]

is there a tech support channel

or a help channel

[dusky thicket]

... for what type of tech support / help?

[smoky surge]

my ue just crashes when i use load level and throws this at me Log file open, 04/10/22 21:26:15
LogWindows: Failed to load 'aqProf.dll' (GetLastError=126)
LogWindows: File 'aqProf.dll' does not exist
LogProfilingDebugging: Loading WinPixEventRuntime.dll for PIX profiling (from ../../../Engine/Binaries/ThirdParty/Windows/WinPixEventRuntime/x64).
LogWindows: Failed to load 'VtuneApi.dll' (GetLastError=126)
LogWindows: File 'VtuneApi.dll' does not exist
LogWindows: Failed to load 'VtuneApi32e.dll' (GetLastError=126)
LogWindows: File 'VtuneApi32e.dll' does not exist

[dusky thicket]

Ohhhkay

[quasi folio]

even with context sensitive, I can't seem to get a "For Each Loop" here, is there a setting I need in the utility widget?

[marble tusk]

A handy shortcut to place a for each loop is to hold F and click

[dusky thicket]

Maybe ALevelScriptActor is a valid approach when Blueprints get too messy... ... ...

[undone surge]

whats the different between local variables and normal variables? local variables dont carry over to child classes ?

[dusky thicket]

If you were writing in C++:

class MyClass {
  int aMemberVariable = 1; //"Normal" variable.

  void someFunction() {
    int aLocalVariable = 2;
  }
};

Local variables are only available inside the function that they're declared in. Member variables are available all throughout the class (or externally if made public)

[undone surge]

ahhh so they are like the opposite of global variables

[dusky thicket]

Generally limiting how much can see your variable makes for bug-resistant code.

Well global variables would be visible everywhere.

[undone surge]

i mean like in the class

[dusky thicket]

Global -> That data is available literally everywhere in the process.
Member -> The data is available on a per-object-instance basis
Local -> The data is available on a per-function basis.

[undone surge]

i see

that helps

thank you

[dusky thicket]

Yeah

Sooooooooooooo

If your data only needs to persist within a function call, then make it local. If you need to refer back to the data over time, but within a specific object, then make it a member.

If you need to refer to data over time from many objects... ... ... ... globals work but there are cleaner / easier to maintain methods too... but I mean if you need to ship something then you need to ship something but you'll hate yourself later lol.

Basically, the more visibility you give other things into the inner workings of your stuff, then the more you'll need to support when they shoehorn in something sloppy to meet their goals.

Sloppy breeds sloppy.

The goal is to support as little as possible, but still accomplish your entire set of goals.

And yes this is less relevant if you're the only developer... if someone abuses something you made a little too public, then that abuser is also you and you'd know better. If there's multiple people, though, then they're just going to assume that you support literally everything you provide, and they'll come up with amazing ways of using it that you've never thought of and now are expected to support.

[gentle urchin]

And they will surely be creative

As we've seen way to many times

Timelines ran on tick for example 😄

[mossy mist]

anyone know how to take the dot product with some kind of tolerance

like dot product will return 0 if over 90 degrees

i want to like somehow change the barrier or something

[dusky thicket]

It's not clear what you want... do you want to guard against 0s? Clamp or Lerp.

[mossy mist]

oh wait nvm ty clamp will work

[elder mango]

how do i make it so it goes back to idle when the inspect animation is done?

[grand valve]

Theres a node in the state machine transitions called "GetRemainingAnimTime" or something like that. set it to be less than a certain threshold to start the blend back to Idle