i know the max speed
#ue4-general
steep rampart
steep rampart
idk what lerp is
static viper
you can do one thing tho
save the distance from the start
and use that as max
calculate it to 0 1
input into a lerp
proper raft
@steep rampart try writing out what precisely you want your equation to do in plain english - that often helps to figure out different ways to math it
static viper
writing it down wouldnt help bc he cant
he doesnt know the tool lerp
which is needed to solve the distance speed factor
steep rampart
im very new
static viper
they are a very basic piece of math tho.
fierce tulip
lerpyderpyswirlywhirly!
static viper
i usually have 10000 lerps in my materials
ue4 can lerp almost everything.
love is basicly lerp.
alpha sometimes is 0.7
but sometimes 0.4
most times tho
it 0.5
❤
only coders understand
static viper
i just expressed love
zinc rivet
wonder how the LERP shortening came about. I can't see how that's a reasonable shortening of linear interpolation
Linear intERPolation? LinEaR interPolation?
static viper
i literally EXPRESSED love
steep rampart
so lerps change things from one value to another based on alpha, and that can be determined how?
static viper
0 and 1
its all driven by this float range
0 and 1
imagine percentage
0.01 is 1%
0.56
steep rampart
yeha
zinc rivet
I think I'd have personally shortened it to Linear INTerpolation 😂
steep rampart
so what if i want the distance to be 1000 and the speed to be 0, but the distance to be 500 and the speed to be 300?
static viper
then at 0 it will be 600
so distance max / current cistance
wait no
.
that wrong
distance current / distance max
30 percent
so
- by 100
get percent
but in lerp
just apply to alpha
very straight
very easy
very basic
winged crypt
float range map clamped
zinc rivet
unless you're interpolating between 0 and a number for the distance, you're gonna need to take into account for the offset
static viper
save as max distance
and then you will need to check every second or less
current distance.
apply to a lerp that has max speed
and min speed
then set max speed.
i really want you to figure it out now
its not that hard now
abstract relic
static viper
he doesnt even know how distance math goes now
there are no basics here
he has no clue what vector length is
proper raft
even knowing the math, it might be difficult to conceptualize the translation into blueprints if you're not used to it
static viper
only logistic
zinc rivet
I'd expect the equation to do something like this
max distance = 1000
min distance clamped = 500
max speed = 300
min speed = 0
interpolated speed = lerp( min(max(current distance, min distance) - min distance, max distance - min distance), in range = 0->500, out range = 300->0)
not logic
static viper
the logic is the same
steep rampart
he went up to like, 6500 speed
static viper
well show code
static viper
lets go #blueprint @steep rampart
sterile bison
what does this icon mean in the thumbnail? never seen it before
inner cloak
I ended up purchasing a package named Mesh Tool by Mary Nate .. seems like the only way i'll be able to progress !!!
sage silo
someone can ppoint me to some resource about asset system in unreal? refactor here is terrible, terrible mess. you cannot move things, some crap always remains and god forbid you try to delete it unless you like losing half of level
inner cloak
I'm not having those issues and i manage pretty big assets ... what are you trying to do ?
steep ferry
^
sage silo
for example I moved one dir to another dir, now I have two of them and when I try to delete old, this shows up
sage silo
nope, no "replace" button
wtf is ObjectRedirector anyway and who thought it is great idea
context: I moved /entities/flamp to /entities/obects/flamp using move here option
some move here 😐
steep ferry
Damn im pretty relieved that unreal is allowing me to make the hand follow the camera
ashen eagle
@sage silo Redirectors are small files that get generated when you move assets. The reason you see two copies of the folder is because there is a redirector file residing there now. This is so that if any other asset references something from that folder, it will get redirected to the new location. This can be fixed by right clicking on said folder and selecting "Fix redirectors" or something along those lines. At which point is should be safe to remove the folder. So i think 🙂
ashen eagle
Great
autumn elbow
anyone using a laptop for Unreal dev?
steep ferry
Me
autumn elbow
I think unreal is using my Intel HD Graphics 4600 instead of my Nvidia
autumn elbow
I already set it in the Graphic prefs
steep ferry
Will you mind launching ue4 from its folder
click rmb on ue4editor.exe and select the processor you want to launch it with
autumn elbow
from the folder?
steep ferry
Haha good luck
autumn elbow
Thx!
steep ferry
no problem
autumn elbow
I will have to build a PC soon..my laptop is dying lol
autumn elbow
I dont know if I should get a desktop, or laptop
steep ferry
honestly depends what do you want to do
if you usually spend your time outside your house you should buy a laptop
obviously
if you're usually free at your house i'd preffer desktop
austere parcel
Hi. Does anyone know when Epic plans on including ARCore 1.7?
austere parcel
😞
steep ferry
;-;
austere parcel
on May 17 Epic announced 1.7 will be implemented in 4.23
well, 4.23 came and went and nothing
google forked it, but to build from github...
so much effort for us laymens
woeful wraith
it's worth being comfortable with building from source when dealing with more bleeding edge stuff
woeful wraith
Google's fork might use 1.9, not actually sure though
woeful wraith
lame. most of the big companies are lacking unreal devs to push this out faster
austere parcel
might not be enough interest
Unity has an older history of AR i assume, which would explain why they are on 1.9
manic pawn
if the trello says it's in 4.23 then it would be extremely strange for that to be wrong
they only put completed things there
austere parcel
it will probably make its way there with final
woeful wraith
they just get more hype and there are more unity devs
austere parcel
apparently arcore will only go up 1 version per ue version
so theoretrically it will take some time before we get to 1.9 😄
and all i wanted to do was map a new face for my wife
zinc rivet
is it consensual face-mapping?
woeful wraith
maybe use the "other engine" for something quick lol :)
austere parcel
lol
woeful wraith
also hololens? hololens doesn't use arcore
austere parcel
ye i know. but its the only visualization for my example of new wife face that made sense
instead of pointing phones at each other
😉
then again some hubs like that
zinc rivet
inb4 virtual kissing booths using rubber mannequin faces which are rendered over
austere parcel
1 step closer to total recall
woeful wraith
semitransparent head w/ a projector inside would do the trick
but getting it to animate is another dilemma
still doable
zinc rivet
I feel like you'd run into fidelity issues due to materials which are project-able and durable enough for that use case.
it'd have to be a pretty thick silicon or something
austere parcel
but getting it to animate is another dilemma drugs
woeful wraith
I reckon a clear plastic shell with a thinner layer of silicone or something might work
zinc rivet
it'd have to be optically clear though, which is challenging for something that would probably take a lot of abuse
meh
woeful wraith
it would be fun to experiment with but yes it probably wouldn't be amazing lol
zinc rivet
the bigger problem with inner projection would be that it glows in what's probably a dark booth. wouldn't look great
suppose AR would have the same problem though
woeful wraith
clipping plane on AR headset is always like a foot away
zinc rivet
ah yea that's a problem
austere parcel
perhaps that is why we are stockpiling diamonds
zinc rivet
clearly the only solution is to wait for implantable AR lenses with sub-inch clipping planes
austere parcel
agreed
woeful wraith
the reason they cite the the clipping plane is it's bad for the eyes to try focusing that close. but who knows
zinc rivet
interesting.
inner cloak
omg, so hard to do what i want with that mesh tool !!!!
zinc rivet
I wonder if you could do some fuckery with the focal length while preserving other distance signatures in order to simuilate a closer clipping plane without actually forcing the eyes to focus closer?
woeful wraith
hijacking the optic nerve would be cool :D
zinc rivet
yea I want cybernetic eyes yesterday. My organic ones are shit.
austere parcel
thats the only way imo. focusing on a projected image on your retina will result in various tears in your eye
i know
i had a floater mid vision and could not stop looking at it. does something weird with the pressure differences it causes from focusing so close
leads to tears
zinc rivet
huh. that's pretty weird, that you can actually injure your eyes by focusing on objects that are too close
austere parcel
yes. they are not meant to look in itself
zinc rivet
er you mean tears like actual rips, not liquid tears right?
woeful wraith
it does kind of hurt to do it, so makes sense that your body is telling you to stop
austere parcel
tears as in the goo inside detaches from the walls
zinc rivet
ouch
woeful wraith
it really whips the llamas ass
austere parcel
you dont see good music visualization apps anymore
zinc rivet
so many themes
woeful wraith
people still use milkdrop w/ winamp
zinc rivet
and pretty much all of them were skeuomorphic
people really loved their rendered dials, switches, and single color LED displays
zinc rivet
i think that music videos killed visualizers
austere parcel
maybe. or lazyness
cause just streaming something is ez. and streaming apps seldom have visualizers
zinc rivet
good and easy internet radio true. Lots of the time I just hit "Play related radio" on a good song and background the app
austere parcel
exactly.
the days are long gone where you have time to sit and listen music while just looking at bouncing lines
zinc rivet
and a lot of music playing also happens on phones, which you want to keep the screens off on as much as possible to preserve battery life
austere parcel
so one use case is playing music from your tv while you have a get together and want some cool stuff on your tv to show
other than that
zinc rivet
hm, true, but I think that when I stick something on the chromecast, album art is enough since it means that anyone can tell at a glance what's playing, but they're probably focused on other stuff like the board game / conversation
austere parcel
hmm. fair point
muted minnow
On that note, I'd love a visualizer on the Spotify app on my TV
austere parcel
i dont have a spotify app 😦
austere parcel
looks fake
woeful wraith
it's not fake lol
zinc rivet
i mean, the images might be renders
austere parcel
so where i was going with this is, why has no one made an awesome music visual thingy ma bob with UE
woeful wraith
UE sucks at reading data from audio
austere parcel
images are renders or really good photography
austere parcel
overkill... definitely. but amazing also
woeful wraith
unity on the other hand is very good at analyzing audio. you can find visualizers
austere parcel
let me search for some
woeful wraith
I know unreal has been working a lot on audio so it might have improved in the last few versions
there is actually an audio visualizer plugin made by epic, included with unreal, but it only runs in editor last I knew
ashen eagle
Anyone experiencing issues logging into the Launcher? Getting error message "Sorry, you are visiting our service too frequent..." First time seeing this.
real hound
Have a question regarding cpu expense. Is it more expensive to generate a lookup table for noise every tick and then do a lookup for a vertex (probably 400-500 vertices) or to generate a lookup ever couple seconds and then to vinterpto on each vertex?
Or, can anyone tell me a resource for ue4 or already built in that I can determine this myself by trying it both ways
Also, do separate mesh components on the same actor create their own individual draw calls?
fierce tulip
prolly expensive, but no experience on the matter.
As for the separate mesh comp. yes, each will have its own drawcall, and if they have multiple materials, +1 drawcall for each material after the first.
real hound
I am using a dynamic mesh, Koderz RuntimeMeshComponent. Should all be using one material, or maybe two or three at most. Just had some cool stuff working on a small scale but when I scaled it up my fps dropped to 10. Cpu bottle nexk. It wasnt from draw calls but I am redoing my methods and am really trying to focus on efficiency.
Hex mesh, each hex has 19 verts, each vert needs to change per frame. probably 19-40 hexes visible/created at a time depending on zoom
so worst case 800 calculation need to be done per tick.
Just not sure if a LUT or a vinterpto is less costly
woeful wraith
that should be no problem, I update way more verts than that on a procedural mesh in mobile without issue. the big bottleneck is creating new sections
real hound
Think of a low poly water simulation
Really kvon? Thats good to know.
Just trying to determin if I should make each hex its own actor and use a lot of vinterps or just recalcs the noise every tick.
woeful wraith
maybe "way more" is an exaggeration but I'm pretty sure it updates more than 800. would have to double check :D
also ive only used UProceduralMeshComponent. I'm not sure what the differences are to runtime mesh component.
real hound
Runtime Mesh Component is just a more efficient Procedural Mesh Component that you can get off github
pretty much identical fuctionality with a few addons
woeful wraith
that's what I thought, so it should really be no problem. running random that many times might cause slowdowns though
real hound
Unsure of whether to make it a single mesh or use sections for each hex.
woeful wraith
probably 1 section per a large number of hexes, create more if you need to scroll around
real hound
Its a top down so I really only need whats on the screen. I think chunking them into larger groups would hurt me cause I could be forced to do vert calcs for an entire chunk just because a corner of it is relevant
carmine spruce
what is a great example of when to make a child of a Parent?
I have this BP_Switch
would it be wise to make a BP_Switch_Vent Child, only for vents? Is this a reasonable scenario?
grim ore
you make a child when it makes sense. The parent has something that is in common with the child but the child is a variant of it in some way or adds to the basics
but it's unique stuff that is changed
carmine spruce
what is a technical scenario?
OMG Mathew Wadstien i watch all your videos!
your awsome!
unless youre fake...
grim ore
I am not a fake lol
carmine spruce
oh no my bad youre verified!
thanks for all those videos your prectically my tutor
grim ore
see the problem with parent child is it tends to be specific lol, so like what is the difference between your switch and switch vent
something as simple as a mesh change there is no real reason to do that as you can change the mesh in the world using a variable between each instance
something like a different action when you do the action on it means different code and if it's unique enough then maybe
carmine spruce
Well I havent really fleshed out my BP_Switch
I want it to switch all kinds of actors
scarlet birch
I don't find myself using inheritance that often with UE.
grim ore
switch has a public variable it can hook up to what it wants to do the action on
then you just call the action generically using an interface on that item and you then just have 1 switch that can talk to anything
and every item that can have something done to them has unique code inside it to handle that action
carmine spruce
that public variable, should I make it in the Switch class or the Vent and other Actor classes?
scarlet birch
Generic interfaces are huge time savers.
grim ore
Your switch would have a public variable, probably an Actor, that would let you just click on the switch in the world, click the variable drop down and select what it talks to, and be done
you can even get clever and use debug drawing to draw lines from the switch to the actor it works on if you want
I had a video I was working on, it was like 10 ways to open a door and it would cover all of this stuff but I never finished it lol
it was clevery called Doooooooors
carmine spruce
yea like you said theres alot of ways of doing the same thing, thats why its so cool
grim ore
yep that was the goal of the video covering all the ways to simply make a door and to open it
scarlet birch
You just pretty much described the core of the code for my game jam entry, and the way I do AI patrol paths.
Genric interface, grab an actor reference
grim ore
because something as simple as a door is complicated when you get down the details and add in multiplayer
scarlet birch
draw a debug line
carmine spruce
how do I draw a debug line?
seems too high level for me
just barely getn me toes wet
restive blaze
Hey, I have a dumb question, I am trying to inherit from the GameModeBase but it does not show up in my content browser(I pressed the search glass thingy too)
What do I do?
scarlet birch
It's just a node with two points
grim ore
there is a draw debug line node so 🙂
@restive blaze are you trying to make your own game mode?
scarlet birch
I ussually put it in the constructor then when you make a change it draws it
restive blaze
@grim ore Yeah, I need to specify customized pawn
hallow compass
Hey guys, im new around here and I have been stuck with something for over a week now, I have looked for a solution online but so far I have had no luck, could someone please help me with the below?
scarlet birch
so like when I add a node to a patrol path it will draw out the whole path as each node updates
hallow compass
grim ore
@restive blaze you make a new blueprint then of type game mode base, name it what you want, open it up and change your pawn in there in the defaults. Then you can go in your project settings and change your default game mode to that custom one you created
restive blaze
@grim ore Thanks, I will try it out
scarlet birch
Interfaces are great becasue you never have to get more specific than an actor reference. You need something else that responds to an activate call from a switch? implement the interface on it and then add it to the list of actors that the switch calls when it gets acitivated.
grim ore
yep yep plus they are soft references to the item you are doing stuff on and at the worst nothing happens if you try and call an event on something that does not implement it
carmine spruce
Hey mat thanks for making those vids, hopefully youll make the one about the doors
scarlet birch
exactly
grim ore
I love making the videos since It's just me learning stuff 🙂
broken parrot
Matt your videos are great. They constantly give me visual understanding of a lot of the quirks I’m struggling with.
carmine spruce
ya Matt ima give you a so in my game
scarlet birch
I love having them to reference. You posted some files a while back for setting up options menus and those saved me a ton of headache figuring things out.
grim ore
🙂
scarlet birch
I literally just tore them apart to implement my own stuff. Saved me days of work trying to learn it the hard way.
latent fable
is there a way to move things relatively to the object rather then on world axis?
grim ore
I have to redo my years old Intro series so I think that is why I stopped working on Dooors, maybe I can integrate it into that instead. I wasn't kidding about it either this is where I was at when I stopped lol https://i.imgur.com/2Spufpp.png basic room with a door that can be triggered remotely or proximity and you can toggle the direction it opens in heh
@latent fable in the editor? click the World Icon at the top right (4th icon in) to toggle world/local mode
latent fable
@grim ore Thanks Mathew, By the way I'm new to unreal and your videos have been very helpful to me so far! Keep up the great work :D
grim ore
🙂 Just glad people find them helpful
fast finch
Question. Doing a small single-player game. Modular characters, players can customize different helmets, clothes etc. Ideally, what class should keep track of all the modular items? Keep track of what items the player owns, which items are in the game etc
grim ore
@scarlet birch awesome to hear that, I try and post all the code when I do stuff so people can do just that
@fast finch are these all individual items in the engine pre made or do you just want to keep a list of data and use that to create it at runtime?
you could for example use a data table that holds all the info for each piece and then save just a list of those items in the character itself and it can then create those items as needed
scarlet birch
Still have it,
fast finch
List of data to create be able to set skeletal meshes and static meshes at runtime
Im doing this in c++
But Im going to save all the items in blueprint
because doing asset location in c++ is bad
grim ore
yep look into using a data table then to store the data, you can just have an item ID or an index # or something so you store very little data. You can create the data table info externally in a spreadsheet program and import it into the editor
opaque nexus
Hey guys,
I just have a quick question. I downloaded a game on my laptop, and copied it to my PC.
But the epic launcher doesn't recognize it, and wants to redownload.
Any tips?
latent fable
Try verifying files? @opaque nexus
grim ore
if these are all just appearance items then there is no real reason not to handle it with a generic class/bp that can then load in the data for that item instead of a billion items which are the same basic stuff just different data
fast finch
Yeah, so basically
I'll just make one class/bp. Which has all the items
and when A player wants to equip an item, that class/bp has the reference to it
opaque nexus
@latent fable That doesn't seem to be available
grim ore
it shouldn't really have all the items, it should be able to become anything you want it based on data. Like generic item BP knows it has a mesh and maybe stats. You create generic item BP and tell it to get it's data from the data table at row AwesomeSword and then it turns into the Awesome Sword
grim ore
with UE4 if you hard reference something, say I make 1 blueprint and inside of it I have an array of 200 static meshes, whenever that blueprint is loaded up it has to load 200 static meshes even if you only are showing 1.
when you use a data table or something else that is soft, it just points to the data, then you don't have that issue
usually it's not a big deal but something to keep in mind if making a real game 🙂
light thunder
I packaged a project and can you send a download link for the Android version and the PC, but there's no way I'll be able to do that for iOS without going through their...."ecosystem"
grim ore
@opaque nexus the EGS games are different than the Unreal Engine portion of the Launcher so they might not be able to do what you want 😦 I know with the Launcher I would try and install the engine and once it started I would pause it, kill the launcher, move the full engine into that spot where it was installing, then relaunch the launcher and verify if I had to. I have no idea if this works on the EGS part of the launcher
opaque nexus
Thanks Mathew, I'll try that 🙂
No luck, found a "resumedata" file in the .egstore folder. This is probably ignoring the contents already downloaded, and is just resuming from where it left off.
contents of "resumedata" was some kind of encrypted stuff.. eg "2hXojod0108530jalsd"
grim ore
😦
carmine spruce
real hound
What are some good options for a terrain manager for a top down? Like to know which terrain actors/chunks (its procgen) need to be created or removed to fill the screenspace. I have been using a TMap but I know cashgen uses some raytracing thing to know whats relevant. Just looking for some alternatives, maybe there is something better.
opaque nexus
@grim ore In case you are interested, I figured it out.
Copied appdata/local/epiclauncher
and the Epic folder inside ProgramData.
Now the game is being recognized as fully downloaded 🙂
Where would be the best place to post this ^
In case someone has a similar issue?
(Because I googled and couldn't find anything)
grim ore
is there an EGS part on the forums?
opaque nexus
There is a "marketplace" tab, that should do!
warped tangle
wait...the vent is a child of the switch?
carmine spruce
is that abnormal?
I have a BP_Switch
then called its child the BP_Switch_Vent
it is only going to work on Vents
warped tangle
I've never done anything like that, they have completely different functionalities. If I were doing it, the vent would house all the timeline/movement related functionality, and the switch would be a separate class that just sends the "signal" to open/close
Honestly, if I were doing it (unless the switch was meant to be in a separate room or something), I would have the overlap box and physical switch on the same BP as the vent
carmine spruce
no the Parent of BP_Switch_Vent is BP_Switch
i want to know how to continue the array in the child
especially because that array is the object reference of BP_Vent
the pictures are in ordder
warped tangle
Not sure how to help, the way you've created the child class is odd to me
carmine spruce
hm maybe I should watch how to make a child
you think Wadstiens gota vid on that? lol
warped tangle
not saying you're wrong, just never done it like that so can't help.
scarlet birch
You should only need one timeline, play it in reverse instead of using two.
bitter iris
mannn i wish the RESTORE button would do something
carmine spruce
im using an extra timeline because its a different time rate because I want the other door to go a littlefaster
warped tangle
could set play rate on the same timeline to change the speed @carmine spruce
inner cloak
Hi everyone !
azure shore
hey, anyone know why spawning decals can often freeze the game for ages when testing in the editor but in standalone its completely fine?
inner cloak
is it possible to select multiple meshes and then apply a material to them as 1 operation ?
warped tangle
when you select multiple meshes, in the details pane on the right you should see all the materials. As long as the material index is the same accross all, you can set the material that way
I usually select the material in the content browsers first to I can just hit the little arrow thing to apply the selected material
cloud palm
azure shore
anyone know?
and also why does deleting any assets completely close ALL the tabs you have open?
inner cloak
nice rry2
warped tangle
@azure shore That's expected behavior
especially if the asset is referenced or open
inner cloak
sorry @azure shore i dont
azure shore
ah, if its open I guess that makes sense
warped tangle
The only time I have had that not happen is if there are no references to the asset (nothing was references/using it), and I have recompiled anything that WAS referencing if I removed a reference, and saved all
azure shore
yeah, its also frozen ue4 for about ten minutes too
actually its been well over 10 minutes and its still not letting me tab back in
inner cloak
Kharvey, what if i selected multiple meshes ... can't i have all those meshes apply the material i picked ?
harsh tiger
does anyone know if the default VR camera works on mobile?
light thunder
If I need to make my project for IOS, is this the easiest way? There's no installer link like an APK I can use to have them download and install it? Or do I need to use this? - https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Platforms/Mobile/iOS/iPhonePackager/index.html
woeful wraith
usually you'd use test flight or the regular app store
it's a nightmare. have fun 😄
safe swallow
making iPhone apps without UE4 is a pain in the butt as it is....lol
azure shore
does anyone know why a destructible mesh would use the current texture for the inside rather than default texture
as in the slot for the insides isnt seperate its using the main material
ionic obsidian
So with map making I come from a hammer background and I know in hammer it's wise to set the texture of faces the player will never see to NoDraw in order to improve performance. Is there something similar in UE4? Would just making a transparent material work the same way or actually hinder performance?
steep ferry
Hey guys
so
I have this server travel thing
and when i launch the game nothing is happening
the map is here
azure shore
did they actually break it for this ue4 version
steep ferry
I have 4.20
azure shore
the internal material doesnt get assigned for destructible meshes
inner cloak
Thanks @warped tangle , i ended up figuring it out with what you said (for the multi-mesh set material question i asked)
My ue4 skillset went from Super noob to Medium noob 😃
azure shore
well now Im pissed, it seems epic just broke it for some ue4 version and havent fixed it since, gg epic
light thunder
Can someone tell me what is the simplest way to get the most common string out of an array of them?
zinc rivet
make a hash map from string (key) to int (number of occurrences) by iterating over the array, then traverse the map return the largest value
light thunder
I'll give it a shot, thanks!
@zinc rivet So looping through the array, when I make the map as a loop execution, it will increase the key value?
I think that's the wrong way, I'm just overwriting the values
inner cloak
@azure shore arent you forgetting to put a space between servertravel and Level_1 ?
azure shore
oh I wasn't the one doing the server travel stuff
I was just getting frustrated over destructible mesh materials at the same time
inner cloak
Sorry, my bad !!!
@steep ferry you need to put a space between servertravel and the map name.
azure shore
that's fine
zinc rivet
man I feel silly trying to implement this in bp... it'd take me about 5 c++ lines to do it
steep ferry
@inner cloak Nvm i fixed it , everything i had to do is launch game in standalone mode
inner cloak
ok, cool then !
inner cloak
maybe they changed it and it automaticly adds a space in the append
real hound
Anyone have a really elegant way of spawnig a grid of static mesh actors the need to need to be in camera view?
Like a terrain tracker around a character?
Right now I am using tmaps and polling
inner cloak
depends on the camera angle .. is it fixed ?
zinc rivet
@light thunder jesus I'm definitely not a great person to ask for bp stuff... This looks like an unholy mess and probably won't work, but it's basically how I'd do it in c++...
there's gotta be a better way lol
light thunder
No that's fine thanks for doing that I really appreciate it don't worry I like spaghetti just fine
serene sorrel
@zinc rivet yeah there are some things which are better to do in c++ than bp, easier
loops in particular seem quite bad in bp
and too many branches
zinc rivet
Hah yeah...
serene sorrel
if you do a C++ class, then have a Blueprint child of it, you can sorta mix best of both worlds
steady fractal
anyone here done any work with nDisplay?
raw elk
Anyone using 4.23 preview experiencing issues with skylight/sun light with ray tracing enabled?
Seems to be casing a very dark shadow over everything while with 4.22 RT skylight worked pretty well
issue appears to be with a directional light
serene sorrel
are there any volumes potentially blocking it
raw elk
Nope :\
tried even in a new level
plopping a directional light appears to just shadow everything
Oh, interesting
a new warning has appeared, too many overlapping movable lights
that's new
interesting, as there are only 3 other light sources
there are zero overlapping lights in the map
It doesn't have any issues in DX11 mode
shadows work fine, no complaining from the engine about overlapping lights
Once I go into DX12 and toggle rt shadows, it does this
raw elk
It has some vulkan support yeah, not sure how much. I haven't messed with it yet
valid root
Do you have to approach Epic officially if you're thinking of using their logo on art that you put on Artstation?
woven cliff
hey why do i have shader complexity on 4.21 as red and same shader shows as green in shader complexity on 4.22 :D?
static viper
bc optimized
raw elk
hope epic does more work to dx12 mode
still getting random but constant out of video memory crashing
dim merlin
hi, anyone could advise me where i should code my ai (like rts) jobs? i thought inside gamemode, any better place that should hold this code?
serene sorrel
PlayerController maybe
dim merlin
would gamemode be common anyway?
static viper
you could do it there yes
but you could also create a seperate manager actor
that you place manually in the world
that way you could also store map important info
time of day
weather
map name
all those stuff
music
you could alsp create child gamemodes
serene sorrel
Player controller controls a pawn, usually youll have your camera/player as a pawn
whether the player is local or networked or ai, i feel like it fits to have the logic in there, but you can do it many ways
static viper
you dont want to put everything in just one container
player controller should only control player
serene sorrel
the AI for AIController shouldnt be in one thing?
serene sorrel
think of a networked game though, the pawns are player, they have a viewport, camera, etc, the ai should have the same basic thing unless its a cheating bitch 😛
in starcraft and such you can watch what the players were looking at, things like that
static viper
Ai is driven by the same device
ai always knows where you are
it always knows all your stats
rts is also just a massive theater show.
there is nothing real
serene sorrel
RTS is awful in unreal engine anyhow imo, has no lockstep capability
coarse wigeon
@serene sorrel You do not want to use lockstep
static viper
and they were pretty solid.
serene sorrel
in anything, the unreal engine has no way to control updates properly, or a fixed integer pipeline, etc
static viper
its hard to understand you
serene sorrel
@coarse wigeon incorrect
coarse wigeon
That article goes into why
static viper
i am also speaking from experience with people who made rts games
and i played a few demos from them
and i played alot rts game in my time
serene sorrel
yeah im reading that article, its written by someone who doesnt know what they are talking about
serene sorrel
you dont use float in lockstep engines, you used fixed point math
and state machines are easy to verify, and easy to correct mistakes, whoever wrote it is some amateur
static viper
you are in over your head.
just my thoughts.
if people already made cool rts in ue4
how is that bad
cloud cobalt
Float's fine if every platform you ship on behaves the same
static viper
or not feasable
serene sorrel
if you dont think lockstep is the best method for any physics game or rts, you dont know what youre talking about imo
@cloud cobalt yeah but they dont, so you cant
cloud cobalt
Most of them do
serene sorrel
lol
serene sorrel
.bro if you think "most of them do" you dont really know what you are talking about.
cloud cobalt
Bro
serene sorrel
float can differ on the same platform just with different compiler settings
static viper
thats your favorite line
serene sorrel
your game has no issues?
static viper
it has!
issues
but they are driven by hardware
and last i checked ps4 has better hardware.
serene sorrel
Everyone who knows anything about multiplayer knows you cant rely on the physics model in unreal engine because it differs on all pcs, it uses floats and variable time (no lock step)
cloud cobalt
The float part is very much not the problem in UE4
static viper
i heard this was due to float precision alone
serene sorrel
even IF unreal engine used lock step, if it used floats it would still be unreliable across platforms and settings
thats why you used fixed point math in lockstep and all your problems go away, the state is known, can be calculated and checked
cloud cobalt
The lack of fixed time, lack of ability to reset and step the state, and the lack of determinism at the physics engine level for one fixed-time steps, are the problem with UE4 physics, not float. Every platform uses IEEE754 today
serene sorrel
@cloud cobalt if you think that float is "similar" across platforms you dont know what you are talking about, seriously, just look into it
cloud cobalt
I've actually worked on compatibility of simulations across different float hardware on a million-unit selling title
So you can cut that line
Bro
serene sorrel
thats double bro not float
double is more stable across platforms but i still wouldnt rely on it
what game did you use "float" on that sold a million units?
serene sorrel
lol ok
cloud cobalt
I couldn't care less if you believe me - but you need to act like a professional, because you sound like a 16-year old dispensing Wikipedia expertise, and it's quite annoying
serene sorrel
Anyway the fact is "float" is not properly defined across all platforms where things like integers are, which is why you use fixed point math and avoid any potential problems. If you use float an anything, even today, on the same cpu, you are foolish
coarse wigeon
I am with @cloud cobalt on this
static viper
i with rts on ue4 i already saw and played. XD
sudden agate
float is love. float is life
sudden agate
in most cases float is sufficient
serene sorrel
@cloud cobalt yeah i dont believe you but its irrelevant, everyone that is experienced knows integers are properly defined across all platforms whereas floats arent. so even if you use float and it works for your use case it wont work for as many use cases as fixed point math, its just a simple fact
coarse wigeon
@sudden agate is right. Until you start going to the more extreme cases like getting getting a lightyear away from the origin
cloud cobalt
@serene sorrel Then I guess I have my experienced invalidated
I couldn't care less about your opinion, though
Anyway, as far as RTS multiplayer goes, it's definitely nice to have determinism. It's nice in every multiplayer situation really
It's just becoming less and less possible in most situations
For an RTS, lockstep's fine
If you're going to use UE4, the point is moot
You'll use a client-server model
Determinism will be extremely hard
If you've picked UE4, then go ahead and use it - make the best of your circumstances
Don't argue with old farts about what's the theoretically better model when the most successful game right now uses client auth in competitive gameplay
static viper
hes beeing picky. There just yesterday was a new rts on ue4 base at gamescom
multiplayer driven.
it looked like it works well.
coarse wigeon
@static viper Which RTS?
coarse wigeon
ah ok
coarse wigeon
Fair enough
static viper
it was on kickstarter too
coarse wigeon
got it
coarse wigeon
Got it
cloud cobalt
Hell, if Dota2 - not an RTS, but close enough in terms of general architecture - or Planetary Annihilation work without lockstep, you don't need it either
cloud cobalt
Evidence of what - that UE4 works for an RTS ?
wary wave
if you build your game with UE4's networking in mind, you can build an RTS
someone did it in UDK and released the source code
Iron Harvest is Unity
coarse wigeon
@wary wave They are doing the same with UE4. Same people too
wary wave
neat
wary wave
it's being made by one of our sister studios and they're in the next city over, hehe
cloud cobalt
"looking" doesn't really let you tell if the art team is good
static viper
well i looked at the shadows and the grass shading.
but yee ofc you can always change those.
cinder iron
I worked in a rts with 300 units in the screen all computing AI simultaneously
on a listen server setup
static viper
unity definitly dont has that good shadows by default
cloud cobalt
Unreal doesn't either 😬
static viper
oh that means i underestimated the devs
cloud cobalt
Different kind of bad, though
static viper
raytracing wont safe it either
cinder iron
(Edit: I didn't read the precision thing)
coarse wigeon
@cinder iron What do you mean by listen server setup?
cinder iron
one peep hosts
coarse wigeon
Ah ok
cinder iron
other people play
coarse wigeon
Ok
serene sorrel
@wary wave yes you can certainly make a multiplayer RTS in UE . It's just not the most optimized RTS engine you could use
any game where you have hundreds to thousands of "units" that can be moved around, a deterministic model will thrash everything to the ground. It just comes with some downsides in the "doing more of the engine yourself" than things like unity and UE have. I did develop a lockstep demo in Unity and the same is possible in Unreal Engine but you pretty much use them as graphical/sound backends rather than engine control
You can have a thread where your game runs for instance, and you can use the "tick" event of either engine to then interpolate the last engine states
so you can get smooth visuals even if your lockstep model is only 10 ticks per second
Both Unity and Unreal suffer from low performance with a high amount of global "actors" or "gameobjects", using such a model you can get around that a lot by just showing a "windowed" area of your own game state
mint sequoia
Anyone know where atmospheric fog determines the position to draw the sun disk?
Want that logic to put a 3D model there instead
cloud cobalt
In the material I guess
wary wave
atmospheric fog has a sun disk?
huh, so it does
it probably doesn't have a position, just a direction
serene sorrel
get the angle of the light, push it out as far as you need
wary wave
aye, use the light vector from the directional light
serene sorrel
mixing and matching those effects with a real 3d object might be a bit delicate to balance tho
could just use a plugin like Truesky if you want better effects, or roll your own
mint sequoia
TrueSky is no good
Has too many issues
Like external software being installed
We tried it early on and just caused issues for anyone without it installed and was a hassle to setup
serene sorrel
i found it a bit buggy myself initially but i'll give it another go soon
mint sequoia
It's also not a solution for what I'm trying to do either
serene sorrel
at least the videos you see of it in action look high quality
wary wave
it's supposed to have gotten a lot better recently, but yeah, my experience with it has been mixed
serene sorrel
Ark uses it which is a very popular game so unless they are using some custom truesky plugin it must be stable
mint sequoia
I'm seeing nothing in their GDC2018 video thats impressive
Basic volumetric clouds and a few weather FX, everything else is just pure UE4
serene sorrel
Is there some game you like with sun/moon effects?
serene sorrel
I found Rust to be quite nice personally with its moon and sun
The moon size affects the lighting of the level, and it changes over time in the game which i like
mint sequoia
I think a lot of what passes for AAA nowadays is an issue with the bar being low enough that no one wants to push it otherwise higher quality will be expected across the board 🤷
serene sorrel
Yeah i dont play many AAA games because their gameplay is shit, so im not sure what has the best day/night cycle graphically speaking
mint sequoia
Ours is already better than anything I've seen, there's just some mismatch in the sun position vs. directional light I want to clean up
serene sorrel
nice, got any screens?
serene sorrel
thats ok, are you using global illumination in UE ?
I hope in the next two releases they can get some kind of performant GI going, would help with what im working on
wary wave
heh, Ark crashes on a regular basis because of Truesky
mint sequoia
Well, we have the indirect lighting intensity at 1, but its just boring old baked GI
wary wave
and it has all kinds of crazy rendering artifacts for the same reason
serene sorrel
@wary wave is that true? I asked about it here 2 weeks ago and people said its fine
static viper
i dont understand why everyone is so hot about truesky anyways.
mint sequoia
There's very little we can actually bake so its almost a 'no'
wary wave
in Ark it's terrible
wary wave
the Aberration map under certain environment conditions just plain crashes
serene sorrel
@mint sequoia oh static lighting? get out bro 😛
mint sequoia
I think its just the only solution for volumetric clouds thats commercially available, but its not hard to roll your own
wary wave
I don't think they ever fixed it either
mint sequoia
Huh? I just said we're basically not using it lol
Almost nothing in our world is static
serene sorrel
oh sorry, i misread
I find it odd UE still defaults with static lighting on, its some kind of 2005 feature still being heavily used
wary wave
most games still use baked lighting, to be fair
fierce tulip
^
serene sorrel
right, but its 2019
wary wave
yes, and in 2019 most games still used baked lighting?
serene sorrel
and static levels, boring
static viper
there used to be a cost element
fierce tulip
tell that to the hardware that needs support
static viper
like rendering cost
wary wave
...and we're about to enter another hardware generation where it'll be more of the same, hehe
static viper
the argument died since apparently we can now do 6 billion pixel rays in a frame...
serene sorrel
Like what games use static levels? AAA games that are "guns on rails" with 1000 3d artists making stuff
cloud cobalt
Baked lighting is great
static viper
gi in most cases is baked
serene sorrel
nearly all the best indie games are procedural, for a reason
fierce tulip
lol
static viper
crysis up to this day uses baked gi
cloud cobalt
It's not for every game, but baking stuff that doesn't need to change at runtime is just common sense
wary wave
the vast majority of games aren't procedural
serene sorrel
thats true
wary wave
to say 'nearly all the best indie games' is quite the stretch
serene sorrel
the best ones are
wary wave
some of the games you enjoyed are
cloud cobalt
Those blocked messages must be quite a sight
fierce tulip
lol
teal tulip
best indie games are procedural wat
static viper
my game isnt :3
fierce tulip
its so nice to see people who think their opinion is law, fact, and divine truth
wary wave
I mean, just looking at this list;
https://store.steampowered.com/stats/
...suggests that procedural level generation isn't that important to players
teal tulip
yeah
wary wave
the first game on there that does use it (Warframe), has baked lighting
serene sorrel
Is Rust AAA or indie?
serene sorrel
yeah the maps are procedural, now at least
static viper
since when
teal tulip
"now"
serene sorrel
donno, i only started playing it a couple months ago
static viper
they still use the same map
viral fractal
wary wave
looks like there are third party generators though
static viper
only the items are generated
wary wave
but yeah, it never used to be that way
serene sorrel
nah all the official servers seem to use procedural maps from what ive seen, they wipe regularly
teal tulip
Its fun you named Rust you could have say Terraria is there
viral fractal
Baked lighting is trash
teal tulip
failed chance
wary wave
ah yeah, this is not a procedural map
viral fractal
Slow as fuck
static viper
hevedy why do you suddenly look like you are giving a talk at an expo???
serene sorrel
well only PUBG (is that indie?) Is above rust which is possibly considered indie in the top 10 there
teal tulip
@static viper I'm about make Envidia company
wary wave
Fixed map, seeded content:
https://rustmap.net/?demo
serene sorrel
@wary wave nah its procedural on all the official servers i played, ive never seen that map
You can join now and every server has its own map pretty much
Ark I think has some kind of bad procedural generation that only modded servers use
serene sorrel
I think the official ark servers dont use it because its bad or broken, i looked into it recently but ive never played the game
Ark does look better than Rust though, visually
tawdry sierra
Ellow. I need some help. I cant generate distant mesh fields. I have already checked the box in the project settings and restarted it.
serene sorrel
I think Ark's lack of procedural generation is mostly tied to the fact UE landscape system doesnt really support it
static viper
rust has alot of nice features that are optimized
the shadows are sharp and rarely put out errors
parralax materials
nice watershore
polar hawk
guys doing anything offline is so passé
serene sorrel
Rust might have started out indie but its got so much money into it now its hard to really consider it indie in some ways
polar hawk
real games these days make the user make the game they want to play
static viper
i am usure about rust
garrysmod was a steam game from start
so rust might have had big support
teal tulip
gmod maker was a visionary 
polar hawk
if your shadows are pre-determined then your game is literally unplayable
wary wave
Arks procedural map generator would be better if they actually spent some time on it
static viper
how little graphics are needed for good gameplay
wary wave
it does work, but it needs a lot of love
static viper
back in the old days
serene sorrel
well out of the top games being played now that could be considered indie, 4 out of 5 are procedural or have procedural elements
static viper
light was only dynamic
wary wave
I doubt anyone actually plays procedural maps really
static viper
but there werent any shadows
or else
it was just ambient and point
😄
and it still looked awesome
serene sorrel
@wary wave or do you disagree that the most popular indie games are procedural
static viper
and now we are having a discussion about baked light and shadows
serene sorrel
4/5 bro, stats are stats
polar hawk
what are the most popular indie games
wary wave
eh? Hardly any of those games use much in terms of proceduralism, what are you smoking?
Warframe is the big one
serene sorrel
no mans sky ?
polar hawk
thats one
wary wave
obviously No Man's Sky does
serene sorrel
rust does, ark does (but perhaps you could throw this one out)
static viper
only games that have been released ok
serene sorrel
garrys mod is
wary wave
Garry's Mod is not
(and Ark really isn't, it's just some tacked on feature noone uses)
static viper
Lets count some indie games then
wary wave
Garry's Mod is almost entirely player created content
serene sorrel
Rimworld, grossed 80 million USD, procedural
serene sorrel
7 days to die
teal tulip
Subnautica is fixed
serene sorrel
yeah dont starve is
wary wave
Don't Starve is procedural
teal tulip
7 days to die is terrible
dark depot
you can list games all day its still a small percentage
static viper
Dont dont starve.
polar hawk
are these the most popular indie games? :o
wary wave
but I mean, if you take the Survival Games out of that list you'll have more or less nothing, lol
static viper
Super meat boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cloud cobalt
Hollow Knight is quite popular, quite good and not procedural in any way
serene sorrel
You list all the popular indie games by gross revenue, procedural games will be majority imo, though i have no stats to back it up right now
teal tulip
Why don't stop looking at these and make someone
serene sorrel
@wary wave yeah, though to be fair they are very popular in indie circles so you cant take them out 😛
static viper
i find another procederal
teal tulip
COD isn't procedural, but as is made by a green company that recycles it every year the people like it
serene sorrel
are you saying procedural games are for high iq people and AAA games are for normies?
serene sorrel
"press forward and mash fire button" - how can that get old
static viper
minecraft is a procederal game too
serene sorrel
minecraft the most successful indie game of all time, procedural
static viper
and i think minecraft is super great
teal tulip
procedural game and with RTX, you can't deal with that
dark depot
nahh minecraft isnt procedural every block is hand placed
teal tulip
@dark depot thats Sims
serene sorrel
minecraft probably has the revenue of the next 10 most popular indie titles, so i think we can conclude our case anyway
static viper
indie games are all about revenue
dark depot
why you in chat then go make minecraft 2
serene sorrel
procedural is the future, long live the king
static viper
thats why they are indies afterall
fierce tulip
lol
static viper
they are self sustained
teal tulip
@fierce tulip take me in arms out of here like if was Titanic
no wait that was other film
static viper
this is again why hollow knight is such a great example
teal tulip
I mean The Bodyguard
cloud cobalt
Was gonna ask which part of Titanic
teal tulip
xD mixing concepts with the scene where are on the ship prow
mint sequoia
Hollow Knight was such a fun game
cloud cobalt
It's also more replicable than say, Minecraft
mint sequoia
Nobody needs a minecraft clone after all
wary wave
Interp nodes - is there a way to know when the interpolation has completed
I assumed I could calculate it from Interp Speed, but now I'm not so sure
mint sequoia
With InterpConstantTo you can check against the target value, with InterpConstant you're pretty much stuck comparing it to target value with a threshold knowing you'll get some snap
wary wave
would like to avoid comparing transforms
wary wave
I'm interping a large number of HISM instances from Transform A to B
I had assumed 1/speed would give me time, but it appears not to be the case because of some kind of easing I guess
serene birch
interpto never really reaches the destination if I remember well the code
well since it sux, there is a snap included of course 😛
mint sequoia
InterpTo is mostly for cosmetic stuff where you want that non-linear transition and don't care when it finishes
IMO anyway
I would use lerp/ease otherwise
Doesn't work for everything tho
serene birch
there could be an upgraded version of InterpTo that returns if it did the snap/didn't move I guess
mint sequoia
Not too hard to make your own
Can be a bit annoying getting the right tolerance for the snap tho
upbeat phoenix
Hello, I have a question about Instance Mesh plugin, can I somehow create Instance Static meshes with negatively scaled meshes? I tries to create a separate Instance for them, but maybe there is a way?
regal hollow
Hey guys, I have perforce already installed for work, but I want to setup a new perforce for a seperate project? is there any tutorials online for this as I can't find anything!
brave grove
Is there a way to edit the Camera probe channel? I want to make it ignore pawns but I see no way to edit it ..
manic pawn
you can edit the trace channel responses in project settings
or edit the collision of your pawns and set the response to Camera to ignore there
brave grove
@manic pawn I can add a new preset and set the camera to use it. But I can't actually edit the default camera preset.
It is not an actual problem. I am just bothered that there's a preset called "camera" and I can't use it for my camera 😄
manic pawn
you can edit the preset for Pawn there and set its response to Camera to ignore
if you want to
brave grove
@manic pawn just tried it. The pawn ignores the camera, but the SpringArm does not ignore the pawn. So it contracts if a pawn passes trough.
manic pawn
might need to change more than the pawn then
if there's anything else that blocks camera on them
brave grove
@manic pawn you were right! Character Mesh needs to be ignored ... Thank you for this! Keeps me sane! 🙂
alpine elm
why does this keep on happaning every time I add the animations to the aim offset the character disapears please help I'm getting pissed off @everyone
placid arrow
my game is made of streaming levels, and a small open world. when a player enters a building, i want the game to work much the same way GTA San Andreas does, basically it teleports you to a copy of the building's insides, that's streamed in high up in the sky. if i wanted to do the same in ue4 using a level streaming volume in the sky to load that internal area, and teleport them back to the overworld when they exit via the door, is there any negatives to this approach? would there be any issues apart from lack of light, if i placed these inside areas outside the sky sphere? so that they can't be seen normally unless youre actually in them? or would it be safe to place them "underground"?
basically, if youre not sure what im on about, see this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twY0voICKFs
the player is basically teleported outside the world map and something else streamed in where they go to
tawdry sierra
I need some help. I cant generate distant mesh fields. I have already checked the box in the project settings and restarted it.
reef scarab
Hi guys, anyone knows how is possible to turn off virtual texture on load in unreal 4.23?
manic pawn
wtf preview 7
no launch this week then?
wait it's the wrong day for a preview
is it a release candidate one day before then
reef scarab
today was launched
reef scarab
yes I mean the preview
manic pawn
the preview is on the wrong day, so maybe release tomorrow 🤔
grim ore
Most releases are on tuesdays so I doubt it
grim ore
usually it's a full week in between preview and release