Edge grabbing

[DizzyWes]

Thanks. Well, I am preparing the mecanism to start a game, a mix of Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia.




* Animation for when there is no place to put the feet. - The code for this is done and working. And I already have a few animations. For this, I will have to duplicate every animation and make them with feet hanging around.

I updated that last video with this new progress.

Love the progress you've made with this, excellent job!

[Alex3d]

Hey Alex, I've done Parkour for a few years so if you (or anyone else for that matter) would like some tips on animations, info or have questions about Parkour stuff then feel free to ask

Thanks, I will give a look at those videos links on your doc.

Will you be releasing this publicly when complete?

Yes, the plan is to release it and to be updating as I am going improving it for my game.

Hey Alex. You are making such fast progress! I'm jealous- you must be learning loads. I'd also pay money for this. One thing I'd be tempted to add to your TODO list. The motion of the character through the air, particularly on long jumps, looks slightly wrong. It doesn't look like an object with weight and velocity. I'm not sure what the solution to that would be. Maybe it would always have to fall slightly, gain speed, across long gaps. I'm tempted to play Uncharted and Assassins Creed again to see what theirs looked like...

Yeah, just looked at this video of AC. It looks like the character speeds up through the air and falls. And I think the character isn't able to jump large distances without the power of it's legs. So in some situations it crouches on things like poles etc before making longer jumps. The dynamics of it are quite realistic, even as the physical impact is completely unrealistic...

Update: Would there be a way to give the character physics attributes, and then propel the character into the air, with different force, depending on whether they're using their legs or arms?

I am using the implemented template jump and some some root motion, and yes, it does not look that natural in a few aspects with the jump template. I started to trying to change this, first by adding a pre jump animation, but this only looks a little better for jumping when idle. For the movements while on air, I am planning to have a blendspace animation with an animation for when the character is going up part of the jumping, and another for the going down part. Something more or less like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUcKncvjzuU .

About "give the character physics attributes"... Well, I don't thing that right now, this is the direction that I am going.

I'm still at the point where I'm making notes and thinking about stuff. But this seems like it could be quite a big question. It has alot of implications about how it's executed. Do you effectively make a decision about the outcome of a jump at the point the button press is made, and then animate it, or does it happen on the fly? If it happens on the fly, does that have implications for the playability/realism of it?

It is a mix. Because when I use Root Motion to Jump, it is the root that controls the jump. The rest is just the normal template jump. I just decide which jump will be called.







By the way, my plan, this is not on the TODO list but, is to make it in a way that I could replace the animations and everything works. Right now this is 100% working. I change one animation, reimport into the editor, and it works. And since I am going to release this, I will make a tutorial explaining how to change the animations so that everyone could use your own animation. A good example for this would be... Maybe to add a "backward summer salt" when jumping back.

Also, I almost don't have to make any special configuration that I have to make on the level. This is the feature that I like most on this system. The only configuration that I have to do is for space between ledges that have an option to turn around. If you look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eub0gnLtifQ at 0:24 seconds. When the character stops and prepares that jump, is because of that gap space. If I increase that gap space, the character will not stop and prepare to jump. Instead, it will turn around the corner, as you can see on the same video at 1:41. And this is a problem that I have to fix, because if I increase the gap space, but with less space that it needs to turn the corner, this will make the character to fall with the wrong animation. Also it is annoying to keep adjusting things on the level for the code to work, right. But I already know how to fix this. I just didn't have time to work on this yet.

So, things are going well. And so far I only have one bug left ( And I know how to fix it, as well. Just need time ) and that problem that I talk about before.

And thank you all for your nice comments and suggestions.

[robbiecooper]

I am using the implemented template jump and some some root motion, and yes, it does not look that natural in a few aspects with the jump template. I started to trying to change this, first by adding a pre jump animation, but this only looks a little better for jumping when idle. For the movements while on air, I am planning to have a blendspace animation with an animation for when the character is going up part of the jumping, and another for the going down part. Something more or less like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUcKncvjzuU .

About "give the character physics attributes"... Well, I don't thing that right now, this is the direction that I am going.


It is a mix. Because when I use Root Motion to Jump, it is the root that controls the jump. The rest is just the normal template jump. I just decide which jump will be called.

That looks like it would work. I think I'm probably heading down a slightly more complicated path. I just printed off the CharacterMovementComponent header file. 24 pages, the cpp file is 80 something pages. I noticed a function that is available in BP to set velocity LaunchCharacter(). It may even be possible to do something where you decide the outcome and animate including physics, and do it all in BP. But I think I'm going to go the C++ route.

[Ulrich.Thümmler]

@Alex3d
Sry for Offtopic:
How did you add new animations to the default template player? Is there a mayafile with a complete rigg?

[Alex3d]

@Alex3d
Sry for Offtopic:
How did you add new animations to the default template player? Is there a mayafile with a complete rigg?

I just created a new character inside Maya with the ART tool with the same bones that the default template has. Then, I just animate inside Maya, export, and import it into Ue4.

[robbiecooper]

Also, I almost don't have to make any special configuration that I have to make on the level. This is the feature that I like most on this system. The only configuration that I have to do is for space between ledges that have an option to turn around. If you look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eub0gnLtifQ at 0:24 seconds. When the character stops and prepares that jump, is because of that gap space. If I increase that gap space, the character will not stop and prepare to jump. Instead, it will turn around the corner, as you can see on the same video at 1:41. And this is a problem that I have to fix, because if I increase the gap space, but with less space that it needs to turn the corner, this will make the character to fall with the wrong animation. Also it is annoying to keep adjusting things on the level for the code to work, right. But I already know how to fix this. I just didn't have time to work on this yet.

This is an enjoyable problem to think about, overall. I'm increasingly hooked on thinking about it. This area is something that I have doubts about. Of course, I don't mean in relation to your solution, because I don't know the specifics. But if one were to create a really robust solution, would it not involve actors? A specialized actor could have a trigger so that only the parts of the scenery that the level designer intended to be hand-holds actually work that way. Those actors could work in relation to a new movement type- EMovementMode MOVE_climbing. The first part is trivial but making a new movement mode isn't. But once it's in place the system would be very clean. It would also be very extensible by others. For example this kind of system could be influenced by a climbing skill in an RPG, encumbrance, etc.

The only thing that bothers me about this is that it seems like a big task. It's possible that that's because I haven't properly broken it down yet, but then things are rarely simpler than they first appear. Would you and any others reading this be interested in collaborating? I have a day job, unfortunately.

[robbiecooper]

I've decided to put my time where my mouth is. So hopefully by Monday or so I'll have something to actually share, rather than just ideas and questions.

[RKNoon]

Thanks. Well, I am preparing the mecanism to start a game, a mix of Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia.




* Animation for when there is no place to put the feet. - The code for this is done and working. And I already have a few animations. For this, I will have to duplicate every animation and make them with feet hanging around.

I updated that last video with this new progress.

This looks awesome! I may have to start experimenting with this for my game as this is what i wanted to do from the beginning. (I just have to find decent tutorials for Blender or Maya)

[Alex3d]

Vines climbing implemented!

[robbiecooper]

Vines climbing implemented!

Looks good! I've finally made the equivalent of your first video, finding the ledges;

There's a couple of ledges, instances of the ledge blueprint. At the moment you can see that the trigger volumes mirror the mesh volume, I'm going to change that obviously. The mesh is arbitrary, any mesh can be loaded into the mesh object of the details panel.

When you're standing in one or more than one trigger volume, and you press jump, the closest surface/s on the hand hold/s is/are sent to the character. When you aren't standing in any trigger volumes, you just jump. If you are standing in a trigger volume, and the hand hold isn't on screen, it isn't activated.

Next step is to further select the surface point of the hand hold, through what is closest to the center of the screen. So, if there's more than one option, it'll select the one that the player is centered on.

I want the relationship between hand holds, where you are standing and what you can do to be completely arbitrary. So that you could be running along a rooftop and jump from the roof onto a tiny hand hold. Or whatever.

I'm using Blueprint mostly, to my surprise. Getting used to it. But writing functions and exposing ones already in the C++ where needed..

[Pinworm]

As for inheriting scale when you attach to things- you can simple set 'Absolute Scale' and you will no longer inherit it. In the editor you do this by clicking on the word Scale in the transform details - it will change to Absolute Scale. The same goes for Location and Rotation as well, if you want to ignore that from your attachment parent.

very useful information, thank you

[robbiecooper]

Another video. I've detached the trigger volume from the handhold blueprint. And made it so that it selects the handhold that's closest to the center of the screen, on jump, when standing in a trigger volume. I've loaded a bunch of random meshes into trigger volumes, just to check that it works. Next step is to start working on the jump. It's alot of fun doing this stuff, wish I had more time!

[comet]

Vines climbing implemented!

That was one of my requests! You are awesome and very kind! Thank you!

[Peude]

Hi,

Please give me your complete Animations, Blueprints and Character for this issue..Thanks. raveloglennorkhris@me.com

[n00854180t]

@Alex3d - Awesome work!

Do you plan on releasing your BPs and anims at some point, or maybe doing a pack?