Ok, so I am surprised that such powerful engine miss a basic waypoint system. All the AI stuff with out any waypoint support??
I’ve tried 2 methods to implement them fast but both of them are out of discussion:
Make a waypoint blueprient with a billboard and a sphere collider, and add a variable to next waypoint. No usable. No counting for whatever reasons the “next waypoint” reset at every play/simulate. But is not usable for a waypoints, let’s say 20-50 waypoints, not counting if you need multi waypoints system.
Use spline implementation from UE4… well… not working, you can’t even get spline control points position, numbers, etc, I have to admit the spline implementation is the most strange one I’ve seen.
and maybe 3th option, make a plugin to implement a waypoint system -> impossible to do it since every time I recompile the plugin I have to restart the editor.
This is my last thing I need to actually finish my game. And I am sure more peoples will need waypoints for different AI implementations.
I am sorry but TargetPoints does not cut it. The youtube movie is **just **an example, but nothing more.
Let me give you other example: you have a house, and you have a guard patrolling, around the house, entering house, and coming back. And then you have other houses with similar guards but different waypoints. Between waypoints you need to have a relation to know allways which one is next and the order of them, number, collision spheres and maybe more. Read what i’ve said at 1, you can make such a “point” in blueprients but is not viable at all, because is very hard to set every next point for every waypoint set, you dont see visually the path, and many other things.
Hmm, this is a good question. First thought was maybe a tagging system for target points, but no clue how this works as of yet. Remember seeing a note about object tagging added to an earlier version. If this is a solution, can we get a write up in the docs on that?
Failing that, suppose one could make a new target point class for each set and load those locations into a unique array…but that would be horribly convoluted and difficult to keep in order. So, would be curious myself what recommendations turn up for this. In fact, would be quite good if in the next release we could get much AI love.
Yes, waypoints are good idea. Also I would like to see some out of box support for ladders, climbable walls, doors and similar things with implemented navigation.
I suspect the TargetPoint was made for a specific use not for waypoints. Same as spline tool, is made like that because UE devs was thinking at a specific use for it.
A “waypoint” system is nothing more that an array of points, selectable, collide-able (sphere/box/etc), on a spline maybe or not. Eventually you can add more variables/functions to specific control point. But you can at any time get all control points position, or next control point, and easy move them in scene. Also, you can have multiple “waypoints”, lets say just like a cube primitive.
I hope UE devs see this post and maybe help us. You can use waypoints for a lot of things.
I think all these things like waypoints, climbable walls etc. are good ideas. But remember Unreal is a Game Engine not Little Big Planet. What I mean is there will be some things that you have to code yourself even out of blueprints! It can’t do it all for you! I’m sure if you are good at maths then you can work out the equation of a Bezier and implement your own waypoint system.
Having said that. A waypoint system would be actually quite useful for making a driving game! Or just getting things like the point x distance along a bezier or the tangent vector to a bezier.
So I agree that these would be nice things to have and I hope Unreal puts them in but I’m not surprised it doesn’t have them.
@zooby, you probable did not read what I’ve said. The BIG problem is how plugins system works, so far I did not find a way to rebuild a plugin without restarting the editor, and you probable know if you are a programmer how many rebuilds you do usually. I already have a thread about that. So for me to do it, will take a some time (+learning), but for an Unreal developer will probable not take so long, and I am sure Unreal devs knows much better how to do it that me, since I am new to engine.
Any kind of patrolling NPC/AI/car AI/ etc can use them, so is not a ex-centric request.
Hi TDoro, don’t get me wrong: a proper waypoint system would be great. I just haven’t looked into TargetPoints enough yet, and I’m having excruciating problems with this exact point (ho ho).
If I could do C++, then I probably wouldn’t have an issue, but BluePrints are making my head spin. All I want is an array of locations, with a possible callback function for each on when the actor reaches that point (to start an animation/task/etc) with a boolean to say whether it should loop back again, maybe an int to say how many times, if not indefintely.
