I am currently working on a basic box pushing / pulling mechanic for an adventure game. This is all done within blueprint and uses the standard third person character.
Basic Push Progress
The Push Actor will support movement in all four directions. Pushing, pulling backward / left / right with customization on what is allowed for each instance. Movement is simple, allowing the player to push or pull the object until blocked. This can be walls or in the shown instance, a small dip in the floor. Movement speed is accessible per instance or can be auto generated based on the object weight.
All box and character movements are handled within the push actor making it easy to setup and use with existing characters.
NOTE that this actor is not based on physics and is not created for a physics based game. This version is focused on creating a simple and consistent movement intended for controlled interactions. It can be used in conjunction with other physics objects but it is not meant to be moved with Unreal’s base physics system.
Animations for 3rd Person Character:
Push Idle
Push Forward
Pull Backward
Pull Left
Pull Right
More variations to come if interest grows
Animations shown above are really just for testing purposes. The movement of the crate is also setup as linear for testing so all of it will improve greatly once I have some time to work on them. I am also testing out different ways the animations should look in general like making a “stepped” version, in which the character pushes quickly, stops to move forward, then pushes again instead of the constant rate version I have now.
The actor will also ship with a few 3D crates and boxes as starter “push-able” objects but any static mesh can be used. Swapping meshes can be done per instance like many of the other variables.
I plan on adding it to the market place for around $5 to $10 dollars depending on how much extra content is desired from the community. (If any)
At this time I am gauging what else would be desired for the asset and what types of boxes or objects should be included as starter content. Feel free to leave comments, questions, or any suggestions!
I have an update on my progress so far! I’m currently experimenting with a few things like how the blocks fall and using Montages to drive the character animations. I also have a lot of random additions to the actor to allow for more customization per instance and features I want to get in there ASAP like moving sideways.
This video shows off a few things I’ve added in or am working on now!
I’ve done some major updates to the blueprint code to create an easier system. I wanted to keep as much of it encapsulated in the push actor but some code has needed to shift to the character blueprint. Overall the system works much better than its initial pass and so far is still easy to drop in and build on!
I also got a chance to create my first pass on the pushing sideways animations. Check them out here:
They need some more work as I am not sure I like how large the arm and shoulder movement currently is. Previous animations still need a second pass as well and I have a few more I need to create to finish out the entire actor. I also plan on fixing the quick snapping when shifting directions by interpolating the shifts in direction and speed. I’ll have some more time this week to work on it all so I’ll have more updates soon!
Currently I am attempting to finish up and submit to Epic soon, hopefully by this weekend or next week. If things don’t work out I may end up getting it out and continuing to support it with extras after initial release. That just depends on how things progress and what is left to be done at that time.
Thanks! I have been working on getting better at animation! So far I am happy with how the initial passes have come out but I need to keep refining them a bit more.
All the animations are done by hand and using video reference I took of me going through the animations. Having it right in front helps a lot as I don’t do a lot of animation work as level development and scripting.
Thanks everyone and check out the animations / give feedback if you’d like!
I just wanted to give a quick update that I finally got a chance to finish up the animations and submit the “Pushable Actor” to Epic. Hopefully I can fix anything that is needed quickly and it can be pushed to the Market Place in the near future!
For now check out the overview video I have posted:
I will have another video up showing off the animations soon.
When released, the Push actor will be set at $9.99 USD
I had a lot of other stuff I wanted to add to this version but kept running out of time to polish. If possible, I’d like to continue support for the actor with the extras I wasn’t able to include like a few more animations I have, more options for the actor, and child blueprints at a later time.
At this time it has been scheduled to release on January 6th. Once its live I’ll confirm, but that is what Epic has stated to me before the holiday season. I should be working on an update soon after with a few extra animations among other things and will keep everyone updated on those bits as well!
Thanks for all the comments and support. If you’d like to ask any other questions about it feel free!
I have also quickly put together a video on how to integrate the character blueprint aspects into an existing character / Unreal project. The process is not too difficult but can be tedious, requiring a bit of copying and pasting between blueprints, but otherwise alright. In the future I may be able to streamline the process a bit more. Check it out here if you need help with integration or if you just want to learn a bit more about how the Actor / Character works.
Note that I didn’t have a whole lot of time to go over the Animation Blueprint so I opted to leave it as general information. The integration is the same as the character blueprint but for your own Anim Blueprint instead. If anyone still needs help with this part I can always do a more in depth tutorial on its setup but for now I just wanted to get the video out.
I plan to continue supporting the actor after release but the initial process will be about fixing any major issues or bugs people have found. After that, look for additional animations, like crouching and pushing and pushing from cover. Other features can be added if desired by the community / overall feedback.
I have been following your walkthrough video on YouTube (- YouTube) covering implementation into a sidescroller type game. So far, so good. I have the functionality and animations working very well, so I’m really pleased! Thanks for that video. Out of curiosity, do you plan on adding this into the system by default in the future?
Also, I am seeing warnings every time I exit from a PIE (and can assume logging nabs this too):
Warning The widget ‘WBP_PushInteract_C’ was already added to the screen.
I’ve worked with a few systems that have this issue with UI widgets. While it doesn’t affect functionality, I like to have my finger on the pulse of this sort of stuff. They add up, and I can only assume they will contribute to performance loss. Any chance you can zero in on what’s trying to call the widget when it shouldn’t, or is this something that can be ignored? Even if it can be ignored, that constant warning toast message is annoying, haha!
Anyhow, thanks for the great work on this. I worked for ~50 hours with someone trying to get a respectable system like this in place, and just wasn’t happy with the results. Made it all the more easier to hit the buy button when I came across this!
Hey Derjyn, glad the actor is working well for you! And yes, like Axxi said the issue was found and I’ve fixed it in the newest update which I am working to get out ASAP for everyone.
I wanted to have the update completed last month but was unable to do so and I apologize to those who are waiting! It’ll come soon! In the mean time the warning you are seeing is quite easy to fix. All that is happening is that the player character is trying to add the UI element to the screen once more after you release the Pushable Actor, even though its still currently on screen. So it shouldn’t impact anything but throw out a warning, which is annoying, so in the mean time here is the fix!
All we do is check to see if the Widget is currently visible, meaning already on screen, and if it is, just don’t add anything.
This appears in 4.10 but not in 4.9 like Axxi said which is why I missed it at that time but again easy to add in the branch and IsVisible check!
Let me know if you have any other questions / need help! And again I’m working to update the actor and get new features / easier integration code for everyone soon!
*Edit: For those also working with different camera angles like top-down / side scroller the new version has new functionality that will automatically change movement / input for these types to work out of the box. (This is enabled as a Boolean in the Pushable Actor details) So this again will help take extra code out from the player character and condense it into the Pushable Actor making integration for your own characters easier and clear up code in general!
Im Confused , i recreated every variable, every Function, everything,… a few Hours… the Anim Blueprint works, with the Preview, i was Copying every Blueprint Node, i get Not 1 Compile Error, still it dont shows me THE “E” when im in front of the Push Actor…
Are they mocap’ed ?
Best regards.
but again easy to add in the branch and IsVisible check!