Able Ability System Info and Support Thread

[mnorris54]

There is a Play Sound task in Able. I don’t think it has any attenuation parameters or such though, so you would need a Custom Task for something like that.

All good, I realized shortly after that with jumping/leveling/getting hit you need to play the sounds outside of able anyways.

[AngeIV]

There should a task “play sound attached” as blueprint node of the same type has all the audio component options - including set of in cue parameters. that would be helpful. the play sound as is in able is “play sound 2d”

[ExtraLifeMatt]

@AngeIV

There should a task “play sound attached” as blueprint node of the same type has all the audio component options - including set of in cue parameters. that would be helpful. the play sound as is in able is “play sound 2d”

Sure, I can see about adding that.

[mnorris54]

Hey i’ve had a recurring problem with Able. In the picture this attack is not registering a collision. I’m going to try and update, but it seems the enemy has to have the majority of their collision capsule inside of the cone for it to trigger a collision. And with any of the other collision query types; box, sphere etc they don’t seem to work at all. I’ve been able to make this work by using 2d cones, but it seems that now I’m running on a dedicated server it doesn’t register 75-90% of the close calls.

[Album] imgur.com

[intoxicat3]

@ Found another (minor) thing:

• Use Play Sound task with cue that will have attenuation override asset,
• It won’t be played as it’s looking for Editor Viewport location instead of your custom viewport location, (eg. if you are near 0,0,0 at your editor viewport sound will trigger) ( FAudioDevice::CreateComponent )

So basically I need to check Sound2D for those when testing in the timeline and I can forget to set it back to false Hope you will have some time to investigate it.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

@mnorris54

Hey i’ve had a recurring problem with Able. In the picture this attack is not registering a collision. I’m going to try and update, but it seems the enemy has to have the majority of their collision capsule inside of the cone for it to trigger a collision. And with any of the other collision query types; box, sphere etc they don’t seem to work at all. I’ve been able to make this work by using 2d cones, but it seems that now I’m running on a dedicated server it doesn’t register 75-90% of the close calls.
https://imgur.com/a/1dtpClO

That sounds like something weird with your collision if the other ones aren’t working. Cone actually uses a sphere query under the hood so there’s no reason those two should ever have different results.

You can try and repro it with this test project if you like (or use it to compare your settings): Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life

[ExtraLifeMatt]

@intoxicat3

@ Found another (minor) thing:

• Use Play Sound task with cue that will have attenuation override asset,
• It won’t be played as it’s looking for Editor Viewport location instead of your custom viewport location, (eg. if you are near 0,0,0 at your editor viewport sound will trigger) ( FAudioDevice::CreateComponent )

So basically I need to check Sound2D for those when testing in the timeline and I can forget to set it back to false Hope you will have some time to investigate it.

Hmm, interesting. I’ll add it to my list.

[Arkiras]

Is there a sample project available that illustrates the usage of a custom scratchpad? Having gone through the documentation for the life of me I still don’t understand how a scratchpad is supposed to be used. I get the setup of a scratchpad bp and adding variables to it, how to access it from within a task, but where should you be setting the variables… and also I’m not entirely clear on what the purpose is. In your burning man video you solve the stateless nature of abilities by adding behavior to the target actors, is this something that could have been done with a scratchpad instead? A use case example would be really helpful.

[AngeIV]

@Arkiras We even discussed a use few pages back. Lets say you have an ability that is timed ability. This ability is a shield that absorbs certain amount of damage per hit… and ends if absorbs certain amount of damage TOTAL. Scratchpad is a good place to store the damage reduction. and sum ob damage absorbed to do a check if you should end the ability.

[amethyst7]

Hey there -

Been using Able for many versions now, and have been using it in 4.24.3 most recently. Saw that it needed an update, and updated, and am now getting this error on starting the project, now:

LoginId:9fd814504cadb04c61c5168cb105ea56
EpicAccountId:ba9b9446f4eb42a49e962ff2ce3428b4

Unhandled Exception: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x00000008

UE4Editor_AbleEditor!FAbleEditor::LoadAbilities() [d:\build\++portal+promotion\sync\localbuilds\plugintemp\hostproject\plugins\able\source\ableeditor\private\ableeditor.cpp:138]
UE4Editor_AbleEditor!TBaseRawMethodDelegateInstance<0,FAbleEditor,void __cdecl(void)>::ExecuteIfSafe() [d:\rocketsync\4.24.0-10570792+++ue4+release-4.24\working\engine\source\runtime\core\public\delegates\delegateinstancesimpl.h:541]
UE4Editor_AssetRegistry
UE4Editor_UnrealEd
UE4Editor_UnrealEd
UE4Editor
UE4Editor
UE4Editor
UE4Editor
UE4Editor
kernel32
ntdll

The error occurs right after the editor launches, before any input can be provided. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks as always.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

@amethyst7

Hey there -

Been using Able for many versions now, and have been using it in 4.24.3 most recently. Saw that it needed an update, and updated, and am now getting this error on starting the project, now:

LoginId:9fd814504cadb04c61c5168cb105ea56
EpicAccountId:ba9b9446f4eb42a49e962ff2ce3428b4

Unhandled Exception: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x00000008

UE4Editor_AbleEditor!FAbleEditor::LoadAbilities() [d:\build\++portal+promotion\sync\localbuilds\plugintemp\hostproject\plugins\able\source\ableeditor\private\ableeditor.cpp:138]
UE4Editor_AbleEditor!TBaseRawMethodDelegateInstance<0,FAbleEditor,void __cdecl(void)>::ExecuteIfSafe() [d:\rocketsync\4.24.0-10570792+++ue4+release-4.24\working\engine\source\runtime\core\public\delegates\delegateinstancesimpl.h:541]
UE4Editor_AssetRegistry
UE4Editor_UnrealEd
UE4Editor_UnrealEd
UE4Editor
UE4Editor
UE4Editor
UE4Editor
UE4Editor
kernel32
ntdll

The error occurs right after the editor launches, before any input can be provided. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks as always.

That’s saying you have a null Ability (but it’s after the check for nullptr and a cast checked) - so I’m not sure what’s going on there. It’s trying to call FixUpObjectFlags…

[amethyst7]

That’s saying you have a null Ability (but it’s after the check for nullptr and a cast checked) - so I’m not sure what’s going on there. It’s trying to call FixUpObjectFlags…

Alright, while I’m not sure what happened between updates to make it break, this was enough for me to go remove abilities and reintroduce them, and I found the 1 file that was causing the problem. Haven’t touched it in a few months, so it’s weird, but also not a big deal. Project up and running again, thanks much for the fast response!

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Alright, Able v3.40 has been submitted. Notes below.

Able v3.40

• Fix to Ability Thumbnails not loading between Editor sessions.

• Added a “Amount to Spawn” field to Spawn Actor Task. The Task will spawn that amount of the actor.

• API CHANGE: The current Spawn Index is now passed along with the On Spawned Actor BP/C++ Callback.

• Play Sound Task now has new fields:

  • Sound Start Time (runtime bindable)

  • Volume Modifier (runtime bindable)

  • Pitch Modifier (runtime bindable)

  • Sound Attenuation (runtime bindable)

  • Sound Concurrency (runtime bindable)

  • Destroy on Actor Destroy (for attached sounds)

  • Allow Auto Destroy (force cleanup of audio component when the sound ends).

• Removed deprecated fields from Play Sound Task.

• When “Clear Targets” is enabled on Query/Sweeps, the “Allow Duplicates” field will be applied to the future cleared Target list and not the current. This fixes an admittedly confusing iteraction between the logic.

• Fix to Hyperlink fields not properly persisting values if you didn’t explicitly press ENTER when changing the value.

• Removed any Actors that are Marked Pending Kill from possibly being Task targets.

• Some minor code clean up.

[shain1234]

Alright, Able v3.40 has been submitted. Notes below.

• Added a “Amount to Spawn” field to Spawn Actor Task. The Task will spawn that amount of the actor.

i like this a lot, but what are the possibilities for changing the actors location and rotation per index, right now i’m not sure why id put 3 actors in the exact same place.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

@shain1234

i like this a lot, but what are the possibilities for changing the actors location and rotation per index, right now i’m not sure why id put 3 actors in the exact same place.

You can use the Per-Actor callback if you want to do that currently.

[shain1234]

You can use the Per-Actor callback if you want to do that currently.

oooooh, you can as well! thank you!

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Small update, Able v3.41 submitted:

• Fix to an issue where “Clear Targets” on Sweeps/Queries would only execute if the Query/Sweep found something. You still need “Copy Results to Context” turned on, but now even if you don’t find any results - the Clear Targets option will execute as expected.

[AngeIV]

Flawless as usual! Thanks for the update!

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Able v3.42 submitted. Notes below:

Able v3.42

• Targeting now works the same as Query/Sweep tasks; allowing multiple channels and searching ByObjectType rather than ByChannel in the code itself.

• The old single channel field is now deprecated, but will automatically be used if you don’t have the new array field filled out. So no need to change anything on old abilities, but going forward try to use the new array field.

[Abarudra]

I have an issue with the Spawn Actor Task:
As soon as i Increase Amount to Spawn to something greater than 1 and test it the Editor crashes:

Fatal error: [File:D:/Build/++UE4+Licensee/Sync/Engine/Source/Runtime/Engine/Private/LevelActor.cpp] [Line: 409] An actor of name ‘Projectile_BP_C_0’ already exists in level 'Level /Engine/Transien

Any Idea how i can fix this? Thank you

This is how i modify orientation after the Spawn:

This is how i have the ability set up: