Ok, so to remove the camera offset, open up the characterBP and find the ‘Choose Camera Settings’ function (pure). In there you can adjust the camera offsets and lag speed depending on different conditions, like sprinting or locomotion state.
As for the odd feet movement, well, thats because the character is trying to turn in place. Do you want the character to turn in place? If you do, then I can try to walk you through setting it up, and if not then you can just remove the ‘TurnInPlaceCheck’ function from the turn in place graph of the animBP.
Thanks, will do without the in place movement for now.
There is a new issue i came across, I went to the entire topic looking for attack animation handling, but so far not much it appears.
I’ve made a quick video https://youtu.be/J4H_DW3yFUw showcasing basic adjustments to the AnimBP AnimGraph. Added blendspaces for one hand weapon, and added a bool trigger, with a blend per bone on pelvis (changed to thig_l and thig_r, still issue remains), to have attack animations blend with feet movement. While this doesn’t work, there is another issue when my player character mesh, part of it remains in the idle or moving state, and another part plays the attack animations without any effect for the blend per bone. The attack montages are set to the FullBody slot and Syncgroup Locomotion (index 0), and this only happens when i play those attack animations.
My questions are in regards to adding additional animation montages, how to integrate extra montages into the AnimBP. Do montages need extra edits, like adding curves?
Do I have to edit something else besides inside the root AnimGraph to blend montages properly?
Should I use an extra slot for my montages?
And do you have any thoughts why my patchwork character mesh (assembled from different meshes), plays so differently during montages?
This setup also not working (with spine), works on my other characters. Also removed the syncgroup value from the montages.
Montages do not blend feet movement with a single full standard character mesh.
After working 2-3 days with ALS, my main issues with the component are:
I am missing a place to edit the main variables, as it is now, you literally have to go through several functions, edit values in place, or to extend existing node or state setups. Variables sorted in categories named Bools, or AnimGraph, are not really that informative. The documentation displays each function, with some basic info, about 30 or 40 of it. Pretty overwhelming when you start.
The second and more important part missing, a design with an established setup for users to easily add their swimming movement mode (set a bool, and add your montage style in one place) or for flying, etc.
A clear quick setup documentation would likely reduce setup time, ie FAQ style. How can i add swimming animation? How can i add my attack montage?
While i lack the experience to say if this component is designed too complicated, it does its job, and i do not regret the buy, but some documentation improvements would certainly improve the experience.
Finally managed to sort out the IK bones so they work correctly on steps. But something is still not right - take a look at the video - tried various retargeting approaches, this is the best I get - but still walks like he has a carrot up his a#@ I’m using the standard animations that came in the system. Retargeted a few kubold walk animations - got the same result.
Was there any conclusion on retargetting? I’m getting a problem where only some of the Animations get re targeted when trying to retarget the als_animBP.
He’s not lifting his feet per-step for some reason, as for his overall posture it does just look like a retarget issue. Try offsetting is pelvis (either forward or back) in the retarget pose.
Hey, sorry been busy so I havent been able to check the forums in a bit. Seems to me like its a retargeting issue. The IK seems to be working, so I know the feet are following the IK bones, which leads me to believe the animation on the IK bones are the problem. Try disabling the IK animbp and see if the results are different. Also, you can turn on bone visibility in the animation window so you can see how they animate. Just remember to disable the IK animBP so it doesnt affect the bones in the Animation window.
Ill see what I can do tutorial wise. Still putting things together and testing with other animpacks. To add a new movement mode, like swimming, simply add logic in the needed places, just like the grounded, falling, and ragdoll movement modes. The system uses a lot of “Switch on EMovementMode”, so adding movement modes is just a matter of switching to that movement mode and adding the proper logic. You can add a swimming State in the Default Locomotion State Machine and transition in / out of it if the Movement mode Equals / does not equal Swimming.
Everything is fine without the postprocess animbp, yes. But obviously IK stops. I have fortunately had paid help offered from someone else on the forum over this issue until such time as we have better documentation.
PS - yours docs are extensive… but really not as useful … good documentation is not just a description of each node / eventgraph / function - there should be an overall explanation of how it all fits and works together, holistically, and how you would tackle the typical required changes and modifications. Fingers crossed your integration tutorials will close the gap!
Hello KingTumTum101 !
What do you think about Aim for weapon aiming ?
There is Aim Offset already. But I want to make Locomotion state 3 with weapon aiming all the time. So what should be best solution for that? Besides, I don’t want to use Blendpace for different aiming position, but to use Aiming rotator and just rotate couple bones
Same here. Setting up ALS on a different epic skeleton somehow messes up the provided IK solution.
Bottom line, there is no documentation for setting up the IK stuff, and it is a tedious time consuming task. You literally have to edit 20 different functions/vars/graphs/nodes
Hello mate . Awesome pack. Has this upper body layering been Done for weapon support yet. This is the part were struggling with . We want to use your system but the upper body needs to blend into weapon anims like carrying sword etc . But the system is a little daunting and I’m not sure where to begin to do this . Thanks great work
The CapsuleComponent of the character is always facing the forward direction of the camera. Is this by design? Is there any way to make it so it always faces the same direction as the character mesh?
I need to get the ActorForwardVector to calculate whats in front of the character and it’s giving me the wrong result.
EDIT: I checked Orient Rotation To Movement on the Character Movement component, and unchecked Use Controller Rotation on the character BP, and it’s now fixed.
EDIT2: Unfortunately that breaks movement modes 2 and 3. If you guys know a better way, please let me know.
EDIT3: Fixed. Set Orient Rotation To Movement on the Character Movement component to true and Use Controller Rotation on the character BP to false by default.
Then, on the Player input graph set the same variables when switching to movement mode 1, and the opposite values when switching to modes 2 and 3.
Turns out that the sprint animation wasn’t properly retargeted. It is unclear why this animation was not retargeted properly. If you have animation issues, and retargeted animations, especially with IK, check your animations first.
So, my advice would be to add a layered blend per bone node somewhere in the graph so you can have upperbody animations. As far as rotating the spine, you could add 3 transform / modify bone nodes (one for each spine bone), and then get the difference between the character rotation and actor rotation (facing direction), and use that to offset the bone’s rotation. If you tweak the alphas so they all add up to one (something like .2 for the first spine bones, .35 for the second, and .45 for the third, you will get a gradual spine rotation instead of a direct cut. This will help with aiming side to side, but I would recommend a blend-space in the vertical axis for aiming up and down, since modifying the bones to aim up / down can be tricky.
Hmm, that doesnt sound right. You do have to edit the bone names in the bp and animgraph, but only if you are using another skeleton. As far as the virtual bones, the position could vary for each skeleton / animations so you have to find a good balance. I’m planning to get the IK stuff into the docs soon though. Working with different skeletons is always tricky, especially in Unreal. There is no real easy way sometimes and it just takes practice and patience. That’s one of the reasons part of me regrets publishing the pack :D. I underestimated peoples knowledge of working with animations and skeletons in UE4. Ah well, live and learn.
The best way to add upperbody aniamtions is to use a layered blend per bone node somewhere in the graph (hard to say where since every project can require a different setup). There are some epic provided tutorials that can walk you through the creation process. Heres one of them - https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Animation/AnimHowTo/AdditiveAnimations/
Essentially you will want to feed your upperbody aniamtions into the Blend Pose 0 pin. They could be in a state-machine, or just a slot so you can fire montages, or both. It will take some testing and experimenting, so just be patient, test out different things, and eventually you will get a result you will like.
Thats one way of doing it. I did it that way as it actually works better for multiplayer. Another way to do it, would be to set the capsule rotation manually, the same way as the mesh rotation is set. So instead of manully rotating the mesh inside the AnimBP, you would just take that “Character Rotation” rotator and use it to set the capsule / actor rotation. Then you would need to change the mesh rotation to relative instead of world (in the character bp by clicking on mesh). Also, because the animBP uses the Actor Rotation as the yaw value of the character, you should change it to be set from the Base Aim Rotation, so the calculations for rotation don’t get messed up.
I’m using the standard animations that came in the system. Retargeted a few kubold walk animations - got the same result.