It is my first time in game development and I’m not sure how to aproach this project. It is basically a robotic arm, controlled by a gamepad that can interact phisically with objects (grab and manipulate stuff).
I got a 3d model, rigged it in blender and imported it to unreal.
Now i don’t know how to make the gamepad control it. I tried looking up online how to do it but nothing works. I can make it move with a random float generator but not with the gamepad input. I tried a bunch more stuff i don’t even remember anymore.
I also need to know how to manipulate each bone individually. I built a control rig and was able to control it there (not with the gamepad), but how do I do it with the gamepad?
Sorry if it all sounds dumb but what should I do? Where do I start?
Start with the beginner courses at https://learn.unrealengine.com . You can also access them at Epic Developer Community but some of the course tracking stuff was not yet working there last time I checked.
Hi Sam,
I can second Scionate’s suggestion to do some tutorials. But to be more specific to your problem: You said you are already able to control your robot arm with your random float generator, which is great. Now you need to wire your gamepad input to it. Take a look at the Unreal Engine Documentation on Input:
Input | Unreal Engine Documentation
You set up the controller input under Project Settings → Input Bindings.
Then you access your bindings in your Blueprint via an input axis node:
I hope this helps you to make progress.
I tried to do what you said and it didn’t work.
I will try to describe what i’ve done so far overall ( I can only upload one image so I numbered each step)
1- I set up the controller input
2 - I created a Pawn, added the Skeletal Mesh I wanted and created a Blueprint (both through the menu in the image)
3 - now my content browser looks like this
4 - I openned the Blueprint and put the code in it
5 - I also set the Pawn to autoposses in the settings, like I saw in some other tutorial online
Did I do something wrong or miss something?
I meant to reply to your answer 
It seems like you replicated the blueprint in the screenshot which I took from the Unreal documentation. This should not be necessary, the screenshot was more meant as an example. Actually, you should only need the “Input Axis X_AXIS” node and wire its Axis Value output (the float) to where the random float generator you mentioned was. You said you already got the arm to move with the float from a random number generator. Only this float needs to be replaced by the float from your Input Axis X_AXIS node.
I got it!!
I feel like such an idiot.
Turns out the issue was the controller. I have a SN30-Pro, that has different input modes for the nintendo switch, mac, xinput, dinput, etc, and i have been using it on my ps3 in the mac mode. I changed to the xinput mode and it worked fine.
Just one last question, I need to control the bones of the skeletal mesh but all the tutorials i found go towards creating a Control RIg to make animations, but I need to control the bones directly. Is that possible or do I need to make the animations and all?
It is great you figured it out and solved the problem with your controller!
As for controlling the bones, that is possible via Skeletal Controls. You will need an Animation Blueprint, but this does not mean you have to create hand-made animations. The Animation Blueprint is more like a hub for your animation related logic.
Ok, I will try that
Thank you very much for the help!