I am really keen on this pack however I wonder if I can use it for FIlming a virtual production project. I would like to add the birds and AI to the level scene and the actors are all animated via sequencer for a movie render only, no game play involved. Would the birds AI behave as needed and shown in the video?
I haven’t used Birds in Sequencer but many others have, So I don’t think you will run into any issues. Let me know if you do.
Hi there, is there easy ways to add randomization to the flying pattern / animation and speed of flying of the birds? Every video I see shows seagulls or crows flying non-stop. In real-life these birds are very good at gliding without flapping their wings.
Is it possible to have birds coasting smoothly and then flap two or three times and then glide again for a while? I’d like to get as realistic motion as possible out of the birds animation.
Hi, Love the Birds plug in! I’m getting the runtime errors that some folks have also had. Deleting the entire “Birds” folder and re-migrating into UE5 seems to have worked for others.
I found it worked for me as well, but only when I use no more than one bird (Crow) in my layer. With only one Crow, I do not get any error messages. The error messages do not seem to be related to the following:
- number or type of target points.
- GameMode.
I’ve tried changing gamemodes, rebuilding Navigation, resetting my NAVMESH, making sure that I have at least one of each type of target point, etc…
I have re-Migrated the entire “Bird” folder several times, and it still works (error free) for one bird in a level, I’m missing something fairly simple, but can’t seem to see it.
Any thoughts?
I will add some gliding animations in the next update. Thanks for the suggestion.
you need at least two of each type of target point, and they need to be at least 3000 unreal units apart. For example- if a Bird gets near it’s current target it looks for a new one, if the Bird is near all targets- there is no new one to go to. also I’m not able to see the errors in that screenshot.
Loving these birds! I’m still trying to figure out how the targets work…or how to “Build Navigation”. Do you have a video explaining these topics?
Cheers!
The directions are in the demo level. Drag and drop into your level- the Ground, Sky, and Perch Targets. use at least 2 of each and make sure they are at least 3000 unreal unitrs apart- then you need a navmesh volume in your level and click on Build, then click build paths.
It is very easy, please let me know specifically where you are getting confused.
Is there a way to make all birds fly off at a certain point by activating something in a BP at runtime?
PS - Excellent pack. Loving it so far.
Yes there is. All you need to do is set the Bool “Flyaway?” to true in the Blackboard.
Thank you! I’ll take a look.
Hello,
I want to make a system with birds that the bird will fly/ walk depending on how he is from the target point, and then animation on loop till I spawn a new target location.
I get some trouble understanding there can I add and how can I achieve this.
I’m spawning the target points, one at a time. Can it work without a pre-build path?
This will not work with the system as it is. The Birds store the local targetpoints in the level- in the construction script. so even before begin play. You would have to change how the flight behavior works. You can make it work, you will just have to make many changes.
Can I ask what was in the recent update? Is it worth updating a current project? Thanks.
it was for 5.0, there was a little bug keeping the demo level from packaging, it was related to the Thirdperson character, so it doesn’t affect the Birds themselves. I’d wait for the next update, that one will be worth it.
Thanks. New update on the way? Excellent news.
Another quick one. How do I stop birds going underwater? I’m using Oceanology, and they fly down and stroll around on the ocean surface as if they have gills 
Tried adding the “BirdEnemy” tags to oceanology, etc. but no joy. Same goes for a sliding door that they keep triggering. Thanks. John.
The only way the Birds would fly underwater is if you have a sky target under the water or too close to the surface. My guess is that one Bird hit another Bird in flight. You may want to disable their collision while flying. When they hit something during flight they fall to the ground and switch to walking, or i guess in your case, scuba diving . This was mostly for in city environments, I prefer them hitting a building and falling to the ground than flying through the building. This is mostly avoided with the Obstacle Avoidance but there are circumstances where the line trace just misses the edge of a building but the Bird still hits. You can disable this by opening the “BP_Npc_BirdBase” Blueprint (in the ParentClassBlueprints folder) in the EventGraph you can disconnect the following (see image)
Also for the enemy tag- that is only used while walking on the ground, There is no enemy avoidance while flying. I hope that was helpful.
Brilliant. You’re right about collisions. The birds seem to dive from the sky and then walk around the bottom of the water. There are mountains either side of a narrow water channel. Already triple checked target positions. And my project is an island with lots of trees so I will go for that. No more professional deep sea diving birds is probably best for my project And thanks for the Enemy tag clarification too.
Can I make a suggestion for the next release? Would be fantastic if bird sounds were properly integrated. For example, when seagulls open their beaks and call out, etc. (unless that’s already there and I’ve missed a setting?). Love to see more birds too, like doves or those little colourful finches. Excellent plugin by the way. One of the best in the marketplace.