Engine Source SkillSystem Explanation

iniside · January 8, 2015, 4:52pm

Billy Bramer;201584:

I forgot I received a request to provide an update on this, sorry!

We are still actively working on this system, but it remains a work-in-progress. We have continued to make pretty large architectural changes to how pieces of it work, so I would personally still hold off on relying on it heavily just yet. Our game teams have been messing around with it, finding out what works for us and what doesn’t, and we’ve been constantly iterating on it. We’re trying to craft it in a way that remains performant with lots of abilities, gameplay effects, etc. while remaining generic/re-usable enough to be used by different types of games, all while we learn a lot from our systems designers about how they expect a system like this to operate.

I think we’re getting closer to where the architectural parts will start to settle down and we won’t have so many changes that would break content or ruin APIs in the next month or two. Everything involved still needs a lot of usability/polish to make it friendlier to use for people who aren’t systems designers involved in its construction though :p. Once we get closer to that, we’re hoping to make some documentation/tutorials or possibly a stream on what it can do, how to use it, etc. We initially created the system for our game teams, but we’re really excited to eventually get it out there for everyone and see all the crazy RPG/action/etc. stuff people make with it!

Awesome.

I look at every code update for this system. I have no idea what it does for most part or why it is the way it is, but it was huge help in looking how pros are doing it :D, and drawing some inspiration from :D.

intoxicat3 · January 26, 2015, 8:58pm

Any news/update on this?

parispm88 · February 7, 2015, 4:46pm

Any new/update on this? Would really like to get my hands on it.

SpacePilot1000 · April 9, 2015, 9:18pm

Ratti;38043:

To use the modules now, you will need to edit your MyProject.Build.cs in your MyProject/Source/MyProject directory. Add SkillSystem and GameplayTags to your PublicDependencyModuleNames. E.g., something like this:
PublicDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(
	new string] { 
		"Core", 
		"CoreUObject", 
		"Engine", 
		"InputCore",
		"SkillSystem",
		"GameplayTags"
	}
);
You will also want to include the editor portion of these modules too (these are pretty bare bones but the GameplayTagsEditor is required for adding tags)! That is, the GameplayTagsEditor and SkillSystemEditor modules. Unfortunately I’m not quite sure the path of least resistance is here. I believe the templates already create a MyProject3Editor.Target.cs file but do not create EditorModules alongside the GameModules that they create. Setting up an editor module isn’t hard if you have an example to copy, but I don’t think any examples shipped doing this. It may be easier to just add these modules (GameplayTagsEditor, SkillSystemEditor) to your local UnrealEd.Build.cs file. (You would want to add them to PrivateIncludePathModuleNames and DynamicallyLoadedModuleNames - follow BehaviorTreeEditor as an example).

Finally for the SkillSystemEditor, you need to enable that module in your DefaultEngine.ini file:
[SkillSystemEd]
SKillSystemEditorEnabled=true

For anyone reading this thread, here are a few tips I’ve discovered.

In general, SkillSystem has been renamed to GameplayAbilities. So when updating build files, add GameplayAbilities instead of SkillSystem (or GameplayAbilitiesEditor in UnrealEd.Build.cs)
The updated config info for DefaultEngine.ini is:


[GameplayAbilities]
GameplayAbilitiesEditorEnabled=true

There is a thread with additional tips on setup - GameplayAbilities questions - C++ - Epic Developer Community Forums

Shawn

anonymous_user_cc989825 · February 24, 2016, 6:27pm

Any update on when GameplayAbilities will be ready for “prime time”? It’s been in development for almost two years now…
Should a game team start using it or build something on their own to do the same thing?

anonymous_user_b7805b9d1 · February 25, 2016, 5:09pm

An update on this would be helpful for me too.

anonymous_user_cc989825 · February 29, 2016, 4:15am

Cancel, thanks for the update!

I’ve been spending the last week or so wrapping my head around this module and bridging between it and our game. So far, I agree with both your cautions and assessment. Right now, I’m still optimistic that it will be largely on target with our needs. Sometimes, the biggest challenge has been building my understanding and acceptance of its strategies when it doesn’t align with how I’ve done it in the past. Adjusting to another solution has been a bit hard - especially with relatively little documentation.

I don’t see many posts about this module in the forums - or anywhere really. I would love to see a bit of a community of developers working on clarifying and improving this module together. I will start some threads as I see questions and topics that would be relevant to others…

Would pull requests for changes to this module be welcomed? (At minimum, I’d love to be able to override some functions that aren’t currently virtual…)

Elvince · February 29, 2016, 10:33am

Hi,
@epic, can we have an update on the Status of this features? I bet you are now pretty stable on this due Paragon state, can we expect something on 4.11 or 4.12 with some documentation?

thanks,

anonymous_user_cc989825 · April 4, 2016, 5:59pm

I stepped away from using these systems. The lack of documentation and mismatches between it and our game scared me away.

order66 · May 19, 2016, 9:15am

Any updates on this?

Elvince · June 2, 2016, 2:43pm

Litlle bump on this as 4.12 just went out and nothing have changed in source code since 6 months. Is it stable and ready to use? Any starting doc planned?

Thanks,

Philippe_St-Amand · June 3, 2016, 9:09pm

yeah, for something as simple and game-specific as a skill-system, I’d say it’s much better to make your own custom solution anyway

Plus, it’s the kind of thing that’s always fun to code (to me, at least)