Field of Battle: Helicopter - Solution for Helicopters and Flying Pawns

HowlstarGames · May 30, 2018, 9:48pm

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https://i.imgur.com/ztBkpfe.png

		   			**A Blueprint Solution for any Type of Helicopter**

even those from some triple A games

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Hello There!

This is the support thread for the package Field of Battle: Helicopter available at the marketplace here:
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/field-of-battle-helicopter
Be free to comment, post your question, report bugs or just rant about the weather.

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**Welcome Video **
description and first/third person footage
[SIZE=13px]Demo Room
[SIZE=12px]included with the package[/SIZE][/SIZE]

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		https://youtube.com/watch?v=jtehHAVOreY
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Playable Demo:
You can test this package by playing the demo: download.
It includes 4 small different games, 1 for each game mode and a demo room where you can freely test some different settings on the helicopter. The demo also includes the Run Time Config, you can enable it in the main menu and press X ingame to setup the chopper in real time.
Don’t forget to adjust sensitivity and pitch inversion if you use it.

So, what is this package?
A blueprint to reproduce the gameplay of helicopters of many triple A games.
You can use it into different game modes (see footage below).
The large amount of customization makes possible to turn the helicopter into diferente flying objects like drones, birds or even a flying saucer.

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Side Scroller
footage of the helicopter configured as a side scroller
Top Down
footage of the helicopter configured with a top down perspective
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- YouTube
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Top Scroller
footage of the helicopter configured as a top scroller

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Features:

Can be used out of the box in different perspectives: first, third, side scroller, top down, top scroller.
Five cameras pre configured, API to handle cameras with activation by name, index, jump to next camera, config to disable cameras by tag and function to check if can use a specific camera.
Camera perspective with support to a dedicated mesh for the cockpit, useful on cases when a high poly and deteiled mesh is shown for the user controlling the vehicle.
Supports the use of meshes for propeller blades or just a material which does a motion blur effect representing the blade rotation.
Each propeller (front and tail) is built using two meshes for better compatibility when, for instance, the propeller 3D model is build with the mast being separated from the blades.
Propellers settings for speed, rotation randomization, local height when using cockpit, option to use a 8 blades mesh when the rotor is in full speed.
Machine gun and missiles with more than 20 settings to tweak them.
All weapons are replicated out of the box with server authority, owning client immediately simulates them to avoid perseption lag.
Heat control for the machine gun.
Missile difficulty control option which makes harder to aim missiles depending on vehicle rotation and velocity.
Weapons debug UI and debug projectiles.
Blueprint interfaces to communicate the UI about weapon reloads.
Projectile blueprint for missiles and machine gun bullets.
Organized audio system with separated cues for each effect.
Each audio cue has an input in the class default settings for easy replacement.
Audio cues blueprints has comments telling which parameters are exposed from the helicopter blueprint.
Audio and visual effects for low health warning.
Dust visual effect when the vehicle is close to the ground.
Support for landed state: blueprint reads the terraing below the vehicle and checks if can land. When the vehicle is landed, pitch and roll inputs are ignored plus other effect restrictions.
Fine tune sensitivity feeling with dozen of settings plus curve editing to change sensitivity depending on the current rotation.
Support for user choise sensitivity and pitch inverted direction.
More than 30 settings dedicated to fine tune movement.
Debug velocity with a user interface to test settings at run time.
Blueprint interface to communicate with the game mode.
Damage interface (UE built in) implemented plus server functions to force health changes or add ammo.
Collision detection with options for minimum speed to consider a damaging collision, cooldown to trigger another collision and collision damage suggestion based on velocity.
Destruction behavior option which denies the blueprint to perform some actions when the health reaches zero leaving them to the game mode (for compatibility with different projects).
Seven camera shake blueprints to add some extra feeling to the player controller.

Included:

Fully operational demo room.
Master Helicopter Blueprint + 5 child blueprints for different types of game modes.
Missile projectile and Machine Gun projectile blueprints.
User Interface widget for each helicopter type.
“Helicopter Pilot” blueprint to debug possess and unpossess.
Debug user interface widgets to see and configure the helicopter at runtime.
Debug projectile blueprint to see the velocity and the route projectiles are taking.
Audio, Textures, Meshes included (see the Resources section on this thread to get assets used on our example videos).

Tutorials:

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Tutorial: Quick Setup Inputs
Tutorial: Quick Setup Meshes
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		https://youtube.com/watch?v=YdZatCEnXFQ
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FAQ:
Q: There are diferent assets in each video, which are included?
A: Those in the “Demo Room” video, links to download the assets from the other vídeos and more assets related to helicopters will be added below in the “Resource” section.

Resources (assets used on our videos above and more)

Reload audio:
Sonniss.com - GDC 2015 - Game Audio Bundle: TheLibrarybyMTC_Robo_Motor_CoffeeGrinderB_001
Sonniss.com - GDC 2015 - Game Audio Bundle: TheLibrarybyMTC_Robo_Servo_PowerWindow_035

Rotor start audio:
Sonniss.com - GDC 2016 - Game Audio Bundle: Printing Press,Slow, Machine, Start

Weapons:
Sonniss.com - GDC 2016 - Game Audio Bundle: M1919A4_Browning_Machine_Gun_.30cal_5m_behind_ORTF_blanks_Triple_shots_x_1
Sonniss.com - GDC 2016 - Game Audio Bundle: AKM_7_62x39mm_55m_in_front_off_axis_clean_Triple_shots_x_1
Sonniss.com - GDC 2017 - Game Audio Bundle: 289_Foley_Footsteps_Rocks_Sneaker_Jump_Land_On_Two_Feet_Close

Particles:
UE Starter Content - Explosion1 and Explosion2

Sources for royalty free helicoptermeshes:

HowlstarGames · May 31, 2018, 1:53am

= reserved for patch notes =

daveREspawn · May 31, 2018, 2:23am

Nice work, congrats on the release.

tero83 · May 31, 2018, 6:25am

Nice. Will those ai element which seen in video included this package? i mean shooting turrets etc? if yes then i will buy it

Thunder_Owl · May 31, 2018, 7:39am

Hello! I did see on Marketplace asset released Congrats. Is that heli and environment in package the same as here in video above, or is it even more visually simplified? Thanks!

HowlstarGames · May 31, 2018, 1:30pm

hey, thanks!

HowlstarGames · May 31, 2018, 1:33pm

Hi!
Everything you see in the “Demo Room” video is included. that’s actually the demo room you can play and migrate assets from.

HowlstarGames · May 31, 2018, 1:36pm

Hello!
The assets included are those you see in the “Demo Room” video, that demo room is included entirely in the package.
Links to download the assets (meshes, audio, etc) from other vídeos will be added under the “Resources” section in the OP.

tero83 · June 1, 2018, 9:51am

bought asset and looks cool. i am using in my projects maybe sidescroller and topscroller. I have changed enemy meshes etc, but how can i change enemy textures? i want like tank to be different color and other enemies different. Also where i can change enemy projectile hit impact so mean that changing damage which it cause to player

Thunder_Owl · June 1, 2018, 5:20pm

Thank You for added links and references !

HowlstarGames · June 1, 2018, 10:18pm

sure, there’s more files yet, eventually they will be added.

HowlstarGames · June 1, 2018, 10:23pm

I’ll need to take a look into the package tomorrow to answer this (I won’t be at home for the rest of the day, sorry).

HowlstarGames · June 2, 2018, 10:45pm

I took a look into the AI for the enemies in the demo room. The version included in the package, colors are hardcoded, the constructor script of “BP_Master_Enemy” creates a material instance of “M_EnemyMaterial” and it also override the color when the enemy takes damage (blinking red) on “SetHitMaterial” custom event. We have a newer version of this AI where the color can be changed on the class default settings, I’ll include it when the next update for the package are sent.

The enemy damage in the demo room is also hard coded inside the projectile “BP_Master_EnemyProjectile” in the ApplyDamage() call, I’ll add a setting for this and should be included within the next update on the helicopter package

anonymous_user_8cb90c08 · June 18, 2018, 11:13pm

Hi I just purchased this asset, I wanted to see if there was a way to use a player character skeletal mesh when player spawns in game that can run around and when comes up to a helicopter player can posses and get in that helicopter and when they exit that helicopter be able to get into another helicopter and so on.
Thank You.

HowlstarGames · June 19, 2018, 1:06pm

Hello, thanks for the purchase! This is a more in depth answer, let me know if this clarify how to possess and unpossess the helicopter, thank you!

For possess:
You can get an example of possess code from FoBHelicopter/Demo/Blueprints/BP_SelectVehicle, in this blueprint there’s a portion of code within a comment “Action Interact”:
Basically it cast to the master blueprint the result of a line trace, then ask if it can be possessed and then possess it.

For unpossess:
The helicopter ask the game mode to unpossess, and the game mode decides what to do, there’s an example on the demo room as well

Make sure you have a keybind (from project settings > input) for the “PossesRequest” in FoBHelicopter/Blueprints/BP_Master_Helicopter/Event Graph/
Usually games have this set to E or F, this is the key the player will press to leave the helicopter.

On your game mode you need to implement the Fob-HelicopterInterface, here’s how: Imgur: The magic of the Internet (don’t forget to compile after adding it).
Right click and add the node “FOB-Helicopter on Leave Vehicle Request”, add implement your code from here. On FoBHelicopter/Demo/Core/BP_GameMode > “Leave Vehicle Requested” comment area you find an example of unpossessing the vehicle, creating a new pawn and possessing the new pawn.

anonymous_user_8cb90c08 · July 3, 2018, 2:41am

Thank You For The info I got It figured out now, one more question were is best place or how do i set up for score from a missile or machine gun hit on certine actors.

HowlstarGames · July 3, 2018, 9:23pm

Hi, I’m glad on helping.
Best way is through the game mode, make the same thing you did on the “On Leave Vehicle Request” event, but instead now, add these events:
The “Hit Actor” is what the bullet hit, from there you can check flags, do casts, call interfaces, etc.
On Missile Hit and On Bullet Hit are from the FOB-Helicopter interface, you need to add this interface to your game mode: Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Hope things are clear now

HowlstarGames · August 8, 2018, 5:01pm

Playable demo now available, the link is at the OP.
If you have any issue with the Demo, please post here, thank you.

Thunder_Owl · August 8, 2018, 5:14pm

Thank You!

DevCOEZBAY · November 4, 2018, 2:34pm

I want to use the Paper2D Blueprint with the APEX Destruction PlugIn. Somehow the projectiles affect the geometry just on a short range to destroy for example a building. Got any advise to fix this issue?