How can i create multiple animations for different guns with the same character?

[Ilmigue]

I am very new to unreal engine, but i am pretty good at modeling. I use blender for it.

So my problem is this: I am trying to make my first FPS game, supposed to be tactical (like rainbow six series and armas etc…) that uses true first person instead of traditional representations. This would mean that everyone else sees exactly the same animations that you see in your first person view.

I tried to google about these questions, but came up short.

The first and the most important question, if you don’t want to answer other questions, just answer this!: How can i create multiple animations for the same character model, that uses different weapon models? Meaning that i could use the exact same character mesh for pistol animations (walk run idle reload crouch shoot ETC…) and also for assault rifle animations. I haven really figured out any way. The first person template uses hands and the gun as the same mesh, so its no help! This would mean that i could pick up a pistol from the ground and the character would immediately know what to do.

2. If i use true first person, will it mean that my weapon would “sink” into a wall if i came too close. Or is it possible to use some kind of x-ray feature for the first person view, so any mesh never intersects with the world meshes?

3. Can i hide the head for only the player character, so other would still see it. Would be easier to position the camera.

and the last and the least question: should i use traditional fps representations instead?

Thank you thank you if anyone would spend their time adressing my problems!!! <3

Off topic: here’s my g36c model that i made today.

[FrankieV]

Tough questions to answer as a system is a sum of all it’s parts.

1: The easy way make a separate animation blueprint for each of the weapons types you use. It adds more clips but as a resource hit it’s next to nothing. If you want to get fancy then your into a procedural driven design that makes things more difficult to update content side and a lot more difficult to make work properly. Best plan keep it simple.

2: Avoided the x-ray effect and keep the player out of the wall. Not sure if it’s the case in UE4 but typically the ray trace for a shot is projected at eye level and not from the muzzle of the weapon. (Would like to hear about this myself) but in general player clipping = bad.

3: Yes. In UE4 you do not use the mesh player model directly but build it up using a Character blueprint that controls all aspects of the player model and can include everything you need as Components. You can build the character using separate part of the complete character. Things like arms, legs, and even heads. Think of it as one stop shopping and the Character blueprint should be your first stop.

Using a 1st and 3rd mesh still makes things easier but simple enough to import the components and still share the same rig.

4: Good question but there is no reason you can’t do both. At its core it’s just a different camera perspective you can offer as a choice and the only real question is how much time and effort you want to put into it.