Hi Unreal community!
Description of environment:
I’m currently working on an FPS project using Unreal Engine 5.1 (also tested on UE5.2). For the FPS character, I’m using the standard UE4 mannequin hands mesh (referred to as hands) from the FPS template. As for the enemies, I’m utilizing the corps from the “City of Brass” asset pack.
My goal is to implement a melee finisher mechanic similar to Doom (2016 and Eternal).
To animate the hands, I’m using the control rig from version 4.26 for the Epic Games mannequin (with some updates to replace outdated Blueprint nodes). For the enemy animations, I’m utilizing the UE5 Manny control rig and retargeting it to the corps skeleton.
Once the animations are ready, here are the steps I follow:
- Enable root motion.
- Create a new montage with a motion warp notifier.
- Add the motion warp component to both the characters’ Blueprint (hands and corpses).
- Call the warp function before playing the montage.
Problem:
The issue I’m encountering is that when the montage plays, the player remains stationary instead of moving towards the enemy.
Debugging process:
I have thoroughly checked and verified the entire pipeline, ensuring that all the elements are correctly set up. The slots in the montage are correct, the Animation Blueprint (AnimBP) is functioning properly, as I can see the animation playing.
- To investigate, I attempted to warp the enemy, and it worked as expected. This made me consider the possibility of an issue with the skeleton or animation.
- To further narrow down the problem in BP_Enemy I replaced the corps’ mesh and AnimBP with the hand’s mesh and AnimBP (which have an identical skeletal mesh and ABP as the FPS character). Surprisingly, it worked without any issues. Based on this, I concluded that the skeleton and animation are functioning correctly.
- As an additional test, I created a project using the ThirdPerson template, added the warping component, montage, etc., for the UE5 base character “Queen,” and it worked flawlessly. However, when I replaced the mesh with the UE4 mannequin and created a montage using one animation, the warping didn’t function as expected.
Thoughts:
At this point, I’m uncertain about what I might have done wrong or where the problem lies. I suspect that there might be some hidden validation or requirement that is not mentioned in the documentation or developer streams. I have attempted different animations, both with and without the root bone translating during the animation. If you would like, I can prepare a project to share, allowing you to investigate further.
I would greatly appreciate any assistance in finding a solution to this issue. Thank you!