Hey creators & devs!
Do you have feedback on working with the new NPC Spawner Device, working with Character Definitions, or writing NPC Behavior scripts? Please drop it here. Screenshots and videos are highly appreciated.
There is a lot to tinker with, so feel free to start with the new dedicated AI and NPCs documentation.
Check out Introducing the NPC Spawner Device for UEFN for the lowdown, as well as the
28.10 Release Notes for Limitations and Known Issues.
Hey!
I’m running some tests with the NPC device, this is the scenario:
I’m building a Tycoon game where the NPCs kinda work for the player. I have around 50 of them, each one with it’s own spawner, but they seems to get automatically despawned after I move far away from them. Is there some kind of limit or configuration I’m missing? It’s a fully custom character, this problem apparently doensn’t happen if I change the Character Type to Guard or Wildlife
It’s great!
I would like to find some documentation on importing custom skinned characters. My model was acting like a guard, but in a T Pose, even though I successfully retargeted the skeleton mesh using IK Retarget.
It seems there might be a missing step between Retarget and Character Definition, or I might have overlooked it in the documentation.
Anyway, it’s great!
Hi start learnig how to use it. i try to create a custom bluprint for raptor but when i try to run it i receive this error message:
Missing Retargeter to retarget the Character Blueprint on the WIldlife Skeletal Mesh.
How can i fix it. site documentation has not enouth details about. thk
I’ve been trying to use a Custom Character on the new NPC Character Definitions.
Cosmetic Modifier
Character Look = Custom Character
Character Blueprint = Actor (the only option)
Character Movement = Retarget from Fortnite Character (Animation Preset is grayed out)
IKRetarget = Created a new one.
To get the Source IK from a Fortnite Character I used the FN Mannequin located at:
Fortnite > Characters > Player Basics
I created a new IKRig and chose this Skeletal Mesh as the source.
I used this as source and used the IK of a custom character as the target.
Character is looking fine on the Retargeter preview. But every time I run a session, the custom character doesn’t render.
The documentation doesn’t have any specific information on how to use custom characters.
I would like to check it out this week.
One question before I dive in. Is it possible to have NPC opponents “fill in” player slots? And when a real player joins they will just replace the NPC in the game?
Thanks and Happy Creating!
We’ll try to touch on the custom character workflow this during the NPC Spawner Device highlight during this week’s FN Creative stream. https://www.youtube.com/live/_or7VARo1xk?si=GjkvDpy2s5GbZlk6
Thanks to @QH_DreamMaker for pointing me in the right direction.
You can use GetPlayers() from the Playspace Interface to count number of players or the Player Counter Device and calling GetCount() to then spawn / despawn a number of Guards / NPCs / Creatures up to the right number.
hey @JKingpin , I am having a blast with that… everything looking smooth so far… I have one question if you are kind enough:
Is there a way to set NavigateTo speed? (preferrable via Verse) atm I think we could use a mutator zone if there is no other option
For anyone with the same question, I’ve seen on the release notes and we are unable to set the speed atm.
My problem now is that I can’t cause damage on the custom npc with bullets, only with explosions… I have played with some combinations of collision presets and also tried using a static mesh together with the skeletal at the Actor BP, but no luck so far…
You can see in the video below the damaged event print only triggering at the explosion but not on shots. (also the health is impacted on explosion only)
Any ideas on how to solve this one? thanks in advance
Thank you @JKingpin !
It was a great live, so much good info about IKrigs and UI.
I solved the problem yesterday though. I was missing the Actor Blueprint.
It was a bit confusing because the + sign to create a new Actor Blueprint is not intuitive and sometimes it doesn’t show. As opposed to the Retargeter option, where you have a “Create new asset” option on the drop-down menu.
I thought I had to select the Actor blueprint there (something like the parent Third Person Character Blueprint)
Overall NPC Spawner looks very interesting, and is a major progress.
It would be great to have a Modifier that attaches a prop or VFX to existing Cosmetic. So that we can have various effects without creating a copy of the character model (given skeleton seems to already have all those attachment points). And being able to do that dynamically would also be great, for gameplay-driven effects.
Create Custom NPC Behavior should include the full behavior file. Step-by-step guide is also useful, but is hard to understand the outcome without the full file.
It is not clear how to make a custom NPC shoot a certain target (ideally a vector3 rather than a whole agent). Note: “shoot” can be positive as well, if they have chug cannon or similar.
It is not clear how to detect and react to various events in the default behavior, e.g. that guard is alerted, shooting, lost target and so on.
It is not 100% clear how to play built-in emotes using PlayAnimationController.
On that front, it would also be great if we could detect which emote the player is making, and repeat that. NPCs repeating your emotes feel aligned with the goal of promoting shop content. Lego does the same.
PlayAnimationController is good, now I feel it would be great to be able to get it from player as well. E.g. to make player cough when infected, or fall when slipping (probably would work best combine with stasis).
Hello Creators, we’ve received a few reports relevant to the latest Chapter 5 Season 2 update and started to investigate on them. If you are hitting the following validation issues, you can try the workaround suggested here and please let me know if it doesn’t help! Sorry for the inconvenience!
Error: [AssetLog] XXX : Invalid skeleton used in animation sequence for MoveForward
This is due to the fact that the animation preset system is requiring the all the animations are using the same skeleton, if you hit it then you can right click on the prolematic animation seqeunce, and then replace the skeleton to the same one the other animations are using.
Error: [AssetLog] XXX : Missing NPC Definition!
This is an issue that the engineers are still investigating, but we’ve found a fix that you can apply to your project:
Hi! Have you found a solution to that problem?
Share thoughts on NPC spawner devices and custom character workflows, providing valuable feedback to enhance user experiences and functionality.
After spending most of the day I think I got it to work. This is freakin huge!!! Will we be able to assign creatures as well in addition to Guard and Wildlife with the NPC Spawner?
Hello! a little thing, i would like to have in the content a basic animation i can use to test in editor if my retargeting is good or not!
Have you found any solution? I’m faced the same problem… Some custom BP actor take damage, some other no, no idea why
you need to use a physics asset with the skeletal mesh.
you need to use a physics asset with the skeletal mesh. (2)
