Hi there guys, after almost 2 months of programming, digging into the source code, and banging my head around some solutions, i’m almost ready to release my own contribution to unreal engine, called “PaperZD” (Zeta D).
Because i’m working with a 2d dev team, we recognized the lack of 2d support for 2 things that are really needed IMHO: State Machines + Event System, just like on AnimBPs.
The solution we present is a mirroring of 3d AnimationBlueprints, the plugin comes with the following:
Animation Blueprints => Now one can create an animation blueprint, add logic, modify an state machine (adding a Flipbook to each state as wanted), and even use Transition Graphs just as the Normal “3D” Animation Blueprints.
Can use Native Notifies or NotifyStates, the drawback is that this notifies are PaperZDNotifies, because AnimNotifies from Unreal rely on some wonky 3D objects not present on 2D.
Can use BlueprintNotifies derived from this PaperZDNotify or PaperZDNotifyState
Can use CustomNotifies: Just like on 3D, one can define a new notify, and the integrated compiler for this AnimBP will create a new function normally named ReceivedNotify_{NOTIFYNAME}.
This plugin fully supports UNDO and transactions, so one can edit with no problems.
The PaperZDAnimBlueprint comes with a TickEvent that can be managed to update animation variables, or whatever one would want.
PaperZDCharacter & PaperZDAnimInstance => A simple inheritance from Paper2D that will automatically manage the states and events in game, just inherit from this classes, and you’re set
My DevTeam and I are right now using this plugin for our own game, and we are working on making it better each day.
The plugin will be finished in about 2 weeks (we are testing right now), and will be sold on the marketplace (will update here with the price).
I’m considering creating a Beta Testing team, so if any of you are interested on this solution and would like to beta test it, give me a call.
Cheers!
-Fixed some issues with Some animation notifies not triggering on extremely rare cases.
-Added Priorities to the Transitions
Added colors to transitions (because why not)
All this changes will be uploaded when the plugin is accepted
Does anyone knows how much more do we have to wait for the code review to end? it has been at least 3 weeks.
As you can see on the picture uploaded… i’m already using this for our own game, so any updates will be directed inmediately to the plugin as better support is added
Though the new release comes with the “BlueprintCompilationManager” which destroys the Custom Compilation needed for the AnimBlueprints, as per stated on here
For now, the only way to use this plugin on 4.17 is to disable the Blueprint Compilation Manager.
I will try to contact someone or see if it’s possible to make a pull request with the solution i provided to support custom compilers and the manager at the same time.
Epic answered about the issues stemming from the compilation manager, it seems they intend to support custom compilers on the window leading to 4.19 (approximately)… so until then, Compilation Manager breaks every plugin that uses custom compiling. So you must disable the compilation manager if you wish to use this plugin (or any other like this tbh)
Still waiting for code review, the plugin is uploaded on the new developers page… so it must be “close”, just gotta be patient.
Of course, the Itch.io will be mantained updated… i would dare to say that the updates will come much quickly there, because tbh… epic is not doing a good job on keeping tings tight on the marketplace… i haven’t had contact with them on 3 weeks and no mail response either… so when a update comes… expect those times of delay on the marketplace, on itch.io i mantain the codebase by myself.
If you don’t mind using itch.io instead of the marketplace then it’s a good choice, if you don’t mind waiting for epic’s protocols, then marketplace is no problem
Updates will be posted on our twitter (we’re going to finish the creation of social media today), so you’ll be updated on that.
Also our company mail is also finished today, if you have any problems or need asistance
I’ll have to check the changes. 4.17 had some troubles because of the BlueprintCompilationManager that needs to be disabled, will download the pre-release and keep you posted.
Thanks for the interest!
