So if memory serves me correctly in EU3 You make your sockets on your skeleton character model, you then attach a skeletonized item to it. You then could adjust the item orientation and xyz in relation to the socket. Then you could bring in another different item and adjust it to the socket again with its own customer settings. This would make each item you adjust customized around the socket. If I remember the socket stayed in its place but the item could be moved around that socket. The kicker is each item had a memory of how you oriented it.
This way when the item was spawned it would be oriented correctly amongst different items.
Now in UE4 I can make sockets and even select preview that item in its socket. However I do not see an option to move the items orientation to the socket without moving the socket. This makes me nervous because if I move the socket so the orientation lines up correctly for a shovel lets say then when I spawn a bottle its going to be floating in mid air?
Do you follow me? am I wrong? Granted I haven’t done a whole lot of testing yet but I was hoping someone could save me a lot a of time doing that. My concern is how to get different items to all line up out of the same socket? Or will the socket automatically move where needed to each item. Where is the memory kept etc?
I’m pretty sure that UE3 sockets work the same way as UE4 sockets, in that there is no ‘per-thing-to-attach’ data stored. The best way to go is to set up your attachable meshes / weapons / etc… so that they’re ready to go as-is (their default orientation/origin point is the hand grip or the head or whatever).
When that won’t quite do, you might want to define a family of sockets. For example, there are several separate hat sockets in Fortnite, depending on if it’s a full head helmet, a regular hat hat, a hat worn off to one side, etc… You can then pair these up with an extra data asset that stores both the mesh and the socket the mesh goes into. If really necessary, you could store an additional transform there too that you apply either via a dummy scene component attached to the socket or setting as the local transform of the spawned object, but that would be awkward for previewing in editor.
Well thanks for the information, Not exactly what I was hoping for. Yet again everything seems to require an additional 10 steps and be convoluted. So the model has to be pre-lined up before import into UE4, sorta yucky. Or one needs to lay down 20 different hand sockets, yucky again. Axe_Short, Axe_Long, Axe_Curved, Axe_Broken meh.
No in EU3 you placed one socket, just one. You then previewed every single model that would possible be spawned in that socket and lined up its orientation in a pre-viewer just once. There was some sort of meta data that would be stored so when the model was spawned it new its orientation that you setup and would use it. ← This makes sense, it also saves tons of time wasted.
This just seems like a another step backwards for the pretty little engine that could, are you sure this is the way sockets are handled? I just want to make sure since you said “pretty sure”.
Thanks about the info on Fortnight, but um when am I going to get to test it… Ya uhuh you brought it up, you posted sign ups to the closed beta or something in the dev news reel. What do I get about it months later, a blog… Gee thanks… I am being a jerk and joking. But why don’t you push out that little invite email to my account and then I can see how your sockets really function in fortnight… Cough…
I’m not sure what is the problem.
You want to have multiple items on single socket, but lined up differently, keeping movement from socket?
If so - just attach items with “Keep relative offset” option and you can modify relative transform of object however you want, but after “calibration” they will move according to socket.
I’ll upgrade from pretty sure to 100% sure that this works the same in UE4 as it did in UE3: UDK | SkeletalMeshSockets (also had a look at the UE3 code in SkeletalMeshSocket.uc, there was no place to store per-thing-to-attach data on the skeletal mesh itself in UE3 either).
However, one other approach I though of this morning is that you can always add a socket in the static mesh editor on the target item to ‘re-pivot’ it for attachment, and use that socket as the relative position when attaching it to the skeletal mesh. You can even do a two-way dispatch if necessary, e.g., adjusting how a gun fits in a huge fist versus a more slender character if needed by having a HeavyHandOffset and a SlenderHandOffset in the gun/weapon/whatever meshes. I’d still recommend for any new meshes going forward that you create them with the desired use in mind. Even if you go with the approach above, the quickest and easiest socket to place is one at (0,0,0)
I’ve asked someone from the Fortnite team to chime in on this one, although I’d suggest creating a separate thread for stuff like that in future.
My name is Will Kinsler and I’m a Community Manager on Fortnite. You’re right, it’s been a couple of months now since we started Alpha sign-ups. We wanted to give folks an opportunity to register is soon as we could.
Alpha hasn’t yet started just yet. We’re targeting the Fall to begin bringing in players and will slowly ramp up from there. We know waiting is a pain and that blogs and videos aren’t nearly as exciting as playing, but we do want to keep everyone as informed as possible as we continue the push toward Alpha.
Really appreciate you being patient on this. We’re working hard so that hopefully when you do get that email, you’ll feel it was well worth the wait. If you’ve got any questions, feel free to reach out to me directly at any time.
