Quick Background:
This is my first post; I searched this forum, Daily-motion, and YouTube for answers, but couldn’t find an exact fix. If this is a repeat thread, I apologize; please forgive me and direct me to the correct link. I have little to no programming experience, but I can understand the terminology, and I am capable of understanding what is happening in blueprints that I didn’t create (for the most part).
The Problem:
I have been trying for the last three hours to add a third camera to my game. I created a project in the Third Person Template, and I currently have the follow camera, which I renamed “ThirdPersonCamera,” attached to the boom. I also have a second camera, named “FirstPersonCamera,” and that is attached to the mesh, fixed to a socket on the head bone on the skeleton. When I press Tab, it toggles between the two cameras. I achieve this with a simple InputAction Toggle Camera (Tab) > Toggle [FirstPersonCamera] Active. However, When I try to add a third camera, it is not as simple. If the third camera [EngineeringCamera] is added to the player character’s component hierarchy, I begin in the engineering view, which I have to toggle it inactive to utilize the toggle camera input action. I added a branch [EngineerModeActive?]: True… no change observed. False… no change observed.
Since I couldn’t keep it simple, or at least not my kind of simple, I tried to create a camera pawn blueprint that consisted of a sphere mesh, a spring arm, and a camera. I also made a PlayerController for the camera, and then in the character_BP, I did a Get PlayerController > CastTo Controller > Spawn Actor [EngineeringCam_BP] > Make Transform (on the Z-axis) upon pressing the B key… that didn’t work. In fact, I don’t even think that there was a visual result at all, at least not one that I remember. My last attempt was to just make the EngineeringCam_BP a child actor in the player character’s component hierarchy, the result from that was a character with an RTS camera attached to its head, but zero mobility. Neither the character nor the camera would go anywhere, but the Idle_Walk_Run animation still played, and I still could not use my RTS camera. At this point, I thought about scrapping my computer for gold bearing parts and calling it a day, but instead, I decided to try the community.
My First Goal:
I want a first person/third person camera toggle, which I have. But, when I press ‘B’ to enter Engineering Mode (Build Mode), I want the game to turn the controls over to an RTS style camera. I would like to control the camera with - W, A, S, D - and maybe add the ability rotate the object being built. If I can get the engineering camera to spawn at or near the player, and only travel a fixed distance from that point, that would be legit because then the camera couldn’t be used to explore the entire map. Maybe I should forgo the third camera all together. Let me know what you feel about it, please.
My Second Goal:
Boarding windows! I have only theorized about this, really, without attempting it yet because I am not to sure how something like this is done. Because I wanted it to consume materials, my initial thought was to make it a part of my engineering system, but if I add an RTS camera to the mode then you won’t see the window that you are boarding up. My next thought was to set it up similar to the pickup/drop functionality in a lot of inventory systems. I visualize maybe walking up to a window, and once inside the trigger, a pop-up text appears with something along the lines of “Barricade windows?” Then the player can strike the interact key (E) to perform the action. I have watched a few tutorials on spawning objects, where a spawn area was made, and then you press a key to spawn the object(s), but those objects tend to just litter the environment. Other tutorials spawn the object at the players feet with an arrow component. Perhaps I can create a spawn area over the window, press a key to spawn the barricade at the window (without it falling to the ground), but I want it to be destructible, so do I need physics enabled? If so, how do I enable physics without my barricade dropping to the ground once spawned? What would be the easiest way to set up a barricade system?
Additional Information:
I would show you screenshots of my blueprints, but everything that didn’t work for me, I deleted; I would not be able to show you more than my camera toggle… which shouldn’t be too difficult to follow: InputAction Toggle Camera (Tab) > Toggle [FirstPersonCamera] Active. Impressed with my game yet? If not, don’t worry, the project is brand new. All of my other projects were impressive, given my background, but I eventually caused a fatal error that killed my ability to open the projects… one by one, they have all ceased to exist. If you would like more information, I’m just a post away.