[Feature Request] Hierarchical Finite State Machines for Animation Blueprints

[asperatology]

Not sure if this had been suggested before. If yes, has there been an update?

If not, let me explain. In the animation blueprints, we can create state machines where the animations can transition to states, allowing the animations to transition to the corresponding states.

I see that we can only create 1 state machine for 1 animation blueprint. I was wondering if we could have hierarchical state machines (hierarchical finite state machines, because we don't want to have many hierarchies of state machines) in the animation blueprints. So that we can transition to a different state machine when conditions are met, and play that transitioned state machine's animation to the final animation node, instead of jumbling states and conduits in just one state machine.

So far the state machines documentation articles here, isn't telling us explicitly if we could have hierarchical or multiple state machines together. (There are other issues, but I digress, and will post about it in the documentation feedback forum.)

[Exelcior]

Hi Asperatology,

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding your request but you can have multiple state machines running side by side and blend or snap between them using a "Blend Poses by int" or "Blend Poses by enum" node. Here's and example:



Hopefully this helps!

Benn.

[asperatology]

I meant having state machines of state machines of animation states.

The first state machine controls the transitions between different state machines. The second state machine is the original one, where you control the transitions between the states.

[Michael Noland]

You can arbitrarily nest state machines in an anim blueprint.

Cheers,
Michael Noland

[asperatology]

Really? I could not find the information about it in the documentation, and I have no idea how to do it. All I see are Conduits, States, and just transitioning arrows.

May I request that "that" feature be documented with an introduction and how-to-do-it guide in the documentation, in case it's really not in there? (Maybe I should go and request doc info in the Doc Feedback forum...)

[Michael Noland]

Each state is an entire animation graph. Double-click on it to edit the graph within, and you can place another state machine using the right click context menu just like the outer one.

Cheers,
Michael Noland

[asperatology]

Cheers!
.
That definitely needs to be in the documentation. Going to go ahead and request for this in the Doc Feedback forums.