Able Ability System Info and Support Thread

[TVwj]

Can you give me repo steps? Just spawn a Target Actor and Play an Ability?

Just having a target actor spawned in and playing the ability will always cause a crash.
As in, having any target actor in the editor while playing the ability will cause a crash.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Adding target asset works for me now. However, I get a crash whenever I play the ability when the target asset is spawned in the editor.

Can you give me repo steps? Just spawn a Target Actor and Play an Ability?

[TVwj]

Adding target asset works for me now. However, I get a crash whenever I play the ability when the target asset is spawned in the editor.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Able v3.1 submitted. Notes:

• Fixed Ability Dynamic Fields not properly binding during runtime.
• Fixed Target Preview Assets not spawning properly.
• Fixed Target Preview Assets not being selectable by clicking on them.
• Hitting "Delete" on your keyboard while selecting a Target Preview Asset in the Editor will delete that instance.
• Added "Location" Target Type which allows you to programmatically specify a 3D location in the world and pass it to a Task.
  • You'll find this option on any Location struct (e.g. Spawn Actor's Spawn Location, Play Particle Effect, Play Sound Effect, etc).
  • To pass a Target Location to your Tasks with that option you must:
    • Add a "Location" Target to your Ability (under the Target drop down, you don't need to mark your Ability as "Must Have Target").
    • Override the "Get Target Location" method in C++ or in the Ability Blueprint. This is where you would grab the mouse location or what not, by default it simply returns the location of the actor running the ability.
    • This value is passed from the Client to the Server in a networked game (as the Server has no concept of a mouse, etc), so just be aware of that. Maybe add some extra verification if needed.
    • This value is stored on the AblAbilityContext and can be grabbed in Blueprints by calling GetTargetLocation on the Context.
• Updated Play Particle Effect / Play Sound Effect to use the internal AblTargetLocation struct so they can use the new functionality. The old fields are still there and will automatically be used if present. If you want to use the new functionality once you move things over, simply reset the deprecated fields (set the socket name to NONE, any vectors to 0.0's, etc).

As always, thanks for your support and patience. Keep the bug reports coming.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Yeah...only see VERBOSE on logs...don't show in screen

I'd check your Able Settings (in the plugin options), there is an option in that that prevents Verbose from printing to the screen.

[Demonrras]

Yeah...only see VERBOSE on logs...don't show in screen

[ExtraLifeMatt]

VERBOSE don't work to me...can't debug with this...it's a bug???

Verbose for which Task? Or just in general? You should definitely see it in your Output Log at the very least.

[Demonrras]

VERBOSE don't work to me...can't debug with this...it's a bug???

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Can confirm I also am getting this issue.

Yea, It's on my list for this weekend. I'm already preparing a patch for the dynamic fields on the Ability itself not binding during runtime, so I'm going to try and squeeze in a fix for the Target Actor as well before I submit the patch this weekend.

[OllieWilliams]

I still cannot get a target asset to spawn in the editor. The output log says "LogAbleEditor: Warning: Could not load asset [name of asset]" no matter what asset I pick. I tested with multiple actors and even the same actor as the preview asset, but I still get this message.

Can confirm I also am getting this issue.

[TVwj]

Interesting. Any special repro steps? Or just try and spawn the Target Actor?

Just trying to spawn the target actor.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Sorry..I'm not completely able to follow you.
What does "OnGetDynamicProperty_Cooldown" if not asking for cooldown at runtime?
And what would be the best method to dynamically change the cooldown depending on variables from a context actor?

Aswell thank you for your support and your willingness to help.

It does ask for the Cooldown, but only when not in the Ability Editor. The Ability Editor purposely doesn't calculate cooldown since it doesn't use it. Like I said, I may make that an option so if you want to test your cooldown logic in the Ability Editor - you can.

If you try your Ability when in a level or in game, you should hit your breakpoint (at least, I did).

I still cannot get a target asset to spawn in the editor. The output log says "LogAbleEditor: Warning: Could not load asset [name of asset]" no matter what asset I pick. I tested with multiple actors and even the same actor as the preview asset, but I still get this message.

Interesting. Any special repro steps? Or just try and spawn the Target Actor?

[TVwj]

I still cannot get a target asset to spawn in the editor. The output log says "LogAbleEditor: Warning: Could not load asset [name of asset]" no matter what asset I pick. I tested with multiple actors and even the same actor as the preview asset, but I still get this message.

[Knaarke]

I went ahead and checked on this. Cooldown IS being calculated through the field, but it's not calculated within the Ability Editor (unless you're using a Branch Ability which calls an Ability). This was done on purpose to avoid not being able to iterate quickly on an Ability that has a long cooldown. I could add an option whether or not to respect cooldown while authoring Abilities, or even add an option that just clears all cooldowns - but I'm still thinking on that. I'd appreciate any feedback from people on which they prefer (or if they even want the current behavior changed).

Sorry..I'm not completely able to follow you.
What does "OnGetDynamicProperty_Cooldown" if not asking for cooldown at runtime?
And what would be the best method to dynamically change the cooldown depending on variables from a context actor?

Aswell thank you for your support and your willingness to help.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Able 3.0.4 has been submitted it. Notes below:

- Fixed an issue where you could get Ability Script NULL errors when loading the Editor.
- Hide Collision / Camera / Arrow options now work as expected again.
- Default to Translate Mode when selecting an actor within the Editor (this makes it clearer to the user that they can use the normal W/R/T keys to modify things).

Hey,
I recently started working on my project again and saw that there was an Update for Able.
Right now it seems that the "OnGetDynamicProperty_Cooldown" function isn't even called.
All I did was copy pasting my code from "GetCooldown"(which was marked as deprecated) to this new function.

I read that there were bugs with dynamic fields not working. Wasn't this fixed in 3.0.3?

I'm glad for any information or help.

I went ahead and checked on this. Cooldown IS being calculated through the field, but it's not calculated within the Ability Editor (unless you're using a Branch Ability which calls an Ability). This was done on purpose to avoid not being able to iterate quickly on an Ability that has a long cooldown. I could add an option whether or not to respect cooldown while authoring Abilities, or even add an option that just clears all cooldowns - but I'm still thinking on that. I'd appreciate any feedback from people on which they prefer (or if they even want the current behavior changed).

I'm still trying to decide how I want to handle Move To / Jump To. I'm leaning towards making them work only with the Character Movement Component which would greatly simplify things. Maybe split out Navigation Path Finding in to it's own Task.

Thanks for your support and keep the feedback / bug reports coming.