Ideally, in our game, when a vehicle hits an AI pawn, the AI pawn simulates physics to make itself appear as if it were getting thrown back by the force of the hit. I am able to make the AI pawn do that, but the tradeoff is that the mesh detaches from its parent capsule component. Instead, the capsule component (aka the root component) follows what the AI behavior tree tells it to do, while it’s mesh is lying on the ground a few meters away.
This is not a new issue, but it has been an issue for a while. I’ve figured out a hack for it during the last few months but it broke with 4.7, the physics seems to have gotten even more wonky than before. At this point I don’t want to hack it anymore, I’m just wondering if anyone has found a proper solution to this that won’t break as badly if I were to convert to another version of the engine again.
Also, I forgot to add: there is a solution where if you simulate physics on everything but the root bone on the mesh it won’t detach, but if I do that the pawn still won’t budge, it’s main body is the root bone so all that would do is make it’s arms and legs flail. I need it’s whole body in its glorious entirety to be thrown back as realistically as possible.
i’d try adding another new root bone to the skeleton and on collision ‘set all bodies bellow simulate physics’ then using a timeline to control the ‘set all bodies bellow physics blend weight’. set the timeline to about a second and and adust the blend weight from 0 to 0.8 and back to 0 to pull the rag doll back again.
or you might want to look into the new feature of recording and creating animations from physics then use a blendspace
Thank you for the ideas! They are great, it’s just that they are not ideal for every single situation. I will definitely consider them though if I cannot figure out my current implementation.
What I did find with my current hack is that the mesh location of my pawn is the same as the root component (capsule) of my pawn, despite them having separated when the pawn began simulating physics. As long as I can understand why this is happening, then I may be able to still keep my current implementation.
Hey. I was having the same problem and found this on another answer thread. It worked for me. Hope it does for you!
“So I figured out what was wrong with mine, I clicked on the character, went into Details->Collisions->Mesh and set Collision Preset to Ragdoll.” -Death Strike