AnimMontage for melee combo

Development Character & Animation
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1

I have many animations of melee attacks.
I have all of them in one AnimMontage.
I would like to play the first animation, then if the player presses again the attack button playing the next one and so on, otherwise stop the AnimMontage from playing.

If I play an anim montage this way:

return GetPawnMesh()->AnimScriptInstance->Montage_Play(AnimMontage, InPlayRate);

How can I set what section to play each time on that AnimMontage and what can I set to stop it?
I have created a TestAnimMontage similar to the one I can see here:https://rocket.unrealengine.com/docs/ue4/INT/Engine/Subsystems/Animation/AnimMontage/index.html.
But I need to handle everything from code (if it is possible).

2

#AnimInstance.h

To do really fancy stuff and make your own modified anim montage playing code,

You should

  • extend your own anim instance from UAnimInstance
  • reparent your animation blueprint to use your anim instance
  • check out these awesome functions!

#Functions of Great Pertinence

AnimInstance.h

/** Makes a montage jump to a named section. */
	UFUNCTION(BlueprintCallable, Category="Animation")
	void Montage_JumpToSection(FName SectionName);

	/** Makes a montage jump to the end of a named section. */
	UFUNCTION(BlueprintCallable, Category="Animation")
	void Montage_JumpToSectionsEnd(FName SectionName);

	/** Changes the next section in the montage to a different one. */
	UFUNCTION(BlueprintCallable, Category="Animation")
	void Montage_SetNextSection(FName SectionNameToChange, FName NextSection);

/** Returns the name of the current animation montage section. */
	UFUNCTION(BlueprintCallable, Category="Animation")
	FName Montage_GetCurrentSection();

:slight_smile:

Also, you can get and set exact positions as well!

/** Get Current Montage Position */
	float Montage_GetPosition(UAnimMontage* Montage);
	/** Has Montage been stopped? */
	bool Montage_GetIsStopped(UAnimMontage* Montage);

	/** Set position. */
	void Montage_SetPosition(UAnimMontage* Montage, float NewPosition);

	/** Get PlayRate */
	float Montage_GetPlayRate(UAnimMontage* Montage);

	/** Set PlayRate */
	void Montage_SetPlayRate(UAnimMontage* Montage, float NewPlayRate);

	/** Get next sectionID for given section ID */
	int32 Montage_GetNextSectionID(UAnimMontage* Montage, int32 CurrentSectionID);
3

Thanks, I’ll start playing with them.

After having done all those steps can the general idea be:

  1. The input makes the AnimMontage to start playing
  2. The next input of the player calls JumpToSection to play the next attack animation inside the AnimMontage
  3. In case I have to stop the combo I use JumpToSectionsEnd.

As Montage_JumpToSection doesn’t take a AnimMontage as a parameter I suppose it is performed on the currently active AnimMontage. Isn’t it?

I am trying in this way just to run a test before start implementing my own code but I can’t switch section. Is my idea of playing the montage and then changine section wrong?

UseMesh->AnimScriptInstance->Montage_Play(AnimMontage, InPlayRate);
		FName name("Swing1");
		UseMesh->AnimScriptInstance->Montage_JumpToSection(StartSectionName);
4

you are going to have to experiment and find out for yourself, I’ve not used these functions in depth yet.

If you encounter a specific issue that seems like a bug let us know!

Rama

5

well im not sure if it is a typo in your copy pasting

but this

FName name("Swing1");
       UseMesh->AnimScriptInstance->Montage_JumpToSection(StartSectionName);

should definitely be this!

FName name("Swing1");
       UseMesh->AnimScriptInstance->Montage_JumpToSection(name);
6

No, it was actually an error!!! I was passing another variable to it.
Currently I am using it and it seems to work well.
I’ll experiment a little with all the other functions.

Thanks.