How to make a character bounce off a wall?

Development World Creation
, , , ,
1

So as simply as possible to avoid instant downvotes:

My Zero-G character STOPS suddenly when the head collider touches any wall etc. I simply want it to act as Physics would dictate, to bounce off a bit if at near ~90° oblique angle or to glide to a stop if hitting wall at an ~170° obtuse angle.
Here is my Blueprint: https://www.sendspace.com/file/9d5tj5

More (ancillary) info for people who either simply care about others OR don’t think the written word is a personal ATTACK and downvote for making them read:

I have been on forums with this ONE GAME KILLING QUESTION for 2 months. I got vague clues and hints (like: turn off ‘Sweep’: (which did nothing…)).
I have purchased or used free trial access to blueprint tutorials from Lynda, and Digital Tutors, and a general Udemy Tut., I bought a $50 book called: ‘Blueprints: Visual Scripting in Unreal Engine’ SO: Now I know how to do pickups, Toggle lights, change materials and turn damage from Pain Zones into declining heath. ALL THE THINGS I HAD ALREADY LEARNED FOR FREE!
But OF COURSE nothing about how to make a character bounce off a wall, or even any real clues, obviously that level of diagnostic skill takes YEARS of working with the engine. The tutorials are vague non-specific overviews. If I have to figure out EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT PHYSICS IN UNREAL so I can fix one small problem, right at the end,. I will have to shelf the game and do one of the other things I have planned.
It is not an equitable use of time for a CHARACTER ANIMATOR of 25 years to battle this stuff for so long. . I’m sure all of you learned the tool instantly and never needed help, but maybe that wasn’t at the ■■■ end of a 25 year career. Or fighting cancer for 3 years in the hospital and intensive care. Maybe that was when the world still had hope and possibilities and we weren’t all just waiting to die or be blown up by nukes…

I am trying to get off disability, and rebuild my graphic art career by working on unique VR games, adventures, and Green Energy Tech. VR Training for former Coal Workers (I am making that one for free!).

I am trying to climb up out of a hole here. Right now I am going without groceries because I wasted so much money on BASIC tutorials and books. I already wish to hell I hadn’t survived the ■■■■ cancer. Fought so hard for 3 years of vomiting and dry heaving 16 hours a day from one failed chemo after another. Until my stomach muscles wouldn’t let me sit up. (I know no one cares, but I hope the ugly, broken hate filled ■■■■ world is a little nicer to you, after you (statistically) go through the same thing (and I would say ‘hopefully’ survive, but surviving is the real curse in today’s world…) I have made it 95% of the way by myself, can’t anyone have enough human (or Fellow Game Dev) compassion to help me get over the final hump?

Once again: I can offer game credit, game Profit Participation (but is our first game) or any of $30000-$60,000 of Hollywood level assets collected over 25 years working in films in L.A.
I’ve worked on everything from Interstate '76 in '97 to ‘Life of Pi’ in '12. I have 3D Models from Film, TV and games/ I have 10,000 Motion Capture files, Pretty much EVERY Pay 3D Model collection, $10,000 of Kontakt Sound-Libraries, Endless stuff and endless Unreal Assets too. Surely you could use some assets.

Thank you for your time, anyone who read this far.
Robert.

2

I took a screenshot of your blueprint.

I couldn’t get it to move around the way you have it because a lot of other assets and variables are missing,

But I remember you mentioned it’s a problem with the HeadCollision sphere, so I looked at that part and I see two things I don’t understand.

248971-whatisthisfor.png
248971-whatisthisfor.png714×322 63 KB

What is supposed to happen when you AddWorldOffset with a sweep, and Set Physics Linear Velocity to all zeros?
I saw this coming off of a check for the number of Overlapping Actors being greater than zero, so I think this is the part where the sphere touches another collideable actor such as a wall.

From what I see, that’s a guaranteed way to kill all the velocity and come to an instant, dead stop. Since your pawn is moved by Physics, I think it will be a good idea to temporarily disconnect all the nodes that Set Physics Linear Velocity, Add World Offset, or any other location or speed altering thing, EXCEPT the parts the directly Add Force from the input controls to the pawn (like Thrust which you already have working, sounds like), and then make sure your pawn’s root component is set to Simulate Physics, but with zero on the gravity setting.

Also just for now make sure all Damping on all components (especially Linear damping) is set to zero until you solve the sudden stopping problem. It looks like you already have them that way but just double check.

I thought there would be friction settings but I guess those are for Character Pawns so don’t worry about those - they don’t seem to exist on your motioncontroller pawn.

The 0,0,0 on Set Physics Linear Velocity might be because I had to erase a bunch of nodes to make it work because their dependent assets or variables were missing,
BUT, If you want your pawn to react normally to bumping into things in the world then I would not use a Set Physics Linear Velocity node to react to overlapping actors unless you have a definite calculation in mind that takes into account the angle of the surface and the pawn’s velocity, and you might not have to mess with that at all so let’s leave it out for now.

That raises the question of why not use Unreal’s built-in collision handling, instead of overlapping with WorldStatic objects and messing with the pawn’s speed and location yourself? Unreal handles most collision things very smoothly and yes, handles sliding along surfaces without extra logic for some kinds of setups and approaches.

So I’m curious why your HeadCollision is set to overlap WorldStatic (which is what most walls are set to by most people). If you turn off your AddWorldOffset and Set Physics Linear Velocity nodes, AND set your Headcollision to Block WorldStatic, I bet you’ll get closer to the results you want, ditching most of the fancy code.

I can’t guarantee it of course since I wasn’t able to get your project to work at all (even to move the way you have it disregarding collision problems), but I think when things get too confusing it helps to make things simpler first and remove all the noise.

3

Hello, I’m working with someone else’s script. I am in the early stages of learning blueprints (I am, a character animator for 25 years.) I BEG YOU if you know how to make it work and have the character BOUNCE in the simplest way possible (without spinning around etc, just hit wall, bounce away (or glide if at slight angle to wall…) I have been begging for help for 62 days and offering everything I have in return $60,000 hollywood CGI assets, credit in the game,

I know it’s not right, but the Set Physics Linear Velocity set to x=10 y=10 z=10 w/ ‘add to’ checked and all sweeps unchecked) BUT even though I bounce PERFECTLY off the first surface, the second and thereafter I either fly through or get stuck inside! :slight_smile: I am desperate at this point, I have 95% of a very elaborate game with AAA characters and am stopped by the smallest thing, I don’t plan to be a scripter, am actively LOOKING for a BP person to partner with that’'s part of why I need to get a game out there to help me seek a team,… I was hoping, even if I can’t bounce I could glide to a stop instead,. something. PLEASE FIX the BP> I will study and learn from it (I learn best by reverse engineering I have since I started animating in 3D Studio for DOS 27 years ago!) I will absolutely offer you a Additional Locomotion Scripting credit!! I have thousands of VR and Sci-Fi Youtube subscribers, 6,000 Linked In connects and HUNDREDS of Hollywood connections from working on film and tv for 25 years. This game will get some attention I assure you! I am excellent at marketing as well.
Please my knees are sore from begging for two months, I’ve started to not enjoy, even hate everything to do with my work it and used to be fun. Please rescue me. This one little thing, after I have created so much in terms of the world, the style the characters, I am even implementing voice recognition with conversational AI, (Is this Aaron from the email?: :slight_smile:

PLEASE.

Robert from @NextWorldVR

4

Ipdate for anyone following: hitting the wall was spinning the character because the physics ball of the character had regular friction, causing it to roll along the wall as it came into contact. Added a very slipperry physics material to the Pawn allowed it to slide and bounce instead of rolling/spinning

5

I hope you get my email. I may have found a quasi solution, whenever anyone has me implement Physics on the character, I lose the ability to Fling myself away from a wall and fly across the room, I let go of wall and FREEZE in midair.

BUT instead of using physics when I change just one thing, the relevant ‘Set Physics Linear Velocity’ for the Head /Physics Root I get a nice little bounce when I let my head(body) hit a wall etc. , unfortunately it is in a set direction, so as often as not, I Bounce Back the Way I came!! SO Is there a simple way of asking Unreal: ‘which direction am I coming in from and how fast’ THEN making the Set Physics Linear Velocity 'go in the right (opposite angle like physics) direction?

THANK YOU

R.

6

Why not just set velocity to the direction the character is facing, or perhaps the impact normal between that and the wall they’re pushing on, and multiply by a number that represents the strength of the push?

7

Mighty; I have tried to figure it out ( your newest suggestion above) but I am no closer to figuring it out, I don’t like to have to ask for help! Is there any way you could just show me what you mean, what you said sounds like exactly what I meant, literally just bouncing at a multiplied (but slightly attenuated) amount and continuing in the ‘same’ the same direction after bouncing. Simple as possible,. Doesn’t even need physics right? it’s such a simple thing, (for someone who knows how that is :). If you are willing to set this up I assure you I will learn much from it,. Everytime someone helps me it is like a paradigm shift, an epiphany where I go OOOOOHHHHHH… after fighting something forever,.

If you are willing to try this idea you have, do you need a new copy of the Blueprint? (oh good I just checked my link is still good. It still represents where I’m at, I have made exactly zero progress on anything else (without this I don’t have a game it all becomes moot anyways.) I have lost all partners, they have moved on,. I will have to finish it all myself …,. I sure would appreciate the help. I’m starting to play and mod Skyrim VR instead of working 80 hours a week making my own worlds for new R games, that is dangerous for a developer. It doesn’t lead anywhere professionally you know? (well, unless you figure out Havok physics and EDT etc. I’m better at that than Blueprint…) Too bad one can’t sell MODS,.

Robert

lnik: https://www.sendspace.com/file/9d5tj5

8

Hello mate, may I ask how is the problem on your side? Do you still need help?

9

Hey buddy,

Thanks for asking,. 7 months asking and still no bounce! (well, I can bounce now, using Set Physics linear Velocity, I found that on my own after 3 months of asking how to bounce…) I just don’t know how to control the direction of the bounce, so it is in the wrong direction and even more jarring than just instantly stopping. All people seem to want to do is tell me what NOT to do.

I am left with the belief, that no one one in the Unreal community knows how to simply control the direction of a character! I could never have guessed shelving my wonderful Zero-G game, would be my only option and the end of my quest, but I can’t release with people bouncing randomly ‘to the left’ etc…

thanks for asking… I would love help, but I no longer believe it can or will happen. I’m sure the blue print is still linked above somewhere,. I must admit, I’ve lost pretty much all excitement and passion for the project, makes me feel sick just thinking about the wasted time, people insulting my intelligence even though I’ve been a professional character animator for 25 years,… Not everybody does the same thing… I’m sure if I got the stupid bounce working I’d get back into it, but I can’t even hope anymore,. thnx… Robert

10

Well, i am not saying i am a pro at Unreal, but i have spent quite some time with unreal and blueprint, enough to be able to offer some limited help to other people. If i get this right, your project is a VR project, and you only need basic control, like moving forward/ right,… and bounce off stuff when collision, am i correct?

11

Anyway, i am not so sure if this will fit in with the rest of your project, but for now this is the bounce i can made.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=13lgByRptXO7KL7xTeAz0aIC8xgkNZ1zA
Hang in there mate, i have been here and through same situation, but in my case it was a screen recording system that can record entire screen and export to video clip from package game, did tons of research and pull quite lot of good and bad hair, only after roughly 9 to 10 months with hacky code that i managed to pull out something barely work.

12

That is so cool of you THANK YOU!! Yes, in VR, If it is ok with you, I will go ahead and make a short video overnight tonight, of where the interaction is at at this point, what the blueprint equals interactively, and then I can show what and why, is happening with my existing bounce.
I will upload the video, re-upload my project as a zip’d file, and post links here :slight_smile:

How cool,
THANK YOU!!

R.W.E.

13

Aye, on a side note, I have upload a project with some basic bounce, can you tried that out and tell me what it miss, or you can use it or not?

https://drive.google.com/open?id=13lgByRptXO7KL7xTeAz0aIC8xgkNZ1zA

14

Cool! I definately will! Here is a very short video of the relevant part of the Blueprint the test scene and some of my game work,… It shows how I am able to get the perfect bounce, but in only one direction, impossible to explain, hence video: :wink:

15

ok, I looked at your project,. I think it is one of the tutorial files ? I can’t really usde anything in there with anything I am doing, completely different paradigms, (that is invisible actor, on the ground, controlled with keyboard, I am ‘dynamically created’ 3D, Zero-G floatbg and flying and controlling with 2 actual HANDS,. (VR Motion Controller) . It’s like the other way around kinda,. To move, I don’t puch a button, per -se, but grab a wall, with my hand and Push Off, in 3D Space, then go flying across the room,. in Zero-G,… using Motion Controller,. AND if I try to use those ‘physics’ to ‘bounce’ like in the example, it BREAKS everything else in the game. I just need a ‘simulated’ or ‘programmed’ bounce from variables, not a ‘physics bounce’ per se;/ If I try to use physics (as little as I know about it all in Unreal,.) If * try to bounce using physics, the second I Rlease from pushing off a wall, I FREEZE in SPACE with no control, thursters don’t work, all I can do is exit. Physics is already busy I guess one could say.

16

Aye, i did work with some of the VR project, and all of them only move on the ground, so i guess i didn’t expect your space control system.

When you freeze, can you still move your hand and look around?

Anyway, thank for the video, it clear thing up a lot and help me with some idea, gonna tried it out later.
Ps: pretty nice game mate, hope we can push through this and show it to the world.

17

Another question, is that when you use physics bounce, was your thurster the only thing broke, or was there anything else that won’t work?

18

Also, is it possible for you to upload your control BP? I only need the part where you input control, feeding value to Motion Controller and calculate that current bounce system?

19

hey buddy! I went ahead and put all the BP’s in one rar file: https://www.sendspace.com/file/64awow

Yeah, with Physcs ‘enabled’, when I push off from a wall using the’flinging across room’ thing,… , as soon as I am no longer touching the wall, I freeze in space! and I have to exit the game,… I am pretty sure I couldn still look around and see my hands, but I think the thrusters stopped working. I tried so many , hundreds of different random things trying to get this to work so it’s a little had to remember exactly what did what,. but I can try to re-emulate it if it will help! :slight_smile: :slight_smile: i can send the whole project if you need since there is a light test scene I am using for BP testing,. THANK YOU! You Rock!

20

Thank you mate,
For now I think these BP is enough, gonna need some time to study and understand them. If I need anything else I will pm you.

A bit of warning though, due to work and other personal project, i can’t put too much time into this each day, so please understand. If there are any problem i would be sure to tell you. Thank you and hope you have a good day.