I Can't Stand on Static Mesh Actor?

Development Asset Creation
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1

I’m playing around with an idea. Remember the Piano scene in the movie “Big”?

I started with 3d Top Down Template. I created piano keys in a Cad program, imported them thru Blender. Just for a test I’ve sunk one template provided block element a bit proud of floor, sunk one piano key same height. I can stand on the sunken block element, but I can’t navigate to the top of the key. Total fail .

Works fine on the block:

270673-okay-on-block.jpg
270673-okay-on-block.jpg1138×911 58.9 KB

I can’t stand on the piano key, no matter what I do.

270674-no-go-on-keyboard.png
270674-no-go-on-keyboard.png880×654 177 KB

Anybody understand what’s going on here?

2

I can’t stand on the piano key, no
matter what I do.

  • What have you tried?
  • Does the piano block has any collision?
  • Do you sink into it?
  • Or can’t climb onto it?
  • Your image does not really show the erroneous interaction.

Consider improving the way the issues are communicated, if you know what I mean :wink:

3

So… I figured it out. The issue was related to step height, and clearance to vertical surfaces… I also discovered [NavMesh.][1] Wow. No, really, Wow!! Remember I’m working from the BluePrint Top Down Template. This template allows the user to click on the required destination for the player movement, rather than the usual movement controls. The template uses Navmesh to achieve this.

While in the editor, and with a
NavMeshBoundsVolume placed in the
level, pressing the P key will
show/hide the area that the NavMesh
covers.

I did a whole bunch of testing before I figured out the NavMesh thing. I swapped materials around, A–> B → A testing. Then I played around with step heights and boundaries to objects. All of a sudden things started working. I suspect some setting I changed wasn’t saved when I thought it should have been. But all of that is quickly superseded when you understand what the NavMesh is and how it works, including the magic “P” key (Preview?) When you do that everything is immediately clear.

270734-nav-mesh-preview.jpg
270734-nav-mesh-preview.jpg1032×563 91.4 KB

I was playing around with piano key object height (step up) and clearance zones to vertical items. The preview mode lets you see exactly what will work, and what will not. In the image shown, the keys on the left are too high for player motion. The keys on the right are fine. And the game play exactly matches the preview.

Again, Wow. Many thanks for those folks who came up with these tools.