Directional Roll/Dodging | Unreal Engine 4 tutorial (Inspired by Dark Souls) 

Ok, I would move onto part 2, yet that's useless if I can't even get past the first "Test" of part 1 where you get the basic dodge roll mechanic to work. I would appreciate some kind of help with this, a month later. Thanks.

Xanti Shayde-Walker You’re still having trouble? Sorry I didn’t reply to your other post. I thought you were probably just missing something simple. Usually when a montage isn’t playing it’s either a retargeting issue or a slot issue. But before I could tell what’s causing the issue I’d need to take a look at the code. Play the game in a window and go to the code where you try to play the montage and turn on debugger. What happens when you press the dodge button? Does the execution path make it to the play anim montage function? If it does & the montage still isn’t playing check if the right slot is selected. Also make sure that the skeleton for the animation is in the exact same folder as the skeleton for the character you want to play the montage. The skeletal mesh for each must be in the same exact folder location. What I mean by that is, they must use the same exact mesh file. Not two duplicates with the same hierarchy. The exact same skeletal mesh file.

@@UnrealRPGMastery I said this in another comment, but I did debug and it does actually get to Play the Anim Montage. The only thing I can think of is it's a duplicate Skeletal Mesh named exactly the same and I didn't notice, yet I think it's the same path aka the same Skelly. I'll have to check that. Thanks for the reply, no worries. I was just a bit salty. If the Skelly checks out, I'll figure out how to send you my project so you can check it, I guess.

I cannot download the file for free rotation animation with root movement, please give a new link or update the previous one.

you prolly dont give a damn but does any of you know of a way to log back into an Instagram account? I was dumb lost my login password. I love any help you can offer me

Don't know if you solved the problem or perhaps this is not the solution for you but I solved it by simply adding a layered blend per bone in the Animation Blueprint. It would be annoying and inconvenient to explain it so I will just link a screenshot instead: drive.google.com/file/d/1NHjbmPVKyqkNs_hnDIvCbR86PBBfNV30/view?usp=sharing Cheers

@@reflexentertainment4698 I solved it. I had multiple copies of the UE4 Skeleton in the project and had to retarget the animations to the right skeleton.

If only we knew

@@preston748159263 Actually, i think it's more or less the same process. You just use root motion animations to drive it instead!

@@davejones2227 I ended up using root motion but i read thats no good for multiplayer :(

@@preston748159263 There are other alternatives you can use. You could try keeping the same animations, tick root lock to convert them into in-place animations (or just in the in place alternatives) and launch the character using code instead. But as far as I know root motion is fine for multiplayer if you're using montages. If you're using sequences it doesn't work so well.

@@davejones2227 Oh okay I am running them as a montage function so maybe that will work. Thnaks for the advice! I need to start learning multiplayer soon because I know nothing yet.

Hey bro u still have that animations I really need that

Sebastian Rudholm This rolling system is honestly really simple. If it’s too fast just watch it once, find out what I do, learn from it, and write down the basic steps. Then afterwards make it in the engine, really the main thing that makes it work are two important nodes. Last movement input vector & rotation from Xvector. The rest is just smooth rotation. But, I will keep your feedback in mind for future tutorials.

@@UnrealRPGMastery Had no problem to finish it, needed to pause a few time but that's life, it's more like a friendly tip, people is not willing to see a video 3 times because they can't keep up, or stressing and doing things wrong. Like I said, someting worth thinking of. =)

You can go to mixamo.com and put "roll" in animation space, then download the animation.

@@giulianobianco4025 thank you i'll try it.

Thank you for the kind words! I appreciate it ^_^. Yes, we are making a game. Right now we’re trying to recreate Dark Souls combat, next we’re going to start working on Sekiro combat, then finally Nier combat. Then after all that we’re going to design our own combat system for our actual project. Are you making a game or just learning how to make them?

@@UnrealRPGMastery That sounds cool af! Currently I'm making a game like Code Vein :D. I look forward to your game project :3

Lopiky Oh cool! I have Code Vein I just haven’t had time to play it much yet. But it looks like a great game. Well if you have a discord account join our server and share your progress. We’d like to see it.

@@UnrealRPGMastery I feel that, the only reason I was able to play it was because I was too sick to work haha. I joined the server and will definitely be sharing progress once the game looks presentable :3

Lopiky I’ll get around to playing it eventually. Great! Glad you joined, Code Vein style definitely isn’t easy. Good luck! We’re interested to see your progress.

Thank you! Yes you will have some issues using this with a targeting system. It’s because this rolling system uses set actor rotation and so does most targeting systems. Since most targeting systems sets the players rotation to the AI, then without any additional code, your character will just roll into the enemy while locked onto the target. You won’t need to change the rolling system but you will need to do some additional code to the get desired rotation function in the player character that we created with a BP interface. I figured a solution for this issue a long time ago. But, if you need help solving it then hop into our discord server and post in the #help channel. I’ll help you fix it. The discord server link is: discord.gg/DQWbDHJ.

@@UnrealRPGMastery So I adapted the code, creating a boolean variable to store when the animation montage is playing, so in animBP when the animation is playing I'm setting some values, orient rotation to movement to true, use controller desired rotation to false and use controller rotation yaw to false, this is functional, but a little glitch comes when transitioning from the end of the roll to the beginning of the walk, I spent all day trying to understand why this happens, do you have any ideas? Video showing the glitch : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2Gndq1dZB5Y.html

@@IgorGoncalez Your issue is likely because you're setting those values when the animation is playing. You're switching movement mode Booleans on and off when playing the rolling animation and those movement modes use different data to control the movement & rotation of the character. So setting them suddenly like that at the beginning and ending of an animation that uses these values to control the rotation will cause these little bugs. Your issue is your solution, that's not the best way to handle allowing the directional roll while targeting.

A bit old but in case you never found the answer or anyone else wonders; you should normally be able to disable root motion in all animation, in its asset there should be a check box called something like "enable root motion" (somewhere on the left panel where you'll also find animation blend and other settings if I remember correctly)

thats work

That's poor coding practice, sure that will work & be quick and easy short term. But, you'd need to adjust the delay value for every animation, because some may be longer or shorter than others. Say you fire this code for dodge, well a great sword may have a longer dodge animation & end early because your delay is too short. Mine works every time you call the function without the need to do anything else.

@@UnrealRPGMastery Agreed.

It depends on the animation if you use root motion, but root motion isn't required for this to work. You can set his velocity to control the amount he goes forward. To do this you get the actors forward vector, multiply that by a float (the float value will control how far he goes), then set his velocity as the vector you just calculated by multiplying his forward vector by that float value. Just make sure the animation isn't using root motion. Setting velocity won't work while the animation is extracting root motion. Also, you're going to want to disable his movement during this roll since you're setting his movement with the code.

@@UnrealRPGMastery SUPER Awesome reply. Huge thanks :) -- [nice question too]

did you enable root motion?

@@samhein321 same as qux.how to enable root motion?

@@TolisPiperas82 Inside the dodge animation, look for the enable root motion check box

and my second question is: What contains that State Machine which you plugged to Default Slot component? (you didnt show it in video)

I tried another one which is this: forums.unrealengine.com/filedata/fetch?id=1126117&d=1511352186 and in this one I cant figure it out because when I search for the 'Calculate Direction', it doesnt show up in Blue format, its always in Green format. Thats why I couldnt figure that out as well, if you have any idea about this as well Id be much appreciated .

btw currently my character can walk, rotate smoothly, even run. And camera is ideal as well, I just wanted him to roll like in Dark souls thats all I need. Thank you!

There could be any number of reasons your animation isn’t playing. It’s hard to tell without looking at the code. However, some of the things you should check. Check if the default slot is added to your animBP, then check if the slot you added is selected on the animation montage. If those things are fine then play the game in editor window mode. Then go to the player character BP and select the player character as the debug object. Press the roll button and see what’s happening with the flow of execution. Does it stop anywhere? With the root motion bug that could be for a couple reasons as well. Could be retargeting issues, could be an issue with the root bone depending on where you got your animation. Also, if the animation isn’t targeted to the skeletal mesh of the player character the roll animation won’t work. So that could be a potential cause for the roll animation not playing. As for the state machine, it’s the default UE4 state machine you get with the third person template. I didn’t make any changes to it so there was no need to show it. I used montages, when you use a montage the montage animation from the slot you added to the state machine will play onto the output pose meaning there is no need for state machines when montages are used.

@@UnrealRPGMastery I got the animation and the character from Mixamo, probably thats why Im struggling with the Root thingy. Im going to try a little bit more and thank you for your answers!! :)

Mixamo

X2, but disable adblock

@@smithsanchez3585 what does X2 mean?

They're really intuitive once you get the hang of them!

The reason the character doesn't rotate while targeting is because with most targeting systems you set the characters rotation to the enemy. But, the directional roll system also relies on set actor rotation. So, you end up only setting the rotation to the enemy for the roll. You're going to have to modify your targeting system & set the characters rotation to the enemy in the interface function. It takes a bit more work but it is possible to get this system to work with targeting systems.

Did you enable Root Motion?

@@RaulViniciusJFS Thank you ! I get the same problem but now its solved :)

@@sushicolada6463 Glad to help =)