Hello Neighbor UE4 AI Tutorial #1 | Chase and Catch 

This is pretty weird, I did everything correctly, including checking everything in the Detection By Affiliation component settings. Is there anything else that I might have missed, the AI doesn't follow me even when I'm up to his face lol. I'm creating a monster AI to hunt the player character, all the animations are correct and so as everything else, I'm gonna check again cuz I'm currently sleepy and might have missed something, but if you have any idea of what might be the issue or a suggestion then please feel free to reply.

Did you place a NavMeshBoundsVolume in your level? You need to place that in order to specify where the AI can move.

@@OwenCampos oooooh, that might be the case, imma get back to you once I check it out, but thanks tho. Appreciate

it doesn't work unfortunately, I did have it missing, but could the reason for it not working due to my player character? I'm using the Horror Engine player Character which is basically a camera with a flashlight and footstep sounds. That's all I've been wondering, I've checked everything multiple times and it seems correct.

Ohhh I think I know what it is. You have to add an AIPerceptionStimuliSource to the player character. Once you’ve done that, add the Sight perception in the component. This’ll make it so the AI can actually register the player as a Stimuli source, so it can chase them.

Yep. Tutorials do be like that

Well it was mostly coz I forgot to check the boxes of “Detect Neutral” 😂

That said, its better than the other way around. Most tuts drag on for aaaages while explaining and setting up things that have nothing to do with what you're trying to learn.

Are you kidding? This took me a week.

@@KEEKSPLAYS23 nope mostly cause im dumb

Thanks! I’ll definitely be doing more tutorials like this in the future.

@@OwenCampos Can't wait hope it's soon!

“CanCatch” should be getting set in the “SetState” function. You should have it set to true when it switches to Attack mode, and false for any other mode. This is a common thing people miss in this tutorial (or maybe I just cut to the next part at a very inconvenient time), and it causes their AI to never be able to catch them due to “CanCatch” never getting set to true.

As for the “Fade” widget, it’s a custom widget I made for the template specifically for fading to black whenever you’re caught. So if you’re using your own project, you’ll have to make your own fade widget BP.

@@OwenCampos Thank you. I'll try it out and let you know.

@@OwenCampos OIt's working now! Thank you so much! I actually did an AI Blueprint that works!

1. There’s a property called “Loop” for the sound in it’s asset properties. 2. There’s a node specifically for this. Just get the audio component and search for “Fade Out”.

I extracted them from alpha 1

IM BOARD!

Can’t look at it right now (I’m on my phone rn), but I’ll just give you a hint for now: I never jump-cut to anything that isn’t related to the last shot So whatever nodes that was in the last shot has something to do with the nodes in the next

Inside the Idle/Walk/Run

Did I not show where I implemented it? Because it’s supposed to be set in the “SetState” function. It must be set up where it gets set to true for Chase mode, and set to false for Hunt and Idle mode.

@@OwenCampos oh yup, ok it works exactly like it should now, tysm

​@@OwenCampos also the music restarts everytime the ai is in attack mode but runs around a corner, is it supposed to be like that cuz it gets a bit annyoing after a while

Of course you wouldn’t see any of those, you have to follow the tutorial and make it yourself

Oh no this method is just plain old UE4. There aren’t any BP’s specific to this project, so you can use this method in any project.

Thanks❤❤❤🙏

You can’t insert a 7zip file into an Unreal project. 7z files are archive files like regular zips, so you just extract it with 7zip and you’ll get the folder for the entire project. Then you just drag and drop it into your “Unreal Projects” folder (usually in your “Documents” folder) and double click the uproject file.

oh ok, Thanks!@@OwenCampos

HN pre alpha with UModel

Export a map

No there isn’t a setting for that. The reason that happens is because the “Target Actor” for the “AI Move To” node was set to the player character, it’ll keep moving to the player until it either succeeds or fails to move to them. If you move outside of the Nav Mesh, that counts as a failure. And since you don’t have anything for the node to do if it fails, the AI just stops in it’s tracks and does nothing. To fix this, you can just have a branch go off of the “Failed” on the “AI Move To” node, make it check if the state is still set to chase mode, then do a delay and trigger another branch that checks the same thing, that then goes and triggers the “AI Move To” again. Basically: branch (Current State == Chase) > delay (1 second) > branch (Current State == Chase) > AI Move To

@@OwenCampos ohhh ok, i got it to work now, many thanks!

I have to admit the editing like the zoom-ins make it hard to understand where anything is in the window. I’ll make tutorials like these a bit slower and with far less choppy edits.

Here’s what the Hidden Spirits AI does: first, he starts chasing you > after about 8 seconds of not seeing you, the AI takes your velocity and multiplies it by a number (I just did 5) to “predict” where you’ll be in 5 “seconds” > if he doesn’t see you on the way there, he’ll go to the room he’s seen you in the most > if he still doesn’t see you on the way there, he switches to hunt mode

It’s not in the AI Perception component settings on it’s own. You need to go into the sense preferences once you added the “Sight” part of the component to it.

Audio components have a thing called “Auto Activate”. That plays it when you play the game. Uncheck that in the component settings for it. That’ll fix your issue.

@@OwenCampos Thank you soo much! Love your videos by the way

Basically the logic goes like this: If he’s in attack mode and can’t see the player > delay for 5-8 seconds > check if he still can’t see you > switch to hunt mode

I didn’t skip on it. The node you see on the far left of the screen is a “Sequence” node connected to “Event Tick”. Not important currently, but I just added it as a preemptive measure since I’m planning on using it in a future tutorial.

@@OwenCampos ok Thanks

@@OwenCampos also my AI appears to not be moving even with the nav mesh. NVM I found it out but there is an issue where the chase music plays always

There’s a setting called “Auto Activate” that’s turned on by default for audio components. Just turn that off and it’ll prevent it from playing on startup.

@@OwenCampos I'm gonna do that

Yes. The sequence node comes first.

You didn’t set something up in the script then

Yes. Just call “Client Stop Camera Shake” in the sequence. All you need is the player controller, so you don’t need to do a cast or anything like that.

@@OwenCampos Alright, thanks

It’s King Dice’s theme from Cuphead

@@OwenCampos ok

The project I used is linked in the description if that counts 😆

Are you setting CanPickUp to false when it’s locked?

And as for the locking bit, watch through the video again and again to make sure that you have EVERYTHING right. It may be something stupid like you connecting something wrong

@@OwenCampos 🤦‍♂️I put in the is picked up variable🤦‍♂️

Then you probably put it in the wrong place or connected something wrongly

Check if *everything* is right. If you are 100% sure that everything is connected right, and it still doesn’t work right, then ask more questions. You can join my Discord if you can

nvm, I forgor

You gotta turn off “Auto Activate” in the audio component settings

Did you place a NavMeshBoundsVolume in your level?

@@OwenCampos yes

Then something is wrong with your blueprint

That’s a sequence node. It serves no purpose, so you can just connect the branch to the “Event Tick” node.

Did you place a Nav Mesh abounds Volume in your level? That’s a box that basically determines where the AI can and can’t go. You can debug it by pressing the P key (the green representing where it can move).

@@OwenCampos Thanks, there are now three more problems, the AI is following me but is walking in idle animation, the Ai can't catch me. Is there any way to get the widget BPW_Fade, cause i don't have it?

Are you using the template? The template in the description has the fade widget.

​@@OwenCampos Yea i was using the template and after i searched the widget in the content tab i could finally select it in the Event Graph. But the problem that the chase sound starts to play after starting the game in the editor is still there and the neighbor cant catch me. I don't really know what the problem is cause i cant find any error or mistake that i did, now it is the 5th time that i am watching your video and compare my data to the data in your video.

The reason why the chase music plays is because of a setting in the audio component called “Auto Activate”. This is turned on by default, and it’s what causes the music to play on startup. Simply turning that off will prevent it from happening again.

Well for one thing, make sure the UE4 version you’re using is 4.24.3

You just open the current level

@@OwenCampos Hawkeye games I did something so that when my neighbor catches us, he could catch us and then open level and work, we had to add Automation Wait for Loading and then Open Level :)

Idle mode is next. It’s been a while since I’ve made a tutorial (primarily because I’ve been working on Hidden Spirits and they take way too long to edit), but I promise as soon as the Hidden Spirits demo is released I’ll work on more tutorials.

@@OwenCampos Thank you for writing back, and I will certainly look forward, and sorry for my English but it's not perfect

You’re very welcome. I try to be as engaged with my community as I can! And your English is actually on point. :)

Well, since I can’t see how you set up your script, I’ll give you a couple of the most common mistakes people have made regarding the catching: 1. Some nodes in that part of the script aren’t connected to each other. 2. You’re never setting “Can Catch” to true (it should be getting set in the “SetState” function).

@@OwenCampos The second option worked, thank you so much!

Sure go ahead

The only thing I can think of is that your script is messed up somehow

@@OwenCampos So after checking I had this small issue, I did not set CanCatch? as a boolean, instead as a Integer, lol. Anyways ty for the help

Ah, that makes sense lol

For a continuation, I forgor to compile bp_neighbor but now he is in attack mode but still stands there he seems to not ‘know’ where i am

Update 2 (its basically a journal) When I get REALLY close to him he looks a me oooooo

Fixed it, and found what happens So basically, it worked fine, it’s just that when he sees you in the beginning he dosent follow you So i just to behind him, then in front of him and voilà he follows me!

Make sure everything in the event graph of the animation BP is connected properly

What do you mean “only 3 options show up”? Where do they “show up”?

@@OwenCampos when you do cast to bp_neighbor theres 5 options 1 arrow, cast failed, As bp neighbor, object and another arrow

@@OwenCampos for me, its 3 options. as bp neighbor, success and object.

@@OwenCampos I really need help please

The cast node only has “Cast Failed”, “As (class name)”, and “Object”. I have no idea where you’re seeing the “arrows”, but if it really is there in the video you can timestamp it for me.

That’s because I didn’t make it do anything after the black screen comes up. You’ll have to add it yourself.

@@OwenCampos Thanks

Just use "Open Level" and make it use the current level's name with "Get Current Level Name"

Then you did something wrong in both parts of the script

Exactly what it says, “Event Tick”. The node on the far left is a sequence node that does absolutely nothing, so you can completely ignore it.

okay nevermind with the blueprint thing, but still no animation.

also it says only cast to bp human what

There’s already a tutorial on how to make an AI jump in UE4

@@OwenCampos oh okay, thanks :) I still waiting more tutorials XD

Then you did something wrong in the animation blueprint