Using Proximity Interactions

What Is Proximity Interactions?

Proximity Interactions is the ability to interact with an interactable object (e.g. weapon pickup) without looking directly towards it. Instead, you can interact with an interactable object when you are close enough to it. This functionality is added to TBIA_GAInteractPassive and TBIA_GAInteractActive but if you would like to added it to your custom abilities you can find the functions ProximityTraceForInteractables and GetNearestInteractableObject inside TBIA_InteractionFunctionLibrary.

Proximity interactions are added to TBIA_GAInteractPassive and TBIA_GAInteractActive which can be activated by setting Use Proximity to true.

Once you enable this feature in the Details panel, you will see several extra parameters appear which allow you to customize the way proximity interactions should work.

• InteractablePriority: Integer that holds the priority of the interactable objects to interact with.
• PriorityCondition: Prioritized interactable objects are filtered by priority using this condition.
• ProximityTimerPeriod: How long to wait in seconds before executing the proximity interaction again.
• CollisionShape: The collision shape of the proximity trace.
• TraceOffset: Offset the start location of the proximity trace which is the world location of the capsule in the character class.
• Radius: Radius for the circle of sphere shape selected in the CollisionShape.
• CapsuleHalfHeight: Capsule half height when the CollisionShape is set to Capsule.
• BoxHalfSize: Box size when the CollisionShape is set to Box.
• BoxOrientation: Box orientation when the CollisionShape is set to Box.
• ObjectTypes: Array of object types to trace CollisionShape.
• bIgnoreSelf: Ignore self on CollisionShape.
• bTraceComplex: If true, the trace will use complex collision for the CollisionShape. Otherwise, simplified collision is used.
• DrawDebugType: Draw debug type for the CollisionShape.
• ShapeTraceColor: Trace color for the CollisionShape.
• ShapeTraceHitColor: Trace hit color for the CollisionShape
• DebugDrawTime: Draw time of the trace debug visualization.
• bCheckForVisibility: Check for unblocked Line of Sight (LoS) to potentially interactable objects.
• LineTraceChannel: Trace channel for the visibility check trace.
• LineTraceOffset: Offset of the start location for the visibility check.
• LineTraceColor: Trace color for the visibility check.
• LineTraceHitColor: Trace hit color for the visibility check.

Interact Passive Ability Setup

In order to use Proximity Interactions in the Passive Ability, open your Interact Passive ability Blueprint that is inherited from TBIA_InteractPassive. Under Twisted Bytes | Interactions, set Use Proximity to true 1 and the Interactable Priority to 1 2 (or whatever might make sense in your case). Scroll down to Object Types and click on the add icon + 3. Then, select Interactable 4.

note

The Interactable object type we selected here is what we already defined in a previous setup step.

Interact Active Ability Setup

Open your Interact Active ability Blueprint that is inherited from TBIA_InteractActive. Under Twisted Bytes | Interactions, set Use Proximity to true 1. Then set Interactable Priority 1 to the same value as you set it in your Interact Passive ability. After that, scroll down to Object Types and click on the add icon + 3. Then, select Interactable 4.

info

In order to visualize the proximity tracing, set Draw Debug Type to For Duration. For the Passive Ability set Draw Time equal to Proximity Timer Period.

Interactable Object Setup

Here we are using BP_ShieldCell_Item from the TBIA_Demo. This Blueprint class is inherited from TBIA_GASActorBase which has the ASC and the Interaction Component added, where in UE5 it is not essential anymore to have the ASC implemented in C++ and you can add it directly in Blueprints.

Open the Blueprint file and select the SkeletalMesh component 1. In the Details panel under Collision, set the Object Type to Interactable 2 and make sure that the Visibility trace channel is set to Blocked 3. Then open the overridden function GetInteractionContext and set Object Interaction Priority 4 to the same value that you chose in your ability Blueprints earlier.

Play

Place the Interactable Actor in your level and press Play and get close to the placed Actor.

As you can see in the image below you are now able to interact with actors just by standing close next to them.