Using Object Interaction Timed

Create Object Interaction Timed

To create an Object Interaction Timed ability, right-click in the Content Browser and select TwistedBytes | Abilities | Object Interaction Timed as shown in the image below.

Name the newly created asset ObjectInteractionTimed.

Setup Interactable Actor

Create new GAS Actor Base, right-click in the Content Browser and select TwistedBytes | Actors | GAS Actor Base as shown in the image below.

Replace Default Scene Root with Skeletal Mesh Component 1. Next, select a Skeletal Mesh you want to use. In this example, we will use the Door static mesh 2 that is shipped with TBIA_Demo. Then you can easily create an Animation Blueprint for the Door mesh by right-clicking in the Content Browser. Select Animation | Animation Blueprint and then select the Door skeletal mesh. After that, assign it to the Door Skeletal mesh in the newly created GAS Actor Base 3.

Select TBIA_InteractionComponent 1, go to the Details Panel and add ObjectInteractionTimed 2 to the Granted Abilities on Start property.

We then add four static mesh components 1 so that the door has some kind of buttons that can be interacted with. Place the static mesh components next to the door mesh as shown in 2.

Create a new map variable InteractableMeshesToIndexes 1. As variable types, choose Primitive Component for the key 2 and Integer for the value 3.

Switch to the Construction Script tab and add both button static mesh components to the map variable InteractableMeshesToIndexes 4, 5 as shown in the image below.

Playing montages on Interactable Actors

We will use a simple technique to play montages on Interactable Actors.

Open the Door AnimBP and drag the door_open animation sequence into the AnimGraph 1. Then, right-click on the animation sequence and select Convert to Single Frame Animation 2.

Now, the animation sequence will look like what you see in the image below 3. Add a montage slot 4 to be able to specify from where the montage will override the door's animation.

Setup Door Montage

Open door_open_Montage (shipped with the demo project) and make sure the Montage Sections 1, 2, 3 are named the same as in the GA_ObjectInteractionTimed as in the image below. The montage slot should match the defined slot in the Door AnimBP 4.

Also make sure that the Interact montage section loops on itself 5 as shown in the image below.

Interactable Actor Logic

Open the new GasActorBase and override Is Available for Interaction. We want to check if the interacted component (the component that the character is looking at) is the static mesh component of the button.

To do this, we simply call Find on the map variable Interactable Meshes to Indexes holding all references to our static mesh components.

Also make sure that the Door is not in the Interacting state. If both checks evaluate to true, then the Door is available for potential interactions.

Override Is Blocked for Interaction and return true which means it's blocked so that no one can interact with the Door if its state is Interacting.

Override Get Interaction Context and add a new Make TBIA_InteractionContext node.

Primary Mesh Montage 1 is the interaction animation montage that we want to play on the PlayerCharacter when interacting with the Door.

Wait for Input Trigger 2 is set to True so that if the Player releases the Interaction Button the interaction will be cancelled.

Interaction Duration 3 is 1 sec which is the whole time needed for the Interaction to finish successfully.

Animation Loop Duration 4 is 0.8 sec which is the time that you want to loop the montage on.

Object Interaction Duration 5 is the lifetime of Object Interaction Timed Ability that will run on the Door.

Object Montage 6 is the montage that the Object Interaction Timed Ability will try to play when it starts.

Go to the Event Graph and navigate to On Post Interact. When this event is triggered on Authority 1, we want to call Send Gameplay Event to Interacting Actor.

Pass the Interacted Actor as Self, Interacted Component as the Door Skeletal Mesh Component, set the EventTag to TBIA.Object.Interaction.Timed, Interacting Actor will be Self referenced also.

Place the Door actor in the world and Press Play in the Unreal Editor, look at the door button and press the E key which is the Interaction button that we configured earlier. You will see the PlayerCharacter playing the interaction montage for 1 second then the door will open for 3 seconds then it will be closed.