What’s the difference between this and RVM?
Our new Replicated Traversal System offers broader, customizable traversal actions (hurdling, vaulting, mantling, gap jumping) and smooth animation adjustments using UE5's motion warping, compared to RVM’s linear interpolation system.
Both plugins are customizable, plug-and-play, fully replicated, and optimized, but the new plugin features dynamic traversal detection and utilizes motion warping and chooser tables, with AAA animations, making it more versatile and responsive.
Furthermore, RTS is only available with UE5.4 versions and beyond while RVM is available for UE4 and UE5 and remains a cost-effective alternative.
How is this different than the Game Animation Sample?
It doesn't depend on motion matching. It doesn't require you to create blueprints for the obstacles you can traverse. It detects dimensions dynamically using our own system. it has Gap Jumps as well as vaulting and mantling. It allows you to mantle in mid-air. It supports custom gravity. Its animations are fully rigged to the UE5 Manny. Is it compatible with custom gravity?
Yes, RTS is compatible with UE5.4’s custom gravity.
How do I add new traversal types?
Add new ETraversalType under AuroraDevs_RTS/Blueprints/Data/Enums
Add a new Nested Chooser Row in the CT_Traversal chooser table
Set the enum type for this nested chooser to the newly added enum item. Press Edit next to the new nested chooser. Add an Asset row for each new animation montage for this traversal.
Add a column for each selection criteria for the animations. The criteria exist in the FTraversalChooserParams struct and the current criteria are: Setup the animations and their selection criteria in the table. Open the BP_TraversalComponent . Open the function DetermineTraversalType and add a branch where it seems logical which determines when the new traversal type should be selected depending on the ObstacleProperties input.
Open the function CompleteTraversal and make sure the select node selects the correct EMovementMode that should be applied at the end of the new traversal type. How do I setup new animations?
RTS uses Motion Warping so Root-motion is a must. Furthermore, all our animations animate a bone called interaction which is present by default in the UE5 Skeleton. This bone is used by MotionWarping to adjust the character’s position during traversal and avoid clipping through the obstacle. This bone is animated and placed where the character’s hands/feet would be placed during the animation in world space.
Import animations into Unreal. Create a montage from your animation. Add MotionWarping notifies (ApexNear for Mantles, ApexFar for GapJumps, ApexNear+ApexFar for Vaulting, and ApexNear+ApexFar+Landing for Hurdling). Add an EarlyBlendOut anim notify at the end and setup the blend out condition. Add your animation into your chooser table with the corresponding conditions. How do I do traversal with the jump button?
Use the following code.
How do I use the UE4 Mannequin?
As is explicitly mentioned in the marketplace page, RTS works by default with the UE5 Manny, just like GAS. This is because the UE5 Manny has an extra bone in the skeleton called interaction , which is used by the traversal system, mainly Motion Warping, to synchronize the attachment point of the character on the obstacle during traversal. This also avoids the problem you're facing, where different obstacles of different sizes produce different results.
For the UEFN mannequin, this bone is called attach so you can see how the Game Animation Sample does exactly the same thing with the attach bone. You can click on the interaction bone in our traversal animation sequences to see what it signifies more concretely but to summarize, the bone is always animated to be right at the front ledge of the obstacle the character needs to traverse.
Animation Example with authored Interaction bone
Motion warping then makes sure that the character is adjusted so that the bone falls on the real front edge of the real obstacle in runtime, because the obstacle is not necessarily the same dimensions as what the animation expects. That adjustment makes you traverse obstacles of varying dimensions (in a reasonable range)
There is lots of documentation (both official and unofficial) that explain how skeletal meshes work, how motion warping works; etc, and this is all explained to a reasonable extent in our as well. If you want to use the UE4 mannequin, it is possible, and you have multiple options
Method 1
You can use our SK_UE4_Mannequin_Extended skeletal mesh and SK_UE4_Mannequin_Skeleton_Extended skeleton which are identical to the UE4 mannequin but they have the extra interaction bone added. If you choose to use this skeleton, you will need to replace the Chooser Evaluation in BP_TraversalComponent to use the UE4 chooser table instead in order to play the correct animations. Method 2
You can create a blueprint character class inheriting from our BP_ThirdPersonCharacter_UE4_RuntimeRetargeted class and use it directly. This class itself inherits from BP_ThirdPersonCharacter and has an extra skeletal mesh (UE4 mannequin) on top of the UE5 mannequin which is hidden.
This added UE4 mannequin uses an Animation Blueprint which retargets the hidden UE5 mannequin’s animations in runtime. Method 3
You will need to put the UE4 mannequin in your rigging software of choice and add a new bone called interaction right under the root bone. This bone should not set against the skeletal mesh (moving it doesn't visibly move a limb). You can also do this in the UE editor using the new Skeletal Mesh Editing Tools plugin.
After the bone is added to your skeleton through your software of choice, you can either retarget the traversal animations of the UE5 Manny to your own skeleton or you can mark the two skeletons as compatible in the Skeleton assets.
If you want to go down the retargeting route and don't have a retargeter, right click on a traversal animation and click retarget. Select your skeletons then export the retargeting assets, not the animations. This will create a retargeter asset for you.
In your retargeter, click on Post Settings and add a new operation Pin Bone.
In the bone names, type interaction and set PinTo to Source instead of Target.
Once that's done, use this retargeter to retarget the traversal animations so that the interaction bone gets retargeted. You will then need to replace all the animations in the Chooser table with the retargeted ones.
