interact events from a distance - like Baldur's Gate

chud575

Is there a way using the top-down view to have the mouse be the trigger for Event interactions? The way you would mouse-over a character or a door in Baldur's Gate and get a popup. This would be instead of the character having to be right in front of the trigger.

Shadow_Fire

In ork, I'm not sure if it's possible solely in Ork, so GiL would have to answer you that. But even if it's not, there's a way in Makinom and link it to Ork. Create a schematic in makinom, in it use the PLAY ORK EVENT to play what you want to play, then in the makinom interaction component, set it to MOUSE OVER, and SET MOUSE DISTANCE to -1.

Keldryn

I need to implement this as well. I think that a customized player controller is necessary, as you need to get the position of the object clicked on, calculate an offset and set the player's navigation target to that offset (as the point clicked on might not actually be walkable on the NavMesh).

gamingislove

Popup: use a Tooltip HUD, e.g. with Scene Object information attached to your game objects in the scene (World > Scene Objects, added to game objects using a Scene Object component).

Starting interactions by clicking, there's the default Max Click Distance setting in Game > Game Settings. Set it to -1 to allow clicking without distance checks, or set it to a higher number (distance in world units). Every Interaction start type interaction component can also be started by clicking on it (it'll need a collider for that).

For moving to the clicked object - this can be handled by the game event, e.g. using one of the movement steps or setting the target for a NavMesh agent.

Keldryn

@gamingislove

Do you have any suggestions for how to handle to player canceling movement (such as by clicking on a new destination while the character is still walking to the event object?

That's why I said it would need a custom character controller. If the player cancels navigation before the character reaches the clicked object, then the event should end as if the player had never interacted with it. I don't see any event steps that would watch for the NavMesh destination being changed.

I'd love to be proven wrong. ;-)

gamingislove

Hm, it's possible to do that in the event. You should be able to check the destination of the NavMeshAgent with a Check Fields step. You'll need to check this property on the NavMeshAgent component (i.e. check a Vector3 field with Is Property enabled).

Afterwards use a Wait step to wait for a short time and repeat the checks until the player reached the destination (using another Check Fields step, but e.g. checking the remaining distance).

Keldryn

Thanks! I'd forgotten about what you can do with the Check Fields step. That would certainly be easier than writing my own player controller. :-)

Keldryn

The Check Fields step only lets me check for a specific value:

I stored the original NavMesh destination in a local variable, but I can't compare it with the destination property of the agent.

Checking the remaining distance will also be problematic, as it will need a Less Than comparison, but it looks like the Check Fields step requires a specific value for a float as well.

gamingislove

Yeah, forgot that ORK isn't set up for those things. You can either use Makinom for that (e.g. starting a Makinom machine that handles that using the ORK-Makinom connection plugin) or write your own event step for ORK.

Keldryn

@gamingislove,

Looks like I might be able to use Field to Variable followed by Check Variable to accomplish the same thing.

Ideally, one would want to encapsulate this MoveToInteraction event and call it from whichever interaction event is set up on the object. But this MoveToInteraction event would need to return a pass/fail value so the calling event can terminate if the NavMesh destination is changed.

Is this possible to do with ORK's event system?

gamingislove

You can set a global game variable (e.g. a bool) as a flag in the event and check it in the original dialogue event.

chud575

It seems to me - on the surface at least - that this kind of interaction should be added to the framework. A BG top-down click-to-walk-up-to-and-interact is as much a standard as the third-person walk-up-to-and-interact

Keldryn

I was able to get the movement part working. In the end I had to write up a small component, as the remainingDistance property on the NavMeshAgent is notoriously unreliable:

[RequireComponent(typeof(NavMeshAgent))] public class NavigationUtility { void Start() { _agent = GetComponent<NavMeshAgent>(); } public bool IsNavigationComplete() { return Vector3.Distance(transform.position, _agent.destination) <= _agent.stoppingDistance; } private NavMeshAgent _agent; }

Then I just use a Check Function step:

As long as the player hasn't reached his destination, keep checking to see if the destination has been changed since the event started.

Now, one more question for you, @gamingislove. I put all of this in a MoveToInteractionPoint GameEvent, but it looks like you can't call a GameEvent from another GameEvent?

The MoveToInteractionPoint GameEvent has two actors: Actor/Player and Actor/Event Object. I guess that I need to do this "sub-event" as a Battle Event? In that case, I assume that the Event Object would be the Target?

I admit I'm not entirely clear on the distinction between the different types of ORK events.

Kirb

I don't believe you can call a game event from another game event. Some ways you can get around this is to set it as a Global event, or spawn a prefab containing the event set to AutoStart.

I've actually been using Makinom as a very quick and easy way to run complex events/checks within ORK events (since you can call Makinom schematics at any point from an ORK event).

⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄⌄ Whoops, forgot about Move Events as well as GiL mentions.

gamingislove

You can use the Call Move Event to start a move event on an actor. Move events are a bit more limited and can't use all steps - but it should be able to run the steps needed for the check.

Keldryn

@chud575, I've got this one solved.

Prepare yourself, this is going to be long!

EDIT: Revised and moved to the Tutorials section.

Keldryn

EDIT: Revised and moved to the Tutorials section.

@chud575, let me know if this does everything that you are looking for. I don't know if you needed the level of detail that I went into, but this way it's here for anybody to use.

Keldryn

~~@gamingislove, can we get an option to have the Tooltip HUD display at the position of the object in the scene like you just added for the Interaction HUD? :-)~~

Never mind. Forgot this could be set on the GUI Box.

Keldryn

Sometimes all it takes is stepping away for a bit. The calling event doesn't need to know if the navigation was cancelled; it just needs to know if it should continue with the interaction. Still need two booleans, but the second check doesn't need to be in the loop in the calling event.

We also need to block the Move AI before playing the opening animations and unblock it once the ItemCollector UI closes. Otherwise your party members get stuck in a walking animation while the PC is opening the chest. ~~Will update my posts tomorrow.~~

chud575

@Keldryn - you were right. That was long. :-p But worth it! Good work, thanks for contributing to the cause.