Is there a third person player script?

[karmacomposer]

I would like to create third person games with a character as player. Is there a Lua camera/player script available for Leadwerks/Ultraengine?

Thanks.

Mike

[Josh]

Yes, it's in the player components group.

[karmacomposer]

I only have first person scripts in there.

No third person and no VR,

Mike

[karmacomposer]

I am using Lua and not C++

Mike

[Josh]

Version 0.9.0 is the default channel. This is the initial release and will never change.

You can switch to the dev channel to get the latest updates. To do this run the client app:

• Press the uninstall button.
• Select the dev channel in the dropdown box.
• Hit install to download the files.

[karmacomposer]

Thank you. Will do

Mike

[karmacomposer]

I am sorry to be so dim. Uninstall button where, exactly and which dropdown box? Is this a github thing?

Mike

[Josh]

Press "Uninstall":

Select the channel you want to use. The dev channel continuously receives updates. Versioned channels are stable and do not receive new updates:

[karmacomposer]

Ultra Engine client will not run for me.  I double click the application icon and nothing happens.

Ultra Engine Building software works fine.

Windows 11

ASUS ROG ScarStrix 64gb ram, 1tb ssd, GeForce RTX 3080

Mike

[Josh]

Try deleting this file:
C:\ProgramData\Ultra Engine\clientsettings.json

ProgramData is a hidden folder.

[karmacomposer]

I deleted the file and it still does not run. I will try a reboot and see if that helps.

Mike

[karmacomposer]

I restarted and same thing - does not run. I tried running as admin - nothing. It's not running as a task in task manager either.

... then ...

I tried to run Ultra Engine editor and it told me to login and then the client worked.

Weird!!!

Mike

[karmacomposer]

On 11/18/2023 at 9:52 PM, Josh said:

Yes, it's in the player components group.

Now that I have the dev version installed, I added a camera and went to add a component - no third person camera. How do I do this? Is there a 3rd person project I can download to get started?

Mike

[Alienhead]

Make sure you have the entity selected in a viewport that you wish to add the 3rd person controls too.

Components are listed in a drop down box after you select Add Component.

 

[Josh]

49 minutes ago, karmacomposer said:

I restarted and same thing - does not run. I tried running as admin - nothing. It's not running as a task in task manager either.

... then ...

I tried to run Ultra Engine editor and it told me to login and then the client worked.

Weird!!!

Mike

My next piece of advice would have been to delete the userdata.dat file, or just the whole ProgramData/Ultra Engine folder.

[karmacomposer]

As soon as I find a character amongst my 3d asset collection, I will test the 3rd person camera. I assume it has to be rigged with animation.

Mike

[Josh]

Currently it doesn't even handle animation, but I am planning on using that robot character to demonstrate animation with.

I was not sure how the components should be broken down, but I think having a default single component that handles as much as possible is the correct approach, and then if someone wants to separate it into more sub-parts that can also be an option.

[karmacomposer]

2 hours ago, Josh said:

Currently it doesn't even handle animation, but I am planning on using that robot character to demonstrate animation with.

I was not sure how the components should be broken down, but I think having a default single component that handles as much as possible is the correct approach, and then if someone wants to separate it into more sub-parts that can also be an option.

So then 3rd person is not ready yet? If you use a character and walk and run animations don't work then they just slide around (jumping, climbing, swimming, etc)

Mike

[Josh]

6 minutes ago, karmacomposer said:

So then 3rd person is not ready yet? If you use a character and walk and run animations don't work then they just slide around (jumping, climbing, swimming, etc)

Mike

Right now it just handles a camera and movement controls. Since Ultra supports multiple components, I was not sure if animation should be part of the same code or if it should be a separate component.

[karmacomposer]

18 hours ago, Josh said:

Right now it just handles a camera and movement controls. Since Ultra supports multiple components, I was not sure if animation should be part of the same code or if it should be a separate component.

Don't you think it will look very weird and unnatural to have a camera follow a character you can see on screen but that does not animate (walk, run, etc) as you move it? It needs animations - and my characters are rigged already, so the ability to turn on animations and choose the frames would be a big deal and make the 3rd person camera as well as NPCs look realistic.

Mike

[Josh]

3 hours ago, karmacomposer said:

Don't you think it will look very weird and unnatural to have a camera follow a character you can see on screen but that does not animate (walk, run, etc) as you move it? It needs animations - and my characters are rigged already, so the ability to turn on animations and choose the frames would be a big deal and make the 3rd person camera as well as NPCs look realistic.

Mike

Yeah, I just wanted to put this out first and then see how people use it. A few years ago people were insisting that multiple components would allow things like this to be broken down into multiple reusable pieces, although I agree it seems convoluted to me.

[reepblue]

43 minutes ago, Josh said:

A few years ago people were insisting that multiple components would allow things like this to be broken down into multiple reusable pieces, although I agree it seems convoluted to me.

I've been making my components into separated parts now and I gotta say, it's nice to only focus on one part of the system at a time, but I miss the "Place an entity in the world, and attach a script to it approach".

A good example would be with a portal system. You can have one component be for the rendering, one for the collision and another for teleportation. 

I've been meaning to write about my experience, but I keep getting caught up in other things. I'm also waiting for bugs to get fixed and allowing other entities to be referenced in the component properties panel.

[Alienhead]

Fear not !  AlienHead 3Rd Person Camera Component is in the works.  Bare with me though, the time to complete varies since I'm really just learning Ultra and I have to stop and look stuff up every line of code.

 

[karmacomposer]

10 hours ago, Josh said:

Yeah, I just wanted to put this out first and then see how people use it. A few years ago people were insisting that multiple components would allow things like this to be broken down into multiple reusable pieces, although I agree it seems convoluted to me.

All I know is that the most successful games are mostly 3rd person games (at least is appears that way to me).

Mike

[Josh]

This component now supports animation and is shown in the default starting map.