AI Cover

[GuyManDude]

Hi guys, sorry if I didn't found the answer in the forums, but I am following the guide to setup the covers for AI and in the documentation states to enable "PredeterminedMoveTowardsLocation" in the cover abilities, I am not seing this option can some one point me out the location?

I dont know what else I am doing wrong but even if the probability of cover is changed to 1 the start cover action allways come as faliure

thanks for the help

 

[Justin]

PredeterminedMoveTowardsLocation is a property on the Cover ability. You can use the StartCover task to set the location within Behavior Designer.

 

[GuyManDude]

ok so if I am undertanding the "PredeterminedMoveTowardsLocation" is already setup by the "StartCover", if that is so I am not understanding what I am doing wrong, I think the cover point is setup correctly, but when the "StartCover" in the tree starts it always return failure

 

[Justin]

If you place a breakpoint within the StartCover task and step into the TryStartAbility method you should have a better idea of what is causing it to return failure. With that said, you have a start type of Button Down which for an AI agent will never be the case. The start and stop type should be manual.

 

[GuyManDude]

ok so far, I isolated on the the AI in the scene without the player, I isolated only the cover ability, the stop/start type is defined as manual.

made some debug prints
in the "TryStartAbility" method I printing the "ability.CanStartAbility()" bool before the "if ((!ability.IsActive || ability.CanReceiveMultipleStarts) && ability.Enabled && (ignoreCanStartCheck || ability.CanStartAbility())) " check

the "ability.CanStartAbility()" returns false.

ok so I go into the can start Ability and check which condition is returing false

the "CanStartAbilityInternal()" is returns true always

 

[Justin]

If the internal method returns true then it looks like something within the cover ability is returning false. Have you tried debugging there?

 

[GuyManDude]

hey man super thanks for you help, but I am not understanding were you are asking me to debbug, sorry I am a bit slow; I set up a breakpoint in the tree "start cover" and it does find a cover spot but then after the breakpoint is removed the cover spot goes to null

---

 

[Justin]

Instead of a behavior tree breakpoint you should use a C# breakpoint. You can then step into the Cover.CanStartAbility method and determine exactly what is returning false.

 

[arenoo]

I am having the same issue. CharacterLocomotion.SingleCast() returns false in DetectObjectAbilityBase. Btw the detection mode is Charactercast


And here is a screenshot from character locomotion script. The Physics.CapsuleCast returns false

 

[arenoo]

Also here is the cover point itself and the character is spawned near it



Also VERY rarely I get a log in my console saying "Unable to find cover"

 

[Justin]

It looks like the cast is missing the cover object. You could add a Debug.DrawRay just before the capsule cast to visualize where the cast is going. If it looks correct then it's likely a LayerMask issue.

 

[arenoo]

It looks like the cast is missing the cover object. You could add a Debug.DrawRay just before the capsule cast to visualize where the cast is going. If it looks correct then it's likely a LayerMask issue.

well here are the debug rays it draws

 

[GuyManDude]

sorry for the long wait, did breakpoints in the CanStartAbilityInternal() and it allways return true, trying to do a breakpoint in the "
if ((!ability.IsActive || ability.CanReceiveMultipleStarts) && ability.Enabled && (ignoreCanStartCheck || ability.CanStartAbility()))" in the ultimate charater controller the breakpoint is not giving me the result of the CanStartAbility, dont know what I am doing wrong, would apreciate more info

 

[Justin]

well here are the debug rays it draws

You should look at it when you're near a cover point. What you want to do is have the capsule cast return a value, so it's modifying the ray origin/direction or the layer mask.

sorry for the long wait, did breakpoints in the CanStartAbilityInternal() and it allways return true, trying to do a breakpoint in the "
if ((!ability.IsActive || ability.CanReceiveMultipleStarts) && ability.Enabled && (ignoreCanStartCheck || ability.CanStartAbility()))" in the ultimate charater controller the breakpoint is not giving me the result of the CanStartAbility, dont know what I am doing wrong, would apreciate more info

Instead of CanStartAbilityInternal what about CanStartAbility? You can step into that method to determine what is returning false.

 

[arenoo]

Instead of CanStartAbilityInternal what about CanStartAbility? You can step into that method to determine what is returning false.

It returns false.

 

[arenoo]

You should look at it when you're near a cover point. What you want to do is have the capsule cast return a value, so it's modifying the ray origin/direction or the layer mask.

okay do the rays look correct now?

I have a few questions actually:
1. Am I understanding correctly that in order for agent to take cover it must be looking at one when the StartCover node is activating?
2. Does the coverPoint collider have to be a trigger or jus regular collider?
3. Does the coverPoint collider height affect anything?
4. If there is only one valid cover point on the map and the agent behavior tree Cover node probability is set to 1, should the agent run to the checkpoint or are there any other conditions?

 

[Justin]

Where is the cover point? I don't see anywhere in that screenshot where it looks like the character should take cover.

1. Yes
2. The cover point should be a trigger.
3. No
4. You mean cover point instead of checkpoint, correct? The character will only move to the cover point if that cover point is determined to be valid.

 

[arenoo]

Where is the cover point? I don't see anywhere in that screenshot where it looks like the character should take cover.

right in front of the character

 

[arenoo]

1. Yes

Is there a way to bypass this condition? I just want to be able to tell the agent to take cover no matter if he is looking at it

 

[Justin]

That would cause it. In your screenshot you can see the blue line being drawn but the character isn't near a cover point.

There isn't a way to bypass that condition without coding changes. Take a look at Cover.StartAbility - it doesn't a cast and if there's no cover object found then it doesn't start. You will probably want to remove that.