Horrible AnimTree Bug

[ADayInForever]

Hello there,

This is a problem found in both UDK Aug. 2011 & UDK Sept 2011 betas.

I seem to be running into a problem with the animtree editor. I've been following an animation tree guide on how to get tophalf slots to work on top of full body slots in matinee. But there's a problem.
Snapshot: http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1...tnodeerror.png

Everytime I try to plug ANYTHING into the channel01 slot node like the tutorials instruct, it won't let me. It says "SlotNode does not need child node connected in order to play." But the thing is, if I can't do this in the animtree editor, UDK's PC mode spits out a very bizarre animation that works opposite of what one would expect in the visual results from matinee.

For more information, I created this thread a few days ago:
http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/...Speed-Conflict -- I've also provided snapshots and video footage of the AnimTree's and Matinee's weirdness in action.

In the aforementioned thread, I tried to create a workaround to the AnimTree error by using two animblendbyslotactives to get both slots to respond in matinee as expected. The second was hooked into the first. But to no avail. UDK produces this horrible looking blended animation at the game's runtime. If I try to plug in DataBeeFlyingSlot (AnimNodeSlot) into the Channel 01 parameter of DataBeeIdleSlot (AnimNodeSlot also), I keep getting the "SlotNode does not need child node connected in order to play." error. Which is a little ironic, considering how many default animtrees included with UDK make use of the channel 01 of a slotnode to blend and connect top and full body slots together.

As an alternative to the above, I also tried AnimNodeAdditiveBlending, assuming that it takes on similar animation properties as morph target weights (And really this would have been a better solution for me anyways). But using this node began to warp, twist and contort my DataBee skeletalmesh to all sorts of weirdness. I'm assuming this is because the AnimNodeAdditiveBlending uses the world coordinate space to additively blend and deform animations, rather than the skeletalmesh's local space (which is what I was expecting). Perhaps an option could be added to additively blend by local space as well and make this option available in future builds? I've seen this in other nodes on the animtree editor... not sure why this node would be any exception.

[Solid Snake]

seem to be running into a problem with the animtree editor. I've been following an animation tree guide on how to get tophalf slots to work on top of full body slots in matinee. But there's a problem.

Could you please post a link to this tutorial? If it is an official UDN document page, then this needs to be updated. This is not a bug and it is by intention.

AnimNodeSlots are designed so that those slot channels are empty. When matinee/Unrealscript wants to play an animation using the AnimNodeSlot, it will automatically create and destroy the AnimNodeSequence for you.

[ADayInForever]

http://udkc.info/index.php?title=Tut...e_crash_course

I'm following along with Chapter 8, there. Very insightful gentleman. And the guy is able to plug into channel01 with no problems at all with his videos. Even says its necessary to get the slots to get along with each other. (And believe me, there need to be a LOT more proper video tutorials about animtrees....)

AT_CH_Crowd was also the animation tree that was doing this very same thing, btw. But apparently the AnimTree Editor does some automatic house-cleaning of all the nodes once you exit. So I can't show you this with a snapshot now anymore, unfortunately.

Also, as a feature request, could you guys... maybe leave the unused nodes in place instead of automatically erasing them each time the animtree editor closes? UDK leaves the nodes alone in the material editor, why can't they do the same thing with the animtree editor?

[Solid Snake]

Looks like the tutorial was written in January this year. It's now out dated.

[ADayInForever]

Right. I see your point. And as mentioned in my prior posts, I worked around that by the current setup that I made in my other forum post. As well as some other endeavors I tried when I ran into that matinee/PC runtime issue.

But do you see anything that I'm doing wrong in the other forum post that I linked to? Everything plays just fine in Matinee. I set the wing animations to 3x speed, and the rest of the body in the idle slot to .5. But the minute it runs in PC or PIE, the animation performs at a constant fast speed, and the animation tends to skip frames and 'flip' a lot. And if you watch the video you'll see that. I definitely think the matinee / pc thing /is/ a UDK bug, though. Hence my report here .