Triggering Animations In VR (Vive)

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to figure out the trick to triggering animations in VR when using the Vive. I've read other posts in this forum, but have not found a working solution.

I've created a simple animation of a door opening, and closing (two separate clips) and brought it into Interactive. The two clips are linked to the same skeleton.

The attached image shows my flow setup, and my trigger volume is set to character_trigger.

I can't seem to get my VR character to trigger the event.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

[__ben__]

Your flow graph looks reasonable. Is this problem specific to VR? Does it trigger correctly when running on a normal display instead of VR?

If you see that it works as expected outside of VR, then ensure that your VR camera is a physical actor. Physical actors can activate triggers, a bodyless camera such as a VR camera will not:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/stingray-forum/trigger-problem-in-3ds-max-interactive/td-p/8738274

Should trigger fail outside of VR, then follow the video tutorials to make sure you didn't miss a step. There is even a tutorial specifically on triggering door opening animations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbamkahuOYs 

[jordan.giboney]

Hi @Anonymous 

I hope you are doing well! I wanted to check in and see if you had a chance to review @__ben__ 's suggestions, or if there were any new developments with this issue.

When you have a moment, please select the solution or post a new reply summarizing your findings 🙂 Marking the solution is a great way to ensure that other users find their solution efficiently.

Thanks again for being a part of our community!

[Anonymous]

I'll be working on it this week and will report back my findings, thanks.

[Anonymous]

@jordan.giboney 

I've been working on this, but I am not having much luck.

I can get the animation to autoplay on a loop when the level starts, therefore validating that the model at least appears to be set up correctly with the animation sequence in the scene.

I just can't seem to trigger it to play using a trigger volume in VR (HTC Vive). I've tried attaching a physics actor to the controller, but still can't get the animation to trigger when the controller passes into the trigger volume.

[Anonymous]

@jordan.giboney @__ben__ 

I've managed to get a little success. In changing the Shape Template to "character" on the controller model collision actor, I now seem to be able to trigger the animation.

However, it only works when I teleport into the trigger volume. If I simply walk the controller into the volume it doesn't trigger the animation?

I've attached a video to illustrate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7wZlKFTTHQ

[Anonymous]

Anybody?

What I've found is that upon initial teleport into the trigger volume, the controller will get a green halo around it (like the object is selected). The teleport feature becomes disabled, and yet I can move the controller in and out of the trigger volume, triggering the animations as you would expect. To get the teleport feature to work again, I have to pull the trigger (initiate the pointer), and then I'm back to what you see in the video in the post above. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why it is behaving this way?

I've explored linking a primitive object to either the controller or HMD, and applying a physics actor to it for the trigger. However, while I was able to attach a sphere to the HMD, it was offset about a half-mile away. I don't know why this offset is happening, or how to fix it.

I hate to say it, but with all of these issues I've been having with Interactive, and even as convenient as it is working in 3DS Max, I'm considering either going back to Unity or Unreal. I'm just spending too much time trying to fix problems than producing useable content.

[harold.vicknair]

The way I created the animation it works, I setup the animation in Max and included the trigger box. I exported out in the game exporter. 

in the unit editor I created the trigger and under shape I called it a trigger and turned off the visibility (instead of a character trigger), this works in the Desktop VR template.

I can either touch the trigger with the controller of the laser and the animation will play.

[Anonymous]

Hi @harold.vicknair ,

Thank you so much for your sharing. I met the same problem of triggering an animation with vive controller. Could you please be more specific on your method? How do you create a trigger box in 3ds max? And how do you set visibility in Interactive?

Thanks again!

[per.kaare]

Did you ever find a solution for this? 🙂 I tried all your steps but i guess im missing something.