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Add an emote or a face

An emote is one Data Asset. It shows a face on the robot's screen, plays a gesture on the upper body, or both. Players hold T, aim at a sector of the wheel and release. By the end of this page you have a new entry in the wheel, and if you want one, a new face.

  • The emote class: Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/DataAssets/Emote/BP_EmoteDataAsset, instances in Emote/Childs/
  • The face class: Blueprints/DataAssets/Face/BP_FaceDataAsset, instances in Face/Childs/
  • The face states: Blueprints/Enumerations/E_FaceState
  • The two components, both on BP_FriendslopCharacter: BP_EmoteComponent and Face (a BP_FaceComponent)

The emotes that ship

Asset Emote Name Emote Montage Face State Changes Face
DA_Emote_Neutral NEUTRAL none Neutral true
DA_Emote_Happy HAPPY none Happy true
DA_Emote_Sad SAD none Sad true
DA_Emote_Angry ANGRY none Angry true
DA_Emote_Surprised SURPRISED none Surprised true
DA_Emote_No NO AM_Emote_No Neutral false
DA_Emote_Yes YES AM_Emote_Yes Neutral false
DA_Emote_Wave WAVE AM_Emote_Wave Neutral false

The first five are faces only: a face stays on until the player picks another one. The last three are gestures that leave the face alone and end with their montage. None of them loops.

Add an emote

  1. Duplicate DA_Emote_Happy for a face emote, or DA_Emote_Wave for a gesture. Keep it in Emote/Childs/.
  2. Set Emote Name and Emote Icon.
  3. For a gesture, set Emote Montage. For a face, set Face State and tick Changes Face.
  4. Open BP_FriendslopCharacter, select BP_EmoteComponent in the Components panel, and add your asset to Emotes.
  5. Save, play, hold T.

The order of Emotes is the order of the sectors. The wheel has 8 sectors and the shipped list fills them. A ninth entry opens a second page. While the wheel is open, the mouse wheel turns the pages. The page counter appears on its own.

Field What it does
Emote Name The text in the centre of the wheel when the sector is aimed at
Emote Icon The sector icon. A white shape on transparent, tinted by the wheel. Copy the settings of T_Icon_Emote_Happy
Emote Montage Played on every player's machine. Empty means a face only emote
Face State The face shown while the emote runs
Changes Face True: the emote is a face. It shows Face State and stays until another pick. Moving or taking damage does not cancel it. False: the emote is a gesture. It never touches the face, and moving or taking damage cancels it
Loops Montage False: the emote ends when the montage ends. True: the emote does not end with the montage and runs until it is cancelled. Use it for a dance, with the montage section looping on itself

The gesture montage

  1. Make an AM_ from your animation on the mannequin skeleton. The shipped ones are in Animations/Montages/.
  2. Put it on the UpperBody slot. Only the spine and above play the emote, so the legs keep their locomotion pose.
  3. If the gesture uses the hands, add BP_HandIKSuspendNotifyState over the part where they move. Without it, a player who holds an item keeps their left hand glued to the grip while the arm plays the gesture. The three AM_Emote_* montages have it.

Add a face

A face is a state in E_FaceState plus one Data Asset that draws it. The six states that ship are Neutral, Happy, Sad, Angry, Surprised and Dead.

  1. Open E_FaceState and add an entry, for example Scared.
  2. Import your textures: one eyes image and the mouth frames. The shipped ones are in Textures/Characters/Faces/. They are pixel art on a 66 x 50 grid, with Filter on Nearest, no mipmaps and the UI texture group. Copy the settings of T_Face_Eyes_Happy.
  3. Duplicate DA_Face_Happy in Face/Childs/ and fill it in.
  4. Open BP_FriendslopCharacter, select Face, and add your asset to Faces.
  5. Make an emote that uses it: Face State on your new entry, Changes Face ticked.
Field Where What it does
State Face Data Asset Which E_FaceState entry this asset draws
Eyes Face Data Asset The eyes image, white on transparent. It is tinted
Mouth Frames Face Data Asset Mouth images from closed (first) to wide open (last)
Faces Face component The faces this screen can draw. It draws the one whose State matches
Face Color Face component The tint of the eyes and the mouth

The open mouth frames are for talking. BP_FaceComponent has Set Mouth Openness (0 to 1) for a voice chat plugin to call on each machine. Nothing in the template calls it.

A face does not have to come from an emote. Call Server_SetFace on the Face component from your own server-side code, for example a scared face when an enemy sees the player.

The fields on the components

Field Component What it does Default
Emotes BP_EmoteComponent The wheel content, in sector order. It is also the list of emotes the server accepts the 8 DA_Emote_*
Emote Wheel Class BP_EmoteComponent The wheel widget WBP_EmoteWheel
Move Cancel Speed BP_EmoteComponent Moving faster than this, in cm/s, cancels a gesture. Faces are not cancelled 10
Resting Face BP_EmoteComponent The face set when the player releases on the centre of the wheel to stop a face emote Neutral
Wheel Context BP_EmoteComponent The mapping context added while the wheel is open IMC_EmoteWheel
Wheel Context Priority BP_EmoteComponent Above IMC_Default, so the mouse wheel turns pages instead of inventory slots 1

A gesture also stops when the player's health drops below what it was when the gesture started. Health is read through BPI_VitalManagerInterface. With your own health system, call Server_StopEmote from your damage code.

The dispatchers

Dispatcher Component When it fires Fires on
OnEmoteChanged BP_EmoteComponent An emote started or stopped. Gives the Emote every player
OnWheelToggled BP_EmoteComponent The wheel opened or closed. Gives Open owning player
OnFaceChanged Face The face changed. Gives New Face every player

Next: Player colours, nameplates and pings.

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