Attach To Target for Buildbox 3

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS NODE?

The Attach To Target node for Buildbox 3 allows you to easily attach and detach props to animated characters in Buildbox 3, you can use it to attach and detach a weapon your character’s hand, a hat on his head, shoes to his feet and so on.

Here’s a clip showing what you can achieve with this node, demo is included in the package.

This node will allow you to create a much deeper level of interaction in your games, it is an absolute must to create point and click adventures, RPG games, action and sports games… imagine the possibilities!

And here’s a quick tutorial showing how you can easily use it in your game!

WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THE PACKAGE?

– AttachToTarget.bbnode: the node file you can easily drag&drop inside your Buildbox games.

– Prop Attach Demo.bbdoc: a demo game showing examples of what can be achieved with the AttachToTarget node.
– Readme file with instruction + useful images and links.

DOES IT WORK WITH ANY MODEL?

The node is designed to work with FBX models coming from Mixamo or rigged with it (www.mixamo.com) since it is a very well established and recognized tool to obtain animated characters; the node is also able to work with FBX models coming from other sources as long as they’ve been rigged which means they have a skeleton with bones to which objects can be attached.

Here is the skeleton of a model rigged in Mixamo with all the bones names as shown in Blender (www.blender.org).

HOW TO USE IT?

It is very easy to use, just add the node to a prop then select the target character and an attach point, like the right hand for example.
Now you can have the prop to interact with your character in many ways, let’s say for example that there is a gun on the floor, your character will be able to pick it up and hold it in his hand and this can happen in several ways, a few examples:
– when it collides with it: use an ‘If collide’ node.
– when you tap on it: use an ‘Is Touched’ node.
– when you press a button: use a UI button.
You’ll find all of these cases in the demo BBDOC!
These are just a few examples of what you can do.

Here you can see the node attributes and how simple it is to setup it. If touched the hat will attach on top of the head of the target model or detach from it if already attached.

NODE ATTRIBUTES

– Target: the target Character object to which the prop will be attached, MUST contain a Sub Scene node (FBX model).
– Attach Point: a dropdown list with all of the 65 standard attach points (bones) available in most models rigged with Mixamo (www.mixamo.com).
While this would work for many models, please note that not every model on Mixamo uses the same bone structure and names; in such cases you’ll
still be able to attach a prop by using the “Alt. attach point” attribute as described in next point.
– Alt. attach point: here you can specify an alternative attach point in case the FBX model you’re using wasn’t rigged with Mixamo or isn’t using the standard bones names used by Mixamo, to discover names you have to check inside the FBX model you’re using, for example by opening it in Blender (www.blender.org) and checking bones under “Armature”, there you’ll find the complete skeleton of the model and the name of each of the bones that are part of it; for example the neck bone in Mixamo might be called “mixamorig:Neck”.
– Affected Asset: with this dropdown attribute you’ll be able to specify which assets the prop will collide with once it has been attached to the character, you can either select “All”, “None”, “Enemy”, etc. For example for a gun or a sword you might select “Enemy” so that once it is attached to the character it becomes a weapon and collides only with objects in the “Enemy” Collision Group.
– Move/Rotate: when you attach a prop to a character it might be slightly off, maybe you attached a gun to a hand and it’s not in the exact position but it is overlapping fingers, to fix this type of problems you can set these values to move and rotate the prop relative to the bone it is attached to.
– Disable Debug Messages: tick to disable error and warning messages.