Character Setup
Add Required Components
First, ensure your Actor is a Character class, then add GMS_CharacterMovementSystemComponent (Character Movement System Component) and GES_ContextEffectComponent (Context Effect Component) to your Character.
Configuring the Movement System Component
The Character Movement System Component drives the character's movement control system and animation system. Here, you can set some default values.
Movement Definitions
The most important aspect is the MovementDefinitions array. Every character should have at least one movement definition that includes all required movement set settings.
If multiple movement definitions are associated with the same MovementSet tag, the one at the bottom of the list has the highest priority.
You can design several different tags like MovementSet.Default, ADS, Crouch, and then add other movement definition assets associated with the same MovementSet tag during gameplay to replace the movement set settings (thus changing the movement control logic and animation performance).
You can use a single movement definition for the entire project, including all movement set settings, and differentiate them with different movement set tags. However, this requires managing more MovementSet tags.
Alternatively, you can split them into multiple movement definitions based on different character types, depending on how you manage your project.
Movement Modes and Gameplay Tags
In GMS, GameplayTags are used to represent different movement modes, allowing for a consistent semantic description of the "Character Movement Component" and future movement modes in Mover 2.0.
This is the default mapping for CMS (Character Movement System). When the movement mode of the CharacterMovementComponent (CMC) changes, it modifies the LocomotionMode of the CMS component based on this mapping.
This is crucial because the movement control and animation parts of GMS currently only handle states for Grounded and InAir. Therefore, switching to other GMS-unimplemented movement modes will not affect the character's movement.
You can refer to Extension Guide for implementing other movement modes or integrating third-party components specifically designed for certain movement modes.
Anim Graph Settings
You need to configure AnimGraphSetting for movement system component.
Animation graph settings define the mapping between "animation layer settings" and "animation layer instances," as well as parameters related to orientation warping.
GMS provides a default graph setting called AG_Mannequin_UE5 and AG_Mannequin_UE4, which is suitable for any character compatible with the UE5/UE4 standard skeleton.
If your character's skeleton structure is not compatible with the UE5/UE4 standard skeleton structure, then you will need to refer to this configuration and create a new anim graph setting for your character.
For more in-depth understanding of AnimGraphSetting, refer to Anim Graph Setting.
Orientation Warping Setup
GMS utilises the Orientation Warping feature to animate in 4 directions to accomplish 8 direction movement. If you are using another character and the spine chain structure does not match the UE5 skeleton, then you should also create a new animation graph setting and complete the spine chain configuration based on your actual skeleton’s bone structures.
If your animation pack does not contain or have a valid root motion, then you can also set the Mode from Graph to Manual.
Configuring Main Animation Blueprint
Find your character's SkeletalMesh component and set the animation blueprint to ABPT_GMS_Main.
GMS includes many animation blueprints. If you don't need to learn how this system was created, you can simply have your character use ABPT_GMS_Main.
In fact, the movement control system is completely unaware of the animation system. If you don't need everything provided by GMS's animation system, you can also use your own animation blueprint and obtain information from GMS's movement system component to update character animations.
Configuring the Context Effect Component
The GES_ContextEffectComponent drives the character's footstep sound effects and audio playback. You need to configure a context effect library, and GMS has provided a CFX_MMS_Sfx that can be used directly.
It defines different footstep effects that trigger different sounds on various surface materials, and you can also add visual effects to it.
In the project settings, under the ContextEffectsSettings section, you can find the mapping from physical materials to GameplayTags.
Refer to Context Effects System for deeper understanding.
Configuring Character
GMS has its own rotation system, so ensure that the following settings are turned off on the character.
Configuring Character Movement Component
Also, find the character's movement component, turn off the following settings, and set RotationRate to 0.
To make sure AI can properly play start/stop animation, you should set the following options as image shows.
It's recommended to tick the following options.
