Held Items
A held item is anything a character holds in a hand: a gun, a sword, a flashlight, a phone, a map, a cup or a tool. While an item is held, the arms lock to the view and the item's modifiers move it.
The rig finds held items in three ways:
| Item | How it is found |
|---|---|
| Shooter 2 weapon | Found by the Shooter 2 Integration. No component is needed. |
| Melee weapon | Found by the Melee Integration once its prop is in a hand. No component is needed. |
| Any other item | Needs a Held Item component, under one of the hand bones. Game Creator props attached with Attach Prop work. |
Held Item Component
Add Held Item from Add Component > Game Creator > Full Body Awareness Controller > Held Item. On Shooter and Melee weapons the component is optional. Add it when you want to give the weapon its own profile or change one of the values below. On a Shooter weapon, empty fields keep Shooter's own values.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Profile | The Held Item Profile with the item's modifiers. Empty uses the rig's Default Profile. |
| Point At Crosshair > Pointer | A Transform whose forward axis turns towards the crosshair, like a muzzle or the front of a flashlight. On a Shooter weapon it replaces the muzzle. |
| Point At Crosshair > Strength | How much the Pointer turns towards the crosshair. 0 keeps the hold angle. |
| Second Hand > Grip | Where the other hand grabs a two-handed item, like a box or a rifle. It replaces Shooter's Free Hand handle and always locks the other hand, so leave it empty on one-handed items. |
| Raise To Eye > Eye Point | The point placed on the view axis when the item is raised, like an eyepiece, a viewfinder or a rear sight. Its forward axis points away from the eye. |
| Raise To Eye > Distance | Distance from the eye to the Eye Point. 0 uses the rig's Aim Distance. |
| Raise To Eye > Offset | Offset while raised, in camera space. |
| Lock Hand To View | On: the hand holding the item is locked to the view and stays steady while moving, like a weapon. Off: the hand plays its animation and swings with the body, like carrying a cup. It then only locks to the view while the item is raised. |
Examples
| Item | Setup |
|---|---|
| Flashlight | Lock Hand To View on. A Pointer at the lens, so the beam follows the crosshair. A Fixed Placement In View if it has no holding animation. |
| Binoculars | Lock Hand To View off. An Eye Point at the eyepieces. Raise it with the Raise Held Item instruction on right mouse. |
| Cup or bag | Lock Hand To View off. The hand swings with the walk. |
| Sword | Lock Hand To View on for first person attack animations, off for third person attack animations. |
Where the Item Sits in View
There is no fixed "weapon in view" position. The rig reuses the pose from your animations.
- The pose from the animation. The rig measures where the hand is relative to the head in the current holding animation, and puts the item at the same place relative to the camera. A rifle animation that holds the stock at the shoulder puts the rifle off to one side. A pistol held at arm's length puts the pistol in the middle.
- Then the rig adjusts it. The pose turns around the shoulders when looking up and down. The rig's Hip Position and Hip Rotation are added, then the Placement In View offset of the item's profile, then the barrel is turned towards the crosshair, and last the item's modifiers are added.
- Aiming down sights. When a Shooter sight uses Scope Through, or an item is raised to its Eye Point, the sight is placed on the camera axis at the aim distance. The animated hand offset is not used then.
Move an Item in View
From the most specific to the least specific:
| To move | Change |
|---|---|
| One kind of item, like all pistols | Offset Position in the Placement In View modifier of their Held Item Profile. For example (-0.12, 0, 0) moves an item that sits too far right towards the center. |
| One item | Give it its own Held Item Profile and change Placement In View there. |
| Every item | Arms > Hip Position and Hip Rotation on the rig. |
| The source pose | The holding animation, sight animation or Motion Weave state. This also changes the third person look. |
| A centered sight picture | Turn on Scope Through on that Shooter sight. |
To ignore the animation completely, set Placement to Fixed in Placement In View.
Place a Weapon to Match a Sight Picture
Scope Through puts a weapon in a nice centered spot, but it also counts as aiming down sights, which turns off hip effects like Lower When Sprinting, Wall Retract and Movement Bob. To keep a position you like and the hip effects, copy it with Placement In View:
- Turn on Scope Through for the sight, take a screenshot of the position you want, then turn Scope Through off again.
- Make sure the weapon's Held Item Profile has a Placement In View modifier.
- Enter Play Mode, equip the weapon and select the spawned weapon.
- In the Live Preview, use the Nudge buttons on Placement In View until the weapon matches the screenshot.
- Stop Play Mode. Profiles are assets, so the changes are kept.
After this, the weapon moves a little more than with Scope Through, because part of the animation's motion comes through. Aiming with right mouse still works with a separate sight that has Scope Through on.
Change Items at Runtime
These instructions work on the item itself, or on a Character. On a Character they change the item it holds right now.
| Instruction | What it does |
|---|---|
| Change Held Item Placement | Sets the placement, position and rotation over a duration with easing, until it is restored. For example, hold a weapon closer while walking through a tight space. The profile is not changed. |
| Restore Held Item Placement | Goes back to the placement of the item's profile, over a duration if you like. |
| Lock Hand To View | Locks the hand to the view, or lets it follow the animation. |
| Raise Held Item | Raises the item to the eye, like binoculars. |
A held weapon without the component gets one with default settings when one of these runs. It behaves the same as having none.