Third person character system developed in C++ using UE5 - Custom Ability System, Weapons System inspired by Lyra, Motion Matching-based Locomotion Stack controlling around 3,000 animations. Traversal System has been replicated from Game Animation Sample Blueprint provided by Epic to C++.
Whiplash is built around a modular C++ character framework where input requests abilities by gameplay tag, abilities grant or block state tags, and gameplay systems react through shared components instead of one-off input scripts.
WAbilityComponent manages ability objects and enables or disables actions
through tags. TMap<FGameplayTag, int32> allows multiple
systems to assign the same state. OnTagChanged sends signals for
changes in states, allowing characters to respond to such things as crouching,
ADS'ing, and shooting.
Attribute modifiers support Add, Multiply, and
Override with durations and tick intervals. Timer callbacks use
BindWeakLambda, removed modifiers rebuild the stack to avoid drift,
stamina regen stops at max, and depletion delegates fire once.
Gameplay systems query shared components through IWComponentInterface
instead of hard actor casts, keeping weapons, animation, stamina, and UI less tightly coupled.
Abilities are UObject-based with BlueprintNativeEvent
lifecycle hooks, preserving tag-gated activation and designer override points
without taking on full GAS cost.
Show input requesting an ability tag, with granted and blocked states updating.
Show stamina drain, regen delay, and modifier recalculation in motion.
Show crouch, ADS, or firing tags triggering character and UI responses.
UWWeaponStateComponent separates weapon tuning from runtime behavior:
weapon data stays designer-editable, while the component handles fire timing, ammo,
recoil, spread recovery, first-shot accuracy, and damage attenuation hooks.
Spread is not a fixed random cone. ADS, movement, crouch, and falling multipliers interpolate every tick, then multiply into the final shot spread.
First-shot accuracy returns only after spread decay and contextual multipliers converge, with a cached decay threshold derived from weapon fire rate.
Distance falloff uses a designer-editable FRuntimeFloatCurve. Hit surface
and damage-zone multipliers use TMap<FGameplayTag, float>, so headshots,
limb shots, and surface types can be configured per weapon data asset.
The fire ability validates the weapon interface, checks CanFire, traces
from camera to target and muzzle to hit, applies spread/recoil, and plays fire montage data.
Show ADS, movement, crouch, and falling multipliers affecting shot spread.
Show weapon firing, recoil feedback, and spread recovering back to accuracy.
The base Animation Blueprint is based on Epic's Game Animation Sample Motion Matching setup. My implementation work focuses on moving the gameplay-side character, movement, camera, and traversal decision logic into C++, then layering weapon-ready poses on top with linked animation layers and Blueprint Thread Safe helpers where appropriate.
AWCharacter owns camera updates, gait selection, rotation mode,
directional max speed, landing state, and traversal requests that were Blueprint-side
in the sample-style setup.
Traversal builds Chooser parameters, evaluates candidate montages, then calls
UPoseSearchLibrary::MotionMatch to select montage, start time, and play rate.
The Motion Matching locomotion pose stays as the base layer, while linked overlay layers add pistol-ready, aim, firing, two-handed, and crouched weapon poses.
Animation helper logic is organized with Blueprint Thread Safe functions where appropriate, while C++ exposes gameplay state such as equipped weapon, aiming, and traversal.
Show starts, stops, pivots, sprinting, and crouched locomotion selection.
Show pistol-ready, aim, firing, and crouched overlays layered above locomotion.
Show obstacle classification, montage selection, and aligned traversal playback.
Input, camera, stamina, traversal data, flashlight behavior, and debug tools built around the main character framework.
AWPlayerController binds movement, world-space movement, look, walk, sprint, jump, crouch, strafe, perspective, aim, shoot, and flashlight actions.FCameraParameters drives first-person, third-person far, third-person close, and third-person aim camera styles.UWTraversalComponent stores spline ledges, opposite ledge pairs, and minimum ledge width for traversal-ready obstacles.FTraversalCheckResult, giving the character clean obstacle data before montage selection.IWInteractionTInterface passes the front-ledge interaction transform into the AnimBP without hard-coding the animation Blueprint class.UWGameInstanceSubsystem listens to Motion Matching and traversal console variables, then rebroadcasts changes through Blueprint-assignable events.AWAttributeSetTester exposes Call In Editor actions for damage, healing, stamina drain, regen, and modifier validation.Researching neural-network assisted enemy behavior layered with State Tree and Behavior Tree logic.
A full GDD for Whiplash will be uploaded soon.
Planned persistence for player progress, weapon state, and project-specific gameplay data.
In-game debug UI for reading enemy awareness, current state, and behavior decisions while testing.
A player dash that relocates the character to a corner or shadow point outside enemy sightlines.
Cover system support plus additional stealth, combat (Katana Ability), traversal (more traversal animations to add), and AI debug tools will be added as the project grows.