What are Interactable Objects?

The Advanced Companion AI uses a concept called interactable objects. There are two types of interactable objects, which are explained on this page.

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Why use Interactable Objects?

Interactables are a great way to make the companion AI interact with the environment, delivering an extreme amount of immersion for your players. Interactables can help making the AI feel more realistic and intelligent.

The two types of Interactable Objects

The Advanced Companion AI comes with two different types of interactable objects that are included by default. Each type has its own benefits and different use cases. Below are two drop-down menus that explain each type:

Interactable Object

As you move around the environment, you can find interactable objects. These objects can be anything, such as loot, scattered around the world. The AI is able to find these items and inform you that it has found them by triggering a pop-up message using the HUD widget.

If the AI is currently following the player, it will tell the player that it has found an interactable, but it won't interact with it yet. Only when the player stops and the new neutral area is placed will the AI move to the interactable and interact with it. The AI can only interact with objects that are in the neutral area. If the player moves too far away from the interactable object, the AI will "forget" about it.

Each interactable has its own collision sphere. Since the perception system can only detect pawns, you couldn't use it for actors. Currently, when the AI overlaps with the collision sphere, it is randomly calculated whether the AI detects the interactable or not. You can set the detection probability in the Companion Component settings.

Points of Interest

In general, POIs work much like interactable objects. The only difference is that you can tell the AI to interact with interactables. You can't tell the AI to interact with a POI. Also, the AI won't give the player a message when it interacts with a POI.

When the neutral area is placed, the first thing the AI does is checking if there are any POIs inside of the neutral area. If there are some it will get a random one and interact with it.

What exactly does "Interact" mean?

Each interactable object, whether it's a POI or an interactable, contains its own behavior tree asset. Whenever the AI interacts with such an object, it will go to the interactable object and get the behavior tree asset from it. Now, using dynamic behavior trees, the AI will execute the behavior stored in the interactable. After executing the behavior tree asset, the AI returns to its original state.

This concept gives you the optimal opportunity to add your own touch to your game without having to make any changes to the original code. This has always been a problem with premade assets, which is what we are trying to fix here.

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