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Entry Points & Interactions

This section explains how to position actors before animations and trigger logic using animation notifies, using the AnimTriggerZone component and its child components.

Entry Points (ATZEntryPoint)

Entry points define where an actor should go before playing their animation and also provide the animation(s) to play.

How to add an Entry Point

  1. Select the actor that contains your AnimTriggerZone.
  2. In the Details panel, click Add Component → search for ATZEntryPoint.
  3. Make sure the new entry point is a child of the AnimTriggerZone in the component hierarchy.
  4. Position and rotate it to define where and how the actor should appear.

⚠️ The component must be a direct child of the AnimTriggerZone, or it will be ignored at runtime.

Assigning Animations

Each entry point defines its own animation list:

  • Use the Random Montage array inside the ATZEntryPoint.
  • One or more AnimMontage assets must be assigned here.
  • If multiple montages are specified, one will be chosen at random.

📌 Every trigger zone must have at least one ATZEntryPoint with animations assigned.

SCREENSHOT

Zone Settings

  • Enable Use Entry Points in the zone component.
  • Choose Entry Mode:
  • Teleport: instantly moves the actor to the entry point.
  • Move To: navigates the actor using AI to the entry point. (⚠️ This requires a Navigation Mesh (NavMesh) to be present in the level. Without it, actors will teleport instead.)
  • None: skips movement but still uses the animation from entry point.

📌 Only one actor can occupy each entry point at a time. If all are full, the actor is queued (if queuing is enabled).

SCREENSHOT

Interaction Points (ATZInteractionPoint)

Interaction points allow you to trigger Blueprint logic from inside an animation, using ATZInteraction notifies.

How to add

  1. Add a component ATZInteractionPoint to the actor that contains the AnimTriggerZone.
  2. In the component hierarchy, make sure the ATZInteractionPoint is a child of the AnimTriggerZone.
  3. In the Details panel, assign an Interaction Tag (e.g. "Use", "Fire", "Sit").
  4. Open your AnimMontage and insert a notify of type ATZInteraction.
  5. Enter the same tag into the notify.

SCREENSHOT

⚠️ Like entry points, interaction points must be children of the AnimTriggerZone to be discovered at runtime.

Triggering Blueprint Logic

Use the OnInteractionTriggered event inside the ATZInteractionPoint.

SCREENSHOT

💡 You can also use OnInteractionTriggeredEvent on the AnimTriggerZone itself to receive tagged notifies globally.

Interaction Types

Each ATZInteractionPoint has a Type field to categorize the interaction:

  • Activate — For buttons, terminals, switches
  • Pickup — For grabbing items or loot
  • Custom — Anything else you define

You can use this to branch logic in your Blueprints.

➡️ Next: Blueprint Events & Interfaces