First person system¶

GASPALS first person shows the character's own body from its eyes, not floating arms. The first-person meshes are generated at runtime from lists you set on a component, so you never add or tag first-person components by hand. On top of the third-person pose, a first-person Anim Blueprint adds a stable camera, first-person arm poses, aim down sights (ADS) and an arm aim offset.

Switch the camera to first person with the camera perspective input (see Controls).

Modes¶

Set First Person Mode on the character's AC_FirstPersonRendering.

How it works¶

Mesh generation¶

When the pawn initializes its systems, AC_FirstPersonRendering.BuildFirstPersonMeshes creates the first-person meshes once:

• Overlay modes: the first entry of First Person Full Meshes becomes the lead mesh: it runs the first-person Anim Blueprint. The other entries (clothing, hair) follow it.
• Split mode: the first Arms mesh is the lead; the other arms meshes and all Body meshes follow.
• Empty lists: the third-person mesh is reused as the lead, with the head bone hidden.

Every generated mesh is attached to the third-person mesh, visible to the owning player only, casts no shadow and only animates when rendered. Material overrides are copied from the matching third-person component (same mesh, or a mesh named <Name>_FP...). Followers that have their own skeleton and post-process Anim Blueprint (the MetaHuman hoodie and shoes) keep that Anim Blueprint, which copies the lead's pose and drives their corrective bones; other followers use leader pose.

When the camera switches perspective, the component swaps visibility: in first person the first-person meshes show for the owner and the third-person meshes become world-space representations (other players and shadows still see them).

The first-person pose¶

ABP_FirstPerson_UEFN runs on the lead mesh:

flowchart TD
    A[Copy pose from the third-person mesh] --> B[CR_FirstPerson_BodyCamera<br>VB Camera follows the body head]
    B --> C{Overlay?}
    C -->|TrueFirstPerson, montage, no overlay| E
    C -->|overlay modes| D[First-person overlay from spine_03 up<br>retargeted from the UEFN logic mesh if needed]
    D --> E[CR_FirstPerson_Camera<br>stable head, camera at the eyes]
    E --> F[CR_FirstPerson_ADS<br>hands to the sight line when aiming]
    F --> G[CR_FirstPerson_AimOffset<br>arms follow the view, spine leans]
    G --> H[Hand IK]

1. Copy the third-person pose (all locomotion, montages and overlays come along).
2. Body camera: VB Camera follows the body's head, smoothed vertically, so the view follows crouches, traversal and landings. That is why first person needs no crouch camera offset.
3. Overlay: the first-person arm pose (ALI_OverlayFirstPerson) replaces the upper body from spine_03. On other skeletons it is retargeted from the pawn's hidden UEFN first-person logic mesh with First Person Retargeter.
4. Camera rig: keeps the head stable, puts the head at its reference rotation (plus the view pitch) and places VB Camera at the eyes (First Person Eye Offset).
5. ADS: while aiming, the hands move so the item's ADS socket sits on the sight line in front of the eye.
6. Aim offset: the arms rotate with the view pitch up to the limits; the spine takes the rest.

The camera attaches to the lead mesh's VB Camera virtual bone (by AC_CameraSystem).

Equipment in first person¶

Equipment actors have one mesh and their own AC_FirstPersonRendering. At runtime it creates one first-person copy of each mesh on the actor (same mesh, same anim class), attached to the source, visible to the owner only, with no collision. The equipment system attaches the copies to the first-person hand socket. In third person the copy is hidden; in first person it shows and the original becomes a world-space representation. Meshes you tag FirstPersonRendering or ThirdPersonRendering yourself are used as tagged instead. The first-person meshes the component generated itself are never copied again (IsGeneratedFirstPersonMesh), so a visual override actor gets one first-person mesh per source mesh.

Overlays¶

First-person overlay Blueprints (ABP_OverlayFirstPerson_<Item>) are linked by the equipment system from the item's data asset (Overlay Pose FP). They hold first-person arm poses and curves for the first-person rigs (enable_cr_fp_stable_arms, enable_cr_fp_stable_head, enable_cr_fp_ads, enable_cr_fp_aimoffset, hand IK). Rifle, Pistol2H and Bow have one; items without one show the third-person overlay in first person.

Configuration¶

On AC_FirstPersonRendering, category GASPALS > FirstPerson > Setup:

For retargeted characters these are set on the visual override's own component (see Add a retargeted character). Recipes are in Configure first person.

Skeleton requirements¶

• A VB Camera virtual bone from root to head. The retargeter does not animate virtual bones, so GASPALS writes it from the body's head in CR_FirstPerson_BodyCamera.
• A head bone.
• For the overlay modes: UE-standard spine, clavicle and neck names (spine_01..spine_05, clavicle_l/r, neck_01).

Missing pieces are reported on screen for the local player, in orange, starting with GASPALS First Person (...).

Cover and traversal in first person¶

• Cover: sticky cover switches to third person by default; auto cover gives wall-hug movement while the body follows the camera. See Cover system.
• Traversal: during a traversal move in first person, the view turns toward the ledge when it is more than 15 degrees off.

Networking¶

First-person meshes exist only for the owning player's view; other players see the third-person character. The camera perspective is sent to the server, so the server knows which representation the owner uses. Nothing else in the first-person pipeline replicates.

Limitations¶

• TrueFirstPerson: weapons can clip into walls (no first-person scale), and the weapon follows the third-person aim with a frame of delay.
• FirstPersonOverlaySplit: the body is not scaled, so it receives the hidden third-person body's shadow.
• EUB_SplitFirstPersonMesh gives a usable first cut; hand-authored arm and body meshes look cleaner, especially with dense clothing.
• Only the rifle, pistol and bow have first-person overlay poses.
• Cost: the first-person Anim Blueprint copies and re-poses a full body. One extra IK retarget runs for the overlay on retargeted characters.

Related¶

• Configure first person
• Add a retargeted character
• Camera system