Problem with 'wait until finish' on Character: Animate actions

Joemcr

My main character uses Sprites Unity Complex animation. I've been using the Character: Animate/Play Custom action part to trigger character animations. Since yesterday I'm suddenly seeing an issue where the 'wait until finish' option is causing the actionlist to hang for ~1-2 seconds after the animation finishes. The animation returns to idle (as instructed by the animation controller) and gameplay remains paused, but nothing happens for 1-2 seconds then the actionlist resumes as normal. 

It only happens ~50% of the time, other times the same actionlist will run fine. It is affecting old and new actionlists (including ones that have been running fine for weeks). If I uncheck 'wait until finish' and add an Engine: Wait it runs fine. It only happens on Character: Animate - 'wait until finish' works fine on Character: Move to point etc.

The only thing I have done in the last few days that I can think could be affecting this is tinkering with the character animations - I deleted some unused animations, and edited a few existing ones. I have also made changes to the inventory and conversation menus, but don't see how that could be relevant.

Any idea what could be causing this?

Thanks :-s

ChrisIceBox

Which version of AC are you using?

You mention tinkering character animations - was this issue occuring beforehand, or is it a recent issue?

If it only occurs half the time, it could be due to the Animator Controller itself - which can be unpredictable depending on settings.  If it returns to idle afterwards, what are the settings for the Transition?

One workaround would be to use a Trigger parameter, instead of playing the new animation by name.  This approach is generally considered "best practice" over explicitly calling animations by name.

Joemcr

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the response. I've figured out what is going on now. One of the animations I tinkered with was the idle animation. It had been one frame, I added a few blinks. The 'wait until finish' on the Character: Animate action is waiting until the idle animation finishes! It must have been doing it all along, but I never noticed because it was only a single frame.

I still don't have a solution though...

AC 1.56g

Transition setting - Has Exit Time: checked, Exit Time: 1, Fixed Duration: Checked, Transition Duration: 0, Transition Offset: 0, Interruption Source: None.

If there's no easy solution I'll just go back to the no-blinks idle anim.

ChrisIceBox

Try unchecking Has Exit Time, as that is likely causing the wait.  Otherwise, please post images of the Controller and ActionList involved, so we can understand what's happening more accurately.

Joemcr

unchecking Has Exit Time prompts a warning 'Transition needs at
least one condition or an Exit Time to be valid...' and causes the animation to loop.

I'm probably just going to revert to a one frame idle animation - there's only so much I'm willing to do for a few blinks! - but here is the transition and actionlist in question, in case anything obvious jumps out;

ChrisIceBox

I see, thanks.  If you aren't using transitions to return back to idle, then you will need the "Has Exit Time" option.

As the length of the animation appears to be only 0.15s, however, I can't see why it would take up to 2 seconds.  I would recommend keeping an eye on the live Animator at runtime when it occurs as it may shed some light.  This appears to be an issue with Unity, though, as AC is not handling the "return to idle" animation change.