Issues About Anim Notify On Server

Background

So… The story begins with linked instances of our AnimInstance.

Everything works just fine when we have only one AnimInstance for our Skeletal Mesh Component, but it cames with the problem that only one guy can check out and edit this animation blueprint. This gradually became an issue as the team grows.

Thus, we split our animation blueprint into several linked anim instances, which make it much easier for us to manage our anim instance.

The Problem Arose

It just so happens that the anim notify, which works fine when not placed in linked anim instances, are not triggered on server anymore.

After digging into the codes, it seems that UAnimInstance::PostUpdateAnimation() animation is not correctly called.

The callling stack starts from UCharacterMovementComponent::MoveAutonomous, which eventually leads to USkeletalMeshComponent::TickAnimation.

Linked Instance Not Handled Well

For the linked anim instance, their PostUpdateAnimation are called in USkeletalMeshComponent::PostAnimEvaluation function like this:

void USkeletalMeshComponent::PostAnimEvaluation(FAnimationEvaluationContext& EvaluationContext)
{
#if DO_CHECK
	checkf(!bPostEvaluatingAnimation, TEXT("PostAnimEvaluation already in progress, recursion detected for SkeletalMeshComponent [%s], AnimInstance [%s]"), *GetNameSafe(this), *GetNameSafe(EvaluationContext.AnimInstance));

	FGuardValue_Bitfield(bPostEvaluatingAnimation, true);
#endif

	SCOPE_CYCLE_COUNTER(STAT_PostAnimEvaluation);

	if (EvaluationContext.AnimInstance && EvaluationContext.AnimInstance->NeedsUpdate())
	{
		EvaluationContext.AnimInstance->PostUpdateAnimation();
	}

	for (UAnimInstance* LinkedInstance : LinkedInstances)
	{
		if (LinkedInstance && LinkedInstance->NeedsUpdate())
			LinkedInstance->PostUpdateAnimation();
	}

The skeletal mesh component on server, however, is always set to Always Tick Pose, which means that they never get evaluated. As a result, the PostAnimEvaluation are not called.

We fix this issue by moving the PostUpdateAnimation function of linked instance into UAnimInstance::PostUpdateAnimation() function like this:

void UAnimInstance::PostUpdateAnimation()
{
#if DO_CHECK
	checkf(!bPostUpdatingAnimation, TEXT("PostUpdateAnimation already in progress, recursion detected for SkeletalMeshComponent [%s], AnimInstance [%s]"), *GetNameSafe(GetOwningComponent()), *GetName());
	TGuardValue<bool> CircularGuard(bPostUpdatingAnimation, true);
#endif

	SCOPE_CYCLE_COUNTER(STAT_PostUpdateAnimation);
	check(!IsRunningParallelEvaluation());

	if (GetSkelMeshComponent()->GetAnimInstance() == this)
	{
		for (UAnimInstance* LinkedInstance : GetSkelMeshComponent()->GetLinkedAnimInstances())
		{
			if (LinkedInstance->NeedsUpdate())
			{
				LinkedInstance->PostUpdateAnimation();
			}
		}
	}

	// Early out here if we are not set to needing an update
	if (!bNeedsUpdate)
	{
		return;
	}

And it worked!

Module Type Issue

After fixing the linked instance update issue, things are still not right.

It works on a single process dedicated server started by editor, but not on a real server.

It turned out that we put our customized anim nodes, Cache Blend, for instance, in our own plugin. And we put those AnimGraphNodes in an Editor module, which cause error like this:

LogUObjectGlobals: Warning: Can’t find file for asset ‘/Script/xxxEditor’ while loading xxxxxx/AnimBP.uasset.

We should use a Developer or a UncookedOnly type for the AnimGraphNode module. Actually, UncookedOnly is the preferred type since Developer is deprecated.