Triggering Skill Checks: Solving Sessions and Timers (Unreal Engine)

This is the final step of the Radial Skill Check in Unreal Engine guide. The gauge moves, the zones are placed, the stop is scored. All that is left is deciding when a check shows up.

The solving session

Nothing happens until you open a solving session. It is a simple boolean window: open it when an activity begins, close it when the activity ends.

void USkillCheckComponent::BeginSolving()
{
    if (bIsSolving) return;          // ignore duplicate opens
    bIsSolving = true;
    if (bAutoTriggerSkillChecks) ScheduleNextSkillCheck();
}

EndSolving is the mirror image: it clears the timers, stops the gauge, removes the widget, and resets the angle. The component also calls EndSolving from EndPlay, so a destroyed actor never leaves a dangling timer or an orphaned widget on screen.

On activity start   ->  BeginSolving
On activity finish  ->  EndSolving

Automatic checks on a jittered timer

With auto-trigger on (the default), opening a session starts a self-rescheduling timer. Each interval is randomized so the checks do not feel metronomic:

const float Variance     = FMath::RandRange(-SkillCheckIntervalVariance, SkillCheckIntervalVariance);
const float NextInterval = FMath::Max(0.5f, SkillCheckInterval + Variance);
// timer -> OnAutoSkillCheckTimer, which calls ShowGauge() if still solving and idle

When the timer fires it shows a gauge only if a session is still open and no gauge is already up. After each attempt (a stop or a timeout), the next check is scheduled again, so checks keep coming for as long as the session lasts.

Manual checks, one per action

Turn auto-trigger off and you drive checks yourself, one per hammer swing or lockpick wiggle, by calling ShowGauge. Every check, automatic or manual, first copies your DefaultGaugeSettings into a working NextGaugeSettings:

NextGaugeSettings = DefaultGaugeSettings;   // per-check, overridable copy

That copy is the hook for variety. Tweak NextGaugeSettings between checks, or call ShowGaugeWithSettings with a full struct to override speed, zone sizes, direction, or position for a single check. Sounds you leave unset in that struct are inherited from the defaults, so a one-off fast, tiny-zone check still plays your normal audio.

A pre-check warning and random placement

Two settings shape the moment a check appears:

• A pre-check sound with an optional delay plays a beat before the gauge, so the player gets an audio cue and time to look. The widget is created after the delay.
• Random position mode places the gauge at a random screen spot each check, inside configurable edge margins, by setting the container’s canvas anchors. Now the player has to find the gauge as well as time it; leave it on fixed position to keep it centered.

Letting the player react

The session decides when a gauge appears; the player ends it by pressing the key bound to AttemptSkillCheck, which stops and scores the sweep. If they never react, the gauge times out into a miss on its own.

That completes the loop: a session opens, checks appear on a timer or on demand, each one randomizes its zones and sweeps, and the player’s stop scores into one of three events. For the full picture from the top, return to the guide hub, or drop the finished system in with the Radial Skill Check plugin.