2D Platformer Controller (520972)

Unity Engine
1

I’ve been dabbling with the 4.3 2D tools for the last week trying to get a tight 2D platformer controller working. I have used several methods to move the player around - Addforce(), velocity, and transform. I’ve found that I can get the “tightest” controls via either transform or velocity changes, but most suggestions including the documentation suggest to only manipulate the rigidbody’s movement via addforce.

I found the character controller in the 3D tools nice for achieving a 2D platformer controller, but there is not one in the 2D tools. What I am looking to achieve is instantaneous movement, and make it so the player doesn’t maintain momentum after player input is not present (I made a script that set rigidbody drag higher when there’s no input and it worked ok.)

Has anyone achieved a nice feeling player control via addforce? Should I just stick to manipulating the velocity directly?

2

This is a nice tool from prime31 that’s worth checking out: https://github.com/prime31/CharacterController2D.

I’ve had the most success rolling my own movement and collision code. All you really need for a platformer are rectangular bounding boxes and the ability to check if two rectangles are overlapping.

3

Hi, thanks for this! Can you please help me to hack the script to avoid double jump?
I’m not a coder but i think it will need a simple StartCoroutine(waitForSeconds());
somewhere in the PlayerTester.cs - maybe after the…

if( Input.GetKeyDown( KeyCode.UpArrow ) )
		{
			var targetJumpHeight = 2f;
			velocity.y = Mathf.Sqrt( 2f * targetJumpHeight * -gravity );  
			_animator.Play( Animator.StringToHash( "Jump" ) );	
			
		}

This could be an opportunity for me to begin to study… Thanks in advance,
-elvis

4

I haven’t used that CharacterController2D stuff myself, so I won’t be much help. But I think it contains a variable called “isGrounded” that becomes true when your character is touching the ground. To remove double jump, you would only add the jump velocity if the character is currently grounded.

5

Thanks! I think i’ve found where to make the changes and it actually work :slight_smile:
Thanks also to prime31 on twitter for the hint! Here’s my modified version

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;


public class PlayerTester : MonoBehaviour
{
	// movement config
	public float gravity = -15f;
	public float runSpeed = 8f;
	public float groundDamping = 20f; // how fast do we change direction? higher means faster
	public float inAirDamping = 5f;
	// public float jumpWaitTime = 2.0;

	[HideInInspector]
	public float rawMovementDirection = 1;
	//[HideInInspector]
	public float normalizedHorizontalSpeed = 0;

	CharacterController2D _controller;
	Animator _animator;
	public RaycastHit2D lastControllerColliderHit;

	[HideInInspector]
	public Vector3 velocity;


	void Awake()
	{
		_animator = GetComponent<Animator>();
		_controller = GetComponent<CharacterController2D>();
		_controller.onControllerCollidedEvent += onControllerCollider;
	}

	
	void onControllerCollider( RaycastHit2D hit )
	{
		// bail out on plain old ground hits
		if( hit.normal.y == 1f )
		 return;

		// logs any collider hits
		//Debug.Log( "flags: " + _controller.collisionState + ", hit.normal: " + hit.normal );
	}


	void Update()
	{
		// grab our current velocity to use as a base for all calculations
		velocity = _controller.velocity;

		if( _controller.isGrounded )
			velocity.y = 0;

		if( Input.GetKey( KeyCode.RightArrow ) )
		{
			normalizedHorizontalSpeed = 1;
			if( transform.localScale.x < 0f )
				transform.localScale = new Vector3( -transform.localScale.x, transform.localScale.y, transform.localScale.z );

			if( _controller.isGrounded )
				_animator.Play( Animator.StringToHash( "Run" ) );
		}
		else if( Input.GetKey( KeyCode.LeftArrow ) )
		{
			normalizedHorizontalSpeed = -1;
			if( transform.localScale.x > 0f )
				transform.localScale = new Vector3( -transform.localScale.x, transform.localScale.y, transform.localScale.z );

			if( _controller.isGrounded )
				_animator.Play( Animator.StringToHash( "Run" ) );
		}
		else
		{
			normalizedHorizontalSpeed = 0;

			if( _controller.isGrounded )
				_animator.Play( Animator.StringToHash( "Idle" ) );
		}


		if( Input.GetKeyDown( KeyCode.UpArrow ) )
		{
		//to avoid DOUBLE JUMP
			if( _controller.isGrounded ) {
			var targetJumpHeight = 2f;
			velocity.y = Mathf.Sqrt( 2f * targetJumpHeight * -gravity );  
			_animator.Play( Animator.StringToHash( "Jump" ) );	
			}
		}


		// apply horizontal speed smoothing it
		var smoothedMovementFactor = _controller.isGrounded ? groundDamping : inAirDamping; // how fast do we change direction?
		velocity.x = Mathf.Lerp( velocity.x, normalizedHorizontalSpeed * rawMovementDirection * runSpeed, Time.deltaTime * smoothedMovementFactor );
		
		// apply gravity before moving
		velocity.y += gravity * Time.deltaTime;

		_controller.move( velocity * Time.deltaTime );
	}

}

Thanks again,
-elvis

6

Thanks for the replies. Ive got some more tinkering to do :slight_smile:

7

I have been searching for a 2D version of CharacterController for a week.

Thanks for supplying the solution and many thanks to prime31studios for this.

8

I think the prime31studios solution is great but I must ask- is there a way for the player to control jump height (like mario or megaman) to make tighter platforming? Can someone please give a few guidelines on how to achieve this.

9

I’m looking for the same thing. Need some very tight controls for my platformer, but I have literally no idea where to start and I’ve been having a nightmare even getting Prime31’s script installed and running. I’m getting a different set of errors everytime I try it seems. Very frustrating. I’ve followed the instruction on how to install script, but for some reason I’m missing something. ANy helps at all, or links to a better tutorial than the unity one.

10

You can use the first person controller by placing the camera far away on z axis facing the player, and only moving in xy axes… that’s what i did for this level generator:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/114667999/2dfdemo.html

Indeed you shouldnt use rigidbody.velocity, unless it’s for a shadow or folowing object… you can make a transform.position controlled player, and then slave a physicial rigidbody to that player object by making it move onto him using velocity, so the physical object is 1 frame behind on where the player is, but it is controlled by transform position and has am independent physics rigidbody.

11

it has a lot of errors

12

Thank you :smile:

13

on line 20 CharactorController2D could not be found as a namespace???