Animation Lag when Changing Movement Direction 2D (4.3)

[Oddeye01]

I’m currently trying to build a script to handle the players movement for a 2d top-down rpg. The animation is fine for all directions, as well as moving idle.

The problem I’m having is when holding the left arrow to move left, then switching to down, the character will start to move down, but the animation is still running to the left for half a second to a second. This only happens generally when moving left or right, and attempting to then go north and south.

For a simplified script :

public class playerController : MonoBehaviour
{
 
    private Animator animator;
 
    // Use this for initialization
    void Start()
    {
        animator = this.GetComponent<Animator>();
    }
 
    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {
 
        var vertical = Input.GetAxis("Vertical");
        var horizontal = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal");
 
        if (vertical > 0)
        {
            animator.SetInteger("Direction", 2);
        }
        else if (vertical < 0)
        {
            animator.SetInteger("Direction", 0);
        }
        else if (horizontal > 0)
        {
            animator.SetInteger("Direction", 1);
        }
        else if (horizontal < 0)
        {
            animator.SetInteger("Direction", 3);
        }
    }
}

Basically, is there any way to force an animation switch? I tried speeding up the animation, which did not correct the issue. Also, I tried to lower the time in the transition, which had no effect. To give an overall idea, if I hold up for a second, then left for a second, and keep going back and forth, the player will never face left, but will continue to move up then left, etc. Thanks!

Note: This is for a Unity 2D project from 4.3, with a Fire Emblem, GBA Zelda type view.

[infinitypbr]

Have you thought about simply changing the “forward” direction of the player? Instead of using the directions in the Animator, simply have the player move “Forward” if any button is pressed, and change the direction the player if facing when the button pressed is different than their current rotation.

From the script it looks like there’s no smooth turn, just an old-school zelda-style “switch” to the new direction. If so, then using code to change the rotation, and having the player move forward regardless of where they’re facing, would be easier, I’d bet.

[Oddeye01]

To anyone that has this trouble themselves, the problem is the “input gravity” for 2d characters, which is defined as “Speed (in units/second) that the output value falls towards neutral when device at rest”. The character is still walking ever so slightly in the previous direction, forcing them not to change animations until the other direction eventually comes to a complete stop.

To solve this, go to the edit → project settings → input, and adjust the horizontal and vertical axes gravity values. By having a higher input gravity, the time between letting the button go and coming to a complete stop will decrease.

Note this is not the same as a physics gravity, and is intended in decreasing the time between key release of a direction, and the stopping of your character.