How to make a 3D character move?

Questions & Answers
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1

Howdy guys c: Very newbie question here, trying to teach myself Unity.

Made a stock character and gave him an idle and a walk animation for now, but I can’t seem to figure out how to make him move with the WASD keys. My endgame goal is to be able to walk, jump, and maybe dodge roll if I can clear that hurdle, but for now my character is forever doing the idle shuffle.

Is there a walkthrough that covers this that I missed, or does anyone have some advice?

Been banging my head against my keyboard for awhile :s

2

My advice is using a CharacterController, because it is the least trouble for a beginner. The sample script on the unity docs already has a jump attached. So if you want to use it add a CharacterController component to your object and and this script:

For a simpler movement, maybe useful in other games, you could set the position of the transform directly:

void Update ()
{
    float horizontal = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal");
    float vertical = Input.GetAxis("Vertical");
    float speed = 5.0f;
    transform.position = new Vector3(horizontal,0,vertical) * speed * Time.deltaTime;
}

So this way of moving is very very basic, but it will give you an idea of how you can retrieve axis input to control your character.

3

→ Code to make player move

Make a new script named PlayerMovement.cs, fill it using this code:

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

[RequireComponent( typeof(CharacterController) )]
public class PlayerMovement : MonoBehaviour
{
	[SerializeField] float _speed = 25.0f;
	[SerializeField] float _jumpSpeed = 8.0f; 
	[SerializeField] float _gravity = 20.0f;
	[SerializeField] float _sensitivity = 5f;
	CharacterController _controller;
	float _horizontal, _vertical;
	float _mouseX, _mouseY;
	bool _jump;
	
	// use this for initialization
	void Awake ()
	{
		_controller = GetComponent<CharacterController>();
	}

	// screen drawing update - read inputs here
	void Update ()
	{
		_horizontal = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal");
		_vertical = Input.GetAxis("Vertical");
		_mouseX = Input.GetAxis("Mouse X");
		_mouseY = Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y");
		_jump = Input.GetButton("Jump");
	}
	
	// physics simulation update - apply physics forces here
	void FixedUpdate ()
	{
		Vector3 moveDirection = Vector3.zero;

		// is the controller on the ground?
		if( _controller.isGrounded )
		{
			// feed moveDirection with input.
			moveDirection = new Vector3( _horizontal , 0 , _vertical );
			moveDirection = transform.TransformDirection( moveDirection );

			// multiply it by speed.
			moveDirection *= _speed;
			
			// jumping
			if( _jump )
				moveDirection.y = _jumpSpeed;
		}

		float turner = _mouseX * _sensitivity;
		if( turner!=0 )
		{
			// action on mouse moving right
			transform.eulerAngles += new Vector3( 0 , turner , 0 );
		}
		
		float looker = -_mouseY * _sensitivity;
		if( looker!=0 )
		{
			// action on mouse moving right
			transform.eulerAngles += new Vector3( looker , 0 , 0 );
		}
		
		// apply gravity to the controller
		moveDirection.y -= _gravity * Time.deltaTime;
		
		// make the character move
		_controller.Move( moveDirection * Time.deltaTime );
	}
}

And then drag it to Player.

You can also setting the speed, sensitivity, jump speed and gravity.

5

Super quick and informative explainer here:

4

Don’t forget Rigidbody controllers as well.

By locking rotation of the Rigidbody on all axis in the editor (so it doesn’t fall over), you can use AddForce() on the transform.forward/right/left/back, depending on a button press. Also AddForce upwards for jumping.

6

@BigBoss8281
Your code is so strange in my game. the player moves with negative gravity, then if you move the cursor it starts rotating.