Simple way to look movement direction

Unity Engine
1

In my game I have both characters and enemies who need to look the direction they move in. It is in almost every game so I don’t know why I’m struggling so hard to find the correct way to do this. This is my player script:

public float speed;
    private float MoveVertical;
    private float MoveHorizontal;

    void Update () {
   
        MoveHorizontal = Input.GetAxis ("Horizontal");
        MoveVertical = Input.GetAxis ("Vertical");
        Vector2 Movement = new Vector2 (MoveHorizontal, MoveVertical);
        GetComponent<Rigidbody2D>().velocity =  Movement * speed;

and this is the enemy:

void Update () {
enemydistanceX = Mathf.Abs (target.position.x - transform.position.x);
enemydistanceY = Mathf.Abs (target.position.y -transform.position.y);
if (enemydistanceX < enemydistanceallowance && enemydistanceY < enemydistanceallowance){
transform.up = -target.position - transform.position;

2

This is some code for 8-directional movement with facing the direction of movement…

public class Test3 : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField]
    Rigidbody2D rb;
    public float speed = 2;
    void Update()
    {
        float h = Input.GetAxisRaw("Horizontal");
        float v = Input.GetAxisRaw("Vertical");

        Vector3 move;
        move.x = h;
        move.y = v;
        move.z = 0;
        move.Normalize();

        if (h != 0 || v != 0) transform.right = move;

        move *= speed;
        rb.velocity = move;
    }
}

Hope that helps some.

2 Likes
3

Wow! That’s brilliant! thank you! but secondary question, how can I make it more fluid? Also what is the purpose of Normalize here?

4

Also why does your ‘if’ statement not need curly brackets after, don’t they always go
If (true of false statement){thing that happens}

5

When there is only 1 statement, the braces are optional.

It means if you had 1 up and 1 left, it would make the magnitude only 1 (so you wouldn’t go faster diagonally, for instance).

As for how to make it more fluid, that depends on if you mean:

  1. it gradually turns
  2. you can face more than 8 directions.

For 1, you can store the rotation/direction in a variable, and gradually turn towards it over time.
For 2, you’d have to alter the code somewhat. It could be several variations and I can’t just write it up right this second…

:slight_smile: