CLIMBING SYSTEM - [Official Thread]

Wonderful news. I think the current PDF documentation is good as a quick-start guide but doesn't really go much in-depth, so this will definitely help.
Maybe the first ‘Quick Introduction’ video could use some commentary at the end instead of the eerie silence; e.g. mentioning the abilities you use as you showcase them or what's happening under the hood ("raycasting for an object in a specific layer") etc. to give the newcomers a glimpse of what's happening.

As a side-note, I wanted to ask if you're aware of the new input system package (forum, installation, action assets) which is (supposedly) about to leave the preview phase and become official in 2019.3 and will eventually replace the old way to handle input.
Will you consider supporting it, for example as an alternative ‘UnityNewInputManager.cs’?

We're currently using it in our project (it's way easier to do some input checks and processing and to set up different input devices) and since some platforms only allow one input system to be active at a time (either the old or the new one), I'll be looking for ways to bridge our input logic to this asset anyway. I'd like to avoid changing too many things which would be reversed every time an update for Climbing System comes along – but I was quite happy to find out input handling is centralised in the input manager script (and some bits in CameraController) which would make swapping between the two versions a lot less painful, even if you decide against supporting the package for the time being.

 

Keep up the great work. Animations look very smooth!

 

I have already watched some tutorials explaining how to use the new Input system. For now, it will be not available, but, of course, I'm planning to add this support in the future. It's something that I have already thought about.

 

Yes, thank you; that's all I needed to hear for now.

 

I'm finishing mobile support for Climbing System:

 

Hello everyone.
I would like to share a video working with Mobile support.
This video was recorded on an iPhone 6.

 

Hello everyone. Actually I have finished the new update, and now I will develop the new documentation, tutorial videos and promo images and trailer. I would like to share a tutorial of Mobile. You can see how is easy to setup Mobile.

I hope to get the new version released in this month.
Thank you for all your support and suggestions.

 

@diasrodrigo These look great! Looking forward for the updates.
What impact will these changes have on the existing projects? Will we have to recreate the Climbing character?

 

You don't need to update your character. The only ability you will have to replace is ladder. I've changed ClimbLadder to Ladder only. But it's easy to replace.

Sorry take a long time to answer, I have joined a game jam of 48 hours. I was focused on that.

 

No problem my friend! You have every right to take break and enjoy what you like most. Wish you all the best with the Game Jam! Let us know how it goes

 

Here is the link: https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/460644

 

Lovely game. Wish you all the best. You should release it on mobile. Will be a great platformer, given that its one touch

 

I've finished 2.5D gameplay for Climbing System. You can take a look here:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=518495032034844

 

This is great! Glad this is now officially available

@diasrodrigo Please this try on uneven surfaces or wall, like rock boulder, wall with ledges point bit outwards than the initial ledge. In 2.5D mode, can the Z axis be flexible when performing "Climb" state so that I can move "inward" or "outward" of an uneven wall/rock?. Also for example, when I climb up a ladder from surface where Char Z=0 to shift to Z=2. However when in Locomotion state, Z is always fixed.

 

Climb on uneven surfaces is something almost impossible, because is really dificulty to find a logic to climb these surfaces. What is common to do, is create invisble square ledges that give player an impression of climb that surface. About Z being blocked, I think the best way is to add two invisble colliders and let character move freely in any direction. And this way, you allow player go forward and backward in the screen.

 

When I said uneven, I meant something like in the bad image I created below. Is this possible?

For Z Block, I am currently doing exactly that. When ever there is a Climbing setup, I make my character pass thru an invisible wall which deactivates Z axis restriction. Then again enable Z axis block when he is back on ground

 

I got it now. It is possible to do, but I believe it needs a different aproach than I’m currently using. Maybe in the future it can be done, I’m not sure about this possibility. It’s something a little complicated to implement.

 

Hi everyone. I come with great news!
I recently submitted the new update!!!

Hope I get it released for everybody until the end of August.
If you want to check what comes with this new version, here goes a little promo videos and images:

Thank you for every feedback and every suggestion! I hope all of you like this new version!

 

Hello everyone.
I would like to share 2 things.

First one, a tutorial explaining how jumps are made for the new version. It explains how it works and then show how to setup it.

The second one is a demo for Windows. If you want to try this new version working, you can download here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bz133v1txe476rt/Climbing System Demo - v3.0.zip?dl=0 (Q makes character crawl)

Hope everyone likes the news.

 

@diasrodrigo This is great news! You deserve a lot of sales and 5 stars are not enough to appreciate your efforts.

I encourage everyone here to support the dev by buying his other assets as well. They are really worth every penny

 

I tried the new Demo. No doubt its great. Especially the 2.5D feature. In 2.5D mode, I noticed that whenever I near a wall, the character shakes a bit as if some heavy calculations are taking place in background

 

Thank you for your feedback. I'll check it.

I would like to show the new InControl integration. Now user can select which button wants to use for any kind of action.



It allows users to get more control in their projects.

 

Hi, I gave the demo a try.
It's full of wonderful improvements over the version that's currently on the Asset Store. The prediction is amazing. I can't wait for the final version to be released!

I'll mention what I noticed. I'm sorry if I suggest some things I already said earlier in the thread; I added more info this time.

1)
I think the problem which popped up most often in various scenarios was trying to trigger an ability when you are already touching a wall.
Because that often does not work – you're required to take a step or two back and jump from there.

Spoiler: Too close

Free climb


Lower climb

2)
But I think some abilities probably ought to trigger even without jumping if the triggering objects are close or low enough. Ladders, for example.

Spoiler: Ladder climb

Walking right into a ladder should trigger the ladder-climbing ability, similar to what the 'step up' ability already does.

3)
I suggested alternating between legs you use to jump before, with the reason that it looks better when you jump many times in a row. I gave it a bit more thought now and realised why it looks unnatural even with one jump.

Spoiler: Jump

If you stand with your leg in front of the other and try to jump as far as you can, the front leg you're using to spring yourself up and which holds your weight simply won't be the same leg you throw higher in the air as shown in the gif, otherwise you wouldn't be able to jump with full force.

4)
This looks like a bug. You can permanently disable the crouch ability if you try to turn it on when it isn't possible:

Spoiler: Crouch while crawling

Then when you're allowed to use it, it's blocked.

5)
I don't know, is there an option somewhere to increase the height of a jump "in place" jump? Earlier we talked about the fact that the jump power doesn't affect the stationary jump – but that results in something like this:

Spoiler: Stationary jump

Current version:


New demo version:

The hop in the first gif is so tiny that you barely even lift your feet off the ground, whereas your feet should probably be slightly higher than when you jump in the distance.
The stationary hop in the new version looks better, but I still hope both kinds of jumping will be affected by one central jump power in order to keep them consistent.

6)
Speaking of centralised controls – the list of the abilities is growing (and I'm really thankful for that!), but recently I had to swap a physic material for a different one (the character kept slowly sliding on ledges and needed more friction) and had to drag & drop the new one to all eleven or so abilities. And then again when the first material didn't work.

Spoiler: Physics material

How about "Physics material" slot on the main controller and an empty "Overwrite" field on respective abilities if you need it.
Anyway, this is a minor detail. Not that important.

7)
Although there's something I wondered about – how do you properly stop the climbing system? Is there a centralised way to temporarily pause it all (abilities, camera, input)?
This is quite necessary to avoid accidental movement when the game is paused or if you open your inventory, start a dialogue, etc.

8)
The key mapping is sometimes weird. In the demo, I killed myself twice by trying to do a "Drop Down" move (I forgot you simply need to move closer), only to accidentally shoot myself forward in high speed with a roll (both are 'X').

Spoiler: Roll fall

Nevermind.
Mainly, if you check the gif, I think the 'fatal fall' could maybe look a bit more elegant and graceful than what happens now. What if crossing the 'Height to Die' threshold (or coming close) during your fall would transition you into these animations:

Spoiler: Mixamo

9)
Crossed arms when climbing sideways.

Spoiler: Climb

'Nuff said.

10)
The timing and hand placement of the "holding and turning back" seems to be fixed from the previous version – thanks.

Spoiler: Holding and turn

It still feels somewhat stiff; I think it's because the second part of the animation is just a pose, while the first part is an idle animation. Despite not actually doing anything, there's a lot of subtle movement going on.
Then when you turn around, it seems like you froze. In real life, it's impossible to keep an arm outstretched without tiny involuntary movements (not to mention you're hanging in the air and also have to breathe from time to time). But I don't know if there's anything to be done about this without creating a new animation (perhaps avatar masks…?).


So those were more or less my thoughts and suggestions for improvement while testing the new demo. Functionality takes priority over aesthetics, of course, but hopefully it will be useful to you anyway.

In any case, a big thank you for the frequent updates and the constant effort you pour into this asset!

 

@Rallix your feedback was simply awesome. Thank you so much. You put a gif example for all, it helps a lot to understand your point.

Asset Store team that reviews packages are off from yesterday, until August, 23rd. So, I can submit a modified package before they approve (or not, haha).

So, I'll try to answer all points:

1) I already start a cast for this situations in 1 capsule radius behind character, but even doing this, sometimes that situations still happens. I'll try start maybe 2 capsule radius behind character, to see if it helps.

2) In this case, I'll have to change the logic of the ability a little. Talking about Ladder ability specifically, I check if character is grounded to leave ladder when character finds a ground. That's why you have to jump to climb ladder. What I think I can do is create a new property in the Inspector that user can set if he wants to enter directly or wants to jump, then I check some conditions to leave ladder in certain circumstances. But it's possible to do, and I will do it. I just have to change the enter and exit logic for this ability.

3) This is a fault from me, really. Sorry. I planned to fix this and for some reason I really forgot to adjust it. I'll make it.

4) This is new for me. I haven't realized it before. thank you, I'll check what is going on.

5) This point is a little complicated. I have changed it to work without animation root motion, in a way you could apply the same jump force from forward jump. But, because of the animation, it feels completely weird. Because character apply force in the middle of the animation, then I have to find the exact point that character starts the jump. What it is possible to do, is split this animation in two parts. In the first I use root motion, and the second one applies the jump force to reach some height. I think it can be a little confusing for costumers, that's the reason I did not do that. You can adjust root motion multiplier in Y axis and get higher jumps.



I know this is the same alternative from previous version. But, it's more simple to do. I agree that what you suggest feels better for player. If you really want it, I can change this script and you can use it for your game. Then I split the animation in two parts and make logic to apply root motion and after that, jump force.

6) It's a good suggestion to organize physics material. Only in one script. Just for knowing, about sliding, in the previous versions, if you stop moving in a slope, character starts sliding in Idle animation. I have fixed it, and I've added two options of friction, one for idle, and other for running or walking:

7) All abilities is handled in Fixed Update. If you set time scale to 0 (for pause purposes), all abilities stops update. Of course, like you said, if you want to use a Dialogue situation, you can not set time scale to 0. I'll create a var in the Third Person System that stops all abilities update to allow use dialogues. But, you can also disable Third Person script. If you disable it, nothing will be updated anymore. Because abilities only update from Third Person System.
(I have to create more tutorials to explain things like this. And my next plan is to create a scripting API)

8) Maybe this is a wrong choice for buttons from me. But this is really simple to change now. For any ability, you can set which Input you want to use, without change any code. In this case you can use different buttons for these both abilities:


And you gave me a great idea to add another fall animation. It would be great. I'll make it.

9) You can adjust it in the Climb IK.

You can set it to 0. Then your hand will never cross each other.

10) The best way is to create a breath animation. I'm not animator, and I made some new animations using Umotion Pro, and this animation is one of them. I tried to add a good breath, but it was weird, then I decided to leave it like a pose. But, if you have an animator, or knows how to create great animation, you just have to change it in the Animator.


Thank you so much for your detailed feedback. I know it takes time to organize and post, and it was really helpful.

 

@Rallix I agree, awesome feedback. GIFs are really great way to make your point

I liked this suggestion too, and had asked about it in the past. Probably couldnt explain as well as @Rallix did

Since my game is 2.5D, I wanted to limit the number of keys pressed. So if I am facing to a Climbable object, the "Forward" button should automatically translate into a "Jump". Same with Ladders. I feel, this will give a very fluid motion in-game. Not sure if I can already achieve this with the new Updates to re-map keys

 

@diasrodrigo Thank you so much for taking the time to explain and respond to everything, and considering my suggestions. I'm glad the feedback helped you.

It seems that a good portion of things I was looking for is already there; it just didn't occur to me I could use them to achieve what I need – like the Hand IK and the root motion multiplier.
Things like "abilities only update from the Third Person System component in FixedUpdate" are also very useful to know.

Well… that's just if you need a tip as to what would be good to include in the v3.0 documentation.

No, no, this explanation alone is absolutely fine; no need to overcomplicate the internal logic. I just didn't know which parameter to change to affect the stationary jump. Now that I know, I can fiddle with the settings and animation parameters in my own scripts as needed to keep them in sync.
Looks like I'll probably need to adjust the animation speed (or something) accordingly too – since when I use the root motion multiplier, the animation noticeably speeds up in the middle to match the original time.

Spoiler: Root motion multiplier

Thanks, that's a very good solution.

Yeah, I try to avoid setting the time scale to 0 unless I really mean to freeze the whole game, since updating scripts and animations in unscaled time is a bit of a pain.
Disabling the ThirdPersonSystem or having a public on/off property to do it in the background seems to be the best approach.

Hm, I feel competent enough to create somewhat decent simple animations, but since Mixamo is all motion capture, any handmade animation I could create would probably look robotic in comparison.
What I meant to suggest is adding another additive animation layer on top of that, with an avatar mask if needed. I tried it with this pose:



And then added an additive layer with an idle animation. If you then set its weight to 1 (when needed), it creates a breathing effect by applying the idle animation on top of the pose, like this:

Spoiler: Breathing

Spoiler: Avatar Mask

The mask wasn't needed here; I left everything enabled:

What do you think? Would it help?

 

Hello. Sorry to take a time to answer all of you. I had a busy week, really busy.

Now there is an option to change movement input to relative. It allows you to use forward to climb up for example. I'm not sure if that's what you want to achieve.

Yes, the problem with this type of approach is that animation will be speed up in the falling part too. Seems you have a super gravity force pulling it back.

Very good idea. I'll try it for next updates. It will be good for all climb animations I believe.

Thank you!

 

Hello Rodrigo,
I was going through the thread and someone had mentioned this little issue.
"If you keep jumping at the same position on the ledge then the character move left slightly."

I also read that this issue was solved but I am still facing this issue. Do I need to change any parameters values in the Climbing script ?
Regards.

 

@jawadkhan9026 go to your Climbing ability script, and then, change Character offset on side. Decrease this value will minimize this left move or right move.



But keep in mind that decreasing this value, character will grab closer to the end of ledge.

 

Looks like its going to work! Let me try this when the update is out. Do you know when it will be available on the store?

 

I don't know when it will be released, because Asset Store team stopped reviewwing for the last week and will return on next Monday. Probably they will have a lot of acumulate work. I hope they review my update before August ends.

 

When using the climbing ability, the character was placed in a different location from the collider position.
Do you know what caused it?

 

Hello @ChoChick
You can adjust that in the positioning section of Climbing ability. Decrease Vertical Delta From ledge and you'll see your character you take a right position. It happens because your character is small.

Red lines you are seeing in your screenshots is the distance between Linecast Start Point and End point. After decrease Vertical Delta value, maybe you'll not be able to grab ledges, because system will not find the ledge. I recommend you to decrese end point too, allowing system to find ledge.



Suggestions:
Vertical Delta From Ledge: 0.9
Vertical Linecast End Point: 0.5

 

The vertical position is now correct by changing VerticalDeltaFromLedge and VerticalLinecastEndPoint and correcting the part where FinalIK is not set correctly.

When ClimbUp or BraceJumpBack starts, the hand position will be above the Ledge, which is unnatural.
BraceJumpBack was able to get closer to Ledge by setting Y of BackJumpMultiplier to 0, but it is still floating in the air.
Are there any other parameters to bring the character's hand closer to Ledge?

ClimbUp


Start Buck Jump

 

@ChoChick did you try increase a little VErtical Delta from ledge to see if it got fixed? I've suggested 0.9, but maybe 1.1 could fix this climb up and jump problem.

If you change these values and get hand off the ledge when climbing, you can adjust Climb IK script to get hands on ledge.

 

VerticalDeltaFromLedge is 1.3 and the issue of rising and jumping has been solved.
Does ClimbIK change the script, not adjust the parameters?

 

Adjusted ClimbIK's HandForwardOffset and HandVerticalOffset values so that they look the way I want.
Thank you for your advice.

 

Nice to hear that you got it working!

 

I have a great new for everyone who follows our forum. The new version is now available in the Asset Store: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/climbing-system-151612

Thank you for all support and feedback again. All of you are awesome!!

 

Please clarify. Do I need to re-purchase the new update? How does this impact the existing project? Will it update the existing package?

EDIT: Okay, I bought the updates...Any guideline on how to Upgrade by current project? Do I just overwrite the existing files?

 

It will update the current package you have. But, I recommend you to backup your current project and import the new version. You will need to rebuild your climbing character to add the new abilities. If you didn't make any changes in the original script, you will probably not have any issues.

If you get problems, please let me know, and please, make a backup before the update, in case you crash something in your project.

 

The new update is wonderful, I must say. I didn't have enough time to try everything just yet (and I'm eager to do so), but overall it behaves much more smoothly. Congratulations on the v3.0 release and thank you for your consistent support and passion for this project!

I was worried I would run into problems when setting my own character, but I didn't. The setup was fast and while I did encounter some slight issues afterwards:

Spoiler

I forgot you're not supposed to move the folder from the default path.
If you do, then during the setup, it won't find the physics materials and the animator controller. I reassigned them straight after – but what I wanted to say: if the character doesn't have an animator controller assigned, the ability inspectors will constantly output errors (which it probably should not outside of playmode):



I think in the long run, it would likely help if the paths weren't hard-coded to the root folder (because if every asset did it, it would become a mess). What (for example) CTS does, is checking which asset path ends with '/Procedural Worlds' in AssetDatabase.GetAllAssetPaths() and then using that as the root path to the asset for subsequent operations.
But of course, this is just my minor OCD need to tidy up the project structure, it doesn't affect the asset's functionality.

---

The Vault ability doesn't take the character's height in consideration when building the character; it probably should (otherwise a shorter character goes through the middle of the obstacle).



---

What I did have some trouble with, was that after the initial setup, my character got stuck on every ledge I tried (even drop down to ledge), shook and I couldn't control him anymore.



I eventually figured out it was a problem with 'Vertical Delta From Ledge' and setting it a little higher made the problem go away.

I was able to resolve them.

 

Hi @diasrodrigo
After upgrade, I have three issues.
1. The UI in the inspector is all messed up. I am using Unity version 2019.2.0b7

2. In 2.5D mode, why is there only YZ. Shouldn't it be XY? Thats what most 2.5D games use. My whole level is design based on XY. Could you add another dropdown item for XY please and enable this feature?

3. When I grab a Ledge and tried to jump upwards, I get stuck in the below pose. After this the Character is stuck forever. No keys work. I guess an animation is missing?


Edit: I figured out issue #3. The following animations were unassigned in all three Climb(Up/Left/Right) State. After I set them, the animation works fine. Not sure if its something on my end, so if you need to fix in the Controller.

 

Sorry got another query:
Not sure if I am using this right. I want my character to perform a Vault when the Forward (Walk) key is pressed. But nothing seems to happen. I tried using the Roll button as shown in one of your screenshots above, but it stil doesnt work
I want the same Walk key to work for "Ladder" as well.

Is this possible?

 

The hand moves down during the HangClimbUp animation.
I tried to change the ClimbAbility value or the RootMotionPositionY offset value, but I can't adjust it well.
What causes the hand position to shift down?

ClimbSystem version 2.4 is used.

 

Hello everyone!

This happens when Unity found an error in the editor scripts. Could you please send me the error that is logged in the Console? This way I can check out what's going on. ( I think that's something related with your version, that is a beta version)

Ok. I'll try change this situation, to allow use X and Y.

This case really annoy me. If you simply change unity version, Animator Controller misses the animations. I really don't know why it happens. If someone knows how to avoid this, I woul really appreciate, because it's not desired for anyone.

In this case, I think this is an issue I didn't let clear, sorry for my fault. This Walk button is to limit the character speed and avoid him to run. If you rpess walk button you'll see that your character stops running and only walk. To do a vault with forward button, There is one thing that needs to be changed in the script. You have to remove the following condition, checking if character is grounded:



After comment this code, you go to your ability and set Use Input State to Noone.
Doing this, your character you make vault automatically.

In your case, I believe it's more complicated. I think your character is too small, maybe the only way to fix that is changing the animation. In the animation clip you put the hands up. But you can only do this in an external software for animation or if you have bought some animation plugin for Unity in the Asset Store.

 

@diasrodrigo The updates are great, however I think it requires some more testing and bug fixes.

I found few issues (Will try to post a video tonight):
1. The Character seems to go into CRAWL mode even if its not intended to. Could there be an option to deactivate "auto crawl"? Only work with key press?
2. When I move under a Rock, character goes into "Crouch" . This is good. However when I press roll at the edge of a Rock, the character bounces up into sky.
3. My Char is not jumping to adjacent ledges. I copied the ledges, as is, from your level and it still had the same issue.
4. Also , as highlighted previously, there seems to be a huge performance drop, when my character is in motion (45FPS). When I am still its about 70 to 80+FPS. Not sure if its my level or the Character controller.

 

Hello @SamRock

I'm working in a new update to fix some issues. And some issues you mentioned I already know about and I'm fixing.
1. Yes, I fixed that. The auto crawl is useful in a case you enter a strict region. But I can add a option to remove auto crawl.
2. Yes, I figure out what was going on, and I finally fixed it.
3. Do you have a screeshot of this issue or a short video showing it?
4. Are you experiencing it inside Editor? If you deselect your character when playing, it still happens?

 

Thanks for being on top of this! Here are some videos I recorded showing some more issues apart from what I highlighted above. Note that I never had these issues in the previous version. Most notable is, my Character falls down when transitioning on a Corner ledge and getting stuck in a Fall State (even though animation is still of "Ledge hold")
Also, the Char is stuck on the Ledge, I cant move back nor Drop using X key. Thats why it seems as if the screen is frozen. I am actually pressing keys

 

Hello @SamRock

I updated the asset with some bug fixes. Roll situation I believe will not happen anymore, I've changed that.
About ledge stucking, I believe it happens because these rocks are using mesh collider, and sometimes it collides with the character capsule, and then change postion of your character. Suggestion: in Project Settings, in the Physics option, remove collision between your player and the rock layer. Doing this, your character will not collide with rocks, but, it still adjust feet and hands, because you can use rock layer as an obstcle in the climbing ability.

Hope it helps you.