Question Physics.Raycast and hovering

Hello,

I am creating a spirit character and he is supposed to hover 1 unit above the ground always.
I am using a Character Controller component for the movement.

To detect if the player is on the ground I started by doing a simple ray cast down starting from the player's spirit position. But I quickly realized this will not work since when the character jumps the ray cast can go inside of surfaces.
Besides this, the character is not exactly 1 unit above in the Y axis as if you check in the video attached. (it is always a value between 0.90 to 0.99)
I tried fixing this but I could not, and I feel like it is because Controller.Move() is the last function called in my controller script.

Link to demonstrarion:

Does anyone have some tips on how I can achieve this?
Thank you!

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4.  
5.  
6. //Use arrows and numpad 0 and 1 to move spirit
7. public class SpiritPlayerController : MonoBehaviour
8. {
9.     [SerializeField] private float _hoverHeight;
10.     [SerializeField] private Vector3 _velocity;
11.     [SerializeField] private Camera _spiritCamera;
12.     [SerializeField, Range(0f, 10f)] private float maxJumpHeight = 2f;
13.     [SerializeField, Range(0f, 50f)] private float _maxSpeed = 10f;
14.     [SerializeField, Range(0f, 25f)] private float pushPower = 3f;
15.  
16.     private CharacterController _controller;
17.     private Vector2 _playerInput;
18.     private float _ySpeed;
19.  
20.     private void Awake()
21.     {
22.         _controller = GetComponent<CharacterController>();
23.     }
24.     void Update()
25.     {
26.         getPlayerMovementInput();
27.         calculateVelocityAndMove();
28.     }
29.  
30.     private void LateUpdate()
31.     {
32.         applyGravity();
33.     }
34.  
35.     //gets player movement input
36.     private void getPlayerMovementInput()
37.     {
38.         _playerInput.x = Input.GetAxis("SpiritHorizontal");
39.         _playerInput.y = Input.GetAxis("SpiritVertical");
40.     }
41.  
42.     //This function is reponsible for continuously applying gravity to our human.
43.     private void applyGravity()
44.     {
45.         _ySpeed += Physics.gravity.y * Time.deltaTime;
46.  
47.         //if we set it to zero the _controller.isGrounded property does not work as intended so we must set it to a small negative value
48.         if (isGrounded())
49.         {
50.             _ySpeed = 0f;
51.         }
52.     }
53.  
54.     //this function calculates the velocity magnitude and direction of the current movement and after makes the character move.
55.     //It is also responsible for listening to jumping input
56.     private void calculateVelocityAndMove()
57.     {
58.         if (isGrounded() && Input.GetButtonDown("SpiritJump"))
59.         {
60.             Jump();
61.         }
62.  
63.         //get player input
64.         //get cameras forward and right vectors
65.         //multiply input X vector by camera right vector
66.         //multiply input Z vector by camera forward vector
67.         //add these two vectors
68.  
69.         Vector3 forward = _spiritCamera.transform.forward;
70.         Vector3 right = _spiritCamera.transform.right;
71.         forward.y = 0;
72.         right.y = 0;
73.         forward = forward.normalized;
74.         right = right.normalized;
75.  
76.         Vector3 forwardRelativeVerticalInput = forward * _playerInput.y;
77.         Vector3 rightRelativeVerticalInput = right * _playerInput.x;
78.  
79.         Vector3 cameraRelativeMovement = forwardRelativeVerticalInput + rightRelativeVerticalInput;
80.  
81.         float magnitudeTest = Mathf.Clamp01(cameraRelativeMovement.magnitude) * _maxSpeed;
82.  
83.         cameraRelativeMovement.Normalize();
84.         _velocity = cameraRelativeMovement * magnitudeTest;
85.         _velocity.y = _ySpeed;
86.         _velocity = AdjustvelocityToSlope(_velocity);
87.  
88.         _controller.Move(_velocity * Time.deltaTime);
89.     }
90.  
91.     //https://screenrec.com/share/62pUYiuKDW
92.     public void Jump()
93.     {
94.         _ySpeed += Mathf.Sqrt(maxJumpHeight * -2.0f * Physics.gravity.y);
95.     }
96.  
97.     //removes bounciness when moving down slopes, keeps the direction of the movement align with the slope angle
98.     private Vector3 AdjustvelocityToSlope(Vector3 velocity)
99.     {
100.         var ray = new Ray(transform.position, Vector3.down);
101.  
102.         if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out RaycastHit hitInfo, 2f))
103.         {
104.             var rotation = Quaternion.FromToRotation(Vector3.up, hitInfo.normal);
105.             var adjustedvelocity = rotation * velocity;
106.  
107.             //only adjust the _velocity if were moving down a slope which means out Y component of velocity must be negative, otherwise dont change velocity
108.             if (adjustedvelocity.y < 0)
109.             {
110.                 return adjustedvelocity;
111.             }
112.         }
113.         return velocity;
114.     }
115.  
116.     private bool isGrounded()
117.     {
118.         Debug.DrawRay(transform.position, Vector3.down, Color.green);
119.  
120.         if(Physics.Raycast(transform.position, Vector3.down, _hoverHeight))
121.         {
122.             return true;
123.         }
124.  
125.         return false;
126.     }
127. }
128.  

 

Any ideas?

 

You may find this video useful:

 

Can this be used to move a hovering UFO game object that is simultaneously rotating along its Y Axis?