Third Person Controller - Third Person, AI, Multiplayer, Mobile Framework

ah of course

 

I been away for some time and finally got back getting my hands dirty again with controller I know it is third person controller but I would like to see first person camera integration where basicly there is ability to switch from third person view to first person. Hopefully this can be implemented in future release!

 

@Edgars Adamovics -

UFPS and RFPS have a lock on the FPS genre so I think my first step would be to offer integration with those assets. Right now there are still a ton of third person features that I want to add so a first person view probably won't happen until the third person features are "done".

 

Edit: Forget what I said earlier. It looks like there is some support for uGUI with Unity Remote. There are a few bugs with Unity Remote though. Unity Remote was last updated in July of last year when Unity 4.5 was out. They didn't do a specific update for Unity 4.6 which is when uGUI came out.

The character and camera movement use IPointerDownHander.OnPointerDown which doesn't completely work with Unity Remote. However, there is a workaround. Take a look at this post - it explains how this user got the callbacks to respond. Following that, the Virtual Button code relies on the finger ID which Unity Remote isn't correctly sending. You can get around this bug by changing VirtualButton.OnPointerDown to:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.   public void OnPointerDown(PointerEventData data)
3.   {
4.     if (m_Pressed) {
5.       return;
6.     }
7.     m_Pressed = true;
8.     m_LastPressedFrame = Time.frameCount;
9.     // Unity Remote doesn't correctly fill in the pointer ID. Use the touchCount instead.
10. #if UNITY_EDITOR
11.     m_FingerID = Input.touchCount - 1;
12. #else
13.     m_FingerID = data.pointerId;
14. #endif
15.   }
16.  

This should then allow you to move the character or camera with Unity Remote. This only worked when I had one finger down though - the callback was never sent when I put my second finger on the screen.

 

Hey there,

nice controller, bought it too. Like to request something.
If the character crouch or rolls and something is above which should block him and prevent from standing up, it still stand up and is stuck in that object. Well not actually stuck as you can move out of the object. However you know what I talk about I guess. Any way to prevent that happening I have missed or can it be added ? The cube I used for testing of course had colliders on, you can't go and walk in it, so everything fine here.

Another thing I'm not sure about is if the size the character has when crouching can be set somewhere to actually match the character itself.

Last to ask for. Any way to be able to have the shooter camera be able to allow turning around too without character so you can look at it from front or side. Many actual games allow to take a look at the character you play even while moving and can switch back to the basic third person follow cam after releasing the button or using toggle button. Well you already allow all such options about the buttons, just not sure if I missed the turning ability of the camera while in Shooter mode. Of course there's also adventure mode but if you want to use Shooter mode as main base to follow and just have the ability to turn on purpose but now always you can't use adventure. Want to use the strafing options and such the like. ;-)

Thank you. Best Regards

 

That's a good addition. With crouching it will be easy to prevent the character from being able to stand, but the roll animation right now is a continuous animation so the character will always start standing. We probably need to split up that animation so the controller can first check if there is room to stand. If there's not room then it should go into the crouching animation. The only problem with that is that you may not have added the crouching ability. I'll need to think about this one some more.. it's almost like you need a way to have one ability require another ability.

Currently the crouch size is just half of the original height. We should be using an animation curve instead.

Currently there is no way to toggle between the two different modes. But it does make sense to be able to.

Right now we are working on polishing and documentation for the update going out next week. Everything except the roll change is minor so I should be able to add it to this next update.

 

Thanks much

 

Check out Naomi's latest weapons! This completes her inventory for the initial release of the adventure scene.



Getting all the animations in and polishing this week and next, very excited to release it to you guys.

Sarah

 

Woot way to go sarah! Looking good.
sling shot though... what is that material for the back? Looks strange. Thought rubber bands and a leather catch to put the projectile. But I guess it works.
yes we can't wait for the update!

 

I like the slingshot band material. It looks like some kind of high-tech translucent material, which matches the look of the slingshot frame.

 

Thanks you guys! Yeah, I looked at a lot of slingshot options and saw this more modern one with the steel frame. That particular slingshot had more of a plastic-y all one color band material. I will make sure it looks ok in the animations, and may add some type of catch to it. Glad it looks high tech Tony! That's the concept I was going for!

 

Got another request if possible
Are ladders already in and I missed them or can you add them ?

I would prefer following version if you think you might consider adding it

- Using a tag on the ladder and determine if you hit the ladder and having a check from correct side, could have a checkbox here for front/back so people can choose what's possible
- check for entering in correct angle, mostly around 30° or maybe able to set this on our own, and enough in the middle of it, so it of course don't start climbing if you don't face it or are hitting just the edge of the ladder. Propably we want a character to climb in the middle of a ladder, so there might be something like a checkbox to force climb in middle. But thinking bit forward already if this script is done smart it can be used for climbing roots, webs or whatever as well where you might also move diagonal or sideways. So it's smart to consider this possibilities already and think about what might be possible here.
- Start climbing without pressing any key and be able to even jump onto and from the ladder with the jump button. (actually I think this could use your key checks you have for everything else so people could have the choice whether to use a key to start climbing or not also and if they are able to jump off or on it can have a checkbox too. So if we don't want a key we could just leave starting the climb to no key or something like automatic. And if we don't want the option to jump onto it we don't activate the checkbox.
- Entering and leaving the ladder should include some animation of course, actually this is more problematic at the top than the bottom I think. I don't really request any animations itself as those can be bought for sure.
- Last to say I would prefer the characters if they enter from top, to only enter if they move backwards to the ladder, so if you run forward to a ladder you would just jump off to be faster but maybe get some damage. But in this question people have different opinions for sure. It could involve some turning for example if you hit entering ladder with a key from above and use the key option, maybe even just choose if it can only entered backwards or will turn if moving forward toward it. Would make sense but I can't know how difficult this would be to add for you. But if it's possible it would be a great ladder system allowing very good choices.

I know it's bit more request than just simple climbing but if done this way this would allow jumping from the ladder to another ladder for example, more action when climbing ladders, imagine people fighting each other, one climbing ladder and getting attacked, he can jump off to defend himself and so on. And if roots, webs and other parts are able to be used for sideway climbing or the like it can have a great use potential.

 

@ivendar -

Climbing isn't in there yet but it will be included with the adventure scene. Sarah posted a couple images of the ladder here. In addition, in the outdoor part of the level there is a place where you'll be able to climb pipes and vines. I'm not sure how it will be implemented yet but I'll keep your ideas in mind. I definitely want it to be as generic as possible, we'll see how it goes. I'll be working with Sarah next week to get all of these new adventure scene abilities implemented.

 

While @TheLetterS has been working on the adventure scene I have been working on a feature that is probably as equally exciting: Unity 5 Networking support!



Networking has been completely integrated into the existing framework. Character movement, abilities, animation, items, inventory, object pool, etc. has all been updated to support networking. Only the data that needs to be synchronized will be sent to reduce network traffic. For example, the smoke particles from shooting a rocket launcher will not be synchronized across clients. This implementation uses an authoritative server on Unity's HLAPI layer.

The update will be submitted tomorrow after I get done testing it with the final 5.1 release. Since Unity's networking implementation is brand new I have hit (and reported) a few bugs related to it. I was able to add a workaround for some of them but wasn't able to with others. One of the Unity networking devs said that they will be including networking fixes in the upcoming patch releases so hopefully the bugs won't last for long. You can see more information about the networking implementation within this documentation topic.

I'm extremely excited about this. It took me some time to implement but I think that it is going to add a lot of value. @Cascadex I really wanted to say that I was already working on it within this post but at that point I wasn't completely sure that I would be able to get it done on the same day that Unity released 5.1. But it is implemented and once Unity fixes a few of the bugs it is going to work really well

 

this is great, networking will "just work" with any new weapons or skills we create ?

 

That's the plan. Within the Character Builder there is a new option to create a networked character:



All that this basically does is add the NetworkIdentity, NetworkTransform, and NetworkAnimator components. From there the rest of the components know that they are on a network and will respond accordingly.

The major bug that I have been hitting with the latest 5.1 RC is that child classes cannot call ClientRPCs on their parents. This post has some more details but the end result is that things such as picking up weapons, applying damage, respawning, etc. do not work because of the structure of the Third Person Controller classes. I have thought of a workaround for this but I really don't want to have to do it since it would make the code more complicated. It is a pretty common use case so I bet that it will be fixed pretty quickly.

Besides that, yes, networking will automatically work with any new weapons or abilities that you create.

 

Networking working right out of the box? Freaking sweet. This update is looking better and better.

 

Hi, will this type of networking work out of the box for mobile platforms as well?

I haven’t familiarized myself with multiplayer as I only make mobile games and I have heard only bad things about PUN & mobile. I had planned to do only single player games but from what I’ve been able to do with TPC and not knowing how to code I hope I’ll be able to get away with creating a decent multiplier without having to become a network engineer. I know I should learn these things but I’m a designer and that’s what I love. So hopefully I’ll be able to use this latest feature sometime in the near future.

P.S. Please add an EXO zombie soldier to the TPC & BD sample.

 

I haven't personally tested it but according to Unity yes, it does work on mobile.

If you are going to add multiplayer I highly recommend that you read the networking documentation. Networking is a complex subject and if you read the networking documentation you will have a understanding of what Unity and Third Person Controller is doing in the background. This will help so you know what to adjust to reduce the amount of bandwidth used, for example.

Currently we don't have any plans for a zombie scene. There are a ton of zombie models on the Asset Store that would work with the Third Person Controller so you shouldn't have a problem finding one that you like.

 

The multiplayer update is now available on the Asset Store! It was sent to opsive.com purchases this morning. You can see the full change list here.

The next planned update is the adventure scene, and with that we will be out of beta and at version 1.0.

 

Sweet.

 

Hi, yes I have plenty of zombie characters but I'm lazy and didn't feel like creating a behavior for them. I guess I'll see what I can come up with.

More importantly, in regards to the update do I just need to import the new source code or should I update from the unity store?

P.S. Thanks for adding a sound option for pickups, that's pretty much all I was missing.

 

Creating the behavior tree is most of the fun

You should do both. Even though this update mostly added source code changes, you'll need to first download the Asset Store version so you can get the updated editor scripts and a few updated animations.

No problem

 

You renamed this correct?

"Renamed Quick Use Item to Secondary Item"

I'm getting errors, should I just delete the QuickUse script or does it have things in it?

"Assets/Third Person Controller/Editor/Inspectors/Inventory/QuickUseItemTypeInspector.cs(9,26): error CS0246: The type or namespace name `QuickUseItemType' could not be found. Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?"

 

That's correct. QuickUse has been renamed to Secondary for future enhancements. Unity packages don't do too well with deletions - I would just completely delete the Editor and Script folder and then import from scratch. If you made any script changes make sure you save them off separately so you can apply them again.

 

Ok, 1 more error in relation to my ammo pick up.

MissingComponentException: There is no 'Renderer' attached to the "RiffleAmmoFab" game object, but a script is trying to access it.
You probably need to add a Renderer to the game object "RiffleAmmoFab". Or your script needs to check if the component is attached before using it.
Opsive.ThirdPersonController.PickupObject.OnEnable () (at Assets/Third Person Controller/Scripts/Objects/PickupObject.cs:59)

 

This deals with the playing sound on item pickup feature. Do you have a renderer attached to a child GameObject of RifleAmmoFab? I assumed that you would have a renderer directly on the ItemPickup GameObject (bad assumption?). Take a look at the shooter scene for an example of this.

 

something wrong with your demo. Go all the way up, make the elevator go down but stay up top. Roll or jump off and the character goes down but the Camera completely disconnects and stays at the top level. Must be a bug in your system.

 

I see, I bought this scifi riffle from the asset store. It has renders on the child objects because it has different pieces, I guess for animations. This is easy enough for me to fix, thanks again! I believe I'm all set.

 

Thanks for letting me know! When the roll starts the camera stays at the same vertical height to prevent it from bouncing around with the roll. When the roll ends an animation event is sent telling the camera that it can resume its normal character tracking. Since I am keeping the camera at the same height it doesn't follow the character when he falls off of the ledge. I already have a fix in mind and will test it tonight. I probably won't upload a new web demo because it is minor but I can send you a new CameraController file if you want the fix ahead of time.

Awesome!

 

Just a few bugs - in combat mode, you can't stop crouching while walking, and in Unity 5, you can still snag on some things, including that small gap at the bottom of the ramp on the ground floor of the TPS demo.

Also, in adventure mode, going into 'aiming' mode causes the player to only move forward if any direction is pressed.

Otherwise, pretty nice overall.

 

Good catch with the crouch. Open Crouch.cs and change the LayerMask within CanStopAbility from:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. LayerManager.Mask.IgnoreInvisibleLayers
3.  

to

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. LayerManager.Mask.IgnoreInvisibleLayersPlayer
3.  

I'm not able to reproduce the snagging though. I added a "Step Height" to the RigidbodyCharacterController to prevent this from happening. Does it happen with a fresh project?

 

It does happen in a fresh project, yes. Judging from how it behaves, I think it's because the new 'stop moving against a wall' behaviour is the culprit, even with a high step height, the controller seems to think that the step is a wall unless you're approaching it from an angle.

 

That movement check is within the same block as the step height but stepping has priority. I just imported a fresh project from the Asset Store into 5.1 and loaded the shooter scene. I then ran forward and Doug successfully made it up the lip without any hesitation. I did this a few times and he made it every time. When the shooter scene starts are you just pressing the forward button and that's it?

 

Not really, I don't move Doug from the default position, just have him drop down to the ground floor, walk over to the lip area, and then try to move up it.

 

Did you change his spawn point at all? All that I am doing is hitting the play button within Unity and holding 'W'. Doug then runs, picks up the shotgun/pistol ammo/assault rifle, drops down, and then steps up the lip.

 

Interesting, we're not actually talking about the same lip. No, I'm talking about the lip next to the ramp that leads into the room with the piles of boxes. The lip on the elevator shaft is fine.

 

That explains it! I only testing it on that elevator lip. Open RigidbodyCharacterController.cs and update line 567 from:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.   var hitPoint = m_RaycastHit.point;
3.  

to

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.   var hitPoint = m_RaycastHit.point + inputDirection * 0.01f;
3.  

The downward raycast was hitting the wrong object so the controller didn't think that the character could step up.

 

Yep, that does the job. Aside from the adventure mode aiming/shooting movement problem, no outstanding issues so far.

 

Good to hear! I don't remember the adventure mode aiming/shooting problem - can you link me to that post?

 

It was #331, with the other two issues, but I edited it while you were posting, so I don't blame you for missing it.

Basically, going into 'aiming' mode causes the player to only move forward if any direction is pressed, either by just shooting or aiming.

 

Ah, I see it now. When the character is aiming the controller should go into more combat movement. Within RigidbodyCharacterController.UpdateAnimator change

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. if (m_MovementType == MovementType.Combat) {
3.  

to

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. if (m_MovementType == MovementType.Combat || (m_MovementType == MovementType.Adventure && (m_IsAiming || m_IsForcedAiming))) {
3.  

 

I changed both instances of it, and the aim movement works fine now.

Also, while testing shooting with adventure movement, I noticed that there can be sometimes be an odd delay between shots, even when the transition duration to a state is zero, especially when the player is facing away from where they're aiming.

 

There should have only been one instance:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.   // In non-combat mode the character can freely rotate to move in any direction so the speed is the magnitude of the input vector.
3.   // While in combat mode, the z direction only contributes to the speed and the x direction contributes to the strafe.
4.   // Either value can be negative.
5.   var verticalSpeed = 0f;
6.   var horizontalSpeed = 0f;
7.   if (m_MovementType == MovementType.Combat || (m_MovementType == MovementType.Adventure && (m_IsAiming || m_IsForcedAiming))) {
8.  

The shooting won't happen until the character is facing in the same direction as the camera. When the character fires he will rotate at a speed of FastRotationSpeed to face the camera direction until the angle difference is less then ItemUseRotationThreshold. You can either increase the FastRotationSpeed so the character rotates quicker or increase ItemUseRotationThreshold so the character will fire even when he isn't looking in the same direction as the camera.

 

Ah, I probably should leave this part alone, then?

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.  /// <summary>
3.         /// Toggles between Combat and Adventure movement types.
4.         /// </summary>
5.         public void ToggleThirdPersonMovementType()
6.         {
7.             if (m_MovementType == MovementType.Adventure) {
8.                 m_MovementType = MovementType.Combat;
9.             } else if (m_MovementType == MovementType.Combat) {
10.                 m_MovementType = MovementType.Adventure;
11.             }
12.         }

But, yeah, tweaking the fast rotation pretty much fixes that so far, had to raise it to a much higher number so it would successfully fire even if the player is swinging the mouse everywhere.

 

Yes, ToggleThirdPersonMovementType should stay the same. That was added from this request and allows you to switch the third person movement type at runtime.

 

Great, glad we cleared that up, then. Obviously, I'll let you know if any other bugs or issues come up. Now I can fiddle around with this thing properly a lot more

 

And I've run into my first big snag. New character created, and all the needed handlers set up... But then my character deactivates on play, and activating the character object via the editor just results in said character not responding to any input whatsoever. Any idea what's going on with that?

 

hmm.. I just tried it and saw the same thing. The problem is because of the NetworkIdentity component. If you derive any script from NetworkBehaviour it will automatically add this component and NetworkIdentity will automatically disable the GameObject until the client joins a game. If you try to manually remove the NetworkIdentity it will complain that some scripts depend on it when they really don't in a non-networked game.

I am searching for a better way but for now I found a workaround. Open RigidbodyCharacterController and change the #if block within Awake to:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. #if !(UNITY_4_6 || UNITY_5_0)
3.   // A networked character will have the NetworkIdentity component.
4.   NetworkIdentity networkIdentity = null;
5.   m_IsNetworked = (networkIdentity = GetComponent<NetworkIdentity>()) != null;
6.   if (m_IsNetworked && networkIdentity.localPlayerAuthority) {
7.      Debug.LogWarning("Warning: Local Player Authority is enabled on the NetworkIdentity component. This value must be disabled.");
8.     networkIdentity.localPlayerAuthority = false;
9.   }
10.   m_IsNetworked = false;
11.   GetComponent<NetworkIdentity>().hideFlags = HideFlags.HideAndDontSave;
12. #endif
13.  

The last two lines are the additions. I can't say why but setting the hideFlags to HideAndDontSave prevents the NetworkIdentity from disabling the GameObject. When I tested the Character Builder I only tested a network game - I didn't think that NetworkIdentity was a requirement for the NetworkBehaviour components.

 

Hi there, I am getting errors.

-New Unity project in new Unity 5.1
-New TPC update today 0,89beta
and networking script errors

Assets/Third Person Controller/Scripts/Wrappers/Character/NetworkMonitor.cs(9,64): error CS0234: The type or namespace name `NetworkMonitor' does not exist in the namespace `Opsive.ThirdPersonController'. Are you missing an assembly reference?

Assets/Third Person Controller/Scripts/Wrappers/Game/NetworkEventManager.cs(9,69): error CS0234: The type or namespace name `NetworkEventManager' does not exist in the namespace `Opsive.ThirdPersonController'. Are you missing an assembly reference?

Any ideas?
If I delete them I get no character builder in tools

And still having troubles with character hands, maybe you should have your scripts use a character that starts in a T-Pose.

Thanks
Chris.