Assembling a First-Person Setup With Controls

To make a main character, we will need a controller node implementing basic player functionality (handling keyboard and mouse input, movement settings, etc.). Attached to this node, we will have a first-person view camera, hands with a gun, and a body imitation to check for collisions with other characters, bullets, and environment. Later we will assign logic components to the nodes to implement shooting, visual effects, etc. Let's start with the character controller.

For a first-person setup you will need the hands and weapon models and animations previously created in a 3D modeling software. If you have your own assets, that's great, otherwise you can use our ready-to-use assets available in the data folder.

We'll start with adding hands, and then attaching a pistol to them. In Asset Browser, find the data/fps/hands/hands.fbx asset and add it to the scene.

To simulate a player's body that takes damage when hit by enemy bullets, let's create an additional object (it will approximate the player's body with a box):

1. In the Menu bar, choose Create → Primitive → Box to create a box primitive of the size (1,1,2), add it to the scene and rename to player_hit_box.

   

2. Add it as a child to the hands Dummy Node and reset its position to the parent one. And for player_hit_box let's enable the Intersection option in the Surfaces section of the Parameters window.

   

3. Adjust the position of the player_hit_box so that it is placed immediately below the hands.

4. Make it invisible by clearing its Viewport mask in the Node tab of the Parameters window using the Clear All button. Also clear the Shadow mask to disable shadows rendering. You'll get something like this:

   

We'll assign the Health component to it later.

Adding a Camera#

In UNIGINE, you should use the Skinned Mesh with bones for animated models. Our FBX model of hands contains several bones. We can attach the object to a particular bone to make it follow this bone. For this purpose, we use a WorldTransformBone node that has a controlled object (a pistol in our case) as a child, and the Skinned Mesh with bones as its parent.

1. In the Asset Browser, find the data/fps/pistol/pistol.fbx asset and add it to the scene.

2. In the Menu bar, choose Create -> Mesh -> SkinnedBone: a WorldTransformBone node will be created. Add it as a child to the hands Skinned Mesh (the one that is inherited from the hands Dummy Node).

   

3. In the Bone drop-down list, select joint_hold. This will be the bone to which the pistol will be attached.

   

4. Make the pistol a child of the WorldTransformBone node. Reset its relative position and rotation to zero if needed.

   

There is also a number of animations to be used for the hands (idle, walking, shooting). You can check how a certain animation looks like, for example:

1. In the Asset Browser, find the data/fps/hands/hands_animations/hands_pistol_idle.anim file and drag it to the Preview Animation section of the hands Skinned Mesh parameters.

2. Check the Loop option and click Play.

   

When the character changes its states (shooting, walking forward/backward/left/right), the corresponding animations should change smoothly. Let's implement a component for mixing our animations.

To ensure a seamless transition, we need to play two animations simultaneously and blend them. To do so, we will use multiple layers; we can assign different weights to each layer and achieve smooth blending.

The following scheme shows the blend tree we are going to use:

1. Add a new HandAnimationController component class in the IDE (Project → Add Class).

   

   Copy and paste the following code to the corresponding files:

   HandAnimationController.h

   Source code (C++)

   #pragma once
   #include <UnigineComponentSystem.h>
   #include <UnigineGame.h>
   #include "FirstPersonController.h"
   #include "ShootInput.h"
   class HandAnimationController :
   	public Unigine::ComponentBase
   {
   public:
   	COMPONENT_DEFINE(HandAnimationController, Unigine::ComponentBase);
   
   	PROP_PARAM(Node, player_node, nullptr);
   
   	PROP_PARAM(Float, moveAnimationSpeed, 30.0f);
   	PROP_PARAM(Float, shootAnimationSpeed, 30.0f);
   	PROP_PARAM(Float, idleWalkMixDamping, 5.0f);
   	PROP_PARAM(Float, walkDamping, 5.0f);
   	PROP_PARAM(Float, shootDamping, 1.0f);
   
   	// animation parameters
   	PROP_PARAM(File, idleAnimation);
   	PROP_PARAM(File, moveForwardAnimation);
   	PROP_PARAM(File, moveBackwardAnimation);
   	PROP_PARAM(File, moveRightAnimation);
   	PROP_PARAM(File, moveLeftAnimation);
   	PROP_PARAM(File, shootAnimation);
   
   	// declare methods to be called at the corresponding stages of the execution sequence
   	COMPONENT_INIT(init);
   	COMPONENT_UPDATE(update);
   
   	Unigine::Math::vec2 getLocalMovementVector();
   	void shoot();
   
   protected:
   	// world main loop overrides
   	void init();
   	void update();
   
   private:
   	FirstPersonController *fpsController = nullptr;
   
   	Unigine::ObjectMeshSkinnedPtr meshSkinned = nullptr;
   	float currentIdleWalkMix = 0.0f; // 0 idle animation, 1 walking animation
   	float currentShootMix = 0.0f; // 0 combination of idle/walking, 1 shooting animation
   	float currentWalkForward = 0.0f;
   	float currentWalkBackward = 0.0f;
   	float currentWalkRight = 0.0f;
   	float currentWalkLeft = 0.0f;
   
   	float currentWalkIdleMixFrame = 0.0f;
   	float currentShootFrame = 0.0f;
   	int numShootAnimationFrames = 0;
   
   	// setting the number of animation layers
   	const int numLayers = 6;
   };

   HandAnimationController.cpp

   Source code (C++)

   #include "HandAnimationController.h"
   
   REGISTER_COMPONENT(HandAnimationController);
   using namespace Unigine;
   using namespace Math;
   
   Unigine::Math::vec2 HandAnimationController::getLocalMovementVector()
   {
   		return Math::vec2(
   			Math::dot(fpsController->getSlopeAxisY(), fpsController->getHorizontalVelocity()),
   			Math::dot(fpsController->getSlopeAxisX(), fpsController->getHorizontalVelocity())
   		);
   
   }
   
   void HandAnimationController::init()
   {
   	fpsController = ComponentSystem::get()->getComponent<FirstPersonController>(player_node);
   
   	// take the node to which the component is assigned
   	// and cast it to ObjectMeshSkinned type
   	meshSkinned = checked_ptr_cast<Unigine::ObjectMeshSkinned>(node);
   
   	// set the number of animation layers for each object
   	meshSkinned->setNumLayers(numLayers);
   
   	// set animation for each layer
   	meshSkinned->setLayerAnimationFilePath(0, FileSystem::guidToPath(FileSystem::getGUID(idleAnimation.getRaw())));
   	meshSkinned->setLayerAnimationFilePath(1, FileSystem::guidToPath(FileSystem::getGUID(moveForwardAnimation.getRaw())));
   	meshSkinned->setLayerAnimationFilePath(2, FileSystem::guidToPath(FileSystem::getGUID(moveBackwardAnimation.getRaw())));
   	meshSkinned->setLayerAnimationFilePath(3, FileSystem::guidToPath(FileSystem::getGUID(moveRightAnimation.getRaw())));
   	meshSkinned->setLayerAnimationFilePath(4, FileSystem::guidToPath(FileSystem::getGUID(moveLeftAnimation.getRaw())));
   	meshSkinned->setLayerAnimationFilePath(5, FileSystem::guidToPath(FileSystem::getGUID(shootAnimation.getRaw())));
   
   	int animation = meshSkinned->getLayerAnimationResourceID(5);
   	numShootAnimationFrames = meshSkinned->getLayerNumFrames(5);
   
   	// enable all animation layers
   	for (int i = 0; i < numLayers; ++i)
   		meshSkinned->setLayerEnabled(i, true);
   }
   
   void HandAnimationController::shoot()
   {
   	// enable shooting animation
   	currentShootMix = 1.0f;
   	// set the animation layer frame to 0
   	currentShootFrame = 0.0f;
   }
   
   void HandAnimationController::update()
   {
   	vec2 movementVector = getLocalMovementVector();
   
   	// chack wether the character is moving
   	bool isMoving = movementVector.length2() > Math::Consts::EPS;
   	// input processing: checking if the 'fire' button is presse
   	bool isShooting = Input::isMouseButtonDown(Input::MOUSE_BUTTON_LEFT);
   	if (isShooting)
   		shoot();
   
   	// calculate target values for layer weights
   	float targetIdleWalkMix = (isMoving) ? 1.0f : 0.0f;
   	float targetWalkForward = (float)Math::max(0.0f, movementVector.x);
   	float targetWalkBackward = (float)Math::max(0.0f, -movementVector.x);
   	float targetWalkRight = (float)Math::max(0.0f, movementVector.y);
   	float targetWalkLeft = (float)Math::max(0.0f, -movementVector.y);
   
   	// apply current animation weights
   	float idleWeight = 1.0f - currentIdleWalkMix;
   	float walkMixWeight = currentIdleWalkMix;
   	float shootWalkIdleMix = 1.0f - currentShootMix;
   
   	meshSkinned->setLayerWeight(0, shootWalkIdleMix * idleWeight);
   	meshSkinned->setLayerWeight(1, shootWalkIdleMix * walkMixWeight * currentWalkForward);
   	meshSkinned->setLayerWeight(2, shootWalkIdleMix * walkMixWeight * currentWalkBackward);
   	meshSkinned->setLayerWeight(3, shootWalkIdleMix * walkMixWeight * currentWalkRight);
   	meshSkinned->setLayerWeight(4, shootWalkIdleMix * walkMixWeight * currentWalkLeft);
   	meshSkinned->setLayerWeight(5, currentShootMix);
   
   	// update animation frames: set the same frame for all layers to ensure synchronization
   	meshSkinned->setLayerFrame(0, currentWalkIdleMixFrame);
   	meshSkinned->setLayerFrame(1, currentWalkIdleMixFrame);
   	meshSkinned->setLayerFrame(2, currentWalkIdleMixFrame);
   	meshSkinned->setLayerFrame(3, currentWalkIdleMixFrame);
   	meshSkinned->setLayerFrame(4, currentWalkIdleMixFrame);
   	// set the current frame for each animation layer to 0, to begin playback from the start
   	meshSkinned->setLayerFrame(5, currentShootFrame);
   
   	currentWalkIdleMixFrame += moveAnimationSpeed * Game::getIFps();
   	currentShootFrame = Math::min(currentShootFrame + shootAnimationSpeed * Game::getIFps(), (float)numShootAnimationFrames);
   
   	// smoothly update current weight values
   	currentIdleWalkMix = Math::lerp(currentIdleWalkMix, targetIdleWalkMix, idleWalkMixDamping * Game::getIFps());
   
   	currentWalkForward = Math::lerp(currentWalkForward, targetWalkForward, walkDamping * Game::getIFps());
   	currentWalkBackward = Math::lerp(currentWalkBackward, targetWalkBackward, walkDamping * Game::getIFps());
   	currentWalkRight = Math::lerp(currentWalkRight, targetWalkRight, walkDamping * Game::getIFps());
   	currentWalkLeft = Math::lerp(currentWalkLeft, targetWalkLeft, walkDamping * Game::getIFps());
   
   	currentShootMix = Math::lerp(currentShootMix, 0.0f, shootDamping * Game::getIFps());
   }

   Build and run the application by hitting Ctrl + F5 in your IDE to make the Component System generate a property to assign the component to nodes. Close the application after running and return to UnigineEditor.

2. In UnigineEditor, assign the property to the hands Skinned Mesh.
3. Remove data/fps/hands/hands_animations/hands_pistol_idle.anim from the Preview Animation field of the Mesh Skinned section.

4. Add animations stored in the data/fps/hands/hands_animations folder to the corresponding parameters.

   

5. Assign (drag and drop) the player Dummy Object to the Player Node field of the HandAnimationController component so that it could get required data from the player's first person controller to perform blending.

   

6. Save all changes and run the application logic by hitting Run on the project's card in the SDK Browser to check the result.