Climbables
More than * Hop! * Hop! * Hop! *
Climbable elements are much more complex than Obstacles as they allow Characters to decide how to traverse them, either via input or automatically.
Similar to Obstacles, Climbable elements are composed of a Climbable component that references a Climbable Clip, which determines how the Character will traverse this particular Climbable element.
Climbable Component
Climbable components define the boundaries of a segment in Local Space from which a Character can move along, but not any further.
The Clip field is a reference to a Climbable Clip, which contains all the necessary information for the Character to traverse this Climbable element. For more information about Climbable Clips, see the section below.
The Can Drop field determines whether a Character can let go from this climbable object or not. This is very useful in some cases, where you don't want the player to be able to exit the climbable, such as while being on a Balance plank.
The Climbable Path A and Climbable Path B are two points in Local Space that determine a segment from where a Character can freely move.
In the Scene View, this segment is represented with a yellow thick line and two yellow cubes at each end.
Also, each point A and B has an Angle field, which represents the direction in which a Character will look at while traversing this climbable element.
If Angle A and Angle B are different, the Character will smoothly interpolate between them when moving along the path. This makes it perfect in case the path is not aligned with the world axis or the Character should turn corners.
Commute From A and Commute From B fields are optional ones that make it possible to commute to another Climbable or Obstacle when reaching the edge of the Climbable.
For example, you may want to make the Character automatically play the "Mantle Ledge" Obstacle when a Character reaches the top end of a Ladder.
The Reachables field is similar to the Commute From fields, but unlike them, these require from the player's input and have a finite jump distance.
Before going any further, let's see how Reachables work with an example: Imagine there's a Character holding onto a Ledge Braced climbable. Upon reaching the right corner, the Character will require the player's input and a directional direction to jump to the next ledge, if any.
Reachables are Obstacles and Climbable elements around a Climbable element that a Character is allowed to jump to. It's up to the game designer to define which Climbable elements can reach other elements.
However, placing each Reachable in the Reachables array field can be tedious and a slow process. So in order to make life easier for game designers, the Traversal module automatically detects Reachable elements around them and fills the array with them any time the Climbable element is modified in the Scene View.
It may be a bit difficult to see due to image compression, but the green lines that connect the two Climbable elements indicate possible jumping/reaching points between them.
There may be some cases in which you don't want Climbable elements to refill their Reachables array. For those cases one can disable the Auto-Connect field.
To make it even easier, the Climbable component contains an "Enter Edit Mode" that will allow to independently modify each path point using Scene View handle gizmos.
It is important to note that if a Climbable element has another Obstacle or Climbable element set as Commutable, this object will not be added to the Reachable list.
WARNING! When moving a Climbable element (A) to gather nearby reachable elements the connection is only done from the current Climbable element (A) towards the nearby ones (B). You'll need to either manually connect or move those nearby Climbable elements (B) to make the connection bi-directional.
Climbable Clip
Similar to Obstacle Clips, Climbable Clips allow to define how a Character will traverse a Climbable element and reuse this logic on other elements.
The Climbable Clip is split in three big sections: General parameters, Animations and Player.
General Parameters
General parameters are very similar to the ones found in the Obstacle Clip. Offset Upward and Offset Forward allow to define an offset in local space relative to the Character from where the "grab" will be originated.
By default the origin of the handles are at the root of the Character (usually at the bottom-most position of the Character, between their feet). However, some Climbable elements look better if the Character aligns itself.
For example, the Ladder Climbable Clip uses a value of -0.2 on the Offset Forward field in order for the Character to not be inside the ladder, but slightly outwards.
On the other hand, the Ledge Climbable Clip moves the Offset Upward -1 units, as a standard character usually has a height of 2, so the ledge aligns around the chest of the Character.
The Ignore Collisions field allows Characters to ignore any collisions when traversing the current Climbable element.
Contrary to Obstacles, it is recommended that Climbables do not ignore collisions, as characters shooting at them will always miss.
The Orientation field defines whether the Climbable element is vertical or horizontal. This field has a direction impact on how a Character will detect other reachable elements.
If the Climbable element is set to Vertical, the forward and backward input will search for climbable elements that are in the XY plane (above or below).
If the Climbable element is set to Horizontal, forward and backward input will look for other reachable elements on the XZ plane (in front or back)
The Transition field defines how much will it take for a Character to completely engage with the Climbable element.
It can either be by a certain Duration or by Speed, depending on the distance to the Climbable element and the Character.
Animation Parameters
A Climbable Clip requires 3 Animator Controllers in order to work. Each of these should be an Animator Override Controller that implement either the Traversal or the Reachable Animator Controllers.
Changing Runtime Animator Controllers is a very advanced feature and it should only be done if one plans to create custom animations or custom Climbable elements.
Similar to Obstacle Clips, animations on Climbable Clips stretch their duration in order to better suit the pacing of reaching from one climbable element to another.
The Animator Controller field references a Runtime Animator Controller that has a very specific structure. This controller defines the locomotion animations and how the character moves along the Climbable element.
The Grab Controller references a Runtime Animator Controller that controls which animation should be played when a Character first grabs the Climbable element.
The Reach Controller references a Runtime Animator Controller that controls which animation should be played when a Character jumps/reaches from the current Climbable onto another one.
The Reach Start Delay field determines, in seconds how much should the Character wait before moving from the current Climbable element to the next one, when reaching to another object.
Characters usually build energy before jumping, so typically all Climbable elements will have a delay between 0.1 and 0.5 seconds.
Reach Transition allows to control how long will it take for a Character to jump/reach from the current Climbable element to the next one. It can either be using a fixed Duration or by Speed.
Similar to the Reach Start Delay, the Reach End Delay field allows to define how many seconds the character will be unresponsive after reaching for a new Climbable element.
Move Forward Speed and Move Backward Speed fields define the speed at which a Character can move along the Climbable element. The units of this field are Unity units per second.
Moving forward and moving backward will usually share the same value. However, in some cases, you'll want to have different values. For example, the Ladder Climbable element allows to move much faster downwards, because the Character slides through the Ladder, while moving upwards means performing an exerting task.
Player Parameters
These parameters define how a Character interacts with the Climbable element. The Input Movement field defines how the character knows when to move forward or backwards. The default value is Directional, which are the WASD keys on a keyboard or the left joystick on controllers.
Because the Player is the only character affected by input controls, NPC character could not typically use Climbable elements, since there's no way for them to know how to traverse them.
However, an NPC can traverse a Climbable element if the Climbable Clip's Input Movement is set to "Automatic Forward" or "Automatic Backwards".
The Input Key Drop field allows to define a key that, upon being pressed, the Character will let go of the current Climbable element, unless the Climbable component has the "Can Drop" field unchecked. This button is typically associated with the Cancel button.
The Input Key Traverse field defines which key will be used to reach for other Climbable or Obstacle elements. This button is typically associated with the Space or Jump button.
The Max Traverse Distance field defines how far a Character can jump in order to reach other elements.
This value can be visualized when selecting a Climbable element with Reachable elements associated with it. The green lines that are drawn have a length between 0 and the Max Traverse Distance, so it's easy to determine whether a Character can reach another element or not.
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