Platformer Player Setup

The prefab at Assets/prefabs/PlatformerController.prefab is set up as a proper player prefab:

• Player root GameObject
  • CharacterController
  • PlatformerPlayerController
• Body child GameObject
  • SkinnedModelRenderer using models/citizen/citizen.vmdl
  • CitizenAnimationHelper targeting the skinned model renderer

The startup scene (Assets/scenes/minimal.scene) includes a Player instance at 0,0,80. The scene camera is assigned directly to the player's PlatformerPlayerController.CameraTarget, so movement, camera follow, respawn, and animation are handled by one component.

Controls

Movement uses Input.AnalogMove.x first, so keyboard movement and gamepad left-stick movement work with s&box defaults. Named-action fallback fields are now exposed on the controller:

• LeftAction defaults to Left
• RightAction defaults to Right
• JumpAction defaults to Jump
• RunAction defaults to Run
• DuckAction defaults to Duck

If one of those names does not exist in Project Settings/Input, either add the input action or change the string on PlatformerPlayerController.

Citizen animations

The controller drives the Citizen model's built-in animation graph through CitizenAnimationHelper.

It feeds these values every frame:

• actual controller velocity via WithVelocity
• requested/wish movement via WithWishVelocity
• grounded state via IsGrounded
• walk/run state via MoveStyle
• facing/look direction via WithLook
• jump starts via TriggerJump
• optional duck/crouch blend via DuckLevel

This means the Citizen skinned model uses its own idle, walk, run, jump, fall, landing, and crouch-style graph behavior instead of the controller forcing raw sequence names.

Important prefab references:

• PlatformerPlayerController.BodyRenderer should point to the Body skinned model renderer.
• PlatformerPlayerController.AnimationHelper should point to the Body citizen animation helper.
• CitizenAnimationHelper.Target should point to the Body skinned model renderer.
• SkinnedModelRenderer.UseAnimGraph should stay enabled.

Current controller features

• Walk and run movement.
• Ground/air acceleration and ground friction.
• Faster turn-around acceleration for responsive direction changes.
• Input dead zone for stick drift.
• Configurable input action names.
• Coyote time and jump buffering.
• Variable jump height.
• Apex-hang gravity for less floaty but more readable jumps.
• Faster falling, capped max fall speed, and ground-stick velocity.
• Optional extra air jumps.
• 2.5D Y-axis lock.
• Facing direction on the visual child only, so the root/controller stays clean.
• Citizen animation helper integration including jump and duck values.
• Built-in side-view camera follow with a player focus offset, look-ahead, smoothed look-ahead, small dead zone, snap-on-start, and automatic look-at rotation so the player stays framed.
• Fall respawn using a configurable KillZ, RespawnPoint, and SafeGroundRespawnHeight.

Camera setup

The controller now treats the camera as a side-view platformer camera:

• CameraOffset defaults to 0,-620,140, which keeps the camera behind the 2.5D plane instead of offsetting heavily on X.
• CameraFocusOffset defaults to 0,0,48, so the camera looks at the Citizen body/chest area instead of the player's feet.
• CameraLooksAtPlayer keeps the camera rotated toward that focus point every frame.
• CameraLookAhead is intentionally modest so the player remains visible while moving.

If the player is too high/low in frame, tune CameraFocusOffset.z first. If the camera is too close/far, tune CameraOffset.y.

Useful tuning values

Most values are exposed as [Property] fields on PlatformerPlayerController:

• WalkSpeed / RunSpeed
• GroundAcceleration / AirAcceleration
• TurnAroundMultiplier
• GroundFriction
• InputDeadZone
• JumpSpeed
• Gravity
• FallGravityMultiplier
• LowJumpGravityMultiplier
• ApexHangGravityMultiplier
• ApexHangVelocity
• MaxFallSpeed
• GroundStickVelocity
• CoyoteTime
• JumpBufferTime
• ExtraAirJumps
• CameraTarget
• CameraOffset
• CameraFocusOffset
• CameraLooksAtPlayer
• CameraFollowSharpness
• CameraLookAhead
• CameraLookAheadSharpness
• CameraVerticalLookAhead
• CameraDeadZoneX / CameraDeadZoneZ
• BodyRenderer
• AnimationHelper
• UseCitizenAnimation
• TriggerCitizenJumpAnimation
• AnimationSpeedDeadZone
• AnimationDuckLerpSpeed
• RespawnWhenFalling
• KillZ
• RespawnPoint
• SafeGroundRespawnHeight

Notes for extending

PlatformerPlayerController exposes IsGrounded, Velocity, MoveInput, Facing, IsRunActive, IsJumpHeld, IsDuckHeld, and CanBufferedJump, which makes it easier to add sound effects, dust particles, attack states, health, checkpoints, or state logic without rewriting the movement core.

The controller locks the player to the Y depth axis for a 2.5D platformer. Disable LockDepthAxis if you want free 3D movement.

Jump movement fix

The controller now launches jumps through CharacterController.Punch( Vector3.Up * JumpSpeed ) by default.

This is intentional: directly setting CharacterController.Velocity.z while the controller still thinks it is grounded can trigger the Citizen jump animation without physically separating the controller from the floor. Punch is the safer s&box CharacterController path for jump impulses.

New jump-related tuning fields:

• UseCharacterControllerPunchForJump - keep this enabled for normal jumping.
• JumpUngroundNudge - tiny upward nudge after jumping to avoid same-tick ground snapping.
• PostJumpGroundGraceTime - brief grace window where animation/logic treats the player as airborne immediately after a jump.