Unity FPS Controller

FPS (or First-Person Shooter) is a game where the main character is controlled from a first-person perspective.

The usual controls are W, A, S, and D to walk, Mouse Look to look around, Space to jump, and Left Shift to sprint, allowing the player to move freely around the level.

In this post, I will show how to make an FPS controller in Unity that will handle camera rotation and player movement.

Steps

To make an FPS controller, follow the steps below:

• Create a new Game Object (GameObject -> Create Empty) and name it "FPSPlayer"
• Create a new Capsule (GameObject -> 3D Object -> Capsule) and move it inside the "FPSPlayer" Object
• Remove the Capsule Collider component from Capsule and change its position to (0, 1, 0)
• Move the Main Camera inside the "FPSPlayer" Object and change its position to (0, 1.64, 0)

• Create a new script, name it "SC_FPSController" and paste the code below inside it:

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

[RequireComponent(typeof(CharacterController))]

public class SC_FPSController : MonoBehaviour
{
    public float walkingSpeed = 7.5f;
    public float runningSpeed = 11.5f;
    public float jumpSpeed = 8.0f;
    public float gravity = 20.0f;
    public Camera playerCamera;
    public float lookSpeed = 2.0f;
    public float lookXLimit = 45.0f;

    CharacterController characterController;
    Vector3 moveDirection = Vector3.zero;
    float rotationX = 0;

    [HideInInspector]
    public bool canMove = true;

    void Start()
    {
        characterController = GetComponent<CharacterController>();

        // Lock cursor
        Cursor.lockState = CursorLockMode.Locked;
        Cursor.visible = false;
    }

    void Update()
    {
        // We are grounded, so recalculate move direction based on axes
        Vector3 forward = transform.TransformDirection(Vector3.forward);
        Vector3 right = transform.TransformDirection(Vector3.right);
        // Press Left Shift to run
        bool isRunning = Input.GetKey(KeyCode.LeftShift);
        float curSpeedX = canMove ? (isRunning ? runningSpeed : walkingSpeed) * Input.GetAxis("Vertical") : 0;
        float curSpeedY = canMove ? (isRunning ? runningSpeed : walkingSpeed) * Input.GetAxis("Horizontal") : 0;
        float movementDirectionY = moveDirection.y;
        moveDirection = (forward * curSpeedX) + (right * curSpeedY);

        if (Input.GetButton("Jump") && canMove && characterController.isGrounded)
        {
            moveDirection.y = jumpSpeed;
        }
        else
        {
            moveDirection.y = movementDirectionY;
        }

        // Apply gravity. Gravity is multiplied by deltaTime twice (once here, and once below
        // when the moveDirection is multiplied by deltaTime). This is because gravity should be applied
        // as an acceleration (ms^-2)
        if (!characterController.isGrounded)
        {
            moveDirection.y -= gravity * Time.deltaTime;
        }

        // Move the controller
        characterController.Move(moveDirection * Time.deltaTime);

        // Player and Camera rotation
        if (canMove)
        {
            rotationX += -Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y") * lookSpeed;
            rotationX = Mathf.Clamp(rotationX, -lookXLimit, lookXLimit);
            playerCamera.transform.localRotation = Quaternion.Euler(rotationX, 0, 0);
            transform.rotation *= Quaternion.Euler(0, Input.GetAxis("Mouse X") * lookSpeed, 0);
        }
    }
}

• Attach the SC_FPSController script to the "FPSPlayer" Object (You will notice that it also added another component called Character Controller, change its center value to (0, 1, 0))
• Assign the Main Camera to the Player Camera variable in SC_FPSController

The FPS controller is now ready!