CharacterController

High-level command facade that translates player input and AI directives into calls on the character's motor, camera, interactor, and inventory components. This is the primary API for controlling a character from input systems or AI behaviour trees.

Definition

Namespace: Paragon.Townskeep.CharacterSystem Assembly: Townskeep.dll

[Serializable]
public class CharacterController : CharacterComponent

Inheritance: CharacterComponent → CharacterController

Remarks

CharacterController follows the facade pattern — it does not contain movement or physics logic itself. Instead, it delegates to the appropriate sibling component:

Domain	Delegated To
Movement & rotation	CharacterMotor
Camera look	CharacterCamera
Interactions	CharacterInteractor
Inventory switching	CharacterInventory

Input Translation

Movement input arrives as Vector2 (from gamepad sticks or WASD) and is converted to Vector3 for the motor. The controller maps:

• moveInput.x → Vector3.x (strafe)

• moveInput.y → Vector3.z (forward/backward)

Initialization

On OnInitialize(), the controller caches references to the motor, camera, interactor, and inventory components from the owning character. These cached references are used for all subsequent calls.

Quick Lookup

Goal	How
Move from input axes	controller.MoveBy(new Vector2(h, v))
Move to world position	controller.MoveTo(targetPos)
Rotate from input axis	controller.RotateBy(new Vector2(mouseX, 0))
Face a direction	controller.RotateTowards(direction)
Face a position	controller.RotateTo(targetPos)
Look camera at target	controller.LookAt(targetPos)
Look camera in direction	controller.LookTowards(direction)
Jump	controller.Jump()
Sprint	controller.SetSprint(true)
Walk	controller.SetWalk(true)
Interact	controller.Interact(trigger)
Cancel interaction	controller.CancelInteraction()
Next inventory slot	controller.SwitchNextItem()
Previous inventory slot	controller.SwitchPreviousItem()

Methods

MoveBy

Moves the character by a 2D input vector. Converts Vector2(x, y) to Vector3(x, 0, y) and delegates to CharacterMotor.MoveBy().

public void MoveBy(Vector2 moveInput)

Parameter	Type	Description
moveInput	Vector2	Movement input (x = strafe, y = forward)

MoveTo

Moves the character towards a world-space target position. Delegates to CharacterMotor.MoveTo().

public void MoveTo(Vector3 targetPosition)

Parameter	Type	Description
targetPosition	Vector3	World-space target position

RotateBy

Rotates the character by a 2D input vector. Uses lookInput.x as the rotation angle. Delegates to CharacterMotor.RotateBy().

public void RotateBy(Vector2 lookInput)

Parameter	Type	Description
lookInput	Vector2	Look input (x = horizontal rotation)

RotateTowards

Rotates the character to face a world-space direction. Delegates to CharacterMotor.RotateTowards().

public void RotateTowards(Vector3 direction)

Parameter	Type	Description
direction	Vector3	World-space direction to face

RotateTo

Rotates the character to face a world-space target position. Delegates to CharacterMotor.RotateTo().

public void RotateTo(Vector3 target)

Parameter	Type	Description
target	Vector3	World-space position to face

LookAt

Points the camera at a world-space target. Delegates to CharacterCamera.LookAt().

public void LookAt(Vector3 target)

Parameter	Type	Description
target	Vector3	World-space position to look at

LookTowards

Points the camera in a world-space direction. Delegates to CharacterCamera.LookTowards().

public void LookTowards(Vector3 direction)

Parameter	Type	Description
direction	Vector3	World-space direction to look towards

Jump

Makes the character jump. Delegates to CharacterMotor.Jump(). Only works when grounded (checked by motor).

public void Jump()

SetSprint

Toggles sprint mode. When enabled, the motor uses SprintSpeed; when disabled, reverts to MoveSpeed.

public void SetSprint(bool enableSprint)

Parameter	Type	Description
enableSprint	bool	true to sprint, false for normal speed

SetWalk

Toggles walk mode. When enabled, the motor uses WalkSpeed; when disabled, reverts to MoveSpeed.

public void SetWalk(bool enableWalk)

Parameter	Type	Description
enableWalk	bool	true to walk, false for normal speed

Interact

Attempts to interact with a trigger in the character's view. Delegates to CharacterInteractor.TryInteractInView().

public void Interact(InteractionTrigger trigger)

Parameter	Type	Description
trigger	InteractionTrigger	The interaction trigger to attempt

CancelInteraction

Cancels the current interaction. Delegates to CharacterInteractor.CancelInteraction().

public void CancelInteraction()

SwitchNextItem

Switches to the next inventory slot. Delegates to CharacterInventory.SwitchNextSlot().

public void SwitchNextItem()

SwitchPreviousItem

Switches to the previous inventory slot. Delegates to CharacterInventory.SwitchPreviousSlot().

public void SwitchPreviousItem()

Common Pitfalls

SetSprint and SetWalk override each other Both methods set the motor's currentSpeed. Calling SetSprint(true) then SetWalk(true) will result in walk speed. The last call wins. There is no combined sprint+walk state.

MoveBy expects normalized-range input The motor clamps the delta magnitude to 1.0, but passing large values in MoveBy() will still result in max-speed movement. The input should be in the range [-1, 1] per axis.

Examples

Player Input Handling

void Update()
{
    var input = new Vector2(Input.GetAxis("Horizontal"), Input.GetAxis("Vertical"));
    character.Controller.MoveBy(input);

    var look = new Vector2(Input.GetAxis("Mouse X"), Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y"));
    character.Controller.RotateBy(look);

    if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Space))
        character.Controller.Jump();

    if (Input.GetKey(KeyCode.LeftShift))
        character.Controller.SetSprint(true);
    else
        character.Controller.SetSprint(false);
}

AI Navigation

// Move towards a target position
character.Controller.MoveTo(waypointPosition);
character.Controller.RotateTo(waypointPosition);

// Interact with an NPC
character.Controller.Interact(npcTrigger);

See Also

• CharacterMotor — the motor that executes movement and rotation

• CharacterComponent — abstract base class

• Character — the owning entity

• Controller Overview — subfolder overview