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Lesson 1.4 - Step into the Driver's Seat

In this lesson, we need to hit the road and gain control of the vehicle. In order to do so, we need to detect when the player is pressing the arrow keys, then accelerate and turn the vehicle based on that input. Using new methods, Vectors, and variables, you will allow the vehicle to move forwards or backwards and turn left to right.

When the player presses the up/down arrows, the vehicle will move forward and backward. When the player presses the left/right arrows, the vehicle will turn.

Until now, the vehicle has only been able to move straight forward along the road. We need it to be able to move left and right to avoid the obstacles.

At the top of PlayerController.cs, add a 

transform.Translate(Vector3.right * Time.deltaTime * turnSpeed);

Allow the vehicle to move left/right

Currently, we can only control the vehicle’s left and right movement in the inspector. We need to grant some power to the player and allow them to control that movement for themselves.

horizontalInput = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal");

Base left/right movement on input

We’ve allowed the player to control the steering wheel, but we also want them to control the gas pedal and brake

forwardInput = Input.GetAxis("Vertical");

Take control of the vehicle speed

There’s something weird about the vehicle’s movement… it slides left to right instead of turning. Let’s allow the vehicle to turn like a real car!

Make vehicle rotate instead of slide

We added lots of new stuff in this lesson. Before moving on and to be more professional, we need to clean our scripts and hierarchy to make them more organized.

Clean your code and hierarchy

When the player presses the up/down arrows, the vehicle will move forward and backward

When the player presses the left/right arrows, the vehicle turns 

Lesson Recap

Demonstrate basic Unity programming skills, such as identifying and editing methods, selecting the correct variable type, and comprehending simple scripts

Level 1 Code Comprehension

Joy Horvath

Instructional Designer

CWC_U1.L4.S1_U6.mp4

CWC_U1.L4.S3_U6.mp4

CWC_U1.L4.S5_U6.mp4

CWC_U1.L4.S2_U6.mp4

CWC_U1.L4.S4_U6.mp4

ChangeInputSystem.mp4

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Gain user input with Input.GetAxis, allowing the player to move in different ways

Use the Rotate function to rotate an object around an axis

Clean and organize your hierarchy with Empty objects

Identify the purpose of common methods found in MonoBehaviours such as Start() and Update()

Define the major features of a script such as namespaces, classes, variables, and methods. 

Comprehend simple code by identifying essential programming structures

Identify common data types, including ints, floats, doubles, bools, strings, arrays, lists, and dictionaries

Devise comments that describe a given code block

Recognize naming conventions conforming to Unity standards, given a set of code blocks

Distinguish object-oriented code from data-oriented code

Distinguish an ECS (Entity Component System) class from any other type of class, given a code block containing a class definition

Interpret basic code in a Unity code base

Correct common syntax errors (e.g. missing semicolons, missing curly braces, type mismatches, etc.) by using the IDE's error checking features

Change a variable's accessibility in the Inspector by editing its access modifier to public or private

Efficiently code with correct method and parameter names by using the IDE’s intellisense (autocomplete) features

Unity Version 6.0