Unity's new Input System is a powerful and flexible framework designed to handle user input across various platforms and devices. This system provides developers with the tools to manage input from keyboards, mice, gamepads, touchscreens, and more, all within a consistent and unified API. Familiarizing yourself with this system is crucial for creating responsive and versatile games that can run seamlessly on multiple platforms.
The Input System in Unity is built to address the limitations of the older system, offering a more robust and scalable solution. It allows for a more modular approach to input management, enabling developers to easily customize and extend input configurations to suit their specific needs. Moreover, the new system supports a wide range of devices out of the box, making it easier to develop cross-platform games.
To begin utilizing Unity's new Input System, you'll first need to install the Input System package. This can be done through the Unity Package Manager. Once installed, you'll notice that the Input System introduces several new components and concepts that are essential to understand.
One of the core components is the Input Action Asset. This asset acts as a container for your input actions, which are essentially mappings between user inputs and the actions they trigger in your game. You can create an Input Action Asset by right-clicking in the Project window, selecting "Create," and then choosing "Input Actions." This will create a new asset where you can define various input actions.
In the Input Action Asset, you can define Action Maps. Action Maps are collections of related input actions, allowing you to organize inputs based on different contexts or game states. For example, you might have separate action maps for player movement, UI navigation, and vehicle controls. This separation helps maintain a clean and organized input setup.
Within each Action Map, you can define individual Input Actions. Each Input Action can have multiple Bindings, which are the actual input sources that trigger the action. Bindings can be set up for different devices, such as a keyboard, gamepad, or touchscreen. This flexibility allows you to configure inputs for various platforms without needing to write platform-specific code.
The Input System also introduces the concept of Control Schemes. Control Schemes are configurations that define which devices or combinations of devices can be used to interact with your game. For instance, you might have a control scheme for keyboard and mouse, another for a gamepad, and a third for touch input. By defining control schemes, you can easily switch between different input configurations based on the player's device or preferences.
To utilize the Input System in your scripts, you'll need to interact with the InputAction class. This class provides methods to enable or disable actions, read input values, and respond to input events. A typical workflow involves enabling an action map when it's needed (e.g., when entering a specific game state) and disabling it when it's not.
Here's a simple example of how you might set up input handling in a script:
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.InputSystem;
public class PlayerController : MonoBehaviour
{
public InputActionAsset inputActions;
private InputAction movementAction;
private void OnEnable()
{
var gameplayActionMap = inputActions.FindActionMap("Gameplay");
movementAction = gameplayActionMap.FindAction("Move");
movementAction.Enable();
movementAction.performed += OnMove;
}
private void OnDisable()
{
movementAction.Disable();
movementAction.performed -= OnMove;
}
private void OnMove(InputAction.CallbackContext context)
{
Vector2 moveInput = context.ReadValue<Vector2>();
// Handle movement logic here
}
}
In this example, we first find the "Gameplay" action map within our Input Action Asset and then find the "Move" action within that map. We enable the action and subscribe to its performed event, which is triggered whenever the action is performed (e.g., when the player moves). In the OnMove method, we read the input value and handle the movement logic accordingly.
Another powerful feature of the Input System is its support for Composite Bindings. Composite Bindings allow you to create complex inputs by combining multiple simple inputs. A common use case is for creating a 2D or 3D movement vector from individual axis inputs, such as combining "WASD" keys or joystick axes to represent directional movement.
Additionally, the Input System provides built-in support for Rebinding. Rebinding allows players to customize their controls by remapping input actions to different keys or buttons. This can greatly enhance the accessibility and user experience of your game. The Input System includes APIs for implementing rebinding functionality, allowing you to create intuitive and responsive control customization menus.
To facilitate testing and debugging, the Input System includes the Input Debugger window. This window displays real-time information about input devices, actions, and events, helping you diagnose and resolve input-related issues. You can access the Input Debugger from the "Window" menu in Unity's editor.
When developing for multiple platforms, it's important to consider how input behaviors may differ between devices. For example, touch inputs on mobile devices may require different handling compared to mouse inputs on a desktop. The Input System's abstraction layer helps mitigate these differences by providing a consistent interface for handling inputs, but developers should still test and fine-tune input behaviors on each target platform to ensure a smooth user experience.
Finally, it's worth noting that the Input System is continuously evolving, with regular updates and improvements from Unity. Staying informed about new features and best practices will help you make the most of this powerful tool. The Unity documentation and community forums are excellent resources for learning more about the Input System and keeping up to date with the latest developments.
In conclusion, Unity's new Input System offers a comprehensive and flexible solution for managing input across a wide range of devices and platforms. By familiarizing yourself with its components and workflows, you can create games that provide intuitive and responsive controls, enhancing the overall player experience. Whether you're developing for PC, consoles, or mobile devices, the Input System equips you with the tools needed to handle input with precision and ease.
