Free Climb

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The FreeClimb ability allows the character to move in all directions on a climbable object. The character can traverse curved rough surfaces and make 90 degree turns. They are also able to leap in an upwards direction for quicker movement.

Free Climb continuously derives a climbing frame from the detected surface. It uses that frame to keep the character at Climb Offset, probe for hand and foot contacts, decide when an edge or corner transition is available, and convert input into traversal. The quality of the route therefore depends on collider continuity as much as it does on the ability settings.

Setup

  1. Position Free Climb near the top of the ability list so it can override lower-priority locomotion abilities.
  2. Add any states to the components that should activate when Free Climb is active. In the demo scene the following states are added:
    • The Airborne state added to the Free Climb ability.
    • The FreeClimb state added to the Animator Monitor component.
    • The FreeClimb state added to the Character IK component.
    • The FreeClimb state added to the arm Third Person Object components (only used for first person).
    • The FreeClimb state added to the Camera Controller (only used for first person).
  3. Set up the climbable collider using Object Detection, Detect Layers, and the associated cast settings. The collider must be on an included layer; when Object ID is enabled, it must also pass that ID check. An Object Identifier does not bypass the layer mask. See Detect Object Ability Base.
  4. If the character can start to free climb from the top of the object the Move Towards Location component should be added to the climbable object. The z Offset needs to be set as the x and y offset values will be adjusted based on the character’s location. The Yaw Offset should be set to 0.

Troubleshooting Tips

  • The character plays the mounting animation immediately on the top of the object instead of going to the edge. This will occur if the Move Towards Location component can’t be found on the climbable object. Ensure you have added this component and adjusted the properties (step 4 from above).
  • The character plays the top dismount animation too early. The dismount location is detected by the Top Dismount Offset parameter. If the character is playing the dismount animation too early this value should be decreased.

Build a reliable surface

  • Prefer continuous colliders or closely aligned segments. Small visual seams are acceptable, but gaps in the detected collision surface can be interpreted as an edge.
  • Keep collider normals stable across a traversable face. Abrupt normal changes should correspond to an intentional inner or outer corner.
  • Exclude small decorative colliders from the climb filter when they should not alter the root distance or IK probes.
  • Provide clear space above a top dismount and below a bottom dismount for both the character collider and the animation.
  • Use a top Move Towards Location only where top mounting is allowed, and orient it toward the edge.

Curved walls work best when their collider segments change direction gradually enough for consecutive casts to stay on the surface. Test both traversal directions because the seam that is harmless in one direction may be detected as an outer edge in the other.

Key settings

Airborne Auto Start

Can the ability auto start when the character is airborne?

Draw Debug Lines

Should debug lines be drawn to the editor indicating the location of the horizontal and vertical casts?

Allowed Movements

Specifies which hang movements the character can perform.

  • InAirMount: The character can mount while in the air.
  • InnerCornerTurn: The character can perform an inner 90 degree turn.
  • OuterCornerTurn: The character can perform an outer 90 degree turn.
  • Leap: The character can leap climb in the upward direction.
  • BottomDismount: The character can dismount on the bottom.
  • TopDismount: The character can dismount on the top.
  • StartFromHorizontalHang: The character can start climbing from a horizontal position of the Agility Pack Hang ability.
  • StartFromVerticalHang: The character can start climbing from a vertical position of the Agility Pack Hang ability.

Stop Climb On Jump

Should the ability stop if the jump button is pressed?

Bottom Mount Distance

The distance from the climbing object that the character should start mounting.

Climb Offset

The offset from the character to the climb object.

Move Towards Speed

The speed that the character moves towards the climbing object.

Horizontal Edge Offset

Specifies the distance from the character’s center position when the character should stop moving horizontally when near the edge of the climb object.

Inner Corner Offset

Specifies the distance from the character’s center position when the character should transition to an inner corner.

Bottom Edge Offset

Specifies the distance from the character’s pivot position when the character should stop moving down near the edge of the climb object.

Top Edge Offset

Specifies the distance from the character’s pivot position when the character should stop moving up near the edge of the climb object.

Hand IK Cast Offset

The offset between the character’s hand and the IK raycast target.

Foot IK Cast Offset

The offset between the character’s foot and the IK raycast target

Hand IK Offset

The offset to apply to the hand position relative to the object hit at the hand position.

Foot IK Offset

The offset to apply to the foot position relative to the object hit at the foot position.

Bottom Dismount Offset

Specifies the distance from the character’s pivot position when the character should dismount when near the bottom of the climb object.

Top Dismount Offset

Specifies the distance from the character’s pivot position when the character should dismount when near the top of the climb object.

Leap Edge Offset

Horizontal and vertical distance specifying the edge offset when the character is leaping.

Start Hang Offset

The offset used to check for a climbable object if the hang ability is active.

Understand the movement transitions

The Allowed Movements flags are both design constraints and debugging controls. Start with plain horizontal and vertical traversal, then enable one transition at a time:

  1. Calibrate Bottom Mount Distance, Climb Offset, and Move Towards Speed for the root pose.
  2. Tune Horizontal Edge Offset, Bottom Edge Offset, and Top Edge Offset so traversal stops at the intended boundary.
  3. Enable inner and outer corner turns and adjust Inner Corner Offset against representative 90-degree geometry.
  4. Enable top and bottom dismounts and tune their offsets against clear landing areas.
  5. Add leap and Hang transitions after the base route is stable.

Stop Climb On Jump controls whether the normal jump input detaches from the surface. The Leap movement is a separate climbing transition; enable and test both behaviors deliberately so the same input does not create an ambiguous branch in the character’s control scheme.

Tune IK after root alignment

Hand IK Cast Offset and Foot IK Cast Offset choose where the ability searches for contact. Hand IK Offset and Foot IK Offset adjust the final contact positions returned by those searches. First make the character root follow the surface with Climb Offset, then move the casts to the expected hand and foot regions, and only then apply small final IK offsets.

If contacts flicker, inspect collider seams and cast positions before increasing final offsets. If the hands are consistently correct but the body intersects the wall, change Climb Offset rather than moving every limb away from the surface.

Diagnose a failed transition

  • Cannot mount from the ground: verify the filter, Bottom Mount Distance, approach angle, and clear alignment path.
  • Cannot mount from the top: verify the Move Towards Location, its yaw, and the top approach clearance.
  • Stops at a corner: confirm the correct inner or outer corner movement is enabled and that the adjacent face is part of the climb filter.
  • Dismounts too early: move the corresponding edge or dismount threshold closer to the physical boundary.
  • Loses the wall on a curve: simplify the collider or reduce the change in surface normal between consecutive sections.
  • Cannot transition to Hang: enable Hang’s matching Start From Horizontal Climb or Start From Vertical Climb movement and tune Hang’s climb offsets from the animated pose. Free Climb’s Start From Horizontal Hang, Start From Vertical Hang, and Start Hang Offset govern the reverse transition into Free Climb.