Short Climb

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The Short Climb ability allows the character to climb up short objects. Short Climb will specify the object height in the Ability Float Data parameter so animations can be played for different heights.

Short Climb is a one-shot traversal: it detects the obstacle, aligns the character with it, supplies the detected height to the Animator, and finishes on top. It does not provide free movement along the face of the obstacle. Use Free Climb when the player needs to remain attached and choose a direction.

Setup

  1. Position Short 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 Short Climb in active. In the demo scene the following states are added:
    • The ShortClimb state added to the arm Third Person Object components (only used for first person).
    • The ShortClimb state added to the Camera Controller (only used for first person).
  3. Set up the climbable object. Place it on a layer in Layer Mask or add an Object Identifier whose ID matches Object ID. See Detect Ground Ability Base for the shared detection settings.

Key settings

Max Height

The maximum height of the object that the character can climb over.

Animation and height

AbilityFloatData contains the detected obstacle height for the active climb. A single climb animation can use that value in a blend tree, or transitions can divide it into low and high mantle ranges. Keep the animation thresholds within Max Height; a branch above the maximum can never be selected by this ability.

The detected height is measured from the geometry used by the ability, so inconsistent pivots are less important than consistent collider tops. Decorative overhangs or child colliders included in the detection filter can change the result and select the wrong animation.

Tune the obstacle

Start with a box-shaped obstacle whose front face is close to vertical and whose top is clear. Confirm the default animation, then vary one dimension at a time:

  • Increase Max Height only after the animation can visually reach the taller top.
  • Exclude railings, trim, and trigger-only decoration from the detection mask if they create a false top.
  • Leave landing space for the character collider on the far side of the top edge.
  • Approach at the shallowest and steepest angles allowed by the shared detection settings.

If the ability starts but the character lands inside the obstacle, fix the traversal animation/root alignment or the obstacle collider before widening the detection range. If it never starts, draw or inspect the inherited ground-detection casts and confirm the obstacle matches either Layer Mask or Object ID.