How to make character move backwards?

[KTH_KING]

Hi, so, I am trying to make a 3D character controller, where if I press down (using the new input system) the player runs backwards, but with the current code I wrote, the player just completely flips around and faces the opposite direction? How do I fix this? Do I need to re-write everything?

https://youtu.be/FgVX2jotywE Here is a video of how it looks.

Here is the current code I wrote:

public class ThirdPersonController : MonoBehaviour

{

//Input Fields

private ThirdPersonActionsAsset playerActionAsset;

private InputAction move;

//Movement Fields

//Physics

private Rigidbody rigbod;

//

//Floats

[SerializeField] private float movementForce;

[SerializeField] private float jumpForce;

[SerializeField]private float maxSpeed;



//

//Other

private Vector3 forceDirection = Vector3.zero;

//Camera

[SerializeField] private Camera playerCamera;

//Animation

private Animator animator;



private void Awake()

{

    rigbod = this.GetComponent<Rigidbody>();

    playerActionAsset = new ThirdPersonActionsAsset();

    animator = this.GetComponent<Animator>();    

}

private void OnEnable()

{

    playerActionAsset.Player.Attack.started += DoAttack;

    move = playerActionAsset.Player.Move;

    playerActionAsset.Player.Enable();

}

private void OnDisable()

{

    playerActionAsset.Player.Attack.started -= DoAttack;

    playerActionAsset.Player.Disable();

}

private void FixedUpdate()

{

    forceDirection += move.ReadValue<Vector2>().x * GetCameraRight(playerCamera) * movementForce;

    forceDirection += move.ReadValue<Vector2>().y * GetCameraForward(playerCamera) * movementForce;

    rigbod.AddForce(forceDirection, ForceMode.Impulse);

    forceDirection = Vector3.zero;

    LookAt();

}

private void LookAt()

{

    Vector3 direction = rigbod.velocity;

    direction.y = 0f;

    if (move.ReadValue<Vector2>().sqrMagnitude > 0.1f && direction.sqrMagnitude > 0.1f)

    {

        this.rigbod.rotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(direction, Vector3.up);

    }

    else

    {

        rigbod.angularVelocity = Vector3.zero;

    }

}

private Vector3 GetCameraForward(Camera playerCamera)

{

    Vector3 forward = playerCamera.transform.forward;

    forward.y = 0;

    return forward.normalized;

}

private Vector3 GetCameraRight(Camera playerCamera)

{

    Vector3 right = playerCamera.transform.right;

    right.y = 0;

    return right.normalized;

}

    private void DoAttack(InputAction.CallbackContext context)

{

    animator.SetTrigger("Attack");

}

private bool IsGrounded()

{

    Ray ray = new Ray(this.transform.position + Vector3.up * 0.25f, Vector3.down);

    if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out RaycastHit hit, 0.3f))

    return true;

    else

    return false;

}

}

[Christopher_Powell]

I think I see what’s going on here, you are adding movement force in the same direction as the camera forward vector causing the player to flip when going backwards, here is how I would approach this:

Make a bool(preferably private) that keeps track of whether the player is moving forward or backwards:

private bool isMovingForward = true;

Simple enough, then in your FixedUpdate() method you want to change the force direction to include the backwards movement:

float moveX = move.ReadValue<Vector2>().x;
float moveY = move.ReadValue<Vector2>().y;

// Check if the player is moving forward or backward
if (moveY < 0)
{
    moveX *= -1; // Reverse the horizontal movement when moving backward
    isMovingForward = false;
}
else
{
    isMovingForward = true;
}

forceDirection += moveX * GetCameraRight(playerCamera) * movementForce;
forceDirection += moveY * GetCameraForward(playerCamera) * movementForce;

Now you would need to change the LookAt() method to only rotate when the player is moving forward:

private void LookAt()
{
    Vector3 direction = rigbod.velocity;
    direction.y = 0f;

    if (isMovingForward && move.ReadValue<Vector2>().sqrMagnitude > 0.1f && direction.sqrMagnitude > 0.1f)
    {
        this.rigbod.rotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(direction, Vector3.up);
    }
    else
    {
        rigbod.angularVelocity = Vector3.zero;
    }
}

After these changes are made your player should move backwards without flipping around, hopefully.

Hope this helps!

[KTH_KING]

BROOOOOOOOOO! THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH! I tried everything else, yet the solution was way simpler than I thought, I tried if checks to check if y < 0 then addForce, etc, lol, but your solution worked perfectly, thank you so much for the lesson bro

[Christopher_Powell]

We all make mistakes sometimes, glad I could help you out!