UNITY 3D – GAME PROGRAMMING – PART 3

This third article in the series continues the Unity 3D walkthrough by focusing on user input from the keyboard. It explains how the Input Manager works, then shows how a script can create cube primitives only after Space is pressed and use other keys to rotate and move them.

Reading notes

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• The article is the third part of a Unity 3D series about getting started with 3D projects.
• It says the reader should already know programming, C#, object-oriented concepts, and basic 3D graphics and vector math.
• It notes that the article uses Unity 3D version 4.6.1.
• Unity handles inputs through the Input Manager, which is found under Edit > Project Settings > Input.
• The Input Manager lists built-in axis configurations such as Horizontal and Vertical.
• The article describes the important Input Manager fields as Name, Positive Button, Negative Button, Alt. Positive Button, Alt. Negative Button, Type, and Axis.
• The keyboard example creates three cube primitives after the Space Bar is pressed.
• The script uses Input.GetKey(KeyCode.Space) inside Update() to trigger CreateMyPrimitives().
• A boolean named PRIMITIVES_CREATED is used to prevent creating the primitives more than once.
• The article then refines the code so Update() checks PRIMITIVES_CREATED before either creating objects or applying rotation.
• It maps A to rotating Cube1 on the Y axis, B to rotating Cube2 on the X axis, and C to rotating Cube3 on the Z axis.
• It adds translation controls for Cube1 with the arrow keys: Up moves forward on Z, Down moves backward on Z, Left moves left on X, and Right moves right on X.
• The movement uses Translate with Vector3.forward, Vector3.back, Vector3.left, and Vector3.right multiplied by Time.deltaTime.
• The article closes by pointing to future UI topics and inviting the reader to practice with the provided source code.