Unity method/framework for handling different input modes

Question

I'm a very new Unity developer who's looking for a best practice or framework for handling different input modes. I'm working in C#. Here's a contrived example:

Sample Map Application

Control Scheme 1:

• W/A/S/D keys move map up/right/down/left.
• Escape key closes application

Spacebar opens menu and switches to Control Scheme 2

Control Scheme 2:

• W/A/S/D moves menu selection up/down/into submenu/back to parent menu.
• Escape key closes menu and switches to Control Scheme 1

I realize this is a silly contrived example, but it demonstrates the point. When we are in a menu we don't want the W/A/S/D keys to also move the map while we are trying to navigate the menu. This could be done with a bunch of if statements such as

if(moveMode)
   // read keypresses and move map
else if(menuMode)
   // read keypresses and menu navigation

But you can see how this would get messy very quickly if we had lots of modes. We could also end up with a lot of nested if statements if we have sub-modes for controls.

Surely there's a cleaner way to do this? Any best practices for this? Any frameworks?

Answer 1

The new input system makes this very easy.

Just create an input actions asset with a different action map for each input mode.

If you prefer to work with the auto-generated mapping classes for each input asset, then you can just enable and disable those input actions separately. This can look like this (assuming your input action assets is named "My Input Actions" and you enabled "Generate C# Class" on it):

private void Awake() {
    myInputActions = new myInputActions();

    myInputActions.Scheme1.SwitchToScheme2.performed += ((InputAction.CallbackContext ctx) => {
         myInputActions.Scheme1.enabled = false;
         myInputActions.Scheme2.enabled = true;             
    }
    // other event handlers for myInputActions.Scheme1

    myInputActions.Scheme2.SwitchToScheme1.performed += ((InputAction.CallbackContext ctx) => {
         myInputActions.Scheme1.enabled = true;
         myInputActions.Scheme2.enabled = false;             
    }
    // other event handlers for myInputActions.Scheme2

    myInputActions.Enable();
}

When you prefer to use the Player Input component, you can use the method SwitchCurrentActionMap:

private void OnSwitchToScheme1() {
    GetComponent<PlayerInput>().SwitchCurrentActionMap("Scheme1");
}

private void OnSwitchToScheme2() {
    GetComponent<PlayerInput>().SwitchCurrentActionMap("Scheme2");
}

Answer 2

Event handlers.

When your map is open or gains focus, it subscribes to key events.

InputManager.OnKeyPressed += HandleKeyPress;

When your map closes or loses focus, it unsubscribes from key events.

InputManager.OnKeyPressed -= HandleKeyPress;

Here's a Unity example and video about it.

Answer 3

You could just use the Unity Input System. It is designed to handle contextual mappings, remappings, and support for multiple input methods.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/[email protected]/manual/QuickStartGuide.html