Any problems with flipping a sprite by scale? (2d Platformer)

Question

I am wondering if there are any problems with flipping a sprite on the x-axis using vector2 to tell which direction it is facing/flip. Though doing this helps me write less code for Ray-cast direction and creating single states with a single animation (using 1 animation player facing right than using 2 animation facing left and right). If there is a better solution please tell me and thanks. Btw I am still pretty new and learning.

Answer 1

A negative scale can adversely affect physics features. When you flip a shape backwards, collision/raycast checks that depend on the winding of the collider effectively see it as inside-out. So you might find the object becomes invisible to collisions/clicks when inverted. Changing the scale might also force the physics engine to recompute the object's inertia properties, or it may behave badly in other ways.

To avoid this, I usually like to keep the visual representation of my objects in a child object, while the physics stays at the parent (and colliders live either there or in a sibling). That way I can squash and stretch and flip and wiggle my visuals any way I like, without impacting the physics of the object.

Another method you can use is the flipX property (and flipY) of the SpriteRenderer class. These can be used to reverse the sprite visually, without impacting other components attached to the object. You can also access these as checkboxes in the Inspector: