Third Person Controller – Melee Combat Template 

(v2.5.0 - 26/11/2019) 

 
Thank  you  for  supporting  this  asset,  we  develop  this  template  because  a  lot  of  developers  have 
good ideas for a Third Person Game, but build a Controller is really hard and takes too much time. 

The  goal  of  this  template  is  to  deliver  a  top  quality  controller  that  can  help  those  who  want  to 
make a Third Person Game but are stuck trying to make a controller. 

With  this  template,  you  can  setup  a  3D  Model  in  just  a  few  seconds,  without  the  need  of  knowing 
advanced  scripting  or  wasting  time  dragging  and  drop  game  objects  to  the  inspector,  instead  you 
can just focus on making your game. 

--- Invector Team --- 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 
 

Ps* This Documentation will cover the ​MeleeCombat Features​, there is another documentation 
for the ​Basic Locomotion​ and ​Shooter ​on their respective folders. 

Summary 

FIRST RUN 3 

CREATING A MELEE CONTROLLER 5

MELEE MANAGER 7 

CREATING A MELEE WEAPON 10 

HOW TO APPLY DAMAGE TO A TARGET 12 

HOW TO APPLY DAMAGE TO THE PLAYER 14 

ITEM MANAGER (INVENTORY) 17 

COLLECTABLE STANDALONE (NO INVENTORY) 21 

TOPDOWN / 2.5D / POINT & CLICK CONTROLLER / MOBILE 23 

CREATING A ENEMY AI 25 

LOCK-ON TARGET 27 

WAYPOINT SYSTEM 28 

CREATING A COMPANION AI 29 

BODY SNAPPING ATTACHMENTS 30 

WEAPON HOLDER MANAGER 33 

DRAW/HIDE WEAPONS 35 

 

 
 

FIRST RUN 
  

*​IMPORTANT​*  

This is a ​Complete Project​, and as every complete project it includes a custom ​InputManager​, ​Tags​, ​Layers​, 
etc… ​Make​ sure that you import ​on​ a ​Clean Project​.  

  

   

- Importing on an existent project  

There are basically 3 files that are​ extremely necessary for the correct functioning of this 
template​.  

● DynamicsManager.​ ​asset​ - this will apply correct all the Collision Matrix of our Layers, for 
example we need the layer "Triggers" to not collide with the layer "Player".  
● InputManager.​ ​asset​ - We have a custom input mapped with the Xbox360 controller, if you 
don't input those 2 files, the template will present errors and undesired behaviour. 
● TagManager​.​asset​ - Includes all the necessary Tags and Layers for the project to work 
correctly. 

After importing the template you can manually import those files by going to the tab ​Invector > 
Import ProjectSettings. 

 
 

Now that you have imported the necessary files, you can explore the several demo scenes and 
figure it out what kind of Third Person Game you want to create.  

*​Updates also need to be imported into a Clean Project, so MAKE SURE TO BACKUP your 
previous project and transfer the necessary files to your new project. *  

  

 
 

​CREATING A MELEE CONTROLLER 

 
Make sure that your fbx character is set up as ​Humanoid   

  

To setup a new character, go to the tab ​Invector > Melee Combat > Create Melee Controller 

Make sure your Character is ​Fully Rigged​ and set up the FBX as a ​Humanoid​, then assign the FBX to field 
“Humanoid” and click on the button “Create”.  

 
 

Done​.   

The ​Character Creator​ window will take care of all the hard work automatically and set up components such as 
capsule collider, layers, tags, rigibody, etc... It will create the ​ThirdPersonController​, ​ThirdPersonCamera​ and 
a UI Canvas with a ​HUD​ to display health, stamina and other information’s.   

  

Your Capsule Collider settings will be based on your model proportions, if the capsule gets the wrong size, make 
sure that you rig is correct, and that your ​model is using the correct Scale Factor​ the same goes if the ragdoll 
gets​ weird.  

Hit Play and enjoy ​☺

 
 

MELEE MANAGER 
  

V2.0 - You can add a ​Melee Manager​ Component by opening the Invector tab > Melee Combat > Component  

Open Default Info: ​here you can setup the default values for Hand to Hand Combat 
Open Events​: here you can add generic events like trigger something when you make damage 
Add Extra Body Member: ​If you need an extra hitbox for example a Head Hitbox for a zombie, you can add  
Who you can Hit​ > ​Important ​this is the tag that will receive Damage, so if you are using this component on the 
Player, assign the Tags of the gameObjects that you want to apply damage (the receiver need to have the 
method TakeDamage).   
Use Recoil​ > Check if you want the character to trigger a recoil animation when hit a wall   
Recoil Range​ > max angle to allow trigger the recoil animation  
Hit Recoil Layer​ > the layer that will affect the recoil (usually it’s the Default layer)  

When you assign the ​MeleeManager​ component into your character, it will automatically create default hitboxes 
for both hands and legs, you can add an extra hitbox if you need. 

 
 

  

The animations for the hand to hand combat can be set up in the ​Unarmed ​state machine, trigger by the ​ATK_ID 
0 ​and the defense​ DEF_ID 1 ​on the UpperBody Layer​, Default Defense.  

The ​Basic Attack​ State Machine is just an example, you can have as many State Machines you need, just 
remember to set up the ​ID​ to the corresponding weapon.   

You can use ​UpperBody​ to attack as well, this way you can move the character and attack at the same time.  

You can set up as many combos as you want, just put the attack animation and apply a transition.  

  

Every Attack State need to have a ​vMeleeAttackBehaviour​ script attached.  

StartDamage​ > Time of the animation that you will apply damage  
End Damage​ > Time of the animation that will stop trying to apply damage 
 
 

Allow Movement At: ​free your character rotation during the attack animation 
*​Removed on update 2.4.2 use the ​AnimatorTagAdvanced ​LockMovement ​and ​LockRotation ​instead 

Recoil ID​ > Trigger a Recoil animation if you hit a wall or an object 
Reaction ID​ > Trigger a Reaction animation when you take damage 
Melee Attack Type​ > Select Unarmed or Melee Weapon 
Reset Trigger​ > Check this bool for the last attack, to reset the combo   
Attack Name​ > You can write an Attack Name to trigger different HitDamage Particles on the Target, Ex: If your 
weapon has electric damage, you can match the Attack Name with the HitDamage Particle and instantiate a 
different particle for this specific weapon.  
Ignore Defense: ​it will apply damage even if the target is blocking 
Active Ragdoll: ​activate the target ragdoll 

Ps* Don’t forget to assign the limb member of your BodyPart to match the animation, this will trigger the correct 
HitBox, you can add new BodyParts if your attack use more than one member. 

  

   

 
 

CREATING A MELEE WEAPON 

  

To create a new weapon, you just need to select your weapon Mesh and go to the menu Invector > Melee Combat 
> Create Melee Weapon.  

  

After that your mesh will be transferred inside the Components gameobject, and the parent will have a 
vMeleeWeapon attached where you can set up your weapons settings. 

A single hitbox will be created and if you need more you can just duplicate the first and assign into the Hitbox 
List into the MeleeWeapon component. 

IMPORTANT​ – don’t forget to set your ​Weapon Layer to Ignore Raycast and the Tag to Weapon​, if you put a 
weapon​ ​into an Enemy or Player and change the Layer and children’s, you need to set the weapon layer​ ​to 
Triggers again   

After creating your weapon, you can just drag and drop inside a hand Bone of your character and hit Play, the 
MeleeManager will auto assign into the Weapon slot. 

To change weapons ingame you will need a ItemManager assign into your Character. 

Attack Settings:  

 
 

[Damage Options] 
Value​: Total damage of your weapon 
Stamina Block Cost​: How much stamina the target will lose when receive this attack while blocking 
Stamina Recovery Delay​: How much time will wait to start recover the stamina 
Ignore Defense​ > Check if this weapon can pass through shield  
Active Ragdoll​ > Check to make this weapon activate the Ragdoll of the target  
 

 
Example of a weapon with 2 hitbox 
 
HitBoxes List​: Assign your hitboxes here 
Damage Modifier​: Extra Damage 
Melee Type​: Just Attack, Just Defense or Both; 
(SOON) Use Two Hand​ > Check this if your weapon uses two hands (the left weapon will drop)  
Distance to Attack ​> Used for AI only, to know the distance to attack if this weapon 
ATK_ID​ > correspond to the Attack Animation State that will trigger  
MoveSet_ID​ > it’s the correct move set that the character will move when using this weapon  
Stamina Cost​ > how much stamina the attack will cost  
Stamina Recovery Delay​ > how much time will take to the stamina start recovery   
 

Defense Settings:   

DEF ID​ > ID of your defense animation  

Recoil_ID​ > Trigger a recoil animation   
Defense Rate​ > how much damage you can defend from an attack   
Defense Range​ > When you select the shield, a Gizmos will appear to help you see how much of Defense Range 
you need.   
Break Attack ​> Trigger a Recoil Animation on the Attacker   

 
 

HOW TO APPLY DAMAGE TO A TARGET

 

The target must have a vHealthController and a Capsule Collider so that our Damage System can identify it as a 
living target and actually apply damage to it. 

Shooter​: You need to set the DamageLayer of your target in the ShooterManager. 

If you want to apply damage to individual body parts you can create a Ragdoll and set the collider layers to 
BodyPart, each ragdoll collider comes with a DamageReceiver, you can even set a Damage Multiplier if you want 
to apply extra damage in the Head for example. 

OR if you’re creating a simple top down game for example, you can save performance leaving the enemies 
without a ragdoll and applying damage directly to the main capsule collider, in this case you can set the Damage 
Layer to Enemy. 

 
 

MeleeCombat​: You need to set the Tag of your Target in the MeleeManager / HitDamageTags field, you can 
assign several tags to hit different targets.

 
 

HOW TO APPLY DAMAGE TO THE PLAYER

 
We have a few examples on how to apply damage to the Controller, basically you need the ​vObjectDamage ​script 
which is attached to the Pendulum and Spikes. 

- ​DamageType​: Used together with the HitParticleDamage component, you can trigger different particles for 
different type of damage. 

For example if you have an area with fire, you can add a vObjectDamage there and add a DamageType of 
"FireDamage", then add a Custom Damage Effect with the same DamageType to your ​HitDamageParticle ​on your 
Character and add the particle effect to burn your character. 

*This component is attached to the Controller or any object that contains the HealthController 

 
 

- ​DamageValue​: How much damage it will be applied to the vHealthController of the target. 
- ​Stamina Block Cost​: You can ignore that option, it's only for the ThirdPersonController. 
-​ Stamina Recovery Delay​: You can ignore that option, it's only for the ThirdPersonController. 
- ​Ignore Defense:​ If you're using a MeleeCombat Controller, it will ignore the defense and apply damage anyways. 
- ​Active Ragdoll​: It will active the ragdoll on your character, if it has one. 
- ​Reaction ID​: You can trigger specific hit reaction animation, you can use -1 if you don't want to trigger any 
animation. 
- ​Override Damage Sender​: Assign the root object otherwise the AI will target the object that has this 
component instead. For Example: If you apply the vObjectDamage to be a Hitbox of a LeftHand of a character, 
the vHealthController or AI will have the LeftHand as the target instead of the GameObject parent. 
- ​Tags​: What tags you will apply damage to 
- ​Method​: OnTriggerEnter or OnCollisionEnter 
- ​Continuous Damage​: Useful for fire damage for example 
- ​Damage Frequency​: Frequency to apply the damage, if Continuous Damage is enabled. 

_______________________________________________________________________________ 

Using the Ragdoll Colliders as BodyParts to inflict precise damage. 

SHOOTER ​> If you want to cause damage for each body member using the ragdoll colliders, UNCHECK the 
“Disable Colliders” and you can add damage multiplier on each member. 

* You must use a different Layer in the Ragdoll Colliders like “BodyPart” and another for the main capsule 
collider like "Enemy", this way the Detection will detect the Enemy object as a target, but the ShooterManager 
will actually apply damage to the "BodyPart". 

 
 

Bodyparts use the Damage Receiver to receive damage. 

A DamageReceiver is attached to each ragdoll collider, this will allow to Player or AI to apply damage to each 
bodypart instead of the CapsuleCollider. 

- ​Damage Multiplier​: multiply the damage value 

- ​Override a Reaction ID​: Check this option to override the hit reaction animation to trigger a specific animation. 

For example, if you want to cause 2x damage and trigger a specific reaction animation when shooting in the 
Head, simple change the values in this component. 

 
 

ITEM MANAGER (INVENTORY)

 
- Add the ItemManager into your Player from the menu​ ​Invector > Inventory > ItemManager

 
- Select the Inventory Prefab from the​ ​Project > ItemManager > Prefabs 
- and a ​ItemListData​ ​> ​vMelee_ItemListData  

 
 

- You can use the​ ​ItemFilter​ ​to filter the items that you want to show

We have added a window for ​Events​ that are very useful, for example if you want to lock the input of the 
character while the Inventory is Open, just assign the Character and call the method. 

You also have the option to Drop all your items when you die, it will instantiate the Prefab that you select to be 
the Collectable of your item. 

By clicking in ​Open Item List​, a new window will open and you can create new items there.  

 
 

You can create new items or duplicate a current one, keep in mind that each item has a unique ID. 

When creating a Weapon Item, you need to assign the ​Original Object​ (that instantiate into the Player with a 
vMeleeWeapon or vShooterWeapon) and a ​DropObject​ which we have a prefab called “​CollectableEquipment​” 
that you can use and it will automatically drop the item you assign or create a unique collectable with a mesh 
that matches your item. 

 
 

Don’t forget to add the attributes of your weapon, this will allow you to drop and collect your weapon with the 
same attributes, making it into a unique weapon. 

This Inventory Example goes further and further into options to customize, like consumable items, if is stackable 
or not, and much more that is better explained on video tutorials that you can watch on our ​Youtube Channel​. 

 
 

COLLECTABLE STANDALONE (NO INVENTORY) 

 
If you don’t want to use the ItemManager to manage your items, we have another solution for ‘on demand’ 
collectibles, notice that you can only equip 1 item, once you try to equip another the current item will drop. 

Take a look into the Demo Scene call “vShooterMelee_NOInventory”, instead of adding the ItemManager 
component, now you will add the “vCollectShooterMeleeControl” component to automatically collect and equip 
weapons. 

You need to create the defaultEquipPoint to equip weapons and assign inputs to drop them. 

We also have a pretty simple example of a Display HUD to show what weapons you’re equipped with, it’s called 
“vShooterDisplayWeapon”, search in the project folder and drag and drop the prefab into the scene. 

For the ItemManager we need a prefab for the actual weapon that goes into the Player and another to be the 
Collectable, but in this case the CollectableStandalone is both. Take a look into one of the several examples of 
collectables we have for both melee and shooter weapons. 

 
 

It's important to assign the correct gameobjects into the Events, we turn off the collision and gravity of the 
weapons when equipped and turn on when you drop them. 

 
 

TOPDOWN / 2.5D / POINT & CLICK CONTROLLER / MOBILE  

 

We have different types of controllers that are included in the project as a bonus, you can import those packages 
by going to ​Invector > WelcomeWindow > Add-ons 

If you don’t own the Melee or Shooter templates, you don’t need to import their folders.  

  

 
 

Each scene contains examples on how to set up each gameplay type. 

To turn your Third Person Controller into a TopDown or Isometric controller just go into your ThirdPersonCamera 
and change the CameraState to ​TopDown@CameraState, Isometric@CameraState or 2.5@CameraState 
depending on what controller you want. 

Go to the add-on folder you want and replace your current ​vThirdPersonController​ component for the 
vTopDownController ​or ​2_5Dcontroller​ in the Player Inspector. 

To use the ​Point&Click ​you can still use the vThirdPersonController, but you will need to replace the Input to 
vPointAndClickInput or vMeleePointClickInput ​(if it’s a melee character), for more information check the 
Invector_Point&Click_Melee. 

And for the ​2.5DController​ check the 2.5Demo scene, you will need a 2.5Path to navigate.   

 
 

CREATING A ENEMY AI 

  

Invector > Melee Combat > Create NPC and change the ​Character Type​ to ​Enemy AI  

After hitting the Create button, our scripts will handle all the most time consuming stuff and make the AI almost 
done to hit Play, you just ​need to BAKE a ​NavMesh​ ​on the Scene.  

Locomotion​ - It works pretty much the same as the Character Controller, you still need to set up the   

Layers​ – just like the Player, you need to set up a Layer for the AI (Enemy) and a layer for the Ground (Default). 
If you equip a Weapon on the character, don’t forget to assign the Layer Triggers for this weapon.  

Combat – ​Here​ ​you will have a lot of options to make very different combat behavior, you can add a chance to 
block (if equipped with a defense weapon), chance to roll, chance to defend an attack, change the attack 
frequency, strafe around the target, etc…   

Waypoints – ​You can add waypoints for the AI to follow in sequence of activate the option to Random.   

We manage to get better results with the NavMesh using this set up, but of course this will depend on your scene, 
terrain, meshs, etc…   

  

 
 

  

  

  

Field of View​ > total range to detect the Player  

Strafe Distance​ > once in combat, the character will move Strafing   

Attack Area​ > total range to attack   

Min Detect Distance​ > Min distance to detect the player, even if the player is outside the Field of View range.  

  

  

  

  

  

 
 

LOCK-ON TARGET 
 

You can add a Lock-on component into the Camera by opening the 3​rd​ Person Controller menu > Components > 
Lock-On. The component will be ready to use, you can set up the input that activate the Lock-on in the 
ThirdPersonController​ script, at the method ​LockOnInput.   

  

You can also display a ​Sprite Image​ into the Target by assigning an Image and Canvas.  

Hide Sprite​ will hide the sprite if the target if lock-on is false. Set off-set Y by changing the value of the ​Sprite 
Height​.  

This Lock-On currently works exclusively with our AI, it will not work out of the box with Non-Invector Characters 
because it needs the ​vCharacter​ interface to know if the target is alive. You can assign a ​vCharacterStandalone 
script into your gameobject, it contains health and a ​TakeDamage​ method to receive damage.  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 
 

  

WAYPOINT SYSTEM 
 

You can create a Waypoint Area by opening the 3​rd​ Person Controller > Component > New Waypoint Area. To 
create a new ​Waypoint​, just hold ​Shift + Left Click​ on any surface with a collider, to reposition the same 
waypoint hold ​Shift + Right Click​. The same goes to create Patrol Points, but you will hold Ctrl instead of Shift. 
You can assign this Waypoint Area to many AI as you want, and limit the area / limit of AI that will access.   

Patrol Points​ are points of interest that one waypoint has, for example if you have a corridor with 3 rooms, you 
can create 1 waypoint in the middle of the corridor and 3 patrol points with ​Max Visitors of 1​, this means that if 
an AI is already on a room, the other AI will not come to the same room, he will go to the next one.  

Time to Stay​ is how much time the AI will stand there.  

isValid​ is a bool that you can turn on/off to disable a waypoints/patrol point in real time.  

You can make the AI walks randomly at waypoints by selecting the option ​Random Waypoints​ on the AI Inspector. 
To make random patrol points, select the option ​Random Patrol Point​ on the Waypoint Inspector.  

Waypoints are represented by Spheres and Patrol Points are represented by Cubes.  

  

  

  

 
 

CREATING A COMPANION AI 

 

Same process as creating a Player or EnemyAI, just select CompanionAI on the Character Type.  

The Companion has the same variables as the EnemyAI, plus:   

  

If you open the v_AICompanion script, you will see that we have a method call CompanionInputs and you can 
customize for your needs, this method contains the basic commands like Follow, Stay, Aggressive/Passive and 
MoveTo (you can send the AI to a specific spot by an Vector3)  

Default Inputs:  

– Stay  
– Follow  
– Aggressive/Passive  
– Move to (moveToTarget)  

*Notice that the transform target height can be no higher than 0.5f from the navmesh, otherwise he can’t find a 
path to go.  

  

  

 
 

BODY SNAPPING ATTACHMENTS 

 

We created this feature to make it easier to transfer attachments from one controller to another.  

This means that you can create a Prefab of a Character Attachments and quickly add to another character, 
without the need of adding attachments one by one on each bone. 

First, create an Empty GameObject inside your character, add the “​vBodySnappingControl​” and hit the “Create 
New BodyStruct.  

 
 

If your Avatar is already set up as Humanoid and all the bones are correctly mapped, it will all be automatically 
assigned for you, in some cases Unity doesn’t recognize a Spine or Chest, so you need to fix by going to your 
Avatar and assigning the correct Bone, example: 

 
 

Now going back to our Character BodySnap Control, you can add all your character attachments such as particles 
that activated on a specific bone, itemManager Handles, anything that you may use and assigned to a specific 
bone, once you hit Play that GameObject will be attached to the bone you assigned. 

 
 

WEAPON HOLDER MANAGER 

 

*This feature requires a ItemManager  

Add this component to your Shooter Controller and there is no need to setup anything here: 

Now go inside your controller, create an empty gameObject and add the vWeaponHolder component. 

 
 

The ​EquipPointName ​can be found in the ​ItemManager ​> EquipPoints. 

By default it comes with 2 EquipPoins, LeftArm and RightArm but you also create your own custom equipPoints. 

The ​ItemID ​can be found in the ItemManager ​ItemListData​, there you can also set what animation will be played 
when you equip/unequip your weapon. 

The ​HolderObject ​is in case your weapon has a holster or something. 

And the ​WeaponObject ​is just the 3D model without any scripts or collision, you can add all of this inside the 
character and leave it disabled. (Check our demo scenes to see examples) 

 
 

DRAW/HIDE WEAPONS 
 

This feature is to automatically or via input hide weapons without unequipping them. 

It’s pretty straightforward to use, simply add the component to your ShooterController, it must already have a 
ItemManager and a WeaponHolderManager already setup. 

By checking the option Hide Weapons Automatically a field will appear so you can set a timer, for example after 
5 seconds with the weapon equipped if will hide or you can leave it unchecked and use an Input to draw/hide the 
weapon.