Input action maps in Unity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Input Action Maps in Unity

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple Unity game where the player can move a character using keyboard inputs. To manage these inputs cleanly, you will use Input Action Maps, which help organize input controls.

🎯 Goal: Build a Unity script that sets up an Input Action Map for player movement and reads input values to move the character.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an Input Action Map called playerActions with an action move

Add a Vector2 binding to move for keyboard WASD keys

Create a variable moveInput to store the current movement input

Print the moveInput value each frame to see the input

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Input Action Maps help organize player controls in games, making it easier to manage different input devices and actions.

💼 Career

Game developers use Input System features like action maps to create flexible and maintainable input handling in professional Unity projects.

1

Create the Input Action Map and move action

Create an InputActionMap called playerActions and add an InputAction called move with type Value and control type Vector2.

Unity

# Your code here to create playerActions and move action

Need a hint?

Use new InputActionMap("Player") to create the map and AddAction to add the move action.

2

Add WASD keyboard bindings to the move action

Add a composite binding of type 2DVector to the move action with these parts: up bound to W, down to S, left to A, and right to D keys on the keyboard.

Unity

using UnityEngine.InputSystem;

InputActionMap playerActions = new InputActionMap("Player");
InputAction move = playerActions.AddAction("move", InputActionType.Value, "");
move.expectedControlType = "Vector2";

# Add 2DVector composite binding with WASD keys to move action

Need a hint?

Use AddCompositeBinding("2DVector") and chain With calls for each direction.

3

Enable the action map and read input

Enable the playerActions map and create a Vector2 variable called moveInput. Use move.ReadValue<Vector2>() to update moveInput each frame inside an Update method.

Unity

using UnityEngine.InputSystem;
using UnityEngine;

InputActionMap playerActions = new InputActionMap("Player");
InputAction move = playerActions.AddAction("move", InputActionType.Value, "");
move.expectedControlType = "Vector2";

move.AddCompositeBinding("2DVector")
    .With("up", "/w")
    .With("down", "/s")
    .With("left", "/a")
    .With("right", "/d");

Vector2 moveInput;

void Start()
{
    // Enable the action map
}

void Update()
{
    // Read move input value
}

Need a hint?

Call playerActions.Enable() in Start() and update moveInput in Update().

4

Print the move input value each frame

Add a Debug.Log statement inside the Update method to print the current moveInput value.

Unity

using UnityEngine.InputSystem;
using UnityEngine;

InputActionMap playerActions = new InputActionMap("Player");
InputAction move = playerActions.AddAction("move", InputActionType.Value, "");
move.expectedControlType = "Vector2";

move.AddCompositeBinding("2DVector")
    .With("up", "/w")
    .With("down", "/s")
    .With("left", "/a")
    .With("right", "/d");

Vector2 moveInput;

void Start()
{
    playerActions.Enable();
}

void Update()
{
    moveInput = move.ReadValue();
    // Your code here to print moveInput
}

Need a hint?

Use Debug.Log(moveInput); inside Update() to see the input values in the console.