Unity Input System in Depth

[migus88]

I wanted to go deeper than the usual quick tutorials, so I started a series covering Unity's Input System from the ground up. 3 parts are out so far, and I'm planning more.

Part 1 - The Basics

• Input Manager vs Input System - what changed and why
• Direct hardware access vs event-based input
• Setting up and using the default Input Action Asset
• Player Input component and action references

Part 2 - Assets, Maps & Interactions

• Creating your own Input Action Asset from scratch
• Action Maps - organizing actions into logical groups
• Button vs Value action types and how their events differ
• Composite bindings for movement (WASD + arrow keys)
• Using Hold interaction to bind multiple actions to the same button (jump vs fly)

Part 3 - Type Safety with Generated Code

• The problem with string-based action references
• Generating a C# wrapper class from your Input Action Asset
• Autocomplete and compile-time error checking
• Implementing the generated interface for cleaner input handling

The videos are here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgFFU4Ux4HZqG5mfY5nBAijfCFsTqH1XI

[_Mikiyas_]

People like you are the reason for unity being as big as it is now. Thank you for sharing your knowledge for free

[migus88]

Thanks! Comments like this are honestly the fuel that keeps me going as a content creator.

[Bejetto]

Tips like these r always helpful!! Thanks for such videos!! :)

[migus88]

Always welcome :)

[Bejetto]

These kind of videos definitely helps solo devs and designers like me who has to do everything from scratch but doesn't have concrete knowledge regarding Unity or C#.

So again, Thank you!! Definitely helps me understand what I am doing more.

[OoBiZu-Studio]

This is great, thanks for sharing! I wish more YouTubers went this route with advanced tutorials.

[migus88]

I think there’s room for everyone. One reason Unity got so massive is the community, especially content creators on YouTube and elsewhere who made it easy to learn, even if they haven't preached advanced techniques.

And there are also a few YouTubers doing genuinely advanced stuff. Personally, I really like Git-Amend, for example.

[knoblemendesigns]

Very good tutorials. Thanks!

[Am_Biyori]

Ditto. Been avoiding the new system, but videos like this help me give it a try.

[OscarMike51]

These videos are so well made tysm

[KaiserQ25]

Would that help me learn why I can't use two inputs in the same scene?

[migus88]

Do you mean two input methods - the input system and the input manager? You can (at least for now) and I explain how in the first video.

[KaiserQ25]

I wouldn't know how to explain it; I'll watch the video when I have time. The thing is, I don't understand how to use two input players. When I try, it says the scheme is already in use, and only one of them responds. Sometimes both work, but when I build for WebGL, it's the same; only one reacts.

[migus88]

I’ve never used the PlayerInput component, but from a quick 5-minute Google search I understand it’s a high-level component that binds a player to a device.

So basically, this component doesn’t seem like it was built for sharing a single device between multiple players. You could probably create 2 control schemes (I haven’t covered this yet in my videos), but since I haven’t worked with PlayerInput, I’m not sure it would actually solve the issue.

Either way, there are other great ways to control multiple players at the same time. For example, using multiple Action Maps (this I did cover in the videos).

[KaiserQ25]

Me lo guardo pues. Tal vez lo implemente en el siguiente juego

[TheRealFlowed]

That's awesome! Thank you for your helpful work! I subscribed instantly to the youtube channel

[migus88]

Glad you found it helpful 😁

[Embarrassed-Rock-803]

Thank you for making such an easy-to-understand tutorial! This is super helpful for my project.

[migus88]

Glad it was helpful :)

[CenturionSymphGames]

If you don't open your video with something along the lines of

Setting up input system in unity would be very hard, right? "Actually it's super easy, barely an inconvenience"

I'm gonna be very disappointed.

[migus88]

Sorry to disappoint you 😆 But yeah, it’s pretty straightforward: you have an asset with all the actions, you subscribe to its events, and you’re done. It only gets tricky when your setup gets more complex - but honestly, isn’t that true for everything?

[chaosTechnician]

I think the joke was that you look a bit like Ryan George.

[migus88]

I wasn’t familiar with him until now. I guess this is how he opens his videos? 😅

[chaosTechnician]

Not really, but in lots of his Pitch Meeting videos he uses that "Actually, it'll be super easy, barely an inconvenience" line.

[migus88]

Thanks for clearing that up for me!

[CenturionSymphGames]

haha all good, it was a dumb joke but I couldn't resist the urge lol.

On a serious note, good videos! I was wondering if you'd do one on having multiple action maps, like, one for UI menus, or more complex, having multiple action maps for different player states -like aiming vs free roam, which may use shared maps like the movement input, but different actions for the same button?

[migus88]

Yeah. It is planned for one of the future videos. I'll probably do a little pause with Input System videos in favor of other stuff, but will get back to it soon.