3D mode with 2D characters - how this can be done?

ciaps

Hi everybody,

I am trying to recreate a visual style like "Don't Starve", which uses 2D Sprites in a 3D world. 

My problem is with the Player: I am not able to make him walk around the 3D-navmesh and at the same time make him face the camera, with the sprites changing.

In 2D my player works perfectly, I would just need him to move around a 3D Navmesh rather than on the 2D Navmesh.

Do you have any tip on how to create such a player GameObject, maybe through the wizard, and then tweaking its components?

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In AC so far it is possible to have a 2.5D approach, but it presumes that on a 2D Background I would use a 3D character, but I need a 2D character in a 3D world. and I was not able to set up the 3D component (I guess capsule collider, rigidbody and path script) to the 2D player gameobject, in a way that works. 

I am using unity-navmesh. I tried to set up a hybrid player, generating it from the wizard as 3D, and then attaching the 2D sprites and playing around the Settings Managers with the Camera Settings (set to Unity2D). But I feel that it would be easier to tweak a 2D Player, making him follow a 3D Navmesh, but the "2D" settings of AC does not allow me to create a 3D Navmesh.

Also, the camera will be fixed -- so now you would be wondering why I want to set this thing up in 3D if I use 2D chars and fixed camera, but it is for a particular visual approach I need to make. 

I also tried to follow the approach described in this official video which I understand is obsolete: I am trying to achieve exactly something like this (2D player built on a 3D navmesh), but to my understanding AC changed since then (it is a 2D top-down approach) and it is not possible to do that anymore.

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Any ideas? Thanks !!

ChrisIceBox

If you give a character 3D components (capsule collider, rigidbody) as well as a standard sprite child, then it should work automatically.  Try using the Character Wizard to create your character - if you make a 2D character when the game's Camera perspective is 3D, it'll prompt you that you're about to make a 2D character for 3D game.

ciaps

Hi Chris, thank you very much for your reply! 

Super cool, you are right! I can see the wizard prompting me "It has been detected that you are attempting to create a 2D character in a 3D game. Is this correct?" with the checkbox.

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for!

I have another question related to this: I am following your (awesome) tutorial https://youtu.be/bf51Nc-gFxY?t=1h11m34s and I am experiencing the same problem mentioned in the last comment, i.e. the whole navmesh becomes black, rather than invisible -- I used the MatteShadow material linked ias suggested (here) -- how can I achieve this effect of displaying only shadows? I found this thread on the Unity forums, but is 7 years old(!), maybe you have a suggestion.

Thanks again!

ChrisIceBox

It could be that it's a matter of shader code not having the same effect as before due to changes in Unity itself.  I didn't write the MatteShadow shader - in fact it's from the very thread you linked to.  Unfortunately I don't know anything about shaders, so you'd have to bump that thread or ask elsewhere on the Unity forums to find a new solution for 5.3+.

ciaps

Ok, if I find something that works I will post it in the forums. Thanks again !