🎮 Third-Person Controls

Modern, reusable third-person shooter controls for React Three Fiber applications. Built with TypeScript and featuring smooth camera controls, realistic physics, and advanced animation systems.

✨ Features

• 🎯 Smooth Third-Person Camera with intelligent collision detection
• 🏃 Realistic Movement System - Walk, run, strafe, jump with physics
• 🔫 Dynamic Shooting System with muzzle flash effects and recoil
• 🎨 Advanced Animation System using FBX animations with smooth transitions
• 🌍 Physics Integration powered by Rapier physics engine
• 📦 TypeScript Ready with full type definitions
• 🏗️ Modular Architecture - import only what you need

📦 Installation

# Preferred
pnpm add tps-controls

# Or alternatively
npm install tps-controls

Peer Dependencies

Make sure you have these installed in your project:

# Preferred
pnpm add react react-dom @react-three/fiber @react-three/drei @react-three/rapier three

# Or alternatively
npm install react react-dom @react-three/fiber @react-three/drei @react-three/rapier three

🚀 Quick Start

Basic Usage (with default assets)

import React from 'react';
import { Canvas } from '@react-three/fiber';
import { Physics } from '@react-three/rapier';
import { Player } from 'tps-controls';

function App() {
  return (
    <div style={{ width: '100vw', height: '100vh' }}>
      <Canvas>
        <ambientLight intensity={0.5} />
        <directionalLight position={[10, 10, 5]} intensity={1} />
        
        <Physics>
          {/* Ground */}
          <mesh position={[0, -0.5, 0]}>
            <boxGeometry args={[100, 1, 100]} />
            <meshStandardMaterial color="gray" />
          </mesh>
          
          {/* Player with default assets and basic physics customization */}
          <Player 
            position={[0, 1, 0]}
            mass={6}              // Slightly heavier than default
            friction={0.7}        // More grip on surfaces
            restitution={0.2}     // Less bouncy
          />
        </Physics>
      </Canvas>
    </div>
  );
}

Custom Assets

You can easily use your own 3D model, animations, and audio files:

import React from 'react';
import { Canvas } from '@react-three/fiber';
import { Physics } from '@react-three/rapier';
import { Player, preloadPlayerAssets } from 'tps-controls';

// Preload your custom assets for better performance
preloadPlayerAssets('/models/my-character.glb');

function App() {
  return (
    <div style={{ width: '100vw', height: '100vh' }}>
      <Canvas>
        <ambientLight intensity={0.5} />
        <directionalLight position={[10, 10, 5]} intensity={1} />
        
        <Physics>
          <mesh position={[0, -0.5, 0]}>
            <boxGeometry args={[100, 1, 100]} />
            <meshStandardMaterial color="gray" />
          </mesh>
          
          <Player 
            position={[0, 1, 0]}
            modelPath="/models/my-character.glb"
            animationPaths={{
              idle: "/animations/my-idle.fbx",
              walkForward: "/animations/my-walk.fbx",
              runForward: "/animations/my-run.fbx",
              jumpStart: "/animations/my-jump-start.fbx",
              jumpEnd: "/animations/my-jump-end.fbx"
              // ... other animations are optional and will use defaults
            }}
            audioPath="/sfx/my-gun-shot.mp3"
            // Customize physics behavior
            mass={8}                    // Heavier character = more momentum
            friction={0.8}              // Higher friction = less sliding
            restitution={0.1}           // Lower bounce factor
            linearDamping={0.2}         // Higher damping = stops faster
            angularDamping={0.2}        // Rotation damping
            colliderArgs={[0.6, 0.4]}   // [height, radius] - larger collider
          />
        </Physics>
      </Canvas>
    </div>
  );
}

🎨 Customization Options

Physics Behavior

The Player component uses Rapier physics and provides several props to customize the physical behavior:

<Player 
  // Basic physics props
  mass={5}                    // Character weight (affects momentum and jump height)
  friction={0.5}              // Surface grip (0 = ice, 1 = sticky)
  restitution={0.3}           // Bounciness (0 = no bounce, 1 = super bouncy)
  linearDamping={0.1}         // Movement resistance (higher = stops faster)
  angularDamping={0.1}        // Rotation resistance
  colliderArgs={[0.5, 0.3]}   // Collision shape [height, radius]
  
  // Examples of different character feels:
  
  // Heavy tank-like character
  mass={12}
  friction={0.9}
  linearDamping={0.3}
  
  // Light, agile character  
  mass={3}
  friction={0.4}
  linearDamping={0.05}
  
  // Bouncy character
  restitution={0.8}
  mass={4}
/>

PlayerProps

| Prop | Type | Default | Description | |------|------|---------|-------------| | modelPath | string | '/models/player.glb' | Path to your 3D model (.glb/.gltf) | | animationPaths | AnimationPaths | Default pistol animations | Custom animation file paths | | audioPath | string | '/sfx/pistol-shot.mp3' | Path to shooting sound effect | | colliderArgs | [number, number] | [0.5, 0.3] | Capsule collider [height, radius] | | mass | number | 5 | Physics body mass | | restitution | number | 0.3 | Bounce factor (0-1) | | friction | number | 0.5 | Surface friction (0-1) | | linearDamping | number | 0.1 | Movement damping | | angularDamping | number | 0.1 | Rotation damping | | castShadow | boolean | false | Whether the player casts shadows | | receiveShadow | boolean | false | Whether the player receives shadows |

Shadow Rendering

Enable dynamic shadows for more realistic lighting:

// Enable shadows in your Canvas
<Canvas shadows>
  {/* Add shadow-casting lights */}
  <directionalLight 
    position={[10, 15, 5]} 
    intensity={1.2}
    castShadow
    shadow-mapSize-width={2048}    // Higher = better quality, lower performance
    shadow-mapSize-height={2048}
    shadow-camera-far={50}
    shadow-camera-left={-25}      // Adjust these values to cover your scene
    shadow-camera-right={25}      // Larger values = more area covered
    shadow-camera-top={25}
    shadow-camera-bottom={-25}
    shadow-bias={-0.0001}         // Prevents shadow acne
  />
  
  <Physics>
    {/* Ground receives shadows */}
    <mesh position={[0, -0.5, 0]} receiveShadow>
      <planeGeometry args={[100, 100]} />
      <meshStandardMaterial color="gray" />
    </mesh>
    
    {/* Player casts and receives shadows */}
    <Player 
      castShadow={true}      // Player casts shadows
      receiveShadow={true}   // Player receives shadows from other objects
    />
  </Physics>
</Canvas>

Shadow Configuration Tips:

• Use shadow-bias={-0.0001} to prevent shadow acne (dark artifacts)
• The shadow-camera-* props define the area where shadows are rendered
• Make them large enough to cover your playable area
• Larger values = more area covered but lower shadow resolution
• For a 100x100 ground plane, use values like ±25 to ±50

Advanced: AccumulativeShadows (Optional)

For even higher quality, noise-free shadows, you can use Drei's AccumulativeShadows:

import { AccumulativeShadows, RandomizedLight } from '@react-three/drei'

<Canvas>
  <ambientLight intensity={0.4} />
  <directionalLight position={[0, 10, 5]} intensity={1.2} />
  
  <Physics>
    {/* AccumulativeShadows for noise-free, high-quality shadows */}
    <AccumulativeShadows 
      temporal 
      frames={60} 
      alphaTest={0.85} 
      color={'#000000'} 
      colorBlend={0.5} 
      opacity={0.8}
      scale={20}
      position={[0, 0.01, 0]}
    >
      <RandomizedLight 
        amount={8} 
        radius={10} 
        ambient={0.5} 
        intensity={1} 
        position={[5, 5, -10]} 
        bias={0.001}
      />
    </AccumulativeShadows>
    
    {/* Ground */}
    <mesh position={[0, -0.5, 0]}>
      <planeGeometry args={[100, 100]} />
      <meshStandardMaterial color="gray" />
    </mesh>
    
    {/* Player only needs castShadow with AccumulativeShadows */}
    <Player castShadow={true} />
  </Physics>
</Canvas>

Why AccumulativeShadows?

• ✅ No flickering - Stable, smooth shadows
• ✅ Higher quality - Soft, realistic shadow edges
• ✅ Noise-free - Clean shadows without artifacts
• ⚠️ More complex - Requires careful setup and positioning

Animation Paths

interface AnimationPaths {
  idle?: string;           // Character standing still
  walkForward?: string;    // Walking forward
  walkBackward?: string;   // Walking backward  
  runForward?: string;     // Running forward
  runBackward?: string;    // Running backward
  strafeLeft?: string;     // Side-stepping left
  strafeRight?: string;    // Side-stepping right
  jumpStart?: string;      // Jump take-off animation
  jumpEnd?: string;        // Jump landing animation
}

🎯 Asset Requirements

3D Model (.glb/.gltf)

• Rigged humanoid character with standard bone structure
• Compatible with mixamo animations
• Optimized for real-time rendering

Animations (.fbx)

• Mixamo-compatible bone structure
• Loop-ready animations (except jump animations)
• Consistent frame rates for smooth transitions

Audio (.mp3/.wav/.ogg)

• Short duration shooting sound effect
• Optimized file size for web delivery

🎮 Controls

        <boxGeometry args={[100, 1, 100]} />
        <meshStandardMaterial color="gray" />
      </mesh>
      
      {/* Player with controls */}
      <Player position={[0, 1, 0]} />
    </Physics>
  </Canvas>
</div>

); }

export default App;

## 🎮 Controls

| Key | Action |
|-----|--------|
| `W/A/S/D` | Move forward/left/backward/right |
| `F` (hold) | Run |
| `Space` | Jump |
| `Mouse` | Look around |
| `Right Click` (hold) | Zoom/Aim |
| `Left Click` | Shoot |

## 📚 API Reference

### Player Component

The main player component with third-person controls.

```tsx
<Player 
  position={[0, 0, 0]}
  // ... other THREE.Group props
/>

Props:

• Extends React.ComponentProps<'group'>
• All standard THREE.Group properties are supported

Modular Exports

Import individual modules for custom implementations:

import {
  // Core functions
  handleMovement,
  handleJump,
  handleShooting,
  updateCamera,
  useAnimationSetup,
  
  // Types
  MovementParams,
  CameraParams,
  JumpParams
} from 'tps-controls';

🏗️ Architecture

The package is built with a modular architecture:

• Player - Main component orchestrating all systems
• camera - Third-person camera with collision detection
• movement - Physics-based player movement
• shooting - Raycast-based shooting system
• animation - FBX animation management
• physics - Rapier physics integration

🎯 Advanced Usage

Custom Animation Setup

import { useAnimationSetup } from 'tps-controls';

function CustomPlayer() {
  const { actions, mixer } = useAnimationSetup(scene);
  
  // Use actions and mixer for custom animation logic
}

Manual Camera Control

import { updateCamera } from 'tps-controls';

// In your component
updateCamera({
  zoom: zoomRef,
  smoothedPlayerPosition: playerPosRef,
  smoothedCameraPosition: cameraPosRef,
  // ... other params
});

📋 Requirements

• React >=18.0.0
• @react-three/fiber >=8.0.0
• @react-three/drei >=9.0.0
• @react-three/rapier >=1.0.0
• three >=0.150.0

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Check out our contribution guidelines.

� Troubleshooting

Installation Issues

# Package not found
npm install tps-controls
# or
pnpm add tps-controls

# Peer dependency warnings
npm install @react-three/fiber @react-three/drei @react-three/rapier three

Runtime Issues

• Physics not working: Ensure your component is wrapped in <Physics> from @react-three/rapier
• Assets not loading: Check that your asset paths are correct and files exist in public/
• TypeScript errors: Make sure you have the latest version with pnpm add tps-controls@latest

For more help, see the main repository documentation.

�📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

🔗 Links

• Demo
• GitHub
• Issues
• NPM