Mobile Controls

Table of Contents

Realistic Car Controller Pro includes a complete mobile input system with four controller types to choose from. The system is driven by the RCCP_MobileInputs component, which reads values from on-screen UI elements and feeds them into the main input pipeline. All mobile controller settings live inside RCCP_Settings, and the visual controls are part of the RCCP UI Canvas prefab.

Overview

RCCP provides four mobile controller types:

Controller Steering Method UI Elements Shown
TouchScreen Left/Right buttons Steer Left, Steer Right, Throttle, Brake, Handbrake, NOS
Gyro Device tilt (accelerometer) Throttle, Brake, Handbrake, NOS (no steering buttons)
SteeringWheel Rotatable on-screen wheel Steering Wheel, Throttle, Brake, Handbrake, NOS
Joystick Draggable analog stick Joystick, Throttle, Brake, Handbrake, NOS

The NOS button only appears when the active player vehicle has a NOS addon component attached.

Enabling Mobile Controls

  1. Open RCCP Settings: Tools > BoneCracker Games > Realistic Car Controller Pro > Settings
  2. In the Mobile Input section, enable mobileControllerEnabled (set to true)
  3. Select the desired controller type from the mobileController dropdown

When mobileControllerEnabled is false, the mobile canvas is automatically hidden regardless of platform. When true, the canvas activates and shows the appropriate UI elements for the selected controller type.

Settings Reference

Field Type Default Description
mobileControllerEnabled bool false Master toggle for mobile controls
mobileController enum TouchScreen Active controller type
gyroSensitivity float 2.5 Accelerometer sensitivity multiplier (Gyro mode only)

Controller Types

TouchScreen

The simplest mobile input mode. Six on-screen buttons handle all vehicle controls:

Steering is computed as -left.input + right.input, giving a final range of -1 (full left) to 1 (full right).

Sensitivity and Gravity

Each RCCP_UIController button has two tuning parameters:

Parameter Default What It Does
sensitivity 5.0 How fast the input value ramps up toward 1 when the button is held. Higher values produce snappier response.
gravity 5.0 How fast the input value returns to 0 when the button is released. Higher values make the input drop off faster.

Both values are multiplied by Time.deltaTime each frame, so the actual ramp speed is framerate-independent. The input is clamped between 0 and 1.

Gyro (Accelerometer)

In Gyro mode, the device's built-in accelerometer controls steering. RCCP uses Unity's New Input System accelerometer (UnityEngine.InputSystem.Accelerometer.current) to read the device tilt.

Tuning tip: Start with the default gyroSensitivity of 2.5. Increase it if steering feels too sluggish on tilt, decrease it if small movements cause oversteering.

Steering Wheel

An on-screen rotatable steering wheel rendered by RCCP_UI_SteeringWheelController. The player drags the wheel image to rotate it, and the rotation angle is converted to a normalized steering value between -1 and 1.

Parameter Default Description
steeringWheelMaximumsteerAngle 270 Maximum rotation angle in degrees (both directions). The wheel can rotate from -270 to +270.
steeringWheelResetPosSpeed 20 How fast the wheel auto-centers when released. Uses Mathf.MoveTowards scaled by Time.deltaTime * 100.
steeringWheelCenterDeadZoneRadius 5 Pixel radius around the wheel center where touch input is ignored. Prevents jitter from imprecise touches near the center.

The steering input is calculated as:

input = Round(currentAngle / maximumAngle * 100) / 100

This gives two decimal places of precision. When the player releases the wheel, it smoothly returns to center at the configured reset speed.

The steering wheel uses Unity's EventTrigger system with three events: PointerDown (start tracking), Drag (update angle), and EndDrag (release and auto-center).

Joystick

A standard analog joystick handled by RCCP_UI_Joystick. It consists of a background sprite and a draggable handle sprite.

The joystick implements IDragHandler, IPointerUpHandler, and IPointerDownHandler from Unity's EventSystems.

Switching Controller Type at Runtime

You can change the active mobile controller type from code at any time:

// Switch to Gyro mode
RCCP.SetMobileController(RCCP_Settings.MobileController.Gyro);

// Switch to Joystick mode
RCCP.SetMobileController(RCCP_Settings.MobileController.Joystick);

// Switch to TouchScreen mode
RCCP.SetMobileController(RCCP_Settings.MobileController.TouchScreen);

// Switch to SteeringWheel mode
RCCP.SetMobileController(RCCP_Settings.MobileController.SteeringWheel);

There is also a ready-made UI component, RCCP_UI_SetMobileController, that you can attach to buttons in your own UI. It accepts an integer index:

Index Controller
0 TouchScreen
1 Gyro
2 SteeringWheel
3 Joystick

How Mobile Input Flows

Understanding the input pipeline helps when debugging:

  1. RCCP_MobileInputs reads values from its assigned UI components (throttle, brake, left, right, ebrake, nos, steeringWheel, joystick) every frame in Update()
  2. It computes combined values: steerInput = -left.input + right.input + steeringWheel.input + joystick.inputHorizontal (only the active controller contributes since others are disabled)
  3. In Gyro mode, the accelerometer reading is added to steerInput
  4. NOS input is added to throttle input (then clamped to 0-1)
  5. All values are clamped to their valid ranges
  6. RCCP_InputManager reads these values from RCCP_MobileInputs.Instance and passes them to the active vehicle

UI Canvas Setup

The mobile UI is part of the RCCP UI Canvas prefab, which is referenced in RCCP_Settings. The canvas contains all mobile control elements, and RCCP_MobileInputs manages which elements are visible based on the active controller type.

Sporty Mobile UI Skin

The current default mobile UI is the Sporty skin. The legacy button set was replaced in V2.31.1+ to give a clearer, more focused on-screen control surface:

The four input methods (TouchScreen, Gyro, SteeringWheel, Joystick) are unchanged -- only the button artwork and the labels for handbrake / NOS were updated.

Customizing the Layout

To customize button positions, sizes, or visuals:

  1. Locate the RCCP UI Canvas prefab in your scene (or in the project at the path referenced by RCCP Settings)
  2. Open the prefab and find the mobile control GameObjects
  3. Modify RectTransform positions, sizes, and Image sprites as needed
  4. The RCCP_UIController, RCCP_UI_SteeringWheelController, and RCCP_UI_Joystick components must remain on the correct GameObjects for input to work
  5. Make sure the RCCP_MobileInputs component references are not broken after rearranging

Required Scene Components

Platform Notes

Common Issues

Problem Likely Cause Solution
Controls not showing on device mobileControllerEnabled is false Enable it in RCCP Settings
Steering too sensitive in Gyro mode gyroSensitivity too high Lower the value (try 1.0 - 2.0)
Steering too sluggish in Gyro mode gyroSensitivity too low Raise the value (try 3.0 - 5.0)
Buttons not responding to touch Missing EventSystem in scene Add an EventSystem GameObject to the scene
NOS button not visible Vehicle has no NOS addon Add RCCP NOS component to the vehicle via OtherAddonsManager
TouchScreen buttons respond slowly Low sensitivity on RCCP_UIController Increase the sensitivity value on the button component
Input sticks after switching controllers UI element not resetting Inputs auto-reset on enable/disable; check that references in RCCP_MobileInputs are assigned
Steering wheel jitters near center Dead zone too small Increase steeringWheelCenterDeadZoneRadius

Next Steps

Support: bonecrackergames@gmail.com | www.bonecrackergames.com Need help? See Troubleshooting