Player and traversal

Every Feather project has a playable character. It walks, runs, sprints, jumps, crouches, climbs, mantles and swims out of the box, in first person or as a third-person avatar. On top of that you can switch on traversal abilities — rope swinging, grapple zips, wall-running, charged jumps, gliding and flight — and tune how all of it feels. Input goes through named actions that work on keyboard, mouse and gamepad, and players can rebind them.

Everything here is project data, edited in the editor or through project.player, feel.*, traversal.* and input.* commands.

What’s included

• Camera: first person, or third person with an avatar model, an animation library and a camera that pulls in when scenery blocks it.
• Movement: walk, run, sprint and jump speeds; crouching; climbing steep surfaces; mantling onto ledges; swimming in water volumes.
• Stamina for sprinting, climbing and fast swimming.
• Traversal abilities: swing, zip, wall-run, super jump, glide and flight. All are off by default.
• Camera feel: head bob, a field-of-view kick when sprinting, a landing dip and screen shake.
• Footsteps and footprints that match the surface underfoot.
• Input actions with up to four keys and four gamepad buttons each, plus gamepad look settings.

For the shooter movement kit (slide, dash, grapple), see Combat.

Set up the player

1. Open Window → World & terrain and select the Player tab. The same settings appear in Project settings → Player & camera.
2. Under Camera, choose First person or Third person.
3. For third person, pick an Avatar model and, optionally, an Animation library. Any imported model with named clips can drive characters that share its skeleton.
4. Set the speeds, then expand Locomotion clips to map clip names, or choose an Animation graph.
5. Expand Held models (weapons) to attach up to eight models to the avatar’s bones.
6. Below the player settings, tune Movement & stamina, Traversal (swing, glide, fly…), Camera feel, Footsteps and Footprints & step effects.
7. Press Play.

Player settings

Setting	Field	Range	Default
Camera	camera	FirstPerson, ThirdPerson	FirstPerson
Avatar model	avatar_asset_id	Asset ID	None (capsule)
Animation library	animation_library_asset_id	Asset ID	The avatar’s own clips
Avatar scale	avatar_scale	0.05–20	1
Camera distance	camera_distance	1–40 m	5 m
Walk speed	walk_speed	0.1–50 m/s	2 m/s
Run speed	run_speed	0.1–50 m/s	4.5 m/s
Sprint speed	sprint_speed	0.1–50 m/s	9 m/s
Jump speed	jump_speed	0–30 m/s	6.5 m/s
Animation graph	animation_graph	Graph ID	None
Held models	attachments	Up to 8 {model_asset_id, bone, offset, rotation, scale}	None

An animation library with different bone names is retargeted onto the avatar automatically. An animation graph replaces the clip list and receives speed, grounded and vertical_speed every frame. See Animation graphs.

Locomotion clips

The defaults match the Character Forge humanoid clip names. A model without a clip keeps playing its current one. When a model has no Idle_Loop, Walk_Loop or Jog_Fwd_Loop clip, those defaults fall back to its conventionally named clips, so many downloaded characters animate without setup:

Default	Falls back to, first match, any letter case
Idle_Loop	idle, Idle_A, Idle_01, Breathing Idle
Walk_Loop	walk, Walking, Walk_A, Walk_01
Jog_Fwd_Loop	run, jog, sprint, Running, Run_A, Run_01

State	Field	Default clip
Idle	idle	Idle_Loop
Walk	walk	Walk_Loop
Run	run	Jog_Fwd_Loop
Sprint	sprint	Sprint_Loop
Jump	jump	Jump_Start
Fall	fall	Jump_Loop
Swing	swing	Swing_Loop
Glide	glide	Glide_Loop
Fly	fly	Fly_Loop
Crouch	crouch	Crouch_Idle

Movement and stamina

The player runs by default, sprints while Sprint is held, and walks while Alt is held. With crouching on, Crouch lowers the capsule and slows the player. Wading through thick fluids slows the player, and so do deep fresh snow and sand; a trodden track is easier going. Set how much snow and sand slow walkers with Slows walkers in the Snow & sand section of Window → World & terrain → Weather (drifts.set slow, 0–0.9, default 0.45).

Field	Description	Range	Default
movement.crouch	Crouch on the crouch action	On/off	On
movement.crouch_speed	Fraction of run speed while crouched	0.05–1	0.5
movement.climbing	Walk into a steep surface to climb it; Jump leaps up, Crouch lets go	On/off	On
movement.climb_speed	Climbing speed	0.1–10 m/s	1.8 m/s
movement.climb_tag	Only objects with this tag are climbable; empty allows any steep surface, terrain included	—	Empty
movement.mantle	Jump at a ledge to pull up onto it	On/off	On
movement.mantle_height	Highest ledge above the feet	0.3–4 m	2 m
movement.mantle_seconds	Time to pull up	0.05–3 s	0.4 s

Stamina field	Description	Default
stamina.enabled	Stamina limits sprinting, climbing and fast swimming	On
stamina.max	Maximum stamina	100
stamina.sprint, climb, swim	Cost per second	14, 9, 10
stamina.climb_jump	Cost per climbing leap	18
stamina.regen	Regained per second	32
stamina.delay	Seconds before regeneration starts	0.8 s

Running out of stamina exhausts the player until it refills completely.

Swimming

The player swims in any water volume with Player swims turned on. The head floats above the surface; Jump swims up and Crouch dives. Swimming is slower than running, and sprinting in water costs swim stamina. See Water and fluids for water volumes.

Traversal abilities

Turn abilities on in Traversal (swing, glide, fly…), or choose All abilities on (superhero) to enable all six. They use the actions every project already has, and momentum carries between them: let go of a swing at the bottom of the arc and you fly on.

Ability	Control
Swing	Hold Grapple (F) in the air; W pumps the swing, release to let go with a boost
Zip	Ability (Q) pulls you to the point you aim at; a ledge there pops you up
Wall-run	Hold Sprint in the air beside a wall; Jump kicks off
Super jump	Hold Crouch on the ground to charge, then Jump
Glide	Hold Jump while falling
Flight	Double-tap Jump in the air; Jump rises, Crouch dives, Sprint boosts; land or double-tap again to stop

Field	Description	Range	Default
swing	Rope swinging from anything solid up and ahead	On/off	Off
swing_range	How far up and ahead a rope can catch	5–120 m	45 m
swing_pump	Pumping and reeling in	0–40 m/s²	9 m/s²
swing_release	Speed kept and added when letting go	0.5–2×	1.15×
swing_sky	With nothing to catch, the rope swings from the sky	On/off	Off
zip	Grapple zip to the aimed point	On/off	Off
zip_range, zip_speed	Reach and speed	5–150 m, 5–80 m/s	60 m, 32 m/s
wall_run	Run along walls	On/off	Off
wall_run_speed, wall_run_seconds	Speed and longest run	2–30 m/s, 0.2–6 s	10 m/s, 1.6 s
wall_jump	Kick-off speed	2–25 m/s	9 m/s
super_jump	Charged jump	On/off	Off
super_jump_height, super_jump_charge	Height at full charge and charge time	2–120 m, 0.1–4 s	18 m, 0.9 s
glide	Glide while falling	On/off	Off
glide_sink, glide_speed	Sink rate and forward speed	0.2–10 m/s, 2–60 m/s	2.2 m/s, 15 m/s
flight	Free flight	On/off	Off
flight_speed, flight_boost	Speed and Sprint multiplier	2–120 m/s, 1–5×	22 m/s, 2.2×
air_control	How much you steer momentum after an ability	0–1	0.5

Traversal works with the third-person controller, and with the first-person controller when combat is off.

Example: leap off the jetty and glide

You’ll give the player a charged super jump and a glide, so they can leap high off the jetty and float out over the sea. Start from the Ocean Voyage example project, which has no combat.

1. Open Window → World & terrain and select the Player tab.
2. Expand Traversal (swing, glide, fly…).
3. Turn on Super jump and set Super jump height to 24 m. Leave Charge time at 0.9 s.
4. Turn on Glide and set Glide sink to 1.5 m/s. Leave Glide speed at 15 m/s.
5. Press Play.

To jump, hold Crouch (Ctrl) for about a second, then press Jump (Space) while still holding Crouch. Releasing Crouch before you press Jump throws the charge away. Keep Jump held after the jump: once you’re falling faster than 1 m/s you start gliding, and W steers the glide forward.

Do the same from the command line

feather-cli --workspace /tmp/demo --project project.feather.json command traversal.set \
  --json '{"patch":{"super_jump":true,"super_jump_height":24,"glide":true,"glide_sink":1.5}}' \
  --save project.feather.json

Check it worked

In Play, a full charge throws you about 24 m up, and you then sink slowly instead of dropping. A headless run proves it without a renderer. Hold Ctrl from frame 20, press Space at frame 90 (1.2 s of charge), then hold W:

feather-cli --workspace /tmp/demo --project project.feather.json command game.simulate --json '{
  "frames": 420,
  "inputs": [
    {"frame": 20, "key": "Ctrl", "pressed": true},
    {"frame": 90, "key": "Space", "pressed": true},
    {"frame": 91, "key": "W", "pressed": true},
    {"frame": 92, "key": "Ctrl", "pressed": false}
  ]}'

The report’s traversal section shows super_jumps: 1, glides: 1, glide_seconds around 3.8, top_height around 26 and mode: "glide" at the end. player.final.position is about 55 m further along Z than player.initial.position, and still about 18 m higher: the player is gliding over the sea when the run ends.

Camera and footsteps

Field	Description	Range	Default
camera.head_bob	First-person head bob	0–0.3 m	0.035 m
camera.fov_kick	Extra field of view while sprinting	0–30°	7°
camera.landing_dip	View dip on a hard landing	0–1 m	0.18 m
camera.shake	Screen shake in both views	0–2	1
camera.collision_radius	Third-person camera collision radius	0–1 m	0.25 m
camera.pull_in, ease_out	How fast the camera pulls in when blocked and eases back	0.5–100, 0.1–50	20, 3
footsteps.enabled, volume	Footstep sounds	0–2	On, 0.55
footsteps.stride	Metres between steps at a run	0.3–6 m	1.9 m
footsteps.landing	Play a landing sound	On/off	On

The footstep surface comes from the object’s physics surface or name, or from the terrain. Each surface — grass, dirt, stone, wood, water, snow, metal or sand — can use your own sound cue. Dirt, sand and snow leave footprints with a puff of dust by default, and water splashes.

Input actions

Gameplay reads named actions rather than raw keys. Edit them in Window → Input.

Action	Keys	Gamepad
move_forward, move_back, move_left, move_right	W, S, A, D	Left stick
jump	Space	South
sprint	ShiftLeft	LeftStick
crouch	ControlLeft	East
interact	E	West
fire, aim	Mouse1, Mouse2	RightTrigger, LeftTrigger
reload	R	West
grenade, ability	G, Q	RightBumper, LeftBumper
melee	V	RightStick
grapple	F	North
throw	Mouse1	RightTrigger
use_tool	C	DPadDown
slot_1, slot_2, slot_3	1, 2, 3	DPadLeft, DPadUp, DPadRight
journal	J	Select
pause	Escape (not rebindable)	Start

The left stick always moves and the right stick looks. Gameplay data that names an action’s default key — for example combat.keys.jump = "Space" — follows the action, so gamepad buttons and player rebinds apply to it. Player rebinds are saved per player, outside the project.

Gamepad field	Description	Range	Default
enabled	Gamepad input	On/off	On
deadzone	Stick dead zone	0–0.9	0.15
look_speed	Turn speed at full right-stick deflection	1–1080°/s	200°/s
look_curve	Higher values give finer aim near the centre	0.5–4	1.6
invert_y	Invert vertical look	On/off	Off

Extend it

Function	Description
action_down(id)	true while an action is held
action_pressed(id)	true on the frame an action is pressed
stamina(), max_stamina(), exhausted()	Stamina state
climbing(), crouching()	Movement state
tune("feel", patch)	Changes game feel at runtime, for example a slower crouch in a cutscene
player_position(), player_forward()	Where the player is and which way they face

// A world script: warn the player once each time they run out of stamina.
fn update(dt) {
    let tired = exhausted();
    if tired && !get("warned", false) {
        print("Out of stamina");
    }
    set("warned", tired);
}

Limits

• Up to four keys and four gamepad buttons per action. Action IDs are 1–48 lowercase letters, digits or underscores.
• Up to eight held models on the avatar.
• tune covers game feel, not traversal; change traversal with traversal.set.

Automate it

# Third-person player with a faster sprint
feather-cli --connect .feather-session.json command project.player \
  --json '{"camera":"ThirdPerson","camera_distance":4,"sprint_speed":11}'

# Turn on swinging and gliding
feather-cli --connect .feather-session.json command traversal.set \
  --json '{"patch":{"swing":true,"swing_range":60,"glide":true}}'

# Allow climbing only on objects tagged "ivy"
feather-cli --connect .feather-session.json command feel.set \
  --json '{"patch":{"movement":{"climb_tag":"ivy"}}}'

# Add a "dodge" action on Alt and the gamepad's East button
feather-cli --connect .feather-session.json command input.upsert \
  --json '{"value":{"id":"dodge","label":"Dodge","keys":["AltLeft"],"gamepad":["East"]}}'

game.simulate accepts scripted key and stick inputs, so agents can verify movement and traversal without a renderer. See Simulation.