Spaceship Controller in Unity 3D

In this tutorial, I will be showing how to make a spaceship controller in Unity 3D.

Let’s begin!

Steps

Place spaceship model in your Scene (I will be using a Spaceship model from this Asset Store package)

Create a new GameObject, call it “Spaceship”
Move the Spaceship model inside the “Spaceship” object and change its position to (0, 0, 0)
Create a new script, call it “SC_SpaceshipController” and paste the code below inside it:

SC_SpaceshipController.cs

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

[RequireComponent(typeof(Rigidbody))]

public class SC_SpaceshipController : MonoBehaviour
{
    public float normalSpeed = 25f;
    public float accelerationSpeed = 45f;
    public Transform cameraPosition;
    public Camera mainCamera;
    public Transform spaceshipRoot;
    public float rotationSpeed = 2.0f;
    public float cameraSmooth = 4f;
    public RectTransform crosshairTexture;

    float speed;
    Rigidbody r;
    Quaternion lookRotation;
    float rotationZ = 0;
    float mouseXSmooth = 0;
    float mouseYSmooth = 0;
    Vector3 defaultShipRotation;

    // Start is called before the first frame update
    void Start()
    {
        r = GetComponent<Rigidbody>();
        r.useGravity = false;
        lookRotation = transform.rotation;
        defaultShipRotation = spaceshipRoot.localEulerAngles;
        rotationZ = defaultShipRotation.z;

        Cursor.lockState = CursorLockMode.Locked;
        Cursor.visible = false;
    }

    void FixedUpdate()
    {
        //Press Right Mouse Button to accelerate
        if (Input.GetMouseButton(1))
        {
            speed = Mathf.Lerp(speed, accelerationSpeed, Time.deltaTime * 3);
        }
        else
        {
            speed = Mathf.Lerp(speed, normalSpeed, Time.deltaTime * 10);
        }

        //Set moveDirection to the vertical axis (up and down keys) * speed
        Vector3 moveDirection = new Vector3(0, 0, speed);
        //Transform the vector3 to local space
        moveDirection = transform.TransformDirection(moveDirection);
        //Set the velocity, so you can move
        r.velocity = new Vector3(moveDirection.x, moveDirection.y, moveDirection.z);

        //Camera follow
        mainCamera.transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(mainCamera.transform.position, cameraPosition.position, Time.deltaTime * cameraSmooth);
        mainCamera.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(mainCamera.transform.rotation, cameraPosition.rotation, Time.deltaTime * cameraSmooth);

        //Rotation
        float rotationZTmp = 0;
        if (Input.GetKey(KeyCode.A))
        {
            rotationZTmp = 1;
        }
        else if (Input.GetKey(KeyCode.D))
        {
            rotationZTmp = -1;
        }
        mouseXSmooth = Mathf.Lerp(mouseXSmooth, Input.GetAxis("Mouse X") * rotationSpeed, Time.deltaTime * cameraSmooth);
        mouseYSmooth = Mathf.Lerp(mouseYSmooth, Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y") * rotationSpeed, Time.deltaTime * cameraSmooth);
        Quaternion localRotation = Quaternion.Euler(-mouseYSmooth, mouseXSmooth, rotationZTmp * rotationSpeed);
        lookRotation = lookRotation * localRotation;
        transform.rotation = lookRotation;
        rotationZ -= mouseXSmooth;
        rotationZ = Mathf.Clamp(rotationZ, -45, 45);
        spaceshipRoot.transform.localEulerAngles = new Vector3(defaultShipRotation.x, defaultShipRotation.y, rotationZ);
        rotationZ = Mathf.Lerp(rotationZ, defaultShipRotation.z, Time.deltaTime * cameraSmooth);

        //Update crosshair texture
        if (crosshairTexture)
        {
            crosshairTexture.position = mainCamera.WorldToScreenPoint(transform.position + transform.forward * 100);
        }
    }
}

Attach SC_SpaceshipController script to “Spaceship” object
Create a new GameObject, call it “CameraPosition” and move it inside “Spaceship” object
Move the Main Camera inside “CameraPosition” object and change its position to (0, 0, 0)
Tweak the “CameraPosition” object position till you happy with the result

Move the Main Camera outside of “Spaceship” object
In SC_SpaceshipController assign Camera Position, Main Camera, and Spaceship Root (this should be a transform of a spaceship model) variables