Moving Platforms in Unity

It’s time to make a platform move independently

Configuring the MovePlatform gameobject

• Select the MovePlatform gameobject to move and attach a MovePlatform script to it
• Create 2 empty game objects (PointA, PointB) and assign each one a position on the x axis between which MovePlatorm will move
• Declare these variables in the MovePlatform script:
  Transform PointA, PointB --- bool MoveRight, MoveLeft
• In Start():
  transform.position = pointA.position;
moveToRight = true;
• In Update() move the platform to the right (PointB) and when Vector3.Distance(transform.position, pointB.position) < 0.01f), move it to the left (PointA)

Explanation

• The objective is to move the platform between 2 points
• The platform will start at PointA position with moveToRight = true
• To move it, we will use Vector3.MoveTowards() that requires a starting point, a target point and a step (float) value (for instance, speed * Time.deltaTime)
• To switch between the 2 points, we will use the MoveRight and MoveLeft bool variables

If moveRight = true, it will move towards the PointB position.
When distance < 0.01f, moveRight = false and moveLeft = true

If moveLeft = true, the platform will move towards PointA.
If the distance < 0,01f, moveLeft = false and moveRigth = true

Fixing jittering when the player is moving on the platform

After creating the mechanic of moving player with platform, in Play mode (scene tab) there is a little jitter effect.
It is due to a conflict between updating information in MovePlatform (non physics gameobject) and Player (CharacterController — physics) gameobject

To solve it, in MovePlatform script, change the Update() method to FixedUpdate()