Quick Swipe (left or right) || Drag Gesture (Solution)

Here is some code I just finished that allows for either a swipe or a drag. I have not tested it extensively. It's very easy to set up for use and will detect left and right swipes or drags (depending upon the time you set). It works (or should) for as many touches as you want to place on the screen (it will only pick up one touch out of all the touches). If you use it and it works fine then let me know. If there are issues then I am sure I can get around to looking at them.

Code (csharp):

1. /*
2. Swipe gesture for iPhone. Add this script and a GUIText component to an empty GO
3. With the GO selected in the inspector set:
4.  
5. swipeLength ---> this is how long you want the swipe to be. 25 pixels seems ok
6. swipeVariance ---> this is how far the drag can go 'off line'. 5 pixels either way seems ok
7. timeToSwipe ---> if you leave this at 0 then there is no timer. If you set it then this is how long
8.                     the user has to complete the swipe gesture
9.  
10. You can swipe as many fingers left or right and it will only pick up one of them
11. It will then allow further swipes when that finger has been lifed from the screen.
12. Typically its swipe > lift finger > swipe .......
13.  
14. Be aware that it sometimes does not pick up the iPhoneTouchPhase.Ended
15. This is either a bug in the logic (plz test) or as the TouchPhases are notoriously
16. inaccurate its could well be this or it could be iPhone 1.6 given that it is quirky with touches.
17. Anyhow it does not affect the working of the class
18. other than a dead once in a while which then rectifies itself on the next swipe so
19. no big deal.
20.  
21. No need for orientation as it will respect whatever you set.
22. */
23.  
24. using UnityEngine;
25. using System.Collections;
26.  
27. public class TouchInfo
28. {
29.     public Vector2 touchPosition;
30.     public bool swipeComplete;
31.     public float timeSwipeStarted;
32. }
33.  
34.  
35. public class SwipeDrag : MonoBehaviour {
36.  
37. //public member vars
38. public int swipeLength;
39. public int swipeVariance;
40. public float timeToSwipe;
41. //private member vars
42. private GUIText swipeText;
43. private TouchInfo[] touchInfoArray;
44. private int activeTouch = -1;
45.  
46. //methods
47.     void Start()
48.     {
49.         //get a reference to the GUIText component
50.         swipeText = (GUIText) GetComponent(typeof(GUIText));
51.         touchInfoArray = new TouchInfo[5];
52.     }  
53.  
54.     void Update()
55.     {
56.         //touch count is a bit dodgy at the moment so add the extra check to see if there are no more than 5 touches
57.         if(iPhoneInput.touchCount > 0  iPhoneInput.touchCount < 6)
58.         {
59.             foreach(iPhoneTouch touch in iPhoneInput.touches)
60.             {
61.                 if(touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId] == null)
62.                         touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId] = new TouchInfo();
63.                        
64.                 if(touch.phase == iPhoneTouchPhase.Began)
65.                 {
66.                     touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition = touch.position;
67.                     touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].timeSwipeStarted = Time.time;
68.                 }
69.                 //check if withing swipe variance      
70.                 if(touch.position.y > (touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition.y + swipeVariance))
71.                 {
72.                     touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition = touch.position;
73.                 }
74.                 if(touch.position.y < (touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition.y - swipeVariance))
75.                 {
76.                     touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition = touch.position;
77.                 }
78.                 //swipe right
79.                 if((touch.position.x > touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition.x + swipeLength)  !touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].swipeComplete
80.                      activeTouch == -1)
81.                 {
82.                     SwipeComplete("swipe right  ",  touch);
83.                 }
84.                 //swipe left
85.                 if((touch.position.x < touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition.x - swipeLength)  !touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].swipeComplete
86.                      activeTouch == -1)
87.                 {
88.                         SwipeComplete("swipe left  ",  touch);
89.                 }
90.                 //when the touch has ended we can start accepting swipes again
91.                 if(touch.fingerId == activeTouch  touch.phase == iPhoneTouchPhase.Ended)
92.                 {
93.                     //Debug.Log("Ending " + touch.fingerId);
94.                     //if more than one finger has swiped then reset the other fingers so
95.                     //you do not get a double/triple etc. swipe
96.                     foreach(iPhoneTouch touchReset in iPhoneInput.touches)
97.                     {
98.                         touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition = touchReset.position;
99.                     }
100.                     touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].swipeComplete = false;
101.                     activeTouch = -1;
102.                 }
103.             }          
104.         }  
105.     }
106.    
107.     void SwipeComplete(string messageToShow, iPhoneTouch touch)
108.     {
109.         //Debug.Log(Time.time - touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].timeSwipeStarted);
110.         Reset(touch);
111.         if(timeToSwipe == 0.0f || (timeToSwipe > 0.0f  (Time.time - touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].timeSwipeStarted) <= timeToSwipe))
112.         {
113.             swipeText.text = messageToShow;
114.             //Do something here
115.         }
116.     }
117.    
118.     void Reset(iPhoneTouch touch)
119.     {
120.         activeTouch = touch.fingerId;
121.         touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].swipeComplete = true;       
122.     }
123.    
124. }

 

Ok,it's working.... :twisted:

 

Hi, your code works fine thanks. I'm currently testing it out with a few scenarios. How to I assign a collision area for the touchevent to trigger? Meaning I only want the gesture thing to work when your finger is in the plane area instead of the whole screen.

Thanks in advance.

-Hakimo

 

Use a raycast to check that the object (your plane with a collider) is being touched.

Look up ScreenPointToRay in the docs.

 

I've try the code and it's working, but how do I make the input touch play the animation one at a time each time I swipe the screen....

right now if I swipe the screen rapidly it will reset the animation over and over again.

how do I code when I swipe once the code disable and after the animation finish the code enable again.

 

Just check for

if(!animation.isPlaying) //then check for finger touches.

Assuming the swipe is on the same GO as the animation otherwise just change animation to your animation reference so: (!myAnimation.isPlaying)

 

Hi,

This is about the quick swipe code. Instead of just swiping left and right, I'm trying to create something where you have to swipe left and right continuously to activate something. Kind of like a rubbing effect.

How should I approach this? I was thinking of using a for loop and creating a counter to set how many times it should be swiped before being activated. Need a second opinion if there's an optimal solution.

Thank you.
-Hakimo

 

Hi Hakimo,

it's not that straightforward. You can adapt the swipe code here but before doing that you need to decide how the game works. How many fingers can the player have on screen ? Is it just a rub game or does the player have to do other stuff as well? If it's other stuff as well then you need to detect when a rub can occur so you are not constantly checking for a rub when you do not need to etc.

Creating a rub from the existing code would mean knocking out a few lines because at present you have to swipe > lift finger > swipe but with rub its swipe > swipe > swipe. This is straightforward and to finish it off you only need a counter to count the left swipes and the right swipes then when you hit your magic swipe number you can do something and reset the rub count.

As I say it really has to be tailored for the type of gameplay you have in mind.

 

Has anyone managed or able to translate this to JS? I'm not a coder - I gave it a shot but failed miserably Cheers.

 

Hi Imparare,

Thanks for the reply, actually for the game I'm making, I'm going to have both functions as in swipe > lift finger > swipe for vertical and swipe > swipe > swipe for horizontal.

You said knocking out a few lines? Which is it? I thought I have to edit the activeTouch? Also I think I need to add another condition to avoid "when the touch is ended". Lol, I'm not really sure now. I'll try and see if I can work something out.

Thanks again.
- Hakimo

 

Anyone? Anyone at all? I need help!

 

i know its from 2010... but heres the JS version

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. #pragma strict
3.  
4. public class TouchInfo
5. {
6.     public var touchPosition : Vector2;
7.     public var swipeComplete;
8.     public var timeSwipeStarted : float;
9. }
10.  
11.  
12. //public member vars
13. public var swipeLength : int;
14. public var swipeVariance : int;
15. public var timeToSwipe : float;
16.  
17. //private member vars
18. private var swipeText: GUIText;
19. private var touchInfoArray : TouchInfo[];
20. private var activeTouch : int = -1;
21.  
22.  
23. function Update()
24. {
25.     //touch count is a bit dodgy at the moment so add the extra check to see if there are no more than 5 touches
26.     if(iPhoneInput.touchCount > 0  iPhoneInput.touchCount < 6)
27.     {
28.         for(touch in iPhoneInput.touches)
29.         {
30.             if(touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId] == null)
31.                     touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId] = new TouchInfo();
32.  
33.             if(touch.phase == iPhoneTouchPhase.Began)
34.             {
35.                 touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition = touch.position;
36.                 touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].timeSwipeStarted = Time.time;
37.             }
38.  
39.             //check if withing swipe variance      
40.             if(touch.position.y > (touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition.y + swipeVariance))
41.             {
42.                 touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition = touch.position;
43.             }
44.  
45.             if(touch.position.y < (touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition.y - swipeVariance))
46.             {
47.                 touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition = touch.position;
48.             }
49.  
50.             //swipe right
51.             if((touch.position.x > touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition.x + swipeLength)  !touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].swipeComplete  activeTouch == -1)
52.             {
53.                 SwipeComplete("swipe right  ",  touch);
54.             }
55.  
56.             //swipe left
57.             if((touch.position.x < touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition.x - swipeLength)  !touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].swipeComplete  activeTouch == -1)
58.             {
59.                 SwipeComplete("swipe left  ",  touch);
60.             }
61.  
62.             //when the touch has ended we can start accepting swipes again
63.             if(touch.fingerId == activeTouch  touch.phase == iPhoneTouchPhase.Ended)
64.             {
65.                 //Debug.Log("Ending " + touch.fingerId);
66.                 //if more than one finger has swiped then reset the other fingers so
67.                 //you do not get a double/triple etc. swipe
68.                 for(touchReset in iPhoneInput.touches)
69.                 {
70.                     touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].touchPosition = touchReset.position;
71.                 }
72.  
73.                 touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].swipeComplete = false;
74.                 activeTouch = -1;
75.             }
76.         }          
77.     }  
78. }
79.  
80.  
81.  
82. function SwipeComplete(messageToShow : String, touch : iPhoneTouch)
83. {
84.     //Debug.Log(Time.time - touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].timeSwipeStarted);
85.     Reset(touch);
86.     if(timeToSwipe == 0.0f || (timeToSwipe > 0.0f  (Time.time - touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].timeSwipeStarted) <= timeToSwipe))
87.     {
88.         swipeText.text = messageToShow;
89.         //Do something here
90.     }
91. }
92.  
93.  
94.  
95. function Reset(touch : iPhoneTouch)
96. {
97.     activeTouch = touch.fingerId;
98.     touchInfoArray[touch.fingerId].swipeComplete = true;        
99. }
100.  

 

Hi ivansc, I just tested your code for fun, there's this error i keep getting "Object reference not set to an instance of an object". Am I missing anything? I added the script to an empty gameObject but not sure why it's giving me the errors.

 

I am on Unity4 and that gives me an error on this line:

Code (csharp):

1. foreach(iPhoneTouch touchReset in iPhoneInput.touches)

And if I change to Touch instead of iPhoneTouch I am getting this error:

Cannot convert type `UnityEngine.iPhoneTouch' to `UnityEngine.Touch'

I am a new beginner with Unity and C# and have no clue what this means? Anyone?

Joakim

 

I am making a game android phone, will this same code gonna wok on android phone too???

 

Check it out

https://github.com/prime31/GestureKit

 

This will work for Android only if you switch everything that says "IPhone" to "Android".

 

same query, will this code work on both IOS and Android..

Please someone help us on this.

 

just remove the iphone it will work for android..

 

https://github.com/prime31/TouchKit

 

hi if i play it using mouse it will detect it or not? or should i need to build and run it and play it on phone to see if its working?

 

Add me

 

Actually OnMouseDown detects when a GameObject with a collider is touched, without using raycanting, very basic stuff, cause only detects if it's touched or not, it doesn't tell you what finger or how many fingers are touching it.

 

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3. public class SwipeScript : MonoBehaviour {
4.     private float fingerStartTime  = 0.0f;
5.     private Vector2 fingerStartPos = Vector2.zero;
6.    
7.     private bool isSwipe = false;
8.     private float minSwipeDist  = 50.0f;
9.     private float maxSwipeTime = 0.5f;
10.    
11.     // Update is called once per frame
12.     void Update () {
13.    
14.         if (Input.touchCount > 0){
15.             foreach (Touch touch in Input.touches)
16.             {
17.                 switch (touch.phase)
18.                 {
19.                 case TouchPhase.Began :
20.                     /* this is a new touch */
21.                     isSwipe = true;
22.                     fingerStartTime = Time.time;
23.                     fingerStartPos = touch.position;
24.                     break;
25.                    
26.                 case TouchPhase.Canceled :
27.                     /* The touch is being canceled */
28.                     isSwipe = false;
29.                     break;
30.                    
31.                 case TouchPhase.Ended :
32.                     float gestureTime = Time.time - fingerStartTime;
33.                     float gestureDist = (touch.position - fingerStartPos).magnitude;
34.                        
35.                     if (isSwipe && gestureTime < maxSwipeTime && gestureDist > minSwipeDist){
36.                         Vector2 direction = touch.position - fingerStartPos;
37.                         Vector2 swipeType = Vector2.zero;
38.                        
39.                         if (Mathf.Abs(direction.x) > Mathf.Abs(direction.y)){
40.                             // the swipe is horizontal:
41.                             swipeType = Vector2.right * Mathf.Sign(direction.x);
42.                         }else{
43.                             // the swipe is vertical:
44.                             swipeType = Vector2.up * Mathf.Sign(direction.y);
45.                         }
46.                         if(swipeType.x != 0.0f){
47.                             if(swipeType.x > 0.0f){
48.                                 // MOVE RIGHT
49.                             }else{
50.                                 // MOVE LEFT
51.                             }
52.                         }
53.                         if(swipeType.y != 0.0f ){
54.                             if(swipeType.y > 0.0f){
55.                                 // MOVE UP
56.                             }else{
57.                                 // MOVE DOWN
58.                             }
59.                         }
60.                     }
61.                        
62.                     break;
63.                 }
64.             }
65.         }
66.     }
67. }

http://pfonseca.com/swipe-detection-on-unity/

 

excuse me, but will this code work on windows phone too?

 

Hey guys, you can try this plugin,
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#!/content/22672

 

it's old but really helps,
thx.