Moving Objects in Unity

Unity : How to move a GameObject in 3D space?

There are different ways to move an object within 3D space with code. Here we go over 5 options:

A - Transform.position

Transform: a Class which contains the information of position, rotation and scale of an object.

transform.position: The position property of a GameObject's Transform. Assigns the object a new position.

Vector: A Class refering to a mathematical entity commonly drewn as an arrow in two or three dimensional space, which has a a magnitude (size or length) and a direction (angle θ).

Vector3: is a Unity C# struct with given x, y & z components, representing points and vectors in 3D space. In other words, a group of Vectors.

example 1)

private void Update()
   {
       transform.position += transform.forward * Time.deltaTime; 
   }

• the “f” is there to state that the variable 0.01 is of type float.

example 2)

    void Update()
   {
     transform.position += new Vector3(0, 0, 0.01f);
   }

• Vector3.forward is the unit vector defined by (0, 0, 1)
• Time.deltaTime is a variable used so velocity is consistent across different frame rates.

B) transform.Translate

Similar to transform.position, but instead of assigning the GameObject a new position, it gives the GameObject an amount to move, data contained in a Vector3 struct.

  private void Update()
   {
       transform.Translate(Vector3.forward * Time.deltaTime);

C) RigidBody.AddForce

D) RigidBody.MovePosition

E) RigidBody.Velocity