Unity beginner project - one scripts interrupts another

Question

I am new to programming and currently working on a little shooter game in unity. I just implemented recoil but my "PlayerCam" script (Line 31: transform.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(xRotation, yRotation, 0);) interrupts my "Recoil" script, the Euler function to be exact. Without this line recoil works, but I cant move obviously. With it the screen just shakes a bit (reset every frame and not continuing the recoil). What do i need to change?

PlayerCam.cs

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

public class PlayerCam : MonoBehaviour
{
    public float sensX;
    public float sensY;

    public Transform orientation;

    float xRotation;
    float yRotation;

    private void Start()
    {
        Cursor.lockState = CursorLockMode.Locked;
        Cursor.visible = false;
    }

    private void Update()
    {
        float mouseX = Input.GetAxis("Mouse X") * sensX;
        float mouseY = Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y") * sensY;

        yRotation += mouseX;

        xRotation -= mouseY;
        xRotation = Mathf.Clamp(xRotation, -90f, 90f);

        transform.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(xRotation, yRotation, 0);
        orientation.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(0, yRotation, 0);
    }
}

Recoil.cs

using UnityEngine;

public class Recoil : MonoBehaviour
{
    private Vector3 currentRotation;
    private Vector3 targetRotation;

    [SerializeField] private float recoilX;
    [SerializeField] private float recoilY;
    [SerializeField] private float recoilZ;
    
    [SerializeField] private float snappiness;
    [SerializeField] private float returnSpeed;




    void Start()
    {
        
    }


    void Update()
    {
        targetRotation = Vector3.Lerp(targetRotation, Vector3.zero, returnSpeed * Time.deltaTime);
        currentRotation = Vector3.Slerp(currentRotation, targetRotation, snappiness * Time.fixedDeltaTime);
        transform.localRotation = Quaternion.Euler(currentRotation);
    }

    public void RecoilFire()
    {
        targetRotation += new Vector3(recoilX, Random.Range(-recoilY, recoilY), Random.Range(-recoilZ, recoilZ));
    }
}

Thank you for your help:)

Answer 1

I'm not sure where your Recoil class comes in as far as modifying your PlayerCam's orientation, but it sounds like your camera is being hard-reset to the value of the player's turn angles every frame, rather than combining them with the current recoil (sometimes called "punch") values.

To do a recoil/viewpunch setup correctly, you'll need to give your camera class access to an orientation that represents the current amount of rotation caused by the recoil, and combine that with the camera's current player angle setup.

Something like:

// get your current recoil offset here
Quaternion viewPunch = MyRecoil.transform.orientation;

// update the "base" rotation, aka where the player is looking
// (your existing code)
float mouseX = Input.GetAxis("Mouse X") * sensX;
float mouseY = Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y") * sensY;

yRotation += mouseX;

xRotation -= mouseY;
xRotation = Mathf.Clamp(xRotation, -90f, 90f);

// final camera rotation = viewPunch * player angles.
// to rotate an orientation, we always do rotation * current,
// not the other way around.

// if the strength of the recoil has gone back to 0 or hasn't
// happened yet, we'll end up with the normal player angles,
// as expected.

// if your camera object is a child of another object, you may need to set localOrientation instead
transform.orientation = viewPunch * Quaternion.Euler(xRotation, yRotation, 0);