Climbing locomotion is a mode that allows users to grab onto surfaces and pull themselves through a virtual environment. Climbing provides an intuitive and physically-based way to navigate vertical spaces, traverse obstacles, and explore environments from new perspectives.

The climbing system, which uses the grab interaction system, works with GrabInteractor components, but replaces the Grabbable component with a Climbable one. Instead of moving a grabbed object to match the hand position, the Climbable component inverts the interaction and routes the grab deltas back to the player locomotor.

The ClimbingLocomotor receives the inverted grab deltas and transforms them into LocomotionEvent instances that move the player.

How does climbing locomotion work?

Climbing locomotion operates in a pipeline that redirects grab interactions from the interactable side to the locomotor in the interactor side:

Climbable

The Climbable component replaces the traditional Grabbable on surfaces that should be climbable. It is a PointableElement that listens for grab events but instead of moving itself to follow the hand, it calculates the movement delta and sends it back through the locomotion system.

When a user grabs a Climbable component, the following actions happen:

The grab interactor selects the Climbable component associated with the grab interactable.

As the hand moves, the Climbable component calculates the inverse delta to determine how far to move the player to keep the hand at the grab point.

These inverse deltas are converted into ClimbingEvent instances and routed through the ClimbingLocomotionBroadcaster`.

The ClimbingLocomotor instance receives the ClimbingEvent events and updates the player’s movement.

The following table describes the Climbable fields you can set:

Property	Description
Slide velocity	A vector that defines the velocity to apply to the player when grabbing the `Climbable` component. Use `Vector3.zero` as the velocity value to disable sliding.
Pull-up target	(Optional) Transform that contains location to move the player towards when they grab the `Climbable` component.
Target Transform	Defines the world pose of this `Climbable`. This ensures that the `ClimbingLocomotor` remains synchronized with the `Climbable` during interactions like grabbing onto a moving platform.

ClimbingLocomotionBroadcaster

The ClimbingLocomotionBroadcaster is a decorator for GrabInteractor, which allows it to be used for climbing. It serves as a bridge between the grab system and the locomotion system.

Climbable instances use this broadcaster to route ClimbingEvent instances through the following path:

The interactable side where the grab happens

The interactor side, which contains the hand position

The locomotion event pipeline that feeds the ClimbingLocomotor instance

This component automatically registers itself with the interactor it decorates, which lets Climbable components discover which interactors support climbing.

ClimbingLocomotor

The ClimbingLocomotor is the central component that receives all ClimbingEvent events from active climbs and transforms them into actual player movement. It manages multiple simultaneous grabs, combines their movements, and generates appropriate LocomotionEvent events.

The locomotor handles several climbing scenarios:

Single-Hand climbing: The locomotor moves the player based on the last grabbing hand’s movement delta.

Two-Hand climbing: When both hands are grabbing, the locomotor will average the movement from both hands.

Sliding on surfaces: If a Climbable component includes a slide velocity, the player moves in that direction while grabbing it. This is useful for implementing activities like sliding down poles, traversing ziplines, or moving with conveyor surfaces.

Pull-Up behavior: If a Climbable component includes a pull-up target and the player grabbing it reaches a height threshold, the locomotor automatically transitions the player to the target position.

These are the ClimbingLocomotor fields you can set to customize the behavior mentioned above:

Property	Description
Last grab moves	If true, only the last grab point moves the player (recommended); otherwise, all grab points are averaged
Two hands slide	If true, the player slides when at least two hands are grabbing
Character feet	The character’s feet transform, used for pull-up mechanism calculations
Transition speed	Speed of the transition to the top of a climbable when pulling up
Transition start threshold	Vertical distance to the pull-up target before starting the transition
Transition end threshold	Minimum distance to the pull-up target before stopping the transition

ClimbingEvent

A ClimbingEvent provides context about a climb locomotion, including:

The Climbable instance being grabbed

An event type that describes the progress of the climb locomotion.

The pose associated with event

This class decorates LocomotionEvent instances and flows through the locomotion pipeline. The events are consumed by a ClimbingLocomotor instance, which uses the data to update the player’s movement.

Dynamic body alignment

Dynamic body alignment lets you create smooth and natural climbing motions by easing the alignment of the hand and the grabbed object. This prevents jarring transitions such as instantly snapping to a new position.

Use a DynamicMoveTowardsTargetProvider instance to manage this alignment by referencing it in the HandGrabInteractable.MovementProvider field. This is how the movement works:

The grab locks the hand to the exact grab point

The body maintains its current position and orientation

As the hand moves, the body gradually aligns with the hand’s new position and orientation

The overall climbing experience becomes more comfortable and less prone to causing disorientation

Property	Description
Attraction factor	Controls how quickly the body aligns to the grab point; higher values create faster alignment

This is particularly important for climbing because users may grab surfaces at awkward angles or while moving quickly, and instant snapping could cause discomfort or break presence.

Coexistence with normal grabbing

The climbing locomotion system is designed to work seamlessly on top of the normal grab system. This means that configuring a GameObject to be grabbable or climbable is a matter of adding the appropriate pointable component (Grabbable or Climbable) to the existing GrabInteractable, and the system handles the rest.

Grabbable objects remain grabbable and behave normally (move when grabbed)

Climbable surfaces cause the player to move instead

Both can exist in the same scene and even on the same GameObject using different interactables

The same GrabInteractor can grab both types without any special configuration