How to ContextActionService with StreamingEnabled (Tutorial)

[TheyCallMeShmoo (Shmoo)]

In a game like Jailbreak, there are actions around the map for the player to complete. This usually means holding down a button (F/ButtonX/Mobile context button) to trigger the action.

Usually a developer uses a ContextActionService binding in a LocalScript , but when StreamingEnabled is on, this is dangerous because there is no guarantee the part is streamed into the client-side workplace.

This method gets around this danger by dynamically attaching/unattaching the context action event only on parts the player is physically touching. This is one way to use ContextActionService to activate buttons or events around a map, which works with StreamingEnabled.

The beauty of this method is that we only call ContextActionService:BindAction() when the player touches the part, which means we have a high chance of the part being streamed-in when we call BindAction. Traditional methods of using ContextActionService assume the part is streamed-in to the Workspace on CharacterAdded, but this is unreliable in StreamingEnabled games when the ActionPart is across the map. This method overcomes these issues.

We use a LocalScript in StarterCharacterScripts to setup the Touched() and TouchEnded() events on the LocalPlayer’s character’s LeftFoot, RightFoot, and UpperTorso. When the player’s LeftFoot/RightFoot/UpperTorso touches a part named ActionPart, we will call ContextActionService:BindAction() to bind a key to activate that action.

1. Add a 4x4x4 part to the Workspace, named it “ActionPart” and set Transparency=0.5, Anchored=true, and CanCollide=false.
2. Under this new ActionPart, add a NumberValue object named “ActionId” and set its value to 1.
3. Duplicate this ActionPart, move it so there is no overlap, and change the new part’s ActionId to 2.
4. Add a LocalScript named “ActionDetection” to StarterPlayer>StarterCharacterScripts. Enter the following code.

–

local ContextActionService = game:GetService( "ContextActionService" )
local plr = game.Players.LocalPlayer

local function doAction1( actionName, inputState, inputObj )
	if inputState == Enum.UserInputState.Begin then
		print( "Action1 was used." )
	end
end

local function doAction2( actionName, inputState, inputObj )
	if inputState == Enum.UserInputState.Begin then
		print( "Action2 was used." )
	end
end

local function performActions( actionName, inputState, inputObj )
	if actionName == "Action-1" then
		doAction1( actionName, inputState, inputObj )
	elseif actionName == "Action-2" then
		doAction2( actionName, inputState, inputObj )
	end
end

local function onTouched( limb )
	return function ( hit )
		if hit.Name == "ActionPart" then
			local actionId = hit:WaitForChild( "ActionId" ).Value
			ContextActionService:BindAction( ( "Action-%i" ):format( actionId ), performActions, true, Enum.KeyCode.E )
		end
	end
end

local function onTouchEnded( limb )
	return function ( hit )
		if hit.Name == "ActionPart" then
			local actionId = hit:WaitForChild( "ActionId" ).Value
			ContextActionService:UnbindAction( ( "Action-%i" ):format( actionId ) )
		end
	end
end

local function onCharacterAdded( chr )
	local hum = chr:FindFirstChild( "Humanoid" )
	if hum then
		
		local leftFoot = plr.Character:FindFirstChild( "LeftFoot" )
		local rightFoot = plr.Character:FindFirstChild( "RightFoot" )
		local upperTorso = plr.Character:FindFirstChild( "UpperTorso" )
		
		leftFoot.Touched:Connect( onTouched( leftFoot ) )
		leftFoot.TouchEnded:Connect( onTouchEnded( leftFoot ) )
		rightFoot.Touched:Connect( onTouched( rightFoot ) )
		rightFoot.TouchEnded:Connect( onTouchEnded( rightFoot ) )
		upperTorso.Touched:Connect( onTouched( upperTorso ) )
		upperTorso.TouchEnded:Connect( onTouchEnded( upperTorso ) )
	end
end
plr.CharacterAdded:Connect( onCharacterAdded )

if plr.Character then
	onCharacterAdded( plr.Character )
end

Test out your new script and see the result in the console! The doAction functions can be edited to have a remoteEvent sent to the server, making this working with FilteringEnabled as well.