Inventory Manager

Category: Core Systems Design
Context: In POV 3.0, the player’s active interaction with the world is mediated by the InventoryManager. Rather than an infinite grid of floating icons, the inventory is constrained to immediate physical interactions (maximum of 4 active items) and enforces structural penalties based on item weight.

Physical Constraints & The Heavy Tag

The core philosophy of the inventory is avoiding abstract hoarding. The InventoryManager restricts the active hotbar to maxItems = 4.

Crucially, the system checks the isItemHeavy flag on any Item.cs it attempts to pick up. If the player attempts to grab a Heavy item (like a high-capacity Server Rack drive or bulky machinery) while their hands are full, the system actively forces a drop of the currently held item:

bool isHeavy = item.isItemHeavy;
if (isHeavy && activeItem != null)
{
    DropItem(activeItem); // Drop the current active item if the new item is heavy
}

This forces the player to make tactical decisions during Extractions. They cannot sprint out of a building holding three server racks; the game forces physical consequence onto the loot.

Hotbar & Interface

The player interfaces with the system via standard Immersive Sim controls:

• Scroll Wheel (<Mouse>/scroll): Wraps smoothly around the 4-slot array using modulo math.
• Number Keys (1-4): Direct access indexing.
• Drop (G): Detaches the item from the player’s ActiveItemSpot, re-enables its Rigidbody isKinematic = false, and drops it back into the physics simulation of the world.

Third-Party Weapon Integration

Because POV 3.0 requires both non-combat data heists and active engagements, the InventoryManager is built to seamlessly hand off control when the player equips a weapon.

It utilizes the cowsins weapon controller architecture. If isUsingCowsins is flagged true, grabbing or selecting an item with a Weapon_SO Scriptable Object skips the standard item logic and specifically triggers playerWeaponController.UnHolsterWeapon(item). This allows the game to cleanly separate physical interaction logic (like STIK flashdrives) from complex ballistic and IK logic (weapons) while using the exact same scrolling hotbar interface.