npcs turn smoothly towards player

Assets/_PROJECT/Scripts/ModeGeneration/NPCs/NPCController.cs

@@ -5,17 +5,15 @@ using UnityEngine;
 
 public abstract class NPCController : MonoBehaviour
 {
-    protected Transform playerTransform;
+    [Header("Movement Config")]
+    public Transform mouth;
+    public float turnSpeed = 5f;
 
     [Header("Voiceline Amplitude Timeline Config")]
     public string voicelinesFolder = "CharacterVoicelines";
     public string characterSpecificFolder;
     public string[] voiceLineKeys;
 
-
-    [Header("Mouth Transform")]
-    public Transform mouth;  // assign your billboard mouth object
-
     [Header("Mouth Animation Settings")]
     public float minScaleY = 0.3f;
     public float maxScaleY = 1.0f;
@@ -24,6 +22,8 @@ public abstract class NPCController : MonoBehaviour
     public float release = 0.2f;  // slower closing
     public bool inverted = false;
 
+    protected Transform playerTransform;
+
     private float[] rmsCurve;
     private EventInstance currentVoicelineEvent;
     private bool isSpeaking;
@@ -50,9 +50,19 @@ public abstract class NPCController : MonoBehaviour
     {
         if (playerTransform != null)
         {
-            // As if player is on same Y coordinate as this object, to not rotate around Y axis.
+            // Keep target on same Y as this object (no pitch/roll), so we only yaw.
             Vector3 lookTargetPos = new Vector3(playerTransform.position.x, transform.position.y, playerTransform.position.z);
-            transform.LookAt(lookTargetPos);
+
+            // Direction from this object to the target (on horizontal plane)
+            Vector3 toTarget = (lookTargetPos - transform.position);
+            if (toTarget.sqrMagnitude > 0.0001f) // avoid zero-length
+            {
+                Quaternion targetRot = Quaternion.LookRotation(toTarget.normalized);
+
+                // Interpolate a little each frame towards the target rotation.
+                float t = Mathf.Clamp01(Time.deltaTime * turnSpeed);
+                transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(transform.rotation, targetRot, t);
+            }
         }
 
         if (isSpeaking && rmsCurve != null && currentVoicelineEvent.isValid())