Component Reference 🧩

Here is a overview of some of the components that we provide. Some of them map directly to Unity components, while others are core components from Needle Engine.
For a complete list please have a look at the components inside the folders node_modules/@needle-tools/engine/engine-components and engine-components-experimental.

You can always add your own components or add wrappers for Unity components we haven't provided yet.
Read more in the Scripting section of our docs.

Audio

Name	Description
AudioListener
AudioSource

Animation

Name	Description
Animator + AnimatorController	Export with animation state machine, conditions, transitions
Animation	Most basic animation component. Only first clip is exported
PlayableDirector + Timeline	Export powerful sequences to control animation, audio, state and more

Rendering

Name	Description
Camera
LODGroup
Light
ParticleSystem	Experimental and currently not fully supported
XRFlag	Control when objects will be visible. E.g. only enable object when in AR
VideoPlayer	Playback videos from url or referenced video file (will be copied to output on export)

Networking

Name	Description
SyncedRoom	Main networking component. Put in your scene to enable networking
Networking	Used to setup backend server for networking.
SyncedTransform	Automatically network object transformation
SyncedCamera	Automatically network camera to other users in room
WebXRSync	Networks WebXR avatars (AR and VR)
Voip	Enables voice-chat

Interaction

Name	Description
EventSystem
ObjectRaycater	Required for DragControls and Duplicatable
DragControls	Requires raycaster in parent hierarchy, e.g. ObjectRaycaster
Duplicatable	Requires DragControls
Interactable	Basic component to mark an object to be interactable.
OrbitControls	Add to camera to add camera orbit control functionality
SmoothFollow	Allows to interpolate smoothly to another object's transform
DeleteBox
DropListener	Add to receive file drop events for uploading
SpatialTrigger	Use to raise event if an object enters a specific space or area
SpatialTriggerReceiver	Use to receive events from SpatialTrigger

Physics

Physics is implemented using rapier.

Name	Description
Rigidbody
BoxCollider
SphereCollider
CapsuleCollider
MeshCollider
Physics Materials	Physics materials can be used to define e.g. the bouncyness of a collider

XR / WebXR

Read the XR docs

Name	Description
WebXR	Add to scene for AR and VR avatars
WebXRSync	Responsible for networking avatars
SpectatorCamera	Mirrors VR view to screen when e.g. connected via Oculus Link
XRFlag	Control when objects are visible, e.g. only in VR or AR or only in ThirdPerson
WebARSessionRoot	Put your AR content inside a WebARSessionRoot for placement and scale

Debugging

Name	Description
GridHelper	Draws a grid
BoxGizmo	Draws a box
AxesHelper	Draws axes

Runtime File Input/Output

Name	Description
GltfExport	Experimental! Use to export gltf from web runtime.
DropListener	Receive file drop events for uploading and networking

UI

Spatial UI components are mapped from Unity UI (Canvas, not UI Toolkit) to three-mesh-ui. UI can be animated.

Name	Description
Canvas	Unity's UI system. Needs to be in World Space mode right now.
Text	Render Text using Unity's UI. Custom fonts are supported, a font atlas will be automatically generated on export. Use the font settings to control which characters are included in the atlas
Button
Image
RawImage

Note: Depending on your project, often a mix of spatial and 2D UI makes sense for cross-platform projects where VR, AR, and screens are supported. Typically, you'd build the 2D parts with HTML for best accessibility, and the 3D parts with geometric UIs that also support depth offsets (e.g. button hover states and the like).