Needle Engine Documentation

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.

Learn more in the Scripting section of our docs.

Audio

Name	Description
`AudioListener`
`AudioSource`	Use to play audio

Animation

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

Rendering

Name	Description
`Camera`
`Light`	DirectionalLight, PointLight, Spotlight. Note that you can use it to bake light (e.g. Rectangular Light shapes) as well
`XRFlag`	Control when objects will be visible. E.g. only enable object when in AR
`DeviceFlag`	Control on which device objects will be visible
`LODGroup`
`ParticleSystem`	Experimental and currently not fully supported
`VideoPlayer`	Playback videos from url or referenced video file (will be copied to output on export)
`MeshRenderer`	Used to handle rendering of objects including lightmapping and instancing
`SkinnedMeshRenderer`	See MeshRenderer
`SpriteRenderer`	Used to render Sprites and Spriteanimations
`Volume` with `PostProcessing` asset	See table below

Postprocessing

Postprocessing effects use the pmndrs postprocessing libraryopen in new window under the hood. This means you can also easily add your own custom effects and get an automatically optimized postprocessing pass.

Unity only: Note that Postprocessing effect export in Unity is only supported with URP.
Unity only: extra Component means that the effect component is an extra component that has to be added next to the Volume component. For example for Antialiasing add a Volume component and an Antialiasing component to the same GameObject.

Effect Name
Antialiasing	extra Unity Component
Bloom	via Volume asset
Chromatic Aberration	via Volume asset
Color Adjustments / Color Correction	via Volume asset
Depth Of Field	via Volume asset
Pixelation
Screenspace Ambient Occlusion N8
Screenspace Ambient Occlusion
Tilt Shift Effect
Vignette	via Volume asset
Your custom effect	Create a new class that extends from Needle Engine's `PostProcessingEffect` class. Then call `registerCustomEffectType` with your effect name and class type.

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 position and view to other users in room. You can define how the camera is being rendered by referencing an object
`WebXRSync`	Networks WebXR avatars (AR and VR)
`Voip`	Enables voice-chat
`Screensharing`	Enables screen-sharing capabilities

Interaction

Name	Description
`EventSystem`	Handles raising pointer events and UI events on objects in the scene
`ObjectRaycater`	Required for DragControls and Duplicatable
`GraphicsRaycaster`	Same as ObjectRaycaster but for UI elements
`DragControls`	Allows objects to be dragged in the scene. Requires raycaster in parent hierarchy, e.g. ObjectRaycaster
`Duplicatable`	Can duplicate assigned objects by drag. 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`	Will destroy objects with the `Deletable` component when entering the box
`Deletable`	The GameObject this component is attached to will be deleted when it enters or intersects with a `DeleteBox`
`DropListener`	Add to receive file drop events for uploading
`SpatialTrigger`	Use to raise event if an object enters a specific space or area. You can also use Physics events
`SpatialTriggerReceiver`	Use to receive events from SpatialTrigger

Physics

Physics is implemented using Rapieropen in new window.

Name	Description
`Rigidbody`	Add to make an object react to gravity (or be kinematic and static)
`BoxCollider`	A Box collider shape that objects can collide with or raise trigger events when set to `trigger`
`SphereCollider`	See BoxCollider
`CapsuleCollider`	See BoxCollider
`MeshCollider`	See BoxCollider
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
`USDZExporter`	Add to enable USD and Quicklook support
`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
`WebXRImageTracking`	Assign images to be tracked and optionally instantiate an object at the image position
`WebXRPlaneTracking`	Create plane meshes or colliders for tracked planes

Debugging

Name	Description
`GridHelper`	Draws a grid
`BoxGizmo`	Draws a box
`AxesHelper`	Draws XYZ axes
	Note: When you're writing custom code you can use the static `Gizmos` methods for drawing debugging lines and shapes

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-uiopen in new window. 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`	Receives click events - use the onClick event to react to it. It can be added too 3D scene objects as well
`Image`	Renders a sprite image
`RawImage`	Renders a texture

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).

Other

Name	Description
`SceneSwitcher`	Handles loading and unloading of other scenes or prefabs / glTF files. Has features to preload, change scenes via swiping, keyboard events or URL navigation

Editor Only

Name	Description
`ExportInfo`	Main component for managing the web project(s) to e.g. install or start the web app
`EditorSync`	Add to enable networking material or component value changes to the running three.js app directly from the Unity Editor without having to reload

# Audio

# Animation

# Rendering

# Postprocessing

# Networking

# Interaction

# Physics

# XR / WebXR

# Debugging

# Runtime File Input/Output

# UI

# Other

# Editor Only