Colliders are available in different shape configurations. A colliderAn invisible shape that is used to handle physical collisions for an object. A collider doesn’t need to be exactly the same shape as the object’s mesh - a rough approximation is often more efficient and indistinguishable in gameplay. More info
See in Glossary’s shape defines how accurately the collider matches the MeshThe main graphics primitive of Unity. Meshes make up a large part of your 3D worlds. Unity supports triangulated or Quadrangulated polygon meshes. Nurbs, Nurms, Subdiv surfaces must be converted to polygons. More info
See in Glossary shape, and how computationally efficient the collider is.
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| Introduction to collider shapes | Overview of the different collider shapes in Unity. |
| Primitive collider shapes | Primitive collider shapes are built-in, pre-calculated collider shapes in Unity (Box, Sphere and Capsule colliders). |
| Mesh collidersA free-form collider component which accepts a mesh reference to define its collision surface shape. More info See in Glossary |
Mesh colliders create collisionA collision occurs when the physics engine detects that the colliders of two GameObjects make contact or overlap, when at least one has a Rigidbody component and is in motion. More info See in Glossary geometry that matches the shape of their associated Mesh, for extremely accurate collisions. |
| Wheel collidersA special collider for grounded vehicles. It has built-in collision detection, wheel physics, and a slip-based tire friction model. It can be used for objects other than wheels, but it is specifically designed for vehicles with wheels. More info See in Glossary |
Wheel colliders use raycasting to form wheel-shaped collision geometry with suspension and tyre-based friction. |
| Terrain collidersA terrain-shaped collider component that handles collisions for collision surface with the same shape as the Terrain object it is attached to. More info See in Glossary |
TerrainThe landscape in your scene. A Terrain GameObject adds a large flat plane to your scene and you can use the Terrain’s Inspector window to create a detailed landscape. More info See in Glossary colliders create collision geometry that matches the shape of their associated Terrain, for extremely accurate collisions. |
| Compound colliders | Compound colliders are a combination of multiple other colliders, which together have a single center of massRepresents the average position of all mass in a Rigidbody for the purposes of physics calculations. By default it is computed from all colliders belonging to the Rigidbody, but can be modified via script. More info See in Glossary. |