Trigger Volumes

Trigger volumes are static collision shapes which can fire events whenever a rigid body enters or leaves their volume. They can be useful to determine when a goal has been scored in a football match or when a race car has reached the finish line.

To create a trigger volume, add a collision component to an entity and configure its shape. Do not add a rigidbody component to your trigger volume entity.

To check whether a volume has been entered or exited by a rigid body based entity, you need a simple script:

ESM

import { Script } from 'playcanvas';

export class TriggerVolume extends Script {
    static scriptName = "triggerVolume";

    initialize() {
        this.entity.collision.on('triggerenter', (entity) => {
            console.log(`${entity.name} has entered trigger volume.`);
        });
        this.entity.collision.on('triggerleave', (entity) => {
            console.log(`${entity.name} has left trigger volume.`);
        });
    }
}

Classic

var TriggerVolume = pc.createScript('triggerVolume');

// initialize code called once per entity
TriggerVolume.prototype.initialize = function() {
    this.entity.collision.on('triggerenter', function (entity) {
        console.log(entity.name + ' has entered trigger volume.');
    });
    this.entity.collision.on('triggerleave', function (entity) {
        console.log(entity.name + ' has left trigger volume.');
    });
};