¶ Ray Cast
Category: 🎮 Controllers
¶ Description
Casts a ray forward and detects the first block(s) it hits. Outputs the hit block(s) and distance, and exposes a second movable part placed on the contact point/normal.
Trigger a ray (or a thicker sphere cast) from the front of the block. When something is hit:
- the Hit Results tag output references the block(s) that were hit,
- the Distance jolt fires with the distance to the hit point,
- the Hits Count jolt fires first with the number of blocks detected (always 1 if Only Output Closest is on),
- the DestinationMuxPart movable part snaps to the contact point oriented along the surface normal, so it can be chained with Block Get Position / Set Position / Lookat for visuals or other reactions.
Use Continuous to cast every frame, or wire the Trigger jolt input to fire on demand. Min/Max distance clip results outside the range. Increase Ray thickness to perform a sphere cast and grab multiple blocks at once. The optional Tag input can restrict detection to specific blocks (enable Restrict to blocks in the Inspector).
Layer toggles in the Inspector control which categories of objects the ray detects: physical blocks, players, hittables, UI, and two block-geometry layers.
¶ Related Wiki Pages
¶ Inputs, Outputs and Parts
¶ Inputs
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Restrict (Optional) | Tag Input | When Restrict to blocks is enabled in the Inspector, only the blocks connected here are detected by the ray. |
| Min distance | Jolt Input with Dial | Minimum distance (m) at which the ray starts collecting hits. Closer blocks are ignored. |
| Max distance | Jolt Input with Dial | Maximum distance (m) at which the ray stops. Anything further is ignored. |
| Ray thickness | Jolt Input with Dial | Diameter of the ray (m). Above 0, switches to a sphere cast which can hit several blocks side-by-side. |
| Trigger | Jolt Input | Fires the ray cast once (disabled when Continuous is ON). |
¶ Outputs
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Hit Results | Tag Output | Tag output: each block hit by the ray. When Only Output Closest is on, only the nearest block is sent; otherwise the outputs fire in order of distance. |
| Distance | Jolt Output | Outputs the distance (m) to each hit block, fired right after the Hit Results tag output is set. |
| Hits Count | Jolt Output | Fired before the other outputs with the total number of blocks hit by the ray (clamped to 1 when Only Output Closest is enabled). |
¶ Others
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous | Toggle Button | When ON, the ray is cast every frame automatically (the Trigger jolt input is disabled). |
| Hit point | Sub Part | Second movable part of the block. Snaps to the last hit point and is oriented along the surface normal. Use it as a target for Block Get Position / Set Position / Lookat / Follow. |
¶ Inspector Controls
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Only Output Closest | checkbox | When ON, only the closest block hit is output. When OFF, all blocks within the ray are output, sorted by distance. |
| Trigger Hittables | checkbox | When ON, the ray simulates a punch on the hit blocks: it triggers their Make Hittable jolts and pushes physical blocks like a real impact would. |
| Restrict to blocks | checkbox | When ON, the ray only detects the blocks connected to the Restrict tag input. |
| Ray Cast Physical | checkbox | When ON, the ray detects physical rigidbodies (blocks made physical via Make Physical, Joint, Piston, etc.). |
| Ray Cast Player | checkbox | When ON, the ray detects player avatars (head, hands, body). |
| Ray Cast Blocks #1 | checkbox | When ON, the ray detects the interactive parts of blocks (knobs, dials, buttons, panels, sliders, etc.). |
| Ray Cast Blocks #2 | checkbox | When ON, the ray detects standard block geometry (visuals, props, terrains). |
| Ray Cast Hittables | checkbox | When ON, the ray detects blocks that have been made hittable via Make Hittable. |
| Ray Cast UI | checkbox | When ON, the ray detects UI elements (menus, panels, etc.). |
¶ Related Blocks
- set_hittable
- make_physical
- block_distance
- block_lookat
- block_set_position
- block_relative_position
- trigger_box