Needle Core Components

Here is a overview of some of the components that we provide. Many of them map to components and functionality in Unity, Blender or other integrations.

For a complete list please have a look at our API docs.

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). The VideoPlayer also supports streaming from MediaStream objects or M3U8 livestream URLs
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 library 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 effects using a Volume in Unity is only supported with URP

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
Vignette	via Volume asset
ToneMappingEffect	via Volume asset or separate component
Pixelation
Screenspace Ambient Occlusion N8
Screenspace Ambient Occlusion
Tilt Shift Effect
SharpeningEffect
Your custom effect	See example on stackblitz

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 Rapier.

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 VR, AR and Passthrough support as well as rendering Avatar models
USDZExporter	Add to enable USD and Quicklook support
XRFlag	Control when objects are visible, e.g. only in VR or AR or only in ThirdPerson
WebARSessionRoot	Handles placement and scale of your scene in AR mode
WebARCameraBackground	Add to access the AR camera image and apply effects or use it for rendering
WebXRImageTracking	Assign images to be tracked and optionally instantiate an object at the image position
WebXRPlaneTracking	Create plane meshes or colliders for tracked planes
XRControllerModel	Can be added to render device controllers or hand models (will be created by default when enabled in the WebXR component)
XRControllerMovement	Can be added to provide default movement and teleport controls
XRControllerFollow	Can be added to any object in the scene and configured to follow either left or right hands or controllers

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-ui. UI can be animated.

Name	Description
Canvas	Unity's UI system. Needs to be in World Space mode right now.
Text (Legacy)	Render Text using Unity's UI Text component. Custom fonts are supported, a font atlas will be automatically generated on export. Use the font settings or the FontAdditionalCharacters component to control which characters are included in the atlas. Note: In Unity make sure to use the Legacy/Text component (TextMeshPro is not supported at the moment)
Button	Receives click events - use the onClick event to react to it. It can be added too 3D scene objects as well. Note: Make sure to use the Legacy/Text component in the Button (or create the Button via the UI/Legacy/Button Unity context menu since TextMeshPro is not supported at the moment)
Image	Renders a sprite image
RawImage	Renders a texture
InputField	Allows text input

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