Disabling collision on an object

Unity Engine
1

Is there a way to switch a collider on and off?

I am doing all of my collisions with Physics.Linecast. I have two concentric spheres, and I wish to be able to switch each of them individually between “colliding” to “non-colliding”

2

Hmm, I can prevent an object from registering a collision with:

active = false;

However, it seems that this also prevents the object from reactivating itself, because all scripts on the object stop updating.

I suppose I could workaround by creating a “control” empty object to set it active or inactive.

Any other suggestions?

3

You can set the “isTrigger” property to true and you will have no collisions - only trigger events.
second option is to use “Physics.IgnoreCollisions” - look it up in the docs.
and a third option will be to change the scale and position of the collider to a "safe place”. by changing the bounds of the collider.

4

Colliders can’t be disabled/enabled, but they can be destroyed and re-added. Aside from Physics.IgnoreCollision, you could also use layer masks to selectively choose what is detected with the linecast.

–Eric

5

Thanks for the help, I love the fast feedback on this board!

I have gone for the “manager” GameObject technique, I have found that I can assign multiple mesh colliders to a manager and have it switch between them at will. I’m not sure what good that would be, but I am sure it will come in use somehow. It’s a cool solution which is looking for a cool problem!