Why do trigger colliders not cause physics

Getting Started
1

Hi guys,

Yes, a noob question, hopefully posted in a noob part of town:

I am doing the 2nd Unity tutorial and was scratching my head why my laser shots where pushing my asteroid around the room. I realised I had not clicked IS TRIGGER on the laser prefab.

Now that I have done that everything is fine. But I want to ask, what is the difference with making an object IS TRIGGER when it comes to collision events. are they just ignored now unless there is a script that does something once a collision is detected?

Thanks

2

When “Is Triggered” isn’t enabled, that object is treated as a simple rigidbody collider (see this link). The Unity Scripting Reference is a magical source of information! xD

3

The whole point of IsTrigger is to detect collision events without a collision actually occurring. Think laser beams and proximity sensors.

4

Thank you both for you reply. And yes I do check the scripting reference, but sometimes its a little over my head, am still getting to grips with C sharp.