A brief look at the new physics packages of Unity DOTS Stack

Raycast query ignoring glass object with custom “transparent” tag.

The Unity DOTS physics offers a more realistic physics simulation with a new inbuilt physics engine, Unity Physics, or a separate external physics engine, Havok Physics. Both of these engines are built on top of the Data-Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS) framework.

Figure 1: Unity DOTS Stack and the new physics packages

Global physics simulation properties of a scene

Add scene-wide properties for the physics simulation using the editor component Physics Step. The Physics Step component can be placed on an empty root Gameobject and offers the ability to set Gravity amount and direction, and the ability to swap Physics Engine between Unity Physics and Havok Physics.

Figure 2: Main physics components

Adding Physics simulation and collider properties for entities

Add physics simulation properties to an entity using the editor component called Physics Body which is the equivalent of the former Rigidbody editor component. Physics body offers apart from the…