Legacy Documentation: Version 4.5.0

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Physics.SphereCast

static function SphereCast(origin: Vector3, radius: float, direction: Vector3, hitInfo: RaycastHit, distance: float = Mathf.Infinity, layerMask: int = DefaultRaycastLayers): bool;
static bool SphereCast(Vector3 origin, float radius, Vector3 direction, RaycastHit hitInfo, float distance = Mathf.Infinity, int layerMask = DefaultRaycastLayers);
static def SphereCast(origin as Vector3, radius as float, direction as Vector3, hitInfo as RaycastHit, distance as float = Mathf.Infinity, layerMask as int = DefaultRaycastLayers) as bool

Parameters

originThe center of the sphere at the start of the sweep.
radiusThe radius of the sphere.
directionThe direction into which to sweep the sphere.
hitInfoIf true is returned, hitInfo will contain more information about where the collider was hit (See Also: RaycastHit).
distanceThe length of the sweep.
layerMaskA Layer mask that is used to selectively ignore colliders when casting a capsule.

Returns

bool True when the capsule sweep intersects any collider, otherwise false.

Description

Casts a sphere against all colliders in the scene and returns detailed information on what was hit.

This is useful when a Raycast does not give enough precision, because you want to find out if an object of a specific size, such as a character, will be able to move somewhere without colliding with anything on the way. Think of the sphere cast like a thick raycast.

Note: The sphere cast does not work against colliders configured as triggers. If you move colliders from scripting or by animation, there needs to be at least one FixedUpdate executed so that the physics library can update it's data structures, before a SphereCast will hit the collider at it's new position.

See Also: Physics.SphereCastAll, Physics.CapsuleCast, Physics.Raycast, Rigidbody.SweepTest.

	function Update () {
		var hit : RaycastHit;
		var charCtrl : CharacterController = GetComponent(CharacterController);
		var p1 : Vector3 = transform.position + charCtrl.center;
		// Cast a sphere wrapping character controller 10 meters forward, to see if it is about to hit anything
		if (Physics.SphereCast (p1, charCtrl.height / 2, transform.forward, hit, 10)) {
			var distanceToObstacle = hit.distance;
		}
	}
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class ExampleClass : MonoBehaviour {
    void Update() {
        RaycastHit hit;
        CharacterController charCtrl = GetComponent<CharacterController>();
        Vector3 p1 = transform.position + charCtrl.center;
        if (Physics.SphereCast(p1, charCtrl.height / 2, transform.forward, out hit, 10))
            float distanceToObstacle = hit.distance;
        
    }
}
import UnityEngine
import System.Collections

public class ExampleClass(MonoBehaviour):

	def Update() as void:
		hit as RaycastHit
		charCtrl as CharacterController = GetComponent[of CharacterController]()
		p1 as Vector3 = (transform.position + charCtrl.center)
		if Physics.SphereCast(p1, (charCtrl.height / 2), transform.forward, , 10):
			distanceToObstacle as float = hit.distance

static function SphereCast(ray: Ray, radius: float, distance: float = Mathf.Infinity, layerMask: int = DefaultRaycastLayers): bool;
static bool SphereCast(Ray ray, float radius, float distance = Mathf.Infinity, int layerMask = DefaultRaycastLayers);
static def SphereCast(ray as Ray, radius as float, distance as float = Mathf.Infinity, layerMask as int = DefaultRaycastLayers) as bool
static function SphereCast(ray: Ray, radius: float, hitInfo: RaycastHit, distance: float = Mathf.Infinity, layerMask: int = DefaultRaycastLayers): bool;
static bool SphereCast(Ray ray, float radius, RaycastHit hitInfo, float distance = Mathf.Infinity, int layerMask = DefaultRaycastLayers);
static def SphereCast(ray as Ray, radius as float, hitInfo as RaycastHit, distance as float = Mathf.Infinity, layerMask as int = DefaultRaycastLayers) as bool

Parameters

rayThe starting point and direction of the ray into which the sphere sweep is cast.
radiusThe radius of the sphere.
directionThe direction into which to sweep the sphere.
hitInfoIf true is returned, hitInfo will contain more information about where the collider was hit (See Also: RaycastHit).
distanceThe length of the sweep.
layerMaskA Layer mask that is used to selectively ignore colliders when casting a capsule.

Returns

bool True when the capsule sweep intersects any collider, otherwise false.

Description

Casts a sphere against all colliders in the scene and returns detailed information on what was hit.

This is useful when a Raycast does not give enough precision, because you want to find out if an object of a specific size, such as a character, will be able to move somewhere without colliding with anything on the way. Think of the sphere cast like a thick raycast.

Note: The sphere cast does not work against colliders configured as triggers. If you move colliders from scripting or by animation, there needs to be at least one FixedUpdate executed so that the physics library can update it's data structures, before a SphereCast will hit the collider at it's new position.

See Also: Physics.SphereCastAll, Physics.CapsuleCast, Physics.Raycast, Rigidbody.SweepTest.