Component Reference

Components add functionality to entities in Open 3D Engine (O3DE). An entity can contain any number or combination of components. Some components allow only one instance per entity, and some depend on other components to function.

Components are provided by Gems. To make a component available in O3DE Editor, you must add the Gem that provides the component. Though components might belong to the same type, they might not be provided by the same Gem. You can find out which Gem provides a component in the reference topic for the component.

Add a component to an entity

To add a component to an entity in O3DE Editor:

In Entity Outliner or Perspective, click an entity to select it. This will show the entity’s details in Entity Inspector.
In Entity Inspector, choose Add Component.
Select a component from the component list to add to the entity.

Note:
If you can’t find a component in the Add Component list, you may need to enable the Gem that provides the component and rebuild your project.

Components

The following components are grouped by type as they appear in the O3DE Editor.

Animation

Component	Description
Actor	Adds a mesh group bound to a skeleton that can be driven by animation data from Anim Graph or Simple Motion components.
Anim Graph	Manages a set of assets that are built in the Animation Editor, including the animation graph, default parameter settings, and assigned motion set for the associated Actor.
Attachment	Allows an entity to attach to a bone on the skeleton of another entity.
Simple LOD Distance	Sets the distance from the camera for each level of detail (LOD) of an Actor.
Simple Motion	Assigns a single motion to the associated Actor. This is a simpler alterative to the Anim Graph component.

Atom Renderer

Component	Description
Bloom	Simulates real-world light bleeding, or glow.
Chromatic Aberration	Simulates a lens effect that focuses wavelengths of light to different points.
CubeMap Capture	Captures a Specular IBL or Diffuse IBL cubemap at the entity position.
Debug Rendering	Level component used to visually inspect and debug the scene.
Decal (Atom)	Projects a texture material in a single direction onto mesh surfaces.
Deferred Fog	Creates a screen space fog effect that can ben used as scene fog or layered / ground fog with an optional cloud noise turbulence.
Depth of Field	Simulates the lens effects of real world cameras that focus on a specific area.
Diffuse Global Illumination	Controls the quality level of global illumination that Diffuse Probe Grid components provide.
Diffuse Probe Grid	Creates a volume of light probes that provide diffuse global illumination within the specified area.
Directional Light	Casts light from an infinitely distant point towards a single direction, similar to sunlight.
Display Mapper	Configures tone mapping and color grading for the scene.
Entity Reference	Allows you to provide an entity with references to other entities.
Exposure Control	Adjusts the amount of light the camera exposes in the scene.
Global Skylight (IBL)	Creates an image-based global illumination effect that calculates light for a scene using an HDR skybox image.
Grid	Adds a customizable grid to the scene.
HDRi Skybox	Creates a skybox in your scene using an HDR image.
Light	Simulates soft studio light by creating various types of punctual and area lights.
Look Modification	Configures a color grading look-up table (LUT).
Material	Manage and customize materials that are applied to models, actors, and other compatible components.
Mesh	Specifies a model to render.
Occlusion Culling Plane	Creates an occluder that when put between the camera and a mesh, can block the mesh from being rendered.
Physical Sky	Adjusts the physical environment of the scene, such as the sky, sun, and fog.
Post-processing Modifiers	A collection of components that define layers, volumes, areas, and weights for post-processing effects (PostFX).
Reflection Probe	Creates specular reflections in the environment around a probe (capture point).
SSAO	Approximates indirect lighting in a scene by using the screen space ambient occlusion technique.
Stars	Provides physically-based animated resolution-independent distant stars.

Audio

Component	Description
Audio Animation	Adds the ability to execute audio triggers when animation events occur.
Audio Area Environment	Enables entities that are moving around and throughout a shape to have environment effects applied to any sounds that they trigger.
Audio Environment	Applies environmental effects such as reverb or echo.
Audio Listener	Allows a virtual microphone to be placed in the environment.
Audio Preload	Loads and unloads soundbanks contained in the Audio Translation Layer preloads.
Audio Proxy	If multiple Audio components are added to an entity, the Audio Proxy component is required to ensure the other Audio components communicate to the same Audio object.
Audio Rtpc	Provides basic Real-time Parameter Control (RTPC) functionality, which allows you to tweak sounds in real-time.
Audio Switch	Provides basic Audio Translation Layer switch functionality to specify the state of an entity.
Audio Trigger	Provides Audio Translation Layer triggers that allows you to play or stop the audio.
Multi-Position Audio	Provides the ability to broadcast sounds through multiple positions.
MiniAudio Listener	Provides the ability to set the MiniAudio listener for spatial audio playback.
MiniAudio Playback	Provides the ability to play sounds with MiniAudio.

Camera

Component	Description
Camera	Allows an entity to be used as a camera.
Camera Rig	Manages the behaviors that drive a camera entity.

Editor

Component	Description
Comment	Allows you to add a text comment for component entities.

Gameplay

Component	Description
Fly Camera Input	Allows you to control the camera using mouse and key inputs.
Look At	Forces an entity to always look at a given target.
Simple State	Provides a simple state machine that allows you to activate and deactivate associated entities.
Tag	Allows you to apply one or more labels to an entity.
Input	Binds raw input to events in your game.

Gradient Modifiers

Component	Description
Dither Gradient Modifier	Applies ordered dithering to the input gradient.
Gradient Mixer	Generates a new gradient by combining other gradients.
Gradient Transform Modifier	Creates a coordinate space for the gradient based on a Shape component. Modifiers for the input gradient are applied in this space.
Invert Gradient Modifier	Inverts a gradient’s values.
Levels Gradient Modifier	Modifies an input gradient’s signal using low/mid/high points and allows clamping of min/max output values.
Posterize Gradient Modifier	Divides an input gradient’s signal into a specified number of bands.
Smooth-Step Gradient Modifier	Generates a gradient fall off that smooths the input gradient.
Threshold Gradient Modifier	Applies a threshold value to an input gradient to generate an output gradient that has only two values. Input gradient values above the threshold are set to 1 and input values at or below the threshold are set to 0.

Gradients

Component	Description
Altitude Gradient	Generates a gradient based on height within a range.
Constant Gradient	Returns a specified value as a gradient when sampled.
FastNoise Gradient	Generates gradient values using FastNoise , a noise generation library with a collection of real-time noise algorithms.
Image Gradient	Generates a gradient by sampling an image asset.
Perlin Noise Gradient	Generates a gradient by sampling a perlin noise generator.
Random Noise Gradient	Generates a gradient by sampling a random noise generator.
Reference Gradient	References another gradient.
Shape Falloff Gradient	Generates a gradient based on the distance from a shape.
Slope Gradient	Generates a gradient based on the surface angle.
Surface Mask Gradient	Generates a gradient based on the underlying surface types.

Multiplayer

Component	Description
Simple Network Player Spawner	Implements a basic setup for handling player join and player leave events in a network multiplayer session.

Non-uniform Scale

Component	Description
Non-uniform Scale	Allows an entity to scale by varying sizes across the x-, y-, and z- axes. By default, entities can scale only equally across the axes.

NVIDIA PhysX

Component	Description
Cloth	Simulates the behavior of cloth by treating the vertices of a mesh as cloth particles with physical properties.
PhysX Ball Joint	Simulates a dynamic ball joint that constrains an entity to the joint with freedom to rotate around the y- and z-axes of the joint.
PhysX Character Controller	Implements basic character interactions with the physical world.
PhysX Character Gameplay	Configures general character properties in the gameplay, such as the character’s gravitational strength.
PhysX Dynamic Rigid Body	Defines the movable entity as a movable rigid object that is solid and can collide with other PhysX entities.
PhysX Fixed Joint	Creates a dynamic fixed joint that constrains an entity to the joint with no degree of freedom in any axis.
PhysX Force Region	Applies a physical force on objects that are within the specified region.
PhysX Heightfield Collider	Creates a geometric collider based on the Axis-Aligned Box component.
PhysX Hinge Joint	Creates a dynamic hinge joint that constrains an entity to the joint with freedom to rotate around the x-axis of the joint.
PhysX Mesh Collider	Allows you to specify PhysX mesh assets to calculate collisions between entities.
PhysX Primitive Collider	Allows you to specify primitive shapes to calculate collisions between entities.
PhysX Prismatic Joint	Creates a dynamic prismatic joint that constrains an entity to the joint, keeping the same rotation but allowing it to move freely along one axis.
PhysX Ragdoll	Simulates ragdoll physics by creating a hierarchy of rigid bodies connected by joints.
PhysX Static Rigid Body	Defines the entity as a non-movable rigid object that is solid and can collide with other PhysX entities.
PhysX Shape Collider	Creates a geometric collider based on the Shape component.

Scripting

Component	Description
Lua Script	Allows you to add custom logic and functionality using Lua code.
Script Canvas	Allows you to add custom logic and functionality using Lua code.

Shape

Component	Description
Axis Aligned Box Shape	Creates box geometry that is always axis-aligned.
Box Shape	Generates box geometry for volumes and triggers.
Capsule Shape	Generates capsule geometry for volumes and triggers.
Compound Shape	Builds complex geometry from simple shapes for volumes and triggers.
Cylinder Shape	Generates cylinder geometry for volumes and triggers.
Disk Shape	Generates disk geometry for areas and triggers.
Polygon Prism Shape	Generates n-sided prism geometry for volumes and triggers.
Quad Shape	Generates quad-plane geometry for areas and triggers.
Shape Reference	Enables entities to reference and reuse Shape components.
Sphere Shape	Generates sphere geometry for volumes and triggers.
Spline	Generates lines and curves for paths.
Tube Shape	Generates tube geometry for volumes and triggers.
White Box	Allows you to sketch 3D proxy meshes in the O3DE Editor.
White Box Collider	Supports collision layers and physics materials for white box meshes.

Surface Data

Component	Description
Gradient Surface Tag Emitter	Enables a gradient to emit surface tags.
Mesh Surface Tag Emitter	Enables a static mesh to emit surface tags.
PhysX Collider Surface Tag Emitter	Enables a physics collider to emit surface tags.
Shape Surface Tag Emitter	Enables a shape to emit surface tags.

Terrain

Component	Description
Terrain Physics Heightfield Collider	Provides terrain data to a physics collider in the form of a heightfield and surface to material mapping.
Terrain Layer Spawner	Spawns a terrain region contained within configurable bounds, and allows prioritization of overlapping terrain layers.
Terrain Macro Material	Provides low-fidelity color data for a region of terrain.
Terrain Height Gradient List	Provides terrain height data from a list of gradients.
Terrain Surface Materials List	Defines mappings between a surface type and a render material.
Terrain Surface Gradient List	Defines mappings between a gradient and a surface type on a terrain layer.
Terrain World	Allows the bounds of the Terrain World and the height query resolution to be set.
Terrain World Debugger	Provides a means to display a wireframe or bounds representation of the Terrain World.
Terrain World Renderer	Renders the terrain within the Terrain World bounds.

Test

Component	Description
AssetCollectionAsyncLoaderTest	Allows you to test the API provided by AssetCollectionAsyncLoader.

UI

Component	Description
UI Canvas Asset Ref	Allows you to associate a UI Canvas with an entity.
UI Canvas Proxy Ref	Allows you to associate an entity with another entity that is managing a UI Canvas.
UI Canvas on Mesh	Allows you to place a UI Canvas on an entity in the 3D world that a player can interact with via ray casts.

Vegetation

Component	Description
Landscape Canvas	Provides a node-based Editor for authoring Dynamic Vegetation.
Vegetation Asset List	Provides a set of vegetation descriptors.
Vegetation Asset List Combiner	Provides a list of vegetation descriptor providers.
Vegetation Asset Weight Selector	Selects vegetation assets based on their weight.
Vegetation Layer Blender	Combines a collection of vegetation areas and applies them in a specified order.
Vegetation Layer Blocker	Defines an area in which dynamic vegetation cannot be placed.
Vegetation Layer Blocker (Mesh)	Prevents vegetation from being placed in the mesh.
Vegetation Layer Debugger	Enables debug visualizers for vegetation layers.
Vegetation Layer Spawner	Creates dynamic vegetation in a specified area.

Vegetation Filters

Component	Description
Vegetation Altitude Filter	Limits the placement of vegetation to surfaces within the specified height range.
Vegetation Distance Between Filter	Defines the minimum distance between vegetation instances.
Vegetation Distribution Filter	Limits the placement of vegetation to a specified value range within a distribution defined by a gradient.
Vegetation Shape Intersection Filter	Limits the placement of vegetation to surfaces that intersect the specified shape.
Vegetation Slope Filter	Limits the placement of vegetation to surfaces within the specified surface angle range.
Vegetation Surface Mask Depth Filter	Limits the placement of vegetation to surfaces within a specified depth range between two surface tags.
Vegetation Surface Mask Filter	Filters out vegetation based on surface mask-to-tag mappings.

Vegetation Modifiers

Component	Description
Vegetation Position Modifier	Offsets the position of the vegetation.
Vegetation Rotation Modifier	Offsets the rotation of the vegetation.
Vegetation Scale Modifier	Offsets the scale of the vegetation.
Vegetation Slope Alignment Modifier	Offsets the orientation of the vegetation relative to a surface angle.

Supplemental Information

The following pages provide additional information about data and systems used by the components.

Data/System	Description
Paint Brush	Painting data manipulator used by some components.
Terrain Detail Material	Provides high-fidelity material data for a region of terrain.

Component Reference

Add a component to an entity

Components

Animation

Atom Renderer

Audio

Camera

Editor

Gameplay

Gradient Modifiers

Gradients

Multiplayer

Non-uniform Scale

NVIDIA PhysX

Scripting

Shape

Surface Data

Terrain

Test

UI

Vegetation

Vegetation Filters

Vegetation Modifiers

Supplemental Information

Animation

Atom

Audio

Camera

Editor

Gameplay

Gradient Modifiers

Gradients

Multiplayer

Non-uniform Scale

NVIDIA PhysX

Paint Brush

ROS 2

Scripting

Shape

Surface Data

Terrain

Test

Transform

UI

Vegetation

Vegetation Filters

Vegetation Modifiers