Pulsors

The Pulsor system is a physics-driven interaction layer. A PulsorComponent emits typed pulses when its physics trigger fires. PulseReactorComponents on other entities receive and process those pulses based on their type. The system is fully extensible — new pulse and reactor types are discovered automatically through O3DE serialization, so new interaction types can be added from any gem without modifying GS_Interaction.

For usage guides and setup examples, see The Basics: GS_Interaction.

Contents

• Architecture
• Components
• Pulse Types
• Reactor Types
• Extension Guide
• See Also

Architecture

Breakdown

When an entity enters a Pulsor’s trigger volume, the Pulsor emits its configured pulse type to all Reactors on the entering entity:

Step	What It Means
1 — Collider overlap	Physics detects an entity entering the Pulsor’s trigger volume.
2 — Pulse emit	PulsorComponent reads its configured PulseType and prepares the event.
3 — Reactor query	Each PulseReactorComponent on the entering entity is checked with IsReactor().
4 — Reaction	Reactors returning true have ReceivePulses() called and execute their response.

Pulse types are polymorphic — new types are discovered automatically at startup via EnumerateDerived. Any gem can define custom interaction semantics without modifying GS_Interaction.

E Indicates extensible classes and methods.

Patterns - Complete list of system patterns used in GS_Play.

Components

PulsorComponent

Emits typed pulses when its physics trigger fires. Extends AZ::Component and PhysicsTriggeringVolume.

The pulsor fires all configured pulse types simultaneously when an entity enters its trigger volume.

PulseReactorComponent

Receives and processes typed pulses from pulsors.

Bus: PulseReactorRequestBus (ById, Multiple)

Pulse Types

Pulse types define what kind of interaction a pulsor emits. All types extend the abstract PulseType base class.

Pulse Types API

Reactor Types

Reactor types define how an entity responds to incoming pulses. All types extend the abstract ReactorType base class.

Reactor Types API

Extension Guide

Use the ClassWizard templates to generate new pulse and reactor classes with boilerplate already in place — see GS_Interaction Templates:

• PulsorPulse — generates a new PulseType subclass with a named channel and payload stub. Supply type_display_name and type_category input vars to control how it appears in the editor dropdown.
• PulsorReactor — generates a new ReactorType subclass. Supply the required pulse_channel var — the channel string is baked into the header at generation time.

To create a custom pulse or reactor type manually:

1. Create a class extending PulseType (or ReactorType) with a unique RTTI TypeId.
2. Reflect the class using O3DE’s SerializeContext and EditContext. The system discovers the new type automatically.

Channels are string-matched at runtime — keep the channel string consistent between the Pulse and the Reactor that receives it.

See Also

For related resources:

• Targeting
• World Triggers
• Framework API: GS_Interaction

Get GS_Interaction

GS_Interaction — Explore this gem on the product page and add it to your project.