RaycastHit <hitInfo>

RAYCASTING | ADVANCED PARAMETERS

RaycastHit is a structure used to get information back from a raycast. If the raycast returns true (collides with a collider), then the variable hitInfo will contain more information about where the closest collider was hit.

RaycastHit can record the following properties on the collider that was hit...

articulationBody	The ArticulationBody of the collider that was hit. If the collider is not attached to an articulation body then it is null.
barycentricCoordinate	The barycentric coordinate of the triangle we hit.
collider	The Collider that was hit.
colliderInstanceID	Instance ID of the Collider that was hit.
distance	The distance from the ray's origin to the impact point.
lightmapCoord	The uv lightmap coordinate at the impact point.
normal	The normal of the surface the ray hit.
point	The impact point in world space where the ray hit the collider.
rigidbody	The Rigidbody of the collider that was hit. If the collider is not attached to a rigidbody then it is null.
textureCoord	The uv texture coordinate at the collision location.
textureCoord2	The secondary uv texture coordinate at the impact point.
transform	The Transform of the rigidbody or collider that was hit.
triangleIndex	The index of the triangle that was hit.

To access specific properties within hitInfo, we use the following do syntax: hitInfo.property

When declaring the RaycastHit variable hitInfo you must use the keyword "out"

--> The "out" keyword is used to indicate that a parameter in a method is used for output purposes. Meaning that the variable that the "out" keyword is defining will return a value, and is not being used to pass a value.

SYNTAX

Physics.Raycast(transform.position, Vector3.forward, out hitInfo, 10);

The above line of code creates a raycast that starts at the position of the attached gameobject and casts a ray 10 units forward. If the ray hits another collider then data about that collision is stored in the RaycastHit variable hitInfo.

OUT KEYWORD

The *out* keyword is used to define that extra data will be returned back from the method and need a place to be stored