Unity VR: Teleport Anchors vs Areas

Intro

We are having some interaction issues with the Teleport Anchors compared to the Area. You will notice that when the Teleport Select is being used and the Interactor hits the Teleport Anchor it is showing an invalid interaction.

Teleport Anchors & Areas

I have compared these two in a previous article, but this issue brings up why you will want to make these adjustments to the Selection Configuration for the Teleportation Interactor to make the Teleport Anchor more responsive without really affecting the Teleport Areas.

On the Teleport Interactor, we will want to set the Selection Action Trigger to ‘State’ and set Keep Selected Target Valid to false.

Why These Settings Help with Teleport Anchors:

Select Action Trigger = State

• Keeps the teleport ray active only while the user holds the input, which gives time to preview the anchor target.
• Prevents immediate teleporting if the input was tapped accidentally.

Keep Selected Target Valid = False

• Forces the system to revalidate the teleport target every frame.
• If the user moves the ray away from a Teleport Anchor, the teleport is canceled, avoiding mistakes.
• This is important for Anchors, because they are discrete points — teleporting to the wrong one feels more jarring than being slightly off in an area.

Why This Is Less Crucial for Teleport Areas:

• Teleport Areas give users freedom to aim and move within a large region.
• Slight misalignment doesn’t matter as much — the user still ends up in a valid space.
• Anchors don’t give that flexibility, so we want to be extra precise and avoid triggering them unintentionally.