Exploring the Editor Layout

Navigation in the Editor - 2019.1 & 2019.2

Project Organization

Working with the FBX Exporter Setup and Roundtrip - 2019.1, 2019.2

Importing Assets

Introduction to Nested Prefabs

Working with Scripts

Working with Switch Statements

Creating Basic UI with uGUI

Creating a Screen Space Overlay UI

Creating a Worldspace UI

Grouping and Layout Techniques for UI Components

QuickStart to TextMesh Pro

Introduction to Sprite Animations

Using 9-Slicing for Scalable Sprites

Working with YAMLMerge

Managing Projects with Multi-Scene Editing

Introduction to Optimization in Unity

Working with LODs

Working with the Stats Window

Working with the Frame Debugger

Working with the FBX Exporter Setup and Roundtrip

During development of any project in Unity, there will be a need to import assets, whether they be 3D or 2D. Assets come in various file formats such as .fbx, .png, and .tga. These are just a few, but are commonly used in Unity development. In this tutorial, you will learn different ways to bring in your assets.

Sprite Animations are animation clips that are created for 2D assets. There are various ways to create Sprite Animations. One way is to create them from a Sprite Sheet, a collection of Sprites arranged in a grid. The Sprites are then compiled into an Animation Clip that will play each Sprite in order to create the animation, much like a flipbook. Sprite Animations can also be created by using keyframe animation in Unity, via the Animation window.  

SpriteSheet.png

Creating Sprite Animations Using Sprite Sheets

Import Settings

Sprite Editor

Slicing Sprite Sheets

Creating Sprite Animations from Selected Sprites

Creating Keyframe Animation

Blending Animations

Conclusion

Next Steps

What are Sprite Animations?

Unity allows you to have multiple scenes loaded simultaneously in the Unity Editor. Multi-scene editing allows you to lay out a huge game world one chunk at a time, moving everything into place, and even transfer assets from one scene to another. In this workflow, we’ll explore how we can use multi-scene editing to build a game world from modular sections.

Creating and Editing Multiple Scenes

Creating or Loading Additional Scenes for Multi-Scene Editing

Transferring Assets Between Scenes

Introduction

Setting up the first Scene

The Frame Debugger is a handy tool that allows you to freeze playback for a running game on a particular frame to view the individual draw calls used to render that frame. The debugger also lets you go through frames one-by-one so you can see in greater detail how the scene is constructed.  In this tutorial, you will learn about the Frame Debugger and how to use it for analysis.

The Frame Debugger

Using the Frame Debugger

How to get the most out of the Frame Debugger

Viewing Shader Properties

These Companion Tutorials are related to the activities of this instructor-led Workshop. These Tutorials will refresh your memory as you apply new skills to your own projects. Come back to these Tutorials as a reference as you proceed through your learning journey with Unity. 

Using workshop assets, or assets of your own, use these Tutorials to get up and running with Unity, focusing on the features you will need to build 3D mobile games. With these tutorials, you will add objects, animate objects, build UI components, and optimize your game’s performance. 

2019.4

2019.1

2018.4

Introduction to 3D Mobile Games for Engineers--Companion Tutorials (2019.1)

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Creating an Inventory: Part 1 — Scripting

Creating an Inventory: Part 2 — Assembling the UI

GroupingLayoutUI_1.mp4

Unity’s UI system is flexible enough for nearly any imaginable purpose. Sometimes, there are situations where we don’t know ahead of time what we’ll need to display, but rather what we have room for. In this tutorial, you will learn to create an inventory that uses different Layout Groups to arrange your UI elements. 

Games

Film

Automotive

DoozyUI - Related Tutorials

Developing Interactive User Interfaces--Companion Tutorials (2019.2+)

Introduction to Learning and Training in VR--Companion Tutorials (2019.3 i)

Introduction to 3D Mobile Games for Artists--Companion Tutorials (2018.4)

Introduction to VR for Interactive Experiences--Companion Tutorials (2019.1, 2019.2 i)

Introduction to VR for Interactive Experiences--Companion Tutorials (2019.3 i)

Optimizing UI in Unity--Companion Tutorials (2019.2 i)

Creating Mobile AR Applications with AR Foundation--Companion Tutorials (2019.2 i)

Introduction to UI in Unity

Architecture, Engineering and Construction Curricular Framework Resources

Creative Core: UI

This tutorial has been verified using Unity 2019.4.10f1 LTS - https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/grouping-and-layout-techniques-for-ui-components-2019-3 

Unity’s UI system is flexible enough for nearly any imaginable purpose. Sometimes, there are situations where we don’t know ahead of time what we’ll need to display, but rather what we have room for. One example of this is an inventory in a role-playing game. The developer shapes what’s possible in a game, but it would be impractical to try to design a UI for every possible situation. Instead, Unity offers Layout Groups to handle arranging UI elements. In this exercise, we’ll create an inventory that uses Vertical and Grid Layout Groups. There is also a Horizontal Layout Group, which functions much like the Vertical. UI elements that are arranged by Layout Groups can optionally carry the Layout Element component for more control.

1. Create a new script, InventoryItemButton, and double click it in the Project window to open Visual Studio.

2. Delete Update, as we won’t need it for this exercise. Change Start to Awake.

4. Beginning just inside the class definition, type:

private Text buttonText;
private string[] itemTypes = { “Armor”, “Weapon”, “Spell” };
public int typeIndex;

typeIndex = Random.Range(0, 3);
buttonText = GetComponentInChildren<Text>();
buttonText.text = itemTypes[typeIndex];

6. InventoryItemButton is complete (Figure 01). Save your changes.

7. Back in the Unity Editor, create a new script called InventoryDisplay and open in Visual Studio.

8. Delete both Start and Update. This script will only be responsible for showing and hiding items in the inventory.

public void ShowOnly(int itemType)
{
	for (int i = 0; i < transform.childCount; i++)
	{
   	InventoryItemButton thisItem = transform.GetChild(i).GetComponent<InventoryItemButton>();
    	thisItem.gameObject.SetActive(thisItem.typeIndex == itemType);
	}
}

public void ShowAll()
{
	for (int i = 0; i < transform.childCount; i++)
	{
    		transform.GetChild(i).gameObject.SetActive(true);
	}
}


10 .Save changes. InventoryDisplay is now complete. (Figure 02)

Figure 01: The completed InventoryItemButton script

Figure 02: The completed InventoryDisplay script

1. In a new Scene, create an empty GameObject named InventoryDisplayControl.

2. Add a Vertical Layout Group component to InventoryDisplayControl, and set the Child Alignment to Middle Center. (Figure 03)


3. Note that in the Inspector, InventoryDisplayControl’s Transform has been replaced by a Rect Transform, and the Rect Transform’s position has been set to that of the original Transform. Set the size to 150x100 (Figure 04). We’ll adjust the position when the rest of the Inventory is set up.


4. From the GameObject dropdown, select UI > Button. Creating a UI element also creates a Canvas and Event System if those weren’t already in the scene. Name the button button ShowAllItems and set its size to 150x25.

5. In the Hierarchy window, click the triangle next to ShowAllItemsButton to show the child Text component. Highlight the Text GameObject and, in the Inspector, change the text from Button to Show All.

6. In the Hierarchy window, drag InventoryDisplayControl onto the Canvas and release.

7. Drag and drop ShowAllItemsButton onto InventoryDisplayControl to put it under the control of the Vertical Layout Group. (Figure 05)


8. From the GameObject dropdown, select UI > Panel to create the background for our main inventory display. Name it Inventory Panel. Set the anchor preset to center, and the size to 676x340 (Figure 06). This size was chosen to allow for the planned layout: a maximum of 6x3 buttons at 100x100 pixels each, with 12 pixels padding in either dimension and extra room for the panel border.

9. Using either the move Gizmo, or directly entering positions into the Rect Transforms for InventoryPanel and InventoryDisplayControl, move both so that they do not overlap.

10. Highlight InventoryPanel and add the Inventory Display component created earlier.

11. Add a Grid Layout Group component to InventoryPanel. Set the Left and Top padding to 8 pixels, spacing to 12x12 pixels, and set Constraint to a Fixed Column Count of 6. (Figure 07)

12. Create a Button and name it InventoryItemSample. Add the Inventory Item Button component, and drag the button onto InventoryPanel. (Figure 08)


13. In the Hierarchy window, highlight InventoryItemSample and press Ctrl + D (PC) or Cmd + D (Mac) to duplicate it 17 times, for a total of 18 buttons. (Figure 09)


14. Highlight ShowAllItemsButton in the Hierarchy window. In the bottom of the Inspector section marked Button (Script), click the + to add an OnClick() event. Drag InventoryPanel into the GameObject slot, and from the Event dropdown, select InventoryDisplay > ShowAll. (Figure 10)


15. With ShowAllItemsButton still highlighted, press Ctrl + D (PC) or Cmd + D (Mac) once to duplicate it. Name the new button ShowArmorButton, and change its text to Show Armor.

16. In the OnClick() events list for ShowArmorButton, change the event to InventoryDisplay > ShowOnly (int). Leave the parameter at the default of 0.

17. Duplicate ShowArmorButton, changing Armor in the name and text to Weapons.

18.  In the Inspector for ShowWeaponsButton, change the parameter for InventoryDisplay.ShowOnly to 1.

19. Duplicate ShowWeaponsButton, changing Weapons in the name and text to Spells. Change the parameter for InventoryDisplay.ShowOnly to 2. (Figure 11)



20 .Press Play. Each button is randomly assigned an item and its text is updated to reflect what it holds. (Figure 12)


21. Try clicking Show Armor, etc. Though you can click the Inventory Items themselves, it does nothing in this demonstration. In a real game, you might enable equip/unequip actions when an item is clicked directly in the inventory.

Figure 03: Because the contents of our Vertical Layout Group won’t change in this exercise, Child Alignment is a matter of taste. It becomes more important when more control is needed.

Figure 04: Because this GameObject isn’t on the canvas yet, we can’t set its alignment, only its size and position.

Figure 05: A GameObject with a Layout Group component will automatically control the layout of any child UI elements.

Figure 06: The size of your UI elements will depend on many factors, including the amount of information they need to convey and (optionally) the reference resolution you’re targeting.

Figure 07: The Grid Layout Group combined with buttons set to Automatic Navigation (the default) is a quick way to make an inventory that’s intuitive to use.

Figure 08: The final structure for our simple inventory. All new buttons will be created as children of InventoryDisplayControl and InventoryPanel.

Figure 09: The Grid Layout Group makes sure that all 18 icons go exactly where intended without the need for manual placement.

Figure 10: A single click of a button can invoke many events, but here just one will suffice.

Figure 11: OnClick events can optionally pass a parameter to the invoked method.

Figure 12: The inventory in action, with the default setting of showing all 18 randomly assigned items.

Nesting UI elements in layout groups is an efficient way to automate layout and handle a wide range of situations with far less code and manual effort than would be necessary otherwise.

Grouping and Layout Techniques for UI Components

1. Grouping and Layout Techniques for UI Components

2. Creating an Inventory: Part 1 — Scripting

3. Creating an Inventory: Part 2 — Assembling the UI

4. Conclusion

Complete this tutorial