Introduction to Unit 5

Get started with user interfaces

Add a title to your scene

Manage screen size and anchors

Create a menu background with images

Add basic button functionality

Add toggles and sliders

Challenge: Make a worldspace UI

Add UI to your game

Unit 5 - UI

In this unit, you’ll learn how to create user interfaces (UI) in a Unity project. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add UI to your own game. 

Unit 5 - User Interfaces

Welcome to the course

Install the Unity Hub and Editor

Get started with the Unity Editor

Create a balanced primitive structure

Introduction to Unit 2

Setting up the Game

Moving the Player

Moving the Camera

Setting up the Play Area

Creating Collectibles

Detecting Collisions with Collectibles

Displaying Score and Text

Adding AI Navigation

Building the Game

Fill out a Game Design Document

Introduction to Unit 3

Get started with audio

Create 3D sound effects

Add special effects to existing audio

Challenge: Your own soundscape

Add audio to your game

Introduction to Unit 4

Get started with VFX

Play around with a Particle System

Create an environmental Particle System

Create a burst particle

Challenge: Add some magic to your scene

Add VFX to your game

Introduction to Unit 6

Get started with animation

Create your first 3D animations

Refine your animation

Control animation with an Animator

Import animation

Challenge: Bring the scene to life

Add animation to your game

Introduction to Unit 7

Get started with shaders and materials

Explore meshes and rendering

Explore shaders

Simulate solid surfaces

Map materials with textures

Create translucent and transparent effects

Add physical texture with bump mapping 

Challenge: Create your still life composition

Add materials to your game

Introduction to Unit 8

Get started with lighting

Get started with lighting in Unity

Configure the Directional Light and skybox

Add light sources to your scene

Configure shadows in your scene

Bake a lightmap for your scene

Improve your lighting with Light Probes

Examine and complete the indoor scene

Refine and troubleshoot the indoor scene

Showcase your work with lighting

Add lighting to your game

Introduction to Unit 9

Explore the production cycle

Reimagine your game on multiple platforms

Iterate on the player controller

Source new assets

Unity pro tips

Prepare for the UCA Game Dev exam

Finalize your project

Unit 1 - Unity fundamentals

Unit 2 - Program a basic game

Unit 3 - Audio

Unit 4 - VFX

Unit 6 - Animation

Unit 7 - Materials

Unit 8 - Lighting

Unit 9 - Iterate on your game

In this unit, you will create your first Unity project, get comfortable using the Unity Editor, and then design your first scene. 

Unit 1 - Get started in Unity

In this unit, you will create a simple game called Roll-a-Ball that will be the foundation for your personal game project, which you will work on for the entire course.  

In this unit, you’ll learn how to implement audio effects in Unity. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add audio to your own game. 

In this unit, you’ll learn how to implement visual effects (VFX)  in Unity. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add VFX to your own game. 

Unit 4 - Visual Effects

In this unit, you’ll learn how to create and control animations in a Unity project. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add animations to your own game. 

Add physical texture with bump mapping

In this unit, you’ll learn how to add custom materials, including a repeating pattern and a normal map to simulate height and surface texture. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add animations to your own game.

In this unit, you’ll learn how to add lighting to your scene to make things more polished and visually pleasing. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add lighting to your own game.

In this unit, you’ll reflect on the process so far, iterate on the player controller, swap out the assets in your game, and then you’ll learn some Unity tips and tricks to take your skills to the next level.

Unit 9 - Iterate on your Game

In this unit, you’ll make sure you’re ready to take the certification exam and make any final adjustments to your game to make sure it meets the goals outlined in your Game Design Document.  

Unit 10 - Prepare for certification and publishing

This course is designed to help you prepare for the 

Unity Certified Associate: Game Developer

In this course, you will master the fundamental skills needed for game development with Unity, including programming in C#, designing immersive audio and stunning visual effects, crafting intuitive user interfaces, and applying unique animations, materials and lighting.

You'll start by creating a design document for your own game, then gradually build a working prototype. Throughout the course, you'll enhance your game using the skills you acquire, taking it from a simple idea to a finished product.

Towards the end of the course, there is dedicated time for a comprehensive review of everything you’ve learned to ensure you’re fully prepared to ace the exam

When you're done with the course, you will not only have the skills to pass the Unity Certified Associate exam and continue creating your own games, but you'll also have a fully realized game that you've designed and created from scratch.

2022.3

UCA: Game Developer - Certification Prep Course

b18564ba-8afb-521d-8384-00734e9dbe28:6udFvAlfFjsjj7eis1hnD7

Overview

Why use a world space UI?

Get set up with a World Space Canvas

Design your World Space UI

Challenge criteria

Next steps

Submit your work

Make a worldspace UI

CErvin0501

This is the Module I have students complete, I find it more user-friendly than many other tutorials.

Clicky Crate 

jpeters3344

Movie_001.mp4

World Space UI

Tealc Wu

Freelance

A Video of the UI challenge,
crude but with the required stuff-
a streetlight that shots down at daytime, music, changing the directional light to simulate passage of time.

Crude...

LarsGranlof

Unit 5 - User Interface Challenge

unity_ABBB8FB9151B27AEEBC3

I was able to add all world UI elements. However, I was not able to program the optional smooth camera follow.

Movie_002.mp4

My UI

andres

Hi The Ui

Auose Mohammed

worldspace-camera-lerp.mp4

screen-space-overlay.mp4

screen-space-camera.mp4

A World Space UI can exist in the three dimensional world, just like any other GameObject. This allows you as a UI designer to create completely different types of interactions, compared with a traditional Screen Space UI. In this tutorial, you will learn more about the use cases for World Space UIs, then design a new version of your UI in world space. 

By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to:

Identify the use cases for different Canvas render modes: Screen Space - Overlay, Screen Space - Camera; World Space.

Demonstrate your new skills in user interfaces.

Designed for post-secondary and K-12 educators at accredited academic institutions teaching Unity in the classroom, the Unity Educator plan provides you with free access to the same real-time 3D development tools used by professionals to support your students.

Included in this plan are Unity Pro, cloud-based collaboration, cloud build, free Unity assets, and much more!

Creative Core Pathway Facilitator Kit.zip

Creative Core Pathway Facilitator Kit (Google Drive)

Unity Educator Hub

The Unity Creative Core Pathway Facilitator Kit includes everything you need to successfully bring this Pathway into your learning context including a syllabus, complete lesson plans, standards alignment, teacher preparation guide, and more. 

Games

Film

Automotive

AI, ML Curricular Framework Resources 

Up to this point, you have designed a Screen Space UI. A screen space UI sits flat on the screen, rendered on top of everything else in the environment, regardless of camera position.

A World Space UI, on the other hand, can be moved around and rotated within the 3D environment, just like any other object in the scene.

In this challenge, you will design an updated version of your UI in World Space. 

The settings menu of the outdoor amphitheater scene shown in the Game view. There is a firepit on the right and a street lamp close behind the menu. The menu sits on top of the objects, obscuring them from view.

The settings menu of the outdoor amphitheater scene shown in the Game view. The camera is in a different position than it was in the previous image, but both the firepit and the street lamp are still obscured from view behind the menu.

The settings menu of the outdoor amphitheater scene shown in the Game view. The menu is rotated and appears to be stuck to one of the back walls of the amphitheater up high above the firepit and street lamp.

A world space UI can be very effective if you’re trying to integrate the UI into the physical 3D world, like with an in-game control panel.

In VR experiences, screen space UIs are almost never used, since this would make it feel like the UI elements were stuck to your face. Instead, UIs in VR are set in world space and the user usually uses a ray to select their options. 

The examples above illustrate diegetic UI, where the interface is integrated into the actual gameworld and visible by the characters. Screen space UIs, on the other hand, are usually what’s known as non-diegetic, since they are not part of the game world and cannot be seen by the in-game characters. 

A screenshot from a game showing the console for a machine. At the center is a display that says “3.505 MHz”, which has left and right arrows next to it. Above that, there is what looks like an electrical wire.

A floating menu in an apartment with the text, “Press the OK button to get started” and an “OK” button beneath that. There are two floating VR hands with a white ray pointing out of the left hand, connecting it to the OK button.

Before you make any major changes to your UI, make a duplicate of your scene that you can freely experiment in. 

1.  In the Project window, select your current scene and press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Cmd+D (macOS) to duplicate it, then rename it something like “UI_Worldspace” and open it. This will keep your original Screen Space UI saved safely in a different scene.

2.  Select the Canvas object. In the Canvas component, change the Canvas Render Mode to World Space and assign your Main Camera to the Event Camera property.

When you do this, your entire UI will seem to disappear. Not to worry - it is still there; it’s just gigantic and out of view.

3.  In the Rect Transform component of the Canvas, reduce the scale to X=0.03, Y=0.03, Z=0.03, and reset its position to X=0, Y=0, Z=0. 

This will place the Canvas at an appropriate scale for your scene, centered near the environment. 

Note: Apart from the World Space render mode, there are actually two types of Screen Space render modes: Screen Space - Overlay and Screen Space - Camera. 

Screen space - Overlay is what we have used up to this point, which overlays the UI on top of the screen, regardless of what’s behind it. Notice in the video below how the UI always renders on top of everything else, regardless of whether an object might be in front of it.

Screen space - Camera places the UI a set distance from the camera and moves when the camera moves. In this mode, the UI can be obstructed by 3D objects if they are positioned between the camera and the UI elements. In this way, this mode is in between Screen space - Overlay and world space in terms of interaction with the physical world. Notice this obstruction by 3D objects in the video below.

If you’re interested, you can read more about the differences between those in the Manual.

Redesign your UI in world space. You should now be able to move, rotate, and scale the entire Canvas, or individual UI elements, just like you would any other 3D object. 

In order to create something that looks good, you may need to reorient your camera or rearrange the objects in the scene.  

When you’re done, your UI could look like one of the following examples, or something completely different!

You should expect to spend at least 30 minutes on this challenge.

If you’re interested in a programming challenge, you could also attempt the smooth camera movement shown here, which highlights the world space aspect of your UI even more.

The settings menu positioned in world space in the scene, angled upward in front of the firepit and street lamp.

The settings menu positioned in world space in the scene, up high on a wall on the right side angled downward.

The settings menu positioned in world space in the scene, angled downward, behind the firepit, but in front of the street lamp.

To successfully complete this challenge, your world space UI should: 

Be designed and positioned in interesting ways in world space.

Retain its full functionality (settings button shows settings menu and all menu items work).

Congratulations! You have completed the learning required for Core UI. 

You have the core skills and knowledge for one of the primary creative domains within the Unity Engine. 

Now you’re ready to apply these skills in other projects! We can’t wait to see what you make next.

After you’ve fulfilled the requirements, please submit and share your project! Before you do though, make sure you’ve thoroughly tested it — or even better, ask a friend or family member to test it too.

Follow these instructions to submit your project:

1. Take a screenshot or screen recording of your project.

2. Add a submission title and description. Make sure to include the video recording. If you have additional details to share about your process or the project that you have created, you can share them in the description too.

5. Check your submission preview and then complete the CAPTCHA test and select Submit and continue.

We highly recommend that you comment on at least one other creator's submission. Did they successfully complete the challenge? What do you like about the project? What would be a cool new feature they might consider adding?

Challenge: Make a worldspace UI

1. Overview

2. Why use a world space UI?

3. Get set up with a World Space Canvas

4. Design your World Space UI

5. Challenge criteria

6. Next steps

7. Submit your work

Please login to submit