Unity - Manual: UI systems

Unity Manual

Language : English

Unity 6.2 Alpha User Manual
- Documentation versions
- Offline documentation
- Trademarks and terms of use
What's new in Unity
- New in Unity 6
- New in Unity 6 Preview
- New in Unity 2023.2
- New in Unity 2023.1
Install and upgrade
- Install Unity
- Deploy Unity across your enterprise
  - Enable Unity installation by standard users (Windows)
  - Use Unity through web proxies
- Licenses and activation
- Upgrade Unity
The Editor interface
- The Project window
- The Scene view
  - Overlays
  - Scene view grid snapping
  - Pick and select GameObjects in the Scene view
  - Position GameObjects
  - Scene view navigation
  - Scene view Camera
  - Control a camera in first person
  - Scene visibility
  - Scene view Draw Modes and View Options overlays
  - Gizmos menu
  - Scene view context menu
  - Custom Editor tools
- The Game view
- Device Simulator
  - Device Simulator introduction
  - The Simulator view
  - Simulated classes
  - Adding a device
  - Extending the device simulator
- The Hierarchy window
- The Inspector window
  - Manage the Inspector window
  - Inspect items
  - Focus an Inspector window
  - Assign icons to inspected items
  - Manage components and their values
- The Toolbar
- The status bar
- The Background Tasks window
- Console window
- Additional windows
- Undo
- Search in the Editor
- Customizing your workspace
- Preferences
- Shortcuts Manager
- Project Settings
  - Use the Project Settings window
  - Audio
  - Editor
  - Graphics
  - Package Manager
  - Physics
  - Physics 2D reference
  - Player
    - Splash Image Player settings
  - Preset Manager
  - Quality settings tab reference
  - Script Execution Order settings
  - Tags and Layers
  - Time
  - UI Toolkit project settings
  - Version Control
- 2D and 3D mode settings
- Save your work
- Editor analytics
- Troubleshoot the Editor
- Unity Search
  - Search usage
  - Search tables
  - Search Providers
  - Search expressions
    - Functions reference
  - Creating a custom Search Provider
Packages and feature sets
- Unity's Package Manager
- Packages
- Creating custom packages
- Feature sets
Assets and media
- Asset workflow
- Importing assets
- Caching assets
- Supported Asset Types
- Managing assets with the Asset Database
- Reserved folder name reference
- Presets
  - Supporting presets
  - Applying default presets to Assets by folder
- AssetBundles
- Scripting with assets
- Asset packages
- Archives
- Optimizing assets
  - Asset Loading Profiler module
  - Asset loading metrics
- Unity's Asset Store
3D game development
- 2D or 3D projects
- 3D game development quickstart guide
  - Creating a 3D game
- Advanced best practice guides
2D game development
- Introduction to 2D
- Get started with 2D game development
- 2D renderer sorting
- Sprites
- Tilemaps in Unity
- 2D physics
- 2D game development in URP
  - 2D lighting in URP
  - Precise pixel scaling and rotation via the Pixel Perfect Camera in URP
XR
- Overview
- XR project set up
- Run an XR application
- XR graphics
- XR audio
  - Audio spatializers in XR
- Unity XR SDK
Multiplayer
- Unity multiplayer overview
- Use the Multiplayer Center
Platform development
- Cross-platform features and considerations
- Android
- Dedicated Server
- Embedded systems
- iOS
- Linux
- macOS
- tvOS
- Universal Windows Platform
- visionOS
- Web
- Windows
GameObjects
- Introduction to GameObjects
- GameObject fundamentals
- Primitive and placeholder objects
  - Types of 2D primitive GameObjects
- Components
- Models
  - Creating models outside of Unity
  - Importing models into Unity
- Meshes
- Prefabs
- Constraints
Scenes
- Introduction to scenes
- Creating, loading, and saving Scenes
- Work with multiple scenes in Unity
- Scene Templates
- Layers
- Tags
- Text-based Scene files
Cameras
- Introduction to cameras
- The camera view
- Using multiple cameras
- Changing resolution scale
  - Introduction to changing resolution scale
  - Dynamic Resolution
- Excluding hidden objects with occlusion culling
- Simulating real-world cameras with Physical Cameras
- Camera output
- Cameras in URP
- Cameras in the Built-In Render Pipeline
  - Set the camera background with Clear Flags in the Built-In Render Pipeline
  - Camera Inspector window reference for the Built-In Render Pipeline
- Troubleshooting cameras
World building
- Sky
- Terrain
- Terrain Tools package
Physics
- Built-in 3D Physics
Input
- Mobile Keyboard
- Unity XR Input
- Legacy Input
  - Input Manager
  - Mobile device input
- IME in Unity
UI systems
- Comparison of UI systems in Unity
- UI Toolkit
- Unity UI
- IMGUI (Immediate Mode GUI)
Animation
- Mecanim Animation system
- Legacy Animation system
  - Legacy Animation component
Audio
- Audio overview
- Audio files
- Tracker Modules
- Audio Mixer
- Native audio plug-in SDK
- Audio playlist randomization
- Audio Profiler module
- Ambisonic Audio
  - Develop an ambisonic audio decoder
- Audio Reference
Video and cutscenes
- Video sources
- Video Player
- Video Profiler module
Lighting
- Introduction to lighting
- Light sources
- Direct and indirect lighting
- Shadows
- Reflections
- Lighting in URP
- Lighting in the Built-In Render Pipeline
- Optimize lighting in the Built-In Render Pipeline
- Lighting reference
Materials and shaders
- Materials
- Prebuilt materials and shaders
- Custom textures
- Custom shaders
- Color and High Dynamic Range (HDR)
  - Color spaces
  - High dynamic range (HDR)
- Shader Import Settings window reference
Visual effects
- Particle effects
- Decals
- Lens flares
- Light halos
  - Create and configure a halo light effect
  - Halo component reference
- Lines and trails
  - Rendering lines
  - Rendering trails
- Visual Effect Graph
Render pipelines
- Introduction to render pipelines
- Scriptable Render Pipeline fundamentals
- Choosing a render pipeline
- Rendering paths in Unity
- Using the Universal Render Pipeline
- Using the High Definition Render Pipeline
- Using the Built-In Render Pipeline
Post-processing
- Introduction to post-processing
- Post-processing effect availability reference
- Post-processing and full-screen effects in URP
Programming in Unity
- Get started with programming in Unity
- Environment and tools
  - Integrated development environment (IDE) support
  - Unity .NET features
- Object-oriented development
- Compilation and code reload
- Code optimization
- Testing your code
- Debugging and diagnostics
Optimization
- Memory in Unity
- Unity Profiler
- Profiling tools
- Graphics performance and profiling
Building and publishing
- Build profiles
- Incremental build pipeline
- Visual Studio C# integration
- RenderDoc integration
- Version control
- Command-line arguments
Unity Services
- Unity IAP
Troubleshooting
Glossary

Topic	Description
Comparison of UI systems in Unity	Unity intends for UI Toolkit to become the recommended UI system for new UI development projects, but it still lacks some features available in uGUI and IMGUI. These legacy systems are better suited for certain use cases and are required to support legacy projects. Choose a UI system based on the type of UI you need to develop and the features it requires.
UI Toolkit	The latest UI system, designed for optimized performance across platforms and inspired by standard web technologies. Use UI Toolkit to create extensions for the Unity Editor, and to create runtime UI for games and applications.
uGUI (Unity UI)	A legacy, GameObject-based UI system for developing runtime UI for games and applications. uGUI uses components and the Game view to arrange, position, and style the UI.
IMGUI (Immediate Mode GUI)	A legacy, code-driven UI system that uses the `OnGUI` function to draw and manage UI. Use IMGUI to create custom InspectorsA Unity window that displays information about the currently selected GameObject, asset or project settings, allowing you to inspect and edit the values. More info See in Glossary for script components, extensions for the Unity Editor, and in-game debugging displays. It’s not recommended for runtime UI.

Unity Manual

UI systems

Additional resources