Line Rendering API for Grids, Graphs, and Tech Trees

[drock577]

Could Nova add support for Line Rendering?

UGUI does not have direct support for line rendering, and line rendering as a game object does not work great in a canvas. This results in custom solutions that may not be performant.

Request:

• A performant API that can draw a line in the UI.
  • Possibly take an array of points and connects them.
  • If multiple points hard angles or a simple curve editor.
    • Hard angles for graphing time series data or right angle connections in the UI. (A line graph or tech tree in game)
• Solution for drawing grids. Useful for graphing any data, or as a background, grid is within the bounds of a UI Block.
• Some way to connect two or more UIBlocks together with a line.

[callum-rose-red-engine]

This would be a big win over UGUI

[Phodopus-Software]

Is this feature request basically asking for a vector API like UI Toolkit has or should I make a different request for a vector API in NovaUI?

[najak3d]

We're going to have a tech tree as well (as many games do). Lines between blocks will be a BIG WIN for NovaUI.

Even better (and this may or may not be easy for you) - publish the API for writing plugins that work with NovaUI, so that someone else can create this plugin/logic, and then we can have 3rdparty plugins to choose from, which accomplish a feat in the manner that we find most appealing. This helps you retain focus on simply providing the base UI, and framework for plugins... and again, lets the community grow, which will attract more users, and then we all win.

As your user, I am VERY interested in seeing NovaUI succeed in a big way, with thousands of users, and a hundred or more active forums members. If NovaUI wins big, we all win big.

[drew-512]

There are many decent line rendering assets and grid systems in the Unity asset store. Why you wouldn't use one of those?

[najak3d]

Do they integrate well with NovaUI? I was only supporting this feature request, because it seems to be nice for Vector graphics to be a part of NovaUI. In the end, I'd like to see a User Contributed Sample project that demonstrates a sample Tech Tree with NovaUI. That would be another selling point for NovaUI.

[drew-512]

You have to write an auto-fitter that resizes an interior child transform. Sort of like how an Image is auto-fit into a UIBlock2D. Then you just draw in that interior transform. As discussed, one polls the UIBlock to detect a size change and then refits the interior transform. I suspect in the not too distant future there will be better support for this, but in the mean time you have to roll your own.

[Phodopus-Software]

Is it possible in NovaUI to create resolution independent UI elements with complex shapes in code like WPF/XAML solutions can? In the UIControls examples an image is used for a checkmark/indicator inside a checkbox. I assume you would have to use different indicator images for different screen resolutions. How would you design a vector based checkmark/checkbox in NovaUI that is resolution independent?

[DakotaCondos]

I'm not sure what the status of this is but I'm running into an issue now where built in line options between UI blocks would be a major help.

[adgray1]

We haven't started development on this one yet, as there are still a few higher priority work items currently in progress as well as in our backlog, supporting custom shaders/meshes being the big one. We'll be sure to update this thread when the development status of this feature officially changes to "In Progress".

In the meantime, however, you may be interested in checking out this post where we shared an example of how users could create simple lines/grids out of UIBlocks with the existing feature set!

[najak3d]

BUMP! I just ran into a CURRENT problem that I'd like to resolve with NovaUI alone. For our RTS style map view, we have Labels overtop tiles, that will show name/health/status/etc (increasing levels of detail as you zoom in).

For each label, to help "ground it" - we put a "stick" beneath each to the tile to which they belong... This stick is currently a NovaUI element, but the limitation here is that it can ONLY go directly UP/DOWN -- not at angle.

To resolve "screen space overlapping" - I want to be able to move these labels to the side, and thus the drop-line needs to go at an ANGLE -- from ground to label.

And API to draw-a-Line (with outline, to help it stand out) - would be UBER helpful right now.

NOTE: These lines would be in 3D world space, not screenspace.

Here's our current game (most of these graphics are placeholders - our focus is on getting this game up/running/networked/playable again, in Unity, before we facelift it).

This game was written 7 years ago, in XNA, as 2D game. So it's been a lot of rework fitting it into 2.5D Unity Game. We're close to having it playable again, finally, after about 10 months of porting it into Unity.