Awesome
UIEffect
UIEffect provide visual effect components for uGUI element in Unity.
<< Description | WebGL Demo | Download | Usage | Example of using | Development Note >>
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Description
Let's decorate your UI with effects!
You can control parameters as you like from the script as well as inspector.
AnimationClip is supported as a matter of course!
<br><br>
Available effects
Component | Features | Screenshot |
---|---|---|
UIEffect | Combine some visual effects.<br><br>Effect Mode: Grayscale, Sepia, Nega, Pixelation<br>Color Mode: Multiply, Fill, Additive, Subtract<br>Blur Mode: Fast, Medium, Detail<br>Advanced Blur: Enable more beautiful blurring. | <img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12690315/46639603-258df180-cba2-11e8-8f50-9e93bdc4c96e.png" width="600px"> |
UICaptured EffectImage | Capture a screenshot of a specific frame with effect, and display it.<br>This effect is non-realtime, light-weight, less-camera, but be effective enough.<br><br>Effect Mode: Grayscale, Sepia, Nega, Pixelation<br>Color Mode: Multiply, Fill, Additive, Subtract<br>Blur Mode: Fast, Medium, Detail<br>Quality Mode: Fast, Medium, Detail, Custom<br>Capture On Enable: When the component is enable, capture screen automatically.<br>Blur iterations: Number of blur iterations.<br>Reduction/Downsampling Rate: None, x1, x2, x4, x8<br>Fit size to screen: Fit RectTransform to the screen on captured.<br>Immediate Capturing:<br><br>NOTE: This component can be used with UIEffect, UITransition etc.<br>NOTE: Immediate capturing does not support LWRP, WebGL and Unity 5.x for iOS/Mac. | <img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12690315/44078752-4c2e4114-9fe2-11e8-97f0-54d3a36a562e.gif" width="600px"> |
UIShiny | Apply shining effect to a graphic.<br>The effect does not require Mask component or normal map.<br><br>Parameters: Effect factor, Width, Rotation, Softness, Brightness, Gloss<br>Effect Player: To play shining, enable Play in inspector or call Play() from script. | <img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12690315/46639689-b1078280-cba2-11e8-8716-cbc634af7293.gif" width="600px"> |
UIDissolve | Apply dissolve effect to a graphic.<br><br>Color Mode for edge: Multiply, Fill, Additive, Subtract<br>Parameters: Effect factor, Width, Rotation, Softness, Edge color<br>Options: Effect area, Keep effect aspect ratio<br>Effect Player: To play dissolving, call Play() from script. | <img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12690315/46639690-b1078280-cba2-11e8-8aa9-1d2650fe9a62.gif" width="600px"> |
UIHsvModifier | Modify HSV for graphic.<br><br>Target: Color, Range<br>Adjustment: Hue, Saturation, Value | <img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12690315/43200006-d6e2bf54-904e-11e8-9f22-0c0f9ce5912f.gif" width="600px"> |
UITransition Effect | Apply transition effect with a single channel texture.<br><br>Effect Mode: Cutoff, Fade, Dissolve<br>Options: Effect area, Keep effect aspect ratio, transition texture<br>Pass Ray On Hidden: Disable the graphic's raycastTarget on hidden.<br>Effect Player: To show/hide transition, call Show()/Hide() from script. | <img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12690315/46639688-b1078280-cba2-11e8-8bbb-16b8498bca5f.gif" width="600px"> |
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The following effects can be used with the above components.
Component | Features | Screenshot |
---|---|---|
UIShadow | Add shadow/outline to a graphic.<br>The performance is better than the default Shadow/Outline component.<br><br>ShadowStyle: Shadow, Shadow3, Outline, Outline8 | <img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12690315/46639604-258df180-cba2-11e8-98a9-aa31f04c695d.png" width="600px"> |
UIGradient | Change vertex color as gradient with angle and offset.<br><br>Direction: Horizontal, Vertical, Angle, Diagonal<br>Options: Offset, Color space | <img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12690315/40716995-ca87665e-6445-11e8-8233-ec2e21fefd6b.png" width="600px"> |
UIFlip | Flip a graphic.<br><br>Direction: Horizontal, Vertical, Both | <img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/12690315/40716996-cab1fd7e-6445-11e8-9753-962d23991d86.png" width="600px"> |
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Demo
- Effect sample
- Transition
- Dialog window with blured background
- Included in unitypackage
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Usage
- Download UIEffect.unitypackage from Releases.
- Import the package into your Unity project. Select
Import Package > Custom Package
from theAssets
menu.
- In Unity5.6+, enable
TexCoord1
channel of canvas. See also Development Note.
- Add any effect component to UI element (Image, RawImage, Text, etc...) from
Add Component
in inspector orComponent > UI > UIEffect > ...
menu.
- Adjust the parameters of the effect as you like, in inspector.
- Enjoy!
Usage with TextMeshPro
- Add a symbol
TMP_PRESENT
to scripting define symbols.
- If the material does not support the effect component, the following warning will be displayed.
When you press the Fix button, new material is automatically generated and set.
- If you want to use material variants, select
Create Material Preset
from the context menu to duplicate the material.
- Effect mode, color mode, blur mode and etc. can not be changed from the component editor.
Change them from the material editor.
- If you want to enable "Advanced Blur", enable
TexCoord2
channel of canvas.
Usage without TextMeshPro
- When you uninstalled TextMeshPro from the project, remove a symbol
TMP_PRESENT
to scripting define symbols.
Requirement
- Unity 5.5+ (included Unity 2018.x)
- No other SDK are required
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Example of using
Case | Description | Screenshot |
---|---|---|
Lock/unlock contents | Use UIEffect to apply grayscale.<br>Indicate to user that the content is unavailable. | |
Silhouette | Use UIEffect for filling color. | |
Soft shadow/<br>Outer glow | Use UIEffect and UIShadow to blur the shadow.<br>To blur only shadow, set Blur Factor in UIEffect to 0. | |
Colored shadow | Use UIEffect and UIShadow to fill shadow with color.<br>To fill only shadow, set Color Factor in UIEffect to 0. | |
Blurred dynamic font | Use UIEffect to blur text.<br>To blur dynamic font cleanly, enable Advanced Blur option. | |
Text with outline & shadow | Use two UIShadows to add outline and shadow.<br>There is less overdraw than default Outline/Shadow (Default: 1 x 5 x 2 = 10 overdraws, UIShadow: 1 + 4 + 1 = 6 overdraws) . | |
Shining button | Use UIShiny for shining button.<br>Shine the button and indicate to user that you can press the button.<br>Enable Play and Loop option to shine it without any AnimationClip. | |
Blurring the background of a menu | Use UIEffectCapturedImage to blur the background of a menu.<br>UIEffectCapturedImage applies an effect to the screen of the previous frame, without adding a camera or layer.<br>It's not a real-time post effect, so it's good performance and works well on mobile. | |
Screen transition | Use UITransitionEffect to add screen transition.<br>You can change transition texture (single channel texture).<br>Enable Pass Ray On Hidden option and use Show()/Hide() method to play transition without AnimationClip. |
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Development Note
How does UIEffectCapturedImage work?
UIEffectCapturedImage
is similar to post effect, but uses CommandBuffer
to give effect only on the rendering result (= captured image) of a specific frame.
This effect is non-realtime, light-weight, less-camera, blit only once, but be effective enough.
- Camera for processing effect is unnecessary.
- Process effect only once after
UIEffectCapturedImage.Capture
. - Using reduction buffer, keep using memory size small and keep the rendering load are small.
- When GameObjects with motion are on the screen, a result texture may be stirred.
- You can overlay and display like as:
[Screen] | [UIEffectCapturedImage] | [Dialog A] | [UIEffectCapturedImage] | [Dialog B]
.
See also Demo.
Why is UIEffect lightweight?
- UIEffect pre-generates material from a combination of effects. This has the following benefits.
- Draw call batching If possible, draw calls will decrease.
- Since only the required material and shader variants are included in the build, the build size will be smaller.
How to control effect parameters for uGUI element WITHOUT MaterialPropertyBlock?
- In general, you can use MaterialPropertyBlock for renderers to control minor changes in the material without different batches.
- However, changing the MaterialPropertyBlock of the uGUI element from the script will cause different batches and draw calls to increase.
- So UIEffect encodes multiple effect parameters to UV1 channel with IMeshModifier.
- Pack four 6-bit [0-1] (64 steps) parameters into one float value.
- The parameters are lower precision, but sufficient.
uv1 | 6-bit [0-1] | 6-bit [0-1] | 6-bit [0-1] | 6-bit [0-1] |
---|---|---|---|---|
x(32bit float) | Tone level | Empty | Blur level | Empty |
y(32bit float) | Red channel | Green channel | Blue channel | Alpha channel |
- In v3.0.0+, UIEffect uploads the parameter value to a shared texture and the shader refers to it.
This approach has the following advantages:- More parameters for the effect are available.
- The parameter accuracy is improved from 6 bits to 8 bits.
- ModifyMesh is not called when parameter value is changed.
Note: Unity 5.6+
In Unity 5.6+, Canvas supports Additional Shader Channels.
Please enable TexCoord1
to use UIEffect.
Note: if you include prefabs / scenes containing UIEffect in AssetBundle.
Use script define symbol UIEFFECT_SEPARATE
.
Unused shader variants and materials will be excluded from AssetBundles.
Combined mode (default) | Separated mode | |
---|---|---|
Script define symbol | - | UIEFFECT_SEPARATE |
Included in build | Only used variants | Only used variants |
Included in AssetBundle | All variants (Heavy!) | Only used variants |
Look in editor |
How to improve performance?
- Use
ShaderVariantCollection
to preload shader.
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/OptimizingShaderLoadTime.html - Set camera's clear flag to "Solid Color".
- Enable multi thread rendering.
The issue of default Outline component
Graphic with multiple outline components will generate a lot of overdraw.
This is an overdraw view of image with three outline components.
Because there are many overdraws, it is very bright!
For each Outline component, increase the mesh by 5 times. (In the case of the Shadow component, it doubles the mesh.)
In the image above, 1 x 5 x 5 x 5 = 125
overdraws are generated.
UIShadow's 'Addition Shadow' feature solves this issue by adding only the necessary mesh, 1 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 13
overdraws are generated.
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License
- MIT
- © UTJ/UCL
Author
See Also
- GitHub page : https://github.com/mob-sakai/UIEffect
- Releases : https://github.com/mob-sakai/UIEffect/releases
- Issue tracker : https://github.com/mob-sakai/UIEffect/issues
- Current project : https://github.com/mob-sakai/UIEffect/projects/1
- Change log : https://github.com/mob-sakai/UIEffect/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md