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Unity Development Cookbook, 2nd Edition

by Paris Buttfield-Addison, Jon Manning, Tim Nugent

August 2023

Beginner to intermediate

432 pages

8h 58m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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Preface
Audience and ApproachOrganization of This BookConventions Used in This BookO’Reilly Online LearningHow to Contact UsAcknowledgments
1. Working in Unity
1.1. Getting Around in Unity1.2. Working with Game Objects1.3. Working with Components1.4. Working with Prefabs1.5. Working with Scenes1.6. Managing Assets1.7. Building Unity Projects1.8. Accessing Preferences1.9. Installing Unity Packages
2. Scripting
2.1. Adding a Script to an Object in a Unity Scene2.2. Running Code at Specific Times in a Script’s (or Game Object’s) Life2.3. Creating Frame Rate–Independent Behavior2.4. Using the Components of a Game Object2.5. Finding Objects Attached to a Game Object2.6. Singletons2.7. Using Coroutines to Manage When Code Runs2.8. Managing Objects Using an Object Pool2.9. Storing Data in Assets Using ScriptableObject
3. Input
3.1. Getting Simple Keyboard Input3.2. Using the Unity Input System3.3. Using Input Actions3.4. Locking and Hiding the Mouse Cursor3.5. Responding to Mouseover and Click Events
4. Mathematics
4.1. Storing Coordinates of Varying Dimensions Using Vectors4.2. Rotating in 3D Space4.3. Performing Transformations in 3D Space with Matrices4.4. Working with Angles4.5. Finding the Distance to a Target4.6. Finding the Angle to a Target
5. 2D Graphics
5.1. Importing Images as Sprites5.2. Adding a Sprite to the Scene5.3. Creating a Sprite Animation5.4. Creating a Sprite with 2D Physics5.5. Customizing Sprite Collision Shapes5.6. Using a Composite Collider5.7. Using the Sprite Packer5.8. Applying Forces to 2D Objects5.9. Creating a Conveyor Belt5.10. Using a Custom Material for Sprites5.11. Managing Sprite Sorting5.12. Using Sorting Groups5.13. Creating a 2.5D Scene
6. 3D Graphics
6.1. Creating a Simple Material6.2. Controlling a Material’s Property Through a Script6.3. Creating an Unlit Material6.4. Setting Up a Material Using Textures6.5. Making a Material Use a Shader6.6. Setting Up a Bloom Effect Using Post-Processing with the Built-In Render Pipeline6.7. Setting Up a Bloom Effect Using Post-Processing with the Universal Render Pipeline6.8. Using High-Dynamic-Range Colors6.9. Setting Up a Project to Use a Scriptable Render Pipeline6.10. Creating a Shader Using the Shader Graph6.11. Creating a Glowing Effect Using the Shader Graph6.12. Exposing Properties from a Shader Graph6.13. Animating a Shader over Time6.14. Controlling the Speed of an Animated Shader6.15. Using a Subgraph to Reuse Graph Components6.16. Implementing a Dissolve Effect Using a Shader Graph6.17. Using Baked Lighting and Real-Time Lighting6.18. Using Baked Emission Sources6.19. Making Static Objects Cast Shadows on Dynamic Objects6.20. Using Light Probes to Influence Lighting6.21. Using Reflection Probes6.22. Faking a Dynamic Emissive Object6.23. Rendering to a Texture
7. 3D Physics and Character Control
7.1. Running Code a Specific Number of Times per Second7.2. Allowing the Player to Look Around Using the Mouse7.3. Controlling a 3D Character7.4. Interacting with Switches and Objects7.5. Picking Up and Putting Down Objects7.6. Detecting When an Object Is Touching Another Object7.7. Detecting When an Object Is in a Trigger Area7.8. Implementing Moving Platforms7.9. Implementing Platform Riding7.10. Responding to Being Pushed by Objects
8. Animation and Movement
8.1. Animating an Object8.2. Basic Character Movement8.3. Inverse Kinematics8.4. Masked Movement8.5. Blended Movement8.6. Navigation and Animating in Sync8.7. Cinematic Camera Tracking8.8. Automatically Switching Cameras8.9. Keeping Multiple Objects in View8.10. Dollying a Camera
9. Logic and Gameplay
9.1. Loading a New Scene File9.2. Managing Hit Points9.3. Creating a Top-Down Camera9.4. Managing Quests9.5. Dragging a Box to Select Objects9.6. Creating a Menu Structure9.7. Creating a Wheeled Vehicle9.8. Keeping a Car from Tipping Over9.9. Creating Speed Boosts9.10. Creating a Camera That Orbits Around Its Target9.11. Creating an Orbiting Camera That Won’t Clip Through Walls9.12. Detecting When the Player Has Completed a Lap

10. Behavior, Simulation, and AI
10.1. Enemies Detecting When They Can See the Player10.2. Defining a Path That AI Entities and the Player Can Follow10.3. Letting Entities in Your Game Follow a Path10.4. Finding a Good Distribution of Random Points (Poisson Disc)10.5. Enemies Detecting Where They Can Take Cover10.6. Building and Using a State Machine10.7. Building a Simulation Environment for Machine Learning
11. Sound and Music
11.1. Playing Sounds11.2. Setting Up a Mixer11.3. Using Audio Effects11.4. Using Send and Receive Effects11.5. Ducking11.6. Using Multiple Audio Zones11.7. Playing Audio with Scripts11.8. Using a Sound Manager
12. User Interface
12.1. Working with UI Controls12.2. Theming Controls12.3. Animating the UI12.4. Creating a List of Items12.5. Fading Out List Items12.6. Creating Onscreen Position Indicators12.7. Custom Editors12.8. Property Drawers12.9. Attribute Drawers12.10. Asset Processing12.11. Wizards
13. Files, Networking, and Screenshots
13.1. Saving Files13.2. Saving an Image File of Your Game to Disk13.3. Loading Textures from Disk13.4. Saving and Loading a Game’s State13.5. Downloading and Parsing JSON from the Web13.6. Scripted Importers
Index
About the Authors

Content preview from Unity Development Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12. User Interface

The UI system included with Unity is a powerful, flexible way to build your game’s UI. It’s useful for building everything from explicitly menu-based and interface-based pieces of your game, such as actual menus and configuration screens, to in-game UI, and for extending the Unity editor environment with helpful additional UI pieces to streamline your game development process.

Note

If you’ve used Unity in the past, you’ll be pleased to learn that the UI system has been totally replaced in recent years! Everything covered here involves the current UI system, which might sometimes be called the “new UI system” in Unity documentation.

The old Unity UI system focused on a programmer-based workflow, rather than the visual UI elements involved. It was designed the way a programmer might think, instead of how a UI needs to behave: visually! The new system fixes this, and we’re all better off for it.

You don’t need to add anything to your overarching project to begin using the Unity UI system. Everything is done through game objects belonging to the UI system.

Tip

The Unity UI system lets you create UIs for the player to interact with to start the game, modify settings, and so on (e.g., a main menu), as well as in-game UIs, such as those you might find on computer screens in a virtual world (e.g., computer consoles in a first-person-style game). You can learn about all the components of the Unity UI system in the Unity manual.

12.1 Working with UI Controls ...

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