Comparision of NGUI over new uGUI

[wallabie]

Hi everyone,

I would like to start a discussion about something that's probably on everyone's mind at the moment.  NGUI and new uGUI.  Seems to me that both are very similar, so what is the advantage of using NGUI over uGUI ?  I already own NGUI but to for new users, what is the reason to  pay $95 for NGUI when uGUI is Free.  I am playing devil's advocate to get ideas of the compelling difference between the two.  Please feel free to contribute to this discussion.

[BehindTheStone]

Well, I guess but the people who have Beta-Access can't talk very much about uGUI.
If you don't have Unity Pro, then the option to Atlas your UI-Sprites with NGUI is great, since Atlassing is a Pro-Feature only.

[Nicki]

It's really hard to make a fair comparison when uGUI isn't out yet, so we can't really fathom the depths of what's in there.

For existing users, something as simple as inertia will keep many in NGUI since that's what they know. Things that I imagine NGUI will have over uGUI, is update frequency, since it's made on the fly all the time, and an update isn't any longer than writing the thing and uploading to a repository. With built in Unity GUI we'll likely have to wait for a "full" update. Conversely, I'd imagine Unity GUI has a bigger and stronger QA department, so you'd assume more of the corner cases have been tested in depth removing the need for as frequent updates.

uGUI has access to the underlying structure of Unity and thus can potentially be faster and get around the quirks that's inherent to being a plugin - as for exactly how much difference there is, that's hard to say right now.

For new users, I'd imagine the $95 mark will be a deterrent, since uGUI finally will have a viable alternative.

[ArenMook]

While I can't talk about specific features of uGUI (although I spent most of last year developing it, it still in closed beta and NDA applies), I can say this: there is one thing NGUI has that uGUI can't -- direct support. Those who have been spoiled by this support forum will find themselves frustrated pretty quickly with a new system, and when there is a bug they can expect months to pass before it's addressed, if at all. I'm still waiting on the missing functionality of Unity 4.3 that would make 2D properly scriptable and thus usable by 3rd party tools like NGUI. How long has it been? Many months. And it will be at least a few more.

P.S. And in all honesty, I hope uGUI will make other UI solutions far less relevant, as it will reduce my support workload, letting me have more free time. That'd be nice.

[Ana]

UT do take their sweet time letting us have bug fixes.
For how long have we been waiting for them to fix 2d physic events getting called twice? In fact, how could they have even released it with such an obvious bug? It would take less than one day of one developer to implement a quick temporary solution until the problem is resolved in its root. But no, few months later and still no fix.

We all like to idealise and think the newest thing is so much better than the old thing - before we try it. And then, we all come back to NGUI, because all the little problems and annoyances that it has are still better in comparison to huge ones of other systems.
When I heard about uGUI I was ecstatic and couldn't wait for it to be released. But in the last year, UT has disappointed me in many ways and I don't have too high hopes for it being usable as soon as it is released.
Hopefully, they will include some source code they promised so we can fix things ourselves.

[wallabie]

Definitely agree that support at NGUI has been superb.  Nothing less than stellar. 
Unity is a bit of a dead duck when it comes to fixing bugs.  This has a very big impact on potential buyers for sure.

One thing that was mentioned by unity is that  the source for uGUI will be available for tweaking.  If this is the case, then probably there might be a mechanism for them to update the package more frequently via other channels rather than downloading the entire Unity install.  However, given their track record, making frequent updates is not very likely. 

So it seems that if NGUI's and the new uGUI is very much the same then NGUI is the clear winner.

[Nicki]

In my mind, they should just bite the bullet and release it on the asset store as a free download. That would make it simple for them to make changes and updates. The only things that would require "bigger updates" would be to have stuff hook into the deeper systems of unity, where the core would have to change.

But that will probably never happen because politics or some shite like that.

[wallabie]

Great idea that it should be on the asset store.  They owe it to unity users.  We've had to bear their mistakes in development for the past few years.  Unity game devs are extremely forgiving as compared to business users.  If Xamarin told its users that they have to wait for something for 2 years, it would have been a very different reaction.  As for the core stuff, that included in the downloaded install.  The uGUI code can be updated more frequently in this way.  Also like UMA or LUX the community could also contribute to making it better.