NGUI: HUD Text

[ArenMook]

No, I wouldn't use HUDText for that. I would just create an NGUI window that I would instantiate/position/show as needed.

[TokyoDan]

Thanks Aron.

[Anomalous]

I'm using a smaller-than-normal game viewport rect, which was causing UIFollowTarget to believe the target was either offscreen or in the wrong position. To make UIFollowTarget work as expected, I altered its Update() to use WorldToScreenPoint() and ScreenToWorldPoint() rather than WorldToViewportPoint() and ViewportToWorldPoint(). This should also work for the previous poster who was using multiple game viewports.

Is there any reason not to do it this way?

[ArenMook]

The logic at the time is to simply eliminate the need to transform from view space to screen space. It just saved some calculations. Nothing beyond that.

[shallowspace]

Apologies if this is covered before elsewhere but I have trouble with the text continuing to be displayed even if the item moves off-screen.



In this image there are ships behind me shooting at each other but the damage is displayed (yellow boxes) even though the ships are no longer visible.

While I have your attention: Very nice work on NGUI and HUDText, NGUI frustrates me sometimes but I really couldn't imagine Unity without it!

Peace,

James

[ArenMook]

As I recall UIFollowTarget has the "disableIfInvisible" option. You need to have it checked.

[shallowspace]

Yes that box is checked... (and is by default)

[ArenMook]

If that's the case then it should get hidden. Check UIFollowTarget's Update() function, line 93. It sets the visibility there, which iterates through all children and enables/disables them as needed. Note that for this to work it implies that it requires children to work with like so:

GameObject (UIFollowTarget)
- Label (UILabel)

If you do it like so, it won't work because this hierarchy has no children:
Label (UIFollowTarget, UILabel)

[shallowspace]

Ah yes that's it, many thanks.

[ArtemKoval]

Hi!

I'm trying to instantiate object with HUDText at runtime. I've got 3 problems.

1.

1.  
2.  var label1 = (GameObject) Instantiate(UIController.Instance.Label, Vector3.zero, Quaternion.identity);
3.  label1.transform.localScale = new Vector3(1f, 1f, 1f);
4.  label1.transform.parent = UIController.Instance.UIRoot.gameObject.transform;
5.  
6.  foreach (Transform child in enemy.GetComponentInChildren<Transform>())
7.  {
8.        if ("label" == child.tag)
9.        {
10.                  label1.GetComponent<UIFollowTarget>().target = child;
11.         }
12.   }
13.  
14. public class UIController : Singleton<UIController>
15.     {
16.         public GameObject Label;
17.         public GameObject UIRoot;
18.  
19.         public static UIController Instance
20.         {
21.             get { return ((UIController) mInstance); }
22.             set { mInstance = value; }
23.         }
24.     }
25.  

Given the code above HUDText object are instantiating  under UIRoot, but they have scale (360, 360, 360). I'm not sure how to fix this correctly in code.

2. After scale of each HUDText object have been changed by hand they seems to follow objects correctly. But there is one label right in the center of the screen, which is not moving and it seems it's not under UIRoot hierarchy. I don't know what is that and how to fix it to disappear.

3. HUDText objects that are following units are jittering. Units are moving in a rows from top to bottom of the screen, with constant speed

1.  transform.position += direction * deltaTime;

How to avoid such jittering?

Thanks, Artem.

[ArenMook]

1. Never use Instantiate. Use NGUITools.AddChild. Look inside the function to find out why.

2. This is because you never set the layer. NGUITools.AddChild does this among other things.

[ArtemKoval]

Thanks, this helped to solve part of the problems with scale.

But there is still one label right in the center of UI camera and that label is not moving. And there is still this problem with jittering.

1. var label1 = NGUITools.AddChild(UIController.Instance.UIRoot.gameObject, UIController.Instance.Label);
2.  
3.                             foreach (Transform child in enemy.GetComponentInChildren<Transform>())
4.                             {
5.                                 if ("label" == child.tag)
6.                                 {
7.                                     label1.GetComponent<UIFollowTarget>().target = child;
8.                                 }
9.                             }
10.  

It seems that all labels are in the center and following objects at the same time.

Maybe this will clarify things a bit - actually my objects are followed by Label, not HUDText.

[ArenMook]

There should only be one UIFollowTarget script per instantiated object, and it should ideally be on a simple game object, not a widget:

GameObject (UIFollowTarget, prefab root)
- UILabel (player name)

The layer must be your UI layer, and the main camera must be set to now draw the UI layer, otherwise NGUI won't be able to determine which camera should be used. Same with the UI camera -- it must not see the world. Whenever there is an issue following objects, layers are generally the cause.

[ArtemKoval]

Hi!

Thanks for you help. Believe it or not - the problem was in the Disable If Visible flag. When it was turned on the problem with labels hoarding in the center of the screen persisted. When I turned it off everything became normal - no labels in the center.

Regards, Artem.

[ArenMook]

Ah, that's because the "disable if visible" only is able to disable child objects. This is why I was suggesting using this hierarchy:

GameObject (UIFollowTarget)
- Label child