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3d GUI, like in StarForge
Hello, I'm working on a game in Unity and I'd like to have cool 3D GUI like Starforge has. I am little low on cash so Pro-only features or paid packages are out of question. Any ideas?
Unity currently does not support 3D GUI, that feature is going to be added soon but no specific date. You can use NGUI for now to avheive this, it's not free though.
@TheDarkVoid aww... nuts. I've looked up NGUI and its price is just insane $100 ($$anonymous$$us five bucks) for GUI toolkit? WTF?
And if it will come to Unity I just hope it won't be part of Pro package... Now I think of it it wouldn't be too hard for unity devs to make it work in 3D. It's matter of allowing GUILayer work without camera and use it as texture. Tricky part would be getting clicks right, but I'm sure it can be done with clever using of raycasting.
Are you looking for something like the one here: www.kongregate.com/games/TheDarkVoid614/tower-robots
Well, it's not exactly what I want, but it is so close that tweaks to my goal should be easy. So I guess that'd be it.
I did that with using a plane with a texture on it, i guess you could layer them to provide an effect like in starForge, but I have never tried that.
Answer by Demigiant · Dec 11, 2012 at 07:04 PM
There are various 2D packages for Unity. My favorite one is 2D Toolkit, which is not free, but there are others that are free and open-source. Once you have one and can work with sprites, then you can use them to make 3D (or 2.5D) GUIs.
Well, I don't want to make 2D (or 2.5) game's with Unity, and even if I would want, I'm sure I'd be able to come up with such "toolkit" on my own. I don't want to use 3D object in GUI, because I'd either use render (if static object) or just pinned object to camera so it will look like it is part of GUI.
What concerns me is that how to make GUI widgets float in 3d space like in StarForge (if you haven't played it, go look it up on YT to see what I mean).
I saw a StarForge video, and their GUI is made of sprites positioned with 3D coordinates. So unless I missed some part of their GUI to which you're referring to, the above method is how you do it.
Answer by Jake.OConnor · Dec 11, 2012 at 09:30 PM
You can use NGUI for free as long as it's not for commercial release. It's got a splash decal and minor restrictions, but everything is there.
Where "for non-commercial use" is keyword. I plan on selling my game and don't have money to buy it, because I am completely broken and going to GD for money, aside of simply loving making games (if you want to check on some, my handle used for gamemaking purposes is $$anonymous$$yCrossSoft, on $$anonymous$$ongregate there are some of my games made in tool called Stencyl (including one that I probably won't finish as I don't feel like it, too long break, called Adventure Cavern)). So unless $95 will drop off the sky for me (which is almost 300 Polish Zloty, while my monthly income after paying bills, buying food, etc. is 50PLN (around $15)), this is not viable solution for me. Also watermark is serious restriction for me (splash screen not so much)