Looking Back, Looking Forward - Unity 3D UI Essentials - page 42

GUI Generator ($40)
Building clean and efficient UIs in Unity have always been a strain (just look at this
chapter!), this is where GUI Generator comes in, starting with the old GUI, then
adapting to also handle NGUI and now the new Unity UI system. It's a quick and
advanced tool to clean up the look and feel of your UI (no, it doesn't build your UI
for you, it styles it!).
It also has many built-in effects you can add to your UI to make it stunning. Like
TextMeshPro, the author has been working hard through the beta to get this great
tool updated to handle the new UI elements and skin them to great effect.
You can find GUI Generator on the asset store here: http://bit.ly/
UnityUIGUIGenerator .
MenuPage ($10)
Not every asset for the new UI has to be a big beast of a tool meant to save you
hours, sometimes you just need something to get you off the ground and using the
new UI with great effect. This is where MenuPage comes in.
Put simply it's a new asset on the store aimed at building menu systems using the
new UI system automatically. They are fully configured, laid out effectively and
offer some advanced features such as fading, transitions, and much more.
What's even better is that all the source code is there and is fully documented/
commented, so you can learn from some of the best coders out there purveying
their wares.
You can find MenuPage on the asset store here: http://bit.ly/UnityUIMenuPage .
Summary
So now we have a deep appreciation of the past and a glimpse into the future.
One thing you might realize is that there is no one stop shop when it comes to
Unity; each feature has its pros and cons and each has its uses. There may still
be cases when it is just easier to use the Unity legacy GUI to achieve an effect
(still using the basic GUI.DrawTexture for a splash screen for example, although
even that is very easy with the new UI system) provided you take the performance
concerns on board with mobile devices. It all comes down to what you want to
achieve and the way you want to achieve it; never dismiss anything just because
it's old (except for GUIText and GUITexture , they are just really really old…)