Unity proper way of adding display views - unity3d

Question

I just wanted to ask what is the proper way to create and display a view on Unity. I'm just a beginner on this and just watched recently tutorials on how to script and learned about creating GUI on the fly which includes buttons, edit text boxes and other view but not sure on how should I really implement it the way it is optimized and won't affect the applications performance. What I tried so far is to create an editText wherein I set it on the MainCamera for display which is I targeted to be reusable so that in case I need to add more editText on the app I can just drag and drop the script. Here's the code so far:
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
public class EditText : MonoBehaviour {
public int width = 150;
public int height = 25;
public int x_position = 0;
public int y_position = 0;
public string text = "Hello World";
public Position position = Position.unset;
public int text_size = 15;
public enum Position{unset,center_screen, center_vertical, center_horizontal};
void OnGUI () {
setPosition ();
GUI.skin.textArea.fontSize = text_size;
GUI.color = Color.red;
}
private void setPosition(){
switch (position) {
case Position.center_screen:
GUI.TextArea (new Rect (Screen.width/2 - width/2, Screen.height/2 - height/2, width, height), text);
GUI.backgroundColor = Color.white;
break;
case Position.center_vertical:
GUI.TextArea (new Rect (x_position, Screen.height/2 - height/2, width, height), text);
GUI.backgroundColor = Color.white;
break;
case Position.center_horizontal:
GUI.TextArea (new Rect (Screen.width/2 - width/2, y_position, width, height), text);
GUI.backgroundColor = Color.white;
break;
default:
GUI.TextArea (new Rect (x_position, y_position, width, height), text);
GUI.backgroundColor = Color.white;
break;
}
}
}
Question is am I doing this right or should I stop and use other implementation? Since I really intended it to be as reusable just like the Android Views. Also if there is any other library or scripts I can use to achieve this so that I'm not reinventing the wheel for this?
On the side note I also searched the NGUI although I'm not that sure on if this will fit my needs or not. Since when I tried creating a UILabel the component has only few options where I am not really sure on how I supposed to use it.

Answer 1

Question: Am I doing this right or should I stop and use other implementation?
It depends. Your implementation is simple but working. If you need more fancy UI, you might consider:
NGUI
NoesisGUI
Unity 4.6+ or Unity 5
According to Unity official blog, the "new GUI system is getting really close and it’ll be included in Unity 4.6, which will also be the last major update in the Unity 4 cycle".
I would prefer the last one, Unity 4.6 or Unity 5, as it is free and official from Unity, and the support and community are the big asset for you!
For your current implementation, I think you can make it even better, without using:
GUI.TextArea (new Rect (...)); // Not the best way
Instead try using:
GUILayout.BeginHorizontal ();
{
GUILayout.FlexibleSpace ();
//label etc., this guarantees centered in your UI and resolution independent.
GUILayout.XXX (...);
GUILayout.FlexibleSpace ();
}
GUILayout.EndHorizontal ();
Interesting links:
http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/GUILayout.html
GUI Layout tutorial

Answer 2

Unity's GUI system is far from perfect, but it's being improved incrementally. It's a good solution for interfaces with few simple elements. When using Unity's GUI system, i've generally set up each menu or 'display' separately. I never designed the UI elements in a modular fashion in the Unity system. I've not been in a situation where setting the 'Rect' of an element hasn't met my needs of manipulation. I can't say much about the performance of Unity's GUI system apart from that i've never noticed it's impact.
NGUI, like Unity is designed to be modular. To create the ui element that you desire might require you to piece together various scripts. For example an input field would require UILabel, UIInput script and a BoxCollider. Using all the scripts included in NGUI i've been able to create some pretty impressive interface prefabs. Being able to structure my interface visually in the scene view has been helpful as well.
These are the two UI systems i've used and have found uses for both.