About UIFX - Trail
Overview
What?
UIFX-Trail is a new visual effect for Unity's UI (uGUI) components that adds a trail that follows the motion of the component.
Why?
Unity's UI system currently doesn't have an option to render with a trail.
Trails can be beautiful and add an element of fun, so we created this component to be easy to use, yet have powerful options.
How?
Just add the UIFX-Trail component to your UI component. That's it!
The component will track the full motion of the object (translation, rotation and scale) either at a transform level, or at a per-vertex level. A new mesh is then generated based on the motion, and this is rendered in place of the original UI geometry. The effect is only applied when the object is in motion.
Features
- Easy to use
- Highly optimised
- Cross-platform
- Built-in/URP/HDRP
- Supports TextMeshPro
- Source code included
- Well documented
- Well supported
- API documentation
Usage
- High Damping
- Low Damping
- Strength
- Animated Gradient
Damping can be set to a high value to make the trail follow the original motion more closely.
Damping can be set to a low value to make the trail lag further behind the original motion.
Strength can be used to transition the trail on or off.
OffsetSpeed animates the gradient.
Compatibility
| Unity Version | 6.x | 2023.x | 2022.x | 2021.x | 2020.x | 2019.x | 2018.x | 2017.x |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supported | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Platform | Windows/UWP | macOS | Linux | Android | iOS / tvOS | WebGL | PS4 / PS5 | XBox One |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supported | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Render Pipeline | Built-in | URP | HDRP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supported | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Dependencies
This plugin requires the Unity.UI package that is included with Unity by default.
If you want to use it with TextMeshPro then it requires version 2.2.0-preview.3 or newer. In the package manager you may need to manually switch to one of the newer preview versions by using package name: com.unity.textmeshpro and version: 3.2.0-pre.6. For Unity 2022 or higher, you can use version: 4.0.0-pre.2.
The Asset Package
The asset package consists of the following files:
A demo scene is included. All scripts are grouped using Assembly Definition files.
Components
This Unity asset includes two components:
TrailEffect- Adds a visual trail to UI componentsTrialEffectTMP- Same asTrailEffectbut specifically forTextMeshPro
Supported Features
| UI Feature | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Components: | ||
| Text | ✓ | |
| Image | ✓ | |
| RawImage | ✓ | |
| Mask | ✓ | |
| Rect Mask 2D | ✓ | |
| CanvasGroup | ✓ | |
| TextMeshPro | ✓ | |
| Custom | ✓ | |
| Canvas Render Modes: | ||
| Screen-Space Overlay | ✓ | |
| Screen-Space Camera | ✓ | |
| World Space | ✓ | |
| Render Pipelines: | ||
| Built-in | ✓ | |
| URP | ✓ | |
| HDRP | ✓ | |
| Effects: | ||
| Shadow | ✓ | UIFX-Trail renders with flickering if Shadow effect is applied first |
| Outline | ✓ | UIFX-Trail renders with flickering if Outline effect is applied first |
| Colorspaces: | ||
| Gamma | ✓ | |
| Linear | ✓ |
Advanced
Performance
UIFX-Trail has had several optimisation passes, so we can say with confidence that it is highly performant. That said, it does rebuild a new mesh each frame, so some consideration is still necessary.
Garbage Collection
This component has been optimised to reduce garbage generation.