Hello. Is there any way to add more segments in Unity 9-slice tool?
I have next panels in my UI pack:
Panels
It would be great if I could implement all of them using only one sprite.
So I expect to find ability to add more segments in sprite and move them as I want, something like this:
More segments
Or maybe there is other way to implement complex panels of different sizes using only one sprite?
I don’t want to use several sprites because I need to change panels color due the it’s state as button. Also sometimes it’s hard to make rounded pictures match up near border
that is not how that 9slice works, is a way to stop corners/part of sprite from deforming.
you are overthinking this. just use two buttons or sprites on on top of the other. separate the dark blue in a different sprite and animate it or something. you can also look into how loading bars graphic work, that look like a loading bar.
Thank you for answer
Just tried to find the way it could be implemented using only one sprite
Hey, just to clarify — Unity’s built-in 9-slice system is hardcoded to exactly 3×3 regions. This isn’t just a UI limitation — it’s embedded deep in how the Image component in uGUI handles mesh generation. There’s no supported way to define more segments without rewriting large parts of the underlying system.
To go beyond 9-slice, you’d basically need to:
- Create a custom UI component that overrides how meshes are generated
- Build a new Sprite Editor that lets you define an arbitrary grid layout
- Implement a way to save and load that slicing data, possibly through custom metadata or assets
It’s definitely not trivial — we tried exactly that in one of our projects. We built a custom slicing system from scratch, with an editor interface and serialization logic, and integrated it into Unity’s UI workflow. Took quite a bit of effort, but the result was worth it.
If you’re curious how something like that might be structured, I put our version on the Asset Store for reference:
N-Slicer on Unity Asset Store
(No pressure — just sharing it in case you want to see how we approached it.)
After using it in a few commercial projects over several months, I can confidently say: having the ability to slice sprites into any number of tiles — with full control over which parts stretch or stay fixed — makes complex UI workflows way easier to manage, especially for reusable components.
