Bug with rich text <color> tag?

Unity Engine
,
1

So I have this line of code:

UIManager.instance.ShowHintMessage("You've unlocked <color=green>" + doorTarget.doorName + "</color> door.");

As you see, it’s calling a method called ShowHintMessage which receives a string parameter from a singleton. I use it very frequently for showing messages on screen and I never had an issue with it. Before seeing the code, I’ll like to go deeper on the situation.

I discovered literally a few days ago about the rich text function on UGUI text, so I decided to take a look a it a see how it worked. On this (“You’ve unlocked <color=green>” + doorTarget.doorName + “ door.”) line, I was trying to change the color of the “keyword” of my message, and well, it did change, but the behavior was very weird.

The message it’s displayed with a fade in/out effect. This is how it’s supposed to work:

7011496--829477--fine_gif.gif

but as you can see from the next gif, the keyword (doorTarget.doorName) it’s staying on screen even after the fade out effect:

7011496--829480--bad_gif.gif
*edit: I just recently noticed that the keyword appears even before the fade starts

Now, let’s take a look at the code:

public void ShowHintMessage(string message) {
        StartCoroutine(IHintMessageCoroutine(message));
    }

    IEnumerator IHintMessageCoroutine(string pass) {
        DOTween.Restart(hintMessageText);
        //hintMessageText.canvasRenderer.SetAlpha(0f);
        hintMessageText.text = pass;
        hintMessageText.DOFade(1f, 1f);
        //hintMessageText.CrossFadeAlpha(1f, 1f, true);
        yield return new WaitForSeconds(2f);
        hintMessageText.DOFade(0f, 1f);
        //hintMessageText.CrossFadeAlpha(0f, 1f, true);
        yield break;
    }

I was first using DOTween for the fade in/out effect, but the issue mentioned before appeared, so I tried with CrossFadeAlpha because I thought that maybe it was a compatibility issue. Actually, if I use CrossFadeAlpha I get another problem, the text doesn’t even appear!

So, I’m not sure if that’s intended behavior (don’t remember seeing anything about it in the docs), or if it is a bug.

2

didn’t read, just seen the gifs.
I think the problem is that the tag not only defines the color but also the transparency of the content. therefore it is unaffected by alpha-changes.
What you can do instead is making the text a child of a canvas group and animate the alpha of the canvas group instead.

1 Like
3

Well, that’s kinda sad. I’ll give it a try and see what happens!

4

Well it worked, but still, I guess I’m not changing the flair because this behavior is not clear on the docs (honestly, I’m not sure if it is actually documented at all).

Note: on Rich Text | Unity UI | 1.0.0 (unity3d.com), there’s a table with tags. On the color tag, there’s a part that says:

So, that makes me thing that somehow I would need to specify the opacity? Still, not so clear.

5

you can specify the opacity but you don’t have to. if you don’t specify the opacity it will automatically assign full opacity.