General Feedback [Not Bugs]

[anon20000101]

I get excited every time Unity releases a new major version, and the hype is real. However, there are a few Unity stuff if only lost, the engine will look and feel much neater and sweeter!

• I have a few of them, but you can of course share yours as well …

Startup Design Logos

Let’s start with Unity’s 2022 startup logo. If you are a seasoned Unity user, then you should know that Every Unity year version (2017, 2018 etc) had a unique startup design logo, here’s an example:

However, Unity this year, it seems, will use its 2021 startup design logo for its 2022 year … this will(including but not limited to):

• Break the sequence
• Feel Not Leveled-Up from 2021

It might be a minor thing, you might say … but I would argue it’s Not … because it’s the first thing you see each time you open/create a project, so it reflects the ‘feel’ of Unity & its reputation.

This should be the startup background design logo for 2022 (it’s used in 2022.1 Alpha & 2022.2 Alpha):

Let’s go to another station, shall we?

UI Inconsistencies

There are a bunch of annoying things you have to deal with when working inside of Unity Editor. Here are a few examples that Unity should lose:

Top White Bar

Probably the most immersion-breaking of them all. Seriously, Unity, you implemented the Dark Theme for your editor but forgot a chunk of it? You want my advice, Unity? Lose it. This bar should be consistent with dark theme, in other words, it should be also dark. Some of its problems:

• Immersion-Breaking

• Inconsistency with overall dark UI

• Might be harsh for those who work in poorly-lit/dark rooms

• It badly affects the representation of overall design of “Unity”

• While still in the same context, here are some other inconsistencies:

Shows Compatible Design

Failing To Replicate Compatible Design In Some Other Areas

Yet another UI inconsistencies(I run out of allowed files limit, click here to view):

• It shows white background menu in a dark-themed editor.

Let’s go to the next station …

Submenus & Toolbars

I’ll show you how scary and unorganised Unity can get in a big project.

Take a look at this disorganised mess of ridiculously long submenu(click here):

• And the surprise is? This is an empty project created in Unity 2022.2 Alpha … I think you’re starting to see the picture how it will look as the project grows!

Here’s an example how it can be organised and categorised(click here):

• So instead of stacking(Scene, Scene template etc) on top of each other, you could create a category called, for example “Scenes”, and you put all that jumble inside there.

• The same goes with the other Red box, something like “Animation”, and Ram everything inside.

• The other issue I found with toolbars this time, is when you place a panel next to “Scene” panel(click here):

Scene panel when gets tight(while having many toolbars attached), will make toolbars hidden & inaccessible …

• A quick solution to this while preserving the workspace layout, is how Blender did it, for example(click here):

• With middle-mouse-click you can scroll side to side without sacrificing workspace layout. Unity should learn from this.

And now to the fourth And final station:

Icons’ Resolution

Some UI icons aren’t/about the same resolutions as others, take a look at this(click here):

• The Red represents low-resolution icons compared to the Blue high-resolution ones.

And please, make this tiny Unity logo bigger. Unity will have its own Prestige and Majesty(click here).

<<< This is just a quick and dirty general feedback for how Unity can improve going forward. Share your feedback if you have any. Let’s make Unity shine and be glorious! >>>

[anon20000101]

It might be a minor thing, you might say …

Indeed …

Top White Bar

Probably the most immersion-breaking of them all. Seriously, Unity, you implemented the Dark Theme for your editor but forgot a chunk of it? You want my advice, Unity? Lose it.

No top white bar for me because my os has a dark theme. If Windows doesn’t have a dark theme, or if you cannot change that colour by yourself, I’m afraid Unity cannot help you.

I’m on Linux Mint.

No problem for me with the “Display …” contextual menu either:

[anon20000101]

No top white bar for me because my os has a dark theme. If Windows doesn’t have a dark theme, or if you cannot change that colour by yourself, I’m afraid Unity cannot help you.

I’m on Linux Mint.

Linux can do that??!

I’m on Windows 11, and this is the closest I can get … although it still has some white bar:

• To make this happen in Windows 11, you need to make “Accent Color” dark AND turn on that option:

And Even then, it’s tricky to keep the turned on top-white-bar to black persistent … when there’s a tab selected on top, black bar turns white again:

I believe some kind of OS configuration can solve the problem … but I’m afraid it’s not always the case, APSchmidt. Take a look at Unreal Engine’s interface, it’s pitch-black (without the need to enable OS dark theme):

• And Unreal Engine isn’t the only software that’s completely dark … GeForce Experience, Unity Hub 3.x, heck even Chrome can turn all-black, just to name a few. In other words, it IS a Unity problem.

Just taking a glimpse at how sophisticated Unreal Engine 5’s UI is, makes Unity look outdated and needs a redesign overhaul

[zedz]

I do prefer Unities UI compared to Unreals, Unreal feels childish with these large icons etc.
But one thing that is better in Unreal is the lack of titlebar. No need for something that 99.9% of the users will run fullscreen.

Heres what I see at the top of my screen, so much wasted/empty space.

Even on 1080p monitors, you could easily combine the titlebar and menu bar together.
On 4k you could put all 3 into one line, OK I run 2160p @ 100% which is prolly a small minority, but theres no reason not to combine the 2 top lines into a single one, and give us back some more screen realestate

[Onigiri]

+1 from me. Vs code is also a good example of this

[anon20000101]

I would like to have a minimize tab button

[anon20000101]

@zedz

you could easily combine the titlebar and menu bar together.

And you would win what, 15/20 pixels in height? Never tried pressing F11?

[zedz]

[quote]
And you would win what, 15/20 pixels in height? Never tried pressing F11?
[/quote]You gain 88,320 pixels on my system (I just counted)
heres 88,209 pixels in an image

FWIW F11 does nothing for me (also windows & shift & enter) .
I have made it shift & space to display the game window fullscreen. But thats the game window, not the Unity App.

[anon20000101]

@zedz

F11 does nothing for me

Did you try Ctrl+F11 or Alt+F11?

On Linux Mint it’s Alt+F11 by default but I changed it to F11 only. And F11 not working on Windows is kinda weird…

[anon20000101]

Did you try Ctrl+F11 or Alt+F11?

On Linux Mint it’s Alt+F11 by default but I changed it to F11 only. And F11 not working on Windows is kinda weird…

Nope, it doesn’t work. Maybe it’s another Linux functionality!

And besides, it’s just a workaround for the issue, and not solving the core … Unity has to be “Unity” just like their Hub, right?

All OS dark theme functionalities “disabled”

[anon20000101]

Maybe it’s another Linux functionality!

F11 has been there forever on Windows… Try it on another window, explorer or else; if it works, you can file a bug report for Unity.

[anon20000101]

F11 has been there forever on Windows… Try it on another window, explorer or else; if it works, you can file a bug report for Unity.

Yeah, well, I meant it doesn’t work on softwares (such as Unity), but weirdly enough works on others (like Chrome browser). Sorry for the confusion

[print_helloworld]

I just wanna point that you guys arent asking for things that the devs could even tackle in an alpha phase (replacing the system menu bar with a custom one). The new dark option popup as a replacement for system option popup is an exception tho, those I could see being replaced in time

[anon20000101]

@print_helloworld

I just wanna point that you guys arent asking for things that the devs could even tackle in an alpha phase (replacing the system menu bar with a custom one).

Nope, it’s actually about the alpha specifically. If we have feedback for future Unity, where would we go? No place but the forums, and the latest Unity version.

[AcidArrow]

If we have feedback for future Unity, where would we go?

I like getting out on the balcony in the middle of the night and screaming into the void, it’s about as effective as any other method, but a lot more gratifying.

[zedz]

[quote=“print_helloworld, post:13, topic: 876968, username:print_helloworld”]
I just wanna point that you guys arent asking for things that the devs could even tackle in an alpha phase (replacing the system menu bar with a custom one).
[/quote]What?
The Alpha phase is the perfect place to debut it, you dont want to add it later, eg beta, final release.
Maybe you got confused with alpha/beta.
Yes in windows F11 works for some programs eg firefox, explorer but not for Unity, spotify.
My photoshop CS6 from 2012, removed the menu bar, A whole 10 years ago.
I forget when unreal engine removed it, but it was years ago.

What purpose does having the title have in an program that you use often?
Am I gonna get amnesia and forget this program is called unity?
Just have that info in the about unity box, accesable from help

[Bordeaux_Fox]

I get excited every time Unity releases a new major version, and the hype is real. However, there are a few Unity stuff if only lost, the engine will look and feel much neater and sweeter!

• I have a few of them, but you can of course share yours as well …

Startup Design Logos

Let’s start with Unity’s 2022 startup logo. If you are a seasoned Unity user, then you should know that Every Unity year version (2017, 2018 etc) had a unique startup design logo, here’s an example:

However, Unity this year, it seems, will use its 2021 startup design logo for its 2022 year … this will(including but not limited to):

• Break the sequence
• Feel Not Leveled-Up from 2021

It might be a minor thing, you might say … but I would argue it’s Not … because it’s the first thing you see each time you open/create a project, so it reflects the ‘feel’ of Unity & its reputation.

This should be the startup background design logo for 2022 (it’s used in 2022.1 Alpha & 2022.2 Alpha):

Let’s go to another station, shall we?

UI Inconsistencies

There are a bunch of annoying things you have to deal with when working inside of Unity Editor. Here are a few examples that Unity should lose:

---

Top White Bar

Probably the most immersion-breaking of them all. Seriously, Unity, you implemented the Dark Theme for your editor but forgot a chunk of it? You want my advice, Unity? Lose it. This bar should be consistent with dark theme, in other words, it should be also dark. Some of its problems:

• Immersion-Breaking

• Inconsistency with overall dark UI

• Might be harsh for those who work in poorly-lit/dark rooms

• It badly affects the representation of overall design of “Unity”

• While still in the same context, here are some other inconsistencies:

Shows Compatible Design

---

Failing To Replicate Compatible Design In Some Other Areas

Yet another UI inconsistencies(I run out of allowed files limit, click here to view):

• It shows white background menu in a dark-themed editor.

Let’s go to the next station …

Submenus & Toolbars

I’ll show you how scary and unorganised Unity can get in a big project.

Take a look at this disorganised mess of ridiculously long submenu(click here):

• And the surprise is? This is an empty project created in Unity 2022.2 Alpha … I think you’re starting to see the picture how it will look as the project grows!

Here’s an example how it can be organised and categorised(click here):

• So instead of stacking(Scene, Scene template etc) on top of each other, you could create a category called, for example “Scenes”, and you put all that jumble inside there.

• The same goes with the other Red box, something like “Animation”, and Ram everything inside.

• The other issue I found with toolbars this time, is when you place a panel next to “Scene” panel(click here):

Scene panel when gets tight(while having many toolbars attached), will make toolbars hidden & inaccessible …

• A quick solution to this while preserving the workspace layout, is how Blender did it, for example(click here):

• With middle-mouse-click you can scroll side to side without sacrificing workspace layout. Unity should learn from this.

And now to the fourth And final station:

Icons’ Resolution

Some UI icons aren’t/about the same resolutions as others, take a look at this(click here):

• The Red represents low-resolution icons compared to the Blue high-resolution ones.

And please, make this tiny Unity logo bigger. Unity will have its own Prestige and Majesty(click here).

<<< This is just a quick and dirty general feedback for how Unity can improve going forward. Share your feedback if you have any. Let’s make Unity shine and be glorious! >>>

If you have done some WIn32 development before, you would know, that Unity is using legacy Win32 toolbar aka CommonControls. As stupid as it sounds, but believe me, there is still no support for having ALL classic Win32 controls in a proper Dark Theme offically supported by Microsoft. I guess Unity wants to keep the native toolbar but right now there is no way of having a native dark themed toolbar because there is no included in Windows 10/11.
You can check this out yourself if you build a hello world Win32 GUI app in Visual Studio and try to set the Dark Theme. You will get a dark title bar (DWMWA_USE_IMMERSIVE_DARK_MODE = 20), even dark popup menus and with some ugly Win32 hacks a “Dark Explorer Theme” but only for controls Microsoft needed for the dark themed Windows Explorer. Long story: No offical Win32 toolbar with dark colors.

Here is an official discussion on Microsoft: Discussion: Dark mode for applications · Issue #41 · microsoft/WindowsAppSDK · GitHub
You can cleary see that there is still no 100% support of all legacy controls. Sure, Unity could switch to WinUI 3 to get proper dark theme for all native controls. But I doubt they will do this considering the huge code base of Unity. Also WinUI 3 is far to big spaced and casual for a game engine UI.

Another way would be doing a complete custom toolbar but than some user would complain Unity is not behaving “native” on Windows. I would say a lot of popular apps going the complete custom UI route because Microsofts is failing to deliver proper Dark mode implementation. Some devs trying to use Windows API hooks and other hacks to inject some dark colors. But mostly this looks also bad.

The funny thing is, for Unity HUB dark mode, they “faked” the windows caption aka titlebar.
Sure it looks like the classic Windows titlebar for most users. But if you look closely, you will notice is has not the same hover colors and is lacking the default yellowish tooltips for the caption buttons.

[runner78]

@Bordeaux_Fox

But I doubt they will do this considering the huge code base of Unity. Also WinUI 3 is far to big spaced and casual for a game engine UI.

Unity uses their own UI system, so it shouldn’t be that big a problem either to switch to Win UI 3, or replace the default toolbar. If I remember correctly, if you want to have a classic WPF application with dark mode, you also have to reimplement the toolbar yourself.

[Bordeaux_Fox]

@runner78

Unity uses their own UI system, so it shouldn’t be that big a problem either to switch to Win UI 3, or replace the default toolbar. If I remember correctly, if you want to have a classic WPF application with dark mode, you also have to reimplement the toolbar yourself.

Like I said, Unity is using the legacy the classic Win32 controls atleast for the main toolbar/menubar and the popup menus. Compare it with the Windows Notepad or VLC, is looks the same.
Unity is having like ages their custom UI, but always kept the native one for the components mentioned above. So my guess it they want to keep them. Right know, they could enable proper offical dark mode for the windows caption bar and the popup menus. The dark mode API for the windows caption is officially supported by Microsoft from Windows 11 on (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/dwmapi/nf-dwmapi-dwmsetwindowattribu.

From the discussion on GitHub mentioned above:

DWMWA_USE_IMMERSIVE_DARK_MODE = 20, // [set] BOOL, Allows a window to either use the accent color, or dark, according to the user Color Mode preferences.```

The dark mode popup menues requires to enable the "secret" unofficially Dark Mode Explorer theme with some dirty hacks like extracting some functions from Microsoft UX DLLs, which could break every version because it is not supported official.

So the only proper route for Unity would be to implement the toolbars and popup menus themselves. WinUI3 does not really match with cross plattform design of the editor.

So all in all, I do not really blame Unity for this because if you look on Unity for other OS they all deliver proper dark mode for the native controls. It's just Microsoft fault not having finished a completed Dark Mode for WIn32 GUI. And they probably never will because then they would have already shipped it with the beginning of Windows 11. :p

[print_helloworld]

@runner78

Unity uses their own UI system, so it shouldn’t be that big a problem either to switch to Win UI 3, or replace the default toolbar. If I remember correctly, if you want to have a classic WPF application with dark mode, you also have to reimplement the toolbar yourself.

I agree.

having the toolbar be a in editor implemented menubar with uitk would be awesome, and a win-win for everybody (hopefully)