Having trouble conceptualizing flow of menus/GUI

Unity Engine
1

Like the title says, I’m trying to set up my main menus right now (I’m using EZGui). However, I’m having trouble with the basic logic behind it.

In XNA I set up a game manager class and attach numbers to each of the menus or game modes (essentially making an array). I do this for draw and update individually (initializing is front-loaded).

With Unity, I don’t feel like I have the same ability to do this since scripts are all attached to individual items.

Can someone just help me out with how I link together menus and my game? I don’t need code if you don’t want to write it, theory should do just fine.

2

I’m not quite sure what you mean. You can link your GUI to your game simply by, in your GUI, changing variables and calling functions that do things in the game.

3

Yeah, sorry. It’s hard for me to explain kind of.

That’s not necessarily the issue. In game GUI is easy. I’m just having trouble with main menus.

Like I haven’t found any scripts or tutorials that show how to link one menu to another or what happens when I hit start game. I probably need to do some kind of load script to place all the game objects right? I can’t do this on a global level like I could with XNA. I have to do it individually on a per button basis, since that’s how scripts function. I honestly just can’t think of the logic right now that will get me from Main Menu button 1 to Sub Menu button 1 or from Main Menu button 2 (Play) to the game.

4

Application.LoadLevel() is probably a good start.

5

lol wow. I had no idea that existed… Thanks. That actually does help a lot.

6

I’ve never used EZ GUI… but with the built-in OnGUI functions and methods, to do a main->secondary menu, a very basic example would be something like:

private var showMainMenu : boolean = true;
private var showSubMenu : boolean = false;

function OnGUI(){

	if(showMainMenu == true){
		if(GUI.Button(Rect((Screen.width/2 - 75), (Screen.height/2), 150, 50), "Show Submenu")){
			EnableSubMenu();
		}
		GUI.Button(Rect((Screen.width/2 - 75), (Screen.height/2) + 75, 150, 50), "Pointless Button 1");
		GUI.Button(Rect((Screen.width/2 - 75), (Screen.height/2) + 150, 150, 50), "Pointless Button 2");
		GUI.Button(Rect((Screen.width/2 - 75), (Screen.height/2) + 225, 150, 50), "Pointless Button 3");
	}
	
	if(showSubMenu == true){
		GUI.Button(Rect((Screen.width/2 - 75), (Screen.height/2), 150, 50), "Pointless Button 4");
		GUI.Button(Rect((Screen.width/2 - 75), (Screen.height/2) + 75, 150, 50), "Pointless Button 5");
		if(GUI.Button(Rect((Screen.width/2 - 75), (Screen.height/2) + 150, 150, 50), "Return to Main Menu")){
			EnableMainMenu();
		}
	}
	
}

function EnableSubMenu(){
	showMainMenu = false;
	showSubMenu = true;
}

function EnableMainMenu(){
	showMainMenu = true;
	showSubMenu = false;
}

Note: written off the cuff, I didn’t test it.

7

Hello there!

My approach to constructing GUI’s usually involves an enum and a bunch of functions.

enum MenuState
{
    Main,
    Options,
    ReallyCoolSubMenu
}

public class MainMenu : MonoBehaviour
{
    MenuState mState = MenuState.Main;
    void OnGUI()
    {
        switch(mState)
        {
            case MenuState.Main:
                GUIMain();
                break;

            case MenuState.Options:
                GUIOptions();
                break;

            case MenuState.ReallyCoolSubMenu:
                GUICoolMenu()
                break;
        }
    }

    void GUIMain()
    {
        if(GUI.Button(new Rect(0, 0, Screen.Width, Screen.Height / 3), "Options")
            mState = MenuState.Options;
    }

    void GUIOptions()
    {
        if(GUI.Button(new Rect(0, Screen.Height - (Screen.Height / 3), Screen.Width, Screen.Height / 3), "Back")
            mState = MenuState.Main;
    }
}

And that’s the general structure. Note that you should also store all the rectangles you use, as opposed to creating new ones every call.

8

I actually use the same approach as Myx, I just wanted to show you a basic example with booleans before bringing in the state machines :slight_smile: But the point is, you enable/disable blocks of GUI code with boolean or state switches.

9

Thanks for the help everyone! I was able to make a successful UI with all your input =).