How do I change the hardware cursor?

Questions & Answers
1

I know how to use UnityGUI and DrawTexture to draw a cursor at Input.mousePosition, but it lags behind the real cursor too much when the framerate gets low. How can I change the hardware cursor (the one that is rendered independently of the memory allocated to the program)? On windows I would use the System.Windows.Input.Mouse.SetCursor() method, but I don't think this works in Unity (it uses Windows libraries).

6

In case you landed here trying to change the cursor to another standard/native cursor, so not a custom texture but one available in the OS by default, here is what I ended up doing (Windows only!):

  public enum WindowsCursor
    {
        StandardArrowAndSmallHourglass = 32650,
        StandardArrow = 32512,
        Crosshair = 32515,
        Hand = 32649,
        ArrowAndQuestionMark = 32651,
        IBeam = 32513,
        //Icon = 32641, // Obsolete for applications marked version 4.0 or later. 
        SlashedCircle = 32648,
        //Size = 32640,  // Obsolete for applications marked version 4.0 or later. Use FourPointedArrowPointingNorthSouthEastAndWest
        FourPointedArrowPointingNorthSouthEastAndWest = 32646,
        DoublePointedArrowPointingNortheastAndSouthwest = 32643,
        DoublePointedArrowPointingNorthAndSouth = 32645,
        DoublePointedArrowPointingNorthwestAndSoutheast = 32642,
        DoublePointedArrowPointingWestAndEast = 32644,
        VerticalArrow = 32516,
        Hourglass = 32514
    }

    private static void ChangeCursor(WindowsCursor cursor){
        SetCursor(LoadCursor(IntPtr.Zero , (int)cursor));
    }

    [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "SetCursor")]
    public static extern IntPtr SetCursor(IntPtr hCursor);

    [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "LoadCursor")]
    public static extern IntPtr LoadCursor(IntPtr hInstance, int lpCursorName);
3

You can’t change the hardware cursor in Unity.

Edit: in Unity 3, that is. You can in Unity 4.

4

If its for a Windows build you can try using user32.dll:

` 

[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto, ExactSpelling=true)]
public static extern IntPtr SetCursor(IntPtr  hCursor);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr LoadCursor(IntPtr hInstance, int lpCursorName);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr LoadImage(
    IntPtr hInstance, 
    string lpImageName,
    uint uType,
    int cxDesired,
    int cyDesired,
    uint fuLoad
);

`

And write some methods that you can call from your scripts:

` 

public static void changeCursorToHand(){
    SetCursor(LoadCursor(IntPtr.Zero ,32649));
}

public static void changeCursorToArrow(){
    SetCursor(LoadCursor(IntPtr.Zero ,32512));
}

`

5

Though this question is old, perhaps this answer will help someone else.

The simplest way to do this is to have a Texture2D replace the default OS cursor. This is not a Pro-Only feature and is not limited to Windows only. This is the code I used:

	public Texture2D customCursor;
	private CursorMode cursorMode;
	private Vector2 hotSpot;


	// Use this for initialization
	void Start () {

		//change the cursor texture
		cursorMode = CursorMode.ForceSoftware;
		hotSpot = new Vector2 (0, 0);
		Cursor.SetCursor (customCursor, hotSpot, cursorMode);
    }

Please be aware that when you are testing this, you will have to BUILD AND RUN your project to see it work. It will not change the cursor if you just press the play button in Unity.

There is more documentation available here if you want to see about having the cursor change as you mouse over other objects.

2

If the cursor is lagging, the rest of your game must be, too (that, or your mouse cursor code is inefficient - maybe you should post it here). The only way I've discovered of drawing a cursor is via UnityGUI (of course there are more inefficient ways then UnityGUI, but none more efficient, as far as I can tell).