New Icons in Hierarchy

[runevision]

With the introduction of improved Prefabs, objects in the Hierarchy now have icons in order to convey information about Prefabs that would not otherwise be easy to see.

Those of you who’ve been using the Preview Build knew this already, though the icons have a slightly new look in the beta. For others it may be news.

The icons let you see:

• Whether a Prefab is a Prefab Variant, Model Prefab, or regular Prefab.
• Where Prefab roots are. Those are all the blue icons.
• Whether objects under a Prefab root are part of that Prefab or added as an override.

As with many features, we’ve heard many different opinions about the icons. Here in the forums we had many people pitch in with opinions in the thread here .

We have taken that feedback to heart and made the icons for GameObjects more subtle than they were in the Preview build (where they were the classic 3-colored GameObject icons). We still might not be able to make everyone happy, but if the prior feedback is anything to go by, the new icons should work well for most people.

[Grimreaper358]

Ah I see, I don’t really have a problem with the new Icons except that the grey for game objects makes it seem like they are disabled.

[hippocoder]

Don’t like the icons at all. Please make them optional.

Also, I don’t understand why there’s cubes on everything regardless if a prefab or not. This simply wastes space. There are much better ways of doing this.

Perhaps we should call it the cube hierarchy since everything has a cube regardless, which is illogical vs having clear icons on their own, perhaps less real estate waste.

[Thomas-Pasieka]

Can we at least have a tickbox in the Preferences to turn them on/off? I find them rather annoying/useless. I think most “new” things introduced should ALWAYS have a tickbox in the Preferences so users can turn them on/off at any time.

[Grimreaper358]

@hippocoder

Don’t like the icons at all. Please make them optional.

Also, I don’t understand why there’s cubes on everything regardless if a prefab or not.

vs having clear icons on their own, perhaps less real estate waste.

Clearer icons would be better instead of the grey/grey cube (Looks like a disabled Game Object). Some game objects already have nice Icons so that could be used for (Post Processing icon on Post Volume, etc)

[hippocoder]

The project view uses a unique icon for each intention without redundant stuff. A gameobject on it’s own should not have an icon.

[Ofx360]

Looking at 3DSmax, it’s not all that different. Maybe the icons are too bold in Unity (even in the current toned down version) and should use a more flat design?

For me, i’m not bothered by the icons at all - i actually kinda like them. Though an option to turn it off seems like a good idea. The prefab’s text is still colored blue and the prefab type icon could also be in the upper left corner of the inspector anyone who needs to know the type. Though, that icon is user settable.

Maybe something like this would have less clutter for those concerned:

Normal GOs wouldn’t have any icons and prefabs would have an icon to the farthest right, before the carrot. Any additional custom icons would be pushed left. Probably not the best for people that might have a very wide hierarchy view, but i think it helps get around the indentation/clutter issue some people are having?

[bac9-flcl]

This is a definite improvement over the last release! I’d fade the default gray cube icon even more, making it 50% more transparent, but otherwise this works for me. Prefab icons are now properly standing out vs. plain objects. And I suppose I can always just edit default editor resources to make the default state fully transparent or otherwise less noticeable.

Fully fading out the icon for plain GameObjects can also work, but in that case I’d move the “plus” icon for added prefab elements to the center of icon space, since it would no longer have a foundation to attach to:

On the subject of docking icons at the right edge of the screen, I tried that for a while with custom hierarchy windows, but I found that layout to be pretty inconvenient vs. left side icons, since it was often hard to see what exact line corresponded to what exact icon.

[halley]

If we’re going to classify things in the hierarchy so much, why not make a different non-cube icon for “things without a renderer” such as marker/manager empties, or lights, or cameras, etc.? There is at least one “draw icons in the hierarchy” add-on available in the Asset Store (which this update will surely break, at least temporarily). Let people go nuts with bookmarking their hierarchies richly. Or… turn it all off.

[Deeeds]

Was Modo the ‘inspiration’ for these choices?

[MA-Rob]

Currently the only problem with this approach is that everything is a GameObject. With the exception of prefab types, nothing distinguishes GameObject’s from one another. If the intention is show more information in the hierarchy, then icons should probably indicate a main component.

Though, it does seem like Unity’s intention is to add more icons in the future. The redesign showcased at Unite Berlin does show various icons according to type in the hierarchy:

If the direction is to improve readability in the hierarchy with more icons, please do.

[LukeDawn1]

This was posted by @TokyoWarfareProject and looks way better…

[hippocoder]

I think we need to see more of Unity’s plans here. Will they be adding icons for everything? for cameras? what if it doesn’t have a renderer? what about multiple components? you cannot keep stuffing info on the left, long term

I propose that all the icons be shifted to the right justified side instead and include:

• prefab state
• visibility toggle
• camera / renderer / etc icons

You can’t keep pushing this stuff on the left. It makes it hard to navigate and hard to read. It should be right-justified instead and contain actual functionality, like you click the box, you edit the prefab.

Assuming Unity wants to add a lot more information, it should all be packed on the right-justified and unused space, particularly now there is a highlight bar so we know what line we are over.

[Grimreaper358]

@LukeDawn1

This was posted by @TokyoWarfareProject and looks way better…

This version looks worst to me. The Icons makes sense in that they relay information needed to understand what type of prefab is being used (even with just the grey ones there), the only problem is the other game objects having the default grey Icon. As @MA-Rob mentioned the ones showed in the roadmap talk looks nice and also relay what type of game objects they are so and when this is paired with folders to organize things it will look pretty sweet.

2018.3

2019 Mockup

They were stated to be in two stages, 2018.3 (which gets mainly icon updates, the Setting/preferences organised in a tab) and 2019 forward (with the redesign and workflow enhancements) both stated to be optional/opt-in via the Package manager. I would jump on those new Icons instantly but that’s me. I rename default objects created sometimes and the icons that are shown there will help to tell what “type” of object it is quickly (Especially when it’s a project I haven’t messed with in a while or even team projects). The only thing missing there is the icon custom models/meshes would show.

With that said I know some people might not want to use them (but there will be objects that require them - Folders when that’s in, prefab types, etc) so you can see for the devs it’s now a little bigger than adding an option to disable/enable. From my perspective thinking about making those customizable (On/Off) would come down to three modes/settings two at max.

All options
On - All icons on
Off - All icons off
Mixed - Some icons on but only for things that require an Icon (Folders, prefab types, etc)

Or at least
On - All icons on
Mixed - Some icons on but only for things that require an Icon (Folders, prefab types, etc)

[hippocoder]

This is why it’s not possible to condense that much information on the left. It should be right-justified, and they should be clickable, and you should control what is visible for you.

So instead of a > icon to edit prefab, you just click the prefab box (if it has one), which would be with the other (optional) icons.

I hope @runevision doesn’t feel attacked here or anything, I mean it’s his work. We’re just trying to get the most from it.

[MA-Rob]

@hippocoder

I propose that all the icons be shifted to the right justified side instead and include:

• prefab state
• visibility toggle
• camera / renderer / etc icons

You can’t keep pushing this stuff on the left. It makes it hard to navigate and hard to read. It should be right-justified instead and contain actual functionality, like you click the box, you edit the prefab.

Assuming Unity wants to add a lot more information, it should all be packed on the right-justified and unused space, particularly now there is a highlight bar so we know what line we are over.

What application with a hierarchy have you used that doesn’t have the icons on the left?

They’re just matching a UI standard - it’s not like this is an odd choice. The closer the hierarchy matches standard DCC tools the better.

[hippocoder]

@MA-Rob

What application with a hierarchy have you used that doesn’t have the icons on the left?

They’re just matching a UI standard - it’s not like this is an odd choice. The closer the hierarchy matches standard DCC tools the better.

It’s a flawed argument and here is why:

• existing DCC apps are often experimental and badly designed cough zbrush
• DCC apps only have a small handful of things an object can be - modifier, geo, camera etc
• Unity gameobjects can be any number of infinite things (many components on one object)

So, unless you want to restrict it entirely for level building, the existing DCC concepts horribly break in a Unity context.

But sure, if it’s just going to be a level design tool, knock yourself out. I have a custom hierarchy that does stack information on the right-justified side …

OK so ours is more of a collapsible category system, that self-organises so we can work on the game engine stuff or the world stuff or the dynamic stuff and so on. We can see if something is an actor, static etc - don’t use icons but text, and it’s fine for us.

Not saying Unity should do what we did, only realise there’s more to solve here.

[optimise]

@runevision , from the discussion so far I think the best way to solve this problem is to make it highly configurable. Whether you want to disable all the icons, display only for things that require an Icon, move the icon to right and etc.

[runevision]

@hippocoder

I hope @runevision doesn’t feel attacked here or anything, I mean it’s his work. We’re just trying to get the most from it.

It’s the work of the team here, I certainly can’t take all the credit!

To sum up on many replies here (and in some other threads) at once:

“the grey for game objects makes it seem like they are disabled”
“I’d fade the default gray cube icon even more, making it 50% more transparent”

“Don’t like the icons at all.”
“the icons add nice feedback to the hierarchy, which I wouldn’t want to miss from now on”

“[Icons] should be right-justified”
“They’re just matching a UI standard [with icons on the left] - it’s not like this is an odd choice. The closer the hierarchy matches standard DCC tools the better.”
“On the subject of docking icons at the right edge of the screen, I tried that for a while with custom hierarchy windows, but I found that layout to be pretty inconvenient vs. left side icons, since it was often hard to see what exact line corresponded to what exact icon.”

[Mockup that shows icons only for Prefabs]
“If you only had them for prefabs it would make the indentation weird in some cases.”

It seems we have a healthy diversity of opinions among you all here, often going in diametrically opposite directions. For perspective, all of this feedback here in the forums is just a tiny slice of the overall feedback we’ve gotten from all sources, most of which has no comments about the icons but is just overall positive about the feature design. No one solution will make everyone happy when there’s people who want the exact opposite things from each other.

Some of you have requested options to turn this or that on or off, such as turning all the icons entirely off. Providing options for something is a feature like any other feature. It’s not free for us to add; once something can be turned on or off, both ways have to be designed, implemented, tested and made sure to work with every other feature that might interact with it. Apart from that, all options increase the complexity of the product a tiny bit.

Sometimes, providing such options is worth the time and effort and added complexity, but the benefit has to be weighted against the cost, and against all the other things we could spend the time and resources on implementing instead. Add to that that there is significant information that would not be visible if e.g. all icons are removed, unless we designed an alternative way to provide that information (again taking resources). Simply turning the icons off without such an alternative design would really only be responsible for people who don’t use Prefabs much at all, which is a small subset of our users.

All this together means that we don’t always provide options just because different people would prefer different things - it has to be more important than the other things we could otherwise be doing (see the FAQ for some of the other things we could spend our resources on instead). We will of course continue to monitor these threads (like we do with the entire Prefabs forum) and read all feedback and take it all into account in our overall prioritizations.

[hippocoder]

Yeah totally understand the user-communication aspect. How do you make documentation or train customers for a moving target?

But what is happening in the big picture? Will future Unity have icons that share the same space?

I really like that actually, but how on earth do prefabs fit with the rest of what Unity is suggesting? A lot of our feedback is in isolation… It would help to see what else will be fighting for the same screen estate.

At the moment, the above image would break. What if the camera has a directional light component? What if it’s a prefab that’s partially modified?

(I absolutely love the folder one though, for organisation…)