Rotary dial input, anyone done this?

Unity Engine
1

I want to create a series of knobs that the user clicks on, then left or right mouse movement changes a value, then releases to set it. Same concept as a slider, except visually they will see a round knob that rotates left or right. Has anyone done this already, and if so any hints / advice?

2

hmm…i’ve seen plenty of fligh sim’s made with Unity but I never heard about how they made the knobs…good question!

3

I’ll probably start roughing out some code for this later today, I’ve got a pretty good idea how I’ll do it (using a mouse down trigger and GUIUtility.RotateAroundPivot). I’m just hoping someone has already figured out a “better way”.

4

Sorted. Only problem I see is that you need a separate script for each rotating knob, unless someone can enlighten me on an easier way. Here’s a rough script that works:

var rotatingButton : Texture2D;
var rotationText : GUIText;
var rotatingGui : GUIStyle;
var theAngle : int = 0; 
var thePoint : Vector2 = Vector2.zero;
var horizontalSpeed : float = 400.0;

function OnGUI () {
	GUIUtility.RotateAroundPivot (theAngle, thePoint);
	GUI.depth = 1;
	if (GUI.RepeatButton (Rect(10,10,56,56), rotatingButton, rotatingGui)) {
		if (Input.GetAxis ("Mouse X") > 0  theAngle < 130) {
			theAngle += horizontalSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
			print ("mouse moved right: " + theAngle);
		}
		if (Input.GetAxis ("Mouse X") < 0  theAngle > -130) {
			theAngle -= horizontalSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
			print ("mouse moved left: " + theAngle);
		}		
	}
	thePoint = Vector2(38, 38);
	rotationText.text = theAngle.ToString();
}
5

You can put

GUI.matrix = Matrix4x4.identity;

after the first dial or you can save the matrix,

                Matrix4x4 oldmatrix = GUI.matrix;
                GUIUtility.RotateAroundPivot(rotSpeed, new Vector2(rect.x, rect.y));
                GUI.DrawTexture(rect, imgFindingGames);
                GUI.matrix = oldmatrix;
6

I’m not sure I’m following you Shaun. How does this allow me to add more dials in the same script?

7

The matrix operation at the top of your code will affect all gui code inside the OnGUI call. I thought you were asking how you can add more controls inside the same OnGUI function. Adding the GUI.Matrix=Matrix4x4.identity resets things, and allows you to use a new rotate or scale function.
The GUIUtility rotate and scale functions are just helpers for GUI.matrix.

function OnGUI () {
   GUIUtility.RotateAroundPivot (theAngle, thePoint);
   GUI.depth = 1;
   if (GUI.RepeatButton (Rect(10,10,56,56), rotatingButton, rotatingGui)) {
      if (Input.GetAxis ("Mouse X") > 0  theAngle < 130) {
         theAngle += horizontalSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
         print ("mouse moved right: " + theAngle);
      }
      if (Input.GetAxis ("Mouse X") < 0  theAngle > -130) {
         theAngle -= horizontalSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
         print ("mouse moved left: " + theAngle);
      }      
   }
   thePoint = Vector2(38, 38);
   rotationText.text = theAngle.ToString();
   
   //Reset the GUI.Matrix
   GUI.Matrix=Matrix4x4.identity;
   //Next control
   GUIUtility.RotateAroundPivot (theAngle, thePoint);
   if (GUI.RepeatButton (Rect(10,10,56,56), rotatingButton, rotatingGui)) {
      if (Input.GetAxis ("Mouse X") > 0  theAngle < 130) {
         theAngle += horizontalSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
         print ("mouse moved right: " + theAngle);
      }
      if (Input.GetAxis ("Mouse X") < 0  theAngle > -130) {
         theAngle -= horizontalSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
         print ("mouse moved left: " + theAngle);
      }      
   }
   thePoint = Vector2(38, 38);
   rotationText.text = theAngle.ToString();
}