Unity UI Auto Layout loses "driven by" and auto-values, if deeply nested layout group not direct child of another layout group

Unity Engine
, , , , , ,
1

Let’s say you have an auto layout like this :

Content ( grid layout group )
 - AChild 1
 - AChild 2
   - BChild 1
       - CChild 1 ( grid layout group )
           - DChild 1
           - DChild 2
   - BChild 2
   - BChild 3
 - AChild 3

Now normally if you inspect AChild 1 and DChild 1 it would say “Some values driven by grid layout group”. And these values are saved in the yaml as 0 since they shouldn’t be set. Under the hood each of these children has a rectTransform.drivenByObject value that’s set to the controlling parent, that is given by the DrivenRectTransformTracker within the layout groups.

Here’s the problem : If you disable and enable AChild 3 for example, then DChild 1 will lose the drivenByObject value, and won’t show up as driven. Also all the driven values, like anchorPosition.y etc will change from 0 to e.g. 153.4

The only fix for this so far, is to not have any gaps in layout groups, like so :

Content ( grid layout group )
 - AChild 1
 - AChild 2 ( vertical layout group ) <--
   - BChild 1 ( vertical layout group ) <--
       - CChild 1 ( grid layout group )
           - DChild 1
           - DChild 2
   - BChild 2
   - BChild 3
 - AChild 3

But that’s very annoying, and sometimes not even possible.