My thinking is that it will probably be pretty similar so that if you bought it and learned the API now you’d be a step ahead of the game. Does anyone have experience with the new Core API and can say one way or the other? Not too concerned about the money but I don’t want to learn one API and then relearn a completely different one if its substantially different.
I guess it depends on how soon you need a good UI. They both have the same basic approach to UI design, the new unity GUI is based on NGUI’s design (they share the same developer), so you won’t be dis-served by learning NGUI for now. That said, there are some systems in NGUI such as atlasing and sprites that are made fairly redundant by the existence of the new Unity 2D system.
This. If you’re doing a project now that needs a better/different GUI system to the built in system then I’d suggest probably getting an existing one. I’ve only used NGUI, none of the others, but it’s a great system that’s constantly improving, so it gets my thumbs up for sure.
Unless your project is super flexible, there’s no point waiting for something when a) you don’t know when it’ll be available and b) there are viable and alternatives right now.
Buying NGUI is the best money you can spend on a Unity extension.
Waiting for it to be implemented in Unity could still be many months away, I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.
I’d pick Daikon Forge over NGui any day …
DF is selling more than NGUI nowadays too.
If you need it now, then buy it now. If you don’t need it now, then wait. Make decisions on things like this based on your immediate needs. You don’t know when the new GUI system will be ready. It could be next week, but it could also be this time next year, or even the year after that. This might be different with a solid timeframe, but in lieu of one, you make a make a decision based on your need.
Do you have the money to buy NGUI? Do you need NGUI soon? Then buy.
This, DF GUI is awesome!
Last I checked, they still haven’t implemented proper resolution independence in DF GUI? I’d stick with NGUI for now. Much better option.
They recently added a feature to resize controls proportionally with the screen, if that’s what you mean by “resolution independence”.
And also based on what is, not what might be. Making decisions based on “mights” is inherently high risk, so only do it if you’re willing to accept the risk, and make sure you’ve got a solid plan B.
This is an interesting point, and was thinking of it the other day. Let’s say you didn’t need the speed that NGui gives you. Would you pick immediate mode over NGui? I’m leaning towards yes actually. But then again, NGui just really irked me.
I already have NGUI and am pretty productive with it, so I’d still go with it even if I didn’t need its specific advantages over Unity GUI. The technical aspects of your tools aren’t the only things to consider.
But let’s say you didn’t know NGui, for discussion’s sake. Would you still go with it?
Well if I didn’t have it then there’d be a very different process involved. It wouldn’t be a choice between UnityGUI and NGUI, it’d be a choice between all of the available GUIs. I’d evaluate which best fit my needs (certainly taking into account that I’m already familiar with UnityGUI, but also considering its knwon limitations) and pick whatever came out on top. It might well be UnityGUI, and I’ve done quite a few projects successfully with it in the past.
If you need a GUI now, you can’t go wrong with one of the top GUI systems on the asset store. UT’s solutions will typically be mostly there, but need a few extra bits from a third party to be perfect for most. Their future GUI system is the one thing I suspect they are trying to get really, really good out of the box, so nobody can guess when it’ll be ready. They could spring it on us next month, or it could be well into 2014. Just look at the amount of time from 2D being considered until actually being a thing in the engine!
I’ve got both NGUI and Daikon Forge. I’m not using NGUI.
I moved from NGUI to Daikon Forge GUI and to be honest once I started using DF-GUI in my game I found lots and lots of neat features that I had to wrestle with in NGUI.
NGUI is a good product, it served me well but DF-GUI is more friendly to my workflow.
Sounds like it’s worth checking out.
I think DF-GUI is friendlier to everyone’s workflow.
Perhaps, but I can only speak for myself. 
I tried to make an inventory with ngui for my rpg and it was nightmarishly difficult, it would annoy me so much watching the tutorial videos were he keeps saying “its so easy with ngui” I wanted to smash in the monitor lol.