Customizable Scifi Holo Interface [Released]

Hi, I’m a french UI/Concept Artist & Animator working in the videogame industry. I’ve been using Unity for the past years on my personal and professional projects.
As a huge sci-fi interface fan, I felt I could bring some interesting stuff to the asset store.

Whether its for decorum purpose or interactive ‘in world’ screens, in-world GUI needs a real attention to detail. The asset store and its contributors always helped me when I needed something, I’ve seen a lot of amazing toolkits and shaders, gui, interfaces and such. And I realized that I could contribute with my own talent.

That’s why I’m introducing to you a new assets line ‘Excelsior Assets’, along with its first pack :

>> Customizable SciFi Holo Interfaces

>>WEBGL Demo<<

Note: normal maps are not quite handled in webgl, hence the differences with the screenshots.​

I want these holo interfaces to be easily customizable while still keeping with the highest quality possible. While also being mobile friendly.
This first asset pack features examples, assets, animations, entirely customizable, made in world space canvas, so you can add your own layout elements easily. There’s also a special component that automatically handle the appearance and disappearance of the holo interfaces.

I also plan to keep updating it freely with new elements along time, but also eventually creating separate package in case of a very different content.

After this first release, I’ve planned numerous other subjects and assets to cover : alien interfaces, more holograms stuff, retro anime sprite based interfaces etc..

Feel free to share your impressions, thoughts, question, or even suggestions if you think there’s something I shall add or something I should put more emphasize on. Or something you would really like to see in my future plans. I’ll be happy to answer you and discuss.

Note this is compatible with all SRP, and built-in pipeline (as we're only relying on Unity UI)

Compatibility included in Dialog System

 

The package has just been released on the asset store >> you can get it here <<

 

This looks great!
This might be a dumb question, but can these elements be used on an orthographic camera?

 

Hi!
Not dumb question at all
These can be definitely used on an orthographic camera (and the interactive parts will still work as well)

example:

 

SWEET!
Thanks for the reply.
Will definitely pick this up today.

I've been looking for something like this a while now. Keep up the good work!

 

Great, don't forget to give it a review if you get time. That helps a lot

That said, the trailer is here:
+ an update (content addition) is coming soon with a few more graph assets. Several others free content addition are planned for the next months.
As the first weeks of release are ending, the asset price will also rise up to its original intended price.

 

Bought this. Glad to hear that more is coming in the future.

 

Thanks for your support
The upcoming update (waiting for validation actually) does not contain a lot. It's a little bit of polish submitted along with the new presentation of the asset on the shop page.
But the updates after that are planned to add more exotic elements.
And one of those updates will include a premade holo interface with a countdown system for timers/clock and stuff.
I think it will be useful for many people.

(and please don't forget to add a review on the asset store if you like it, that always help )

 

The update is released!
By the way, I've put in priority something else for the next update (client is king so... ^^) , which should allow you to create nested interfaces.(so no more flat hierarchy)

 

1.4 version is on the way, I'll submit it soon. The validation should take around a week:

- fix : call disappear, cut it with a direct disappear and start again won't make break anim anymore
- 'optional' nested interface anim managers support
- specific 'wait' mode triggerable for the nested IAM
- new 'digital nest' holo interface example added
- InterfaceAnmElement.cs : simplified & more coherent animation states
- InterfaceAnimManager.cs rewritten : disappear end more precisely detected
- InterfaceAnimManagerEditor.cs better handling of invert delays
- Interactivity added on 'Meticulous Lock' example
- Interactivity added on 'Archeologic Inventory' example
- two new sounds added
- circle08.psd polished
- darkener wallRing.mat
- new hierarchy on some scripts that use the inspector(/CSFHI/ added)

 

Dear Immu:

We bought it and use it in project,
now I have a problem:
I make the UI gameobject(with InterfaceAnimManager) as prefab,
When I load prefab by Resource or Instantiate the prefab,the Editor show error:

"NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
InterfaceAnimManager.startDisappear (Boolean direct) (at Assets/Plugins/Excelsior/CSFHI/Scripts/InterfaceAnimManager.cs:404)
InterfaceAnimManager.Start () (at Assets/Plugins/Excelsior/CSFHI/Scripts/InterfaceAnimManager.cs:54)"

I had a lot of UI to show, and can't put every UI on stage before, what can I do?

Thanks

 

Hi vml933,
I'll look at that problem asap (I'll reply in the next 12 hours).

Thanks for report.

Edit:
Can you give me an email adress through private message, (apparently you didn't enabled private conversations) so I can send you the updated package as soon as I've found a solution?
(unity asset store submission can take an entire week before the update, so It will be easier for you if I send you the update directly..)

Thanks.

 

The issue has been fixed
Support for Interface Anim Manager in Prefabs is now included in the next update I'll submit by the end of this week (and which should be validated a few days after)
(again, as said above, if you need it asap, send me a mail adress )

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the reply.
Here is my company email: mark@brightideas.com.tw
look forward your news and update

 

Just sent
Don't hesitate to go back to me if you didn't receive it (company email are sometimes blocking stuff)

 

Hi, I bought this yesterday, and I think it's awesome.

Please could you provide a quick tutorial on how I can create custom animations or even static icons? Also, when I add the _basic_template into my scene, it does not animate like your examples. (In your examples, they scale up and pop into view).

Thank you.

 

Hi, thanks for your support


For the _basic_template it's probably because it was a prefab. And I've just submitted a new version which should fix this kind of problems. (should be validated and available by the end of the week)

Anyway, we will do a new one in the example below.
My only advice is do not make a prefab out of that yet, since there's no 1.5.2 version out.
(And preferably even, wait for that new version before starting, again, should be validated soon).

With the current version, it's better to start from an example, copy one of them, delete all the children apart from the frame (check pictures below)
For static icons, I'm not sure what you mean ? If It's creating elements without animations, then check below, it's the same.
To create custom animations, actually it's basically the same as making any other animation in unity. You create a controller, put a new animator component in the element and link it with the controller.
Then inside the controller, you add animations, and name them properly (according to the notes in the readme)

Here's a quick step by step where we copy an existing controller (of course, it's better to create a new one, especially if the version is updated and rewrites it) and copy one of the animation that is used inside (so it can be modified without changing the original animation, still used in other elements)

http://img110.xooimage.com/files/9/a/9/tuto_step01-50931e7.png
http://img110.xooimage.com/files/4/1/9/tuto_step01b-509320f.png
http://img110.xooimage.com/files/9/3/8/tuto_step02-5093213.png
http://img110.xooimage.com/files/7/d/e/tuto_step03-5093215.png
http://img110.xooimage.com/files/4/5/a/tuto_step04-5093219.png
http://img110.xooimage.com/files/c/f/f/tuto_step05-509321b.png

It's pretty straightforward, but if I start to go into details of how to make the animation, I'm redoing unity tutorials, whihc basically already exists ^^

(note that I'm still using the same controller in the example, but you should indeed work from a copy of it)

Of course if you want to create a new child element, you need to create a ui panel/image with an animator controller, and parent the whole gameObject to the interface manager object.
If you want pure static elements without animator, it's better to nest them inside a child that has an animator component.

 

Thank you for your detailed response

This is exactly what I was looking for. Yes, by static icons I just meant having my own Sprite instead of the sprites that you have provided with the package. Basically a custom sprite.

I will now try to build one from scratch. Thanks again!

Quick question: will you be adding new elements (frames, borders, other elements) in the next update? There are quite a few now of course, but it would be awesome if you can add a couple more. If I may suggest:

1. Graph (Sine graph that is pulsating or other graphs)
2. Data stream (like text stream, but single uneven line of data that is constantly moving)
3. Hexagon grid where grid fills up and emptes at random (this is a very common element in many sci-fi huds)

Edit: To give an example of above, please see this image. For point 1 (graph) see the graphs below. For point 3 (hex grid) see the small hex grid in the middle

 

Upcoming update is already submitted and is focused on core system. But definitely yes, the update after that (november/december, I'll confirm at some point) will be more focused on new content. And since you've made precise suggestion, I'll know in which direction I shall go


Edit : just to let you know, the package with all the fix on prefabs has been submitted last week but takes a much longer time than previous ones to be validated (I must have been lucky in previous times). So I'm just hoping they will validate it by the end of the week

 

EDIT: (solved) Restarting Unity gets rid of this error.

Does this support the Microsoft HoloLens?
When I try to check the box for "Virtual Reality Supported" (which is needed and which I use to make apps work on the HoloLens) in the build settings in Unity before building my project to see it in the HoloLens, it does not check to checked and gives error:

EditorOnlyPlayerSettings property Metro::VR::enable not inititalized. Please initialize it using corresponding PlayerSettings.InitializeProperty function!
UnityEditorInternal.VR.VREditor:SetVREnabled(BuildTargetGroup, Boolean)
UnityEditorInternal.VR.PlayerSettingsEditorVR: DevicesGUI(BuildTargetGroup) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Src/VR/Mono/PlayerSettingsEditorVR.cs:56)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

 

Oh. Okay, just discoverred that you edited your message and that everything was okay. Good to know

 

Is there a manual or tutorial on how to use this asset? I cant find anything inside the asset files.

 

Not especially more than the original readme, but I think the examples are quite self-explanatory. Other than that, the unity UI tutorials themselves do the rest of the job easily - https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/user-interface-ui -. I feel those are enough since only two customers ask for eventual tutorials yet, and In the end, providing specific answer worked better.

Nevertheless, If you get into any complication, don't hesitate to ask for specific questions.

Thanks.

 

Thanks, you are right, after looking at the Demo scene I was able to copy one panel from there, modify it and create a working prefab from it.

Awesome work btw.

 

Another question, is there a callback I can listen or suscribe to do something once the UI has appeared or disappeared? This would be extremely useful.

If not, where should be the right place to put a call for a callback block?

 

Hello, picking up the question a bit late, sorry.
I've been working on integrating that directly for next version so that everybody can enjoy this functionality.

It's fully working now, even though there's still other content I need to add for the version, so I cannot publish it on the store right away.
Can you send me your invoice number + mail by PM so I can send you that if you want to ?
Thanks.

 

I've just tested the package on 5.5.0.p4

There is just one weird bug coming from that unity version, linked to lighting
(I cannot currently re-published the version to fix it but I will soon)

It's in the scene CSFHI_Showroom, it randomly triggers error, to fix it :
-copy/paste all the elements of that scene in a new scene (that you'll end up renaming CSFI_Showroom)
-put the skybox_DayNebular material back in the lighting parameters of the scene
-Disable/Enable HoloInterfaces Game Object
-Disable/Enable CleanWelcome Game Object

After that quick fix, everything is working perfectly fine.

Thanks!

 

Is there anyway to ensure some components of the UI are invisible/inactivewhen the startAppear is called ? If it is inactive in the editor, then startAppear makes all components of the UI enabled/active. I can only make components inactive/active via code AFTER the entire UI is visible.

 

Hi,
Actually, after answering you via mail, I took a look. And you just need to parent your elements to an empty gameObject (which will, indeed automatically receive the InterfaceAnimElement component but won't transmit any SetActive call to its children unless you've specifically added a new Interface Anim Manager) :


That would be enough for your needs ?

Otherwise I would do some update with a new parameter to tick in the anm element component inspector, but that might go against the whole system.

 

yes that works nicely - thankyou

 

Assets/Standard Assets/Effects/ImageEffects/Scripts/ScreenSpaceAmbientObscurance.cs(9,42): error CS0246:
The type or namespace name `PostEffectsBase' could not be found.
Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?

 

Hi, thanks for buying my asset!

As written in the readme, I can't directly add the standards effects due to new asset store guidelines, so you need to download and import the standard image effects package on your side (available in unity download installer)
Those are used in the showroom scene examples.

 

Thank you for your detailed response.
yes that works nicely - thankyou

 

Is there a correct way to scale the different parts?

I'm trying to take bits from your different interfaces and put them together, I'm scaling them to get everything at the size I want - but when it starts and animates, it resets all of the scales to 1?

Is this something easy to address?

 

Hi,
As you might see in the examples ("2D" & "3D sizes variator" holo examples), it's better to change height and width with the rect size property (in the case of a UI/canvas element), rather than the scale property which is already used for animation.
There's also an other workaround which works for 3D elements, and it's simply about nesting the 3D elements inside a parent. So the parent will still be at size 0 or 1 depending on the animation, but its child can be at any size you want

 

Perfect thanks!

 

I'm using a few interfaces for a single screen, and turning pieces on and off when needed. I'm getting this error though

All font sizes are currently set to 10, so quite small? Is there a way to resolve this, or a way to break it into multiple textures?

 

Hi, sorry for response delay, I've been trying to reproduce your issue but can't manage to get the same error, and nobody else signal me that problem.
Though, browsing to some people that had the problem prior my asset in other years or other contexts, I just found that maybe deactivating `Best Fit` in the texts component or deleting the library (to re-reload everything) might help. If you're still having issues after that, can you PM me a sample scene (uploading it on dropbox/wetransfer/mediafire) with your problem so I can see what's happening ?
Which version of Unity are you using ?
It's also possibly a Unity version related bug, but I've just retested on 5.4.3, 5.5.1, 5.6.0, and didn't get any problem.

Thanks

 

Hi! I'm attempting to load this in the HoloLens Emulator through Visual Studio 2015, and it keeps coming up with this error:
From a little digging, it seems as if the library is disagreeing with something in the PostEffectBase.cs file, but I cannot seem to pinpoint the source. It immediately crashes upon attempting to start debugging via the emulator. Can you help me figure out what's going on? I have no problems spinning it up in Unity, and everything looks great! I'm just having difficulties running in VS. Any thoughts?

 

Hi!
Hm posteffect base are really only the (now old) image effects of Unity, it's basically their code that has a problem, so I can't do much about it. But you can definitely remove that script along with image effects scripts (that you might have imported) and the ones in the 'ExampleCam' from ExampleUI GameObject in CSFHI_Showroom scene as they're not critical to the asset at all.

Now if you're using the latest version of Unity. If you still want those kind of image effects, you might want to use their new postprocess stack in beta, which replace the old image effects.
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/new-post-processing-stack-pre-release.435581/
I didn't do an update yet on the package because it's going to be a bit tricky to handle all those versions of Image Effects for different versions of Unity

Let me know if everything works for you

 

Thank you so much for the response! I will give that a shot!

 

I attempted this, but I'm still getting the same error. I'm using the most recent version of Unity, but I've tried it with 5.5.1 and I'm having similar results.
Exception thrown: 'System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException' in mmscorlib.ni.dll
and I cannot pinpoint the source. Is there anything that you know of that might be causing this?
It only occurs after I've imported this asset package...

 

I really have no idea what my be causing this issue because my code is far from using ultra complex stuff that could bother with those dll °-°. (but apparently, someone else who also used the hololens emulator got the same issue, so at least it's not a random problem)
I guess deleting the scripts one by one might be a way to pin point the origin. Though I'm far from being used to the hololens simulator so I can't yet reproduce the issue on my side :/

 

I also got the same problem like ChangeJar in HoloLens.
The only working prefab is the _basicTemplate. Others won't work.
Also when I adding new element prefabs like arrowblocks to the _basicTemplate and build. The problem occur again.
There's no exception in the editor though.
Nice asset by the way !

 

Please I need help. After installing the package on windows platform, it give error message, missing PostEffectsBase. I did import Image effects as required.

 

Hm. That's weird, indeed it's supposed to be only ImageEffect related. Could you send me via wetransfer or else the part of the project that has the package imported so I can see by myself ?
thx
+ which version of unity are you using?

 

Get HoloLens support working and I'll pick it up!

 

That's definitely in my goals for future 2017 versions support

 

I've had no problems with CSFHI deployed to HoloLens using Unity 5.6

Just tried with Unity 2017.2b4...in scene/game view it looks ok but pressing play in editor, all the CSFHI stuff is invisible ?!?

 

No hololens problem in 5.6 ? Oh great
Unity 2017 feels still very early for an update to me. Everything is breaking all the time due to engine bugs :/ I would recommend to wait a bit before trying to update for that version with the plugin (especially on beta ones). But of course, again, 2017 support will come as soon as I consider that It won't be just about fighting early engine bugs and really about updating the plugin to new engine features ^^