Favorites Tab[s] - your favorite assets and game objects

Dear Unity Friends,

Flipbook Games proudly presents its latest Editor Extension - the Favorites Tabs, available now on Asset Store!

Favorites Tabs was made to improve your efficiency while working in Unity Editor by providing easy and quick access to assets and scene objects which you would be using most often. Instead of wasting your time trying to find your favorite asset hidden inside a couple of folders and subfolders (whose names you're always struggling to remember) you can now easily add that asset to your favorites by simply toggling the star icon next to its name. And same for the game objects in your scenes, just toggle the star icon and they will be added to your list of favorites.

Now all your favorites will be listed in the new Favorites view which is armed with powerful features for quick and easy navigation to the desired object, such as full mouse and keyboard support, drag&drop, multiple selections, search, filtering, sorting, and even more will be coming in the future!

Best of all is that your favorites are only yours, while your teammates have their own favorites even though you're all working on the same project and same scenes! Now modelers can bookmark their meshes, materials, and textures, animators can bookmark their animations and characters, while programmers may want to bookmark their scripts and scene objects where those scripts are used. And all of them would bookmark the scenes they are working with to easily switch from one to another...

EDIT: Posting the screenshots here as they seem to be missing currently on Asset Store



Enjoy!

 

This is the list of features extracted from the readme file:

Initial Release Features:
- Native look and feel, very similar to Project and Hierarchy views!
- No learning required! Just use your common Unity Editor knowledge and see it working as you would expect.
- Easy to mark or unmark favorite assets and scene object with just a single mouse-click.
- Easy to spot your favorite assets or scene objects in the Project and Hierarchy window, even when the Favorites Tab is closed!
- Favorites Tab displays all favorites sorted by name or type.
- Search by name functionality.
- Filters to show only assets or scene objects.
- Keyboard and mouse are fully supported.
- Selection synchronization. Select an item in the Favorites Tab to easily find it in the Hierarchy or Project views.
- Multiple favorite items selections.
- Dragging items from the Favorites Tab to any other Unity view is fully supported.
- Double click or press F key (or use context menu) to Frame the selected scene object in the Scene View, same as from the Hierarchy view.
- Double click or press Enter key (or use context menu) to open the selected asset, same as from the Project view.
- Works with teams! All team members have their own list of favorites even if they share the same project!
- GUID based asset references, so that assets exported and imported into another project remain in your list of favorites.
- Full source code provided for your reference or modification!

All your comments, suggestions or questions are very welcome!

 

Interesting fact: Favorites Tabs might be the only Unity extension which has been used in it's own development!!!

And it helped a lot! Enjoy!

 

My apologies for not being able to post some screenshot yet, I promise to do that soon. I'm just too busy now working on Script Inspector's exciting new update, but if you have any questions or comments regarding Favorites Tabs feel free to post them here and I'll be glad to answer!

Thanks to all of you who already bought it! I would appreciate some reviews, star ratings, or comments in this thread

 

Is it a problem if I'm the only team member using Favorites tab? I see that once I select something as favorited in the scene hierarchy, Unity marks the scene as changed, but I'm not committing favorites tab assets to our version control.

 

No, there's no problem with working alone on a project. Your favorites are stored in the editor preferences and that's how they are tied to you only and not to your teammates. However, Unity does not provide any functionality to uniquely identify game objects as it does for the assets, so to make your favorites persistent I've implemented my own mechanism for assigning GUID's to scene objects. This is a non-intrusive system, which means your scene objects will not be modified and no component will be added to them to ensure the size and performance of your final game remains the same. The only thing modified in the scene is the GUID manager used for mapping GUID's to scene objects. This is a very simple map container which is not used in runtime but only in editor mode. All the functionality is inside editor scripts. The GUID manager creates new GUID's on demand, whenever you bookmark a scene object that has never been a favorite before. So in short, to keep your newly added favorite scene objects you'd have to save the changes of the scene, but there's no need to put those changes to source control as this is not related to that at all.

Thanks for purchasing it, and I hope you'll find it very useful!

 

Hey Nezabyte, I totally misunderstood your question! Sorry about that! Please disregard that one, and see the answer below:

If you are the only one using Favorites Tab within your team you should make sure the following file is committed to your version control and shared with other team members through project's assets:

Assets/FlipbookGames/Common/Scripts/FG_GameObjectGUIDs.cs​

This is the component that serves as a GUID mapper for scene objects referenced from the Favorites Tab. Favorites Tab creates one instance automatically in the scene if it doesn't exist already. That's one case when the scene gets marked as modified, and the second one is when you bookmark a game object that hasn't been bookmarked before, so a new GUID is created and mapped to it. You'll have to save and commit the modified scene of course, to keep your newly added favorites.

I hope this makes more sense now!

 

Yes, that makes sense, thanks!

 

Cool!

How do you find it so far? If you have any suggestions for improvements just let me know and I'll consider them for the next update.

Favorites Tabs is still waiting for the first review, would you mind posting one?

 

I actually purchased it last night and only got a chance to play around with it for a couple minutes so far. Seems that it will be quite useful though as our game becomes more complex. I'll definitely follow up with some feedback after using it some more.

 

@Nezabyte: Thanks for the awesome review and great suggestions! All of them will be available with the next update

 

No problem and thanks I've come up with a couple more ideas as I continue to use the tool. Would love for you to consider them for your future updates:

- Remove all favorited items with 1 click (I use it partly as a to-do list, so it would be nice to easily start fresh for my next to-do's)
- Allow favoriting of game object children in Project tab (can already do this in Hierarchy tab)

 

Great idea! Thanks

Well that would be nice to have but in Unity 3.5 it is not possible. This is because only files and folder in the Project tab have GUID's. These kind of assets are called main-assets in Unity, and some of them may have so called sub-assets which get extracted from the same file, so they all share the same GUID as their main-asset. That makes them impossible to identify and distinguish inside EditorApplication.projectWindowItemOnGUI callback as it only takes the GUID as a parameter. I don't know is this somehow improved in Unity 4, that would be great if it is!

Thanks for all the suggestions, and if you come up with something else just let me know just don't ask me for commission

 

Ah gotcha, no problem!

Also, ran into an odd problem. Tried compiling our game into an .exe for some testing, and these compiler errors showed up. Any ideas? I'm not sure why it would even try to compile non-game assets anyway. I also have your Script Inspector asset, which is located in Editor/FlipbookGames/ScriptInspector, and didn't have any weird compiler errors for that one.

-----CompilerOutput:-stdout--exitcode: 1--compilationhadfailure: True--outfile: Temp/Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll
Compilation failed: 3 error(s), 0 warnings
-----CompilerOutput:-stderr----------
Assets/Plugins/FlipbookGames/FavoritesTab/Editor/Scripts/AboutFavoritesTab.cs(12,7): error CS0246: The type or namespace name `UnityEditor' could not be found. Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?
Assets/Plugins/FlipbookGames/FavoritesTab/Editor/Scripts/FavoritesTab.cs(33,7): error CS0246: The type or namespace name `UnityEditor' could not be found. Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?
Assets/Plugins/FlipbookGames/FavoritesTab/Editor/Scripts/FavoritesTab.cs(94,56): error CS0246: The type or namespace name `AssetPostprocessor' could not be found. Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?
-----EndCompilerOutput---------------

 

Hi Nezabyte!

I just reproed the problem. Unity ignores the Editor folder if it is placed inside Plugins in a deeper level as it is in your case, but Plugins/Editor works just fine. So if you really want to keep the Favorites Tabs inside your Plugins folder you should do something like this for example:



This works for me, let me know if it does for you

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I decided I'd like to move the files to the Editor folder with ScriptInspector for consistency. I ran into various errors while trying to move the files there, so I figured the best idea would be to start fresh by removing Favorites Tab files and importing them back in.

After deleting the Favorites tab files, restarting, and trying to build the .exe again, I ran into these warnings. Tried a couple more times with restarting, but they aren't going away. Any idea what I should do for clean deletion of Favorites Tab?

 

That's happening because FG_GameObjectGUIDs.cs script is missing now in your Project. Try putting back the Common folder or just ignore this warning for now and I'll help you with something else later today.

 

Hello Everyone!

Favorites Tab version 1.1 just got accepted and it's already available on Asset Store. Please update!

New in this version is that now you will be able to remove multiple items from your favorites at once, just select all the items you want to remove using Shift or Ctrl/Cmd, or select all items with Ctrl+A, right click one of the selected items and choose Remove from Favorites in the popup menu. Many thanks to Nezabyte for this suggestion!

Another change is that now FG_GameObjectGUIDs game objects is not going to be hidden in your scene anymore. This is the game object that holds references to other game objects and maps them with GUID's used by the Favorites Tab for bookmarking. This change comes again thanks to Nezabyte and his experience with the Favorites Tab, which was partly my fault, and I apologize for that! Important lesson learned, so now FG_GameObjectsGUIDs is not going to be hidden anymore and now those who want to remove the Favorites Tab from a project can easily do that.

Thanks, and please let me know what you think about the new Favorites Tab!

 

I just noticed all the screenshot were missing on Asset Store, so I put them at the beginning of this thread, while I'm waiting for asset store people to update...

And here's the last screenshot, as this forum only allows to attach 5 files per post:

 

New Favorites Tab version 1.2 will be coming soon with slightly different name - Favorites Tabs with support for multiple tabs, as you may have guessed! Each Favorites tab will have its own filtering and search settings, configurable and persistent between sessions, so you may set one tab in the upper left corner to show your favorite scenes, one next to the Project tab to show only prefabs, one behind the Hierarchy tab to show only scene objects, and let's say one below the Inspector tab showing only scripts - the choice is yours!

Would that be cool now?

 

Favorites Tab 1.2 got delayed while I was busy working on Script Inspector 2.0, but now as Script Inspector is about to enter beta 2 phase, I'll have time to finish the 1.2 update while I'll be waiting for feedback from beta folks, so stay tuned, update will be coming next week!

 

I forgot to mention that Favorites Tab participates in this month's Hot Deals with 50% discount during the event! A real bargain, only $7.50 instead of its regular price of $15!!!

I'd appreciate all your reviews and star ratings!
Enjoy

 

Thank you guys for the 5 stars rating

I'll be working on the update next few days while waiting for feedback from Script Inspector beta. Stay tuned

 

Uh... oh... I just saw the Utilities category sorted by rating... And, guess what? Favorites Tab is at the top!!!

This is a wonderful surprise! Thank you so much!!! It feels so great to know when people appreciate your work! You made my day

 

hi there!
well your tool looks awesome.. a good way not to lose control over the project, should be standard.. welll my question would be : does it run on unity 4 as well?
if it does ill definetly need it ..

seeya, daniel

 

Thanks Daniel!

It works in Unity 4 too, just it needs a small update for the new Project view which will be included in the upcoming version 1.2. There are some visual glitches because the Project tab is different in Unity 4, so I'm working on that now and I hope to finish that this weekend. This update should be available early next week, but you can PM me if you'd like to get the update a few days earlier and skip the AS approval process waiting time.

 

To my surprise (and not due to poor expectations, but rather a bit of indiference), is that I found Favorites Tab fantastic.

The outmost simplicity of its access and use, the great potential as a day to day helper, and how streamlined it feels, makes me wonder why it is not part of Unity by default.

Congrats for the little gem.

 

Thanks Novack! I'm glad you like it

 

Hey Unity 4 users, I fixed the issues with the new Project view in Unity 4! This update will be available on request until the end of Unity's Hot Deals event, as I'm not able to upload the new version yet, so PM me if you're on Unity 4 already and I'll be glad to send you the update. Hot Deals ends in a couple of days anyway so it shouldn't take too long if you prefer to take the full 1.2 update through the Asset Store.

Thanks!

 

Favorites Tab is still on sale, 50% off the regular price, till the end of current Hot Deals event which ends in a couple of days!

Just note that Favorites Tab is nothing similar to Unity 4's Favorites feature! Favorites Tab is a way more powerful extension with awesome accessibility that makes it superior in every aspect! Moreover it also works with game objects of your scenes, while Unity 4 can only bookmark asset folders and searches in Project view. Just check the screenshots in Asset Store or at the beginning of this thread to get the idea.

 

I'm just packing version 1.2 for submitting to Asset Store.

New in version 1.2:
- Multiple Favorites Tabs, each with persistent filtering and search settings.
- Many new filtering options for favorite assets.
- Filtering options reflected in tab's title.
- Option to choose star colors for each favorite asset or scene object. Persistent and per user.
- FG_GameObjectGUIDs gets created only when needed.
- Custom inspector for FG_GameObjectGUIDs.
- Unity 4 support.

It should be available in the Asset Store early next week, I guess... Stay tuned

 

This is how the new Favorites Tabs 1.2 will look once it appears in the Asset Store:



Now you can add as many Favorites tabs as you need, and set each of them to show either all of your favorites or only a particular type. Then you can dock each tab and size it to your needs, wherever it makes sense for you, and if you like even save that as a new Editor layout.

You can also right click the star icons if you want to change their color to something else than the default yellow star.

And of course, it works with Unity 4.

BTW, Hot Deals is still on (but not for long I guess) so there's still some chance to grab this for only half of the regular price!

Enjoy!

 

Is this available for advance download? Would love to try it out today

 

Sure! I'll PM you a link for download in a bit...

And I'd love to hear what you think about it

 

Thanks for the advance copy! Just from early impressions using it with Unity 3.5, it's pretty cool, and I'm happy to see those multi-colored stars I was a bit confused about the multiple tabs feature since I didn't see a specific button to create a new favorites window, but I think I got the hang of it now. Also, is it possible to have different tabs with unique game objects? like Tab 1 has 2 game objects, and Tab 2 has 3 different game objects. I would like to be able to organize player-related game objects and enemy-related game objects.

 

Thanks for your feedback! I'm glad you liked it

I can easily add an option to filter the favorites by star colors or by component types. Then you can set different filtering options on each tab to make them display different sets of objects.

 

No problem! And that sounds cool 8) I'm still using the new favorites tab, and it's been quite helpful.

 

Great! And it's awesome to hear that you find it helpful

 

I've just submitted version 1.2 to Asset Store for reviewing

 

...and it is available for download already

Enjoy!

 

Favorites Tabs version 1.2.1 is now available in Unity Asset Store!

I had to quickly submit a fix for a minor visual bug, namely the initial text in the titles of favorites tabs was not getting updated on start up to its filtering settings if the tab was hidden behind another tab, so it's all cool now

 

This is the list of changes since version 1.1 for your convenience (taken from the readme file):

Version 1.2.1:
- Fixed title initialization on Favorites tabs hidden behind another tab.

New in version 1.2:
- Support for showing multiple favorites tabs, each with different filtering to show different sets of favorites.
- Filtering and search setting for each favorites tab are persistent between Unity sessions.
- Many new filtering options added to filter by asset type.
- Favorites tabs filtered by type show the selected type in the title.
- Star icons for each favorite item can optionally be set to colors other than the default yellow star, independently for each user.
- FG_GameObjectGUIDs game object gets created only when its needed and can optionally be deleted if user wants that.
- A custom inspector appears on FG_GameObjectGUIDs, explaining the function of this game object.
- Added context menu items on favorite assets to reimport them and to show them in Explorer (reveal in Finder on Mac).
- Editor/Resources folder renamed to Editor/Textures to avoid inclusion of those assets in the final builds.
- Unity 4 support.

 

Hey guys, I would really appreciate some feedback on these new features. Or even more if you could post some reviews too

 

hi there ! well your favorite tab is AWESOME! .. finally a some workflow in unity

some question regarding the new features.. i hav a "fg_game.." thingy and its still undeleteable, and i can only open one favorite tab at once.. how can i open more than one?

i hope this thing will get even more cooler its really very helpful and 12 stars from me

seeya, daniel

 

Hey Daniel, thanks a lot for the 12 stars and your kind words!

I just downloaded it from Asset Store now and yes, you're right, I got version 1.1 instead of 1.2.1! :-S I'll check what's going on immediately! I must have messed something up while submitting the last update, so I may have to resubmit it again.

I'll PM you a link to download the actual version 1.2.1 so you don't have to wait for this to get accepted by Asset Store. Thank you very much for notifying me, because I didn't check it myself by now! My apologies to you and to everyone else who didn't get the expected version, so if anyone else wants the download link just PM me, please... I'll post again once this becomes available on Asset Store. :-\

 

I've uploaded version 1.2.1 again and also I checked the previously uploaded content, and it's same as this one uploaded now, so I guess something got messed up on their side. Seems like this wasn't my fault, but I apology anyway, and as I said, if you wish to get the new version right now just PM me and I'll send you back the download link from my dropbox.

 

Awesome!!!! ) coooll sounds great .. seeya, daniel

 

Hey my friends, please update your Favorites Tabs. Resubmitted version 1.2.1r got just accepted on Asset Store. It includes all the latest features and improvements (I checked )!

Btw, while you're on that page you may use that chance to post a review perhaps and tell others if you think this extension is useful

 

I just installed the tool in a project with many assets and with playmaker.
The performance gets really slow, is there anything you can do to optimise this?

Thanks

 

Hi Lars, and thanks for contacting me! First of all I'll have to ask you are you really sure those performance issues are related to my extension? Better to ask you this before we continue, because you may have installed some other extensions at the same time... I must say that I have not noticed any performance issues so far, so this was surprising to me. But then also I haven't tested it with a really large project, so if you could help me track this down that would be great!

Could you tell me some more specific info about this? When does it happen? Is it related to some part of the Editor or not? Well, I guess you were talking about Editor performance, right? Because this is not related to the game at all... Also, please try to close all the Favorites tabs, then check the performance again and tell me how's that now? It might be helpful if you could tell me what system you're running it on, and Unity version.

This would be enough to start with something... The extension has already been optimized and special care was taken to avoid expensive calls to Unity API, so this seems like something very specific and that's why I'd need your help, so hopefully we'll get this sorted out.