GUI Panels?[SOLVED]

[PolyMad]

Is there a particular reason why there are no actions to treat the Unity GUI Panel elements?

[djaydino]

Hi.
Not sure what you mean?

The ui panel contains a rect trasform and an image which both have actions.
Only the Canvas Renderer does not have an action for it.
If you need this i can make it for you.

[PolyMad]

I mean, I see many actions for the GUI, but none of those is about the GUI PANELS.

How do you manage the different GUI screens, like in example a screen for SETTINGS, another for choosing maps, etc., without using Panels?

[djaydino]

Hi.
The Panels work kind of like an empty parent, except it has rect transform, a Ui image and a Canvas Renderer included.

So the Panel does not have its own class, that's why there are no actions for Panel

[PolyMad]

Sorry but I don't understand.
Aren't panels supposed to be something like different screens that you can turn on and off inside a Canvas?
I thought this was their task.
If this is not their task, what are they for?
And how do you deal with more screens? You make many Canvas???

[djaydino]

Hi.
in the "Panel" you can group buttons etc for a "screen"
Then you can  just disable/enable them like standard gameobjects,
animate/slide them off screen or Enable/Disable Raycast Target, which would block raycasting stuff behind the panel.

[PolyMad]

So Panels are not considered in Playmaker actions because they would block the raycasts?
I still can't understand how do you replace them, after you write that, like I supposed, they can be considered "screens"...

[djaydino]

Hi.
No, There is no Class for a 'Panel' see this post on unity :

https://answers.unity.com/questions/800208/what-class-is-a-panel.html

as there is no class we can't really make actions for it

A panel is the same , as you would create an empty game object and add the 3 components i mentioned.

[PolyMad]

Duh!
What the hell? So why did they put that item in Unity GUI? I can't understand this! 

Could you please tell me which is the right workflow to add "screens" to a canvas then? Thank you 

[djaydino]

Hi.
Well, a empty game object has a Transform component and in canvas you need to use a rect transform.
That's the main reason i guess.

To make a menu screen, you can use the panel as a parent and inside it place you buttons etc.

Then you can animate the panel to move in/out the screen, or enable disable the panel (or enable/disable the raycast target on the image from the panel)

Here is a tutorial which you could have a look at (its not playmaker, but i think most you can understand)

[PolyMad]

So, in other words, a panel is simply an object to which some classes are appended, right?
And from Playmaker I will animate the object itself (turn on/off) like any other.

[djaydino]

Hi.
Yes.
you can use the rect transform for movement with rect actions or animation/animator.
you can enable/disable the raycast in the panel so that things behind can't be pressed/triggered.
rest is same as on other objects.

[PolyMad]

Thank you very much, Dino!