Overdraw: SpriteRenderer in UI?

Question:
Should i start writing UI-scaling-functions for the SpriteRenderer or will the Unity-UI get an update to support non-quad geometry at some point in the future?

Background:
I want to use big circles as analog-pad indicators. Obviously this causes overdraw because the UI-System creates only quads (i can see the fps drop on the device while those circle images are active).

The solution would be to have a mesh-geometry similar to the SpriteRenderer, that cuts out most transparent areas. You can actually use a SpriteRenderer in the UI but there are some restrictions:

• SpriteRenderer will not be visible in ScreenSpace-Overlay mode, you need to use ScreenSpace-Camera
• SpriteRenderer completely ignores the RectTransform except for centering in it, so scaling has to be done by yourself, but that can easily be done with some functions
• At least one additional Drawcall if i use both normal GUI-Image and SpriteRenderers within the UI - but that is much less of a performance hit than the fillrate

Picture:
left circle: UI-Image, right circle: SpriteRenderer
left side: Shaded Wirframe, right side: Overdraw


Thank you for reading up to this point.

 

I ended up writing a costum scaling function for my UI-Spriterenderers. Now they look exactly like the previous UI-Images. Scaling function is simple:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. public static SpriteRenderer AddScaledUISpriteRenderer(RectTransform rectTrans, int? sortingOrder = null){
3.         //Adds a child GameObject to the UI-GameObject that copies the sprite of the image
4.         //Needs to be a child because we need to scale it but still anchor its position to the old Object
5.         //If we would add a SpriteRenderer to the actual Image-Object and scale it accordingly, children of it will be scaled too.
6.        
7.         float pxWidth        = rectTrans.rect.width;            //width  of the scaled UI-Object in pixel
8.         float pxHeight        = rectTrans.rect.height;        //height of the scaled UI-Object in pixel
9.        
10.         Image uiImage        = rectTrans.GetComponent<Image>();
11.        
12.         float spriteSizeX    = uiImage.sprite.bounds.size.x;    //width  of the unscaled sprite in pixel
13.         float spriteSizeY    = uiImage.sprite.bounds.size.y;    //height of the unscaled sprite in pixel
14.        
15.         //scale that needs to be applied to the SpriteRender-Gameobject to give it the same screen size as the UI-Image
16.         float scaleX = pxWidth    /spriteSizeX;
17.         float scaleY = pxHeight    /spriteSizeY;
18.        
19.        
20.         //create new SpriteGameObject in UI
21.         GameObject spriteGO        = new GameObject();
22.         spriteGO.name            = rectTrans.name+"Sprite";                    //give it a name
23.         spriteGO.layer            = LayerMask.NameToLayer("UI");                //culling layer, if needed
24.         spriteGO.transform.localScale = new Vector3(scaleX, scaleY, 1F);    //scale the SpriteRenderer
25.        
26.         RectTransform sRect        = spriteGO.AddComponent<RectTransform>();    //add a rect Transform to replace the normal Transform
27.         sRect.SetParent(rectTrans, false);                                    //make the image Object the new parent, so this will move with it      
28.        
29.         SpriteRenderer spriteR    = spriteGO.AddComponent<SpriteRenderer>();    //Add a sprite Renderer to the new Object
30.         spriteR.sprite            = uiImage.sprite;                            //copy the Image's sprite
31.         spriteR.color            = uiImage.color;                            //copy the Image's coloration
32.         spriteR.enabled            = uiImage.enabled;                            //copy enabled state
33.         spriteR.sortingOrder    = sortingOrder ?? 1;                        //needed to be at least 1 if the UI is drawn above a render texture
34.                
35.         uiImage.enabled            = false;    //disable the old UI-Image
36.                        
37.         return spriteR;
38.     }
39.  

Previous overdraw:

New overdraw:

 

+1, this is one reason why UI is currently so slow, the overdraw is super heavy, specially on Android devices

 

I would like to contribute.
As long as we keep the sprite or even a Mesh quad parented to some parent-rect, we can stretch that parent rect and sprite will follow it.

Just make sure to attach the following script to the child sprite (or child mesh quad)

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. using UnityEngine;
3.  
4. // Attach this script onto a sprite renderer.
5. // Stretches a sprite to follow corners of parent rect.
6. // Make sure it's parented to a "dummy" rectTransform and stretch that instead of our tranform.
7. //
8. // IgorAherne March 2017
9. // Marrt  July 2015
10. // https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/overdraw-spriterenderer-in-ui.339912/#post-3009616
11. // https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/overdraw-spriterenderer-in-ui.339912/#post-3009616
12.  
13. [ExecuteInEditMode, RequireComponent(typeof(RectTransform))]
14. public class QuadScalerRelativeToAnchors : MonoBehaviour {
15.  
16.  
17.     [SerializeField, HideInInspector] RectTransform _myRectTransform;
18.     [SerializeField, HideInInspector] RectTransform _parentRectTransf;
19.     [SerializeField, HideInInspector] SpriteRenderer _mySpriteRenderer;
20.  
21.     void Reset() {
22.         Start();
23.     }
24.  
25.  
26.     void Start() {
27.         _parentRectTransf = transform.parent as RectTransform;
28.         _mySpriteRenderer = GetComponent(typeof(SpriteRenderer)) as SpriteRenderer;
29.         _myRectTransform = transform as RectTransform;
30.     }
31.  
32.  
33.  
34.     void Update() {
35.  
36. #if UNITY_EDITOR
37.         //if we are in execute in edit mode, in editor, we might not have some references yet.
38.         //so establish them if needed:
39.         if(_mySpriteRenderer == null  ||  _parentRectTransf == null  || _myRectTransform == null) {
40.             Start();
41.         }
42. #endif
43.  
44.         keepScaleRelativeToParent();
45.     }
46.  
47.  
48.  
49.     public void keepScaleRelativeToParent() {
50.  
51.         float pxWidth = _parentRectTransf.rect.width;            //width  of the scaled UI-Object in pixel
52.         float pxHeight = _parentRectTransf.rect.height;        //height of the scaled UI-Object in pixel
53.  
54.         if (float.IsNaN(pxHeight)  ||  float.IsNaN(pxWidth)) {
55.             //unity hasn't not yet initialized (usually happens during start of the game)
56.             return;
57.         }
58.  
59.         float spriteSizeX = 1;
60.         float spriteSizeY = 1;
61.  
62.         if (_mySpriteRenderer) {
63.             spriteSizeX = _mySpriteRenderer.sprite.bounds.size.x;  //width  of the unscaled sprite in pixel
64.             spriteSizeY = _mySpriteRenderer.sprite.bounds.size.y;  //height of the unscaled sprite in pixel
65.         }
66.  
67.         //scale that needs to be applied to the SpriteRender-Gameobject to give it the same screen size as the UI-Image
68.         float scaleX = pxWidth / spriteSizeX;
69.         float scaleY = pxHeight / spriteSizeY;
70.  
71.        
72.         //create new SpriteGameObject in UI
73.         this.gameObject.layer = LayerMask.NameToLayer("UI");            //culling layer, if needed
74.         _myRectTransform.localScale = new Vector3(scaleX, scaleY, 1F);    //scale our SpriteRenderer
75.  
76.  
77.         //position self in the middle of parent
78.         _myRectTransform.anchoredPosition3D = new Vector3(0,0, _myRectTransform.anchoredPosition3D.z);
79.         _myRectTransform.anchorMin = Vector2.one * 0.5f;
80.         _myRectTransform.anchorMax = Vector2.one * 0.5f;
81.  
82.         float myLocalScale_x = Mathf.Max(0.0001f, _myRectTransform.localScale.x);
83.         float myLocalScale_y = Mathf.Max(0.0001f, _myRectTransform.localScale.y);
84.  
85.         _myRectTransform.sizeDelta = new Vector2( Mathf.Max(0.0001f, _parentRectTransf.rect.width / myLocalScale_x),
86.                                                   Mathf.Max(0.0001f, _parentRectTransf.rect.height / myLocalScale_y) );
87.     }
88.  
89. }
90.  
91.  

 

Since people still like this thread:
This workaround is not needed anymore, unity now supports this natively in UI-Sprites

 

@Marrt Could you elaborate please, through which component and in which Unity Versions UI-Sprites are supported natively now?

Edit: Nevermind:
https://docs.unity3d.com/2018.3/Documentation/ScriptReference/UI.Image.html
the bool useSpriteMesh has the feature that we need.
The feature exists in Unity 2018.4 and upwards.
Hint: you have to assign as sprite in order to set the field in the inspector, or you need to switch the inspector to debug mode.

 

So UI-Sprites are preferred over Sprite Renderers ? (Just for sake of re-usability in both Canvas and GameWorld?)