UI Text on an object

Using 4.6, Beta18: I'm adding the new UI text to an object, and I'm expecting the text to face the camera at all times, and it's just not.

To reproduce:
1. Create a new scene. Add a Directional Light, and a cube at (0,0,0).
2. Add the following script (I call it OrbitAroundObject) to the "Main Camera" object.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using System.Collections;
4.  
5. public class OrbitAroundObject : MonoBehaviour
6. {
7.     public Transform target;
8.     public float OrbitDegrees = 1f;
9.  
10.     void Update()
11.     {
12.         if (target != null)
13.         {
14.             transform.RotateAround(target.position, Vector3.up, OrbitDegrees);
15.         }
16.     }
17. }
18.  

3. Drag the cube object onto the Target property of the OrbitAroundObject script.
4. Create a UI>Text object. Set the canvas ender Mode to "World Space", and drag the "Main Camera" into the event camera property. Also change the Canvas position to (0,0,0). On the Text object, set the position to (0,0,0), and I always have to change the scale to (0.2,0.2,0.2), otherwise I can't see the text.
5. Drag the Canvas object to be a child of the cube.

Expected: As my camera rotates around the cube, the text is always in front, but attached to the cube.

What happens: The text is static and the camera rotates around the cube AND the text. Is this expected? How can I make this work?

 

Having the text as a world object is exactly the point of world space mode on the canvas. It's for text bubbles and billboards and computer screens and whatever else. I don't know how to do what you're wanting to do, but what you *are* doing seems to be doing what it should be doing.

 

Yes, but should my camera be rotating behind the back of my speech bubble/billboard? shouldn't it be keeping it aligned with my camera so that it's visible? It's like the Health on top of a player in Diablo or X-COM. it's always facing the camera/player.

 

No, real-world billboards don't follow you. At least not yet

The health bar example you're looking for requires more of a hybrid solution, where GUI elements are moved according to two of the three game world vectors, but in their own 2D plane. World space mode makes the controls game world objects.

 

Got it. for some reason I thought that was the point of the world canvas render mode. You don't happen to have a link to what you describe do you?

 

I don't have a link, but if you look at the scripting API there are methods to translate world space coordinates from screen space (and their names are somewhat logical). It's a common enough trick that I know there are several threads on it. The trick is probably to figure out the magic search phrase

 

Just tried some code on the Text object (using the scenario as above) to adjust the rotation based on the camera rotation. It works really well and now my text object(s) stay aligned with my camera. This may not work for everyone, but it seems to be a good start. Thanks for the hints Orb.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using System.Collections;
4.  
5. public class LookAtCamera : MonoBehaviour
6. {
7.  
8.     public Camera SourceCamera;
9.  
10.     void Update()
11.     {
12.         if (SourceCamera != null)
13.         {
14.             transform.rotation = SourceCamera.transform.rotation;
15.         }
16.     }
17. }
18.  

 

I think you figured out the neatest possible way to do it

 

I'm happy with it. Props to my friend Carlo Digi who also helped lead me to the answer.

 

Thank you it help me too.

 

transform.Rotate(Vector3.up - Vector3(0,180,0)); //fix backward text

 

hay i have a question if you will answer it please and thank you. i just started i and i would like to know how i could give a message to the player to unlock a skill and tell them what the skill dose when unlocked by hovering the mouse over the button. i understand if you don't know i just need some help with my skill select menu system.

 

You can do it either within the Update Method, with a derivation of the event system or with an event trigger component to name a few ways which just came into my mind.
But your question does not belong to this thread. Please create a new thread for your question to not confuse this thread.