Rigonix Game UI Builder

Live Sync with Unity

See every change in the Unity Editor as you make it, without exporting.

Live Sync connects the Rigonix editor to the Unity Editor or the Godot editor. Change a colour, move a button or add a screen, and your engine updates within a second. Unity is described first; Godot works the same way (see the end of this page). There is no export and no import. Live Sync is part of the Pro and Max plans.

Connect

Live Sync edits a project that is already in your scene, so import it once first.

  1. Import your project into Unity once (see Get your UI into Unity) and keep that scene open.
  2. In Unity, open Rigonix → Live Sync Bridge. This starts a small local connection on your computer.
  3. Back in Rigonix, look at the Unity button in the toolbar:
  • Unity Live (green): connected. Changes are sent as you work.
  • Import in Unity: Unity is running, but the open scene does not contain this project yet. Import it first.
  • Unity Offline: Unity was not found. Open the Live Sync Bridge, then click Check Connection.

Note: Rigonix and Unity must run on the same computer. The connection stays on your machine and nothing is sent over the internet.

What syncs

Almost everything: positions and sizes, colours and text, new and deleted elements, screens, groups, images, fonts, animations, actions, variables and translations.

Only what you changed is touched. Edit one button and Unity updates that button and leaves every other element, setting and file alone. A move, a resize, a rotation or hiding an element is applied to the existing object. A change to how it looks (colour, text, icon) rebuilds just that element.

From Unity back to Rigonix

Some edits you make in Unity go back to Rigonix too, so both stay the same:

  • Position and size: move or resize the element in the Scene view or the Rect Transform.
  • Anchors: pick another anchor preset. Rigonix gets the new anchor and keeps the element where it is.
  • Rotation.
  • Scale: Rigonix has no scale, so a scaled element becomes a bigger or smaller one with the same centre.
  • Shown or hidden: the checkbox next to the object's name.
  • Text: edit the text of a label or a button's text in its TextMeshPro component.
  • Properties, colours and pictures: while Rigonix is open with Live Sync on, the Rigonix Component inspector lets you change the element's values (text, numbers, on / off), its colours and its My Images pictures. Rigonix updates the element and sends its new look back to Unity.
  • Elements inside a repeater's card: move them and every card follows.
  • Undo and Redo in Unity: undoing one of these edits in Unity undoes it in Rigonix too.

Each batch of Unity edits is one step you can undo in Rigonix. Edits made in Play Mode are not sent, because Unity throws them away when Play Mode ends.

The generated C# code (see Connect the UI to your game code) is updated too, but only when something your code can use changes, such as a new button or variable. Moving things around never forces a script recompile.

When Live Sync was off

You can turn Live Sync off on either side (the Auto Sync switch in Rigonix, or the server in Unity), close Rigonix, or quit Unity, and keep working in both. Nothing is lost when you turn it back on:

  • Each element in your Unity scene remembers the version Rigonix last sent it. When Live Sync is back, Unity compares three versions of every element on the screen that syncs: that remembered one, the scene now, and Rigonix now.
  • Changed only in Unity (moved, resized, shown or hidden, a property changed in the Rigonix Component inspector): Unity keeps it and sends it to Rigonix.
  • Changed only in Rigonix: Unity applies it, as always.
  • Changed in both places, in different ways (for example moved in both): Unity asks once, listing what changed, and you choose to keep Unity's or the web builder's version. Everything changed in only one place is kept either way.
  • Changes to different things on the same element are combined: a text changed in Unity and a new position from Rigonix both stay.

Each screen is compared when it syncs, so open a screen in Rigonix to bring its Unity edits over.

Finish a project

When the UI is done, you can stop syncing it for good: in Unity, Rigonix → Live Sync → Finish Project (or Finish next to the project in the Live Sync Bridge window).

  • Live Sync no longer changes the project: the UI in your scene stays exactly as it is. Rigonix shows Finished in Unity and doesn't send it.
  • Prefabs and the generated code are brought up to date first.
  • You can also remove Live Sync's bookkeeping from the scene. Your game keeps working the same: the Rigonix components stay.
  • If any of your work is in ⚠ Rigonix Recovered, Unity points you to it.
  • To sync again later: Rigonix → Live Sync → Resume Project. Edits made in both places meanwhile are merged as above.

Your own work in Unity

The UI comes from Rigonix, but you can build on it in Unity:

  • Your scripts, extra components, child objects and button event listeners on a Rigonix element are kept. When Rigonix rebuilds the element, they move to the new object, and references from your other scripts are re-linked.
  • An element you delete in Rigonix that has your work on it is not thrown away. It moves to ⚠ Rigonix Recovered in the scene (Unity shows the Recovered Objects window). This also covers elements nested inside other elements, groups inside groups and whole screens.
  • Undo in Rigonix brings your work back: when the element returns, its recovered scripts and children are put back on it.
  • Deleting or moving a Rigonix element in Unity doesn't change the Rigonix project. The element comes back (or moves back) the next time its screen syncs, and Unity tells you so. Delete or nest elements in Rigonix instead. To keep your own objects inside an element, add them as children.

Who can connect

Live Sync only answers the Rigonix web builder (and localhost while you develop). Other websites open in your browser can't read your Unity project or change it. If you run your own copy of the builder on another address, add it in Unity under Rigonix → Live Sync Bridge → Allowed websites.

Tips

  • Keep the Unity scene that holds the UI open while you work.
  • Colours, sizes and other looks you change by hand on the UI objects in Unity don't go back to Rigonix, and the next rebuild of that element replaces them. Make those changes in Rigonix.
  • If something looks out of step, use Rigonix → Live Sync → Restart Server in Unity, then Check Connection in Rigonix.

Live Sync with Godot

The Godot add-on answers Live Sync the same way Unity does.

  1. Import your project into Godot once (Project → Tools → Rigonix: Import Project…).
  2. Keep the Godot editor open. Live Sync starts with it; Project → Tools → Rigonix Live Sync turns it on or off.
  3. In Rigonix, click the Live Sync button in the toolbar and Connect. It shows Godot Live when connected.

Edits appear in Godot within a second. Moving, resizing, rotating, showing or hiding an element in Godot, and changes in an element's Rigonix section of the Inspector, are sent back to Rigonix. Ctrl+Z in Godot undoes a sync.

When you are done designing, Project → Tools → Rigonix Live Sync → Finish Project stops syncing that project; Resume Project starts again.

Tip: Unity and Godot open at the same time? In the Live Sync popup, pick Sync to: Unity or Sync to: Godot. Auto uses the first one it finds.