UX Components (Non-Canvas) — MRTK3

This package contains a library of UX components implementing the Mixed Reality Design Language using non-Canvas, non-RectTransform components.

You should decide carefully when choosing to use non-Canvas prefabs for your project. In the majority of cases, the Canvas prefab library will be more flexible, reusable, and maintainable, especially when you're building large applications with a large number of engineers and designers. In addition, the Canvas-based components offer modern design tooling that most designers expect to be able to use.. There are performance considerations as well, however: the flexibility and feature set of Canvas components can come at a higher cost. If you're building especially large UIs with several hundreds of elements visible at once, you may wish to choose non-Canvas prefabs for improved batching and draw-call efficiency.

The following table outlines a set of criteria you may wish to consider when choosing which components to use for your application. In addition, see the documentation for a detailed breakdown of how the hybrid Canvas UI systems work, with explanations on the corresponding advantages and drawbacks.

Criteria	Canvas	Non-Canvas
Resizing and layout	Realtime resizing, dynamic layout, horizontal/vertical/grid layouts, margin/gutter, padding, flex %	No resizing or layout. Everything is manually positioned and sized by hand.
Scrolling/clipping	Scrolling and per-pixel-accurate clipping (with rounded corners) comes for free.	No scrolling capabilities; clipping requires per-renderer configuration.
Size of team + project	Reusable and flexible components make large teams more effective and consistent	Larger number of prefabs and inflexible designs/layout make consistency across large teams difficult
Learning curve	Unity UI knowledge + experience recommended	No prior Unity UI experience required
2D mouse input	Yes	Yes
Rich volumetric XR input	Yes	Yes
Theming	Work-in-progress	org.mixedrealitytoolkit.data
Localization	Work-in-progress	Work-in-progress
Number of UI elements on-screen	Best for small layouts	Better batching performance for hundreds/thousands of elements