- Why should I use OtterList?
- How is OtterList different?
- Who is ClockworkOtter?
- I have a custom inspector, but I want to use OtterList. How do I do that?
- I have a class where I do not want to use OtterList, is that possible?
- You mentioned Advanced Usage, how can I find out more?
- Can I get source code to OtterList?
- I want a different license, is that possible?
Why should I use OtterList?
Lists in the Unity editor are difficult to use, and only let you add and delete items from the end of the list. You can remove entries by leaving them blank, but this leaves you with a long, sparsely populated, messy list. Unity has some internal list classes that have nice lists, and we wanted all our lists to work like that. By installing OtterList, every list in a project automatically gets the ability to insert and delete items anywhere into your list, and using the drag button (the button with the ‘=’ sign on it), you can re-order the lists in any way you want. No more sparsely populated lists!
How is OtterList different?
There are other plugins out there that do similar things to OtterList, but all the other solutions require you to change your code. If you have a list of a specific type (for example, a list of your own classes), you have to define either your own editor panel, with its own special class for the list, or write/change other code to make it work. If you already have an existing project, it can take a while to get nice list functionality in your project. We wanted to make the solution painless and automatic, so we wrote OtterList to do just that. Just drop it into your project, and *all* your lists have the extra functionality without any code changes at all!
Who is ClockworkOtter?
We’re a team of professional game developers who have been working in Unity for years. All of us have a long history of game development experience, and we know how much time good tools can save a development team. Rather than fighting the tools, we’ve learned that a little bit of extra work in your toolset can make a world of difference in a game developer’s quality of life as well as help creators make better games. But why re-create tools and solutions that have been done before? Why do we have to write these same tools for every project? Instead, we decided to write a nice toolset only once, and share it with the game development community so that you (and we) can focus on the things that are important, like making better games.
I have a custom inspector, but I want to use OtterList. How do I do that?
You can find more details on this page. It shows you how you can call a special function to inspect a field using OtterList.
I have a class where I do not want to use OtterList, is that possible?
You can disable OtterList on a class by marking with [DontUseUxInspector]. This will prevent us from rendering our inspector on your class. Any inherited classes of that type will also not use OtterList, unless they are specifically marked with [UseUxInspector]
You mentioned Advanced Usage, how can I find out more?
You can find more details on this page. OtterList has some advanced functionality, but it will require some source code changes. By using our special markup, you can control the order of initialization and shutdown for your MonoBehaviours, as well as control what variables are shown in the editor panel separately from declaring variables public & private. This means you can practice real object-oriented programming practices without affecting how the editor functions.
Can I get source code to OtterList?
Yes! We’re happy to license the source code. We’re planning on putting up a source code version in the Unity Asset Store shortly, so it will become generally available. We haven’t done it yet because we’re still working on documentation and instructions for it (since it would expose the advanced functionality). You can wait until we release it, or if you need it immediately, contact us directly through the forums and we can get it to you.
I want a different license, is that possible?
Yes! We’re flexible, and want you to use your products. We understand the limitations of working at large companies and the licensing issues that it can cause, so we can certainly work out different license terms. Since each company may want different terms, we offer the standard Unity licensing through the asset store, and work with individual companies for different terms.