Core Concepts

Core Concepts

This page covers the main concepts you need to understand when working with Digits FX: the component types, the profile system, visual effects, progress bars, and number formatting.

Component Types

Digits FX provides two main components, both inheriting from the Digits base class:

Both components share the same profile system and API. The only difference is the rendering backend.

The Profile System

A DigitsProfile is a ScriptableObject that stores all visual and behavioral settings for a display. Profiles enable you to:

• Share settings — assign the same profile to multiple displays for consistent styling.
• Per-instance overrides — accessing the profile property (not sharedProfile) automatically clones the profile for safe per-object customization.
• Create presets — save profiles as assets to reuse across scenes and projects.

Transition Effects

When a value changes, each digit can animate independently using one of these transitions:

Each transition supports configurable easing functions (Linear, EaseIn, EaseOut, EaseInOut, Cubic, Bounce, and more) and duration settings.

Visual Effects

Digits FX includes several shader-based visual effects that can be combined:

Progress Bars

Every Digits component includes a built-in progress bar that can be displayed alongside or instead of numeric values.

Enable the Damage Indicator option to show a trailing segment that visualizes recent value decreases — commonly used for health bars in games.

Format Strings

The formatString property in the profile controls how numbers are rendered. Digits FX uses a custom formatting engine (not C#'s ToString) for zero-allocation performance.

Scale suffix tokens divide the value by a fixed amount and append the suffix letter:

Object Pooling

For frequently created and destroyed displays (such as floating damage numbers, ticker entries, hit indicators), use the static pool utilities to avoid runtime allocations. Both pools follow the same lifecycle: warmup, create, release.

Digits3DPool (world space)

1. Warmup — call Digits3DPool.Warmup(count) at scene start to pre-create instances.
2. Create — use Digits3DPool.Create(position, rotation) instead of Instantiate.
3. Release — call Digits3DPool.Release(instance) when done, or enable selfDestructOnFadeOut in the profile for automatic return.

DigitsUIPool (screen space)

1. Warmup — call DigitsUIPool.Warmup(count) at scene start.
2. Create — use DigitsUIPool.Create(canvasRectTransform, anchoredPosition) to acquire a pooled instance parented to your Canvas. A second overload accepts a profile and a value so the spawn is configured in a single call: DigitsUIPool.Create(canvasRect, anchoredPos, profile, value).
3. Release — call DigitsUIPool.Release(instance) when done.

Released instances are parked under a hidden, inactive root in DontDestroyOnLoad and reused on the next Create. The pool restarts the profile-driven lifecycle effects (fade, move/scale, autoplay) on every Create, so recycled instances start each cycle from a clean state without any extra calls.

See the included Demo UI Pool scene for a full example with random transitions, fonts, colors and visual effects per spawn.

Next Steps

• Scripting Support (C#) — full API reference with code examples.
• FAQ — answers to common questions.