Highlighting vs Selection

intermediate concepts

Highlight Plus · Core Concepts

Highlight Plus distinguishes between two modes of highlighting: Highlighting (hover/proximity) and Selection (click/toggle). Understanding the difference lets you build intuitive selection systems for your game.

Highlighting vs Selection

FeatureHighlightingSelection
TriggerMouse hover, proximity, or scriptingMouse click or scripting
DurationTemporary — ends when trigger stopsPersistent — stays until deselected
ProfileUses the object's main Highlight Effect profileUses a separate Selection Profile (if assigned)
Multiple objectsOnly one object highlighted at a time (by default)Multiple objects can be selected simultaneously

Setting Up Selection

  1. Add a Highlight Manager to your scene (or use the per-object Highlight Effect component).
  2. Create a Selection Profile — right-click in the Project window: Create > Highlight Plus > Highlight Profile. Configure the desired selection appearance (e.g., thicker outline, different color).
  3. Assign the Selection Profile — in the Highlight Effect component or Highlight Manager, assign your profile to the Selected Profile field.
  4. Enable selection — set the Selection Mode to your preferred option.

Selection Options

OptionDescriptionDefault
Selected ProfileProfile applied when the object is selected (overrides highlight appearance)None
Selection ModeHow selection is triggered: None, Click, ToggleNone
SelectedWhether the object is currently selected (can be toggled via Inspector or script)Off
Selected On StartAutomatically select this object when the scene startsOff

Scripting Selection

You can control selection programmatically:

// Select an object
HighlightEffect effect = GetComponent<HighlightEffect>();
effect.SetSelected(true);

// Deselect
effect.SetSelected(false);

// Toggle
effect.ToggleSelection();

// Check if selected
bool isSelected = effect.isSelected;

Tips

  • If no Selection Profile is assigned, the selected state uses the same appearance as the highlight — only the persistence differs.
  • Use different colors or outline widths in the Selection Profile to make it visually distinct from hover highlighting.
  • To allow multiple selections, enable Toggle mode. To allow only one selection at a time, handle deselection in your script.
  • Selection state persists across highlight/unhighlight events — a selected object keeps its selection appearance even when not being hovered.

Next Steps

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