UGTK / Toolkit / Utility Systems / Hierarchy Overwritten Completed

Hierarchy Overwritten

Summary

Hierarchy Overwritten is an editor-only module that repaints Unity's Hierarchy window to make a large scene readable at a glance: alternating row backgrounds, colour rules by name, Tag/Layer badges, component icons, separators and group headers, per-object visibility and lock toggles. Everything is modular, everything can be turned off one piece at a time, and everything is stored in a ScriptableObject you can commit so the whole team sees the same Hierarchy.

Nothing of it ships: the assembly is marked Editor-only, so there is zero cost in a build.

Modules Dependencies

None. No runtime dependency; the assembly definition is Editor-only and uses UnityEditor APIs exclusively.

Setup

There is nothing to add to a scene and no prefab, so there is no GIF: the module hooks itself into the Hierarchy window as soon as it is imported.

Open Tools ▸ UGTK ▸ Hierarchy Overwritten ▸ Open Settings.
If HierarchyOverwrittenSettings.asset does not exist yet it is created for you.
Turn the modules on and pick the colours (row background, name highlight, badges, …).

The same options are also available under Tools ▸ UGTK ▸ Hierarchy Overwritten ▸ Project Settings (UGTK)…, which is the page to use when you want the choices versioned with the project.

In a hurry? Force Enable & Demo Colors switches everything on with a sensible palette, so you can see what the module does before tuning it.

How To Use

Open any scene and look at the Hierarchy: rows are tinted, disabled objects and prefabs stand out, Tag/Layer badges and component icons appear next to the names, and objects whose name starts with a marker become separators or section headers.

The Tools ▸ UGTK ▸ Hierarchy Overwritten menu holds the actions:

Menu item	What it does
Open Settings	Selects (creating it if needed) the settings asset
Project Settings (UGTK)…	Opens the same options inside Project Settings
Force Enable & Demo Colors	Turns every module on with a demo palette
Refresh Hierarchy	Forces a repaint after changing the settings
Create Separator	Creates a separator object in the current scene
Create Group Header	Creates a section header object
Open Debug Scene	Creates and opens the demo scene if it is not there yet
Populate Debug Scene	Fills the demo scene with the sample objects

Good to know:

Naming conventions are the input. The name rules match by prefix, suffix, contains or a simple regex, so the module rewards a convention (UI_, FX_, SYS_) — it does not invent one for you.
Settings are per project, not per user. The asset lives in the module folder: committing it shares the look with the team, so agree on the palette before everyone tweaks it.
It draws on every Hierarchy repaint. With every module on, in a scene with thousands of objects, the Hierarchy can feel less responsive: turn off the badge modules first, they are the expensive ones.

Features

All modular, all individually switchable:

Row Background — alternating even/odd colours, plus dedicated highlights for disabled, static, broken or "key component" objects, with configurable opacity so it blends with your editor theme.
Name Highlight — colour rules by name (prefix / suffix / contains / simple regex) and a palette per category; names starting with #, @ or [GROUP] become group headers.
Tag & Layer Badge — small coloured badges to the right of the name, with per-Tag and per-Layer colours and a compact mode for dense scenes.
Component Badge — icons for the components that matter (Camera, Light, Canvas, AudioSource, your own scripts), cached for performance, so you can see what makes an object special without opening the Inspector.
Separator & Group Header — special rows for objects named --- or [Separator], and section headers with centred text and their own background.
Scene Header — dedicated style for scene rows in multi-scene setups, with a Loaded / Unloaded badge.
Lock & Visibility — clickable icons to hide/show an object in the Scene view (SceneVisibilityManager) and to lock/unlock picking. Invaluable on complex UI and character rigs.
Preset & Settings — everything in one ScriptableObject, exposed in Project Settings, designed to be extended with new modules without touching the core.

Testing Scene

This module has no component to drop in a scene: it redraws the Hierarchy window itself, so the test scene is whatever is open. Use Tools → UGTK → Hierarchy Overwritten → Open Debug Scene, which creates Debug/HierarchyOverwrittenScene.unity if it is not there and opens it.

The demo scene is a hierarchy shaped the way a real one gets shaped: three === SECTION === rows, a player with a child, a canvas with a health bar, an audio source. Everything you can see comes from the module:

Section rows drawn centred, in colour, instead of as ordinary objects.
Alternating row backgrounds, so the eye tracks a line across the panel.
Component badges on the right — camera, canvas, image, audio — which tell you what an object is without selecting it.

The rest of the menu is the authoring side:

Create Separator adds a --- Separator --- row, and Create Group Header adds a # Group Name one. Both are ordinary empty GameObjects: rename them and the module restyles them.
Force Enable & Demo Colors turns everything on with a readable palette, which is the fastest way to see what the module does before tuning it.
Open Settings selects the settings asset, where the row colours, the tints for prefabs and for broken objects, the name rules and the tooltip rules live.

Two things worth knowing before committing it to a shared project. The settings are per project, not per user: the asset sits in the module folder, so committing it imposes your palette on everyone. And Enable Per Repaint Component Cache should stay on — it is what keeps the badges from costing a GetComponent sweep on every repaint of the panel.

Technical Info

Core

Path	Content
`Scripts/Editor/HierarchyOverwrittenBootstrap.cs`	Registers the `EditorApplication.hierarchyWindowItemOnGUI` callback and dispatches to the active modules
`Scripts/Editor/HierarchyOverwrittenContext.cs`	Loads and caches the settings, registers the modules
`Scripts/Editor/HierarchyOverwrittenSettings.cs`	The `ScriptableObject` with every option, plus the rule types `NameColorRule`, `TagColorRule`, `LayerColorRule`, `NameBackgroundRule`, `NameTooltipRule`
`Scripts/Editor/HierarchyOverwrittenSettingsProvider.cs`	Project Settings page
`Scripts/Editor/HierarchyOverwrittenMenu.cs`	Menu entries and batch operations

Modules — Scripts/Editor/Modules/: HoRowBackgroundModule, HoNameHighlightModule, HoTagLayerBadgeModule, HoComponentBadgeModule, HoSeparatorModule, HoSceneHeaderModule, HoLockAndVisibilityModule.