MarkdownRenderer

The MarkdownRenderer is a tool that converts Markdown-formatted text into interactive and visually rich UI elements within a Unity application. Markdown is a lightweight markup language that allows you to easily style and format text using simple plain text symbols. Everything runs at runtime.

How Does It Work?

The parser processes Markdown text by recognizing various elements, such as headers, lists, blockquotes, tables, images, and more. These elements are converted into their corresponding Unity UI components, including text fields, images, and interactive links. This makes it easy to seamlessly integrate rich Markdown content into Unity’s canvas without manual UI setup.

For example, if you input:

# Welcome to the Game

The parser will detect the `#` symbol (indicating a header) and render it as a large, bold text element.

Markdown Features Supported:

• Headers (#, ##, etc.)
• **Bold** (text), *Italics* (text), -strike-
• Lists (- item, 1. item)
• Blockquotes (> text)
• Codeblocks (´´´)
• Inline Codeblocks (`.md`)
• Images (Local or via Web-URL)
• Videos (Local mp4)
• Tables
• Links

Ready for Streaming

It also supports incremental streaming, making it ideal for applications that display content as it arrives. This makes MarkdownRenderer particularly well suited for:

• AI and LLM chat interfaces
• Streaming text generation
• Dialogue systems
• Chat applications
• Runtime-generated content

What the MarkdownRenderer Cannot Do

Although the MarkdownRenderer is a powerful tool, it has some limitations. Here's what it cannot do:

1. Markdown Syntax Strictness: The parser is designed to follow the official Markdown syntax. Some Markdown editors, may handle resources (like images or links) differently based on specific settings or extensions.
2. Codeblocks are only simple highlighted. This decision was made in order to avoid having to use external dependencies.
3. External Resource Handling: While the parser can handle external resources, it relies on the provided URLs being correct and the resources being accessible. If an external resource is not found, the parser will not attempt to fetch or substitute it.

Important: External resources are only supported with our own converter tool, which is described in the documentation. This workflow was chosen to remain as independent as possible from Unity. The advantage of this approach is that all resources rendered in Markdown are not stored as individual resources in the asset database.

See the online Documentation.

Need Help?

If you encounter any issues while using MarkdownRenderer or need help integrating it into your Unity project, feel free to contact us.

We're happy to help!

[email protected]