XCharts is a free, MIT-licensed charting and data visualization library for Unity that renders line, bar, pie, radar, scatter, heatmap, candlestick, polar and parallel-coordinate charts entirely in code on top of UGUI, aimed at Unity developers who need in-engine dashboards, analytics views or data-driven UI without shipping extra textures or shaders.

What it is

XCharts lives in the Unity ecosystem as a package that plugs into the UGUI (Unity GUI) system and draws charts programmatically. It is written in C# and distributed as a unitypackage or as raw source, and it is imported directly into a Unity project rather than installed through a separate runtime. The library provides both built-in chart types, such as line, bar, pie, radar, scatter, heatmap, ring, candlestick, polar and parallel coordinates, and a set of extended charts covering 3D pie, 3D bar, 3D pyramid, funnel, gauge, liquid fill, pictorial bar, Gantt, treemap, Sankey, 3D line and relation graphs.

The concrete problem it solves is charting inside Unity without hand-rolling mesh generation or relying on external rendering stacks. Charts are generated fully in code, so no extra textures or Shader assets are required, which keeps builds lightweight. Configuration can be authored visually in the Inspector and previewed live in the Game view, then changed at runtime through code. It replaces the need for bespoke drawing code or third-party web charting embedded into a Unity application, though data sources such as Excel files or databases must still be parsed by the developer before being pushed into the chart through the XCharts API.

Key capabilities

• Built-in charts include line, bar, pie, radar, scatter, heatmap, ring, candlestick, polar and parallel coordinates.
• Extended charts include 3D pie, 3D bar, 3D pyramid, funnel, gauge, liquid fill, pictorial bar, Gantt, treemap, Sankey, 3D line and relation graphs.
• Pure code rendering with no external textures or Shader assets required.
• Visual configuration through the Add Serie and Add Main Component buttons in the Inspector, with live preview and runtime modification of configuration and data.
• Multiple coordinate systems, including rectangular, polar and single-axis.
• Components such as title, legend, tooltip, mark line, mark area, data area zoom and visual mapping.
• Line styles covering straight, curved, dashed, area and step lines; bar styles covering grouped, stacked, stacked-percentage, zebra and capsule bars; pie styles covering ring, rose and ring-rose.
• Large data support of roughly 20,000 points on a single line chart, with sampling available to push further at higher CPU cost.
• Themes with light and dark defaults, plus theme import and export.
• Animation and interaction, including fade-in, fade-out, change and add animations, data filtering, view zoom and detail display.
• Integration with TextMeshPro and the New Input System.
• Compatibility with Unity 5.6 and above, and all platforms that support UGUI.

Who uses it and how

• Unity developers building in-engine dashboards, analytics panels or reporting views who need charts that render inside the game or application rather than in an external browser.
• Teams targeting multiple platforms, since the library is designed to run wherever Unity runs and supports Unity 5.6 and above.
• Projects that need custom drawing work, using the drawing API to add points, lines and surfaces, or to override drawing logic and callbacks.
• Applications combining several chart types in one view, since multiple charts of the same or different types can be composed inside a single chart.
• Scenes needing interactive data exploration, using built-in data filtering, view zoom and detail display, plus animation for transitions.

Getting started

Import the XCharts unitypackage or the source into the project, and it is recommended to also import the XCharts-Daemon companion. After import, right-click in the Hierarchy view and choose XCharts->LineChart to create a default line chart, then add series and components from the Inspector.

How it compares

The facts do not name any similar tools or direct competitors, so XCharts stands alone in this registry. Its core is MIT-licensed and completely free, while some extended charts and UI components are distributed separately as paid VIP or SVIP products such as XCharts-Pro, XCharts-UI, XCharts-Bar3DChart, XCharts-FunnelChart, XCharts-GanttChart, XCharts-GaugeChart, XCharts-LiquidChart and XCharts-PictorialBarChart.

When to use it — and when not to

XCharts targets Unity only, so it is the wrong choice for Winforms, WPF or any non-Unity environment. Because it is built on UGUI, the usual UGUI constraints apply: aliasing artifacts and Mesh vertex count limits can appear, and the practical ceiling is around 20,000 points per line chart before sampling is required at additional CPU cost. Data loading is also the developer's responsibility, since Excel and database sources must be parsed before being passed to the XCharts API, and teams wanting the full set of extended charts and UI components must budget for a VIP or SVIP subscription.