Writing a GUI for a 3D app?

#1

What is available? What is best? What works with OpenGL and/or DirectX well?

Thank you,

#2

DirectX 9 has GUI objects built into the API. You can look at what they have by downloading the SDK and looking at the examples and documentation.

I’m not quite sure about OpenGL. I think GLUT may have some GUI elements in it, but It’s just a guess.

#3

out of the box, DX has more bells and whistles, however OpenGL has the portability advantage.

GLUT IMHO however is not a viable option for a “real” application with a modicum of interface. Depending on which platform you work with, you’ll probably have to get by with a binder API (GTKmm or GLUI on Linux for instance) that’ll let you open ports inside specialised GUI widgets.

#4

try,

FLTK - www.fltk.org
QT - www.trolltech.com

I’m not sure about how you could integrate DirectX with the toolkits above but they exists on the windows platform so it shouldn’t be a problem.

See, http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=137741, the different toolkits were discussed earlier in the forum.

-mk-

#5

WxWidgets http://www.wxwidgets.org/ (foramley caleld WxWindows) is meant to be a good GUI toolkit.

Simon

#6

No matter what GUI ToolBuilder you pick …

You are going to be the the best/strongest position as a developer if you are ready and able to roll some of your own GUI techniques from the ground up. Not all of them … only very carefully selected ones.

Seems to me like being ready to do peek, poke, masking type operations , fast blits … etc … can help you make a snappy application no matter what your tool. I find myself invariably writting some kind of BLITTING code … so you might as well BLIT some cool info as part of your GUI layout.

Java is plenty fast enough to BLIT 1600x1200 GUI displays in real time and even do a bit of compositing before the blits … so that means you can if you want use Java/AWT/Swing stuff. Just a crazy idea.

#7

ewww… Java. :wink:

#8

Some people are daring enough to use LISP, Erlang (like Nendo-Mirai, Wings3D).

Use the high level tool that you know the best that has adequate bindings for building GUIs. Don’t get sucked in and brainwashed by forums that are full of cultural biases based on legacy considerations.

#9

So does it make you ‘daring’ if you walk everywhere on your hands? Okay, do it to prove you can, but if you want to get from A to B quickly and reliably, you’ll do it much faster and better on your feet…

#10

I’m here to edit the message of my last post … I would not call using Java as a GUI builder Daring. Check out Art of Illusion as a nice example of a Java GUI front end for a 3D App.

#11

My comments were entirely directed at using Lisp for this kind of thing…

And while I wouldn’t use Java myself for this kind of thing, it is a popular gui tool…

#12

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