Using LibGDX (or any similar game library/framework) for non-gaming purposes?

[heisenbergman]

Over the past week at work, I've been itching to create a tool that will significantly make a certain aspect of our work easier.

To put it simply, we have have a series of hundreds of programs that run daily, and the definition of the sequence/conditions under which they run can be extracted into a text file.

What I wanted to create is a tool that would read that text file and create a graphic/interactive flowchart based on it so that its users could easily scroll/drag/click/etc through it when needed. It beats the heck out of reading it in a text file.

And since I'm working with LibGDX for my current game, I was thinking why not use it for that? It's probably overkill, but since I'm familiar with the the basics of the framework now, it would be fairly easy to implement what I want using it.

What I was wondering is whether or not anyone here has had any experience using libraries and frameworks made for gaming for non-gaming purposes.

[gimbal]

What I was wondering is whether or not anyone here has had any experience using libraries and frameworks made for gaming for non-gaming purposes.

I've had minor dealings in a project that would draw a 3D tree of something related to DNA and diseases (the theory escaped me). It was basically an OpenGL widget in a Swing frame, not sure if it was LWJGL or JOGL.

What do you hope to gain with this question I wonder? Just to know that someone has already done it, or is there something more specific you are wondering about?

[cylab]

If you think it would be fairly easy with your current experience, just go ahead. A friend of mine actually created a interactive management application for the complete network of a telecommunication provider in JOGL (or LWJGL, I don't remeber atm...)

But you may also take a look at visualization toolkits like prefuse (http://prefuse.org/ or http://flare.prefuse.org/ if a web-based solution also appeal to you)

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[davedes]

I've been using LibGDX for most of my 2D/3D tools at work and at home. It's an extremely productive framework and the GUI is a breeze to work with. I've also been using it to prototype new ideas and GL techniques.

e.g. One LibGDX tool I am currently working on exports 3D particle data to a format that I then use in a pure ObjectiveC app.

[sproingie]

I've used it for some experimental visualizations for cluster analysis of email metadata in spam, a little project called "Rorschach".  It used a sort of combination of heat map and scatter plot using a lot of translucent blending, so I figured I'd want something that would blend and scale stuff faster than Java2D, and I just plain don't like the Java2D API. 

So yeah basically it made a bunch of overlapping blobs on the screen, but I never got as far as making them easily interpretable, so it got as far as my game projects go.  Story of my life.  If I ever got around to the realtime updates, it would have made a good screensaver I suppose. 

[Nate]

I use it for Spine, a desktop animation tool. Building Spine caused scene2d to mature for building desktop apps.

[heisenbergman]

Thanks for the replies, guys! It's fascinating to hear that there have already been a handful of developers utilizing game development tools in other areas aside from gaming. This pushes me more to explore creating the app I have in mind.

What do you hope to gain with this question I wonder? Just to know that someone has already done it, or is there something more specific you are wondering about?

Not really sure what I hoped to gain, sorry, but I was mostly just curious if there are people who have used libraries and frameworks made for gaming in ways totally unrelated to gaming

But you may also take a look at visualization toolkits like prefuse (http://prefuse.org/ or http://flare.prefuse.org/ if a web-based solution also appeal to you)

Thanks for the FYI! Nice to know about this, but I'm not looking for a web-based solution for now. I'm planning to create a simple desktop app to use at work.