JOGL, XITH or LWJGL (and GUI questions)

[ribot]

Hi all,

I'm trying to make a choice as to my development path - I've previously used just the JOGL libs and developed a number of simple apps.  I now have a new project on my hands and wish to create an application entirely within OpenGL (i.e all GUI based items are hardware accelerated textures like those seen in Alien Flux).  My only problem is that I am not sure what libraries to choose to develop this new application with and how exactly to go about GUI integration.  

Looking at Xith3D, it seems like a very nice scenegraph-based API, but I am not sure I want/need a scenebased API for my application.  What are the benefits of scenegraphing?  What applications is scenegraphing especially good for?  One of the main things that pulls me to Xith is it's integration of Swing/SWT/AWT?, using the UI classes as a layer on top of openGL renderings.  Now, I could overide the paint methods of the various components i wish to display, so that my buttons and such would blend into the theme set in the opengl renderings.  Does this Swing GUI implementation incur much of a performance hit?  What are the limitations of this method?

On the other hand...

...the very simple structure of the LWJGL libraries is very impressive, and looking at Alien Flux, looks like it can deliver on performance.  I would really like to use these libs but have a question as to the use of GUI elements - how hard is it to incorporate elements like those buttons in Alien Flux?  I have just read of the Spagetti libs and understand that I can use them with LWJGL to implement (if i had the skills) something similar to the menus in Alien Flux?  Would it at all be possible to develop an ultra simple example to show a custom hardware accelerated button in a blank openGL environment?

Let me know what you think?

Many thanks,

Antony Ribot

[tom]

Creating your own gui system in opengl can be alot of work. It depends on wich components you need. Creating a button in opengl is very simple. Lists, TextAreas, ComboBoxes, Containers and Frames are of course much more difficult. How complex will your gui be?

Btw. I did my own gui system for Squareheads. All done in lwjgl. You can have the source if your interested.

[ribot]

Hi Tom,

I think the eventual GUI will be quite complex, but I am trying to keep things as simple as possible....and starting right from the basics.    The system I am developing is a type of simulation / learning environment - I will begin to draw out some designs in the next week.

I would appreciate it very much if you could provide the source for your project GUI.  I too will be developing with LWJGL.

Regards,

Antony Ribot

Creating your own gui system in opengl can be alot of work. It depends on wich components you need. Creating a button in opengl is very simple. Lists, TextAreas, ComboBoxes, Containers and Frames are of course much more difficult. How complex will your gui be?

Btw. I did my own gui system for Squareheads. All done in lwjgl. You can have the source if your interested.

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

[princec]

Look at the source code for Spaghetti in the CVS of the Shaven Puppy Game Library (SPGL) (http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/spgl)

It's broken a bit at the moment but it's basically the code ripped out of Alien Flux. It's a good place to gauge the complexity of making a UI set rendered in GL.

Cas

[aldacron]

Also take a look at the Irrlicht Engine. It's C++, but they have a rather nice UI system implemented with their generic renderer.

[ribot]

Thanks Tom, Cas and alda!

Cas: what exactly do you mean by 'broken'?  

Alda: yes, that Irrlicht Engine UI looks nice, I'll be looking into this soon. thanks for the link!

Hopefully, some day I'll be able to give something back to the community.  

Regards,

ribot.

[princec]

Broken as in might not compile. OrangyTang is looking after it though, so he might sort out something soon as he's writing a game with it.

Cas

[Orangy Tang]

what exactly do you mean by 'broken'?  

Spagehtti should be fixed in the CVS now, mainly just changing of imports and a couple of other minor changes. Although Sourceforge's anon CVS access is apparently somewhat behind the actual state. If it fails to compile yell and I'll see if I've done something silly