I've seached around how to create a pop up menu in a SDL window application using c++ ? I haven't found any clues !
I would like to have something that looks like this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc_CE9OiHvA
I've tried to use glutMenu, but it doesn't work ...
Thanks
SDL is a low-level graphics library. I don't remember seeing anything like menus, buttons, or other GUI controls in it last time I used it. It's possible that one of the many add-on libraries has menuing functions. Generally, you're expected to build such things yourself from primitives SDL provides.
One add-on library you might want to get is SDL_ttf, for drawing text using TrueType fonts. That and a few lines and mouse handers, et voilà, you have a menu.
SDL itself doesn't have any GUI libraries. That video looks like a guy who used SDL to write his own GUI using graphic primitive and font calls.
There are several SDL GUI libraries referenced on http://www.libsdl.org/libraries.php
How usable they are, I have no idea.
Related
How do i just create a window with just some controls like menus , check button , radio button , scroll bar ..just with c++ and OpenGL?
It depends.
1) You can't use any external libraries.
In this case you would need to create whole framework for creating controls, handling events, hit tests, state changes... Shortly speaking, you would need to write a GUI library like Qt or wxWidgets, but with all controls drawing implemented in OpenGL.
2) You can use 3rd party libs.
Well, simply read the spec and use them. Examples:
GiGi
GLUI
Also, you may want to read this: OpenGL Forum
However, if you don't have to use OpenGL-based solution, I would suggest you use wxWidgets. I've been using it for years. It's my favourite cross-platform GUI library with solid support, quite big community and reliable, up-to-date online/offline documentation.
For a while I've been using SDL to write my 3D engine,and have recently been implementing an editor that can export an optimized format for the type of engine Im building. Right now the editor is fairly simple, objects can just be moved around and their textures and models can be changed. As of right now, I'm using SDL with OpenGL to render everything, but I want to use Qt for the GUI part of the editor, that way it looks native on every platform. I've got it working great so far, I'm running a QApplication inside of the SDL application, so it basically just opens 2 windows, one that uses SDL and OpenGL, and the other using Qt. Doing a bit of research, I've found that you can manually update a QApplication, which totally removes any threading problems, and everything works. Just in case you're having a hard time visualizing this, heres a picture:
What my goal is to merge these windows into one, because on smaller screens (like my laptop's) it makes it really hard to keep track of all the different windows that I would eventually have. I know theres a way to render to Qt with OpenGL, but can this be integrated with SDL? Am I going to need to move away from using an SDL window and use a QT one if the editor is enabled? Just to clarify, when the engine isn't in editor mode, it won't use and Qt, just SDL, so optimally I wouldn't need to do this.
Drop the SDL part. You have Qt, which does everything SDL does as well. Just subclass a QGLWidget and use that.
You can keep your game and editor separate processes and still make them part of the same app.
Just spawn the window where you want the game to run as part of Qt, and at least in windows, you can then pass the window handle to your game, and make sure when your game is setting up, instead of creating the window yourself in SDL and binding the opengl context to it, you can actually bind to the existing handle.
There are some gotchas with this technique to watch out for such as input focus I believe (I tested with directX, but it might be similar with SDL). The problem is that the foreground mode does some dumb checks on the "root" window which for me was not the window that owned the opengl context, so it failed to initialize. However background mode worked. I think that was for a joystick now that I think about it, but anyway, that's how you can merge everything together.
What I'm trying to achieve is something like this - that is, an OpenGL view contained in a standard window, alongside some buttons, menus, etc.
However, I'm trying to use non-managed C++ and WinAPI to accomplish that (project requirements), and, if possible, (free)GLUT.
However, it seems to me that the only thing possible using GLUT is to create a separate window. Am I right, or is there actually a way to pass a window handle to GLUT for rendering? Or am I completely off the track?
Yeah, as far as I am aware GLUT only lets you do full-blown windows and will not let you paint into an arbitrary rectangle. There are a number of tutorials on setting up a render context in Windows using nothing but the Win32 and WGL APIs. Once you get your context setup, you can effectively do everything the same way you would with GLUT, but use the appropriate WGL function for swapping buffers.
Here's a high-level overview of what would be involved, though it's really text-heavy and related to MFC it outlines the whole process. You should be able to lookup the appropriate WGL API reference to implement this.
There's really no point in using GLUT if you've already decided to use the Win32 API to be honest, it is going to try to hide everything from you including the message pump that you'll need to handle dialog initialization and button events. If your requirements weren't limited to Win32 API, I would suggest something a little more portable like Qt for a framework that's dialog-friendly and supports OpenGL.
I'm thinking of a library that would render all custom controls to a bitmap, so the final "gui image" could be applied to a windows form, osx window, or OpenGL texture, etc. Does this exist? I know the other libraries like QT are intermediates that finally use the OS specific control code. I want something that is completely independent of the OS code, and is just layering the custom control graphics onto a final image in memory. I'm thinking this would be the ultimate X-platform GUI library for C++. Thoughts?
PS: I know questions asking for opinions are not really kosher but I googled hard and couldn't find anything. I need some input here.
Thanks!
EDIT: Ok, to clarify that I meant GUI library, I meant the library is given mouse/keyboard events then handles the logic of the typical GUI chain, then it's final render target is a bitmap in memory that I can do stuff with after. It would be GUI library, not just a canvas.
I guess this question has been ask before, but I have not found sufficient answer to even start poking around. Most answer refers to catching WM_PAINT method directly and do custom rendering, or use a onwer draw object. However, I did not see a centralized place that has the info. to start researching. Hence, the question.
My goal is to create a very simple GUI program with custom look into it. I prefer the way winamp does their custom look that is customizable through "skins". However, I am not interested in using some cross-platform library like GTK+, QT or wxWidget.
I have some experience in system programming, but not much for GUI. I spent most of my time developing console applications, and I just started doing some QT development. If you can point me in the right direction, I'd be very appreciated.
PS: I am interested in both windows and linux environment.
Everybody,
Sorry for the late reply. I had a chance to have a quick talk with the original developer for winamp, and this is the quick answers I have:
Using skins: Artists create skins, developer will render the skins
To the OS (Windows), winamp is just one pretty box, nothing else. There is a container windows, and that's about it
All controls (button, label, list, etc) are implemented by winamp team themselves. All messages and stuffs are passed as relative position to the container window. WinAmp and the GUI engine has to decide if a button is clicked or if the label next to it is the target, etc.
Rendering artists skins created in XML
I do not have the details on if they use any libraries to do all that, but I am suspecting they do hook a window call directly, and do custom rendering themselves.
GUI skin usually using plug-in mechanism
I guess this is exactly what you are looking for:
https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/428800:weekend-project-creating-qt-interfaces-with-gimp?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
I also interested in creating custom look of window and widgets.
Speaking about widgets it's not hard, just need to create subclass (if you are using C++) or some widget and implement some methods like draw, handle etc. But this solution is good only if you use some high-level library like GTK, QT, etc. If you want to implement all controls by your own, you may get any graphics library, which can create window and do any graphics inside. For example, SDL2 + Cairo. SDL2 for creating window, Cairo for vector rendering controls/widgets. Both of this libraries are for win and linux. Another option is take opengl/vulkan + some lib for rendering window. It could be SDL2, SFML, GLFW.
If you really interested how it works on low level, then search Windows API for Windows and XLib or XCB for Linux/X.Org.
Speaking about window, I still investigate it. However I have one thought: you may create an empty window and then draw whatever you want. Then you need to add handlers for resizing window on the borders. But I am not sure if it's good solution, and if it won't freezes.