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Help => General => Topic started by: SuperToaster on September 18, 2015, 02:42:45 am

Title: What is better for pure GUI game project?
Post by: SuperToaster on September 18, 2015, 02:42:45 am

Hello. I want to create a text-oldschool-like rpg game with turn-based combat system in SFML.

At first i was writing it in pure c++ but it was too limiting so i decided to add some graphics and sound to it and so i moved my project to SFML. I had some experiment with SFML and wrote pong game on it so i understand a bit how it works.

In my game i wont need any animations or maps. Just pure GUI with buttons, text fields and pictures. If i'm right i would need some GUI library for that and there are plenty of them out there. So can you please recommend me one which is best for my project?

Also can you please tell me how can Qt be used with SFML and why is it used together(i just saw some tutorial on linking it)? I know Qt so perhaps i could use it instead for my project as it doesnt require some special game engine.

Thanks in advance.

Title: What is better for pure GUI game project?
Post by: eXpl0it3r on September 18, 2015, 07:42:46 am

If you only want s UI and you use Qt then there's little gain in mixing it with SFML's window or graphics module.

As for UI libraries, check out the FAQ on the GitHub wiki and take your pick. ;)

Title: Re: What is better for pure GUI game project?
Post by: GraphicsWhale on September 18, 2015, 11:18:57 am

I wouldn't use Qt for making a game.

For GUI, while I haven't tried it, SFGUI looks promising: http://sfgui.sfml-dev.de/ (http://sfgui.sfml-dev.de/)

I personally wouldn't recommend using any sort of GUI library outside of menus and the like, because they don't really "fit" with how games typically work. And I assume you'd want to possibly add some fancier (relative to a text-based game, that is) stuff like showing sprites representing the characters during a battle, something that may be tedious to do with a GUI library instead of simply drawing it to the screen normally.

Title: Re: What is better for pure GUI game project?
Post by: Turbine on October 21, 2015, 11:54:33 am

I've spent a lot of time using various GUI libraries with SFML - there's still not a perfect solution imo.

We used to use SFGUI and moved to CEGUI, for the most part it has more features and is suitable for a game. However they are both quite generic and have minimal integration with SFML. The API's on both include methods which could be simplified significantly - at the probable expensive of compatibility.

Using either of these are not as intuitive or as efficient time-wise to write as SFML could be on the fundamental level. But at least CEGUI can be themed in amazing ways and has widgets for almost everything.