Graphical User Interface

Basic GUI understanding

It is pretty simple to add GUI elements to the screen using C++ Code. But you have to define them earlier. Therefor, there are several files being used by the GUI:

• Scheme
  • list of Imagesets
  • list of Fonts
  • list of LookNFeel
  • defines how a custom name is mapped to the CEGUI item, the renderer to be used and the lookNFeel
• LookNFeel
  • Sets custom properties for the Widgets
• Imageset
  • Maps Image names to regions in an image file
• Layout
  • Defines the main settings for a layout (a container for the widgets)

Setting up the GUI infrastructure

Note

During this Introduction, gf will always be a pointer to the GUIFacade

Start the GUI with a given Scheme

gf->startGUI("Tri6.scheme", "", "", "Tri6", "MouseArrow");

The parameters are:

• The Name of the Scheme file to use
• The default FontSet (can be empty)
• The default Font from this set (can be empty)
• The imageset that should be used for the mouse cursor
• The image that should be used for the cursor This has to done for other GUI functions to succeed.

Adding GUI elements

Now comes the interesting part: Adding GUI elements. All functions look like this:

add[WidgetType]([Name], [WidgetType], [Parameterlist]*);

Let's for example add a progressbar:

gf->addProgressBar("HPBar", "Game/VUMeter", 0.50, 0.09, 0.04, 0.01);

The 4 parameters are the position and the size of the bar. Later, the value can be adjusted using:

gf->setProgress("HPBar", 0.75);

GUI Elements currently supported are:

• ProgressBar
• Print
• Image