- CEGUI
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CEGUI Stable release 0.7.5 / November 20, 2010 Operating system Cross-platform Type graphical user interface License MIT, for version 0.5.0 and above, LGPL for previous versions Website http://www.cegui.org.uk/ Crazy Eddie's GUI (CEGUI) system is a graphical user interface C++ library. It is designed particularly for the needs of videogames, but the library is usable for non-game tasks. It is designed for user flexibility in look-and-feel, as well as being adaptable to the user's choice in tools and operating systems.
Contents
Configurability
The strength of CEGUI's design is that it is highly configurable. The CEGUI system itself does not directly load files, render windows, directly display text, or even fetch input from the system. CEGUI interfaces with these through user-defined code, though the CEGUI source code package comes with a number of modules for using certain components and libraries.
This freedom allows the user to use CEGUI in any kind of resource management system or operating environment. Input is expected to be gathered by the user's code, possibly filtered as the user sees fit, and then delivered to the CEGUI for window processing.
CEGUI comes with a reasonable set of widgets, comparable to those of the average widget toolkit.
Tools
CEGUI can be completely customized using standard image, xml, and/or code editing tools. However, CEGUI also provides tools designed specifically to aid in the design and development of CEGUI based interfaces. Older versions of CEGUI provided separate tools for editing different aspects of the interface. The most notable of those being the Imageset and Layout editors. A new unified editing tool is being actively developed to incorporate all aspects of GUI development into a single tool.
Rendering
Rendering is accomplished by a back-end Rendering Module. CEGUI provides modules for Direct3D, OpenGL, the OGRE 3D engine, and the Irrlicht engine. Other modules can be written for custom engines.
Resource Management
File loading and resource management are handled through a back-end "Resource Provider Module". The user can create custom modules to define how resources are accessed. This allows the library to be used in virtually any operating environment. The default resource provider is cross-platform and provides standard file-access mechanics for loading resources. An optional minizip module enables resource-loading from zip-archives.
Memory Management
CEGUI has a flexible Memory Management system. This system was based on OGRE and allows clients to map different types of allocators to different types of objects. By default all objects use the operating system's default allocator. CEGUI provides support for OGRE and nedmalloc allocators.
Scripting
CEGUI has an optional back-end Scripting Module. A Lua scripting module and Python module are provided by CEGUI. The full CEGUI API is available via script so that clients can create windows, define relationships, and handle events all within a scripted environment.
Look and feel
CEGUI has a powerful system for defining the look and feel of various widgets. This system, known as Falagard, allows the user to define the look of a widget via XML files (or C++ code, if the user prefers). It can also change the layout behavior of any widgets.
Animation
CEGUI has a built-in animation system. This system allows many standard transitional effects from moving and resizing windows to color transforms and image sequencing. Animations can be defined in XML and triggered by any event. The client can specify window-properties as key-frames, how to transition between frames, and the transition-time between frames.
Unicode
CEGUI is Unicode-aware and has support for bi-directional languages via an optional back-end Bidi Module. This support is provided by MiniBidi or FriBidi.
Library dependencies
CEGUI can be built without any dependencies to outside libraries. However, typical configurations require FreeType, a rendering module, an XML parser, and an image codec. CEGUI already provides support for several external libraries thanks to its modular design:
Bi-Directional Language Modules
- MiniBIDI
- FriBIDI
Font Modules
Image Codec Modules
- DevIL
- FreeImage
- OGRE
- SILLY
Memory Management
- OGRE
- nedmalloc
Regular Expression Modules
Rendering Modules
Resource Provider Modules
- Default (standard cross-platform file-access)
- minizip
- OGRE
Scripting Modules
XML Modules
- Expat
- LibXML2
- RapidXml
- TinyXML
- Xerces-C++
External links
- CEGUI Main Page
List of widget toolkits Low-level High-level On Amiga OSOn WindowsOn Unix,
under X11Cross-platform,
by languageAdobe Flex · AsWingXMLAmple SDK · CougarXML · GladeXML · Lively Kernel · Pyjamas · Rialto Toolkit · XAML · XML User Interface · XUL · WtdesktopwebGoogle Web Toolkit · ExtJS GWTC or C++CEGUI · Component Library for Cross Platform · FLTK · FOX toolkit · OpenGL User Interface Library · GTK+ · Juce · JX Application Framework · Qt · Wt · Tk · TnFOX · Visual Component Framework · wxWidgets · YAAF · XForms · XVT · Ultimate++Common LispObject PascalQtRubyCategories:- Widget toolkits
- Lua-scriptable software
- Software using the MIT license
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