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This article is about the use of C++ 's lightweight interface development framework ImGUI. The editor thinks it is very practical, so share it with you as a reference and follow the editor to have a look.

Introduction to ImGUI

   ImGUI is mainly used in the game industry, all the controls need to be hand-painted, of course, the performance is also full, after all, it is directly implemented in dx/opengl.

ImGUI warehouse: https://github.com/ocornut/imgui

   ImGUI, also known as Dear ImGui, is a platform-independent C++ lightweight cross-platform graphics interface library without any third-party dependence. You can add the source code of ImGUI directly to the project, or you can compile it into dll. ImGUI uses DX or OpenGL for interface rendering. It requires high picture quality, such as client games, 4k/8k video playback, using ImGUI is a good choice, of course, you have to be very familiar with DirectX or OpenGL Otherwise, the sword is in hand and the dragon is powerless to kill. Compared with Qt, MFC, DuiLib, SOUI, etc., ImGUI is more extensible, lighter and more demanding for developers.

After    downloads the ImGUI code, you can directly open, compile, and run it with vs2019. The sln path is as follows:

Sln path: imgui/examples/imgui_examples.sln

The interface for    to run win32_dx12 is as follows:

ImGUI is not like Qt/MFC. You can drag and drop controls to build the interface. All controls in ImGUI must be handwritten. ImGUI's demo basically provides the implementation of all the controls, charts, etc., and the source code is also available, which can be compared to learn.

For a detailed introduction of ImGUI, you can refer to github.

  , pay attention to this passage.

This library is available under a free and permissive license, but needs financial support to sustain its continued improvements. In addition to maintenance and stability there are many desirable features yet to be added. If your company is using Dear ImGui, please consider reaching out.

Interface implementation of ImGUI

   basic controls: label, text, checkbox, slider

Form controls: tree controls, picture controls, ComboBox, list controls, menu bar, etc.

According to the official demo, it basically meets the development requirements.

Technology selection

When selecting    technology on PC, if the company has audio and video, graphics and image, or 4k/8k video business, you can consider using ImGUI. After all, DX/OpenGL is directly used for rendering, and other functions are directly realized by C++.

How to use ImGUI

   refers to the sample code of imgui, as shown below:

Imgui github also has some simple introductions for reference, such as integration

On most platforms, when using C++, you should be able to use the combination of the imgui_impl_xxxx backend without modification (e.g. imgui_impl_win32.cpp + imgui_impl_dx11.cpp). If your engine supports multiple platforms, consider using more imgui_impl_xxxx files instead of rewriting them: this will reduce your work and you can have dear ImGui run immediately. If you prefer, you can later decide to override the custom backend with custom engine functions.

Integrating ImGui into your custom engine requires 1) connecting mouse / keyboard / handle input 2) uploading textures to your GPU/ rendering engine 3) providing rendering capabilities that bind textures and render texture triangles. This is what the application populated in the sample / folder does. If you are a senior programmer who is proficient in these concepts, it should not take 2 hours to integrate Dear ImGui into a custom engine. Be sure to take the time to read FAQ, comments, and some examples / applications!

Officially maintained backend / binding (in repository):

Renderer: DirectX9, DirectX10, DirectX11, DirectX12, Metal, OpenGL/ES/ES2, SDL_Renderer, Vulkan, WebGPU.

Platform: GLFW, SDL2, Win32, Glut, OSX, Android.

Framework: Emscripten, Allegro5, Marmalade.

Third-party backend / bind wiki page:

Languages: C, c # and: Beef, ChaiScript, Crystal, D, Go, Haskell, Haxe/hxcpp, Java, JavaScript, Julia, Kotlin, Lobster, Lua, Odin, Pascal, PureBasic, Python, Ruby, Rust, Swift...

Framework: AGS/Adventure Game Studio, Amethyst, Blender, bsf, Cinder, Cocos2d-x, diligence engine, Flexium, GML/Game Maker studi2, GLEQ, Godot, GTK3+OpenGL3, Irrlicht engine, L ö VE+LUA, Magnum, Monogame, NanoRT, cine, niine Game Lib, Nintendo 3DS & Switch (homebrew), Ogre, openFrameworks, OSG/OpenSceneGraph, Orx, Photoshop, px_render, Qt/QtDirect3D,SDL_Renderer, sml, Sokol, Unity, Unreal engine 4 Magi VTK, VulkanHpp, VulkanSceneGraph, Win32 GDI, WxWidgets.

Note that C bindings (cimgui) are automatically generated, and you can use its json/lua output to generate bindings for other languages.

Thank you for reading! This is the end of this article on "what is the use of C++ lightweight interface development framework ImGUI?". I hope the above content can be of some help to you, so that you can learn more knowledge. if you think the article is good, you can share it out for more people to see!

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