Please advice me which OpenGL supported GUI toolkit is best to use with Borland compiler (excepting GLUT).I’m working with BDS 2006 C++ and seems like any good “up to date” toolkits (Qt,wxWidgets, even freeGlut) don’t support Borland (switching to something else is not an option)
My requirements are basic GUI - menus ,comboboxes, buttons.
Thanks
“toolkits (Qt,wxWidgets, even freeGlut) don’t support Borland”
oh then create a new project(dll)
download source code of freeglut
and start compiling
check for error if any occur
Hmm…very useful
If you develop for work and stability and limited time are required then usually this way is not recommended that’s why I asked for an advice from someone with experience…
if toolkit not supported then this is look like last option
else go for dev c++(you already said
“switching to something else is not an option”
)
as you said
“My requirements are basic GUI - menus ,comboboxes, buttons.”
why not you try to use
Windows GUI
“windows.h”
or you want fancy button
instead of some real 3d work
^You are funny…
hey what the fun behind it
is it “windows.h”
really
i am also hunger to laugh on my words.
BDS contains C++ builder, which has its own Visual IDE that uses VCL for creating GUIs via drag-and-drop. It takes just a few lines of code enable any of the windows to do OpenGL rendering, while still being able to drag-drop visual components on the rest of the form. An example is actually provided in BDS in the OpenGL folder under examples.
Granted the application will not be cross-platform, but you have not mentioned that as a requirement.
Using VCL and particularly VCL controls with OpenGL is highly NOT recommended.I didn’t believe it few years ago until I tried it myself… It could be useful only for newbies while learning basics.
^Why is that? Did that come from Borland/Embarcadero or from experience?
As far as I can remember, for as long as Borland was officially developing C++ Builder, they supplied their own samples to do precisely what you are advising against…
Firstable the demos Borland supplied were “no-GUI” - only empty window ( I wonder if they knew about problems with VCL controls).
Most serious issue(I have more,but I don’t want to turn this thread to Borland slam…):
I expierienced memory access violation while reading data from TEdit/TCombo for my OpenGL drawing, I thought maybe there is something wrong with my code, but after searching in forums/mail lists I found that this is a known problem (OpenGL calls with VCL data fields),if I remember correctly I saw it also on CodeGear(now Embarcadero) mailing list.
It made my computer freeze from time to time, specially for heavy drawings.I rewrote everything in pure Win32(but without GUI) and I never had any problems.
^Im not aware of the problems you were facing , but I have been using VCL with OpenGL for a good 3+ years now, on a regular basis, without trouble.
The trick is to not mix the two on the same ‘window’ or ‘form’. That said, you can have a decent VCL tool-bar on its own window that manipulates an OpenGL drawing in another OpenGL window.
I am not sure about passing non-standard VCL data to OpenGL function calls, but standard strings should be fine. Infact, at the moment, I am passing GLSL shaders in real-time via VCL using a TMemo. I can modify the shader on the fly, and see the OpenGL scene change dynamically.