The next UI step

Troubleshooting gui
1

Hey all,



I was wondering if some of the experts can point me in the right direction.



I've got a very basic UI in my game right now (action bars, working chat text box etc)…and all of them are funcitonal and stable using Swing. Here's the thing…the look is default Swing right now and not very game like.



I honestly don't know where to start. Is it a matter of theming via XML…or is it the use of HUDs and ORTHO…a mix of all of the above?



…even better…if someone has nailed down a workflow or has an example on how to build a "game" UI (…preferably MMO…), that would be really helpful.



…appologies if I've missed this topic if it was already discussed :wink:



Thanks,

D

2

Check out FengGUI: http://www.fenggui.org/doku.php

It's skinnable and more perfomant than Swing.



Using FengGUI with jME: http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/wiki/doku.php?do=search&id=fenggui

3

Thanks for the response skyuzo, however; it's not exactly what I'm looking for :wink:



I'm going back and forth between Fengui and Swing just to see which one fits best in my game at the moment and the part of the equation that is missing is how easy it would be to skin each UI.



I've never done UI skinning of any sort…so what I'd like to tap is anyone who has knowledge or an example of how to do it. I've searched here, but with no luck.



…I'll search more on the Fengui forums as well.



Thanks all.

4

Not to mention that Swing has the synth laf which is totally skinnable.

5

For skinning Swing, have you checked out Substance?

6

…just to follow up on this.



I was able to get what I was looking for with a HUD implementation. Contrary to my earlier belief, it looks like most of my UI will be based on HUD elements instead of UI elements.



One last question though: how do you get UI/HUD elements to go to the four corners of the screen (i.e. top-left, bottom left, top-right, bottom right? Also, how to you get those elements to stay there and scale properly when the resolution is changed?