History: Mogre and WPF
Preview of version: 8
WPF
WPF is a modern SDK created by Microsoft for building GUIs in Windows. Many powerful Windows applications today, including Visual Studio 2010 and later, are built using WPF. WPF makes it easy to create sophisticated GUI controls that are composed of other controls. It also has support for animation, styling, and data binding. It optionally supports a declarative UI layout through a XML format called XAML.
UI toolkits for games are often simpler and less featureful than desktop-grade UI toolkits. Incorporating WPF into a Mogre application allows a developer to have a sophisticated UI and leverage the vast wealth of WPF resources available.
Methods of Combining WPF and Mogre
There are several ways of using WPF and Mogre together. Note that most are in an experimental state.
Mogre In WPF
D3DImage is a WPF control that shows a Direct3D texture inside WPF. It can be set to use a texture that Mogre renders to.
Pros:
- The result is a fully interactive WPF application with all WPF features supported.
- The Mogre scene can be partially transparent, with WPF elements behind it. Partially transparent WPF elements can be placed on top of the Mogre scene.
Cons:
- WPF controls the rendering loop
- WPF's rendering loop is locked at Vsync (e.g. 60FPS)
Approaches to implementation:
- Single vs Double buffering
- Timing of Ogre rendering
- CompositionTarget.Rendering event
- DispatcherInactive event
- DispatcherTimer
- Timer
- Loop in separate thread
WPF in Mogre
Take a screenshot of individual WPF visuals, and render them as textures onto entities in Ogre or Mogre.
Pros:
- ...
Cons:
- It is up to you to arrange widgets and program interactivity with WPF elements.
- No interactive open source implementation is known.
WPF on Mogre
Pros:
- Mogre Rendering rate is not constrained to WPF rendering, as it is in the 'Mogre In WPF' approach.
Cons:
- It can be tricky to keep two windows in sync, with input working nicely between the two.
Interaction with Mogre
... how interaction works (Add both ways, which was describes by Hormis) ...
Example projects
- Mogre In WPF:
- Article: Blend the OGRE Graphics Engine into your WPF projects
- Project: MogreInWpf
- Project: Double buffered D3DImage technique. D3DImage based Mogre and WPF interop at high FPS.
- Mogre On WPF: A WPF window is layered on top of a standard WinForms window.
- Project: Windowsinput by Hormis
- WPF In Mogre:
See also
Further information
- forum link 1
- forum link 2
GUI alternatives