TWL or Slick2D Development

OpenGL Development
#1

I’ve developed a small program that parses a Biovision Hierarchy file (.bvh) and I currently have a very basic canvas that displays the animation.
See attachment for canvas example.

I’m not sure if this is old-fashioned or not, but I’ve got everything rendered to org.lwjgl.opengl.Display
I’m also using the org.lwjgl.opengl.GL11.* methods.

Now, I’ve come across a problem. I want my UI to have a few buttons and some text around the UI displaying information like filename, etc.
What I need help with is choosing a library for such a thing.
I can’t see how to just “lay” TWL or Slick2D objects on top of the code I have to add a few buttons and some text.

So it brings me to ask, should I be using TWL or Slick2D or neither? Or, if I am to use either of these 2 libraries, will I have to extend Widgets (for TWL) or extend BasicGame( SLick2D) and THEN integrate what I have into either of these libraries?

I’m also on a short timeframe so another question I will ask is: Which of these libraries is quicker to learn/pickup and get my hands dirty?

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#2

just to make it clear Slick is developing games with a more high lvl API and TWL is just for GUI

for fast results just use Slick and either program a button class yourself or use the rudimentary slick button

TWL is very hard I think
Nifty a little bit better but still too hard

I ended up writing my own GUI

Especially if you want fast results… (The Slick button might be enough already, if you just need buttons; and I believe there is a TextField also)

Everyone else and their mom will tell you to use TWL or nifty, I guess

#3

Thanks for your fast reply.

At this point, I’m not worried about the aesthetics. I just want results! =)

I’ll look into slick and see what I can conjure up.

#4

Slick has a button, aaaand most things are buttons anyway
togglebuttons are just buttons with a boolean
checkboxes are togglebuttons just without text but a X or whatever
there is a textfield…

so here, for quick and dirty, check that stuff out

#5

Slick2D was designed to hide the low-level GL calls from the user, so generally speaking you should be using Slick’s utilities instead of calling GL11/Display directly.

If you just need text, buttons and a text field, then use Slick2D’s Font/UI classes, as they will suffice.

If you want a more professional interface, with tables, combo boxes, text areas, etc. use TWL. It has a much steeper learning curve, requires you to design your own themes (although you could use an existing theme), and takes a little bit of work setting up with Slick2D.

#6

Hmm… The points I’m drawing are in 3D space though. I can’t seem to find anything with the Slick API that allows me to draw anything in depth.
How would I mimick something similar to :
glVertex3f( … ) in slick2D?

#7

If your points are drawn in 3D space, and you plan to rotate/translate the view like a camera, then why are you using Slick2D at all?

#8

yeah Slick is 2D, didn’t know you needed 3D

anyway it makes no difference: Slick can do everything LWJGL can aswell, since its just sitting on top

just use direct OpenGL calls

#9

That’s what I originally said.

I have everything drawn.
I just need a library to throw some 2D buttons on top of what I have. (I’m assuming it’s possible w/o having to create my own buttons, but I could be wrong.)

That is the reason I am wanting to use TWL or SLick2D. Just for the buttons/text.

The hard part for me is figuring out how put the buttons/text on the UI.

#10

I went ahead and used a JFrame to show the buttons I need. In the end, I realized I really didn’t need to integrate the buttons into the lwjgl display.

Thanks for your help on the issue though.