MFC to other GUI engine, what is best ?

[Tiresias]

Hi,

in fact i need some help to determine what would be the best GUI to use to rewrite a complicated MFC gui to a more visual/graphical one .

i am posting here some sreen of the MFC :
http://www.outremondes.com/web_beta/outremondes.php#.2

Our biggest problem is that MFC is a pain when it comes to transparency and skins. So we plan to move to another rendering engine.

Currently the MFC has custom windows that are using a home made 2d engine using DirectX for rendering. As well it has listviews, treeviews, richtext views, dialogs and of course menus with hundreds of entries.

So ... here is what may be good options:

-1: use irrlicht + CEGUI.
-2 use SDL + agar GUI OR CEGUI
-3 use ogre + CEGUI

My big questions are:

i know that Irr has its own software rasterizer, i am not sure what it is (if someone know but i believe it increases multiplatform compatibility (for ex if graphic card doesnt have neither openGl neither DirectX it still works because of the sofware rasterizer). So question is :

Will CEGUI works with irrlicht if i am using this mode (i read somewhere on the forum that it will crash).

Would SDL+CEGUI work without using OpenGL ??

Would u advise Irr+CEGUI or Ogre+CEGUI or SDL+CEGUI ?

I must say that because it is a small game we would like to have something light and that are supported by old pc.

Well thanks a lot to read and for this amazing CEGUI lib, will hopefully get some answers!

[Liberator]

What I do in my own framework is route everything trough GUI classes that are just interfaces to a GUI driver/backend. This allows you to switch from CEGUI to whatever depending on your application needs. If you use this abstraction combined with the MVC or PAC patterns you should have a well abstracted GUI that does not contaminate your system with backend specifics. So I suggest if you are going to rewrite it anyway then why not take the route that is desirable from an architectural standpoint, assuming you have the time to do so.

[Moroheuz]

I have use Irrlicht, Ogre & some others too...

Gui ... Cegui (only last 4-5 Days ...
before Cegui my favorite was WxWidget ..

Ogre + Cegui is REALY good...

but choose what you like most ..

for me it is so ... more fun .. more Spirit

[scriptkid]

Hi,

first of all: nice screens! I like the visual style. However i could not determine wether the MFC screens are a part of the game, or of its editor? So you appearantly are making the MFC screens look more fancy, right?

Note that Cegui and SDL won't go together without OpenGL, since there isn't an SDL render available.

Also, i don't think that you have more then one render outputs at this moment. For example i notice some (modal) dialogs, which would require another Cegui output view.

The interesting thing is that CrazyEddie is working on extending the whole rendering part of the system, which might provide functionality such as that.

HTH.

[Tiresias]

hello thanks for the answers,

everything is MFC (game and editor)

right now i am trying sdl+opengl+cegui. sdl cames to me because we are only 2d so not sure i need something bigger.
cegui came to me because it seems to be the more complete and have skinning.

now i may be completly wrong )