Hello! So, I have spent quite some time coding a 3D game project for fun and learning, and have decided that I desire to create a game engine mainly for experience, perhaps to be released open-source if I get to finish it. I am aware that it is a vast topic, but am currently a college student and have a desire to learn. So please don't just post a link to that "Build games not game engine" article, as I saw people do

Anyway, yes. I figured that while I'm writing a game, I might as well try to write an interface to create levels, help with importing assets, etc. My first idea was to use a GUI system to create this interface essentially _inside_ the render window, but frankly, that's more of a hack. What I am truly looking for is to have a window, containing toolbars, etc., and a render window in the centre, akin to what can be found in common game engines such as Unity and the Cryengine 3 (the latter of which being my inspiration). Is there any cross platform way to do this? I have attempted to use QT, but it seems that it is not exactly suited for high performance realtime simulations. Naturally I could always write this interface using the API of a particular operating system, but my aim is to keep it as cross-platform as possible without the need to change much in order to move systems (my main targets truly are Windows and Linux).

So my question truly is, is there any way to do this using a cross platform tool that is suitable for game development? Thanks! ^_^

I would give QT a shot. Can't even imagine what can be wrong with using it as GUI component of your game. Don't you just pass hwnd down to OpenGL maw?

I think I'll just write the system in my comparability layer then using the OS API

Hello, fellow engine creator :)

I would strongly suggest you to stick to either Qt, or to something like wxWidgets or GTK. Don't listen to those, who saying that 'everything is garbage, write your own OS/GPU API/ UI system', they're only partially right :) Or you will end up creating your own GUI library, learning OS-level API, and will not learn about game engine programming :) Anyways...

I have some experience with Qt within application involving graphics and realtime data processing (not 3D though, but hey, it's realtime with threading :)) ) and I can say that it has everything you need: a set of widgets of all sorts, threading, UI editor, IDE ( if you prefer ) and even a special widget to which you can give your OpenGL rendering stuff.

Most likely I'm going to stick to Qt with my own OpenGL-driven engine project :)

And one more advice - it's better for you to learn first the hard part - OpenGL, GLSL, script language integration, software architecture and game engine creation process itself. In my opinion it's preferable over first attempts to create your toolset, level editor or whatever.

How it was mentioned above - grab some windowing library ( SDL2/GLFW ) and go on trying :) You can even create switchable system with various windowing backends.

Anyways, good luck, will wait for amazing screenshots from you :)

P.S.

Try to avoid OS-level API, if you want to keep it cross-platform. Better - not use them at all, or pack 'em carefully with macros invocations or configurable build system.

wxwidgets seems to be exactly what I was l was looking for! Thank you... I have spent the entire day trying to make it work (I fail at this), and will try it filly when that happens!

Sysrank, I will consider what you said about keeping the level editor until last :) My main reason for wanting to create an engine-style interface is so that it could help me position objects around and everything and tweak variables without having to add redundant code or recompile ^_^ And as for screenshots... Might take a while, but I'll try to get something impressive working XD One of my main interests may be high quality volumetric cloud rendering, which seems to be a massive topic, but I don't mind.

Anywho, thank you ^_^ I am shocked that the internet did not lead me to these wxwidgets/GTK. I think it did, but in my haste I might have dismissed it as a GUI library by accident :/ Thanks again!