looking for a good UI library

[Ezelia]

Hi all

what library can you recommend my for game UI stuff ? I usuallt use jqueryui but I'm looking for something lighter .

 

my main criterias are :

 - simple to use

 - easily skinable

 

 

 

[ak223]

Here are some resources Kelvin Chong put together, that I have used before and find useful. http://www.verious.com/board/218572/cool-web-stuff/

[soybean]

Most UI frameworks are for DOM, and I think jquery is already easy and lightweight. I've been using YUI, and it seems very little uses it (probably due to the unpopularity of yahoo among developers?). I like it because it's has a pretty much complete widget set (graphs, tabs, sliders, etc), and has a MVC framework thingy.

 

If you're looking for canvas UI, I think the only option is ZebraUI

[Ezelia]

I know about ZebraUI it's very good but doesn't fit well with games ...

canvas is not a requirement by the way... I generaly prefer to use DOM UI, since it force me to separate game from UI and makes the game easier to adapt for mobile devices. I use canvas to render the game only

[P.Uri.Tanner]

This is somewhat lackluster for a customer facing UI, but for debugging or dev tools it's fantastic: https://code.google.com/p/dat-gui/

 

Here are pictures:

http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/examples/gui/#1--Basic-Usage

[soybean]

I know about ZebraUI it's very good but doesn't fit well with games ...

canvas is not a requirement by the way... I generaly prefer to use DOM UI, since it force me to separate game from UI and makes the game easier to adapt for mobile devices. I use canvas to render the game only

 

I was actually thinking about combining DOM UI with core gameplay on canvas too. Coming from a flash background, I always thought UI should be in canvas as well (similar to swf's), and got rather discouraged with the current canvas UI frameworks.

 

Thanks for the info, I never thought it would be easier to adapt on mobile devices. Now I'm a little confident to mix DOM and canvas in one game .

 

May I ask, would you make the game screens in DOM as well? What I'm planning to do currently is to have the game screens in canvas, and only display DOM UI when needed (on any game screen), so the whole game would be a mix of DOM and canvas.

[Ezelia]

What do you mean with game screens ?

actually, when I need to display an animation / interaction I use canvas, when I need UI content I use DOM, when I need to display an intermediate scene (between two levels for example) it depend on the content

 

for mobile adaptation I resize the canvas to a good resolution and use device CSS media / device to adapt DOM stuff to mobile display 

[soybean]

Game screens are the display sections in a game, like the title screen, select level screen, play screen, complete level screen, etc.

 

I see your approach. So basically use the best of each one and use it. Cool

[Chris]

I am currently working on a JavaScript library that enables UI creation via JavaScript, supports a lot of UI widgets and is completely skinnable.

Its currently not ready for distribution (will appear on http://modojs.com ), but if you contact me via Skype or PM, I could have you take a look at it and see if you like to use it.

 

The lib is built for/around Backbone.js, wich itself depends on jQuery/Zepto and Underscore.js. Sounds like a lot of stuff first, but I think Backbone might be a handy choice to maintain your game data under the hood, too.

 

Just ping me if you are interested.