MyGUI is a cross-platform library for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for games and 3D applications. It is written in C++17 and is designed to be fast, flexible, and easy to integrate with various rendering engines.
Showcase | Projects using MyGUI
- Wide widget set: buttons, edit boxes, combo boxes, lists, tree controls, item boxes, tab controls, scroll bars, progress bars, windows, and more
- Multiple render backends: Direct3D 9, Direct3D 11, OpenGL (legacy), OpenGL 3.x, OpenGL ES 2.0, Ogre and OgreNext
- Skin system: fully customizable widget appearance via XML-based skin definitions
- Layout system: load UI layouts from XML files at runtime; includes a visual Layout Editor
- Tools: built-in editors for layouts, skins, images, and fonts
- Font rendering: TrueType fonts via FreeType, bitmap fonts, and MSDF (multi-channel signed distance field) font support
- Five hinting modes: native, auto-hint, no-auto-hint, monochrome, and disabled
- Dynamic kerning with per-pair spacing adjustments
- Configurable Unicode code point ranges with inclusion and exclusion support
- Text effects: shadow, colour, selection highlighting, cursor, word wrap, and alignment
- MSDF shaders for OpenGL 3.x, OpenGL ES, DirectX 11, Ogre, OgreNext (GLSL, HLSL, Metal, SPIR-V)
- Visual FontEditor tool for authoring and previewing font definitions
- Platform support: Windows, Linux, macOS; also runs in the browser via Emscripten
- Localization: built-in language string management
- Animation: configurable widget controllers for fades, slides, and more
| Backend | CMake ID |
|---|---|
| Dummy (no-op) | 1 |
| Ogre | 3 |
| OpenGL (legacy) | 4 |
| Direct3D 9 | 5 |
| Direct3D 11 | 6 |
| OpenGL 3.x | 7 |
| OpenGL ES 2.0 (Emscripten) | 8 |
| OgreNext | 9 |
Select a backend with the -DMYGUI_RENDERSYSTEM=<id> CMake option.
- CMake ≥ 3.22
- C++17 compiler
- SDL2 for tools and demos
- FreeType (optional, enabled by default)
- One of the render systems
git clone https://github.com/MyGUI/mygui.git
cd mygui
cmake -S . -B build -DMYGUI_RENDERSYSTEM=7
cmake --build buildAfter installing MyGUI, use it from your CMake project with modern targets:
find_package(MyGUI REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE MyGUI::MyGUI MyGUI::OgrePlatform)Available targets:
| Target | Description |
|---|---|
MyGUI::MyGUI |
Core library |
MyGUI::OgrePlatform |
Ogre backend |
MyGUI::OpenGLPlatform |
OpenGL backend |
MyGUI::OpenGL3Platform |
OpenGL 3.x backend |
MyGUI::OpenGLES |
OpenGLES backend |
MyGUI::DirectXPlatform |
Direct3D 9 backend |
MyGUI::DirectX11Platform |
Direct3D 11 backend |
MyGUI::OgreNextPlatform |
OgreNext backend |
Build options:
| Option | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
MYGUI_RENDERSYSTEM |
7 (OpenGL 3.x) | Render backend |
MYGUI_USE_FREETYPE |
ON | Enable FreeType font rendering |
MYGUI_MSDF_FONTS |
OFF | Enable MSDF font support |
MYGUI_BUILD_DEMOS |
ON | Build demo applications |
MYGUI_BUILD_TOOLS |
ON | Build layout/skin/font/image editors |
MYGUI_BUILD_UNITTESTS |
OFF | Build complex demos and tests |
MYGUI_BUILD_WRAPPER |
OFF | Build C# bindings (Windows only) |
MYGUI_BUILD_TEST_APP |
OFF | Build test application |
MyGUI ships with several visual editors under Tools/:
- LayoutEditor — WYSIWYG layout designer (produces
.layoutXML files) - SkinEditor — widget skin creator
- ImageEditor — image resource editor
- FontEditor — font resource editor
- Website: http://mygui.info/
- API docs: build with
cmake --build build --target api-docs(requires Doxygen)
This project uses clang-format to enforce a consistent C++ code style. Before committing, run the formatting check:
Scripts/run-clang-format.pyUse --fix to format files in-place:
Scripts/run-clang-format.py --fixTo run the check automatically on every commit, install pre-commit:
pip install pre-commit
pre-commit installThe pre-commit hook is optional — it skips automatically if clang-format is not installed.
This project is licensed under the MIT License — see COPYING.MIT for details.
- Website: http://mygui.info/
- Repository: https://github.com/MyGUI/mygui
- CI: https://github.com/MyGUI/mygui/actions