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I started making a game (mostly the interface, buttons, panels, components.. etc) and I have been using Swing to make the different components. But I have read that Swing is not good for creating game interfaces.

What is the best way to create game interfaces, like Runescape or Minecraft do?

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closed as not constructive by Byte56♦, msell, Sean Middleditch, Nicol Bolas, Laurent Couvidou Jun 17 '13 at 12:45

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Essentially a duplicate of this: gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/28506/… –  Byte56♦ Jun 16 '13 at 2:24
    
if you use libgdx: code.google.com/p/libgdx/wiki/scene2d, code.google.com/p/libgdx/wiki/scene2dui –  nathan Jun 16 '13 at 17:41
    
@nathan does scene2d use the graphics card, instead of the CPU like swing does? –  user2444217 Jun 17 '13 at 4:08

1 Answer 1

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The "best" way is a little too subjective to tell.

In my case, I've built an UI library myself, from Panels and Buttons to Lists. I use Java with lwjgl and Slick2D to make my games.

If you don't want to build an UI from scratch, here are some Java libraries you can use.

Tiny SUI: https://code.google.com/p/tinysui/

Nifty: http://nifty-gui.lessvoid.com/

TWL: http://l33tlabs.org/

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What is needed to create a UI from scratch? How does it work exactly? –  user2444217 Jun 16 '13 at 2:19
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I used Slick2D's Shapes (Rectangles, Lines) and Images to create basic UI components, like Panels and Buttons. To detect a click, I simply check if that click happened inside the bounds of the object. Other components like TextBoxes aren't that simple to make, so it may take a while to program everything (I haven't made one). I recommend using one of those libraries, as it will save you a lot of time. –  Lucas Tulio Jun 16 '13 at 2:32

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