It would be great to have an OpenGL gui framework for Lazarus. I see the TOpenGLControl, but would like something more ambitious.

Specifically, it would be nice to have a "TOpenGLForm" (basically an OpenGL output framebuffer along with mouse/keyboard events) and special OpenGL controls (Menus, Buttons, Editboxes, Comboboxes, Memo, etc) that can be dropped on the form in the Lazarus designer. The only system specific code needed for porting to Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, etc. would be to obtain the OpenGL context and to hook the mouse/keyboard events. All control drawing/behaviour would be shared between systems (similar to the goal of the Custom Drawn Controls, but with an OpenGL specific scope).

To be sure, this OpenGL framework would probably require its own OpenGL specific custom controls and wouldn't support TForm and most of the current windowed controls.

I am unsure how to make Lazarus support a non TCustomForm-derived object ("TOpenGLForm"), and be able to drop controls onto it in the designer. Any opinions on the best way to do this?

Thanks,
-JT

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[...] I am unsure how to make Lazarus support a non TCustomForm-derived object ("TOpenGLForm"), and be able to drop controls onto it in the designer. Any opinions on the best way to do this?

You can take a look at
http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Extending_the_IDE#Writing_a_designer_mediator

Mattias

It would be great to have an OpenGL gui framework for Lazarus. I see the TOpenGLControl, but would like something more ambitious.

[...]

To be sure, this OpenGL framework would probably require its own OpenGL specific custom controls and wouldn't support TForm and most of the current windowed controls.

I don't see how and why somebody would use such a framework, as long as no component library (like LCL) is implemented for it. Using the LCL requires that the components are of the basic types (TComponent, TControl, TCustomForm...).

I am unsure how to make Lazarus support a non TCustomForm-derived object ("TOpenGLForm"), and be able to drop controls onto it in the designer. Any opinions on the best way to do this?

Perhaps msegui/mseide are a better framework for your project.

DoDi

This is not a correct answer. Having the full LCL with all it's needs doesn't make sense on all platforms.

Think web-browser for example.
The iOS controls by Joost Van der Sluis for example, work like this. So there are use-case.

Firemonkey started out like this as a Lazarus project.

The OP may check out the iOS controls by Joost van der sluis and use it as inspiration.

Michael.

Using e.g. TTimer does make a lot of sense for - say - "headless" embedded projects, that don't use any form of TForm.

-Michael

J S wrote

Specifically, it would be nice to have a "TOpenGLForm" (basically an OpenGL output framebuffer along with mouse/keyboard events) and special OpenGL controls (Menus, Buttons, Editboxes, Comboboxes, Memo,

For fpGUI Toolkit there is an experimental OpenGL backend. It was created by somebody else, but I'm sure I can track down the code for you if you want.

Regards,
- Graeme -

The OpenGL in Android is OpenGL ES which very different from the desktop OpenGL.

Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho