Pygame

Introduction

This page assumes you have an existing Pygame project. This can be a new project or an existing project.

Getting started with gumui in Python

There are really only 3 important things after you import. Create an Instance of GumUI, call Update, and call Draw()

1. First you need to import the GumUI and PyGame

from gumui import GumUI, GraphicalUiElement, InvisibleRenderable
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

1. Next you need to initialize and configure Pygame, might as well do it now

pygame.init()
BLACK = (0, 0, 0)
SCREEN_WIDTH = 640
SCREEN_HEIGHT = 480
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT))

1. Setup timing to force to 60 FPS (Frames Per Second)

fps_clock = pygame.time.Clock()
fps = 60.0
dt = fps_clock.tick(fps)

1. Once Pygame is setup, you need to create the GumUI and initialize it

# Initialize GumUI
myUi = GumUI()
myUi.initialize(screen) # `screen` is a Surface you wish GUM to draw to https://www.pygame.org/docs/ref/surface.html

1. Lets add a single item to the UI for now it will be a simple 32x32 square

child = GraphicalUiElement(InvisibleRenderable())
myUi.RootElement.Children.Add(child)
child.XUnits = Converters.GeneralUnitType.PixelsFromSmall
child.Width = 32
child.YUnits = Converters.GeneralUnitType.PixelsFromSmall
child.Height = 32

1. Now that you've defined the UI (1 square inside the root element) you can create the standard pygame loop

while True:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == QUIT:
            pygame.quit()
            sys.exit()

NOTE: This will run forever, or until you hit ESC or press the X

1. Update and then Draw the UI elements

    myUi.update()
    screen.fill(BLACK)  # Fill the screen with black.
    myUi.draw()
    pygame.display.flip()
    dt = fps_clock.tick(fps)

The above image shows the entire screen being drawn as the root element, and then the single 32x32 rectangle being drawn at the default (0, 0) position.

Adding more UI elements

Currently this is a work in progress, as such, the only thing that is drawn are rectangles.

To add another UI element "square" you create an instance of GraphicalUiElement, set it's properties, and add it to a parent.

This code needs to be added before the main game while loop.

child = GraphicalUiElement(InvisibleRenderable())
myUi.RootElement.Children.Add(child)

child.XUnits = Converters.GeneralUnitType.PixelsFromSmall
child.X = 100
child.Y = 100
child.Width = 200
child.YUnits = Converters.GeneralUnitType.PixelsFromSmall
child.Height = 200

Adding grandchildren and great grandchildren

Here another child (100x100) is added to the larger (200x200) child from above.

grandChild = GraphicalUiElement(InvisibleRenderable())
child.Children.Add(grandChild)

grandChild.XUnits = Converters.GeneralUnitType.PixelsFromSmall
grandChild.X = 10
grandChild.Y = 10
grandChild.Width = 100
grandChild.YUnits = Converters.GeneralUnitType.PixelsFromSmall
grandChild.Height = 100

Notice how the (100x100) rectangle is drawn at (10, 10), but that position is relative to the parent so it's actually drawn at (110, 110)

To see the full list of properties available for a GraphicalUiElement see this documentation page