Witchcraft is the gui and editor elements of the engine I am working on. At the moment is is only in the design stages but after I finish voodoo it is the next major project.
I’m doing a few mockups in photoshop just to see how it could work. I’m a bit hesitant about how to make the editor. Is it too much to take control of the entire screen? Does the 3D editor have to be a normal window or can it have the entire screen, like an OS replacement. One of the problems is that I would like this GUI to work on most major platforms (Windows, Linux, OS X, etc) but I don’t want to code a gui for each. I suppose I could use GLUT but I don’t really like it. Also I think it would be cool to experiment with OS replacement ideas, maybe ways that are better than how it is done so far.
One of the ideas is to have a tab interface. All menus and tools are accessed from little tabs that are on the edges of the screen. Some tabs can only be on certain sides - ones that require a specific orentation. When the mouse hovers over a tab the associated window / tool slides into view. Preferences can be set so that a click is required instead of a mouse over. Tabs are positioned on the tool window in relation to the tab’s position on the screen. A tab on the top edge of the screen to the far right would be on the far right of it’s window. This is to ensure that the entire window will be visible when it slides down.
Gui elements are made from various alpha blends of white. There is an option if you are working on a white model (which would cause the gui to be invisble in certain situations) to draw the white alpha above black instead of the current working space.
This GUI would also include other ideas from 3D programs such as pressing space toggling between traditional 4 way split view with the current view that is under the mouse. As well as pressing z,x,c corresponding to toggling movement in the x,y,z axies when using movement tools.