Using system.windows.forms with XNA

Question

Hey guys, I am making a game that uses XNA. I would like to add things to the game such as buttons, textboxes, labels, tooltip texts, and other stuff that comes with system.windows.forms. How do I merge system.windows.forms with XNA? Are there any API's or DLL's that I could implement to get this to work?

Thanks,

BenShums

Answer 1

The bad news: in short, no, it is not possible (at least, in a straightforward way). While it is true that you can use a System.Windows.Forms control as a canvas for your game, you cannot use an XNA device as a canvas for your control.

The good news: there are already some alternative toolkits that create textboxes, buttons and labels using XNA.

http://forums.xna.com/forums/p/1891/9461.aspx

Answer 2

Thank you soooo much! This is post was uber useful.

I looked at the forum he posted, weighed all of the toolkits they provided, and have decided to go with CeGui# (http://www.nuclex.org/news/2007/01/14/ceguisharp). Even though, like all of the other toolkits, CeGui# doesn't work for XNA 2.0, it does work for XNA 1.0 and developments are on the way towards getting it to work for 2.0 someday.

You're a good man Davide Inglima. Thanks ;)