Any good 2d engines with a GUI system?

Question

I'm trying to develop a simple app ( it will resemble something like a powerpoint presentation) that will require some simple GUI controls: button, textbox, slider and listbox.
And i would want to be able to skin the controls. So i'm looking for an easy to learn 2d engine that will aid me in doing what i want.
Any recommendation for such engine?
It can be in python or .net (xna) preferable or if not c/c++ will be ok i guess.

L.E.: I'm looking for a graphic rendering engine that has specified gui controls available. For example Irrlicht.

Answer 1

I am not fully sure what the requirement is. Are you trying to render GUI widgets using some 2D engine, or are you looking for GUI library that also has 2D graphics support? Most GUI libraries have decent graphics support. See Java's 2D Graphics tutorial for example. For skin, take a look at Java's Substance or Modzilla XUL Runner and its star child Songbird.

If you want to do more, you could embed OpenGL into WinForm, Java, Delphi, etc. See Creating an OpenGL view on a Windows Form.

Answer 2

WPF for .NET is a very nice platform to do skinable graphics in. It fully supports skinning right "out of the box". As a side-benefit, it will do do 3d rendering with very little extra effort. Most of the standard GUI controls are there, including buttons, listboxes, textboxes and sliders. By default they have the standard windows appearance, but skinning is as simple as changing colors around, or specifying an image to use instead.

Answer 3

Qt is a very nice cross-platform C++ library, it has three GPL, LPGP and commercial licenses also.

Answer 4

Garage Games is a solid engine with alot of nice features. They have various engines designed for 2D, 3D, XNA, Wii, iphone etc.

Answer 5

in the end i went with Irrlicht

also worth mentioning:

• Ogre3d
• HGE

Answer 6

You might also have a look at Popcap's SexyAppFramework. It includes GUI elements, is much smaller than most full-blown engines like Irrlicht or Ogre, optionally makes use of 3D hardware acceleration and has been tested by Popcap on millions on computers.