Having read the documentation for VPython and GTK threading, it seems to me that it would be possible to embed VPython graphics within a gtk GUI. I know that it is possible with wx on Windows but I am on Linux and using PyGTK. Now, I have managed to get part of the way. I can embed a VPython window provided that it is spawned a separate process. What I would like is to embed it as a thread. The latter would make GUI events that control the OpenGL easier to implement -- via a thread instead of a socket and network calls.
Edit: Apparently nobody knows anything about this... Meh.
Here is the code I have. Uncomment the two commented out lines and comment a few obvious others and you can get to the process spawning code.
#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import time
from visual import *
import threading
import Queue
import gtk
import pygtk
import re
import subprocess
class OPenGLThreadClass (threading.Thread):
"""Thread running the VPython code."""
def __init__(self, queue):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.queue = queue
self.name = 'OpenGLThread'
def run (self):
gtk.threads_enter()
self.scene = display.get_selected()
self.scene.title = 'OpenGL test'
s = sphere()
gtk.threads_leave()
#P = subprocess.Popen(['python', 'opengl.py'])
time.sleep(2)
self.queue.put(self.find_window_id())
self.queue.task_done()
def find_window_id (self):
"""Gets the OpenGL window ID."""
pattern = re.compile('0x[0-9abcdef]{7}')
P = subprocess.Popen(['xwininfo', '-name', self.scene.title],
#P = subprocess.Popen(['xwininfo', '-name', 'Visual WeldHead'],
stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
for line in P.stdout.readlines():
match = pattern.findall(line)
if len(match):
ret = long(match[0], 16)
print("OpenGL window id is %d (%s)" % (ret, hex(ret)))
return ret
class GTKWindowThreadClass (threading.Thread):
"""Thread running the GTK code."""
def __init__ (self, winID):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.OpenGLWindowID = winID
self.name = 'GTKThread'
def run (self):
"""Draw the GTK GUI."""
gtk.threads_enter()
window = gtk.Window()
window.show()
socket = gtk.Socket()
socket.show()
window.add(socket)
window.connect("destroy", lambda w: gtk.main_quit())
print("Got winID as %d (%s)" % (self.OpenGLWindowID, hex(self.OpenGLWindowID)))
socket.add_id(long(self.OpenGLWindowID))
gtk.main()
gtk.threads_leave()
def main ():
thread = {}
print("Embedding OpenGL/VPython into GTK GUI")
queue = Queue.Queue()
thread['OpenGL'] = OPenGLThreadClass(queue)
thread['OpenGL'].start()
winID = queue.get()
print("Got winID as %d (%s)" % (winID, hex(winID)))
gtk.gdk.threads_init()
thread['GTK'] = GTKWindowThreadClass(winID)
thread['GTK'].start()
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()