---
title: Plugin UI
description: This article explains all available options to create user interfaces for your own plugins and how to use preffered Dear ImGui inside launcher environment
published: true
date: 2025-07-07T15:20:41.232Z
tags: 
editor: markdown
dateCreated: 2025-07-07T15:20:39.406Z
---

# Creating UIs

The SE Launcher supports multiple approaches to creating user interfaces. Depending on your needs and the context in which the UI is displayed, you may choose from a variety of supported frameworks:

---

## Supported UI Frameworks

- **VRage Sandbox GUI (`MyGuiScreenBase`)**  
  The native game GUI system used by the base game for menus and dialogs.

- **EmptyKeys MVVM-XAML (`MyGuiScreenMvvmBase`)**  
  A more modern approach using MVVM and XAML, as used by some newer parts of the Space Engineers UI.

- **Windows Forms / WPF**  
  Standard UI toolkits in the .NET ecosystem. These are generally used for **external or child windows**, since they cannot be rendered on the main game window.

> These options are available and usable, but may require more complex setup and are outside the scope of this article.

---

## Recommended: ImGui

The **preferred UI system** in SE Launcher is **[Dear ImGui](https://github.com/ocornut/imgui)**, a powerful and immediate-mode GUI library.

It is used for **all SE Launcher native UI** and is tightly integrated into the plugin system, making it the best choice for creating custom plugin UIs.

This article focuses exclusively on using **ImGui**, as other frameworks are either documented elsewhere or can be studied via existing plugin implementations.

---

## Getting Started with ImGui

To create a UI with ImGui, define a class that implements the `IRenderComponent` interface.

All ImGui rendering must be done **inside the `OnFrame()` method**, which is called every frame when the renderer is active.

### Example: Simple UI Component

```csharp
using CringePlugins.Abstractions;
using ImGuiNET;

namespace TestPlugin;

public class TestRenderComponent : IRenderComponent
{
    public void OnFrame()
    {
        if (ImGui.Begin("Test Window"))
        {
            ImGui.Button("Test");

            ImGui.End();
        }
        
        ImGui.ShowDemoWindow();
    }
}
````

In this example:

* A basic ImGui window titled **“Test Window”** is shown.
* A button labeled **“Test”** is rendered.
* `ImGui.ShowDemoWindow()` displays an interactive reference window with a showcase of all ImGui features and controls.

This is an excellent way to explore the capabilities of ImGui while developing your UI.

---

## Registering the Render Component

To make your ImGui UI render in-game, you must **register the component** using the `RenderHandler` during plugin initialization:

```csharp
public void Init(object gameInstance)
{
    RenderHandler.Current.RegisterComponent(new TestRenderComponent());
}
```

Once registered, your `OnFrame()` method will be called every frame, and your ImGui-based UI will be drawn automatically.

---

## Further Learning

ImGui is a complex and versatile UI framework, and covering all of its features is beyond the scope of this article.

To learn more, you can:

* Explore the **ImGui Demo Window** via `ImGui.ShowDemoWindow()`
* Look at how the SE Launcher uses ImGui in its own UI components:

  * Plugin List:
    [PluginListComponent.cs](https://git.zznty.ru/PvE/se-launcher/src/branch/master/CringePlugins/Ui/PluginListComponent.cs)
  * Mod List from Client Mod Loader:
    [ModListComponent.cs](https://git.zznty.ru/PvE/ClientModLoader/src/branch/master/Plugin.ClientModLoader/ModListComponent.cs)

These examples demonstrate real-world usage patterns for building complex UI with ImGui in the launcher environment.