Dear ImGui (Rust) Workspace

Rust bindings and ecosystem around Dear ImGui, with docking, WGPU/GL backends, and popular extensions (ImGuizmo, ImNodes, ImPlot).

What’s in this repo

• Core
  • dear-imgui-sys — low‑level FFI via cimgui (docking branch), bindgen against Dear ImGui v1.92.3
  • dear-imgui — safe, idiomatic Rust API (RAII + builder style similar to imgui-rs)
  • Backends: dear-imgui-wgpu, dear-imgui-glow, dear-imgui-winit
• Extensions
  • dear-imguizmo — 3D gizmo (cimguizmo C API) + a pure‑Rust GraphEditor
  • dear-imnodes — node editor (cimnodes C API)
  • dear-implot — plotting (cimplot C API)

All crates are maintained together in this workspace.

Hello, ImGui (Hello World)

use dear_imgui::*;

let mut ctx = Context::create();
let ui = ctx.frame();
ui.window("Hello")
  .size([300.0, 120.0], Condition::FirstUseEver)
  .build(|| {
      ui.text("Hello, world!");
      if ui.button("Click me") { println!("clicked"); }
  });
// Rendering is done by a backend (e.g. dear-imgui-wgpu or dear-imgui-glow)

// Tip: For fallible creation, use `Context::try_create()`

Examples

# Clone with submodules

git clone https://github.com/Latias94/dear-imgui

git submodule update --init --recursive


# Core & docking

cargo run -p dear-imgui-examples --bin game_engine_docking


# Extensions

cargo run -p dear-imgui-examples --bin imguizmo_basic   --features dear-imguizmo

cargo run -p dear-imgui-examples --bin imnodes_basic    --features dear-imnodes

cargo run -p dear-imgui-examples --bin implot_basic     --features dear-implot

Tip: The ImNodes example includes multiple tabs (Hello, Multi-Editor, Style, Advanced Style, Save/Load, Color Editor, Shader Graph, MiniMap Callback).

See examples/README.md for a curated index and the planned from‑easy‑to‑advanced layout.

Installation

[dependencies]

dear-imgui = "0.2"

# choose a backend + platform integration

dear-imgui-wgpu = "0.2"   # or dear-imgui-glow

dear-imgui-winit = "0.2"

Build Strategy

• Default: build from source on all platforms. Prebuilt binaries are optional and off by default.
• Windows: we publish prebuilt packages (MD/MT, with/without freetype). Linux/macOS may have CI artifacts but are not used automatically.
• Opt-in prebuilt download from Release: enable either the crate feature prebuilt or set <CRATE>_SYS_USE_PREBUILT=1. Otherwise builds only use prebuilt when you explicitly point to them (e.g., <CRATE>_SYS_LIB_DIR or <CRATE>_SYS_PREBUILT_URL).

Env vars per -sys crate:

• <CRATE>_SYS_LIB_DIR — link from a dir containing the static lib
• <CRATE>_SYS_PREBUILT_URL — explicit URL to .a/.lib or .tar.gz (always honored)
• <CRATE>_SYS_USE_PREBUILT=1 — allow auto download from GitHub Releases
• <CRATE>_SYS_PACKAGE_DIR — local dir with .tar.gz packages
• <CRATE>_SYS_CACHE_DIR — cache root for downloads/extraction
• <CRATE>_SYS_SKIP_CC — skip C/C++ compilation
• <CRATE>_SYS_FORCE_BUILD — force source build
• IMGUI_SYS_USE_CMAKE / IMPLOT_SYS_USE_CMAKE — prefer CMake when available; otherwise cc
• CARGO_NET_OFFLINE=true — forbid network; use only local packages or repo prebuilt

Freetype: enable once anywhere. Turning on freetype in any extension (imnodes/imguizmo/implot) propagates to dear-imgui-sys. When using a prebuilt dear-imgui-sys with freetype, ensure the package manifest includes features=freetype (our packager writes this).

Quick examples (enable auto prebuilt download):

• Feature: cargo build -p dear-imgui-sys --features prebuilt
• Env (Unix): IMGUI_SYS_USE_PREBUILT=1 cargo build -p dear-imgui-sys
• Env (Windows PowerShell): $env:IMGUI_SYS_USE_PREBUILT='1'; cargo build -p dear-imgui-sys

Compatibility (Latest)

The workspace follows a release-train model. The table below lists the latest, recommended combinations. See docs/COMPATIBILITY.md for full history and upgrade notes.

Core

Backends

Extensions

Maintenance rules

• Upgrade dear-imgui-sys together with all -sys extensions to avoid C ABI/API drift.
• dear-imgui upgrades may require minor changes in backends/extensions if public APIs changed.
• Backend external deps (wgpu/winit/glow) have their own breaking cycles and may drive backend bumps independently.

CI (Prebuilt Binaries)

• Workflow: .github/workflows/prebuilt-binaries.yml
  • Inputs:
    • tag (release) or branch (manual; default main)
    • crates: comma-separated list (all, dear-imgui-sys, dear-implot-sys, dear-imnodes-sys, dear-imguizmo-sys)
  • Artifacts (branch builds) or Release assets (tag builds) include .tar.gz packages named: dear-<name>-prebuilt-<version>-<target>-static[-mt|-md].tar.gz
  • Release download URLs default to owner/repo configured in tools/build-support/src/lib.rs. Override via env: BUILD_SUPPORT_GH_OWNER, BUILD_SUPPORT_GH_REPO.

Version & FFI

• FFI layer is generated from the cimgui “docking” branch matching Dear ImGui v1.92.3.
• We avoid the C++ ABI by using the C API + bindgen. The safe layer mirrors imgui-rs style (RAII + builder).

Crates (workspace)

dear-imgui/            # Safe Rust bindings
dear-imgui-sys/        # cimgui FFI (docking; ImGui v1.92.3)
backends/
  dear-imgui-wgpu/     # WGPU renderer
  dear-imgui-glow/     # OpenGL renderer
  dear-imgui-winit/    # Winit platform
extensions/
  dear-imguizmo/       # ImGuizmo + pure‑Rust GraphEditor
  dear-imnodes/        # ImNodes (node editor)
  dear-implot/         # ImPlot (plotting)

Limitations

• Multi-viewport support: Currently not supported
• WebAssembly (WASM): Currently not supported

Related Projects

If you're working with graphics applications in Rust, you might also be interested in:

• asset-importer - A comprehensive Rust binding for the latest Assimp 3D asset import library, providing robust 3D model loading capabilities for graphics applications

Acknowledgments

This project builds upon the excellent work of several other projects:

• Dear ImGui by Omar Cornut - The original C++ immediate mode GUI library
• imgui-rs - Provided the API design patterns and inspiration for the Rust binding approach
• easy-imgui-rs by rodrigorc
• imgui-wgpu-rs - Provided reference implementation for WGPU backend integration

License

Dual-licensed under either of:

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)