ImPlatform is a platform abstraction layer that simplifies multiplatform development with Dear ImGui by providing a unified C API for window management, graphics initialization, and rendering across different platforms and graphics APIs.

• Clean C API: Simple, consistent function naming (ImPlatform_*)
• Multiple Platform Support: Win32, GLFW, SDL2, SDL3, Apple (macOS/iOS)
• Multiple Graphics API Support: OpenGL 3, DirectX 9/10/11/12, Vulkan, Metal, WebGPU
• Header-Only Implementation: Single header include with implementation macro
• Multi-Viewport Support: Built-in support for ImGui's multi-viewport and docking features
• Custom Shader Support: Render custom shaders with ImGui's vertex/index buffers
• Texture Creation API: Platform-agnostic texture loading and management
• Custom Title Bar: Optional borderless window with custom titlebar rendering (Win32, GLFW*)
• Flexible Configuration: Define platform and graphics API at compile time with feature flags

You can check the ImPlatform version at both compile-time and runtime:

// Compile-time version checking #include <ImPlatform.h> #if IMPLATFORM_VERSION_NUM >= 500 // Features available in version 0.5.0+ #endif // Runtime version checking const char* version = ImPlatform_GetVersion(); // Returns "0.5.0" int version_num = ImPlatform_GetVersionNum(); // Returns 500 printf("ImPlatform version: %s (numeric: %d)\n", version, version_num);

Version encoding: XYYZZ where X = major, YY = minor, ZZ = patch

• Version 0.5.0 = 500
• Version 1.2.3 = 10203

#include <imgui.h> // Define platform and graphics API before including ImPlatform.h #define IM_CURRENT_PLATFORM IM_PLATFORM_WIN32 #define IM_CURRENT_GFX IM_GFX_OPENGL3 // Define implementation to include the backend code #define IMPLATFORM_IMPLEMENTATION #include <ImPlatform.h> int main() { // Create window if (!ImPlatform_CreateWindow("My Application", ImVec2(100, 100), 1280, 720)) return 1; // Initialize graphics API if (!ImPlatform_InitGfxAPI()) return 1; // Show window if (!ImPlatform_ShowWindow()) return 1; // Create ImGui context IMGUI_CHECKVERSION(); ImGui::CreateContext(); // Setup Dear ImGui ImGuiIO& io = ImGui::GetIO(); io.ConfigFlags |= ImGuiConfigFlags_NavEnableKeyboard; io.ConfigFlags |= ImGuiConfigFlags_DockingEnable; io.ConfigFlags |= ImGuiConfigFlags_ViewportsEnable; ImGui::StyleColorsDark(); // Initialize platform and graphics backends if (!ImPlatform_InitPlatform()) return 1; if (!ImPlatform_InitGfx()) return 1; // Main loop ImVec4 clear_color = ImVec4(0.45f, 0.55f, 0.60f, 1.00f); while (ImPlatform_PlatformContinue()) { ImPlatform_PlatformEvents(); if (!ImPlatform_GfxCheck()) continue; ImPlatform_GfxAPINewFrame(); ImPlatform_PlatformNewFrame(); ImGui::NewFrame(); // Your ImGui code here ImGui::ShowDemoWindow(); ImGui::Render(); ImPlatform_GfxAPIClear(clear_color); ImPlatform_GfxAPIRender(clear_color); // Multi-viewport support ImPlatform_GfxViewportPre(); ImPlatform_GfxViewportPost(); ImPlatform_GfxAPISwapBuffer(); } // Cleanup ImPlatform_ShutdownGfxAPI(); ImPlatform_ShutdownWindow(); ImGui::DestroyContext(); ImPlatform_ShutdownPostGfxAPI(); ImPlatform_DestroyWindow(); return 0; }

• ImPlatform_CreateWindow(name, pos, width, height) - Create application window
• ImPlatform_InitGfxAPI() - Initialize graphics device
• ImPlatform_ShowWindow() - Display the window
• ImPlatform_InitPlatform() - Initialize platform backend (input, etc.)
• ImPlatform_InitGfx() - Create graphics resources

• ImPlatform_PlatformContinue() - Check if application should continue running
• ImPlatform_PlatformEvents() - Process platform events
• ImPlatform_GfxCheck() - Check if graphics are ready to render
• ImPlatform_GfxAPINewFrame() - Begin new graphics frame
• ImPlatform_PlatformNewFrame() - Begin new platform frame
• ImPlatform_GfxAPIClear(color) - Clear framebuffer
• ImPlatform_GfxAPIRender(color) - Render ImGui draw data
• ImPlatform_GfxViewportPre() - Update platform windows (multi-viewport)
• ImPlatform_GfxViewportPost() - Render platform windows (multi-viewport)
• ImPlatform_GfxAPISwapBuffer() - Present frame

• ImPlatform_ShutdownGfxAPI() - Shutdown graphics backend
• ImPlatform_ShutdownWindow() - Shutdown ImGui backends
• ImPlatform_ShutdownPostGfxAPI() - Cleanup device and swapchain
• ImPlatform_DestroyWindow() - Destroy window

// Create custom shader ImPlatform_ShaderDesc vs_desc = ImPlatform_ShaderDesc_Default(); vs_desc.shader_type = ImPlatform_ShaderType_Vertex; vs_desc.format = ImPlatform_ShaderFormat_GLSL; // or HLSL, MSL, SPIRV vs_desc.source_code = vertex_shader_source; vs_desc.entry_point = "main"; ImPlatform_Shader vs = ImPlatform_CreateShader(&vs_desc); // Create shader program ImPlatform_ShaderProgram program = ImPlatform_CreateShaderProgram(vs, ps); // Set uniform parameters ImPlatform_BeginUniformBlock(program); ImPlatform_SetUniform("ColorStart", &color1, sizeof(ImVec4)); ImPlatform_SetUniform("ColorEnd", &color2, sizeof(ImVec4)); ImPlatform_EndUniformBlock(program); // Draw with custom shader ImPlatform_DrawCustomShaderQuad(program);

// Create texture ImPlatform_TextureDesc tex_desc = ImPlatform_TextureDesc_Default(width, height); ImTextureID texture = ImPlatform_CreateTexture(pixel_data, &tex_desc); // Use in ImGui ImGui::Image(texture, ImVec2(256, 256)); // Cleanup ImPlatform_DestroyTexture(texture);

// Enable before creating window ImPlatform_EnableCustomTitleBar(); ImPlatform_CreateWindow(...); // In main loop, before other ImGui windows: if (ImPlatform_BeginCustomTitleBar(32.0f)) { // Option 1: Use default titlebar ImPlatform_DrawCustomMenuBarDefault(); // Option 2: Custom titlebar ImGui::Text("My App"); if (ImGui::Button("_")) ImPlatform_MinimizeApp(); if (ImGui::Button("[]")) ImPlatform_MaximizeApp(); if (ImGui::Button("X")) ImPlatform_CloseApp(); } ImPlatform_EndCustomTitleBar();

Note: Custom titlebar on GLFW requires TheCherno's GLFW fork and defining IMPLATFORM_APP_SUPPORT_CUSTOM_TITLEBAR=1 and IM_THE_CHERNO_GLFW3.

IM_PLATFORM_WIN32 // Windows (Win32 API) IM_PLATFORM_GLFW // GLFW (cross-platform) IM_PLATFORM_SDL2 // SDL2 IM_PLATFORM_SDL3 // SDL3 IM_PLATFORM_APPLE // macOS/iOS

IM_GFX_OPENGL3 // OpenGL 3+ IM_GFX_DIRECTX9 // DirectX 9 IM_GFX_DIRECTX10 // DirectX 10 IM_GFX_DIRECTX11 // DirectX 11 IM_GFX_DIRECTX12 // DirectX 12 IM_GFX_VULKAN // Vulkan IM_GFX_METAL // Metal (macOS/iOS) IM_GFX_WGPU // WebGPU

For convenience, you can also use these predefined target combinations:

IM_TARGET_WIN32_DX10 IM_TARGET_WIN32_DX11 IM_TARGET_WIN32_DX12 IM_TARGET_WIN32_OPENGL3 IM_TARGET_GLFW_OPENGL3 IM_TARGET_GLFW_VULKAN IM_TARGET_GLFW_METAL IM_TARGET_APPLE_METAL

Usage example with predefined target:

#define IM_CURRENT_PLATFORM IM_PLATFORM_WIN32 #define IM_CURRENT_GFX IM_GFX_DIRECTX11 // or simply: // #define IM_CURRENT_TARGET IM_TARGET_WIN32_DX11

Legend: ✅ Implemented | ⚠️ Partial | ❌ Not Implemented

The ImPlatformDemo project demonstrates basic usage and supports multiple platform/graphics API configurations.

1. Open ImPlatformDemo.sln in Visual Studio
2. Select your desired configuration from the dropdown (e.g., Win32_DX11, Win32_OpenGL3, etc.)
3. Build and run (F5)

Available configurations in the dropdown:

• Win32_DX9 - Windows + DirectX 9
• Win32_DX10 - Windows + DirectX 10
• Win32_DX11 - Windows + DirectX 11
• Win32_DX12 - Windows + DirectX 12
• Win32_OpenGL3 - Windows + OpenGL 3
• GLFW_OpenGL3 - GLFW + OpenGL 3
• GLFW_Vulkan - GLFW + Vulkan

cd ImPlatformDemo # Build Win32 + OpenGL3 msbuild ImPlatformDemo.sln /p:Configuration=Win32_OpenGL3 /p:Platform=x64 # Build Win32 + DirectX 11 msbuild ImPlatformDemo.sln /p:Configuration=Win32_DX11 /p:Platform=x64 # Build Win32 + DirectX 12 msbuild ImPlatformDemo.sln /p:Configuration=Win32_DX12 /p:Platform=x64 # Build GLFW + OpenGL3 msbuild ImPlatformDemo.sln /p:Configuration=GLFW_OpenGL3 /p:Platform=x64

• Dear ImGui (docking branch recommended for multi-viewport support)
• Platform-specific dependencies:
  • Win32: Windows SDK (included with Visual Studio)
  • GLFW: GLFW library at ../imgui/examples/libs/glfw/lib-vc2010-64/glfw3.lib (for GLFW configurations)
  • Vulkan: Vulkan SDK (for Vulkan configurations)
  • SDL2/SDL3: SDL library
  • Apple: Xcode

Note: The GLFW library should be available in the Dear ImGui examples folder. The project is configured to use the relative path from the Dear ImGui repository.

ImPlatform/ ├── ImPlatform/ │ ├── ImPlatform.h # Main header with API declarations │ ├── ImPlatform_Internal.h # Internal data structures and helpers │ ├── ImPlatform_app_*.cpp # Platform backends (Win32, GLFW, SDL, Apple) │ └── ImPlatform_gfx_*.cpp # Graphics API backends (DX, OpenGL, Vulkan, etc.) ├── ImPlatformDemo/ │ └── main.cpp # Example application └── README.md 

The library has been refactored from a C++ namespace API to a clean C API. Key changes:

The library has been tested with the following configurations:

• Windows 10/11 (Win32 API) - Tested
• Windows 10/11 (GLFW) - Tested
• Windows 10/11 (SDL2) - Not tested (contributions welcome!)
• Windows 10/11 (SDL3) - Not tested (contributions welcome!)
• macOS - Not tested (contributions welcome!)
• Linux - Not tested (contributions welcome!)

• DirectX 9 - Tested (Win32 only)
• DirectX 10 - Tested (Win32 only)
• DirectX 11 - Tested (Win32 only)
• DirectX 12 - Tested (Win32 only)
• OpenGL 3 - Tested (Win32, GLFW)
• Vulkan - Basic testing (GLFW, SDL2, SDL3)
• Metal - Not tested (macOS/iOS only, contributions welcome!)
• WebGPU - Not tested (contributions welcome!)

• Tested with: Dear ImGui v1.92.x (docking branch)
• Minimum required: Dear ImGui v1.92.x
• Recommended: Use the latest docking branch for full multi-viewport support

• Apple (macOS/iOS) platform implementation needs testing
• WebGPU backend is not yet implemented
• OpenGL3 multi-viewport with custom shaders may have minor offset issues in some edge cases
• Custom titlebar on GLFW requires TheCherno's fork

Contributions are welcome! The author primarily develops and tests on Windows with Visual Studio, so contributions and testing reports for other platforms are especially appreciated.

Platform Testers Wanted:

• macOS testers (Metal, OpenGL3)
• Linux testers (OpenGL3, Vulkan)
• SDL2/SDL3 comprehensive testing on all platforms
• iOS/mobile platform testing

Feature Contributors:

• WebGPU backend implementation
• Apple Metal backend improvements
• SDL platform feature parity (custom titlebar, etc.)
• Platform-specific bug fixes and optimizations

How to Contribute:

1. Test ImPlatform on your platform/configuration
2. Report bugs or issues via GitHub Issues
3. Submit pull requests with fixes or new features
4. Share your experience and feedback

If you've successfully built and tested ImPlatform on a platform/configuration not listed above, please let us know! Your feedback helps improve the library for everyone.

This project is licensed under the MIT License, the same as Dear ImGui.

• Original author: @SoufianeKHIAT
• Built on top of Dear ImGui by Omar Cornut

https://www.patreon.com/SoufianeKHIAT