Now with the XML set up, it is time to actually get something displaying on screen.

This section assumes you have completed the last two steps within a MonoGame project, and have the latest version of GuiCookie set up via NuGet.

Add a new class to your project, in this example it will be named "TestRoot". It should implement the "Root" class, and for now is left empty. It should look like this:

using GuiCookie;

public class TestRoot : Root 
{

}

Within your main Game1.cs class (or whatever you have renamed it), add three new variables:

private UIManager uiManager;

private TestRoot testRoot;

private GuiCamera camera;

Now within the LoadContent() function, these variables can be safely set up.

The UIManager allows roots to be easily created without needing to supply every single dependency, it takes a Game object in its constructor.

uiManager = new UIManager(this);

The GuiCamera handles drawing the elements, the UIManager can create one easily.

camera = uiManager.CreateGuiCamera();

Now the UI itself can be set up. Note that the path is to the layout sheet made in the last section, relative to the content folder.

testRoot = uiManager.CreateUIRoot<TestRoot>("Gui\\Layout");

The UI has been loaded and set up by this point, but it still needs to be drawn and updated.

Add this to the Update(GameTime) function:

testRoot.Update(gameTime);

Add this to the Draw(GameTime) function:

camera.Begin();

testRoot.Draw(camera);

camera.End();

And now if you build and run, you should see a text box in the top-left corner that says "Hello World!".

Now that there's a GUI being drawn and updated, the next step is to add some form of interaction between the player and the code by adding buttons.