README.md

Pygame Matplotlib Backend

This is an attempt to create a dedicated backend for matplotlib in pygame.

The matplotlib Figure object is replaced by a FigureSurface object which inherits from both matplotlib.figure.Figure and pygame.Surface.

Note that the library is in an experimental developement stage and not all features of standard matplotlib backends are implement at the moment.

Installation

pip install pygame-matplotlib

Usage

First you will need to specify that you want to use pygame backend.

# Select pygame backend
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('module://pygame_matplotlib.backend_pygame')

Then you can use matplotlib as you usually do.

# Standard matplotlib syntax
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, ax = plt.subplots()  # Create a figure containing a single axes.
ax.plot([1, 2, 3, 4], [1, 4, 2, 3])  # Plot some data on the axes.
plt.show()

Or you can include the plot in your game using the fact that a Figure is also a pygame.Surface with this backend.

import pygame
import pygame.display

fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 1,)
axes.plot([1,2], [1,2], color='green', label='test')

fig.canvas.draw()

screen = pygame.display.set_mode((800, 600))

# Use the fig as a pygame.Surface
screen.blit(fig, (100, 100))

show = True
while show:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            # Stop showing when quit
            show = False
    pygame.display.update()

Note that if you want to update the plot during the game, you might need to call fig.canvas.draw() and screen.blit(fig) during the game loop.

See examples in test.py or test_show.py

Current implementation

Support mainly the basic plotting capabilities.