2. Working with 2D Graphics | Libgdx Cross-platform Game Development Cookbook

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Libgdx Cross-platform Game Development Cookbook

4.8 (18)

Libgdx Cross-platform Game Development Cookbook

4.8 (18)

Overview of this book

If you want to make cross-platform games without the hassle and dangers of writing platform-specific code, or If you are a game programmer who may have some experience with Java and you want to learn everything you need to know about Libgdx to produce awesome work, this is the book for you. To take full advantage of the recipes in this book, you are expected to be familiar with java with good game programming knowledge.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. Diving into Libgdx

1. Diving into Libgdx

Introduction

Setting up a cross-platform development environment

Creating a cross-platform project

Understanding the project structure and application life cycle

Updating and managing project dependencies

Using source control on a Libgdx project with Git

Importing and running the Libgdx official demos

2. Working with 2D Graphics

2. Working with 2D Graphics

Introduction

Texture rendering with SpriteBatch

More effective rendering with regions and atlases

Taking advantage of Libgdx sprites

Rendering sprite-sheet-based animations

Understanding orthographic cameras

Using ShapeRenderer for debug graphics

Handling multiple screen sizes with viewports

3. Advanced 2D Graphics

3. Advanced 2D Graphics

Introduction

Achieving juicy effects with particles

Frame buffers and image composition

Welcome to the world of shaders

Passing parameters into shader programs

2D depth of field shader

Embedding a Libgdx window into a Java desktop application

4. Detecting User Input

4. Detecting User Input

Introduction

Detecting user input via event polling

Detecting user input via event listening

Managing multiple listeners at once

Detecting more complex gestures

Introducing the controllers API

Input mapping for cross-platform development

5. Audio and File I/O

5. Audio and File I/O

Introduction

Playing short sound effects

Audio streaming for background music

Optimizing audio files to reduce download sizes

Procedural audio generators

Engine sounds with dynamic audio

The 2D space sound system

The first approach to file handling in Libgdx

Using preferences to store game states and options

The XML parsing primer

JSON serialization and deserialization

6. Font Rendering

6. Font Rendering

Introduction

Generating and rendering bitmap fonts

Baking effects into fonts using Hiero

Scaling friendly font rendering with distance fields

Dynamic font effects using distance fields

7. Asset Management

7. Asset Management

Introduction

Getting to know AssetManager

Asynchronous asset loading

Creating custom asset loaders

Managing groups of assets for bigger games

8. User Interfaces with Scene2D

8. User Interfaces with Scene2D

Introduction

Introducing the Scene2D API

Widget collection overview

Creating a basic menu screen using tables

Skin customization

Creating new widgets

9. The 2D Maps API

9. The 2D Maps API

Introduction

Creating maps with Tiled and loading them into Libgdx

Adding and querying map metadata

Developing your own map loaders and renderers

10. Rigid Body Physics with Box2D

10. Rigid Body Physics with Box2D

Introduction

Introducing Box2D

Introducing more complex shapes

Introducing joints

Real-life joints example – bike simulator

Reacting to collisions

Sensors and collision filtering

Querying the world

Building a physics world from level data

Implementing a deferred raycaster

The fixed timestep approach

11. Third-party Libraries and Extras

11. Third-party Libraries and Extras

Introduction

Making libraries compatible with GWT

Managing platform-specific code

Smooth animations with Universal Tween Engine

Dynamic 2D lighting with Box2DLights

Adding support for localization

Finite state machine and messaging

Component-based entity systems with Ashley

Skeletal animations with Spine

12. Performance and Optimizations

12. Performance and Optimizations

Introduction

Profiling your application with VisualVM

Using Libgdx features to avoid garbage collection

Avoiding unnecessary render calls with frustum culling

13. Giving Back

13. Giving Back

Introduction

Releasing your Libgdx game on desktop

Releasing your Libgdx game on Android

Releasing your Libgdx game on iOS

Releasing your Libgdx game on browsers

Working from sources

Creating a new test for your fresh feature

Sending a pull request on GitHub

Index

Index

Texture rendering with SpriteBatch

A texture is a bitmap image that gets applied to a surface through mapping. Rendering textures on the screen will be our first step in getting to know the Libgdx 2D graphics API. Once you learn a few simple operations with textures, you will be able to build relatively complex scenes for your games.

To illustrate the procedure, we are going to make use of a friendly caveman, who we will show at different positions, sizes, and orientations.

Getting ready

You need the samples projects to follow this recipe, so make sure you already have them in your Eclipse workspace. You will find the caveman texture in data/caveman.png, inside the data folder in the Android project.

How to do it…

The code for this recipe is hosted in the SpriteBatchSample class, which has the classic methods of an ApplicationListener interface implementation. Note that only the most relevant pieces of code are shown in this recipe as snippets; you can, however, study the full source. First of...

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