Chapter 1, Diving into Libgdx, introduces the reader to the Libgdx development environment so as to get ready for the rest of the book. It also presents the basic architecture of the framework, how to run applications across devices, and how to put a project under source control.

Chapter 2, Working with 2D Graphics, covers the most important aspects of the Libgdx 2D API. The readers will learn how to render and animate textures, work with cameras, and deal with different resolutions.

Chapter 3, Advanced 2D Graphics, shows the reader how to achieve juicy effects with particles, shaders, and image composition.

Chapter 4, Detecting User Input, explains how to make your applications interactive across different devices. Keyboard, mouse, touch, and controller-based inputs are all found in this chapter.

Chapter 5, Audio and File I/O, shows readers how to play background music and sound effects to give that extra sparkle to the project. It also covers how to use the file's API and read popular formats such as JSON and XML.

Chapter 6, Font Rendering, details the different approaches to render text through Libgdx. Moreover, it also teaches how to overcome common pitfalls such as special characters and font scaling.

Chapter 7, Asset Management, provides information on how to control your assets' life cycle so as to accommodate low memory devices and make the most out of the hardware. It also gives insight into how to achieve asynchronous loading, so apps stay responsive while they stream content.

Chapter 8, User Interfaces with Scene2D, covers the powerful Libgdx scene hierarchy API focusing on how to build UI layouts. Moreover, it goes as far as skinning and custom widget creation. The reader will learn how to create great menus and in-game HUDs.

Chapter 9, The 2D Maps API, explains the simple Libgdx mechanisms to load and render levels created with tools such as Tiled as well as to query their metadata. The maps 2D API also allows users to provide loaders and renderers for additional formats.

Chapter 10, Rigid Body Physics with Box2D, shows the reader how to use the many features of the popular physics library that comes with Libgdx. Bodies, shapes, joints, sensors, collision handling, level geometry, raycasting, and fixed timestep are all covered in this chapter.

Chapter 11, Third-party Libraries and Extras, goes through the most popular Libgdx extensions, so the reader can make use of their enhancements. It covers a wide range of topics such as lighting, skeletal animation, localization, and entity systems.

Chapter 12, Performance and Optimizations, provides the readers with advice to achieve their performance targets. This becomes crucial when targeting mobile devices and browsers.

Chapter 13, Giving Back, lays out the process of publishing a finished application as well as contributing to the main Libgdx repository.

As a minimum, you need a computer running Windows, Mac, or a Linux distribution that also supports hardware acceleration. No need to worry; currently, even the most considerably old machines support this. Additionally, to target Android devices, a phone or a tablet running Android 2.2 or higher is required. In order to target iOS, a Mac with XCode is needed, and when testing on a real device, an Apple developer subscription becomes a must.

All software dependencies are free to use even for commercial purposes. However, the Apple developer license is subject to yearly payments.

Installation instructions for additional software will be provided when needed.

This book is aimed at developers who are already familiar with object-oriented programming principles, know the basics of game development, and want to use the power of Libgdx to make awesome cross-platform games without the hassle of having to deal with platform-specific nonsense.

Although Libgdx is based on Java, having experience with the language is only recommended and not a must. It can easily be learned as you go, even more so when coming from C++ or C#.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "The action takes place within the overridden processEntity() method responsible for the logic"

A block of code is set as follows:

public class DesktopResolver implements PlatformResolver {
   @Override
   public void rateGame() {
      System.out.println("Desktop");
      Gdx.net.openURI("https://facebook.com");
   }
}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

public String getCurrentLanguage() {
return currentLanguage;
}
public void setCurrentLanguage(String name) {
if(languages.containsKey(name.toLowerCase()))
currentLanguage = name;
}

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

tar –xzvf android-sdk.r22.2.1-linux.tgz

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Install the Gradle IDE entry and restart Eclipse for the last time."

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