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Learning LibGDX Game Development- Second Edition

By : Suryakumar B Nair, Andreas Oehlke

3.5 (11)

Learning LibGDX Game Development- Second Edition

3.5 (11)

By: Suryakumar B Nair, Andreas Oehlke

Overview of this book

This book is aimed at indie and existing game developers as well as those who want to get started with game development using LibGDX. Basic knowledge of Java programming and game development is required.

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. Introduction to LibGDX and Project Setup

1. Introduction to LibGDX and Project Setup

Diving into LibGDX

Features of LibGDX 1.2.0

Getting in touch with the community

Prerequisites to install and configure LibGDX

Creating a new application

gdx-setup versus gdx-setup-ui

Kicking your game to life

Key to success lies in planning

Game project – Canyon Bunny

Summary

2. Cross-platform Development – Build Once, Deploy Anywhere

2. Cross-platform Development – Build Once, Deploy Anywhere

The demo application – how the projects work together

LibGDX backends

LibGDX core modules

LibGDX's application life cycle and interface

Starter classes

The demo application – time for code

Summary

3. Configuring the Game

3. Configuring the Game

Setting up the Canyon Bunny project

Using a class diagram for Canyon Bunny

Laying foundations

Putting it all together

Summary

4. Gathering Resources

4. Gathering Resources

Setting up a custom Android application icon

Setting up a custom iOS application icon

Creating the texture atlases

Loading and tracking assets

Organizing the assets

Testing the assets

Handling level data

Summary

5. Making a Scene

5. Making a Scene

Creating game objects

Implementing the level loader

Assembling the game world

Implementing the game GUI

Summary

6. Adding the Actors

6. Adding the Actors

Implementing the actor game objects

Completing the level loader

Adding the game logic

Summary

7. Menus and Options

7. Menus and Options

Managing multiple screens

Exploring Scene2D UI, TableLayout, and skins

Using LibGDX's scene graph for the menu UI

Building the scene for the menu screen

Building the Options window

Summary

8. Special Effects

8. Special Effects

Creating complex effects with particle systems

Adding a dust particle effect to the player character

Moving the clouds

Smoothing with linear interpolation (Lerp)

Adding parallax scrolling to the mountains in the background

Enhancing the game screen's GUI

Summary

9. Screen Transitions

9. Screen Transitions

Adding the screen transition capability

Summary

10. Managing the Music and Sound Effects

10. Managing the Music and Sound Effects

Playing back the music and sound effects

Accessing the audio device directly

Using sound generators

Adding music and sounds to Canyon Bunny

Summary

11. Advanced Programming Techniques

11. Advanced Programming Techniques

Simulating physics with Box2D

Working with shaders in LibGDX

Adding alternative input controls

Summary

12. Animations

12. Animations

Manipulating actors through actions

Animating the menu screen

Using sequences of images for animations

Animating the game screen

Summary

13. Basic 3D Programming

13. Basic 3D Programming

Light sources

Environment and materials

Basic 3D using LibGDX

Loading a model

3D frustum culling

Ray picking

Summary

14. Bullet Physics

14. Bullet Physics

About Bullet Physics

A few basic concepts

Learning Bullet with LibGDX

Adding some rigid bodies

Stepping the world

Having fun with shadows

Summary

Index

Index

Ray picking

It would be great if we could interact with the game objects. In a 2D scene, it is easy as we can map the 2D coordinates of the game object with the input coordinates. However, in a 3D game, it is different as the game object is positioned in 3D world coordinates and the input is available as 2D screen coordinates. A familiar scenario is a first person shooter game, wherein on shooting the bullet it is traced through the scene until a collision is detected. Ray picking is the process of shooting a line or ray from the camera through the 2D view port into the 3D game world until it hits an object, as shown here:

Ray picking

The following code will explain the process of ray picking in LibGDX. We will extend and update CameraInputController in the create() function as follows:

@Override
public void create() {
...
final BoundingBox box= model.calculateBoundingBox(new BoundingBox());
camController = new CameraInputController(cam) {
private final Vector3 position = new Vector3();

@Override
public...

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