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Learning LibGDX Game Development- Second Edition

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Learning LibGDX Game Development- Second Edition

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Learning LibGDX Game Development- Second Edition
Jan, 2015 | 478 pages
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Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Learning LibGDX Game Development Second Edition
Learning LibGDX Game Development Second Edition
Credits
Credits
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to LibGDX and Project Setup
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
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
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
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
Making a Scene
Creating game objects
Implementing the level loader
Assembling the game world
Implementing the game GUI
Summary
6
Adding the Actors
Adding the Actors
Implementing the actor game objects
Completing the level loader
Adding the game logic
Summary
7
Menus and Options
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
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
Screen Transitions
Adding the screen transition capability
Summary
10
Managing the Music and Sound Effects
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
Advanced Programming Techniques
Simulating physics with Box2D
Working with shaders in LibGDX
Adding alternative input controls
Summary
12
Animations
Animations
Manipulating actors through actions
Animating the menu screen
Using sequences of images for animations
Animating the game screen
Summary
13
Basic 3D Programming
Basic 3D Programming
Light sources
Environment and materials
Basic 3D using LibGDX
Loading a model
3D frustum culling
Ray picking
Summary
14
Bullet Physics
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

LibGDX backends

LibGDX makes use of several other libraries to interface the specifics of each platform in order to provide cross-platform support for your applications. Generally, a backend is what enables LibgGDX to access the corresponding platform functionalities when one of the abstracted (platform-independent) LibGDX methods is called; for example, drawing an image in the upper-left corner of the screen, playing a sound file at a volume of 80 percent, or reading and writing from/to a file.

LibGDX currently provides the following four backends:

  • Lightweight Java Game Library (LWJGL)

  • Android

  • JavaScript/WebGL

  • iOS/RoboVM

Lightweight Java Game Library

Lightweight Java Game Library (LWJGL) is an open source Java library originally started by Caspian Rychlik-Prince to ease game development in terms of accessing the hardware resources on desktop systems. In LibGDX, LWJGL is used for the desktop backend to support all the major desktop operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

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