Book Image

Procedural Content Generation for C++ Game Development

By : Dale Green
Book Image

Procedural Content Generation for C++ Game Development

By: Dale Green

Overview of this book

Procedural generation is a growing trend in game development. It allows developers to create games that are bigger and more dynamic, giving the games a higher level of replayability. Procedural generation isn’t just one technique, it’s a collection of techniques and approaches that are used together to create dynamic systems and objects. C++ is the industry-standard programming language to write computer games. It’s at the heart of most engines, and is incredibly powerful. SFML is an easy-to-use, cross-platform, and open-source multimedia library. Access to computer hardware is broken into succinct modules, making it a great choice if you want to develop cross-platform games with ease. Using C++ and SFML technologies, this book will guide you through the techniques and approaches used to generate content procedurally within game development. Throughout the course of this book, we’ll look at examples of these technologies, starting with setting up a roguelike project using the C++ template. We’ll then move on to using RNG with C++ data types and randomly scattering objects within a game map. We will create simple console examples to implement in a real game by creating unique and randomised game items, dynamic sprites, and effects, and procedurally generating game events. Then we will walk you through generating random game maps. At the end, we will have a retrospective look at the project. By the end of the book, not only will you have a solid understanding of procedural generation, but you’ll also have a working roguelike game that you will have extended using the examples provided.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Procedural Content Generation for C++ Game Development
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgment
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Choosing an IDE


Before we do anything, you're going to need a solid C++ IDE. You may already have one that you prefer to use. If you do have one, that's fine. But if you don't, here's a quick summary of two of my favorites.

Microsoft Visual Studio

Microsoft Visual Studio is an industry-standard IDE from Microsoft. It supports a wide range of languages, and provides a large variety of testing and compatibility tools. It's also tied in with a number of Microsoft services, making it the top choice for development on Windows PCs. The pros and cons to using Microsoft Visual Studio are as follows:

Pros:

  • It has a number of free versions available

  • A wide range of languages are supported by Microsoft Visual Studio

  • It is widely supported by Microsoft

  • It has a highly customizable environment with dockable windows

  • It has intelligent code completion features

  • It is integrated with a number of Microsoft features

Cons:

  • Its full version is very expensive

  • Its free version is limited

  • Works only on Windows PC

Tip

Microsoft...