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

Summary


In this chapter, we learned that procedural generation is the creation of content by using algorithms. This concept can be applied to all digital media and is used in games to create dynamic systems and environments. Procedural generation brings larger games, variety, and dynamism; all at the cost of lesser control, and potentially lesser performance as it is taxing on hardware. Some examples of the most popular uses of procedural generation in modern gaming include terrain generation, texture creation, and procedural animation.

In the next chapter, we will take a look at the project that has been supplied with the book. As we learn to create procedural systems, we will be implementing them in a real game project, with the ultimate goal of creating a roguelike game, a genre that heavily utilizes procedural generation. We will review the game template, the SFML modules that we will be using, and get the project setup. Then, we will compile it on your system.

If you are familiar with C++ game development and have used SFML before, you may already be familiar with the concepts presented in the next chapter. If that's the case, feel free to skim through the chapter to get right into the programming in Chapter 3, Using RNG with C++ Data Types.