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

An introduction to pathfinding


We're going to start by tackling the biggest job: implementing a pathfinding algorithm so that the enemies can move intelligently around the map. Before we do so, let's take a look at pathfinding algorithms as a whole, what they do, and how they do it! This context will help you make the task ahead clearer and show you the wealth of choices that we have.

What is a pathfinding algorithm?

A pathfinding algorithm is an algorithm that calculates the best path from one position to another. A good algorithm will take into account the terrain and several other factors to ensure that the movement is intelligent and won't result in any weird behavior. Remember the last time you were playing a game and an NPC kept walking into the wall? This is the weird behavior that pathfinding errors produce. Every time an enemy runs around an object to get you in a game, it's the result of such an algorithm, and they're essential in the creation of a gameplay that's challenging and...