Book Image

Beginning C++ Game Programming

Book Image

Beginning C++ Game Programming

Overview of this book

This book is all about offering you a fun introduction to the world of game programming, C++, and the OpenGL-powered SFML using three fun, fully-playable games. These games are an addictive frantic two-button tapper, a multi-level zombie survival shooter, and a split-screen multiplayer puzzle-platformer. We will start with the very basics of programming, such as variables, loops, and conditions and you will become more skillful with each game as you move through the key C++ topics, such as OOP (Object-Orientated Programming), C++ pointers, and an introduction to the Standard Template Library. While building these games, you will also learn exciting game programming concepts like particle effects, directional sound (spatialization), OpenGL programmable Shaders, spawning thousands of objects, and more.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
Beginning C++ Game Programming
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Dedication
Preface
17
Before you go...

Improving the game and the code


Take a look at these suggested enhancements for the Timber!!! project. You can see the enhancements in action in the Runnable folder of the download bundle:

  1. Speeding up the code: There is a part of our code that is slowing down our game. It doesn't matter for this simple game, but we can speed things up by putting the sstream code in a block that only executes occasionally. After all, we don't need to update the score hundreds of times a second!

  2. Debugging console: Let's add some more text so we can see the current frame rate. As with the score, we don't need to update this too often. Once every hundred frames will do.

  3. Adding more trees in the background: Simply add some more tree sprites and draw them in whatever position looks good (you could have some nearer the camera, some further away).

  4. Improving the visibility of the HUD text: We can draw simple RectangleShape objects behind the score and the FPS counter; black with a bit of transparency will look quite...