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Learning LibGDX Game Development- Second Edition
Learning LibGDX Game Development- Second Edition

Learning LibGDX Game Development- Second Edition: Wield the power of the LibGDX framework to create a cross-platform game

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Profile Icon Suryakumar B Nair Profile Icon Andreas Oehlke
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.5 (11 Ratings)
Paperback Jan 2015 478 pages 1st Edition
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Suryakumar B Nair Profile Icon Andreas Oehlke
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.5 (11 Ratings)
Paperback Jan 2015 478 pages 1st Edition
eBook
NZ$44.99 NZ$64.99
Paperback
NZ$80.99
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Learning LibGDX Game Development- Second Edition

Chapter 2. Cross-platform Development – Build Once, Deploy Anywhere

In this chapter, you will learn more about the generated Eclipse projects and how they work together. Also, you will learn the following components of the LibGDX framework:

  • Backends
  • Modules
  • Application life cycle and interface
  • Starter classes

At the end of this chapter, you will take a closer look at the demo application and inspect the generated code of the Main class in great detail. You will learn how to set breakpoints, run the application in the debug mode, and speed up your overall productivity with the awesome JVM Code Hot Swapping feature. The discussion on the demo application ends with some simple and fun modifications to the code accompanied by a demonstration of the JVM Code Hot Swapping feature.

After completing this chapter, you will be able to deploy, run, and debug the demo application from Chapter 1, Introduction to LibGDX and Project Setup, on a desktop (including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS...

The demo application – how the projects work together

In Chapter 1, Introduction to LibGDX and Project Setup, we successfully created our demo application, but we did not look at how all the Eclipse projects work together. Take a look at the following figure to understand and familiarize yourself with the configuration pattern that all your LibGDX applications will have in common:

The demo application – how the projects work together

What you see here is a compact view of four projects. The demo project to the very left contains the shared code that is referenced (added to the build path) by all other platform-specific projects. The main class of the demo application is MyDemo.java. However, there is a different main class where an application gets started by the operating system, which will be referred to as starter classes from now on. Notice that LibGDX uses the term starter class to distinguish between these two types of main classes in order to avoid confusion. We will cover everything related to the topic of starter classes later...

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.

Lightweight Java Game Library

For more...

LibGDX core modules

LibGDX provides six core modules that allow you to access various parts of the system your application will run on. What makes these modules so great for you as a developer is that they provide you with a single Application Programming Interface (API) to achieve the same effect on more than just one platform. This is extremely powerful because you can now focus on your own application and do not have to bother with the specialties that each platform inevitably brings, including the nasty little bugs that might require tricky workarounds. This is all going to be transparently handled in a straightforward API, which is categorized into logic modules and is globally available anywhere in your code as every module is accessible as a static field in the Gdx class.

Tip

LibGDX allows you to create multiple code paths for per-platform decisions. For example, you can increase the complexity of a desktop game as desktops have a lot more computing power than mobile devices.

The application...

LibGDX's application life cycle and interface

The application life cycle in LibGDX is a well-defined set of distinct system states. The list of these states is pretty short: create, resize, render, pause, resume, and dispose.

LibGDX defines an ApplicationListener interface that contains six methods, one for each system state. The following code listing is a copy that is directly taken from LibGDX's sources. For the sake of readability, all comments have been stripped:

public interface ApplicationListener {
public void create ();
public void resize (int width, int height);
public void render ();
public void pause ();
public void resume ();
public void dispose ();
}

All you need to do is implement these methods in your main class of the shared game code project. LibGDX will then call each of these methods at the right time.

Tip

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you...

Starter classes

A starter class defines the entry point (starting point) of a LibGDX application. It is specifically written for a certain platform. Usually, these kinds of classes are very simple and mostly consist of not more than a few lines of code to set certain parameters that apply to the corresponding platform. Think of them as a kind of bootup sequence for each platform. Once booting is finished, the LibGDX framework hands over control from the starter class (for example, the demo-desktop project) to your shared application code (for example, the demo/demo-core project) by calling different methods from the ApplicationListener interface that the MyDemo class implements. Remember that the MyDemo class is where the shared application code begins.

We will now take a look at each of the starter classes that were generated during the project setup.

Running the demo application on a desktop

The starter class for the desktop application is called Main.java. The following listing is Main...

The demo application – time for code

In this section, we will take a closer look at the actual code of the demo project. Thereafter, we will do some simple modifications to the code and also use the debugger.

Inspecting an example code of the demo application

Let's take a first look at the generated code of MyDemo.java from the demo project.

The following code snippet shows the class definition:

public class MyDemo implements ApplicationListener {
  // ...
}

As you can see, the MyDemo class implements the ApplicationListener interface. The MyDemo class from Gradle project (demo-core) produces a quite different code as follows:

public class MyDemo extends ApplicationAdapter {
   //...
}

Here, the ApplicationAdapter is an abstract class that implements the ApplicationListener interface. Before we move on to the implementation details of the interface, we will spend some time on the remaining part of this class.

You will find a definition of the four member variables, each with a class...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned a lot about LibGDX and how all the projects of an application work together. We covered LibGDX's backends, modules, and starter classes. Additionally, we covered what the application life cycle and corresponding interface are and how they are meant to work. The debugger has been used to inspect the demo application at runtime, and furthermore we made use of the JVM Code Hot Swapping feature.

We now know the basics of the LibGDX applications, so we are ready to start developing a real game. We will start at the very beginning of the development cycle step by step. As LibGDX is a framework and not a game engine, we first have to build our own engine. So, we will learn how to create an appropriate program architecture in the next chapter that is suitable to handle our game.

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Description

This book is aimed at indie and existing game developers as well as those who want to get started with game development using LibGDX. Basic knowledge of Java programming and game development is required.

Who is this book for?

This book is aimed at indie and existing game developers as well as those who want to get started with game development using LibGDX. Basic knowledge of Java programming and game development is required.

What you will learn

  • Set up a crossplatform project using Gradle and test the base code required for game building
  • Speed up your overall productivity with the stunning JVM Code Hot Swapping feature
  • Use Scene2D to create and organize complex menu structures
  • Automate the creation of texture atlases using TexturePacker
  • Manage and play audio files and add special effects to your game to improve its look and feel
  • Learn 2D physics simulation using Box2D
  • Understand more about 3D programming using the new LibGDX 3D API
  • Use the LibGDX Bullet wrapper for 3D physics simulation

Product Details

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Publication date : Jan 28, 2015
Length: 478 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783554775
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Publication date : Jan 28, 2015
Length: 478 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783554775
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Tools :

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LibGDX Game Development By Example
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Table of Contents

15 Chapters
1. Introduction to LibGDX and Project Setup Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Cross-platform Development – Build Once, Deploy Anywhere Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Configuring the Game Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Gathering Resources Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Making a Scene Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Adding the Actors Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Menus and Options Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Special Effects Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Screen Transitions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Managing the Music and Sound Effects Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Advanced Programming Techniques Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
12. Animations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
13. Basic 3D Programming Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
14. Bullet Physics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.5
(11 Ratings)
5 star 18.2%
4 star 45.5%
3 star 18.2%
2 star 0%
1 star 18.2%
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L. Scott Jun 09, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is gold.. I have to say that this people really explain everything very well. This is my 2nd book about libgdx and my favorite so far. I think I can use all the classes used in this book for my own projects.. The game (Canyon Bunny) is a bit boring but the code is excellent.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
avijit Oct 15, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I will recommend to every game development enthusiastic who has just started developing. Believe me you will be very much benefitted.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Maxim Apr 23, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
I'm a not advanced game developer, however I'm familiar with Libgdx and basic game development concepts.And I can describe this book as helpful. It honestly covers all declared aspects of the framework.However sometimes it gives too much details and code examples for non libgdx specific things and sometimes it touches the basic concepts and examples only. My personal opinion is I would prefer more details in chapters 11, 13, 14 rather than given details in chapters 5, 6, 9.Anyway, I would recommend this book to everyone who has basic knowledge of Java programming, familiar with game development and interested in libgdx learning.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Sunghyun Kim Feb 21, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
I am not a game software developer, but got myself interested in it recently,starting with OpenGL ES and later finding LibGDX better choice to start with,because LibGDX has OpenGL ES in it and it works as a game framework.Author starts with very detailed guide on how to set up development environment, followed bybasic architecture and flow of LibGDX and then gives you an illustration ofdeveloping a complete game with Canyon Bunny which I've found easy to understand.In later part, the author touches upon a simple 3D application based on LibGDXwhere the essential stuffs like ray picking and model-based rendering are explained.All the example codes are downloadable from Packt Pub and all worked when I actuallyexecuted them on Eclipse, except for the Android-based Canyon Bunny which crashedon pressing play button, reason for which I am still trying to find.( The reason : java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com.badlogic.gdx.physics.box2d.World. If this error ever occurs, copy gdx-box2d.jar from the libs folder of CanyonBunny project to that of CanyonBunny-android project. Then it will work. )In my case, this book worked as a good starting point after which I am moving onto Libgdx Cross-platformGame Development Cookbook.One caveat : As the author says, it lightly touches upon 3D stuffs and if you're more interested in 3D game development,this may not be what you're trying to find.
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Amazon Customer Jun 22, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Good!
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