Procedural Content Generation for C++ Game Development: Get to know techniques and approaches to procedurally generate game content in C++ using Simple and Fast Multimedia Library

Dale Green

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2.7 (7 Ratings)

Paperback Jan 2016 304 pages 1st Edition

Dale Green

Free Trial

2.7 (7 Ratings)

Paperback Jan 2016 304 pages 1st Edition

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Key benefits

This book contains a bespoke Simple and Fast Multimedia Library (SFML) game engine with complete online documentation
Through this book, you’ll create games that are non-predictable and dynamic and have a high replayability factor
Get a breakdown of the key techniques and approaches applied to a real game.

Description

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.

Who is this book for?

If you are a game developer who is familiar with C++ and is looking to create bigger and more dynamic games, then this book is for you. The book assumes some prior experience with C++, but any intermediate concepts are clarified in detail. No prior experience with SFML is required.

What you will learn

Discover the systems and ideology that lie at the heart of procedural systems
Use Random number generation (RNG) with C++ data types to create random but controlled results
Build levels procedurally with randomly located items and events
Create dynamic game objects at runtime
Construct games using a component-based approach
Assemble non-predictable game events and scenarios
Operate procedural generation to create dynamic content fast and easily
Generate game environments for endless replayability

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S. Morris Sep 11, 2017

I thought the book and the included code were a riot. The book opens with a working rpg game shell and you can follow the book and learn how to modify the game as you go along. How to add random foes and treasure and even create random stuff on the fly (procedural) It was a different concept for a book - great SFML learning tool to tear into the existing code to see how it works. Not a SFML starter book but if you have done one of the other packt books on SFML, or in my case two, you should have no problems picking this up. I think that the author (or publisher) missed an opportunity to add 100 pages and talk about the game shell programming first which would have made it ideal and better for the novice game programmer.

Amazon Verified review

William Oct 10, 2016

One of the best books I've read on game programming, and programming in general. For real!The author does a great job at explaining things, from simple to complex subjects, and provide all the assets you need to have a fully working game in the end. I'm new to game programming, and yet I'm able to follow along with this book just fine. Just beware that you should know some C++ before going into this adventure.Definitely worth the money. We need more content like this.

Amazon Customer May 13, 2017

Good clear book with a complete working game in c++.Easy to continue with more advanced sfml books.

Zoe Oct 19, 2017

In short: The goal of this book is to give only an introduction to proceduralcontent generation and is more for a beginner in C++ than for advanced coders.It comes with some errors and lacks for me some topics while could get rid ofothers.Pro:* showing how to randomize with rand and srand (because on iOS and Android it might crash with the C++11 generators)* explanation of pseudorandom number generators and simple vs. those used for crypto was ok* putting COUNT as last element of enum classes* creating a maze with codeCons:* a lot beginner level information ** setup (Visual Studio and Code::Blocks) ** OOP (polymorphism, inheritance, virtual functions) ** templates ** function overloading ** optional parameters ** modulo operator ** casting ** tips like "organize your code in a folder structure"* "out of scope topics" (topics which were said didn't fit into the book) ** procedural image creation such as with Perlin noise ** 3D terrain generation ** texture generation* not talking about C++11 random generators at all* sometimes using smart pointers, sometimes not (should be at least stick to one way)* showed only very simple pseudorandom number generation (also it might often be enough for the use-cases in the book)* when talking about storage concerns not talking about mobile clients (there the download size still matters...)* class diagram could have been printed in the book instead of being only available in the download* no CD - only download (Internet may change, so the contents might become unavailable)* repeated what the code does like "loop forever" in front of a while-true scenario multiple times in the comments* code errors and line-breaks even in the middle of variable names - once there is even a comment with a line break and the code afterwards sadly then looks like being part of the comment* use of C-array instead of vector - resulting in a section about how to return the C-array from a function - why not simply use a vector? (p. 97-98)* gray-scale screenshots in the printed book make it often difficult to see the differences, especially because the author often refers to that red or blue dot while both are just gray. Would have preferred to pay more for the book with colored images.* coding style differs in the examples* it's nice to have 3D-sound in, but I wouldn't call it a procedural generated content topic* I'm actually missing a block-based generated level like needed for Sokoban or side-scrollers, but because this book is only about one game, we only create a maze* p. 176 why is it not using the erase-remove idiom here?* sometimes "using namespace std;", sometimes not* component based architecture is not that great implemented. There are really better ways. Maybe a beginner would wirte it like that.* A* pathfinding was explained well, but for me that would fit more into an AI book - I mean it could be used to check the maze for being solvable, but that isn't even mentioned at that pointSo well - yes, it meets its goal, but I am somehow disappointed about the quality and contents. If the author would have let out all that noob-C++-coder stuff and the off-topic contents, he could have shown another way of generating levels (for example with blocks for a small Sokoban or side-scroller or whatever).

Grzegorz Dalek Jun 20, 2017

I'm very disappointed by this book. It's lazy in terms of writing and presentation. Seems like a demo version or first draft rather than complete book. It clearly shows lack of experience of the author in the subject of procedural generation.There is no take on different approaches / algorithms. 80 % of the book is generating random number and hard-coding what it's supposed to do. Create classes for 5 different potions, and if you roll 1 then you spawn potion number 1. Here is the book. I don't think anybody who is proficient enough in C++ to understand the book needs tutorial on that.Parts of the book are repeated few times such as pros and cons of procedural generation. It's explained there 3 times each time taking few pages repeating the same stuff. Come on.The code is messy, chaotically explained. I was impressed by how complex explanation of the simple ideas was at times. There are parts of the book not even related to the subject - or hardly related such as how awesome component based architecture is in Unity or Pathfinding section with most basic implementation of A* explained.All illustrations in the book are black and white - and author uses color to illustrate the changes. As a result you end up staring at two or three identical images like a moron.If you're interested in procedural generation just look at the internet and you'll find way more comprehensive resources on the subject, for free.

Procedural Content Generation for C++ Game Development: Get to know techniques and approaches to procedurally generate game content in C++ using Simple and Fast Multimedia Library

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