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SFML Game Development
Learn how to use SFML 2.0 to develop your own
feature-packed game
Jan Haller
Henrik Vogelius Hansson
Artur Moreira
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
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SFML Game Development
Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing
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However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: June 2013
Production Reference: 1170613
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-84969-684-5
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Cover Image by Vivek Sinha ([email protected])
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Credits
Authors Project Coordinator
Artur Moreira Amey Sawant
Henrik Vogelius Hansson
Jan Haller Proofreaders
Dan McMahon
Stephen Swaney
Reviewers
Brandon DeRosier
Karol Gasiński Indexer
Monica Ajmera Mehta
Eyal Kalderon
Graphics
Ronak Dhruv
Acquisition Editor
Abhinash Sahu
Edward Gordon
Production Coordinator
Lead Technical Editor
Pooja Chiplunkar
Mayur Hule
Cover Work
Technical Editors
Pooja Chiplunkar
Sanhita Sawant
Priya Singh
Nitee Shetty
Dennis John
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Foreword
I'm really honored to write the first words of this book, the very first one about SFML.
When I started to write this library, in 2006, I couldn't imagine that it would become so
much popular. Around 100,000 visitors per month, 100 new forum posts everyday...
this is huge! And this is just the beginning; with the release of SFML 2.0, the library
makes an important step forward. While SFML 1 is a constantly evolving (understand
"unstable") API, SFML 2.0 is meant to be a robust, stable, and mature foundation for
the future. And hopefully a solid base for more and more great games.
Increasing popularity also means more effort from the authors to provide complete
and quality documentation. Sadly, this is often overlooked by developers.
Although I do my best to provide detailed tutorials for SFML, they are nothing more
than an improved API documentation. Users often ask me where they can find a
more complete guide to start programming games with SFML. And until today,
I had nowhere to direct them to. But Artur, Henrik, and Jan did a great job to fill
this hole. They have gathered their wisdom and experience into a unique book that
covers the basics of game programming, as well as everything that SFML has to
offer—from audio to network, through advanced graphics. What I really appreciate
about this book is that it is written with the same philosophy that is behind SFML:
good design, simplicity, and modern code.
I hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as I did and find what you're
looking for; whether you're a beginner who wants to learn game programming with
SFML, or a more experienced programmer who wants to improve his design and
technical skills. And don't hesitate to come to the SFML forum if you have questions
or comments. I, the authors of this book, and all the community will be glad to
answer you.
Laurent Gomila
Author of SFML
Software Engineer, Tegesoft, France
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About the Authors
Artur Moreira is a game development enthusiast who ultimately aims to start a
new game development company in his home country. He has been programming
games and game-related software for over 4 years. Most of the effort in that time
was put in creating an open source game-making library with lots of flexibility and
portability. The library is called Nephilim and is known for supporting all major
desktop and mobile operating systems, making game development fully cross-
platform and fast. Alongside this big project, he keeps making his own prototypes
and games for educational and commercial purposes.
Aside from the programming, he also puts some focus in creative areas such as 3D
modeling, digital painting, and music composing.
I would like to thank, first of all, my girlfriend for her patience and
unconditional support every single time the writing was taking
all of my time and energy. Also, I can't be thankful enough for
the support of my parents and sisters, along with all the closest
relatives, whose support is ever-present and always helpful. On the
technical side, I would like to directly thank Jan Haller and Henrik
Vogelius Hansson, the co-authors of the book, for their remarkable
collaboration, skill, and teamwork. It's been always a pleasure to
work with them.
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Henrik Vogelius Hansson has always been in love with both games and
programming. He started his education fairly early and continued on into the indie
scene with Defrost Games and their game Project Temporality. The next company that
hired him was Paradox Development Studio where he got to work on titles such as
Crusader Kings 2.
Beside the game companies, Henrik has also been very active in the SFML
community and has even provided a binding for Ruby called rbSFML.
I would like to thank my co-authors, Jan and Artur, for the amazing
cooperation and great times. I am also very happy and would like
to thank my family that encouraged me to pursue this line of work.
Also special thanks to my grandmother.
Jan Haller is a Master's degree student of Electrical Engineering and Information
Technology. In his free time, he occasionally develops games in C++. He is also
interested in the creation of graphics and 3D models.
In 2008, Jan stumbled upon SFML. Since then, he has used the library for many of his
works. One of his bigger projects was a 2D Jump'n'Run game, where the character
has to find its way through different levels, defeating enemies and collecting various
items. During the years, Jan has actively participated in the SFML community,
getting a lot of insights into the development of SFML 2. He has also written a C++
library called Thor, which extends SFML by ready-to-use features such as particle
systems or animations.
I would like to thank Laurent Gomila for the passion and huge
efforts he invested into the Simple and Fast Multimedia Library. It
has always been interesting to discuss with him about the library
and its development process. I would also like to thank my co-
authors, Artur Moreira and Henrik Vogelius Hansson, who have
been a very nice team to work with.
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About the Reviewers
Brandon DeRosier is a free software supporter, software engineer, and a hobbyist
game developer living in the Greater Boston area. Driven by an early interest
in programming, he took to the reverse engineering of his favorite games of his
childhood; he would later write several small augmentation tools to run alongside
these games. Over time, he developed his skills as a programmer—as well as an
interest in music composition, animation, and interactive media. Currently, he is
directing these skills and interests towards game design.
As a member of the Free Software Foundation, he understands that the
concealing of source code is unethical and regressive; dedicated to the digital
rights of users everywhere, he has actively participated in the development and
distribution of free software.
Brandon is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer
Science at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston and takes pride in helping
others learn. Occasionally, he gives lectures in classes and clubs, with hopes of
encouraging interest in interactive media development with frameworks such as
SFML and LWJGL.
I'd like to thank my partner, Yamilah Atallah, for brainstorming
game ideas with me, coming up with meaningful concepts and
wonderful designs, and changing my life in so many positive ways;
with this support, my interest in game development has grown.
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Karol Gasiński is a programmer, entrepreneur, and traveler living in Poland,
Europe. He works as a Graphic Software Engineer at an Intel Research &
Development facility, and has worked on 6 generations of Intel graphic cards. As a
member of KHRONOS group, Karol contributes to the development of OpenGL and
OpenGL ES Specifications—the industry standard for high-performance graphics.
Outside of his work, Karol's biggest passion is game development and low-level
programming. He has been associated with the games industry for over 6 years. In
the past, he has worked on mobile versions of games such as Medieval Total War,
Pro Evolution Soccer, and Silent Hill. Currently he is the founder and chairman of
the Polish Conference on Computer Games Development—the biggest and fastest
growing industry event in the country.
Karol gives lectures on most Polish conferences and events for game developers
including WGK, GameDay, SWPC, the DigitalFrontier course, IGK, and others.
You can also meet him on GDC Europe and GDC San Francisco, where each year
he gathers inspiration for his new games.
Eyal Kalderon is a self-taught computer programmer and high school student.
Having been introduced to the programming scene at a fairly young age, Eyal
developed his early skills in Visual Basic and made a switch to C# early on. Eyal
has made himself at home for several years now programming with C and C++ and
using shell scripts to automate every task he finds boring. After trying SDL, Eyal
switched to SFML in 2010, enjoyed it, and has been following its progress closely
ever since.
Understanding the power of print, having gained much from the Internet and
professional publications, Eyal chose to erect 'nullpwd' (nullpwd.wordpress.com)
in March of 2010, a casual software-centered blog that acts as an unintimidating
front for various software topics, such as programming, penetration systems, and the
current happenings of the open source community.
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