Game Programming Using Qt: Beginner’s Guide

Description

Qt is the leading cross-platform toolkit for all significant desktop, mobile, and embedded platforms and is becoming more popular by the day, especially on mobile and embedded devices. Despite its simplicity, it's a powerful tool that perfectly fits game developers’ needs. Using Qt and Qt Quick, it is easy to build fun games or shiny user interfaces. You only need to create your game once and deploy it on all major platforms like iOS, Android, and WinRT without changing a single source file. The book begins with a brief introduction to creating an application and preparing a working environment for both desktop and mobile platforms. It then dives deeper into the basics of creating graphical interfaces and Qt core concepts of data processing and display before you try creating a game. As you progress through the chapters, you’ll learn to enrich your games by implementing network connectivity and employing scripting. We then delve into Qt Quick, OpenGL, and various other tools to add game logic, design animation, add game physics, and build astonishing UI for the games. Towards the final chapters, you’ll learn to exploit mobile device features such as accelerators and sensors to build engaging user experiences. If you are planning to learn about Qt and its associated toolsets to build apps and games, this book is a must have. What You Will Learn * Install Qt on your system * Understand the basic concepts of every Qt game and application * Develop 2D object-oriented graphics using Qt Graphics View * Build multiplayer games or add a chat function to your games with Qt's Network module * Script your game with Qt Script * Program resolution-independent and fluid UI using QML and Qt Quick * Control your game flow as per the sensors of a mobile device * See how to test and debug your game easily with Qt Creator and Qt Test 1: Introduction to Qt The cross-platform programming A journey through time New in Qt 5 Choosing the right license Summary 2: Installation Installing the Qt SDK Time for action – installing Qt using an online installer Setting up Qt Creator Time for action – loading an example project Time for action – running the Affine Transformations project Building Qt from sources Time for action – setting up Qt sources using Git Time for action – configuring and building Qt Summary 3: Qt GUI Programming Windows and dialogs Time for action – creating a Qt Desktop project Time for action – implementing a tic-tac-toe game board Qt meta-objects Time for action – functionality of a tic-tac-toe board Time for action – adding properties to the board class Designing GUIs Time for action – designing the game configuration dialog Time for action – polishing the dialog Time for action – the logic of the dialog Time for action – the main window of the application Time for action – adding a pull-down menu Time for action – creating a toolbar Time for action – filling in the central widget Time for action – putting it all together Summary 4: Qt Core Essentials Text handling Time for action – a simple quiz game Data storage Time for action – implementing a device to encrypt data Time for action – serialization of a custom structure Time for action – implementing an XML parser for player data Time for action – the player data JSON serializer Time for action – implementing a JSON parser Summary 5: Graphics with Qt Raster painting Time for action – custom-painted widgets Time for action – transforming the viewport Time for action – drawing an oscillogram Time for action – making oscillograms selectable Time for action – optimizing oscillogram drawing Time for action – developing the game architecture Time for action – implementing the game board class Time for action – understanding the ChessView class Time for action – rendering the pieces Time for action – making the chess game interactive Time for action – connecting the game algorithm OpenGL Time for action – drawing a triangle using Qt and OpenGL Time for action – scene-based rendering Time for action – drawing a textured cube Time for action – shaded objects Summary 6: Graphics View Graphics View architecture Time for action – creating a black, rectangular item Time for action – reacting to an item's selection state Time for action – making the item's size definable Time for action – creating items with different origins Time for action – rotating an item Time for action – adding an item to a scene Time for action – rendering the scene's content to an image Time for action – transforming parent items and child items Time for action – putting it all together! Time for action – creating an item where transformations can easily be seen Time for action – implementing the ability to scale the scene Time for action – implementing the ability to move the scene Time for action – taking the zoom level into account The jumping elephant or how to animate the scene Time for action – creating an item for Benjamin Time for action – making Benjamin move Time for action – moving the background Time for action – using properties, signals, and slots with items Time for action – using animations to move items smoothly Time for action – keeping multiple animations in sync Time for action – making the coins explode Widgets inside Graphics View Optimization Summary 7: Networking QNetworkAccessManager Time for action – downloading a file Time for action – displaying a proper error message Time for action – writing the OOP conform code using QSignalMapper Time for action – showing the download progress Connecting to Google, Facebook, Twitter, and co. Time for action – using Google's Distance Matrix API Time for action – constructing the query Time for action – parsing the server's reply Controlling the connectivity state Communicating between games Time for action – realizing a simple chat program The server – QTcpServer Time for action – setting up the server Time for action – reacting on a new pending connection Time for action – forwarding a new message Time for action – detecting a disconnect The client Time for action – setting up the client Time for action – receiving text messages Time for action – sending text messages Improvements Using UDP Time for action – sending a text via UDP Summary 8: Scripting Why script? The basics of Qt Script Time for action – creating a Qt Script editor Time for action – sandboxed script evaluation Integrating Qt and Qt Script Time for action – employing scripting for npc AI Time for action – storing the script Time for action – providing an initialization function Time for action – implementing the heartbeat event Alternatives to JavaScript Time for action – writing a Qt wrapper for embedding Python Time for action – converting data between C++ and Python Time for action – calling functions and returning values Summary 9: Qt Quick Basics Fluid user interfaces Declarative UI programming Time for action – creating a button component Time for action – adding button content Time for action – sizing the button properly Time for action – making the button a reusable component Event handlers Time for action – making the button clickable Time for action – visualizing button states Time for action – notifying the environment about button states Time for action – dragging an item around Time for action – rotating and scaling a picture by pinching Using components in Qt Quick Time for action – a simple analog clock application Time for action – adding needles to the clock Time for action – making the clock functional Time for action – preparing Canvas for heartbeat visualization Time for action – drawing a heartbeat Time for action – making the diagram more colorful Qt Quick and C++ Time for action – self-updating car dashboard Time for action – grouping engine properties Extending QML Time for action – making CarInfo instantiable from QML Time for action – creating a regular polygon item Time for action – creating an item for drawing outlined text Summary 10: Qt Quick Bringing life into static user interfaces Time for action – scene for an action game Time for action – animating the sun's horizontal movement Time for action – making the sun rise and set Time for action – improving the path of the sun Time for action – adjusting the sun's color Time for action – furnishing sun animation Time for action – animating the car dashboard Quick game programming Time for action – character navigation Time for action – another approach to character navigation Time for action – generating coins Time for action – implementing simple character animation Time for action – animating characters using sprites Time for action – adding jumping with sprite transitions Time for action – revisiting parallax scrolling Time for action – collecting coins Time for action – vanishing coins spawning particles Summary