Advanced Android 4 Games

verfasst von: Vladimir Silva

Verlag: Apress

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

"Wolfenstein 3D"-like and "Doom"-like game apps are some of the classic Android games presented in the original edition of this book. Since their release, Android has progressed with the debut of Android 4.0, adding better fonts, new User Interface and Experience (UI/UX) APIs, tablet considerations, multi-touch capabilities, multi-tasking, faster performance, and much more to the Android game app development repertoire.

Multi-touch code gives these games and their players dynamic input and exchange ability, for a more realistic arcade game experience. Faster and better performance offers game players a more seamless, fun arcade experience like never before on Android. There is also improved native C/C++ integration with Android's NDK as well, which makes coding, compiling, and converting both productive and efficient with gains in app performance.

With actionable real-world source, Advanced Android 4 Games shows you how to build more sophisticated and addictive Android games, harnessing the power of these recent advancements.

Coverage of the new UI, UX, multi-touch and multi-tasking features available with Android 4.0. Learn other techniques for improving the game playing experience including Wi-Fi tethering, better multi-tasking, new and better streaming Web video using WebM, and more. By combining the elegant object-oriented features of Java and the raw power of C, there is no limit to the types of games that you can build for the platform, such as the "Quake 3D"-like game app case study in this book.

You'll definitely have fun, and perhaps you'll even make some money. Enjoy!

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Welcome to the World of the Little Green Robot

Abstract

This chapter kicks things off by explaining how to set up your environment to compile hybrid (C/Java) games. This includes the latest versions of the development IDE (Eclipse) and the Android SDK, plus the Native Devlopment Kit (NDK)which are the tools required to build powerful Android games. This information is critical if you wish to learn how to combine the elegant object-oriented features of Java with the raw power of C for maximum performance, and it is required when to build all the native game engines featured in later chapters.

Vladimir Silva

Chapter 2. Gaming Tricks for Phones or Tablets

Abstract

This chapter contains a lot of goodies to get your feet wet with native development in Android.

Vladimir Silva

Chapter 3. More Gaming Tricks with OpenGL and JNI

Abstract

Chapter 2 provided a great introduction to some basic gaming techniques for Android, including handling Audio/Video, I/O Events, and Bluetooth controllers. Now it’s time to ramp things up a notch.

Vladimir Silva

Chapter 4. Efficient Graphics with OpenGL ES 2.0

Abstract

We have seen what OpenGL 1.0 can offer, but there is so much more to this API. In this chapter, we take a look at the cutting edge in graphics development: OpenGL ES 2.0, a subset of OpenGL. We’ll start with a brief description of the most important features OpenGL ES 2.0 can offer, including shaders, GLSL, and how they affect the Android platform. Then, will take a deeper look into OpenGL ES Shading Language (GLSL) by creating a neat Android project to render a geometric shape—icosahedrons—using OpenGL ES 2.0. Let’s get started.

Vladimir Silva

Chapter 5. 3D Shooters for Doom

Abstract

This chapter looks at another great PC game: Doom. It came along shortly after Wolfenstein 3D and put id Software at the lead of the pack in 3D graphics gaming for the PC. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to bring the open source Doom engine (PrBoom) to the Android platform.

Vladimir Silva

Chapter 6. 3D Shooters for Quake

Abstract

This is where things start to get really exiting. I’ve always been a huge fan of First Person Shooters (FPS), and when Android came along, I had to jump at the chance of getting involved in bringing this gem (Quake) to the platform in all its beauty. Almost everybody knows of or has played this astounding game for the PC. It was created in 1996 by the great game developer John Carmack for id Software and later released under the GNU General Public License.

Vladimir Silva

Chapter 7. 3D Shooters for Quake II

Abstract

This chapter builds upon the previous one to deliver the next great PC engine: Quake II. What makes this chapter unique is that, thanks to the wonderful reusability of Java and the power of the C language, we will be able to do the following:

Reuse the thin Java wrappers to the Quake engine from Chapter 6 with no changes whatsoever.
Keep 99 percent of the native engine intact with the help of NanoGL.
Make tiny changes to the C code in the remaining 1 percent of the native engine in order to make it Android-friendly.

Vladimir Silva

Backmatter

Titel: Advanced Android 4 Games
verfasst von: Vladimir Silva
Verlag: Apress
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4302-4060-0
Print ISBN: 978-1-4302-4059-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-4060-0