Get to grips with programming techniques and game development using C++ libraries and Visual Studio 2019 Key Features * Learn game development and C++ with a fun, example-driven approach * Build clones of popular games such as Timberman, Zombie Survival Shooter, a co-op puzzle platformer, and Space Invaders * Discover tips to expand your finished games by thinking critically, technically, and creatively Book Description The second edition of Beginning C++ Game Programming is updated and improved to include the latest features of Visual Studio 2019, SFML, and modern C++ programming techniques. With this book, you’ll get a fun introduction to game programming by building five fully playable games of increasing complexity. You’ll learn to build clones of popular games such as Timberman, Pong, a Zombie survival shooter, a coop puzzle platformer and Space Invaders. The book starts by covering the basics of programming. You’ll study key C++ topics, such as object-oriented programming (OOP) and C++ pointers, and get acquainted with the Standard Template Library (STL). The book helps you learn about collision detection techniques and game physics by building a Pong game. As you build games, you’ll also learn exciting game programming concepts such as particle effects, directional sound (spatialization), OpenGL programmable shaders, spawning objects, and much more. Finally, you’ll explore game design patterns to enhance your C++ game programming skills. By the end of the book, you’ll have gained the knowledge you need to build your own games with exciting features from scratch What you will learn * Set up your game development project in Visual Studio 2019 and explore C++ libraries such as SFML * Explore C++ OOP by building a Pong game * Understand core game concepts such as game animation, game physics, collision detection, scorekeeping, and game sound * Use classes, inheritance, and references to spawn and control thousands of enemies and shoot rapid-fire machine guns * Add advanced features to your game using pointers, references, and the STL * Scale and reuse your game code by learning modern game programming design patterns Who this book is for This book is perfect for you if you have no C++ programming knowledge, you need a beginner-level refresher course, or you want to learn how to build games or just use games as an engaging way to learn C++. Whether you aspire to publish a game (perhaps on Steam) or just want to impress friends with your creations, you’ll find this book useful.

Learn the fundamentals, practical applications, and latest features of C# 8.0 and .NET Core 3.0 from expert teacher Mark J. Price. Key Features * Build modern, cross-platform applications with .NET Core 3.0 * Get up to speed with C#, and up to date with all the latest features of C# 8.0 * Start creating professional web applications with ASP.NET Core 3.0 Book Description In C# 8.0 and .NET Core 3.0 – Modern Cross-Platform Development, Fourth Edition, expert teacher Mark J. Price gives you everything you need to start programming C# applications. This latest edition uses the popular Visual Studio Code editor to work across all major operating systems. It is fully updated and expanded with new chapters on Content Management Systems (CMS) and machine learning with ML.NET. The book covers all the topics you need. Part 1 teaches the fundamentals of C#, including object-oriented programming, and new C# 8.0 features such as nullable reference types, simplified switch pattern matching, and default interface methods. Part 2 covers the .NET Standard APIs, such as managing and querying data, monitoring and improving performance, working with the filesystem, async streams, serialization, and encryption. Part 3 provides examples of cross-platform applications you can build and deploy, such as web apps using ASP.NET Core or mobile apps using Xamarin.Forms. The book introduces three technologies for building Windows desktop applications including Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, as well as web applications, web services, and mobile apps. What you will learn * Build cross-platform applications for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android * Explore application development with C# 8.0 and .NET Core 3.0 * Explore ASP.NET Core 3.0 and create professional web applications * Learn object-oriented programming and C# multitasking * Query and manipulate data using LINQ * Use Entity Framework Core and work with relational databases * Discover Windows app development using the Universal Windows Platform and XAML * Build mobile applications for iOS and Android using Xamarin.Forms Who this book is for Readers with some prior programming experience or with a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) background, who want to gain a solid foundation with C# 8.0 and .NET Core 3.0.

The essential blueprints and workflow you need to build successful AI business applications Key Features *Learn and master the essential blueprints to program AI for real-world business applications *Gain insights into how modern AI and machine learning solve core business challenges *Acquire practical techniques and a workflow that can build AI applications using state-of-the-art software libraries *Work with a practical, code-based strategy for creating successful AI solutions in your business Book Description AI Blueprints gives you a working framework and the techniques to build your own successful AI business applications. You’ll learn across six business scenarios how AI can solve critical challenges with state-of-the-art AI software libraries and a well thought out workflow. Along the way you’ll discover the practical techniques to build AI business applications from first design to full coding and deployment. The AI blueprints in this book solve key business scenarios. The first blueprint uses AI to find solutions for building plans for cloud computing that are on-time and under budget. The second blueprint involves an AI system that continuously monitors social media to gauge public feeling about a topic of interest - such as self-driving cars. You’ll learn how to approach AI business problems and apply blueprints that can ensure success. The next AI scenario shows you how to approach the problem of creating a recommendation engine and monitoring how those recommendations perform. The fourth blueprint shows you how to use deep learning to find your business logo in social media photos and assess how people interact with your products. Learn the practical techniques involved and how to apply these blueprints intelligently. The fifth blueprint is about how to best design a ‘trending now’ section on your website, much like the one we know from Twitter. The sixth blueprint shows how to create helpful chatbots so that an AI system can understand customers’ questions and answer them with relevant responses. This book continuously demonstrates a working framework and strategy for building AI business applications. Along the way, you’ll also learn how to prepare for future advances in AI. You’ll gain a workflow and a toolbox of patterns and techniques so that you can create your own smart code. What you will learn *An essential toolbox of blueprints and advanced techniques for building AI business applications *How to design and deploy AI applications that meet today’s business needs *A workflow from first design stages to practical code solutions in your next AI projects *Solutions for AI projects that involve social media analytics and recommendation engines *Practical projects and techniques for sentiment analysis and helpful chatbots *A blueprint for AI projects that recommend products based on customer purchasing habits *How to prepare yourself for the next decade of AI and machine learning advancements Who this book is for Programming AI Business Applications provides an introduction to AI with real-world examples. This book can be read and understood by programmers and students without requiring previous AI experience. The projects in this book make use of Java and Python and several popular and state-of-the-art opensource AI libraries.

Take your comics and illustrations to the next level with the powerful art tools in Clip Studio Paint 1.8 Key Features *Overcome “interface overwhelm” with a practical breakdown of the Clip Studio interface *Comprehensive guide on the Clip Studio Paint with detailed coverage of all the tools and concepts of designing comics *Streamline your workflow to create faster and easier using Clip Studio’s features Book Description Clip Studio Paint, the successor to Manga Studio, is used by over four million illustrators and comic creators around the world. This book will guide you through every step of learning this software, from system requirements and installation, all the way through to exporting your work for print or the web. Learn how to create new documents, customize tools to fit your working style, use ruler tools to create anything from straight lines to intricate backgrounds, add 3D elements, create comic panels using the specialized panel tools, utilize screentones and materials, add text and word balloons to your comics, create sound effects, easily flat and color your comics using reference layers, and bring your drawings to life using the animation features. By the end of this book, you will be able to navigate the Clip Studio Interface and program preferences, customize the various tools, and be able to create your own black-and-white and color illustrations and comics from start to finish. What you will learn *Understand the differences between Clip Studio Paint Pro and EX *Discover how to navigate and customize the user interface *Creating custom tools that fit your unique style of illustration *Using the ruler tools to create intricate perspective shots and complex symmetry *Discover how to use 3D elements in your work *Learn how to create lettering and word balloons to bring your comic stories to life *Understand the process of digital art creation from pencils to inks to color *Understand how to use the animation tools available in Clip Studio Paint Who this book is for If you are a beginning digital artist or are switching to Clip Studio from another graphics software, this book is for you. This book is excellent for those with no knowledge of digital art up to intermediate users looking to explore the unique features of Clip Studio Paint.

This is a practical certification guide covering all the exam topics in an easy-to-follow manner backed with self-assessment scenarios for better preparation. Key Features *A step-by-step guide to give you a clear understanding of the Network+ Certification *Learn about network architecture, protocols, security, and network troubleshooting *Confidently ace the N10-007 exam with the help of practice tests Book Description CompTIA certified professionals have always had the upper hand in the information technology industry. This book will be your ideal guide to efficiently passing and achieving this certification. Learn from industry experts and implement their practices to resolve complex IT issues. This book revolves around networking concepts where readers will learn topics like network architecture, security, network monitoring, and troubleshooting. This book will not only prepare the readers conceptually but will also help them pass the N10-007 exam. This guide will also provide practice exercise after every chapter where readers can ensure their concepts are clear. By the end of this book, readers will leverage this guide and the included practice questions to boost their confidence in appearing for the actual certificate. What you will learn *Explain the purpose of a variety of networking concepts and implement them appropriately *Understand physical security and common attacks while securing wired and wireless networks *Understand the fundamentals of IPv4 and IPv6 *Determine and explain the appropriate cabling, device, and storage technologies *Understand network troubleshooting methodology and appropriate tools to support connectivity and performance *Use best practices to manage the network, determine policies, and ensure business continuity Who this book is for This book is ideal for readers wanting to pass the CompTIA Network+ certificate. Rookie network engineers and system administrators interested in enhancing their networking skills would also benefit from this book. No Prior knowledge on networking would be needed.

Learn to create plugins for WordPress 4.x to deliver custom projects or share with the community through detailed step-by-step recipes and code examples About This Book ? Learn how to change and extend WordPress to perform virtually any task ? Explore the plugin API through approachable examples and detailed explanations ? Mold WordPress to your project’s needs or transform it to benefit the entire community Who This Book Is For If you are a WordPress user, developer, or a site integrator with basic knowledge of PHP and an interest to create new plugins to address your personal needs, client needs, or share with the community, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn ? Discover how to register user callbacks with WordPress, forming the basis of plugin creation ? Explore the creation of administration pages and adding new content management sections through custom post types and custom database tables ? Improve your plugins by customizing the post and page editors, categories and user profiles, and creating visitor-facing forms ? Make your pages dynamic using Java*, AJAX and adding new widgets to the platform ? Learn how to add support for plugin translation and distribute your work to the WordPress community In Detail WordPress is a popular, powerful, and open Content Management System. Learning how to extend its capabilities allows you to unleash its full potential, whether you're an administrator trying to find the right extension, a developer with a great idea to enhance the platform for the community, or a website developer working to fulfill a client's needs. This book shows readers how to navigate WordPress' vast set of API functions to create high-quality plugins with easy-to-configure administration interfaces. With new recipes and materials updated for the latest versions of WordPress 4.x, this second edition teaches you how to create plugins of varying complexity ranging from a few lines of code to complex extensions that provide intricate new capabilities. You'll start by using the basic mechanisms provided in WordPress to create plugins and execute custom user code. You will then see how to design administration panels, enhance the post editor with custom fields, store custom data, and modify site behavior based on the value of custom fields. You'll safely incorporate dynamic elements on web pages using *ing languages, and build new widgets that users will be able to add to WordPress sidebars and widget areas. By the end of this book, you will be able to create WordPress plugins to perform any task you can imagine. Style and approach This cookbook will take you through the creation of your first simple plugin to adding entirely new sections and widgets in the administration interface, so you can learn how to change and extend WordPress to perform virtually any task. Each topic is illustrated through realistic examples showing how to solve common problems, followed by detailed explanations of all concepts used

Orchestrate the designing, development, testing, and deployment of web applications with Symfony About This Book Create a robust and reliable Symfony development pipeline using Amazon's cloud platform Cut development and maintenance costs by defining crystal clear features and possible scenarios for each feature before implementation Follow detailed examples provided in each chapter to create a task management application Who This Book Is For If you are a PHP developer with some experience in Symfony and are looking to master the framework and use it to its full potential, then this book is for you. Though experience with PHP, object-oriented techniques, and Symfony basics is assumed, this book will give you a crash course on the basics and then proceed to more advanced topics. What You Will Learn Install and configure Symfony and required third-party bundles to develop a task management application Set up a continuous integration server to orchestrate automatic builds every time you add a new feature to your project Reduce maintenance costs dramatically using Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) Create a slick user interface using the Bootstrap framework Design robust business logic using Doctrine Build a comprehensive dashboard and secure your project using the Sonata project Improve performance using Redis, Memcache, and Varnish Create customized Symfony commands and add them to your console In Detail In this book, you will learn some lesser known aspects of development with Symfony, and you will see how to use Symfony as a framework to create reliable and effective applications. You might have developed some impressive PHP libraries in other projects, but what is the point when your library is tied to one particular projectWith Symfony, you can turn your code into a service and reuse it in other projects. This book starts with Symfony concepts such as bundles, routing, twig, doctrine, and more, taking you through the request/response life cycle. You will then proceed to set up development, test, and deployment environments in AWS. Then you will create reliable projects using Behat and Mink, and design business logic, cover authentication, and authorization steps in a security checking process. You will be walked through concepts such as DependencyInjection, service containers, and services, and go through steps to create customized commands for Symfony's console. Finally, the book covers performance optimization and the use of Varnish and Memcached in our project, and you are treated with the creation of database agnostic bundles and best practices. Style and approach A step-by-step guide to mastering Symfony while developing a task management application. Each chapter comes with detailed examples.

A foundational yet practical approach to UX that delivers more creative, collaborative, holistic, and mature design solutions, regardless of your background or experience About This Book Improve your UX design awareness and skills Gain greater confidence to know when you have delivered a “good” UX design Learn by example using a book designed by a UX mind for a UX mind Who This Book Is For This book is written for the beginner as well as the experienced UX practitioner, regardless of team size, company size, or job title. It is also intended for anyone with an interest in UX, engages with UX, is involved in any way in interactive problem solving and design, or simply wants to learn more about what we do, how we do it, and why those in the UX field are so passionate about wanting to do it better. What You Will Learn Awaken your UX mind and dispel the myths of non-UX thinkers Create the six optimal conditions for your best ideas to appear Identify and incorporate the ten design principles found in all good UX design Develop a broader understanding of Information Architecture (IA) to better engage, guide, and inform Develop a fundamental understanding of patterns and the properties that create them Raise your level of UX maturity with a strategy that transforms your approach to problem solving and helps others understand the true value of your work Utilize important tools of the UX trade that never go out of style Increase your knowledge of UX, incorporate valuable ideas and insights into your work, and look at design from a very unique perspective In Detail Written in an easy-to-read style, this book provides real-world examples, a historical perspective, and a holistic approach to design that will ground you in the fundamental essentials of interactive design, allow you to make more informed design decisions, and increase your understanding of UX in order to reach the highest levels of UX maturity. As you will see, UX is more than just delighting customers and users. It is also about thinking like a UX practitioner, making time for creativity, recognizing good design when you see it, understanding Information Architecture as more than just organizing and labeling websites, using design patterns to influence user behavior and decision making, approaching UX from a business perspective, transforming your client’s and company’s fundamental understanding of UX and its true value, and so much more. This book is an invaluable resource of knowledge, perspective, and inspiration for those seeking to become better UX designers, increase their confidence, become more mature design leaders, and deliver solutions that provide measurable value to stakeholders, customers, and users regardless of project type, size, and delivery method. Style and approach An in-depth, easy to read, and entertaining journey into and through the world of UX using real-world examples, thoughtful illustrations, and engaging quotes to inspire and explain fully the how and why of UX in a practical and impactful way and used immediately in your own work.

Measure, optimize, and improve the performance of your Python code with this easy-to-follow guide About This Book Master the do's and don'ts of Python performance programming Learn how to use exiting new tools that will help you improve your *s A step-by-step, conceptual guide to teach you how to optimize and fine-tune your critical pieces of code Who This Book Is For If you're a Python developer looking to improve the speed of your *s or simply wanting to take your skills to the next level, then this book is perfect for you. What You Will Learn Master code optimization step-by-step and learn how to use different tools Understand what a profiler is and how to read its output Interpret visual output from profiling tools and improve the performance of your * Use Cython to create fast applications using Python and C Take advantage of PyPy to improve performance of Python code Optimize number-crunching code with NumPy, Numba, Parakeet, and Pandas In Detail Simply knowing how to code is not enough; on mission-critical pieces of code, every bit of memory and every CPU cycle counts, and knowing how to squish every bit of processing power out of your code is a crucial and sought-after skill. Nowadays, Python is used for many scientific projects, and sometimes the calculations done in those projects require some serious fine-tuning. Profilers are tools designed to help you measure the performance of your code and help you during the optimization process, so knowing how to use them and read their output is very handy. This book starts from the basics and progressively moves on to more advanced topics. You’ll learn everything from profiling all the way up to writing a real-life application and applying a full set of tools designed to improve it in different ways. In the middle, you’ll stop to learn about the major profilers used in Python and about some graphic tools to help you make sense of their output. You’ll then move from generic optimization techniques onto Python-specific ones, going over the main constructs of the language that will help you improve your speed without much of a change. Finally, the book covers some number-crunching-specific libraries and how to use them properly to get the best speed out of them. After reading this book, you will know how to take any Python code, profile it, find out where the bottlenecks are, and apply different techniques to remove them. Style and approach This easy-to-follow, practical guide will help you enhance your optimization skills by improving real-world code.

This book is an easy-to-follow, step-by-step beginner's guide covering the full process of creating a game. It is packed with examples and illustrations, with comprehensive coverage of each topic. If you want to learn how to make games using the Cocos2D framework, this book is for you. If you would like to build a good foundation for a career in game development as an independent game developer or at a game studio, or if you just want to make games as a hobby, then you'll love this book. You should have some basic programming experience with Objective-C and Xcode. To run the code in this book, you will also need an Intel-based Macintosh running OS X Mountain Lion (or later).

This book will lead you, step by step and with illustrative screenshots, through a real example. Are you writing two websites – one for mobile and one for larger displaysOr perhaps you’ve heard of Responsive Design but are unsure how to bring HTML5, CSS3, or responsive design all together. If so, this book provides everything you need to take your web pages to the next level – before all your competitors do!

Each chapter will take you through a new major feature of iOS 5. You will learn how to integrate each feature into your applications. If you ever wanted to learn about the latest features of iOS 5 and learn how to incorporate Twitter, iCloud and Core Image framework effects functionality into your applications, then this book is for you. You should have a good knowledge of programming experience with Objective-C, and have used Xcode 4. iPhone programming experience is not required.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Dashboards Cookbook is packed with practical step-by-step recipes covering tasks which utilize all of the new dashboard features of Dynamics CRM 2011. If you are a developer who is excited about creating, customizing, and designing Dashboards in Dynamics CRM 2011, this book is for you. You should be comfortable with general Dynamics CRM functionality for this or a previous release. This book may also be valuable to End Users and Power Users interested in the new Dashboard features of this release.

Written in cookbook style, this book offers a wide array of techniques for building HTML5 Canvas applications. Each recipe contains step-by-step instructions followed by analysis of what was done in each task and other useful information. The book is designed so that you can read it chapter by chapter, or you can look at the list of recipes and refer to them in no particular order. This book is geared towards web developers who are familiar with HTML and JavaScript. It is written for both beginners and seasoned HTML5 developers with a good working knowledge of JavaScript.

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Windows PowerShell 2.0: Expert Cookbook is a concise and above all advanced cookbook, with practical expert recipes for SharePoint and PowerShell automation. If you are a SharePoint administrator or IT Pro who wants to extend your knowledge of PowerShell automation, this book is a must have. You should have a solid grasp of working with SharePoint and PowerShell respectively.

Step through each of the core concepts of the jQuery library, building an overall picture of its capabilities. Once you have thoroughly covered the basics, the book returns to each concept to cover more advanced examples and techniques. This book is for web designers who want to create interactive elements for their designs, and for developers who want to create the best user interface for their web applications. Basic JavaScript programming and knowledge of HTML and CSS is required. No knowledge of jQuery is assumed, nor is experience with any other JavaScript libraries.

This beginner's guide focuses on getting you quickly through all the major learning points in a smooth, logical order. You'll also learn how to avoid some common pitfalls. Aspiring game developers who want to learn how to create their own levels, maps, game worlds and environments. You don’t need game design or game development experience and no experience of UDK is required

Follow the creation of a History course with lots of practical examples and screenshots. Each chapter builds on the course and takes you through a different aspect of teaching history using Moodle. All exercises in the book relate to different periods of history and are suitable for all students of high-school age. This book is for history teachers who would like to enhance their lessons using Moodle. It doesn't matter if you haven't used Moodle before; as long as someone has set it up for you, you can get started with the exercises in the book straightaway.

This is a cookbook that contains a list of recipes explaining step-by-step how to use JavaScript in Moodle. The first two chapters concentrate on the basics of how to start working with JavaScript and the YUI while the later chapters show how to use these techniques as a basis for implementing more complete functionality. This book is aimed at developers and administrators comfortable with customizing Moodle with the use of plugin modules, themes, and patches who want to make their site more dynamic. If you have prior knowledge of HTML, PHP, and CSS and a good working knowledge of the underlying structure of Moodle, then this book is for you. No prior experience with JavaScript is needed.

This book will provide an easy to understand, step-by-step approach to building your own WordPress plugins from scratch. We will construct a variety of plugins from the group up, demonstrating how to tap into a number of WordPress development aspects, as well as how to prepare and release your plugin(s) to the public. This book is for WordPress users who want to learn how to create their own plugins and for developers who are new to the WordPress platform. Basic knowledge of PHP and HTML is expected, as well as a functional knowledge of how WordPress works from a user standpoint.

This book looks at the main functional areas of Joomla! that have significant new features. All features are explained with the help of illustrative screenshots and step-by-step instructions on how to use them.This book is for existing Joomla! users, developers, and designers who want to know about everything that's new in Joomla! 1.6.