Creating a Custom HUD
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John P. Doran | April 2013 | Games
In this article by John P. Doran, the author of the book, Mastering UDK Game Development, we will guide us in creating a HUD that can be used within a Medieval RPG and will fit nicely into the provided Epic Citadel map making use of Scaleform and ActionScript 3.0 using Adobe Flash CS6.
We can have the most fun game in the world, but if the player has no idea what's going on it is next to impossible for that fun to be experienced by anyone other than the creator. One of the main tools that we use within the game industry to pass on information to the user is a heads—up display, more commonly referred to as a HUD.
The tool that most modern—day games use for doing user—interface (UI) work, such as HUDs, is Scaleform. Scaleform has been used with great success in Unreal games such as Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Bioshock Infinite.
Scaleform allows users to bring in Flash animation files to UDK to be rendered directly on the screen or rendered onto textures that can be used within the game world. We can interact with these movies using both Kismet and UnrealScript to create whatever kind of interface you can dream of.
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Getting Started with PlayStation Mobile
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Michael Fleischauer | April 2013 | Cookbooks Games
In this article by Michael Fleischauer, author of PlayStation®Mobile Development Cookbook, we will cover:
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Accessing the PlayStation Mobile portal
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Installing the PlayStation Mobile SDK
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Creating a simple game loop
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Loading, displaying, and translating a textured image
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"Hello World" drawing text on an image
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Deploying to PlayStation Mobile certified Android devices
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Deploying to a PlayStation Vita
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Manipulating an image dynamically
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Working with the filesystem
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Handling system events
Basic use of Local Storage
by
Alex Libby | April 2013 | Web Development
In this article by Alex Libby, the author of the book, Instant HTML5 Local Storage How-to, we will discuss about HTML5 Local Storage.
When using HTML5 Local Storage, there are two types that you can use—local storage and session storage. We'll begin by looking at the former first, using a simple form as the basis for our article.
Read Basic use of Local Storage in fullCreating and optimizing your first Retina image
by
Kyle J. Larson | April 2013 | Open Source
This article by Kyle Larson, author of Website Optimization for Retina Display How-to, will help you create a high-density image and implement it using the HTML <img> tag. You will also learn the importance of consistent file names. It also explains techniques for optimizing images, what tools are available, and why it matters for speed. and using Photoshop and GIMP to edit images
Read Creating and optimizing your first Retina image in fullSo, what is Google Drive?
by
Mike Procopio | April 2013 | Open Source
Google Drive is a place where you can safely store your files online and access them from anywhere. When you use Google Drive, your files are stored remotely on the Web instead of your computer's hard drive. This is the main idea behind "cloud computing".
Once your files are online and "in the cloud", you can access and edit them from wherever you are using any standard web browser. You can even use your smartphone or tablet computer to access your files on the go. You can also share your files with people that you choose, making it easier than ever to collaborate with others and get stuff done.
Google Drive also includes an optional free sync program that runs on your computer and keeps files synchronized between a folder on your hard drive and Google Drive on the Web. That way, whenever you create or make changes to a file, either on the Web or on your hard drive, it will automatically be kept in sync between your computer and the cloud.
In this article by Mike Procopio, author of Instant Google Drive Starter, you will learn the basics of Google Drive and how to use Google Drive on your phone or tablet computer.
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