SFML Game Development by Example - 4th SFML book

[OrderNexus]

The book is going to be up by Monday (23rd). All chapters have already been finished by me and are now in the final stages. Also, some of those points are outdated and are going to be edited before it comes out.

[jamesL]

23rd

awesome

I hope you were able to include a lot of the opengl stuff

that's the kind of sfml book I'd really like to see

[HoodedSpectre]

One more question I have, does it utilize the game(s) from the previous book or is it a fresh start with new games and new everything?

[OrderNexus]

Yes, it does utilize the third project from the last book, which is the RPG. The last three-four chapters deal with OpenGL stuff by implementing advanced lighting and 3D omni-directional point light shadows, as well as optimizing the project.

[_Imperial_]

Hi OrderNexus. It's been a while I got your book, but only 2 weeks ago I could start going through it. It's an amazing work. Good job! I'm also looking forward to reading the Mastering SFML Game Development.
Anyway, my question is: I'm in chapter 11 (in the end). Just finished and compiled and ready to go to chapter 12 when...... BOOM! I don't have a GUI 
I don't understand what I did wrong. I am very careful to follow all the code and understand all that I am doing. It compiles without any errors (I use VS Community 2015).

Basically, it loads the Intro and when we go to MainMenu it doesn't show any GUI. I tried to bypass to see it the problem is in the Main Menu, so what I did was testing it by simply jumping from Intro_continue to Game. And nope, nothing wrong with the states. The game runs ok, the map loads.... but also no GUI in the game mode.

Summarizing: No GUI elements show anywhere, but the GUI_(something).h and GUI_(something).cpp look all fine. (I also ajusted the SharedContext, Satte_MainMenu and EventManager per your instructions).
I don't know what else to do.

Btw, there is also a minor bug that's been anoying me for a while (but it's no big deal). So, when you close the game using the 'X' button in the window, it purges all resources, all goes well, but the last second it displays a message saying (see attachment). That bug doesn't make the game unplayable or anything... it's just there since chapter 7 and I can't find the reason why.

[OrderNexus]

Hi _Imperial_.

First and foremost, thanks for reading! I really appreciate your kind words. The new book is supposed to come out either tomorrow or the day after, actually. I have just approved the pre-finals of the last couple of chapters, as well as the cover, and it should be made available soon.

Regarding Chapter 11, it's really hard for me to say what the problem might be without looking at the code. From what you told me, it seems that it may be some sort of simple issue where either the interface file itself isn't correctly defined, isn't properly loaded, or something else of that variety. I'd have to take a look at it and see in order to make sure, but if you want to do it yourself, simply break the program on the point where an interface is created in the main menu state and track it line by line to figure out what the problem is. Seeing the branches your code takes can be a great tool in trying to figure out what the problem might be.

The same deal applies to the error message you attached. While in debug mode, hit retry and look at your stack trace. It will give you a detailed overview of where the program failed. It's most likely my fault, as I probably overlooked something. Rest assured though, it seems like an easy fix.

If you still can't figure it out, zip your code up and send it my way. I'll try to run it on my end and track the problem down when I have a moment.

[HoodedSpectre]

Sorry I hate to be that nagging person but this anticipation is killing me! The book was supposed to be out yesterday.. Just a delay from packtpub? Or has it been delayed for another reason?

[OrderNexus]

Sorry I hate to be that nagging person but this anticipation is killing me! The book was supposed to be out yesterday.. Just a delay from packtpub? Or has it been delayed for another reason?

No, trust me, you're fine! I'm the same way. The book is completely finished and as they informed me, it has been "uploaded". From my previous impressions, I got the feeling that "uploading" it means it will be published, but apparently it will take a couple more days for them to do that for whatever reason. Rest assured though, it will be out sometime this week or the beginning of next week, as all of the final drafts were already finished long before. It's on the fast track to the finish line now.

UPDATE: I just got word that it will be published by this Friday.

[_Imperial_]

Does anyone had this compiling problem? All other C_(something) are fed into the template just fine, just the SoundListener component that can't be instantiated. It says it's abstract.

[sjaustirni]

Abstract class means it contains at least one pure virtual method. The aforementioned error is common when overriding an ABC (Abstract base class) while forgetting to implement one of its pure virtual methods. Look for pure virtual methods in the base classes and then make sure you've implemented all of them in the SoundListener.

[HoodedSpectre]

I'm a little disappointed I still don't have it available yet. Packt pub come on, this was going to be my weekend project haha.

[jamesL]

I'm sure making it into a kindle version or pdf is easy

but it probably takes some time to get it set up into their web Mapt version

they also probably want to release all versions (including the print version) at around the same time -- and I'm sure it takes time to get that printed

and amazon has moved the "book available" date from Feb 6 to March 6

[OrderNexus]

Yeah, I've been done with the book for a while now. The dates they keep giving me are almost always get moved further down, although it shouldn't be much longer. I was honestly expecting it to be out today, but it will probably be out this Monday at the latest. That would be my best guess. Sorry guys. I hope you enjoy it when it comes out though!

[jamesL]

regarding the new book
Mastering SFML Game Development

https://www.packtpub.com/game-development/mastering-sfml-game-development

code files are now available for download

one zip file full of .rar files

can't read the book online yet, but the pdf is available for download

I have not downloaded it yet

I'll let the book author start a new thread specific for the book

hmmm, wondering if this is the final code

some unusual files names for maps in this folder
B05590_10_code / Build / Media / Maps

map1[newNotStressTest].map

map1[old].map

[HoodedSpectre]

I read the first two chapters then did a skim over the rest, it looks great. I'm wondering how I would go about incorporating this text into the server from the project in the final chapter of the last book. Can the shaders and lighting affects be handled solely on the client portion? I'm new to networked programming and just trying to learn everything I can.