Mastering C++ Game Animation Programming: Enhance your skills with advanced game animation techniques in C++, OpenGL, and Vulkan - Softcover

Michael Dunsky

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1835881920 ISBN 13: 9781835881927

Publisher: Packt Publishing, 2025

Synopsis

Develop a compact game-engine-like animation application in C++ using OpenGL 4 or Vulkan while learning advanced animation techniques step-by-step through hands-on implementation in this part-color guide

Author’s Note

If you've already read my first book, 'C++ Game Animation Programming,' and want to deepen your skills, this book is the next step. It’s designed for developers who are ready to dive into advanced animation techniques and bring fully immersive worlds to life.

Key Features

• Learn how to build a game-engine-like skeleton application with modern graphics API
• Gain insights into compute shaders, visual selection, UI creation and visual programming, configuration file handling, collision detection, behavior controls, and more
• Create your own virtual world with naturally acting inhabitants
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

With two decades of programming experience across multiple languages and platforms, expert game developer and console porting programmer, Michael Dunsky will guide you through the intricacies of character animation programming. to tackle common challenges developers face in creating sophisticated, efficient, and visually appealing character animations.

It shows you how to use the Open Asset Import Library for easy 3D model loading and explore a 3D engine by optimization by offloading computations from the CPU to the GPU. You’ll learn how to implement visual selection and extended camera handling techniques, as well as separating your application into edit and simulation modes. You’ll understand how to store configurations to continue building your virtual world piece by piece. As you work on creating an engine-like application, covering collision detection and inverse kinematics, you’ll discover how to bring your character to life with realistic visuals and fluid movement. For more advanced animation and character behavior controls, you’ll craft truly immersive and responsive NPCs, load real game maps, and use navigation algorithms to roam freely in complex environments.

By the end of the book, you’ll be skilled at designing own interactive virtual worlds inhabited by lifelike NPCs that exhibit natural, context-aware behaviors.

What you will learn

• Understand the basics of the Open Asset Import Library
• Animate thousands of game characters
• Extend ImGui with more advanced control types
• Implement simple configuration file handling
• Explore collision detection between 3D models and world objects
• Combine inverse kinematics and collision detection
• Work with state machines, behavior trees, and interaction
• Implement navigation in unknown terrain

Who this book is for

This book is for experienced C++ developers, game programmers, and character animators who already have a basic knowledge of character animation but are curious to learn more. The book assumes advanced C++ knowledge and is ideal for those eager to delve into advanced animation techniques and create interactive virtual worlds.

Table of Contents

1. Working with the Open Asset Import Library
2. Moving animation calculations from CPU to GPU
3. Adding a visual selection
4. Enhancing Application Handling
5. Saving and loading the configuration
6. Extending camera handling
7. Enhancing Animation Controls
8. An introduction to collision detection
9. Adding behaviour and interaction
10. Advanced animation blending
11. Loading a game map
12. Advanced collision detection
13. Adding simple navigation
14. Creating immersive interactive worlds

About this title

About the Author

Michael Dunsky is an electronics engineer, console porting programmer, and game developer with more than 20 years of programming experience. He started with BASIC at the young age of 14 and expanded his portfolio over the years to include assembly language, C, C++, Java, Python, VHDL, OpenGL, GLSL, and Vulkan. During his career, he also gained extensive knowledge of Linux, virtual machines, server operation, and infra-structure automation. Michael holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Sci-ence from the FernUniversität in Hagen with a focus on computer graphics, parallel programming, and software systems.

Edition details

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Publication date: 2025
• ISBN 10: 1835881920
• ISBN 13: 9781835881927
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 544