Blender Quick Start Guide. 3D Modeling, Animation, and Render with Eevee in Blender 2.8

Allan Brito

Blender is open source 3D creation software. With a long history and an enthusiastic community of users, it is the ideal choice for almost any kind of work with 3D modeling or animation. However, for new users, its power and ?exibillity can sometimes be daunting, and that’s when you need this book!The book starts by showing you round the all-new Blender 2.8 user interface. You'll look at the most commonly-used options and tools, such as navigating in 3D and selecting objects. You will then use and manipulate one of the most important windows of the interface, the 3D View.You'll learn how to use essential tools for working with 3D modeling. To give your models the feel of real-world objects, you'll learn how to create materials and set up surfaces. You'll see how to use Physically-Based Rendering (PBR), which allows you to craft realistic surfaces such as wood, stone, and metal. You will also work with Eevee, a new real-time render engine in Blender. You will see how to add motion to objects, making use of Blender's impressive 3D animation features. Finally, you'll learn how to create scenes and organize them for rendering, and later add titles and effects using built-in Blender tools.By the end of the book, you will be able to use Blender 2.8 new UI, Create 3D Models with textures, Animations, and Render them in real-time using Eevee.

Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine 5. Unleash the true power of Blueprints to create impressive games and applications in UE5 - Third Edition

Marcos Romero, Brenden Sewell, Luis Cataldi

Unreal Engine's Blueprint visual scripting system enables designers to script their games and programmers to create base elements that can be extended by designers. With this book, you'll explore all the features of the Blueprint Editor, along with expert tips, shortcuts, and best practices.The book guides you through using variables, macros, and functions, and helps you learn about object-oriented programming (OOP). You'll discover the Gameplay Framework and advance to learning how Blueprint Communication allows one Blueprint to access information from another Blueprint. Later chapters focus on building a fully functional game step by step. You'll start with a basic first-person shooter (FPS) template, and each chapter will build on the prototype to create an increasingly complex and robust game experience. You'll then progress from creating basic shooting mechanics to more complex systems such as user interface elements and intelligent enemy behavior. The book demonstrates how to use arrays, maps, enums, and vector operations and introduces the elements needed for VR game development. In the final chapters, you’ll learn how to implement procedural generation and create a product configurator.By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to build a fully functional game and have the skills required to develop an entertaining experience for your audience.

Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine. The faster way to build games using UE4 Blueprints - Second Edition

Marcos Romero, Brenden Sewell

Blueprints is the visual scripting system in Unreal Engine that enables programmers to create baseline systems and can be extended by designers.This book helps you explore all the features of the Blueprint Editor and guides you through using Variables, Macros, and Functions. You’ll also learn about object-oriented programming (OOP) and discover the Gameplay Framework. In addition to this, you’ll learn how Blueprint Communication allows one Blueprint to access information from another Blueprint. Later chapters will focus on building a fully functional game using a step-by-step approach. You’ll start with a basic first-person shooter (FPS) template, and each chapter will build on the prototype to create an increasingly complex and robust game experience. You’ll then progress from creating basic shooting mechanics to more complex systems, such as user interface elements and intelligent enemy behavior. The skills you will develop using Blueprints can also be employed in other gaming genres. In the concluding chapters, the book demonstrates how to use arrays, maps, enums, and vector operations. Finally, you’ll learn how to build a basic VR game.By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to build a fully functional game and will have the skills required to develop an entertaining experience for your audience.

Boost C++ Application Development Cookbook. Recipes to simplify your application development - Second Edition

Anton Polukhin Alekseevic

If you want to take advantage of the real power of Boost and C++ and avoid the confusion about which library to use in which situation, then this book is for you. Beginning with the basics of Boost C++, you will move on to learn how the Boost libraries simplify application development. You will learn to convert data such as string to numbers, numbers to string, numbers to numbers and more. Managing resources will become a piece of cake. You’ll see what kind of work can be done at compile time and what Boost containers can do. You will learn everything for the development of high quality fast and portable applications. Write a program once and then you can use it on Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android operating systems. From manipulating images to graphs, directories, timers, files, networking – everyone will find an interesting topic.Be sure that knowledge from this book won’t get outdated, as more and more Boost libraries become part of the C++ Standard.

Boost.Asio C++ Network Programming. Learn effective C++ network programming with Boost.Asio and become a proficient C++ network programmer

Wisnu Anggoro

Bootstrap 4 - Responsive Web Design. A step-by-step practical course enabling you to nail Bootstrap and make your web designs responsive

Silvio Moreto, Matt Lambert, Benjamin Jakobus, Jason Marah

Bootstrap framework's ease-of-use (along with its cross-browser compatibility, support for mobile user interfaces, and responsive web design capabilities) makes it an essential building block for any modern web application. With the first module, plunge into the Bootstrap frontend framework with the help of examples that will illustrate the use of each element and component in a proper way. You will get a better understanding of what is happening and where you want to reach. Also, you will gain confidence with the framework and develop some very common examples using Bootstrap. All these examples are explained step by step and in depth. The second module is a comprehensive tutorial; we'll teach you everything that you need to know to start building websites with Bootstrap 4 in a practical way. You'll learn about build tools such as Node, Grunt, and many others. You'll also discover the principles of mobile-first design in order to ensure that your pages can fit any screen size and meet responsive requirements. Learn Bootstrap's grid system and base CSS to ensure that your designs are robust and that your development process is speedy and efficient. Right from the first chapter of the third module, you'll delve into building a customized Bootstrap website from scratch. Get to grips with Bootstrap's key features and quickly discover the various ways in which Bootstrap can help you develop web interfaces. Once you reach the final pages of this book, you should have mastered the framework's ins and outs, and should be building highly customizable and optimized web interfaces. The course will enable you to rapidly build elegant, powerful, and responsive interfaces for professional-level web pages using Bootstrap 4.This Learning Path combines some of the best that Packt has to offer in one complete, curated package. It includes content from the following Packt products:? Bootstrap by Example – by Silvio Moreto? Learning Bootstrap 4, Second Edition – by Matt Lambert ? Mastering Bootstrap 4 – by Benjamin Jakobus and Jason Marah

Bootstrap 4 dla zaawansowanych. Jak pisać znakomite aplikacje internetowe. Wydanie II

Benjamin Jakobus, Jason Marah

Opanuj Bootstrapa, żeby tworzyć zindywidualizowane i responsywne aplikacje webowe! Bootstrap jest coraz popularniejszym frameworkiem CSS i JavaScriptu, służącym do szybkiego i bezproblemowego tworzenia responsywnych interfejsów WWW. W sierpniu 2011 roku został zaprezentowany światu w jako projekt open source, a dzisiaj jest marką powszechnie znaną wśród projektantów front-endów aplikacji. Bootstrap jest prosty w użyciu, kompatybilny z różnymi przeglądarkami i umożliwia tworzenie interfejsów mobilnych. Zalety te są doceniane przez rosnące grono użytkowników na całym świecie. Mimo tej popularności dość trudno znaleźć dobry materiał do nauki zaawansowanych opcji dostępnych w najnowszej, czwartej wersji Bootstrapa. To książka przeznaczona dla developerów, którzy chcą pisać kompletne, przyjemne w użytkowaniu i doskonałe jakościowo strony za pomocą Bootstrapa 4. Opisano tu różnorakie podejścia do tworzenia stron od podstaw. Dowiesz się, jak budować właściwy układ strony, stosować różne komponenty nawigacyjne Bootstrapa, korzystać z formularzy i stylizować różnego typu treści. Zrozumiesz budowę wtyczki w Bootstrapie, nauczysz się pisać własne komponenty i rozszerzać Bootstrapa za pomocą jQuery. W książce przedstawiono także klasy pomocnicze Bootstrapa, dzięki którym proces tworzenia strony przebiega sprawniej. Nie zabrakło również szczegółowych instrukcji dotyczących optymalizacji strony i jej integrowania z zewnętrznymi frameworkami. W tej książce między innymi: wprowadzenie do Bootstrapa 4 i jego najużyteczniejszych elementów tworzenie od podstaw układu strony korzystanie z wtyczek i bibliotek oraz tworzenie własnych wtyczek klasy pomocnicze Bootstrapa 4, ich implementacja i możliwości wykorzystania tworzenie zaawansowanych interfejsów za pomocą akordeonów, rozwijanych list i grup list Bootstrap 4 dla projektanta: responsywność, jakość, styl!

Bootstrap 4 Site Blueprints. Design mobile-first responsive websites with Bootstrap 4 - Second Edition

Bass Jobsen, Ian Whitney, David Cochran

Packed with trade secrets, this second edition is your one-stop solution to creating websites that will provide the best experience for your users. We cover six popular, real-world examples, where each project teaches you about the various functionalities of Bootstrap 4 and their implementation.The book starts off by getting you up and running with the new features of Bootstrap 4 before gradually moving on to customizing your blog with Bootstrap and SASS, building a portfolio site, and turning it into a WordPress theme. In the process, you will learn to recompile Bootstrap files using SASS, design a user interface, and integrate JavaScript plugins. Towards the end of the book, you will also be introduced to integrating Bootstrap 4 with popular application frameworks such as Angular 2, Ruby on Rails, and React.

Bootstrap for ASP.NET MVC. Click here to enter text. - Second Edition

Pieter van der Westhuizen

One of the leading open source frontend frameworks, Bootstrap has undergone a significant change and introduced several features that make designing compelling, next-generation UIs much simpler. Integrating Bootstrap with ASP.NET's powerful components can further enhance its capabilities.This book guides you through the process of creating an ASP.NET MVC website from scratch using Bootstrap. After a primer on the fundamentals of Bootstrap, you will learn your way around and create a new ASP.NET MVC project in Visual Studio. You will move on to learn about the various Bootstrap components as well as techniques to include them in your own projects. The book includes practical examples to show you how to use open-source plugins with Bootstrap and ASP.NET MVC and guides you through building an ASP.NET MVC website using Bootstrap, utilizing layout and user-interface components. At the end of this book, you will find some valuable tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your Bootstrap-integrated and ASP.NET MVC-integrated website.

BPEL and Java Cookbook. Written by an SOA guru to help you orchestrate web services, the 100 recipes in this book will make integrating Java and BPEL a smooth process. Using the examples you'll avoid common problems and learn sophisticated techniques

Jurij Laznik

The Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) has become the de-facto standard for orchestrating web services. BPEL and web services are both clamped into Service-oriented Architecture (SOA). Development of efficient SOA composites too often requires usage of other technologies or languages, like Java. This Cookbook explains through the use of examples how to efficiently integrate BPEL with custom Java functionality.If you need to use BPEL programming to develop web services in SOA development, this book is for you.BPEL and Java Cookbook will show you how to efficiently integrate custom Java functionality into BPEL processes. Based on practical examples, this book shows you the solutions to a number of issues developers come across when designing SOA composite applications. The integration between the two technologies is shown two-fold; the book focuses on the ways that Java utilizes the BPEL and vice-versa.With this book, you will take a journey through a number of recipes that solve particular problems with developing SOA composite applications. Each chapter works on a different set of recipes in a specific area. The recipes cover the whole lifecycle of developing SOA composites: from specification, through design, testing and deployment.BPEL and Java Cookbook starts off with recipes that cover initiation of BPEL from Java and vice-versa. It then moves on to logging and tracing facilities, validation and transformation of BPEL servers, embedding of third-party Java libraries into BPEL. It also covers manipulation with variables in BPEL different techniques of Java code wrapping for web service usage and utilization of XML fa?ßades.After reading BPEL and Java Cookbook you will be able to circumvent many of the issues that developers experience during SOA composite application development. 

Budowanie aplikacji biznesowych za pomocą Windows Presentation Foundation i wzorca Model View ViewM

Garofalo Raffaele

Twórz bogate, elastyczne i łatwe w utrzymaniu aplikacje biznesowe przy pomocy wzorca projektowego MVVM Projektuj aplikacje biznesowe w prostszy i lepszy sposób stosując wzorzec MVVM dla Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) i Microsoft Silverlight 4. Dzięki temu przewodnikowi wykorzystasz MVVM do wiązania danych, poleceń i zachowań tworząc interfejsy użytkownika luźno powiązane z logiką biznesową. MVVM idealnie nadaje się dla programistów .NET pracujących z WPF i Silverlight niezależnie od posiadanego doświadczenia w budowaniu aplikacji korporacyjnych. Odkryj, jak: Zagłębić się w tajniki wzorca MVVM i dowiedzieć się, czym różni się on od innych wzorców projektowych interfejsu użytkownika Zbudować prostą aplikację do zarządzania relacjami z klientami, którą można adaptować do swoich własnych projektów Implementować MVVM w celu utrzymywania podziału pomiędzy deklaratywną składnią interfejsu użytkownika a kodem logiki prezentacyjnej Tworzyć model domenowy definiujący kontekst biznesowy aplikacji Pisać dynamiczny kod dla warstwy dostępu do danych przy pomocy Microsoft Entity Framework i NHibernate Wymuszać złożone scenariusze sprawdzania poprawności danych przy użyciu Windows Workflow Foundation 4 Implementować MVVM przy użyciu platform i zestawów narzędzi, takich jak Microsoft Prism

Budowanie mikrousług

Sam Newman

Wykorzystaj potencjał architektury usług! Architektura mikrousług to sposób na odejście od dużych, monolitycznych aplikacji. Wyspecjalizowane usługi realizujące konkretne zadania i komunikujące się z otoczeniem pozwalają na lepsze zapanowanie nad kodem, są łatwiejsze do przetestowania oraz bardziej elastyczne. Jednak oprócz zalet mają też wady. Sięgnij po tę książkę i dowiedz się, jak najlepiej radzić sobie z architekturą mikrousług! Autor przedstawia w książce skuteczne techniki projektowania i korzystania z architektury mikrousług. W trakcie lektury kolejnych rozdziałów poznasz w szczegółach ideę mikrousług, korzyści ich stosowania, sposoby modelowania usług oraz skuteczne techniki dzielenia dużej aplikacji na mikrousługi. Ponadto zapoznasz się z możliwymi sposobami integracji: zdalne wywołanie procedur, REST i zdarzenia — to tylko niektóre z poruszanych kwestii. Na sam koniec zaznajomisz się z najlepszymi metodami testowania i monitorowania usług, zapewnisz im bezpieczeństwo dzięki kluczom API oraz innym technikom. Ta książka jest obowiązkową lekturą dla wszystkich osób chcących tworzyć nowoczesne systemy bazujące na architekturze mikrousług. Odkryj, jak można dostosować projekt systemu do celów Twojej organizacji stosując architekturę mikrousług Zapoznaj się z możliwościami integracji usług z pozostałą częścią systemu Zastosuj przyrostowe podejście do podziału monolitycznych baz kodu Wdrażaj pojedyncze mikrousługi korzystając z techniki ciągłej integracji Zbadaj złożoność testowania i monitorowania rozproszonych usług Zarządzaj zabezpieczeniami stosując modele użytkownik-usługa oraz usługa-usługa Zapoznaj się z wyzwaniami skalowania architektury mikrousług Przekonaj się, jak architektura mikrousług zmieni Twoje spojrzenie na aplikacje!

Budowanie mikrousług. Projektowanie drobnoziarnistych systemów. Wydanie II

Sam Newman

Mikrousługi są dla wielu organizacji wspaniałą alternatywą. Systemy rozproszone złożone ze współpracujących ze sobą mikrousług pozwalają na efektywne i elastyczne dostarczanie oprogramowania, które ściśle odpowiada na wymagania użytkowników. Dodatkową zaletą jest możliwość relatywnie szybkiego wprowadzania modyfikacji w systemie, co ułatwia płynne zaspokajanie zmieniających się potrzeb. Pewnym wyzwaniem dla programistów jednak może być złożoność powodowana przez właściwości architektury systemów rozproszonych, a także pojawiające się wciąż nowe technologie i metodyki, które znacząco zmieniają sposób korzystania z mikrousług. To drugie wydanie praktycznego przewodnika po projektowaniu, tworzeniu, wdrażaniu, skalowaniu i utrzymaniu systemów opartych na drobnoziarnistych mikrousługach. Publikacja została uzupełniona o informacje dotyczące najnowszych trendów i technologii związanych z mikrousługami. Sporo miejsca poświęcono na staranne przeanalizowanie przykładów dotyczących opisywanych koncepcji, a także pokazanie optymalnych sposobów rozwiązywania różnych problemów. Opisano również najnowsze rozwiązania dotyczące modelowania, integracji, testowania, wdrażania i monitorowania autonomicznych usług. Bardzo interesującą częścią są studia przypadków, w których przeanalizowano, jak organizacjom udaje się w praktyce w pełni wykorzystywać możliwości mikrousług. Dzięki książce dowiesz się, jak: przeprowadzać orkiestrację kontenerów i wdrażać rozwiązania bezserwerowe dostosowywać projekt systemu do potrzeb organizacji wybrać najlepszy sposób integracji usługi z systemem samodzielnie wdrażać mikrousługi skutecznie testować i monitorować usługi rozproszone zarządzać zabezpieczeniami dla rozszerzonej zawartości Architektura mikrousług: naucz się podejmować najlepsze decyzje projektowe!

Build Gamified Websites with PHP and jQuery. Using gaming principles to make learning more engaging, motivating, and interactive is a growing trend in web development. It's called gamification, and this book is the complete introduction to its theory and practice

Detrick DeBurr

Gamification involves the process of leveraging the features of real games into real life. A gamified website has the potential to increase user engagement, ROI, and learning. This book will help you build gamified websites with PHP and jQuery by making you understand the gamification design process to implement game mechanics in practical applications.Gamified websites are very popular amongst Internet users. The gamification of a web content draws users into action to empower them and help them develop new skills. Games engage user attention into the task and each task accomplished will mean the development and enhancement of new skills. This book will help you to apply the essence of games into real word applications such as business and education.Build Gamified Websites with PHP and jQuery aims at empowering and educating the users with an educational gamified website. The book walks through the process of developing a gamified website. Through the course of the book, you will learn gamification development process. The book emphasizes on the application of game mechanics to motivate the user. You will then use the Fogg behaviour model to influence the user behaviour. By the end of the book, you will see yourself building more engaging yet simple websites based on rational principles.

Build Your Own Programming Language. A programmer's guide to designing compilers, interpreters, and DSLs for modern computing problems - Second Edition

Clinton L. Jeffery, Imran Ahmad

There are many reasons to build a programming language: out of necessity, as a learning exercise, or just for fun. Whatever your reasons, this book gives you the tools to succeed.You’ll build the frontend of a compiler for your language and generate a lexical analyzer and parser using Lex and YACC tools. Then you’ll explore a series of syntax tree traversals before looking at code generation for a bytecode virtual machine or native code. In this edition, a new chapter has been added to assist you in comprehending the nuances and distinctions between preprocessors and transpilers. Code examples have been modernized, expanded, and rigorously tested, and all content has undergone thorough refreshing. You’ll learn to implement code generation techniques using practical examples, including the Unicon Preprocessor and transpiling Jzero code to Unicon. You'll move to domain-specific language features and learn to create them as built-in operators and functions. You’ll also cover garbage collection.Dr. Jeffery’s experiences building the Unicon language are used to add context to the concepts, and relevant examples are provided in both Unicon and Java so that you can follow along in your language of choice.By the end of this book, you'll be able to build and deploy your own domain-specific language.

Build Your Own Programming Language. A programmer's guide to designing compilers, interpreters, and DSLs for solving modern computing problems

Clinton L. Jeffery

The need for different types of computer languages is growing rapidly and developers prefer creating domain-specific languages for solving specific application domain problems. Building your own programming language has its advantages. It can be your antidote to the ever-increasing size and complexity of software.In this book, you’ll start with implementing the frontend of a compiler for your language, including a lexical analyzer and parser. The book covers a series of traversals of syntax trees, culminating with code generation for a bytecode virtual machine. Moving ahead, you’ll learn how domain-specific language features are often best represented by operators and functions that are built into the language, rather than library functions. We’ll conclude with how to implement garbage collection, including reference counting and mark-and-sweep garbage collection. Throughout the book, Dr. Jeffery weaves in his experience of building the Unicon programming language to give better context to the concepts where relevant examples are provided in both Unicon and Java so that you can follow the code of your choice of either a very high-level language with advanced features, or a mainstream language.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to build and deploy your own domain-specific languages, capable of compiling and running programs.

Building a 3D Game with LibGDX. Click here to enter text

Sebastián Di Giuseppe, Andreas Krühlmann, Elmar van Rijnswou

LibGDX is a hugely popular open source, cross-platform, Java-based game development framework built for the demands of cross-platform game development. This book will teach readers how the LibGDX framework uses its 3D rendering API with the OpenGL wrapper, in combination with Bullet Physics, 3D Particles, and Shaders to develop and deploy a game application to different platformsYou will start off with the basic Intellij environment, workflow and set up a LibGDX project with necessary APIs for 3D development. You will then go through LibGDX’s 3D rendering API main features and talk about the camera used for 3D. Our next step is to put everything together to build a basic 3D game with Shapes, including basic gameplay mechanics and basic UI. Next you will go through modeling, rigging, and animation in Blender. We will then talk about refining mechanics, new input implementations, implementing enemy 3D models, mechanics, and gameplay balancing. The later part of this title will help you to manage secondary resources like audio, music and add 3D particles in the game to make the game more realistic. You will finally test and deploy the app on a multitude of different platforms, ready to start developing your own titles how you want!

Building a Web Application with PHP and MariaDB: A Reference Guide. Build fast, secure, and interactive web applications using this comprehensive guide

Sai S Sriparasa

Building AI Applications with Microsoft Semantic Kernel. Easily integrate generative AI capabilities and copilot experiences into your applications

Lucas A. Meyer

In the fast-paced world of AI, developers are constantly seeking efficient ways to integrate AI capabilities into their apps. Microsoft Semantic Kernel simplifies this process by using the GenAI features from Microsoft and OpenAI.Written by Lucas A. Meyer, a Principal Research Scientist in Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, this book helps you get hands on with Semantic Kernel. It begins by introducing you to different generative AI services such as GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, demonstrating their integration with Semantic Kernel. You’ll then learn to craft prompt templates for reuse across various AI services and variables. Next, you’ll learn how to add functionality to Semantic Kernel by creating your own plugins. The second part of the book shows you how to combine multiple plugins to execute complex actions, and how to let Semantic Kernel use its own AI to solve complex problems by calling plugins, including the ones made by you. The book concludes by teaching you how to use vector databases to expand the memory of your AI services and how to help AI remember the context of earlier requests. You’ll also be guided through several real-world examples of applications, such as RAG and custom GPT agents.By the end of this book, you'll have gained the knowledge you need to start using Semantic Kernel to add AI capabilities to your applications.

Building AI Applications with OpenAI APIs. Leverage ChatGPT, Whisper, and DALL-E APIs to build 10 innovative AI projects - Second Edition

Martin Yanev

Unlock the power of AI in your applications with ChatGPT with this practical guide that shows you how to seamlessly integrate OpenAI APIs into your projects, enabling you to navigate complex APIs and ensure seamless functionality with ease.This new edition is updated with key topics such as OpenAI Embeddings, which’ll help you understand the semantic relationships between words and phrases. You’ll find out how to use ChatGPT, Whisper, and DALL-E APIs through 10 AI projects using the latest OpenAI models, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4, with Visual Studio Code as the IDE. Within these projects, you’ll integrate ChatGPT with frameworks and tools such as Flask, Django, Microsoft Office APIs, and PyQt. You’ll get to grips with NLP tasks, build a ChatGPT clone, and create an AI code bug-fixing SaaS app. The chapters will also take you through speech recognition, text-to-speech capabilities, language translation, generating email replies, creating PowerPoint presentations, and fine-tuning ChatGPT, along with adding payment methods by integrating the ChatGPT API with Stripe.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to develop, deploy, and monetize your own groundbreaking applications by harnessing the full potential of ChatGPT APIs.

Building AI Intensive Python Applications. Create intelligent apps with LLMs and vector databases

Rachelle Palmer, Ben Perlmutter, Ashwin Gangadhar, Nicholas Larew, ...

The era of generative AI is upon us, and this book serves as a roadmap to harness its full potential. With its help, you’ll learn the core components of the AI stack: large language models (LLMs), vector databases, and Python frameworks, and see how these technologies work together to create intelligent applications.The chapters will help you discover best practices for data preparation, model selection, and fine-tuning, and teach you advanced techniques such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to overcome common challenges, such as hallucinations and data leakage. You’ll get a solid understanding of vector databases, implement effective vector search strategies, refine models for accuracy, and optimize performance to achieve impactful results. You’ll also identify and address AI failures to ensure your applications deliver reliable and valuable results. By evaluating and improving the output of LLMs, you’ll be able to enhance their performance and relevance.By the end of this book, you’ll be well-equipped to build sophisticated AI applications that deliver real-world value.

Building an API Product. Design, implement, release, and maintain API products that meet user needs

Bruno Pedro

The exponential increase in the number of APIs is evidence of their widespread adoption by companies seeking to deliver value to users across diverse industries, making the art of building successful APIs an invaluable skill for anyone involved in product development. With this comprehensive guide, you’ll walk through the entire process of planning, designing, implementing, releasing, and maintaining successful API products. You’ll start by exploring all aspects of APIs, including their types, technologies, protocols, and lifecycle stages. Next, you’ll learn how to define an API strategy and identify business objectives, user personas, and jobs-to-be-done (JTBD). With these skills, you’ll delve into designing and validating API capabilities to create a machine-readable API definition. As you advance, the book helps you understand how to choose the right language and framework for securely releasing an API server and offers insights into analyzing API usage metrics, improving performance, and creating compelling documentation that users love. Finally, you’ll discover ways to support users, manage versions, and communicate changes or the retirement of an API.By the end of this API development book, you’ll have the confidence and skills to create API products that truly stand out in the market.

Building an RPG with Unreal 4.x. Get to grips with building the foundations of an RPG using Unreal Engine 4.x

Alan R. Stagner, Steve Santello

Now that Unreal Engine 4 has become one of the most cutting edge game engines in the world, developers are looking for the best ways of creating games of any genre in the engine. This book will lay out the foundation of creating a turn-based RPG in Unreal Engine 4.12. The book starts by walking you through creating a turn-based battle system that can hold commands for party members and enemies. You’ll get your hands dirty by creating NPCs such as shop owners, and important mechanics, that make up every RPG such as a currency system, inventory, dialogue, and character statistics. Although this book specifically focuses on the creation of a turn-based RPG, there are a variety of topics that can be utilized when creating many other types of genres.By the end of the book, you will be able to build upon core RPG framework elements to create your own game experience.

Building Android UIs with Custom Views. Build amazing custom user interfaces with Android custom views

Raimon Rafols Montane

To build great user interfaces for your Android apps that go beyond the standard UI elements, you need to use custom Android views. With these, you can give your app a distinctive look and ensure that it functions properly across multiple devices. This book will help you construct a great UI for your apps by teaching you how to create custom Android views. You will start by creating your first Android custom view and go through the design considerations. You will then see how the right choices will enable your custom view to perform seamlessly across multiple platforms and Android versions. You will create custom styleable attributes that work with Android XML layouts, learn to process touch events, define custom attributes, and add properties and events to them. By the end of this book, you will be able to create apps with custom views that are responsive and adaptable to make your app distinctive and an instant hit with its users.