Learning Unreal Engine Game Development. A step-by-step guide that paves the way for developing fantastic games with Unreal Engine 4

Joanna Lee

Unreal Engine 4 is a powerful game development engine that provides rich functionalities to create 2D and 3D games across multiple platforms. Many people know what a game is and they play games every day, but how many of them know how to create a game? Unreal Engine technology powers hundreds of games, and thousands of individuals have built careers and companies around skills developed using this engine.Learning Unreal Engine 4 Game Development starts with small, simple game ideas and playable projects that you can actually finish. The book first teaches you the basics of using Unreal Engine to create a simple game level. Then, you'll learn how to add details such as actors, animation, effects, and so on to the game. The complexity will increase over the chapters and the examples chosen will help you learn a wide variety of game development techniques. This book aims to equip you with the confidence and skills to design and build your own games using Unreal Engine 4. By the end of this book, you'll have learnt about the entire Unreal suite and know how to successfully create fun, simple games.

Asynchronous Android Programming. Click here to enter text. - Second Edition

Helder Vasconcelos, Steve Liles

Asynchronous programming has acquired immense importance in Android programming, especially when we want to make use of the number of independent processing units (cores) available on the most recent Android devices. With this guide in your hands you’ll be able to bring the power of Asynchronous programming to your own projects, and make your Android apps more powerful than ever before!To start with, we will discuss the details of the Android Process model and the Java Low Level Concurrent Framework, delivered by Android SDK. We will also guide you through the high-level Android-specific constructs available on the SDK: Handler, AsyncTask, and Loader. Next, we will discuss the creation of IntentServices, Bound Services and External Services, which can run in the background even when the user is not interacting with it. You will also discover AlarmManager and JobScheduler APIs, which are used to schedule and defer work without sacrificing the battery life. In a more advanced phase, you will create background tasks that are able to execute CPU-intensive tasks in a native code-making use of the Android NDK. You will be then guided through the process of interacting with remote services asynchronously using the HTTP protocol or Google GCM Platform. Using the EventBus library, we will also show how to use the Publish-Subscribe software pattern to simplify communication between the different Android application components by decoupling the event producer from event consumer.Finally, we will introduce RxJava, a popular asynchronous Java framework used to compose work in a concise and reactive way. Asynchronous Android will help you to build well-behaved applications with smooth responsive user interfaces that delight the users with speedy results and data that’s always fresh.

Codeless Time Series Analysis with KNIME. A practical guide to implementing forecasting models for time series analysis applications

KNIME AG, Corey Weisinger, Maarit Widmann, Daniele Tonini

This book will take you on a practical journey, teaching you how to implement solutions for many use cases involving time series analysis techniques.This learning journey is organized in a crescendo of difficulty, starting from the easiest yet effective techniques applied to weather forecasting, then introducing ARIMA and its variations, moving on to machine learning for audio signal classification, training deep learning architectures to predict glucose levels and electrical energy demand, and ending with an approach to anomaly detection in IoT. There’s no time series analysis book without a solution for stock price predictions and you’ll find this use case at the end of the book, together with a few more demand prediction use cases that rely on the integration of KNIME Analytics Platform and other external tools.By the end of this time series book, you’ll have learned about popular time series analysis techniques and algorithms, KNIME Analytics Platform, its time series extension, and how to apply both to common use cases.

Mastering Unreal Engine 4.X. Master the art of building AAA games with Unreal Engine

Muhammad A.Moniem

Unreal Engine 4 has garnered a lot of attention in the gaming world because of its new and improved graphics and rendering engine, the physics simulator, particle generator, and more. This book is the ideal guide to help you leverage all these features to create state-of-the-art games that capture the eye of your audience. Inside we’ll explain advanced shaders and effects techniques and how you can implement them in your games. You’ll create custom lighting effects, use the physics simulator to add that extra edge to your games, and create customized game environments that look visually stunning using the rendering technique. You’ll find out how to use the new rendering engine efficiently, add amazing post-processing effects, and use data tables to create data-driven gameplay that is engaging and exciting. By the end of this book, you will be able to create professional games with stunning graphics using Unreal Engine 4!

OpenCV 4 with Python Blueprints. Build creative computer vision projects with the latest version of OpenCV 4 and Python 3 - Second Edition

Dr. Menua Gevorgyan, Arsen Mamikonyan, Michael Beyeler

OpenCV is a native cross-platform C++ library for computer vision, machine learning, and image processing. It is increasingly being adopted in Python for development. This book will get you hands-on with a wide range of intermediate to advanced projects using the latest version of the framework and language, OpenCV 4 and Python 3.8, instead of only covering the core concepts of OpenCV in theoretical lessons. This updated second edition will guide you through working on independent hands-on projects that focus on essential OpenCV concepts such as image processing, object detection, image manipulation, object tracking, and 3D scene reconstruction, in addition to statistical learning and neural networks.You’ll begin with concepts such as image filters, Kinect depth sensor, and feature matching. As you advance, you’ll not only get hands-on with reconstructing and visualizing a scene in 3D but also learn to track visually salient objects. The book will help you further build on your skills by demonstrating how to recognize traffic signs and emotions on faces. Later, you’ll understand how to align images, and detect and track objects using neural networks.By the end of this OpenCV Python book, you’ll have gained hands-on experience and become proficient at developing advanced computer vision apps according to specific business needs.

Azure Containers Explained. Leverage Azure container technologies for effective application migration and deployment

Wesley Haakman, Richard Hooper

Whether you’re working with a start-up or an enterprise, making decisions related to using different container technologies on Azure has a notable impact your app migration and modernization strategies. This is where companies face challenges, while choosing the right solutions and deciding when to move on to the next technology. Azure Containers Explained helps you make the right architectural choices for your solutions and get well-versed with the migration path to other platforms using practical examples.You’ll begin with a recap of containers as technology and where you can store them within Azure. Next, you’ll explore the different Microsoft Azure container technologies and understand how each platform, namely Azure Container Apps, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Container Instances (ACI), Azure Functions, and Azure App Services, work – you’ll learn to implement them by grasping their respective characteristics and use cases. Finally, you’ll build upon your own container solution on Azure using best practices from real-world examples and successfully transform your business from a start-up to a full-fledged enterprise.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to effectively cater to your business and application needs by selecting and modernizing your apps using various Microsoft Azure container services.

Nginx Essentials. Excel in Nginx quickly by learning to use its most essential features in real-life applications

Valery Kholodkov

Business Intelligence with Looker Cookbook. Create BI solutions and data applications to explore and share insights in real time

Khrystyna Grynko

Looker is a data analytics and business intelligence platform that allows organizations to explore, analyze, and visualize their data. It provides tools for data modeling, exploration, and visualization, enabling you to gain insights from your data to make informed business decisions.You’ll start with the basics, from setting up your Looker environments to configuring views and models using LookML. As you progress, you’ll delve into more advanced topics, such as navigating data in Explore, tailoring dashboards to your needs, and adding dynamic elements for interactivity. Along the way, you'll gain invaluable troubleshooting skills to tackle common issues and optimize your Looker usage, ensuring a smooth and seamless experience. Furthermore, the book extends your understanding beyond the basics, equipping you with the knowledge you need to develop Looker applications and seamlessly integrate them with other tools and applications. You'll also explore advanced techniques for harnessing Looker's full potential, empowering you to establish data-driven decision-making and innovation within your organization.By the end of this BI book, you'll have gained a solid understanding of how to use Looker to find important information, make tasks easier, and derive important insights.

CompTIA Security+ Practice Tests SY0-501. Practice tests in 4 different formats and 6 cheat sheets to help you pass the CompTIA Security+ exam

Ian Neil

CompTIA Security+ is a core security certification that will validate your baseline skills for a career in cybersecurity. Passing this exam will not only help you identify security incidents but will also equip you to resolve them efficiently. This book builds on the popular CompTIA Security+ Certification Guide, which mirrors the SY0-501 exam pattern.This practice test-based guide covers all six domains of the Security+ SY0-501 exam: threats, attacks, and vulnerabilities; technologies and tools; architecture and design; identity and access management; cryptography and PKI; and risk management. You’ll take six mock tests designed as per the official Security+ certification exam pattern, each covering significant aspects from an examination point of view. For each domain, the book provides a dedicated cheat sheet that includes important concepts covered in the test. You can even time your tests to simulate the actual exam. These tests will help you identify gaps in your knowledge and discover answers to tricky exam questions.By the end of this book, you’ll have developed and enhanced the skills necessary to pass the official CompTIA Security+ exam.

NumPy Beginner's Guide. An action packed guide using real world examples of the easy to use, high performance, free open source NumPy mathematical library. - Second Edition

Ivan Idris

NumPy is an extension to, and the fundamental package for scientific computing with Python. In today's world of science and technology, it is all about speed and flexibility. When it comes to scientific computing, NumPy is on the top of the list.NumPy Beginner's Guide will teach you about NumPy, a leading scientific computing library. NumPy replaces a lot of the functionality of Matlab and Mathematica, but in contrast to those products, is free and open source.Write readable, efficient, and fast code, which is as close to the language of mathematics as is currently possible with the cutting edge open source NumPy software library. Learn all the ins and outs of NumPy that requires you to know basic Python only. Save thousands of dollars on expensive software, while keeping all the flexibility and power of your favourite programming language.You will learn about installing and using NumPy and related concepts. At the end of the book we will explore some related scientific computing projects. This book will give you a solid foundation in NumPy arrays and universal functions. Through examples, you will also learn about plotting with Matplotlib and the related SciPy project. NumPy Beginner's Guide will help you be productive with NumPy and have you writing clean and fast code in no time at all.

Enterprise LMS with Adobe Learning Manager. Design and develop world-class learning experiences for your employees, partners, and customers

Damien Bruyndonckx, Sean Mullen

Looking to deliver scalable online learning solutions? Adobe's latest enterprise Learning Manager is a powerful learning management system (LMS) that enables organizations to deliver, manage, and track immersive learning experiences. This book unlocks the full potential of Learning Manager, guiding you to become an adept administrator, author, or teacher, experimenting with Learning Manager from different perspectives.You'll gain an in-depth understanding of the features and their impact on your business. From platform setup to course administration, you’ll be able to create blended learning experiences, deploy your content to different devices, and explore Learning Manager's features for monitoring your students' progress on a daily basis. Finally, you'll discover techniques for organizing and maintaining your course catalog while elevating the learner experience.By the end of the book, you’ll be able to implement your organization’s training strategy, deliver engaging learning experiences, and generate meaningful reports to monitor their effectiveness.

Architectural Patterns and Techniques for Developing IoT Solutions. Build IoT applications using digital twins, gateways, rule engines, AI/ML integration, and related patterns

Jasbir Singh Dhaliwal, Grady Booch

As the Internet of Things (IoT) expands and moves to new domains, architectural patterns need to enable faster digital transformation and more uniform development. Through numerous use cases and examples, this book helps you conceptualize and implement IoT architectural patterns and use them in diverse contexts in real-world scenarios.The book begins by introducing you to a variety of IoT architectural patterns and then helps you understand how they are used in domains such as retail, smart manufacturing, consumer, smart cities, and smart agriculture. You’ll also find out how cross-cutting concerns such as security require special considerations in the IoT context. As you advance, you’ll discover all the nuances that are inherent in each layer of IoT reference architecture, including considerations related to analytics for edge/constrained devices, data visualizations, and so on. In the concluding chapters, you’ll explore emerging technologies such as blockchain, 3D printing, 5G, generative AI, quantum computing, and large language models (LLMs) that enhance IoT capabilities to realize broader applications.By the end of this book, you’ll have learned to architect scalable, secure, and unique IoT solutions in any domain using the power of IoT architectural patterns, and you will be able to avoid the pitfalls that typically derail IoT projects.

Getting Started with Greenplum for Big Data Analytics. A hands-on guide on how to execute an analytics project from conceptualization to operationalization using Greenplum

Sunila Gollapudi

Organizations are leveraging the use of data and analytics to gain a competitive advantage over their opposition. Therefore, organizations are quickly becoming more and more data driven. With the advent of Big Data, existing Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence solutions are becoming obsolete, and a requisite for new agile platforms consisting of all the aspects of Big Data has become inevitable. From loading/integrating data to presenting analytical visualizations and reports, the new Big Data platforms like Greenplum do it all. It is now the mindset of the user that requires a tuning to put the solutions to work.Getting Started with Greenplum for Big Data Analytics is a practical, hands-on guide to learning and implementing Big Data Analytics using the Greenplum Integrated Analytics Platform. From processing structured and unstructured data to presenting the results/insights to key business stakeholders, this book explains it all.Getting Started with Greenplum for Big Data Analytics discusses the key characteristics of Big Data and its impact on current Data Warehousing platforms. It will take you through the standard Data Science project lifecycle and will lay down the key requirements for an integrated analytics platform. It then explores the various software and appliance components of Greenplum and discusses the relevance of each component at every level in the Data Science lifecycle.You will also learn Big Data architectural patterns and recap some key advanced analytics techniques in detail. The book will also take a look at programming with R and integration with Greenplum for implementing analytics. Additionally, you will explore MADlib and advanced SQL techniques in Greenplum for analytics. This book also elaborates on the physical architecture aspects of Greenplum with guidance on handling high-availability, back-up, and recovery.

Hands-On Financial Modeling with Microsoft Excel 2019. Build practical models for forecasting, valuation, trading, and growth analysis using Excel 2019

Shmuel Oluwa

Financial modeling is a core skill required by anyone who wants to build a career in finance. Hands-On Financial Modeling with Microsoft Excel 2019 explores terminologies of financial modeling with the help of Excel.This book will provides you with an overview of the steps you should follow to build an integrated financial model. You will explore the design principles, functions, and techniques of building models in a practical manner. Starting with the key concepts of Excel, such as formulas and functions, you will learn about referencing frameworks and other advanced components for building financial models. Later chapters will help you understand your financial projects, build assumptions, and analyze historical data to develop data-driven models and functional growth drivers. The book takes an intuitive approach to model testing and covers best practices and practical use cases.By the end of this book, you will have examined the data from various use cases, and have the skills you need to build financial models to extract the information required to make informed business decisions.

Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication. Secure backup with Veeam 11 for defending your data and accelerating your data protection strategy - Second Edition

Chris Childerhose

Veeam is one of the leading modern data protection solutions, making it a necessary skill for anyone responsible for securing virtual environments. This revised second edition of Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication is updated to cover Veeam version 11. The book guides you through implementing modern data protection solutions for your cloud and virtual infrastructure with Veeam, all while helping you master advanced concepts such as Continuous Data Protection (CDP), extended object storage support, Veeam ONE enhancements, and Orchestrator.Starting with Veeam essentials, including installation, best practices, and optimizations for Veeam Backup & Replication, you'll get to grips with the 3-2-1-1-0 rule to safeguard data. You'll understand how to set up a backup server, proxies, repositories, and more and then advance to cover a powerful feature of Veeam 11 – CDP. As you progress, you'll learn about immutability (also known as hardened repositories) and discover the best practices for creating them. Finally, you'll explore the new proxy option available in Linux and become well-versed with advanced topics such as extended object storage support, Veeam ONE enhancements, and Orchestrator.By the end of this Veeam book, you'll be able to implement Veeam Backup & Replication for securing your environment and enabling disaster recovery.

Spring MVC: Beginner's Guide. Unleash the power of the latest Spring MVC 4.x to develop a complete application - Second Edition

Amuthan Ganeshan

Spring MVC helps you build flexible and loosely coupled web applications. The Spring MVC Framework is architected and designed in such a way that every piece of logic and functionality is highly configurable. Also, Spring can integrate effortlessly with other popular web frameworks such as Struts, WebWork, Java Server Faces, and Tapestry. The book progressively teaches you to configure the Spring development environment, architecture, controllers, libraries, and more before moving on to developing a full web application. It begins with an introduction to the Spring development environment and architecture so you're familiar with the know-hows. From here, we move on to controllers, views, validations, Spring Tag libraries, and more. Finally, we integrate it all together to develop a web application. You'll also get to grips with testing applications for reliability.