Mastering Graphics Programming with Vulkan. Develop a modern rendering engine from first principles to state-of-the-art techniques

Marco Castorina, Gabriel Sassone

Vulkan is now an established and flexible multi-platform graphics API. It has been adopted in many industries, including game development, medical imaging, movie productions, and media playback but learning it can be a daunting challenge due to its low-level, complex nature. Mastering Graphics Programming with Vulkan is designed to help you overcome this difficulty, providing a practical approach to learning one of the most advanced graphics APIs.In Mastering Graphics Programming with Vulkan, you’ll focus on building a high-performance rendering engine from the ground up. You’ll explore Vulkan’s advanced features, such as pipeline layouts, resource barriers, and GPU-driven rendering, to automate tedious tasks and create efficient workflows. Additionally, you'll delve into cutting-edge techniques like mesh shaders and real-time ray tracing, elevating your graphics programming to the next level.By the end of this book, you’ll have a thorough understanding of modern rendering engines to confidently handle large-scale projects. Whether you're developing games, simulations, or visual effects, this guide will equip you with the skills and knowledge to harness Vulkan’s full potential.

Scala Data Analysis Cookbook. Navigate the world of data analysis, visualization, and machine learning with over 100 hands-on Scala recipes

Arun Manivannan

This book will introduce you to the most popular Scala tools, libraries, and frameworks through practical recipes around loading, manipulating, and preparing your data. It will also help you explore and make sense of your data using stunning and insightfulvisualizations, and machine learning toolkits.Starting with introductory recipes on utilizing the Breeze and Spark libraries, get to grips withhow to import data from a host of possible sources and how to pre-process numerical, string, and date data. Next, you’ll get an understanding of concepts that will help you visualize data using the Apache Zeppelin and Bokeh bindings in Scala, enabling exploratory data analysis. iscover how to program quintessential machine learning algorithms using Spark ML library. Work through steps to scale your machine learning models and deploy them into a standalone cluster, EC2, YARN, and Mesos. Finally dip into the powerful options presented by Spark Streaming, and machine learning for streaming data, as well as utilizing Spark GraphX.

Reimagining Characters with Unreal Engine's MetaHuman Creator. Elevate your films with cinema-quality character designs and motion capture animation

Brian Rossney, Ciaran Kavanagh

MetaHuman Creator (MHC) is an online, user-friendly 3D design tool for creating highly realistic digital humans that can be animated within Unreal Engine (UE) and enhanced with motion capture technology. This means that filmmakers and game developers now have access to a high quality, affordable solution that was previously only available to specialist studios.This book will focus on using UE5 and MHC from a filmmaker angle. Firstly, you’ll understand how to use the online MHC to create a digital character, changing its facial structure, body type, and clothing. After that, you’ll learn all the necessary steps to bring the character into UE5 and set it up for animation. Then, using an iPhone and a webcam to capture face and body movements, you’ll mix these motion capture files, refine the animations using the MetaHuman Control Rig, and save these takes to be reused and edited again within the Level Sequencer. On top of that, you’ll learn how to create a rendered video file for film production using both the Level Sequencer and a VR Cinematic Camera. By the end of this book, you’ll have created your own MetaHuman character, as well as face and body motion capture data, and learned the necessary skills to give your future projects further realism and creative control.

Kinect in Motion - Audio and Visual Tracking by Example. Start building for the Kinect today by capturing gestures, movements, and spoken voice commands

massimo fascinari, Clemente Giorio

Kinect is a motion-sensing input device by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game console and Windows PCs. It provides capabilities to enhance human-machine interaction along with a zero-to-hero journey to engage the user in a multimodal interface dialog with your software solution.Kinect in Motion - Audio and Visual Tracking by Example guides you in developing more than five models you can use to capture gestures, movements, and voice spoken commands. The examples and the theory discussed provide you with the knowledge to let the user become a part of your application.Kinect in Motion - Audio and Visual Tracking by Example is a compact reference on how to master color, depth, skeleton, and audio data streams handled by Kinect for Windows.Starting with an introduction to Kinect and its characteristics, you will first be shown how to master the color data stream with no more than one page of lines of code. Learn how to manage the depth information and map them against the color ones. You will then learn how to define and manage gestures that enable the user to instruct the application simply by moving arms or any other type of natural action. Finally you will complete your journey through a multimodal interface, combining gestures with audio.The book will lead you through many detailed, real-world examples, and even guide you on how to test your application.

Supervised Machine Learning with Python. Develop rich Python coding practices while exploring supervised machine learning

Taylor Smith

Supervised machine learning is used in a wide range of sectors, such as finance, online advertising, and analytics, to train systems to make pricing predictions, campaign adjustments, customer recommendations, and much more by learning from the data that is used to train it and making decisions on its own. This makes it crucial to know how a machine 'learns' under the hood.This book will guide you through the implementation and nuances of many popular supervised machine learning algorithms, and help you understand how they work. You’ll embark on this journey with a quick overview of supervised learning and see how it differs from unsupervised learning. You’ll then explore parametric models, such as linear and logistic regression, non-parametric methods, such as decision trees, and a variety of clustering techniques that facilitate decision-making and predictions. As you advance, you'll work hands-on with recommender systems, which are widely used by online companies to increase user interaction and enrich shopping potential. Finally, you’ll wrap up with a brief foray into neural networks and transfer learning.By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with hands-on techniques and will have gained the practical know-how you need to quickly and effectively apply algorithms to solve new problems.

Dart Essentials. Design and build full-featured web and CLI apps using the powerful Dart language and its libraries and tools

Martin Sikora, Krunal Jhaveri

vCenter Troubleshooting. Resolve some of the most commonly faced vCenter problems with the use of this troubleshooting guide

Charles E Mills Jr, Chuck Mills

Developing IoT Projects with ESP32. Automate your home or business with inexpensive Wi-Fi devices

Vedat Ozan Oner

Developing IoT Projects with ESP32 provides end-to-end coverage of secure data communication techniques from sensors to cloud platforms that will help you to develop production-grade IoT solutions by using the ESP32 SoC. You'll learn how to employ ESP32 in your IoT projects by interfacing with different sensors and actuators using different types of serial protocols.This book will show you how some projects require immediate output for end-users, and cover different display technologies as well as examples of driving different types of displays. The book features a dedicated chapter on cybersecurity packed with hands-on examples. As you progress, you'll get to grips with BLE technologies and BLE mesh networking and work on a complete smart home project where all nodes communicate over a BLE mesh. Later chapters will show you how IoT requires cloud connectivity most of the time and remote access to smart devices. You'll also see how cloud platforms and third-party integrations enable endless possibilities for your end-users, such as insights with big data analytics and predictive maintenance to minimize costs.By the end of this book, you'll have developed the skills you need to start using ESP32 in your next wireless IoT project and meet the project's requirements by building effective, efficient, and secure solutions.

Practical Discrete Mathematics. Discover math principles that fuel algorithms for computer science and machine learning with Python

Ryan T. White, Archana Tikayat Ray

Discrete mathematics deals with studying countable, distinct elements, and its principles are widely used in building algorithms for computer science and data science. The knowledge of discrete math concepts will help you understand the algorithms, binary, and general mathematics that sit at the core of data-driven tasks.Practical Discrete Mathematics is a comprehensive introduction for those who are new to the mathematics of countable objects. This book will help you get up to speed with using discrete math principles to take your computer science skills to a more advanced level.As you learn the language of discrete mathematics, you’ll also cover methods crucial to studying and describing computer science and machine learning objects and algorithms. The chapters that follow will guide you through how memory and CPUs work. In addition to this, you’ll understand how to analyze data for useful patterns, before finally exploring how to apply math concepts in network routing, web searching, and data science.By the end of this book, you’ll have a deeper understanding of discrete math and its applications in computer science, and be ready to work on real-world algorithm development and machine learning.

Coding Roblox Games Made Easy. Create, Publish, and Monetize your games on Roblox - Second Edition

Zander Brumbaugh

“I read/worked through the book with my kids to build a game together and I highly recommend pre-teens, teens, and tweens to pick this up as their first book to coding games”-James W. Y III, Technology Integration Specialist at Old Bridge Township Public Schools“...a must-read, must-practice essential book for anyone getting started with building games on Roblox using Luau programming...”-Frederic Markus, President, Feerik Games (Ex-Ubisoft, Nintendo, Rockstar, Disney, LucasArts, and Epic Games)“..includes everything from Roblox Studio menus, the basics of the Luau scripting language, how to tie in real-world (or any world!) physics into your experience of marketing your game as well as some great ideas for where to go next.”-Jay Sebastian, Computer Scientist and Adjunct Lecturer in AI for Games and SimulationRoblox isn't just popular; it's incredibly popular, featuring more than 54 million active players per day. Any experience imaginable can be created on Roblox.Coding Roblox Games Made Easy, 2nd Edition, is a go-to guide for anyone at any age looking to get started with building a game on Roblox using Luau programming. In just about 300 pages, you’ll learn the basics of Luau programming, build two end-to-end games, add customizations to finally publish and monetize them.The bonus chapter ‘50 Cool Things to do in Roblox’ is a perfect end to your learning journey with information nuggets presented with examples to save your time when coding, animating, building avatars, using Robux and so much more.Join Zander, 19-year-old Roblox developer and programmer on this game-development journey and bring your ideas to life

Implementing Cloud Design Patterns for AWS. Create highly efficient design patterns for scalability, redundancy, and high availability in the AWS Cloud

Young Marcus A, Marcus Young

Practical Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. A guide to converging blockchain and AI to build smart applications for new economies

Ganesh Prasad Kumble, Anantha Krishnan

AI and blockchain are two emerging technologies catalyzing the pace of enterprise innovation. With this book, you’ll understand both technologies and converge them to solve real-world challenges.This AI blockchain book is divided into three sections. The first section covers the fundamentals of blockchain, AI, and affiliated technologies, where you’ll learn to differentiate between the various implementations of blockchains and AI with the help of examples. The second section takes you through domain-specific applications of AI and blockchain. You’ll understand the basics of decentralized databases and file systems and connect the dots between AI and blockchain before exploring products and solutions that use them together. You’ll then discover applications of AI techniques in crypto trading. In the third section, you’ll be introduced to the DIApp design pattern and compare it with the DApp design pattern. The book also highlights unique aspects of SDLC (software development lifecycle) when building a DIApp, shows you how to implement a sample contact tracing application, and delves into the future of AI with blockchain.By the end of this book, you’ll have developed the skills you need to converge AI and blockchain technologies to build smart solutions using the DIApp design pattern.

Django: Web Development with Python. Web Development with Python

Aidas Bendoraitis, Samuel Dauzon, Arun Ravindran

Data science is hot right now, and the need for multitalented developers is greater than ever before. A basic grounding in building apps with a framework as minimalistic, powerful, and easy-to-learn as Django will be a useful skill to launch your career as an entrepreneur or web developer. Django is a web framework that was designed to strike a balance between rapid web development and high performance. This course will take you on a journey to become an efficient web developer thoroughly understanding the key concepts of Django framework. This learning path is divided into three modules. The course begins with basic concepts of the Django framework. The first module, Django Essentials, is like a practical guide, filled with many real-world examples to build highly effective Django web application. After getting familiar with core concepts of Django, it's time to practice your learning from the first module with the help of over 90 recipes available in this module. In the second module, Web Development with Django Cookbook, you'll learn varying complexities to help you create multilingual, responsive, and scalable websites with Django. By the end of this module, you will have a good understanding of the new features added to Django 1.8 and be an expert at web development processes.The next step is to discover the latest best practices and idioms in this rapidly evolving Django framework. This is what you'll be learning in our third module, Django Design Patterns and Best Practices. This module will teach you common design patterns to develop better Django code. By the end of the module, you will be able to leverage the Django framework to develop a fully functional web application with minimal effort.

The PEAR Installer Manifesto. The PEAR Installer maintainer shows you the power of this code management and deployment system to revolutionize your PHP application development

Gregory Beaver

PEAR stands for PHP Extension and Application Repository, and its primary purpose is to support code re-use. PEAR provides both an advanced installer and a code repository at http://pear.php.net. PEAR code is organized into discrete re-usable components called packages. A package consists of a group of files and a descriptor file called package.xml that contains metadata about the package's contents, such as the package version, any special dependencies, and textual information such as the package description and authors.The software that transforms a package from an inert grouping of files into a dynamic software package is called the PEAR Installer and is itself a PEAR package. In other words, the PEAR Installer can be used to upgrade itself. It truly is a very powerful application. In short, the PEAR Installer is one of the most effective tools for managing a high-quality software library, high-quality applications, or high-quality websites.This book will show you a new way of organizing your PHP development, by leveraging the full power of the PEAR Installer. In a sense, the PEAR Installer is a step above a software design pattern, a meta-development pattern that can be used to systematically organize all of your PHP development.You will learn how to organize your code into packages using the package.xml format. You will learn about the revolutionary new PEAR Channel concept, and how to safely and reliably depend on external PHP libraries from sources such as pear.php.net and other PEAR channels. You will learn about the PEAR_PackageFileManager package, and how to customize individual installations of your PHP code through file roles, file tasks, and post-installation scripts.In addition, you will learn how to use the power of PEAR to manage your web projects with the PEAR installer to bring the power of versioning and rollbacks to your live website. The synergy of the PEAR Installer and a revision control system like CVS or Subversion is also explored in depth.Next, you will learn how to set up your own PEAR Channel for distributing PHP applications, both open-source and proprietary closed-source PHP applications that can be secured using technology already built into the PEAR Installer.Finally, you will learn how to embed the PEAR Installer inside your own web application in order to manage plug-ins from a remote server. The book covers in detail designing a custom plug-in system for a fictitious blog application. The plug-in system is used to manage templates, and the PEAR Installer is used to manage the details of querying the remote server for templates, handling dependencies between versioning, and doing the actual installation process as well.

Troubleshooting System Center Configuration Manager

Peter Egerton, Gerry Hampson

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager is the most popular enterprise client management solution in the world with some of the best features available. Troubleshooting this product, however, is not always as simple as you might want, not least getting to know the hundreds of log files and understanding how the various components work.The book starts with discussing the most commonly used tools for troubleshooting the variety of problems that can be seen in Configuration Manager. It then moves to providing a high level view of the available log files, their locations, what they relate to and what they typically contain. Next, we will look at how we can fully utilize and extend all the available information from the console monitoring pane through to the status messages and down into error logging with some further reaches into WMI, SQL, registry and the file structure. You will then learn what the common error codes mean, how to make sense of the less common ones and what they actually mean with respect to Configuration Manager. Further to this, you will pick up widely acknowledged best practices both from a proactive stance when carrying out your daily administrative tasks and also from a reactive position when the green lights start to turn red right down to a complete failure situation. By the end of the book, you will be competent enough to identify and diagnose the root causes of System Center Configuration Manager administration issues and resolving them.

Kivy - Interactive Applications and Games in Python. Create responsive cross-platform UI/UX applications and games in Python using the open source Kivy library

Roberto Ulloa