Google SketchUp for Game Design: Beginner's Guide. Create 3D game worlds complete with textures, levels and props

Robin de Jongh, Robin de Jongh

Creating video game environments similar to the best 3D games on the market is now within the capability of hobbyists for the first time, with the free availability of game development software such as Unity 3D, and the ease with which groups of enthusiasts can get together to pool their skills for a game project. The sheer number of these independent game projects springing up means there is a constant need for game art, the physical 3D environment and objects that inhabit these game worlds. Now thanks to Google there is an easy, fun way to create professional game art, levels and props.Google SketchUp is the natural choice for beginners to game design. This book provides you with the workflow to quickly build realistic 3D environments, levels, and props to fill your game world. In simple steps you will model terrain, buildings, vehicles, and much more.Google SketchUp is the ideal entry level modeling tool for game design, allowing you to take digital photographs and turn them into 3D objects for quick, fun, game creation. SketchUp for Game Design takes you through the modeling of a game level with SketchUp and Unity 3D, complete with all game art, textures and props. You will learn how to create cars, buildings, terrain, tools and standard level props such as barrels, fencing and wooden pallets. You will set up your game level in Unity 3D to create a fully functional first person walk-around level to email to your friends or future employers.When you have completed the projects in this book, you will be comfortable creating 3D worlds, whether for games, visualization, or films.

Functional Programming in Go. Apply functional techniques in Golang to improve the testability, readability, and security of your code

Dylan Meeus

While Go is a multi-paradigm language that gives you the option to choose whichever paradigm works best for the particular problem you aim to solve, it supports features that enable you to apply functional principles in your code. In this book, you’ll learn about concepts central to the functional programming paradigm and how and when to apply functional programming techniques in Go.Starting with the basic concepts of functional programming, this Golang book will help you develop a deeper understanding of first-class functions. In the subsequent chapters, you’ll gain a more comprehensive view of the techniques and methods used in functional languages, such as function currying, partial application, and higher-order functions. You’ll then be able to apply functional design patterns for solving common programming challenges and explore how to apply concurrency mechanisms to functional programming.By the end of this book, you’ll be ready to improve your code bases by applying functional programming techniques in Go to write cleaner, safer, and bug-free code.

Getting Started with Hazelcast. Get acquainted with the highly scalable data grid, Hazelcast, and learn how to bring its powerful in-memory features into your application

Matthew Johns, Mat Johns

Microsoft SharePoint for Business Executives: Q&A Handbook. 100 Essential Questions and Answers about SharePoint 2010 for Executives considering SharePoint deployments with this book and

William Nagle, Michael Hinckley, Paul Galvin, Richard Harbridge, ...

Elasticsearch 7 Quick Start Guide. Get up and running with the distributed search and analytics capabilities of Elasticsearch

Anurag Srivastava, Douglas Miller

Elasticsearch is one of the most popular tools for distributed search and analytics. This Elasticsearch book highlights the latest features of Elasticsearch 7 and helps you understand how you can use them to build your own search applications with ease.Starting with an introduction to the Elastic Stack, this book will help you quickly get up to speed with using Elasticsearch. You'll learn how to install, configure, manage, secure, and deploy Elasticsearch clusters, as well as how to use your deployment to develop powerful search and analytics solutions. As you progress, you'll also understand how to troubleshoot any issues that you may encounter along the way. Finally, the book will help you explore the inner workings of Elasticsearch and gain insights into queries, analyzers, mappings, and aggregations as you learn to work with search results.By the end of this book, you'll have a basic understanding of how to build and deploy effective search and analytics solutions using Elasticsearch.

Spring Data. Want to make it easier to implement data access with your Spring-powered applications? Then this is the book you need. A complete tutorial to Spring Data, it makes learning easier with lots of code examples and clear instructions

Petri Kainulainen

Spring Framework has always had a good support for different data access technologies. However, developers had to use technology-specific APIs, which often led to a situation where a lot of boilerplate code had to be written in order to implement even the simplest operations. Spring Data changed all this. Spring Data makes it easier to implement Spring-powered applications that use cloud-based storage services, NoSQL databases, map-reduce frameworks or relational databases.Spring Data is a practical guide that is full of step-by-step instructions and examples which ensure that you can start using the Java Persistence API and Redis in your applications without extra hassle.This book provides a brief introduction to the underlying data storage technologies, gives step-by-step instructions that will help you utilize the discussed technologies in your applications, and provides a solid foundation for expanding your knowledge beyond the concepts described in this book.You will learn an easier way to manage your entities and to create database queries with Spring Data JPA. This book also demonstrates how you can add custom functions to your repositories. You will also learn how to use the Redis key-value store as data storage and to use its other features for enhancing your applications.Spring Data includes all the practical instructions and examples that provide you with all the information you need to create JPA repositories with Spring Data JPA and to utilize the performance of Redis in your applications by using Spring Data Redis.

Python for Algorithmic Trading Cookbook. Recipes for designing, building, and deploying algorithmic trading strategies with Python

Jason Strimpel

Discover how Python has made algorithmic trading accessible to non-professionals with unparalleled expertise and practical insights from Jason Strimpel, founder of PyQuant News and a seasoned professional with global experience in trading and risk management. This book guides you through from the basics of quantitative finance and data acquisition to advanced stages of backtesting and live trading.Detailed recipes will help you leverage the cutting-edge OpenBB SDK to gather freely available data for stocks, options, and futures, and build your own research environment using lightning-fast storage techniques like SQLite, HDF5, and ArcticDB. This book shows you how to use SciPy and statsmodels to identify alpha factors and hedge risk, and construct momentum and mean-reversion factors. You’ll optimize strategy parameters with walk-forward optimization using VectorBT and construct a production-ready backtest using Zipline Reloaded. Implementing all that you’ve learned, you’ll set up and deploy your algorithmic trading strategies in a live trading environment using the Interactive Brokers API, allowing you to stream tick-level data, submit orders, and retrieve portfolio details.By the end of this algorithmic trading book, you'll not only have grasped the essential concepts but also the practical skills needed to implement and execute sophisticated trading strategies using Python.

Hands-On Game Development with WebAssembly. Learn WebAssembly C++ programming by building a retro space game

Rick Battagline

Within the next few years, WebAssembly will change the web as we know it. It promises a world where you can write an application for the web in any language, and compile it for native platforms as well as the web.This book is designed to introduce web developers and game developers to the world of WebAssembly by walking through the development of a retro arcade game. You will learn how to build a WebAssembly application using C++, Emscripten, JavaScript, WebGL, SDL, and HTML5.This book covers a lot of ground in both game development and web application development. When creating a game or application that targets WebAssembly, developers need to learn a plethora of skills and tools. This book is a sample platter of those tools and skills. It covers topics including Emscripten, C/C++, WebGL, OpenGL, JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS. The reader will also learn basic techniques for game development, including 2D sprite animation, particle systems, 2D camera design, sound effects, 2D game physics, user interface design, shaders, debugging, and optimization. By the end of the book, you will be able to create simple web games and web applications targeting WebAssembly.

Clojure for Java Developers. Transition smoothly from Java to the most widely used functional JVM-based language – Clojure

Eduardo Díaz, Eduardo D Real

We have reached a point where machines are not getting much faster, software projects need to be delivered quickly, and high quality in software is more demanding as ever.We need to explore new ways of writing software that helps achieve those goals. Clojure offers a new possibility of writing high quality, multi-core software faster than ever, without having to leave your current platform.Clojure for Java developers aims at unleashing the true potential of the Clojure language to use it in your projects. The book begins with the installation and setup of the Clojure environment before moving on to explore the language in-depth. Get acquainted with its various features such as functional programming, concurrency, etc. with the help of example projects. Additionally, you will also, learn how the tooling works, and how it interacts with the Java environment. By the end of this book, you will have a firm grip on Clojure and its features, and use them effectively to write more robust programs.

Pentaho 3.2 Data Integration: Beginner's Guide. Explore, transform, validate, and integrate your data with ease

María Carina Roldán, Doug Moran

Pentaho Data Integration (a.k.a. Kettle) is a full-featured open source ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) solution. Although PDI is a feature-rich tool, effectively capturing, manipulating, cleansing, transferring, and loading data can get complicated.This book is full of practical examples that will help you to take advantage of Pentaho Data Integration's graphical, drag-and-drop design environment. You will quickly get started with Pentaho Data Integration by following the step-by-step guidance in this book. The useful tips in this book will encourage you to exploit powerful features of Pentaho Data Integration and perform ETL operations with ease.Starting with the installation of the PDI software, this book will teach you all the key PDI concepts. Each chapter introduces new features, allowing you to gradually get involved with the tool. First, you will learn to work with plain files, and to do all kinds of data manipulation. Then, the book gives you a primer on databases and teaches you how to work with databases inside PDI. Not only that, you'll be given an introduction to data warehouse concepts and you will learn to load data in a data warehouse. After that, you will learn to implement simple and complex processes.Once you've learned all the basics, you will build a simple datamart that will serve to reinforce all the concepts learned through the book.

Django 5 for the Impatient. Learn the core concepts of Django to develop Python web applications - Second Edition

Daniel Correa, Greg Lim

Learning Django can be a challenging and time-consuming activity without the right guidance. With hundreds of tutorials, loads of documentation, and unclear explanations out there, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s most important. This book stands out by teaching you how to use Django in just a few days with a focused approach. In this second edition, you’ll go on a fun, practical, and pragmatic journey to learning full-stack development with Django 5. You’ll start building your first Django app within minutes. As you progress, you’ll learn from concise explanations that will help you get to grips with some of the most important Django features, including URLs, views, templates, models, CSS inclusion, image storage, Django admin panel, and more. You’ll also understand how to design Django MVT (Model-View-Template) architectures and implement them. Additionally, you’ll use Django to develop a movie store application and deploy it to the internet.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to build and deploy your own Django web applications confidently.

Test-Driven Development with PHP 8. Build extensible, reliable, and maintainable enterprise-level applications using TDD and BDD with PHP

Rainier Sarabia, Ben Hansen

PHP web developers end up building complex enterprise projects without prior experience in test-driven and behavior-driven development which results in software that’s complex and difficult to maintain. This step-by-step guide helps you manage the complexities of large-scale web applications. It takes you through the processes of working on a project, starting from understanding business requirements and translating them into actual maintainable software, to automated deployments.You’ll learn how to break down business requirements into workable and actionable lists using Jira. Using those organized lists of business requirements, you’ll understand how to implement behavior-driven development (BDD) and test-driven development (TDD) to start writing maintainable PHP code. You’ll explore how to use the automated tests to help you stop introducing regressions to an application each time you release code by using continuous integration.By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to start a PHP project, break down the requirements, build test scenarios and automated tests, and write more testable and maintainable PHP code. By learning these processes, you’ll be able to develop more maintainable, and reliable enterprise PHP applications.

Sass and Compass for Designers. If you know HTML and CSS, then you can have all the power of Sass and Compass at your disposal. This step-by-step guide will take you through the time-saving features that makes it so much easier to create cross-browser CSS

Ben Frain

Learning IBM Bluemix. Click here to enter text

Sreelatha Sankaranarayanan

IBM Bluemix is an open standard platform for building, running, and managing applications on the cloud. With Bluemix, developers can build innovative applications using various compute options and value added services , developers can also manage the application lifecycle using the platform provided DevOps services.Learning IBM Bluemix will take you on a journey from the basics of IBM Bluemix to working with the platform to developing and deploying of modern applications. The sample application use cases employed in the book will introduce you to the transformative nexus of cloud, mobile, and security, all enabled through capabilities provided out-of-the-box by IBM Bluemix. By the end of the book, you will have understood the benefits and use cases for IBM Bluemix, and will possess the skills to further explore the platform and thus develop, deploy, and secure your own innovative, new-age applications.

D Web Development. Leverage the power of D and the vibe.d framework to develop web applications that are incredibly fast

Kai Nacke

D is a programming language with C-like syntax and static typing. The vibe.d framework builds on powerful D concepts like template meta-programming and compile-time function execution to provide an easy-to-use environment for web applications. The combination of a feature-rich web programming framework with a language compiling to native code solves two common issues in web development today: it accelerates your development and it results in fast, native web applications. Learning the vibe.d framework before you start your application will help you to choose the right features to reach your goal.This book guides you through all aspects of web development with D and the vibe.d framework.Covering the popular operating systems today, this guide starts with the setup of your development system. From the first Hello World-style application you will move on to building static web pages with templates. The concise treatment of web forms will give you all the details about form handling and web security. Using the abstractions of the web framework you will learn how to easily validate user input. Next, you will add database access to your application, providing persistent storage for your data. Building on this foundation, you will expose your component and integrate other components via REST. Learning about the internals of vibe.d you will be able to use low-level techniques such as raw TCP access. The vibe.d concepts can also be used for GUI clients, which is the next topic that you will learn. vibe.d is supported by an active community, which adds new functionality. This comprehensive guide concludes with an overview of the most useful vibe.d extensions and where to find them. It also shows you how to integrate these extensions in your application.The concepts are always illustrated with source code, giving you an insight into how to apply them in your application.

Python Unlocked. Become more fluent in Python—learn strategies and techniques for smart and high-performance Python programming

Arun Tigeraniya

Python is a versatile programming language that can be used for a wide range of technical tasks—computation, statistics, data analysis, game development, and more. Though Python is easy to learn, it’s range of features means there are many aspects of it that even experienced Python developers don’t know about. Even if you’re confident with the basics, its logic and syntax, by digging deeper you can work much more effectively with Python – and get more from the language.Python Unlocked walks you through the most effective techniques and best practices for high performance Python programming - showing you how to make the most of the Python language. You’ll get to know objects and functions inside and out, and will learn how to use them to your advantage in your programming projects. You will also find out how to work with a range of design patterns including abstract factory, singleton, strategy pattern, all of which will help make programming with Python much more efficient. Finally, as the process of writing a program is never complete without testing it, you will learn to test threaded applications and run parallel tests. If you want the edge when it comes to Python, use this book to unlock the secrets of smarter Python programming.

Docker High Performance. Complete your Docker journey by optimizing your application's work?ows and performance - Second Edition

Allan Espinosa, Russ McKendrick

Docker is an enterprise-grade container platform that allows you to build and deploy your apps. Its portable format lets you run your code right from your desktop workstations to popular cloud computing providers. This comprehensive guide will improve your Docker work?ows and ensure your application's production environment runs smoothly.This book starts with a refresher on setting up and running Docker and details the basic setup for creating a Docker Swarm cluster. You will then learn how to automate this cluster by using the Chef server and cookbooks. After that, you will run the Docker monitoring system with Prometheus and Grafana, and deploy the ELK stack. You will also learn best practices for optimizing Docker images.After deploying containers with the help of Jenkins, you will then move on to a tutorial on using Apache JMeter to analyze your application's performance. You will learn how to use Docker Swarm and NGINX to load-balance your application, and how common debugging tools in Linux can be used to troubleshoot Docker containers.By the end of this book, you will be able to integrate all the optimizations that you have learned and put everything into practice in your applications.

pfSense 2 Cookbook. This book is unique in its coverage of all the features of pfSense, empowering you to exploit the firewall’s full potential. With clear instructions and detailed screenshots, it helps you configure even the most advanced features

Matt Williamson, Matthew D Williamson

pfSense is an open source distribution of FreeBSD-based firewall that provides a platform for flexible and powerful routing and firewalling. The versatility of pfSense presents us with a wide array of configuration options, which makes determining requirements a little more difficult and a lot more important, compared to other offerings. Through this book you will see that pfSense offers numerous alternatives to fit any environment's security needs.pfSense 2.0 Cookbook is the first and only book to explore all the features of pfSense, including those released in the latest 2.0 version. With the help of step-by-step instructions and detailed screenshots of the pfSense interface you will be able to configure every general and advanced feature from creating a firewall rule to configuring multi-WAN failover. Each recipe includes tips and offers advice on variations of the topic or references to other related recipes and additional information that can be found from other sources.pfSense 2.0 Cookbook covers the gamut of available features and functionality. The first three chapters will take you from a non-existent system to a basic pfSense firewall. The next chapter focuses on configuring any number of the VPN services available, a very important and sought-after feature for anyone implementing a firewall. The following two chapters describe how to configure the most advanced features available in pfSense; features that may only be relevant to the most experienced network admins. Chapter 7 is dedicated to understanding and configuring the grab-bag of features that are available in pfSense, but are often stand-alone options and unrelated to each other. The first appendix explains how to use the status monitoring tools available for many of the features. The second appendix wraps up with helping you to decide how and where pfSense may be incorporated into your system and what type of hardware is required based on your throughput needs.

The Tableau Workshop. A practical guide to the art of data visualization with Tableau

Sumit Gupta, Sylvester Pinto, Shweta Sankhe-Savale, JC Gillet, ...

Learning Tableau has never been easier, thanks to this practical introduction to storytelling with data. The Tableau Workshop breaks down the analytical process into five steps: data preparation, data exploration, data analysis, interactivity, and distribution of dashboards. Each stage is addressed with a clear walkthrough of the key tools and techniques you'll need, as well as engaging real-world examples, meaningful data, and practical exercises to give you valuable hands-on experience.As you work through the book, you'll learn Tableau step by step, studying how to clean, shape, and combine data, as well as how to choose the most suitable charts for any given scenario. You'll load data from various sources and formats, perform data engineering to create new data that delivers deeper insights, and create interactive dashboards that engage end-users.All concepts are introduced with clear, simple explanations and demonstrated through realistic example scenarios. You'll simulate real-world data science projects with use cases such as traffic violations, urban populations, coffee store sales, and air travel delays.By the end of this Tableau book, you'll have the skills and knowledge to confidently present analytical results and make data-driven decisions.

HTML5 Graphing and Data Visualization Cookbook. Get a complete grounding in the exciting visual world of Canvas and HTML5 using this recipe-packed cookbook. Learn to create charts and graphs, draw complex shapes, add interactivity, work with Google maps, and much more

Ben Fhala

The HTML5 canvas tag makes creating any plot shape easy, all you have to do then is fill it with exciting visualizations written in JavaScript or using other visualization tools. HTML5 Graphing and Data Visualization Cookbook is the perfect break into the world of Canvas, charts, and graphs in HTML5 and JavaScript. In this book we will go through a journey of getting to know the technology by creating and planning data-driven visualizations. This cookbook is organized in a linear, progressive way so it can be read from start to finish, as well as be used as a resource for specific tasks.This book travels through the steps involved in creating a fully interactive and animated visualization in HTML5 and JavaScript. You will start from very simple hello worldù samples and quickly dive deeper into the world of graphs and charts in HTML5. Followed by learning how canvas works and carrying out a group of tasks geared at taking what we learned and implementing it in a variety of chart types. With each chapter the content becomes more complex and our creations become more engaging and interactive.Our goal is that by the end of this book you will have a strong foundation; knowing when to create a chart on your own from scratch and when it would be a good idea to depend on other APIs.We finish our book in our last two chapters exploring Google maps and integrating everything we learnt into a full project.

Getting Started with SpriteKit

Jorge Jordán

SpriteKit is Apple’s game engine to develop native iOS games. Strongly boosted by the Apple Inc., Cupertino, it has increased in popularity since its first release. This book shows you the solutions provided by SpriteKit to help you create any 2D game you can imagine and apply them to create animations that will highlight your existing apps.This book will give you the knowledge you need to apply SpriteKit to your existing apps or create your own games from scratch.Throughout the book, you will develop a complete game. The beautiful designs implemented in the game in this book will easily lead you to learn the basis of 2D game development, including creating and moving sprites, and adding them to a game scene. You will also discover how to apply advanced techniques such as collision detection, action execution, playing music, or running animations to give a more professional aspect to the game. You will finish your first game by learning how to add a main menu and a tutorial, as well as saving and loading data from and to the player’s device. Finally, you will find out how to apply some mobile games techniques such as accelerometer use or touch detection.

Arduino Data Communications. Learn how to configure databases, MQTT, REST APIs, and store data over LoRaWAN, HC-12, and GSM

Robert Thas John

In our modern, internet-connected world, where billions of devices constantly collect and send data to systems to be stored and processed, it’s surprising how the intricacies of data transmission and storage are often overlooked in the IoT domain. With Arduino Data Communications, you'll bridge the knowledge gap and become an expert in collecting data from IoT sensors, transmitting data, and configuring your own databases.This book is an exploration of IoT’s inner workings, guiding you through the process of setting up an end-to-end system that you can employ to prototype your own IoT solutions, using easy-to-follow examples. It begins with a general overview of the Arduino ecosystem, acquainting you with various sensors and shields and unveiling the art of data collection. You’ll then explore data formats and methods to store data, both locally and on database servers. As you progress through the chapters, you’ll learn how to set up REST and MQTT infrastructure to communicate with databases and get hands-on with LoRaWAN, Ethernet, cellular, HC-12, and RS-485. The final chapters are your training ground for real-world projects, imparting the essential knowledge you need to tackle complex challenges with confidence.By the end of this Arduino book, you'll have seamlessly configured an end-to-end system, all while immersing yourself in practical scenarios that bring the world of IoT to life.

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.

Mastering Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 HOTSHOT. Take your video editing skills to new and exciting levels with eight fantastic projects

Paul Ekert, PAUL EKERT

Adobe Premiere Pro has become synonymous with video editing, in the same way Photoshop has become a byword for image manipulation. To unlock the true potential of this powerful software you don't need you to take expensive training courses or spend hours trying to get your footage “just right”. Work through this practical guide and truly master Premiere Pro CS6 using real footage with engaging examples.Using the included source material (available via digital download), this book will help you discover a plethora of features and functionality hidden within Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 that can truly augment your skills and take your footage to the next level. By covering a diverse array of topics in a practical manner, you will gain a full understanding of how to approach pretty much any video editing project you want to tackle with Adobe Premiere Pro CS6.Starting off with an entry-level project to get both new and existing users up to speed, Mastering Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 Hotshot dives right into a series of engaging real-world projects that help you understand how you can harness Premiere Pro's full potential. With an explicit focus on practical real-world projects from concept to publication, this is the definitive guide for people who want to make the most out of this powerful software.As you progress through the book you'll encounter problems of poorly shot footage; news reporters who stumble over their dialog and camera crews who fail to deliver key scenes, leaving you to scavenge and then hide your trail. Not only will you develop a full understanding of how core features work, you'll also have a clear grasp on how to make your footage stand out from the crowd.