Publisher: Packt Publishing
Founded in 2004 in Birmingham, UK, Packt's mission is to help the world put software to work in new ways, through the delivery of effective learning and information services to IT professionals. Working towards that vision, we have published over 6,500 books and videos so far, providing IT professionals with the actionable knowledge they need to get the job done - whether that's specific learning on an emerging technology or optimizing key skills in more established tools. As part of our mission, we have also awarded over $1,000,000 through our Open Source Project Royalty scheme, helping numerous projects become household names along the way.
2841
Ebook
2842
Ebook

Building Games with Flutter. The ultimate guide to creating multiplatform games using the Flame engine in Flutter 3

Paul Teale

With its powerful tools and quick implementation capabilities, Flutter provides a new way to build scalable cross-platform apps. In this book, you'll learn how to build on your knowledge and use Flutter as the foundation for creating games.This game development book takes a hands-on approach to building a complete game from scratch. You'll see how to get started with the Flame library and build a simple animated example to test Flame. You'll then discover how to organize and load images and audio in your Flutter game. As you advance, you'll gain insights into the game loop and set it up for fast and efficient processing. The book also guides you in using Tiled to create maps, add sprites to the maps that the player can interact with, and see how to use tilemap collision to create paths for a player to walk on. Finally, you'll learn how to make enemies more intelligent with artificial intelligence (AI).By the end of the book, you'll have gained the confidence to build fun multiplatform games with Flutter.

2843
Ebook
2844
Ebook

Moodle for Mobile Learning. Mobile devices are ideal for go-anywhere interactive learning, and using Moodle you can give your students the opportunity to receive your courses on their phone or tablet in a format that's tailor-made for mobile learning

Mark Aberdour

Mobile devices have become ubiquitous and offer many new possibilities for learning. Moodle, when combined with a mobile device, opens up a new world of possibilities to teachers, instructors, and training professionals to develop their courses. The learning experience can be hugely improved by playing to the strengths of mobile devices, and Moodle for Mobile Learning helps you do just that.Moodle for Mobile Learning is a practical, hands-on guide that provides you with ideas and step-by-step exercises that will help you leverage the features of mobile devices in your Moodle course designs. It also aims at providing you with hands-on knowledge in creating mlearning courses so that you can create your own effective mobile learning interactions.Looking at the underlying theory of mobile learning, Moodle for Mobile Learning aims to enable you to apply this to course design using Moodle. Organized into key sectors including schools, further and higher education, and workplace learning, this book will take you through a number of clear, practical recipes that will help you to take advantage of mobile technology in your Moodle course design.You will learn how to develop your mobile learning strategy and whether to use a mobile friendly Moodle theme or a Moodle mobile app to deliver your strategy. There are certain types of learning activities that are perfectly suited to mobile delivery. We look at delivering podcasts, engaging with social media, setting up photo, video and audio assignments, setting up eBook and App libraries, uploading audio assignment feedback, submitting reflective logs, using chat and messaging tools, using web conferencing and much more.Mobile devices already form the backbone of your learners' daily lives. If you want to use Moodle to bring those devices into the learning process, then this is the book for you.

2845
Ebook

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence. Discover the practical approach to BI with IBM Cognos Business Intelligence

Dustin Adkison, Dustin Adkison

IBM Cognos is Business Intelligence software that enables businesses to fully utilize their maximum potential. It connects people with information from virtually any data source whenever and wherever they need it so that they can make better decisions, faster.Take the practical, hands-on approach to managing your reporting environment with IBM Cognos Business Intelligence - packed with coverage of all the latest features to truly help you maximize your potential.With this in-depth practical guide you will learn how to fully utilize IBM Cognos 10 so that your business can make smarter decisions, achieve better results and gain a deeper understanding of your company's data. You will learn about critical topics like Report Studio, Query Studio, Analysis Studio, Security and Administration as well as in-depth coverage of other features like Business Insight, Business Insight Advanced, and Active Reports, which were introduced with IBM Cognos 10.

2846
Ebook

Mastering GitLab 12. Implement DevOps culture and repository management solutions

Joost Evertse

GitLab is an open source repository management and version control toolkit with functions for enterprises and personal software projects. It offers configurability options, extensions, and APIs that make it an ideal tool for enterprises to manage the software development life cycle.This book begins by explaining GitLab options and the components of the GitLab architecture. You will learn how to install and set up GitLab on-premises and in the cloud, along with understanding how to migrate code bases from different systems, such as GitHub, Concurrent Versions System, Team Foundation Version Control, and Subversion. Later chapters will help you implement DevOps culture by introducing the workflow management tools in GitLab and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD). In addition to this, the book will guide you through installing GitLab on a range of cloud platforms, monitoring with Prometheus, and deploying an environment with GitLab. You'll also focus on the GitLab CI component to assist you with creating development pipelines and jobs, along with helping you set up GitLab runners for your own project. Finally, you will be able to choose a high availability setup that fits your needs and helps you monitor and act on results obtained after testing.By the end of this book, you will have gained the expertise you need to use GitLab features effectively, and be able to integrate all phases in the development process.

2847
Ebook

Information Theory. A Tutorial Introduction to the Principles and Applications of Information Theory

James V Stone

This book offers a comprehensive journey through the fascinating world of information theory, beginning with the fundamental question: what is information? Early chapters introduce key concepts like entropy, binary representation, and data compression, providing a clear and accessible foundation. Readers explore Shannon's source coding theorem and practical tools like Huffman coding to understand how information is quantified and optimized.Building on these basics, the book delves into advanced topics such as the noisy channel coding theorem, mutual information, and error correction techniques. It examines entropy in continuous systems, channel capacity, and rate-distortion theory, making complex ideas accessible through real-world examples. Connections between information and thermodynamics are also explored, including Maxwell’s Demon, the Landauer Limit, and the second law of thermodynamics.The final chapters tie information theory to biology and artificial intelligence, investigating its role in evolution, the human genome, and brain computation. With practical examples throughout, this book balances theoretical depth with hands-on learning, making it an essential resource for mastering information theory. A basic mathematical foundation will be beneficial but is not required to engage with the material.

2848
Ebook

3D Environment Design with Blender. Enhance your modeling, texturing, and lighting skills to create realistic 3D scenes

Abdelilah Hamdani, Carlos Barreto

Blender is a powerful tool for creating all kinds of visual assets, but with such power comes complexity. Creating a photorealistic 3D scene seems like a Herculean task for more than 90% of 3D designers, but don’t be discouraged! 3D Environment Design with Blender will get you up and running.This practical guide helps reduce the complexity of 3D environment design, advance your Blender skills, and produce lifelike scenes and animations in a time-efficient manner. You'll start by learning how to fix the most common mistakes 3D designers make with modeling and scale matching that stop them from achieving photorealism. Next, you’ll understand the basics of realistic texturing, efficient unwrapping and achieving photorealistic lighting by turning an actual reference of a wood cabin into a realistic 3D scene. These skills will be used and expanded as you build a realistic 3D environment with natural assets and materials that you’ll create from scratch. Once you’ve developed your natural environment, you’ll advance to creating realistic render shots by applying cool camera features, and compositing tricks that will make your final render look photorealistic and pleasing to the eye.By the end of this book, you'll be able to implement modeling tricks and best practices to make your 3D environments look stunningly lifelike.