Jmonkeyengine 3.0 Cookbook

by Rickard Eden

Over 80 practical recipes to expand and enrich your jMonkeyEngine skill set with a close focus on game development If you are a jMonkey developer or a Java developer who is interested to delve further into the game making process to expand your skillset and create more technical games, then this book is perfect for you. This book provides you with engaging hands-on game development tips that will keep the game we'll be developing in focus. Each chapter will provide insight into the how's, what's, and why's of jMonkeyEngine and game development step by step. The book starts by giving you useful tips on the SDK itself, and how using it will make your life as a developer easier. The book then moves on to cover a variety of patterns which you can use to control cameras, characters, and animations, followed by how to make real-time networked games and dynamic game worlds. If you are a jMonkeyEngine user or Java developer interested in delving further into game development to expand your skill set, then this book is perfect for you.

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Peter Backx · Rating 4 out of 5]

This jMonkeyEngine (jME) Cookbook contains many ready-made "recipes" that you will be able to use in your own jME programs.

It focuses mostly on games, which is to be expected. You'll find a lot of ideas to upgrade your game. There's a lot in jME and this cookbook covers a lot of it. So even if you are experienced, you're sure to pick up some new tricks. From ways to build large terrains to simulating bullet physics and explosions.

The breadth of the book is also works against it in some places. Some recipes are too short and require quite a bit of work from the reader to actually make use of them. Already the first chapter has a prime example when attachment nodes are explained. To try out the recipe for yourself, you will need to go out and find proper models. Some examples are provided in the source code, but it would have been nice if a prebuilt project was available to start experimenting right away.

In spite of this shortcoming, this cookbook remains very valuable for any jME developer. It's going to take you a lot of reading blogs and searching around if you want to get the same practical overview of everything that jME is capable of.

[K Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

jMonkeyEngine 3.0 Cookbook helped jumpstart few stalled ideas that I had still “sitting around”. I’d recommend it - especially if you are early on the path of doing game development or just looking to explore what jMonkey might be able to do for you. I posted some additional reflections in, “4 tips on easy strategy for successful indie video game development” (http://lycosweb.com/?p=428) but overall, I would say this is a good learning tool and must-have reference especially if just starting off for writing games or using jMonkey itself.



Regards,
KC