Physics for Game Developers, 2nd Edition

eBook Details:

  • Paperback: 578 pages
  • Publisher: O’Reilly Media; 2nd edition (April 30, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1449392512
  • ISBN-13: 978-1449392512

eBook Description:

Physics for Game Developers, 2nd Edition

  • Refresh your knowledge of classical mechanics, including kinematics, force, kinetics, and collision response
  • Explore rigid body dynamics, using real-time 2D and 3D simulations to handle rotation and inertia
  • Apply concepts to real-world problems: model the behavior of boats, airplanes, cars, and sports balls
  • Enhance your games with digital physics, using accelerometers, touch screens, GPS, optical tracking devices, and 3D displays
  • Capture 3D sound effects with the OpenAL audio API

If you want to enrich your game’s experience with physics-based realism, the expanded edition of this classic book details physics principles applicable to game development. You’ll learn about collisions, explosions, sound, projectiles, and other effects used in games on Wii, PlayStation, Xbox, smartphones, and tablets. You’ll also get a handle on how to take advantage of various sensors such as accelerometers and optical tracking devices.

Authors David Bourg and Bryan Bywalec show you how to develop your own solutions to a variety of problems by providing technical background, formulas, and a few code examples. This updated book is indispensable whether you work alone or as part of a team. Download eBook Free »

Understanding and Using C Pointers

eBook Details:

  • Paperback: 226 pages
  • Publisher: O’Reilly Media (May 15, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1449344186
  • ISBN-13: 978-1449344184

eBook Description:

Understanding and Using C Pointers

  • Get an introduction to pointers, including the declaration of different pointer types
  • Learn about dynamic memory allocation, de-allocation, and alternative memory management techniques
  • Use techniques for passing or returning data to and from functions
  • Understand the fundamental aspects of arrays as they relate to pointers
  • Explore the basics of strings and how pointers are used to support them
  • Examine why pointers can be the source of security problems, such as buffer overflow
  • Learn several pointer techniques, such as the use of opaque pointers, bounded pointers and, the restrict keyword

Improve your programming through a solid understanding of C pointers and memory management. With this practical book, you’ll learn how pointers provide the mechanism to dynamically manipulate memory, enhance support for data structures, and enable access to hardware. Author Richard Reese shows you how to use pointers with arrays, strings, structures, and functions, using memory models throughout the book.

Difficult to master, pointers provide C with much flexibility and power yet few resources are dedicated to this data type. This comprehensive book has the exact information you need, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced C or C++ programmer or developer. Download eBook Free »

Programming Grails: Best Practices for Experienced Grails Developers

eBook Details:

  • Paperback: 364 pages
  • Publisher: O’Reilly Media (May 8, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1449323936
  • ISBN-13: 978-1449323936

eBook Description:

Programming Grails: Best Practices for Experienced Grails Developers

  • Write simpler, more powerful code with the Groovy language
  • Manage persistence in Grails, using Hibernate or a NoSQL datastore
  • Learn how Grails uses Spring’s functionality and optional modules
  • Discover how Hibernate handles details for storing and retrieving data
  • Integrate technologies for messaging, mail, creating web services, and other JEE technologies
  • Bypass convention and configure Grails manually
  • Learn a general approach to upgrading applications and plugins
  • Use Grails to develop and deploy IaaS and PaaS applications

Dig deeper into Grails architecture and discover how this application framework works its magic. Written by a core developer on the Grails team, this practical guide takes you behind the curtain to reveal the inner workings of its 2.0 feature set. You’ll learn best practices for building and deploying Grails applications, including performance, security, scaling, tuning, debugging, and monitoring.

Understand how Grails integrates with Groovy, Spring, Hibernate, and other JVM technologies, and learn how to create and use plugins to augment your application’s functionality. Once you know how Grails adds behavior by convention, you can solve problems more easily and develop applications more intuitively. Download eBook Free »

Windows Server 2012 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook

eBook Details:

  • Paperback: 372 pages
  • Publisher: Packt Publishing (March 26, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1849689466
  • ISBN-13: 978-1849689465

eBook Description:

Windows Server 2012 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook

  • Extend the capabilities of your Windows environment
  • Improve the process reliability by using well defined PowerShell scripts
  • Full of examples, scripts, and real-world best practices

Windows Server 2012 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook

Windows Server 2012 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook will show several ways for a Windows administrator to automate and streamline his/her job. Learn how to automate server tasks to ease your day-to-day operations, generate performance and configuration reports, and troubleshoot and resolve critical problems.

Windows Server 2012 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook will introduce you to the advantages of using Windows Server 2012 and PowerShell. Each recipe is a building block that can easily be combined to provide larger and more useful scripts to automate your systems. The recipes are packed with examples and real world experience to make the job of managing and administrating Windows servers easier. Download eBook Free »

PHP Web Services: APIs for the Modern Web

eBook Details:

  • Paperback: 118 pages
  • Publisher: O’Reilly Media (May 3, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1449356567
  • ISBN-13: 978-1449356569

eBook Description:

PHP Web Services: APIs for the Modern Web

  • Explore HTTP, from the request/response cycle to its verbs, headers, and cookies
  • Determine whether JSON or XML is the best data format for your application
  • Get practical advice for working with RPC, SOAP, and RESTful services
  • Use a variety of tools and techniques for debugging HTTP web services
  • Choose the service that works best for your application, and learn how to make it robust
  • Learn how to document your API and how to design it to handle errors

Whether you’re sharing data between two internal systems or building an API so users can access their data, this practical book provides everything you need to build web service APIs with PHP. Author Lorna Jane Mitchell uses code samples, real-world examples, and advice based on her extensive experience to guide you through the process from the underlying theory to methods for making your service robust.

PHP is ideally suited for both consuming and creating web services. You’ll learn how to use this language with JSON, XML, and other web service technologies. Download eBook Free »

Microinteractions: Designing with Details

eBook Details:

  • Paperback: 170 pages
  • Publisher: O’Reilly Media (May 10, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 144934268X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1449342685

eBook Description:

Microinteractions: Designing with Details

  • Explore a microinteraction’s structure: triggers, rules, feedback, modes, and loops
  • Learn the types of triggers that initiate a microinteraction
  • Create simple rules that define how your microinteraction can be used
  • Help users understand the rules with feedback, using graphics, sounds, and vibrations
  • Use modes to let users set preferences or modify a microinteraction
  • Extend a microinteraction’s life with loops, such as “Get data every 30 seconds”

It’s the little things that turn a good digital product into a great one. With this practical book, you’ll learn how to design effective microinteractions: the small details that exist inside and around features. How can users change a setting? How do they turn on mute, or know they have a new email message?

Through vivid, real-world examples from today’s devices and applications, author Dan Saffer walks you through a microinteraction’s essential parts, then shows you how to use them in a mobile app, a web widget, and an appliance. You’ll quickly discover how microinteractions can change a product from one that’s tolerated into one that’s treasured. Download eBook Free »