Book excerpt: Create complex and visually stunning games using all the advanced features available in SFML development About This Book Build custom tools, designed to work with your specific game. Use raw modern OpenGL and go beyond SFML. Revamp your code for better structural design, faster rendering, and flashier graphics. Use advanced lighting techniques to add that extra touch of sophistication. Implement a very fast and efficient particle system by using a cache-friendly design. Who This Book Is For This book is ideal for game developers who have some basic knowledge of SFML and also are familiar with C++ coding in general. No knowledge of OpenGL or even more advanced rendering techniques is required. You will be guided through every bit of code step by step. What You Will Learn Dive deep into creating complex and visually stunning games using SFML, as well as advanced OpenGL rendering and shading techniques Build an advanced, dynamic lighting and shadowing system to add an extra graphical kick to your games and make them feel a lot more dynamic Craft your own custom tools for editing game media, such as maps, and speed up the process of content creation Optimize your code to make it blazing fast and robust for the users, even with visually demanding scenes Get a complete grip on the best practices and industry grade game development design patterns used for AAA projects In Detail SFML is a cross-platform software development library written in C++ with bindings available for many programming languages. It provides a simple interface to the various components of your PC, to ease the development of games and multimedia applications. This book will help you become an expert of SFML by using all of its features to its full potential. It begins by going over some of the foundational code necessary in order to make our RPG project run. By the end of chapter 3, we will have successfully picked up and deployed a fast and efficient particle system that makes the game look much more 'alive'. Throughout the next couple of chapters, you will be successfully editing the game maps with ease, all thanks to the custom tools we're going to be building. From this point on, it's all about making the game look good. After being introduced to the use of shaders and raw OpenGL, you will be guided through implementing dynamic scene lighting, the use of normal and specular maps, and dynamic soft shadows. However, no project is complete without being optimized first. The very last chapter will wrap up our project by making it lightning fast and efficient. Style and approach This book uses a step by step approach by breaking the problems down into smaller, much more manageable obstacles, and guiding the reader through them with verified, flexible, and autonomous solutions.