Chapter 17: ClanLib-Scene Management

Overview

Chapters 15 and 16 explained ClanLib and 2D games in some detail, and this chapter concludes our examination of these topics. It also introduces an important part of games in general, whether 2D and 3D. Specifically, this chapter focuses on scene management, the subject of controlling and managing all the objects and events that occur within a game. Over the course of this chapter, our knowledge of ClanLib, algorithms, and C++ is called upon to solve the problems we encounter. Hopefully, this chapter will bring about a degree of completeness concerning the design and management of games. Overall, it aims to demonstrate how the smaller constituent parts of a game-objects like weapons, sprites, and music-come together in a simple, organized, and mechanistic system; a system that can be easily understood, controlled, and predicted. This chapter considers the following subjects:

• Scene objects and spatial relationships

• Layering, z-order, and the painter's algorithm

• Scene managers

• XML

• Compositing