Unity 5.x Game AI Programming Cookbook
Unity 5 comes fully packaged with a toolbox of powerful features to help game and app developers create and implement powerful game AI. Leveraging these tools via Unity's API or built-in features allows limitless possibilities when it comes to creating your game's worlds and characters. This practical Cookbook covers both essential and niche techniques to help you be able to do that and more. This Cookbook is engineered as your one-stop reference to take your game AI programming to the next level. Get to grips with the essential building blocks of working with an agent, programming movement and navigation in a game environment, and improving your agent's decision making and coordination mechanisms - all through hands-on examples using easily customizable techniques. Discover how to emulate vision and hearing capabilities for your agent, for natural and humanlike AI behaviour, and improve them with the help of graphs. Empower your AI with decision-making functions through programming ...
Unity 5 comes fully packaged with a toolbox of powerful features to help game and app developers create and implement powerful game AI. Leveraging these tools via Unity's API or built-in features allows limitless possibilities when it comes to creating your game's worlds and characters. This practical Cookbook covers both essential and niche techniques to help you be able to do that and more. This Cookbook is engineered as your one-stop reference to take your game AI programming to the next level. Get to grips with the essential building blocks of working with an agent, programming movement and navigation in a game environment, and improving your agent's decision making and coordination mechanisms - all through hands-on examples using easily customizable techniques. Discover how to emulate vision and hearing capabilities for your agent, for natural and humanlike AI behaviour, and improve them with the help of graphs. Empower your AI with decision-making functions through programming ...
Instant MuseScore
MuseScore is a free and Libre music notation program, suitable for everyone from music students to professionals. In recent years, MuseScore has established itself as one of the leading score-writers for those looking to take the quality of their sheet music to the next level. From large-scale orchestral works to short piano/vocal songs, MuseScore makes the process easy so you can focus on the music instead of the technology. Instant MuseScore takes readers through the process of notating music in a simple and straightforward manner. Starting with the basics and adding tips to our toolbox as we go, we learn to utilize the most important features of MuseScore. Instant MuseScore will help you become familiar with the tools that you will need to make great music whether or not you have used music notation software before. ...
MuseScore is a free and Libre music notation program, suitable for everyone from music students to professionals. In recent years, MuseScore has established itself as one of the leading score-writers for those looking to take the quality of their sheet music to the next level. From large-scale orchestral works to short piano/vocal songs, MuseScore makes the process easy so you can focus on the music instead of the technology. Instant MuseScore takes readers through the process of notating music in a simple and straightforward manner. Starting with the basics and adding tips to our toolbox as we go, we learn to utilize the most important features of MuseScore. Instant MuseScore will help you become familiar with the tools that you will need to make great music whether or not you have used music notation software before. ...
Mastering QlikView
QlikView and its new sister product, Qlik Sense, are the leading tools for BI and data discovery. They both feature the ability to consolidate relevant data from multiple sources into a single application, an associative data model to allow you to explore the data the way your brain works, and state-of-the-art visualizations, dashboards, analysis, and reports. The book starts by reviewing the best performance-tuning techniques and then advances to help you discover strategies to improve performance and test scalability with JMeter. You will also learn dimensional data modeling and creating best-practice ETL techniques using the QlikView script and QlikView's graphical ETL tool, Expressor. Following this, you will deploy QlikView Governance Dashboard to import multiple data sources and view all the information in a single location. Finally, you will learn why virtualization is important and what are the best practices for virtualization in QlikView. ...
QlikView and its new sister product, Qlik Sense, are the leading tools for BI and data discovery. They both feature the ability to consolidate relevant data from multiple sources into a single application, an associative data model to allow you to explore the data the way your brain works, and state-of-the-art visualizations, dashboards, analysis, and reports. The book starts by reviewing the best performance-tuning techniques and then advances to help you discover strategies to improve performance and test scalability with JMeter. You will also learn dimensional data modeling and creating best-practice ETL techniques using the QlikView script and QlikView's graphical ETL tool, Expressor. Following this, you will deploy QlikView Governance Dashboard to import multiple data sources and view all the information in a single location. Finally, you will learn why virtualization is important and what are the best practices for virtualization in QlikView. ...
RStudio for R Statistical Computing Cookbook
The requirement of handling complex datasets, performing unprecedented statistical analysis, and providing real-time visualizations to businesses has concerned statisticians and analysts across the globe. RStudio is a useful and powerful tool for statistical analysis that harnesses the power of R for computational statistics, visualization, and data science, in an integrated development environment. This book is a collection of recipes that will help you learn and understand RStudio features so that you can effectively perform statistical analysis and reporting, code editing, and R development. The first few chapters will teach you how to set up your own data analysis project in RStudio, acquire data from different data sources, and manipulate and clean data for analysis and visualization purposes. You'll get hands-on with various data visualization methods using ggplot2, and you will create interactive and multidimensional visualizations with D3.js ...
The requirement of handling complex datasets, performing unprecedented statistical analysis, and providing real-time visualizations to businesses has concerned statisticians and analysts across the globe. RStudio is a useful and powerful tool for statistical analysis that harnesses the power of R for computational statistics, visualization, and data science, in an integrated development environment. This book is a collection of recipes that will help you learn and understand RStudio features so that you can effectively perform statistical analysis and reporting, code editing, and R development. The first few chapters will teach you how to set up your own data analysis project in RStudio, acquire data from different data sources, and manipulate and clean data for analysis and visualization purposes. You'll get hands-on with various data visualization methods using ggplot2, and you will create interactive and multidimensional visualizations with D3.js ...
Beginning Visual Basic 2015
Beginning Visual Basic 2015 is the ideal guide for new programmers, especially those learning their first language. This new edition has been updated to align with Visual Studio 2015, and also refocused to concentrate on key beginner topics. Precise, step-by-step instructions walk you through important tasks, and clear explanations targeted to beginners will have you writing your first Visual Basic application quickly. You'll start from the absolute beginning, assuming no prior programming experience, and then gradually build your skills to write Visual Basic applications for Windows and the Web. Coverage includes objects, class libraries, graphics, databases, and much more, with explicit instructions on using ASP.NET, SQL Server, ADO.NET, and XML. Visual Studio is the usual environment for Visual Basic programming, and the latest upgrade has made Visual Basic more feature compatible with C# to allow programmers to move fluidly between the two languages. Don't know C#? Don't worry! ...
Beginning Visual Basic 2015 is the ideal guide for new programmers, especially those learning their first language. This new edition has been updated to align with Visual Studio 2015, and also refocused to concentrate on key beginner topics. Precise, step-by-step instructions walk you through important tasks, and clear explanations targeted to beginners will have you writing your first Visual Basic application quickly. You'll start from the absolute beginning, assuming no prior programming experience, and then gradually build your skills to write Visual Basic applications for Windows and the Web. Coverage includes objects, class libraries, graphics, databases, and much more, with explicit instructions on using ASP.NET, SQL Server, ADO.NET, and XML. Visual Studio is the usual environment for Visual Basic programming, and the latest upgrade has made Visual Basic more feature compatible with C# to allow programmers to move fluidly between the two languages. Don't know C#? Don't worry! ...
Building a Home Security System with Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is a powerful low-cost credit-card-sized computer, which lends itself perfectly as the controller for a sophisticated home security system. Using the on-board interfaces available, the Raspberry Pi can be expanded to allow the connection of a virtually infinite number of security sensors and devices. The Raspberry Pi has the processing power and interfaces available to build a sophisticated home security system but at a fraction of the cost of commercially available systems. Building a Home Security System with Raspberry Pi starts off by showing you the Raspberry Pi and how to set up the Linux-based operating system. It then guides you through connecting switch sensors and LEDs to the native GPIO connector safely, and how to access them using simple Bash scripts. As you dive further in, you'll learn how to build an input/output expansion board using the I2C interface and power supply, allowing the connection of the large number of sensors needed for a typical home s ...
The Raspberry Pi is a powerful low-cost credit-card-sized computer, which lends itself perfectly as the controller for a sophisticated home security system. Using the on-board interfaces available, the Raspberry Pi can be expanded to allow the connection of a virtually infinite number of security sensors and devices. The Raspberry Pi has the processing power and interfaces available to build a sophisticated home security system but at a fraction of the cost of commercially available systems. Building a Home Security System with Raspberry Pi starts off by showing you the Raspberry Pi and how to set up the Linux-based operating system. It then guides you through connecting switch sensors and LEDs to the native GPIO connector safely, and how to access them using simple Bash scripts. As you dive further in, you'll learn how to build an input/output expansion board using the I2C interface and power supply, allowing the connection of the large number of sensors needed for a typical home s ...
Building Business Websites with Squarespace 7
This practical guide walks you through the various steps involved in building a website for your business with Squarespace. You will learn how to use all of the tools provided by Squarespace to control the layout, appearance, structure, and functions of your website, starting from the inception stage, all the way to monitoring your site after it has been launched. This is much more than just a how-to book for the Squarespace system: it's filled with helpful advice that will help you improve your website's visibility in search engines and tailor your site for your customers. Moreover, it provides dozens of other business-oriented tips to help your website stand out from the crowd. If you have used Squarespace 5 or other website builders/CMSes, this book will help you understand the key differences and teach you how to do things based on the new features of Squarespace 7. ...
This practical guide walks you through the various steps involved in building a website for your business with Squarespace. You will learn how to use all of the tools provided by Squarespace to control the layout, appearance, structure, and functions of your website, starting from the inception stage, all the way to monitoring your site after it has been launched. This is much more than just a how-to book for the Squarespace system: it's filled with helpful advice that will help you improve your website's visibility in search engines and tailor your site for your customers. Moreover, it provides dozens of other business-oriented tips to help your website stand out from the crowd. If you have used Squarespace 5 or other website builders/CMSes, this book will help you understand the key differences and teach you how to do things based on the new features of Squarespace 7. ...
Learning VMware App Volumes
App Volumes provides a virtualized, real-time application delivery engine for virtual desktop infrastructure and is designed to enable VDI deployments to ensure greater flexibility, agility, and cost reduction. This book starts with an in-depth overview of the architecture and components used to design an optimized solution. We then show you how to install and configure App Volumes for different use cases such as VMware View integration, using VMware ThinApp, Citrix XenApp, and more. Throughout the chapters, we provide hints, tips, and tricks as well as best practices. By the end of the book, you will have built a working App Volumes environment and acquired the skills to build and run a production environment. ...
App Volumes provides a virtualized, real-time application delivery engine for virtual desktop infrastructure and is designed to enable VDI deployments to ensure greater flexibility, agility, and cost reduction. This book starts with an in-depth overview of the architecture and components used to design an optimized solution. We then show you how to install and configure App Volumes for different use cases such as VMware View integration, using VMware ThinApp, Citrix XenApp, and more. Throughout the chapters, we provide hints, tips, and tricks as well as best practices. By the end of the book, you will have built a working App Volumes environment and acquired the skills to build and run a production environment. ...
Expert Python Programming, 2nd Edition
Python is a dynamic programming language, used in a wide range of domains by programmers who find it simple, yet powerful. Even if you find writing Python code easy, writing code that is efficient and easy to maintain and reuse is a challenge. The focus of the book is to familiarize you with common conventions, best practices, useful tools and standards used by python professionals on a daily basis when working with code. You will begin with knowing new features in Python 3.5 and quick tricks for improving productivity. Next, you will learn advanced and useful python syntax elements brought to this new version. Using advanced object-oriented concepts and mechanisms available in python, you will learn different approaches to implement metaprogramming. You will learn to choose good names, write packages, and create standalone executables easily. You will also be using some powerful tools such as buildout and vitualenv to release and deploy the code on remote servers for producti ...
Python is a dynamic programming language, used in a wide range of domains by programmers who find it simple, yet powerful. Even if you find writing Python code easy, writing code that is efficient and easy to maintain and reuse is a challenge. The focus of the book is to familiarize you with common conventions, best practices, useful tools and standards used by python professionals on a daily basis when working with code. You will begin with knowing new features in Python 3.5 and quick tricks for improving productivity. Next, you will learn advanced and useful python syntax elements brought to this new version. Using advanced object-oriented concepts and mechanisms available in python, you will learn different approaches to implement metaprogramming. You will learn to choose good names, write packages, and create standalone executables easily. You will also be using some powerful tools such as buildout and vitualenv to release and deploy the code on remote servers for producti ...
Learning Probabilistic Graphical Models in R
Probabilistic graphical models (PGM, also known as graphical models) are a marriage between probability theory and graph theory. Generally, PGMs use a graph-based representation. Two branches of graphical representations of distributions are commonly used, namely Bayesian networks and Markov networks. R has many packages to implement graphical models. We'll start by showing you how to transform a classical statistical model into a modern PGM and then look at how to do exact inference in graphical models. Proceeding, we'll introduce you to many modern R packages that will help you to perform inference on the models. We will then run a Bayesian linear regression and you'll see the advantage of going probabilistic when you want to do prediction. Next, you'll master using R packages and implementing its techniques. Finally, you'll be presented with machine learning applications that have a direct impact in many fields. Here, we'll cover clustering and the discovery of hidden informat ...
Probabilistic graphical models (PGM, also known as graphical models) are a marriage between probability theory and graph theory. Generally, PGMs use a graph-based representation. Two branches of graphical representations of distributions are commonly used, namely Bayesian networks and Markov networks. R has many packages to implement graphical models. We'll start by showing you how to transform a classical statistical model into a modern PGM and then look at how to do exact inference in graphical models. Proceeding, we'll introduce you to many modern R packages that will help you to perform inference on the models. We will then run a Bayesian linear regression and you'll see the advantage of going probabilistic when you want to do prediction. Next, you'll master using R packages and implementing its techniques. Finally, you'll be presented with machine learning applications that have a direct impact in many fields. Here, we'll cover clustering and the discovery of hidden informat ...