[JAVA][Beginning Java 8 Games Development]

Chapter 6 ■ The Foundation of Game Design: The JavaFX Scene Graph and the InvinciBagel Game Infrastructure
If you did not want to specify the image dimensions, background image loading, and smooth scaling, or lock the
aspect ratio for any scaling, you could condense the previous three lines of Java code into the following constructor:
splashScreenBackplate = new ImageView("/invincibagel.png");
// uses third constructor method
At least initially (for learning purposes), I am going to do this the long way, and I will always explicitly load Image
objects, using the Image() constructor method, so that you can specify all the different attributes and see all the
different image assets that you are using in this Java programming logic. I want to show you the shortcut code here,
because you will be using this approach later in the book, once you start using ImageViews as sprites (see Chapter 8).
You can use this shortcut approach with your sprites because you will not be scaling them and because they are so
highly optimized that background loading will not be necessary.
Next, let’s take a quick look at the TableView class, which will hold the high scores table. Although you will
not be implementing this here, I will cover the class, as it is part of the top-level UI design that you are creating and
implementing in this chapter.
The JavaFX TableView Class: Displaying Data Tables in a Design
The TableView class is a public class that directly extends the javafx.scene.control.Control superclass, which is an
extension of javafx.scene.layout.Region. javafx.scene.layout.Region is an extension of the javafx.scene.Parent, which
is an extension of the javafx.scene.Node Scene Graph superclass (see Chapter 4). A TableView object is therefore
a type of UI control (a table) and a Node object in the JavaFX Scene Graph that is used for constructing a table, using
S objects, each of which contains data to be displayed in a table. You will be writing data into a TableView object
later in the book, using these S objects, after scores have been achieved that eclipse those currently listed in the table.
The Java class hierarchy for the TableView class starts with the java.lang.Object master class and uses this class
to create the javafx.scene.Node class, which is then used to create a Parent class. This is used to create a Region
class, which in turn creates a Control class, which is used to create the TableView class. The TableView class has the
following Java class inheritance hierarchy structure:
java.lang.Object
> javafx.scene.Node
> javafx.scene.Parent
> javafx.scene.layout.Region
> javafx.scene.control.Control
> javafx.scene.control.TableView
The TableView class provides two different (overloaded) TableView() constructor methods, an empty constructor
and a constructor that takes an ObservableList object, filled with Table data items as a parameter. A simple (empty)
TableView() constructor method to create an empty TableView object will use the following format:
TableView()
The second constructor type uses an ObservableList class (object) from the javafx.collections package,
which is a type of list that allows a data change event listener to track any changes in the list as they occur. This
TableView object constructor method call uses the following format:
TableView(ObservableList items)
I think that is enough class background information for now, so let’s get into writing the code for your first
.createSplashScreenNodes() method, which will instantiate and set up all the Node objects for your Scene Graph!
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