[JAVA][Beginning Java 8 Games Development]

Chapter 4 ■ An Introduction to JavaFX 8: Exploring the Capabilities of the Java 8 Multimedia Engine
Let’s start with the packages that have the fewest classes. The table lists subpackages alphabetically, but the
first one, javafx.scene.canvas, coincidentally contains only one class, the Canvas class, which, as its name suggests,
is employed to create a Canvas object that is used as a canvas for you to create things with! The next subpackage
listed is javafx.scene.chart; this has charting classes, such as PieChart, LineChart, XYChart, BarChart, AreaChart, and
BubbleChart, for use in business applications, which is a different book entirely, so I will not be covering charting.
The next subpackage, javafx.scene.control, offers all the UI control (“widget,” in Android) classes, such as
Button, Menu, CheckBox, RadioButton, DatePicker, ColorPicker, ProgressBar, Slider, Label, Scrollbar, and TextField
and about eight dozen others. Because there are approximately a hundred classes in javafx.scene.control, I am not
even going to attempt to cover it here; an entire book could probably be written about this subpackage! If you want
to review these classes, simply reference “javafx.scene.control” on Google or on the Oracle Java website, and you can
peruse what these classes can do for days on end. For this subpackage, “reference” is the key word, as you will want to
reference this package and its classes individually at the time you need to implement a given UI element.
The next subpackage, javafx.scene.effect, provides all the special effects classes, almost two dozen of them.
These can be very useful for Java 8 game development, so this is one of the few subpackages that I am going to cover in
detail in this section.
The javafx.scene.image subpackage is used to implement digital imagery within JavaFX, and it has the Image,
ImageView, WritableImage, PixelFormat, and WritablePixelFormat classes. The ImageView class is what you will
normally use to hold your digital image assets, and the more advanced PixelFormat classes let you create digital
imagery on a pixel-by-pixel basis if you want to do more advanced (algorithmic) pixel-based digital image creation.
The javafx.scene.input subpackage includes classes that are used to get input from the JavaFX application’s user.
This input is processed using the event handling capabilities, which you will be examining in great detail over the course
of this book and which you have already experienced in your JavaFX application, in Chapter 3 (see Figure 3-2, ll. 22 to 24).
The javafx.scene.layout subpackage contains classes that are used to create UI design layouts and that
can be used for your screen layout designs as well. These layout classes include classes that control and manage
backgrounds; add and style borders; and provide UI pane management, such as StackPane, TilePane, GridPane,
FlowPane, and AnchorPane. These UI classes offer automatic screen layout algorithms for the UI controls in
JavaFX. The Background class (and subclasses) furnishes screen background utilities, and the Border class (and its
subclasses) supplies screen border utilities, which can be used for spicing up the graphics design for your UI screens.
The javafx.scene.media subpackage holds classes that are used for the playback of audio or video media,
including the Media, MediaPlayer, and MediaView classes. The Media class (or object, actually) references and
contains the media (audio or video) asset, MediaPlayer plays that asset, and MediaView (in the case of video) displays
the asset. This subpackage also has a Track superclass and AudioTrack, VideoTrack, and SubtitleTrack subclasses
as well as the AudioClip, AudioEqualizer, and EquilizerBand classes, which provide advanced audio (equalizer)
controls and short-form audio clips, or snippets of audio that are perfect for use in games. You will be using the
AudioClip class later in the book (see Chapter 15).
The javafx.scene.paint subpackage contains a Stop class and the Paint superclass and its Color, ImagePattern,
LinearGradient, and RadialGradient subclasses as well as the Material superclass and its PhongMaterial subclass.
Those of you who are familiar with 3D content production will recognize this Phong shader algorithm, which will
allow different surface looks (plastic, rubber, and so on) to be simulated. The Material and PhongMaterial classes
need 3D capabilities to be present on the playback hardware to function successfully, just like the SceneAntialiasing,
PerspectiveCamera, and LightBase class (and subclasses). The Paint class creates your Paint object, the Color class
colors this object (fills it with a color), the LinearGradient and RadialGradient classes fill the Paint object with color
gradients, and the Stop class lets you define where gradient colors start and stop inside the gradients. Finally, there is
an ImagePattern class, which can fill a Paint object with a tileable image pattern (this can be quite useful for games).
The javafx.scene.shape subpackage provides classes for 2D geometry (commonly referred to as shapes) as well
as for 3D geometry (commonly referred to as meshes). A Mesh superclass and its TriangleMesh subclass handle
3D geometry, as do the Shape3D superclass and its Box, Sphere, Cylinder, and MeshView subclasses. The Shape
superclass has many more subclasses (11); these are 2D geometry elements and include the Arc, Circle, CubicCurve,
Ellipse, Line, Path, Polygon, Polyline, QuadCurve, Rectangle, and SVGPath classes. A path support, a path being
defined as an open shape (I like to call it a spline, as I am a 3D modeler), is also supplied by the PathElement
superclass and its ArcTo, ClosePath, CubicCurveTo, HLineTo, LineTo, MoveTo, QuadCurveTo, and VLineTo
subclasses, which allows you to draw spline curves to create your own custom shapes!
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