Monthly Archive for February, 2010

Introduction to CCSpriteFrameCache

Published on February 28, 2010 in cocos2d. 0 Comments

Although it is possible to reuse the cocos2d v0.8 animation code, v0.99 introduces a new way to deal with animations (and sprites in general).

v0.99 has a new class named CCSpriteFrameCache that, as the name suggests, it is the cache of all the sprite frames.
You can load sprites frames to the CCSpriteFrameCache with:

a plist filename (generated by Zwoptex editor)
a plist filename (generated by Zwoptex editor) and a CCTexture2D
a CCSpriteFrame and a sprite frame name

( See the full API here: CCSpriteFrameCache API )

And the CCSpriteFrame object has the following properties:

a CCTexture2D: which texture should it use.
a CGRect: the rectangle of the texture (from 1 texture you can create many CCSpriteFrame objects, in fact it is the recommend way to avoid wasting unnecessary memory).

Example:

// Obtain the shared instance of the cache
CCSpriteFrameCache *cache = [CCSpriteFrameCache sharedSpriteFrameCache;
 
// load the frames
[cache addSpriteFramesWithFile:@"frames.plist"];
 
// It loads the frame named "frame1.png".
// IMPORTANT: It doesn't load the image "frame1.png". "frama1.png" is a just the name of the frame
CCSpriteFrame *frame = [cache spriteFrameByName:@"frame1.png"];
[sprite setDisplayFrame:frame];

This was just an introduction to CCSpriteFrameCache.

For further info, please read

hhamm’s Programming iPhone Games with Cocos2D Part 3
cocos2d programming guide: Animations

cocos2d and Box2d encore

Published on February 25, 2010 in cocos2d. 0 Comments

Ray Wenderlich, again, wrote an interesting article about cocos2d and box2d.

This time, the article is about how to make a simple Breakout game.

The article includes:

How to setup Box2d (gravity, bodies, etc…)
How to handle collision detection in Box2d
How to add and destroy Box2d bodies
How to link a CCSprite with a Box2d body
Uses touches to move the paddle
Plays music and sound effects using CocosDenshion
It has a You Win and a You lose scene
The Xcode project

Integrating cocos2d with Box2d

Published on February 22, 2010 in box2d and cocos2d. 0 Comments

Box2d is rigid-body physics engine that can be used as a good complement of cocos2d. In fact, cocos2d comes with 3 Xcode templates, and one of them is a cocos2d + box2d template.

Also, cocos2d comes with 2 box2d examples:

An accelerometer + multitouch box2d sample: Great sample for box2d newbies
And the box2d testbed: targeting more advanced users

Recently, Ray Wenderlich also wrote an interesting article regarding how use box2d with cocos2d v0.99.0:

Intro to Box2D with Cocos2D Tutorial: Bouncing Balls

cocos2d v0.99.0 released

Published on February 18, 2010 in cocos2d. 5 Comments

After:

cocos2d for iPhone v0.99.0 was released!

Download: cocos2d-iphone-0.99.0.tar.gz

Release Notes: release_notes:0_99_0

Full Changelog: CHANGELOG

Many thanks to all the developers, contributors, beta testers, and the community in general. We are building a professional-grade library both in terms of technical features and support!

Integrating cocos2d with Facebook Connect

Published on February 16, 2010 in Facebook Connect and cocos2d. 0 Comments

Jeston Furqueron wrote a nice tutorial regarding how to integrate cocos2d with Facebook Connect.

You can read the turorial from:

Tutorial: Using Facebook Connect with cocos2d (Jeston’s homepage)
or Tutorial: Using Facebook Connect with cocos2d (cocos2d forum)

The tutorial uses cocos2d v0.8.x, and it can easily be ported to cocos2d v0.99

cocos2d v0.99.0-final released

Published on February 15, 2010 in cocos2d. 2 Comments

cocos2d for iPhone v0.99.0-final is available for download

Download: cocos2d-iphone-0.99.0-final.tar.gz

Release Notes: release_notes:0_99_0_final

Changelog: CHANGELOG

Highlights (from v0.99.0-rc):

CocosDenshion: many fixes and improvements
Fixed some crashes and other important fixes on: Sprites & TMX maps

Known bugs: known_bugs

How stable is this release ?
Very stable. According to the tests and feedback from the testers, this release can be considered v0.99.0. But since v0.99.0 introduces so many changes, this will the last pre-v0.99.0 release.

If there are no show-stoppers bugs, then, this will be the real v0.99.0 version.
No small fixes will be introduced unless they are show-stopper bugs.
Small fixes and improvements will be fixed during the v0.99.x series.

How fast is this release ?
All the performance tests were run, and v0.99.0-final is, at least, as fast as v0.8.2. In some cases it is faster, perhaps 10%~20% faster.

I would appreciate if you could test this release in your game. Please, report any bug that you might find.
Thanks!

Tutorial: How To Make A Simple iPhone Game with Cocos2D

Published on February 14, 2010 in cocos2d. 0 Comments

Ray Wenderlich wrote a detailed tutorial about how to make a simple game with cocos2d.

The tutorial includes:

How to start a cocos2d project
How to add CCSprite objects
How to use the CCLayer object
How to use actions
How to use touches
How to detect collisions
How to handle the main loop
How to play music and sounds

Turorial: How to make a simple iPhone game with cocos2d

You can also download the XCode project: Cocos2DSimpleGame.zip

Integrating cocos2d with SIO2

Published on February 13, 2010 in cocos2d and sio2. 0 Comments

What ? Yes, you can integrate SIO2 with cocos2d.

Let’s say that you want to create a 3d game, with nice menus and fonts. It’s possible to do that using SIO2 to render the 3D scene and cocos2d to render the HUD.

How ? Yarri, from Play-N-Give , posted a detailed post regarding how to mix cocos2d and SIO2: