Scene Management

Motivation:

• Ease of Development: Provides a structured way to organize game content, separating game logic, visual elements, and input handling, making it easier to manage complex games.
• Flexibility: Allows for dynamic loading and unloading of scenes, enabling games to load only the necessary assets at runtime, improving performance and memory usage.
• Modularity: Encourages the creation of reusable and independent scenes, promoting code reusability and maintainability.

Overview:

The Scene Management system in Gleed2D is designed to simplify the process of handling different game states and levels. It provides a framework for loading, unloading, and managing multiple scenes within a game.

Concepts:

• Scene: A self-contained unit representing a specific game state, level, or environment.
• Scene Manager: Responsible for managing scene transitions, loading, and unloading.
• Scene Data: Represents the configuration and data associated with a particular scene.

Core Functionality:

1. Scene Loading:
   • The SceneManager class handles loading scenes from scene files.
   • It reads scene data, creates game objects, and initializes the scene’s environment.
2. Scene Unloading:
   • The SceneManager safely removes a scene from memory.
   • It releases resources, destroys game objects, and reverts the game state.
3. Scene Transitions:
   • The SceneManager manages transitions between different scenes.
   • This can include fade-in/out effects, animations, or other visual cues.
4. Scene Management:
   • The SceneManager keeps track of the currently active scene.
   • It allows access to scene data and provides methods for interacting with the scene.

Implementation:

• The SceneManager class is the central component of the scene management system.
• Scenes are typically defined in XML files, using a schema that specifies the scene’s content, layout, and behavior.
• The SceneManager loads and parses these XML files, creating the corresponding scene objects and game elements.

Example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
          <Scene Name="MainMenuScene" BackgroundColor="0x000000FF">
              <GameObjects>
                  <GameObject Name="MenuBackground" Type="Sprite">
                      <Position X="0" Y="0" />
                      <Scale X="1" Y="1" />
                      <Texture Path="MenuBackground.png" />
                  </GameObject>
                  <GameObject Name="PlayButton" Type="Button">
                      <Position X="100" Y="200" />
                      <Scale X="1" Y="1" />
                      <Texture Path="PlayButton.png" />
                      <OnClicked Action="LoadLevel" Parameter="Level1Scene" />
                  </GameObject>
              </GameObjects>
          </Scene>
          

This example represents a main menu scene with a background image and a “Play” button. The OnClicked event on the button is configured to load the “Level1Scene” when clicked.

Usage:

// Load the main menu scene
          SceneManager.Load("MainMenuScene");
          
          // Access the scene data
          SceneData sceneData = SceneManager.CurrentSceneData;
          
          // Get a reference to a game object within the scene
          GameObject playButton = sceneData.FindObject("PlayButton");
          
          // Unload the current scene
          SceneManager.Unload();
          

Notes:

• The specific implementation details may vary depending on the game engine and framework used.
• The example provided is a simplified representation of a scene file; the actual format and content may be more complex.
• This outline is based on the code and documentation found in the Gleed2D project on GitHub. https://github.com/stevedunn/gleed2d/