https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/ 2026-07-19T18:59:38+00:00 https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/ https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/_media/wiki/dokuwiki.svg text/html 2013-05-25T10:43:35+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/adding_uikit_elements_on_top_of_sparrow?rev=1369478615&do=diff Adding UIKit Elements on top of Sparrow The following article assumes that your game is based on the Scaffold project that comes with Sparrow 1.3. The scaffold project contains an additional UIView object directly above Sparrow's SPView. Just like your Sparrow content, that view is automatically rotated according to the device orientation and your app settings. It is thus the perfect place to put any UIKit content. text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/animation?rev=1362475192&do=diff Animation Animations are a fundamental part of any game. Sparrow helps you by making animations as simple as possible. If you think about it, there are two kinds of animations. There are the animations where you know from the beginning exactly what will happen text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/audio_playback?rev=1362475192&do=diff Audio Playback Any decent game requires sound. Sound creates an atmosphere and pulls the player right into the game's world. Thankfully, Sparrow makes it easy to play sound. The audio engine needs to be initialized at the game's start, and stopped before the game ends. If you started your project with the latest scaffold project, this will already be done for you. text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/compiled_sprites?rev=1362475192&do=diff Compiled Sprites Performance-junkies will be happy about the class “SPCompiledSprite”. As the name suggests, the class works just like “SPSprite” --- you can add other display objects to it, other sprites, etc. However, there’s one new method: text/html 2013-04-29T23:05:55+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/display_objects?rev=1367276755&do=diff Display Objects The root class of everything that can be displayed on the screen is a subclass of SPDisplayObject. The SPQuad of the last chapter inherits from SPDisplayObject, as do many other classes: Sparrow displays images, textfields, and more. text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/displaying_text?rev=1362475192&do=diff Displaying Text Displaying text is easy. The class SPTextField should be quite self explanatory. By default, it uses the system fonts of the iPhone. SPTextField *textField = [SPTextField textFieldWithWidth:145 height:80 text:@"Text" fontName:@"Helvetica" fontSize:12.0f color:0xff0000]; textField.hAlign = SPHAlignRight; // horizontal alignment textField.vAlign = SPVAlignBottom; // vertical alignment textField.border = YES; text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/dynamic_textures?rev=1362475192&do=diff Dynamic Textures Sparrow lets you create custom textures directly at run-time. However, we didn’t reinvent the wheel for that feature --- credit goes to the iPhone SDK, which already contains a powerful API called “Core Graphics”. You access the drawing text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/event_handling?rev=1362475192&do=diff Event Handling The last chapter showed you how to create a class that displays a message box with two buttons. However, the message box lacked a critical feature: there was no way to notice when a user clicked on one of its buttons, and on which button. text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/extending_sparrow?rev=1362475192&do=diff Extending Sparrow Sometimes, you want to squeeze out the last bit of performance. You want to make the calls to OpenGL yourself. In Sparrow, that's easy to do. Just override the “render:” method that is implemented by any display object. - (void)render:(SPRenderSupport *)support { [support bindTexture:mTexture]; glEnable(GL_POINT_SPRITE_OES); // ... glDisable(GL_POINT_SPRITE_OES); } text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/installation?rev=1362475192&do=diff Installation Download Download Package In order to get going you need to first download the Sparrow package. The download package contains everything you’ll need: The source code, a demo project and a scaffold for your own games. You can copy this package anywhere you want on your system. Just be sure to pick a place where it can stay constantly, because we will have to tell Xcode about its location, and you don't want to have to change that later. text/html 2013-05-24T11:58:23+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/introduction?rev=1369396703&do=diff Introduction Sparrow is written in pure Objective-C. You will need to have a basic knowledge of this language to use Sparrow. There are numerous books available that teach you the language, and there is a very good introduction available on Apple's iPhone developer page. If you have not used the language yet, fear not: if you know any other object oriented language, you will learn it quickly. text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/macros?rev=1362475192&do=diff Macros Sparrow contains several handy preprocessor macros that can make your life easier. Autorelease-Pool A part of Objective-C's memory management relies on so-called autorelease-pools. There are two macros that make their usage a little simpler. Instead of writing: text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/movie_clips?rev=1362475192&do=diff Movie Clips Sparrow contains a very lightweight movie class: SPMovieClip. You can imagine this class as an SPImage with changing textures. (As it extends SPImage, it is really just that.) This sample shows how to create a movie clip. Here, we load the textures from a texture atlas, but you can of course use any textures you want. However, each texture should have the same size. text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/pivot_points?rev=1362475192&do=diff Pivot Points Since Sparrow 1.2, display objects contain two additional properties: pivotX and pivotY. The pivot point of an object (also know as “origin”, “root” or “anchor”) defines the root of its coordinate system. Per default, the pivot point is at text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/project_setup?rev=1362475192&do=diff Project Setup To make it easy to create your own Xcode projects with Sparrow, the download package contains two projects that can serve as the starting point for your own games: The Barebone Project The Barebone project is the most lightweight way to set up Sparrow. It does only what is absolutely necessary: create an text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/setting_up_xcode?rev=1362475192&do=diff Setting up Xcode Before creating a project of your own, you should make some preparations in Xcode. Sparrow is linked to your application via Xcode project references. This has the advantage that it’s easy to update Sparrow (just download a new release and overwrite the old one in the same directory) and that you can easily step into Sparrow source code, in case you want to do so. text/html 2013-05-24T11:58:58+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/start?rev=1369396738&do=diff The Sparrow Manual (version 1.x) The Sparrow framework allows you to create interactive applications for the iPhone platform. The main target is the creation of 2D games, but Sparrow can be used for any graphical applications. This document provides an introduction to developers who want to learn the basic principles of Sparrow. After reading this document, you should be able to start developing your project with Sparrow. text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/textures_and_images?rev=1362475192&do=diff Textures and Images Textures In the last section, you might have noticed that we displayed an image using the SPImage object, but used an SPTexture object to set the button's image. What is the difference between an image and a texture? A texture is just the data that describes an image text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/the_barebone_project?rev=1362475192&do=diff The Barebone Project Sparrow contains 2 projects that can be the basis for your games. The “Barebone” project is one of it. It provides just the minimal code you need to create a Sparrow powered application. Use this project for your first tests with the Sparrow Framework. It's super lightweight and does not contain any content that might confuse beginners. text/html 2013-05-25T10:26:25+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/the_scaffold_project?rev=1369477585&do=diff The Scaffold Project Sparrow 1.3 brought a new scaffold project, containing a lot of built-in functionality. Things that were previously difficult to achieve are now very easy. This how-to will teach you all you need to know to get started. Overview text/html 2013-03-05T09:19:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/manual_v1/universal_app_development?rev=1362475192&do=diff Universal App Development The following article assumes that your game is based on the Scaffold project that comes with Sparrow 1.3. Sparrow's Scaffold project is preconfigured as a universal app, i.e. it runs on all iOS devices. In fact, that's the top feature of the scaffold project: to minimize the effort of creating a game that runs on all iOS devices.