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Title: Advanced 3D Game Programming With DirectX 7.0 by Adrian Perez, Dan Royer ISBN: 1-55622-721-3 Publisher: Wordware Publishing Pub. Date: May, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $59.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.15 (26 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: I'm not finding it entirely useful
Comment: I'll preface this by saying that I'm an experienced game designer and programmer (nothing big on my resume). I bought this book for the Direct3D Immediate Mode information primarily with all the other good gaming nuggets secondary (though still important).
The first 138 pages cover Windows and DirectX basics (DirectDraw, DirectSound, DirectInput, etc). Being basic information, I skipped this.
The next 96 pages take you through the foundations of 3D math. I started here to refresh what I learned in other books and college and must admit that I was lost within a few pages. The author understands what formulas are used where, but he can't explain the concepts behind them or why they work the way they do. You're often told that's just how they work, but without a fundamental explanation it just doesn't click. I guess it's the difference between a friend teaching you to drive ("this is how it's done") and an instructor teaching you to drive ("this is why it's done this way"). In short, I had to skip this chapter. ("Cutting Edge 3D Game Programming with C++" does a good job of working through 3D concepts in a fashion that's understandable.)
Chapter 4 (Artificial Intelligence) goes from page 233-276, however the practical knowledge stops on page 255. After that, motivation for AI characters, Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms are all touched on, though not in practical terms (and other than neural nets, no code). The first 8 pages of the chapter talk about how NOT to do AI, so in the end you end up with a 14 page discussion of path-finding through a set of rooms.
Pages 277-321 cover UDP Networking (Winsock), which I found odd since the title would imply DirectPlay (and lobbies). The author doesn't compare/contrast DirectPlay vs Winsock. Flipping through each page, I don't see anything that explains how best to implement a multiplayer game (like managing interaction for a 16-person action game), only the functions to do it.
Chapter 6 takes you to page 405 and covers the basics of Direct3D - getting your app up and running. Nothing new here, mostly a list of the functions and parameters (which is fine). If you're buying a book *just* to get into Direc3D Immediate Mode, I'd recommend Microsoft's Inside Direc3D which spends much more time and whose initialization code alone is worth the price of admission.
It's not until page 407 that you get into the meat of the book: advanced 3D programming (not using Direct3D) which covers forward/inverse kinematics, bezier curves, progressive meshes and radiosity. Bezier curves appear to be covered well, but progressive meshes are just talked about. The rest really don't play a part in game programming.
Chapter 8 (up to page 566) is called "Advanced Direct3D" though it really covers Direct3D beyond the initial setup and rendering and deals mainly with textures - filtering, MIP maps, multi-texturing, etc. (Again, this info is all in Inside Direct3D.)
The last 32 pages (Chapter 9) covers scene management (how to not render what you can't possibly see).
That's the book in a nutshell. The author says up front he's not a professional game programmer and is still in college (which is fine and not meant to knock him at all) and it's apparent in the disjointed and sketchy presentation. In the end, I would recommend buying "foundation books" (like those I mentioned) and if you still have a yen for more knowledge, this book may offer a few new nuggets.
Rating: 5
Summary: Well worth the money if.....
Comment: I think the reviewers on this board are focusing on the authors age / "professional experiance" far too much. The content in the book is what matters.
And in my opinion this book is perfect for those who are beginning 3d programming. If you don't know what a matrix is, or what a texel is then you NEED this book. In fact this book contains the entire subject matter of my college level Real Time 3d class.
The only down side to the book is that it honestly doesn't cover Direct 3d as well as I believe it should. The author spent too much time covering the basic information that 3d game programmers need to know rather than explaining the Direct 3d API.
However this is a good thing! Far too many new programmers think they can purchase a single book and program the next quake with out knowing important information on the basics of 3d, calc, and Linear Algebra. This book exceeds in showing off those basics. Once the reader has completed this book they should be able to pick up the direct x documentation and understand what's going on. Isn't that the whole point?
So if you've just finished tutoring your self on 2d game programming, or wish to start 3d game programming with out any prior experiance this book is a must have!
However if you have completed some 3d game projects, used OpenGL, or another 3d API and are looking to expand your knowledge check out "Real Time Rendering", or "3d Game Engine Design" for they are more suited for your needs.
Rating: 1
Summary: Very poorly organized and hard to follow
Comment: Several gripes about this terrible book:
1. The author has no professional game programming experience, and, since he was in college when the book was written, probably no professional programming experience of any kind. As such, he was unable to present the material in any meaningful way.
2. Halfway through the book, I still had no idea what Direct 3D actually does. At this point I was well into the Direct3D chapter, and still no idea. See next point.
3. The information is presented mostly at random, with very few examples, diagrams or meaningful sections. INformation is presented as it pops into the writer's head and there is no motivation given for why the information is presented as it is. The 3D math section, for example, is horribly written. He goes through various calculations, NEVER bringing them back to the overall topic of transforming 3d coordinates. He introduces the topic of rendering to the screen with NO explanation. I had to re-read the Foley book just to make sure I DID understand 3d math. Another example is the Direct 3D section. I was expecting after the big chapter on 3d math, he would start by saying "Here's what D3D does for", but instead I was halfway through the chapter and had read about all the constants you can check to see what the video card does (and THAT part of the book was essentially the documentation from MS reproduced in the book).
In short, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.
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Title: Game Programming Gems by Mark DeLoura ISBN: 1584500492 Publisher: Charles River Media Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $69.95 |
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Title: Fundamentals of Audio and Video Programming for Games by Mike Wasson, Peter Turcan ISBN: 073561945X Publisher: Microsoft Press Pub. Date: 15 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $59.99 |
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Title: Managed DirectX 9 Kick Start : Graphics and Game Programming by Tom Miller ISBN: 0672325969 Publisher: Pearson Education Pub. Date: 24 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $34.99 |
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Title: Direct3D ShaderX: Vertex and Pixel Shader Tips and Tricks with CDROM by Wolfgang F. Engel ISBN: 1556220413 Publisher: Wordware Publishing Pub. Date: 30 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $59.95 |
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Title: Advanced Animation with DirectX by Jim Adams ISBN: 1592000371 Publisher: Premier Press Pub. Date: 20 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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