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Title: Special Effects Game Programming with DirectX w/CD by Mason McCuskey, Andre LaMothe ISBN: 1-931841-06-3 Publisher: Premier Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $59.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (19 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good but too much chaff
Comment: I'm giving this book three stars because it's certainly better than most of the [junk] that litters the game programming section of your local superstore. I generally agree with the other reviewers.
That said, here's my rant--
Isn't it about time we got some game programming books that aren't trying to be a bible for an absolute beginner. This book is a good example of what could have been... it could have been a book about special effects. That's a nice well-defined subject, and it could have been a nice thin and concise book.
I'm no game programming god or anything but I understand the Win32 API enough that I don't need to be told what a message loop is every time I buy a programming book. The same goes for vector arithmetic, COM basics, and C++ fundamentals.
This book is about 900 pages long. If you took out all the chaff, you'd be left with about 450 pages of content that lives up to its title. Why not just gives us that? Could it be that by throwing all the beginner [junk] into every one of these things you get to charge more for them?
Rating: 5
Summary: Looks like we have a winner here...
Comment: I've been reading through this book for the past few days now and have been pleasantly and repeatedly surprised at the quality and meaningfulness of the writing. Before getting into the style, let's go through what the book covers:
Part 1: Basics
Chapter 1 - Intro to Windows Programming
Chapter 2 - Win32 API Programming
Chapter 3 - DirectX
Chapter 4 - 3D Math
Chapter 5 - 3D Concepts
Chapter 6 - Intro to DirectGraphics
Chapter 7 - Lighting
Chapter 8 - Basic Texturing
Chapter 9 - Adv. Texturing
Chapter 10 - Vertex and Pixel Shaders
Part 2: 2D Effects
Chapter 11 - Fire
Chapter 12 - 2D Water
Chapter 13 - Image Feedback
Chapter 14 - Image Warping
Chapter 15 - Clouds
Chapter 16 - Blurs and Image Manip.
Chapter 17 - Fades, Wipes, Transitions...
Part 3: 3D Effects
Chapter 18 - Particle Systems: Rain, Smoke, Magic, etc
Chapter 19 - Adv. Particle Systems
Chapter 20 - Explosions
Chapter 21 - Guns and Projectiles
Chapter 22 - Lens Flares
Chapter 23 - 3D Water
Chapter 24 - Vertex and Pixel Shader Effects
The chapter listing doesn't do the topics justice, though. For example the Chapter on Explosions takes you through sprite animation, billboarding, explosion clusters, particles sytem code, shockwaves and then finishes out with a quick few pages on adding a skybox. The breadth and scope of this book is ambitious - and well met - to say the least.
The writing style? In short, you're treated like an intelligent person. McCuskey doesn't delve deeply into a lot of the topics or spend pages on end listing function parameters. Instead you get a box off to the side telling you where in the DirectX documentation to find more information or other sources (books, mags, websites) if you want or need to explore a topic more fully. Likewise, you're not going to find page after page of code listing, just the relevant part at the relevant time. Now that I think of it, the book spends very little real estate on code listings. And it flows much better for it.
The benefit from a book like this isn't being told how to program a special effect. The benefit, of course, is finding out how it's done in the first place so you don't spend weeks going down the wrong paths. The solutions seem solid and elegant to me but it'll be interesting to see if anyone finds fault with them.
There's not much else to say. It's a well executed book and I haven't found any fault with it. I acknowledge first reviews like these are generally regarded cynically, but I'm sure others will back me up once they receive their copy. Well done, Mason.
Rating: 5
Summary: My new favorite book, move over tricks!
Comment: This book covers an amazing amount of material with a fun, down-to-earth writing style.
I mostly referenced this book for specific effects as I needed them, each chapter is kind of like a stand alone tutorial, very easy to follow and actually implement in your own code.
You can make a 3d game with this, I did.
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Title: Programming Role Playing Games with DirectX w/CD by Jim Adams ISBN: 1931841098 Publisher: Premier Press Pub. Date: 02 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $59.99 |
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Title: Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus (2nd Edition) by Andre LaMothe ISBN: 0672323699 Publisher: SAMS Pub. Date: 15 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $59.99 |
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Title: Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus-Advanced 3D Graphics and Rasterization by André LaMothe ISBN: 0672318350 Publisher: SAMS Pub. Date: 02 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $59.99 |
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Title: Isometric Game Programming with DirectX 7.0 w/CD by Ernest Pazera, Andre Lamothe, Andre Lomothe ISBN: 0761530894 Publisher: Premier Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $59.99 |
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Title: Game Coding Complete by Mike McShaffry ISBN: 1932111751 Publisher: Paraglyph Publishing Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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