5 comments about Think Like A Grandmaster: Algebraic Edition.

1. There are many books out there that claim to teach the Intermediate level player how to look for the best move during middlegame play but fall short of fulfilling there end of the bargain. This book is one of the ones that goes above and beyond what the title promises. Even as far as to show you how to create a PLAN (contrary to what "How To Reassess Your Chess" by IM Jeremy Silman states in regards to books that show one how to form a plan; also another great middlegame book by the way). However, there are some mistakes that must have occured when transposing the original descriptive notation to algebraic notation. But if your're looking to 'really' improve as a chess player then you have to expect to run accross some mistakes along the way. A word of advice: Ignore the mistakes the minute you find them and just forge ahead! There are some great ideas given in the examples of games from many Russian Grandmasters that if looked for in ones own games it WILL help to improve your overall rating. That is of course, if you'rewilling to study this book thoroughly by setting up the positions given in the book on your OWN board and incorporate them into your daily play. So, if you want to train your mind to think like a grandmaster, buy the book!



2. This is the book that has spawned a large number of other books on the subject of the Grandmaster's thinking processes. It is a classic and for that reason gets 3 stars from me. However, I do believe that the premise upon which this book is based is flawed and for that reason I do not give it a higher rating. Let me explain what I mean.
   
   In this book, Kotov outlines his theory on why GMs are better than IMs, why IMs are better than FMs etc. It all has to do with analysis. They analyse better. Yes, yes, yes. He is right. They do. But why do GMs analyse better? This is the key question. I think Kotov got the answer wrong.
   
   Kotov claims that he was a poor analyst, but that he improved by doing regular exercises in which he analysed complex positions, writing down all the variations. Each position was analysed only once to create a "Tree of Analysis". Candidate moves are chosen and then each move analysed one by one, branch by branch until the analysis is complete. The problem with this idea is that if flies in the face of contradictory evidence that this approach works. I DO agree with Kotov that improvement in analysis is the key to becoming a stronger player. I do not agree that his method will do more than produce a small change in your playing strength.
   
   The contradictory evidence:
   1) As so clearly pointed out by Richard Reti in his classic "New Ideas in Chess" even if there is a choice of only 3 moves at each branch point in the tree of analysis, the number of branches becomes so thick that it is impossible to analyse each branch. What distinguishes a titled players analysis from the analysis of a weaker player is the ability to EXCLUDE irrelevant moves, not include ALL moves. Humans will never be like computers in this regard.
   2) Brain imaging studies show very clearly that GMs different from IMs and so on down the food chain by their use of memory patterns. They do not think more deeply. This is clearly the conclusion of a number of serious studies on the psychological basis of chess talent (de Groot for example).
   3) Strong players have the capacity to hold positions in their heads more easily that weaker players. But it is clear that this is due to pattern recognition. Give a strong player a random position and they are no more able to remember the position that a weak player. This then is the basis of the stronger players greater ability to visualise the board. It is memory for patterns which creates vision. For example, it doesn't take much effort to remember the position Pf2, Pg3, Ph2, Bg2, Rf1 and Kg1. You can visualise it and remember it in seconds.
   4) It is clear that strong players perform extremely well at rapid chess. Visit ICC (www.chessclub.com) and watch a lightning match between two GMs. There is no time for analysis when the clock is set for 1 min. There is only time for pattern recognition. Yet lightning ratings correlate very well with FIDE ratings (they are not the same, but they correlate positively).
   
   Club players often ask why it is so hard to improve. They often spend their money buying books which offer advice. In many cases, these books are written by GMs or very strong players. But just because a player is strong, does not mean that they understand the source of their chess talent.
   
   The reason why improvement is hard is clear. First, playing strength is related to the number of patterns learnt. When a player learns the game, they first learn how to move the pieces and on which squares the pieces move. The number of pattern is much less than 100. They can achieve some success with this number of patterns. But as the player advances the number of patterns needed increases - exponentially. It is sometimes estimated (how, I do not know) that GMs need to know 100,000 patterns. FMs may need 10,000 patterns. Strong club players may get away with knowing only 1000 patterns. Do you see why it is so difficult to improve. To increase your rating by 400-500 points, you probably have to learn at least 10 times as many patterns as you know now.
   
   A second point is that as a player matures, i.e. into the 20s and 30s, the capacity to learn new patterns decreases slightly. The brain is less plastic at later ages. This is a reason why mature players find it difficult to improve. This can only be overcome by increased practice.
   
   A third reason why improvement comes early on, but less later is that there is substantial scope for improvement in the teens and early twenties at the period when the brain is myelinating the frontal cortex. At this stage, the player becomes more cautious and is able to concentrate better.
   
   OK, so I have prattled on about why Kotov is wrong about his famous Tree of Analysis. I do want to add that analysis exercises do help with concentration and visualisation. However, they are not the only answer to improvement. Learning patterns is the key. There are few better ways to do this than by playing through Master games - particularly the games of players like Capablanca, Rubinstein, Botwinnik, Tal... Play them, study them, copy them. At later stages, the student can develop by studying games that are more intimately related to the opening repertoire that he or she adopts.
   
   So is there anything good about the Kotov book? Of course there is. I just wanted to emphasise that this book is NOT the answer to How do you think like a GM? Many GMs would agree with me on this. You can learn from this book, but do not take it as the only or major route of study.
   
   I particularly liked Kotovs anecdote in the book about Capablanca's treatment of an ending. There is much to be learned about endgame play in this chapter. There is also a great deal of good advice interspersed through the book, so it does earn its 3 stars.



3. This book is very good in my study of chess.



4. Kotov covers the way top players think and common patterns of mistakes that all players make. It's really entertaining and you don't have to wade through miles of chess annotation to benefit from it.



5. 
   
   
   To possible critics of Kotov: I am afraid the critics (Nunn, Tisdall. Krasenkow et. al) got it all wrong simply for the fact that they do not know how the brain works; i.e. subconsciously.
   
   First: Kotov's method of practicing analysis skills, (setting up a position, analysing without moving the pieces, then comparing your analysis with the GMs) works supremely due to the way the human brain works even if we are not capable of explaining why. This is perfectly well accomplishable even if Kotov's model of "trees" does not correctly reproduce what happens in the mind. Kotov's "trees" are simply a way of trying to make fathomable what hitherto has been impossible to grasp. Kotov states clearly that we do not need to analyse deeper than what is needed to make an evaluation and that all of us have to find candidate moves in our own way. (This is the same as within theory of science where Popper states that there is no method for hitting upon a hypotheses. Here personal qaints and quirks will influence the way).
   
   Secondly, the notion of pattern recognition is higly problematic, if not nonsense, from one end to another due to the problems of formally defining what a pattern is and to apply this defintion to the uniquely diverse positions encountered in a chess game. What is a pattern and how do we come to know one? Well, some would suggest positions with fianchettoes or IQP (Isolated Queens Pawn) as typical. Yes, then we have two...others?
   
   The fundamental problem is, of course, how we come to learn or know when a position contains or makes up what psychologists denominate as a "pattern". Example; you encounter a position for the first time and a GM says to you; "This is a pattern position". You say; "Really, and what exactly constitutes the pattern?" It seems that there must be something going on already before we are to be able to understand or grasp what a pattern is. The GM can point at the pawns, squares etc, but, if we have absolutely no idea, what the GM is talking about, how are we mechanically going to understand?
   
   To understand that isolated pawns consitute a pattern, first we must know that they are both weak and strong simultaneously(!) and only sang froid would enable us to understand when they are weak and when they are strong and since this may diverse endlessly, there seems to be no way to formalize this as a pattern comprising a definition applicaple to all IQP-positions.
   
   Take Magnus Carlsen as an example; he is now a 2750 player, so is Peter Leko. Magnus is 17 and Leko is 33. This means that Magnus formally would not have had the time to aqcuire the same number of pattern as Leko has since Leko is older, having played chess far longer and far more games, but Magnus is equal in strength. How to explain this? The point is that what is called pattern (definition problems aside) is that this is something psychologists establish only AFTER the socalled patterns are learnt. It is simply impossible, consciously, to sit down at a chessboard and each and every time say: "Okay, this is a pattern. It looks so and so. I have to remember this". Then you encounter another position, completely different from the one just seen. How are you to generalize this completely different position into the same pattern definition as the previous one? It is impossible since the positions are uniquely diverse.
   
   Chess is learnt subconsciously, i.e. our brains acquire the skills without our conscious knowing, but psychologists try to make it look like a mechanical conscious process to make it easier than it actually is. Pattern thinking is a fairly easy and straight forward way to try to explain human behaviour, thinking in categories etc to make it easier for us to adapt to and orientate ourselves in new (foreign) surroundings.
   
   If the mind works in this way, we would not know it, since it takes place subconsciously. It is only after a player have become a GM, being presented a number of positions, we can say that "Oh, yes, this is recognizing a pattern", but when learning it, we do not know it is a pattern and there is no conscious way of learning it, since more chess players would be much stronger than they actually are. This resembles Wittgenstein's idea on how to learn to follow a rule; there must be something going on og underlying our ability to understand rulebound instructions before we know the rule, and it is the same with chess.
   
   The brain learns chess and we rationalize and justify what it does to the best of our abilities to make is possible to understand so we can make recipes to learn more quickly. Nope! I'm afraid the brain does this perfectly well without our interfering and Kotov's method is THE method of improving.
   
   That said: since the thinking process is subconscious, we only have access to the results of the process, but the material, preparation and thought processes themselves are outside our conscious reach even if we, as mentioned by Kornhuber and Deecke, we can "direct our attention". By practising like Kotov said (setting up positions) we exercise our brains' ability to grasp ever more of the positions we encounter. Thus we will also be trained in knowing what to look for and knowing when to stop analysing.
   
   This has nothing to do with pattern recognition which seems to reduce chess thinking to a mechanical exercise. "All can become a GM just by learning enough patterns". No, it does not work that way. It works by the brains' ability to make new neuronic networks and synapses and this is trained by analysing.
   
   What nature has provided you with, will determine how good you might become, but it is simply impossible to predict or know what the result of this training might be simply because we are in no position to control the thought processes where the improvment itself takes place. Playing chess is a result of two things: subconscious triggering of moves and consciously relating to the moves produced by the brain. No chess player blunders on purpose, which goes to show what? That chess players most of the time are unconscious while playing. Only when things do not go as planned, does consciousness announce itself.
   
   If chessplaying were conscious, each and everyone of us would commit no blunders and we would all be world champions. Chessplaying is the result of a very subtle interplay between consciousness and subconsciousness and neither Tisdall, Nunn, Krasenkow or other critics seem to be aware of this.
   
   So, there it is: either one can trust Kotov knowing what he was doing and improve your strength, OR, one can keep on listening to barely mediocre GMs belittling Kotov and stand still. Kotov's method works and his absolutely recommended but we do not know and can not know fully the whole story.
   
   (My authority; professional philosopher with 20 years of experience from the department of the philosophy of mind and applying it to chess.)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

5 comments about I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence.

1. The best! You'll enjoy everything about this book if you have a sense of humor.



2. Dear Amy -
   
   I like your book. No, I love it. No, wait, I totally *heart* it, in fact. It is way awesome. Much like you. I bet you throw the craziest parties. Will you kindly invite me sometime? I know I'm one of those annoying vegans who will totally muck up your dinner menu, but I promise to make it up to you by bringing plenty of booze.
   
   Anyway, back to your book. Why do I *heart* it so? Well, the pictures totally kick it; it takes a special lady to pull off the bottomless-but-for-pantyhose look. Your gourmet masterpieces look yummy despite the animal ingredients. And your diy décor is do-able even for the not-so-crafty among us. Googley eyes on peanuts! Who woulda thunkit? And you're so retro, too, Amy! Like a Fiona Apple video, or those `70s douche ads that all us hairy-legged feminist bloggers like to pass around on the internets. I LIKE YOU is, like, the perfect coffee table book for people who think people who have coffee table books are kinda sorta pretentious jerks. For reals.
   
   But wait! There's more! Your book also has words! And they make me laugh, and laugh, and laugh. And then chortle and guffaw. And then some more lolz. Your sections on entertaining the elderly, babycakes (sorry, "children"), ladies' nights and "when you get to play nurse" (not as fun and/or dirt-ay as it sounds) are especially amusing. Even the book flap provides several minutes of enjoyment.
   
   In sum, Amy, you give this misanthrope hope! Plus, you taught me how to locate my vagina with a hand mirror. I will always remember you for that. With much fondness and warmth. Make of that what you will.
   
   hugs & kisses
   
   - k
   
   PS - Did you by chance ever go by the name of Charlene, maybe in the early `80s? Because you totally remind me of Dr. Stephen Colbert, DFA's ex-lover of the same name. No? Whatevs, nm.
   
   PPS - I know it's you.
   
   PPPS - I am eagerly awaiting my dinner party invite.



3. Can you believe this book???? Practical, funny, creative, liberated, boy it just racks up positive adjectives, doesn't it? But be forewarned, it's also revoltingly gross here and there and above all this is comedy, not a foray too far into Martha Stewart territory. But then again, if you needed me to tell you that you probably don't know who Amy Sedaris is. I had fun reading Amy Sedaris' assault on vulnerable Eisenhower-era values, actually learned a thing or two, and, who knows, might try a few of her recipes next time I'm feeling antidisestablishmentalitarian. And, oh yeah, her, ahem, charming wit is amusing too. (Marbles in the medicine cabinet?! What to do with organic lemons? Where the heck does she get that stuff?) I'm a fan of books that walk the thin line between parody and information, offensive and endearing, and gods help us, the irreverent I Like You does that extremely well.



4. enjoyable but would have liked it to be a little more off than if was.



5. I love this book. She is a genius. Writing & photos are funy, and I want to try the recipes! BUT, it isn't for everyone. I was reading the 1 star reviews, and was sorry to see how people weren't getting it. It is a Kitschy, Rated R, humorous book on hospitality. If you don't like swear words, "ladies parts", and 70's photos, don't buy it. If you love all those things, get it! You won't be dissappointed. PS: I now own a planter in the shape of a log with a squirrel sitting on it. It reminded me of this book so forcefully, I HAD to buy it! We should all be more like amy ;-)

4 comments about ShaderX3: Advanced Rendering with DirectX and OpenGL (Shaderx Series).

1. Shader X3: Advanced Rendering With DirectX And Open GL compiled, organized, and deftly edited by Wolfgang Engle (Senior Special FX Engineer at Wings Simulations) is packed from cover to cover with 630-pages of insightful new techniques, innovative approaches to common problems, as well as practical tools and tricks that will help in all areas of shader programming. All of the articles comprising Shader X3 evolved from the the working experiences of industry professionals, and all of the sections were expertly edited by shader programming experts. This comprehensive collection of ready-to-use techniques will enable even the most novice programmer to get up to speed quickly, and the more experienced programmers will find a wealth of insights and techniques to improve efficiency and avoid redundancies. Shader X3 is an essential, "user friendly", and highly recommended instructional reference for shader programmers.



2. This book is a collection of forty-seven articles around the common theme of shading images in real time. Many of these effects have been common in the movie world for many years, but in that application the shading can be done on very expensive machines and the time it takes to produce an image is not important because the resulting image is to be shown on screen rather than immediately on a display. Now, with the increasing power in the PC's in widespread use, these techniques are being brought down to the standard desktop.
   
   In this book a wide selection of authors discuss the start of the art in shading. They are, for the most part, active professionally in the graphics display business. A number of them work for ATI, the video card manufacturer, a number work for gaming companies, or for companies producing software used in gaming.
   
   This approach provides for a fast time to print, rather than one author taking a year to write the book. In this industry a year is a lifetime, well, at least a generation in the software.



3. I've bought many other rendering books like GPU Gems series, and I think this book is more practical for game developers compared with the other books. It explains many useful algorithms in good details and covers many aspects that a serious game developer should consider. As a game engine programmer, I think this book is a very good reference for me.



4. Its hard for me to treat the books of this series separately (ShaderX 3, ShaderX 4, ShaderX 5). They are all very good books of GPU-Gems level or higher. In comparison with GPU Gems, they are more academic, i. e. they are rather short and more applicable to wide range of applications then GPU Gems ones (while GPU Gems series is more scientific, state of the art, considering one particular research) and the accompanying CD is much more better (lots of working examples, most with source code).
   Sections (Image-Space, Shadows) are also very helpful to figure out what is useful for you.
   This series is not for beginners anyway, so please, go Cg Tutorial or DX SDK Tutorial and don't put 2 or 3 marks for these books because you can't cope with them.

1 comments about Good Video Games and Good Learning: Collected Essays on Video Games, Learning and Literacy (New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies).

1. The book is a good read. Meaning that the text is easily read and understood. Gee provides some not so intuitive observations about RPGs and MMOGs with respect to their potential to influence curriculum and instruction.

No comments about TV Guide Crosswords Theme Puzzles: The Best Theme Crossword Puzzles from More Than 50 Years of TV Guide!.

No comments about Children's Word Games and Crossword Puzzles: Ages 9 and Up (Other).

3 comments about Sudoku - Blue (Sudoku).

1. Good little Sudoku book to fit in bag or pocket....a bit smaller than I had expected (I probably didn't read the description correctly) but enough puzzles to make it worth the price....



2. I bought the level three book.I bought it because I enjoy Sudoku puzzles and this one is small enough to fit in my small purse and spiral-bound for ease of use. However, the puzzles are disappointing, because usually there is only one place for each number in each square and line, but in this book, toward the end of the puzzle I find there is more than one place for some of the numbers to go. In other words, there can be more than one solution. I have solved eight or so of the puzzles and most of them are this way. I am ready to throw out this book. Oh well, it was a waste of only $2.00.



3. Like the earlier review, I find that this book of puzzles all have more than one solution. It is irritating to get to the end of the puzzle and find that there are several right choices. It doesn't give me the "completed" feel that I like to have after finishing one of these puzzles!

3 comments about The Magic of Alan Wakeling: The Works of a Master Magician.

1. This book is a MUST have for you magic book collection and since it is out of print the price of this book has been going up because its now a collectors item!



2. Orgiinally bought this because of the claim it teaches tricks, however the tricks are outdated and mostly bar room oriented. It's plus side is it reveals alot about the magician Alan Wakeling's life and magic inspiration.



3. ... is at all times crystal clear. His descriptions of performance and method are clear and concise and (to me at least) fascinating. A true magician in life and in his writing, he conjures performances from a half century ago that make the reader feel as if he has actually witnessed the work of the master magicians. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Playstation Nation: Protect Your Child from Video Game Addiction.

1. This book was the push I need to stop game playing in our home. The authors spelled out exactly what was happening with my two boys and online game playing. It was like reading dialogue from my boys and I. Since, the boys stopped playing online games our entire household is a much more peaceful place with the boys spending their time playing outside, reading, using their imaginations and I am no longer the bad mom constantly telling the kids to get off the computer. I feel like our children, teens, and young men are having their lives stolen by computer games. It is a free choice but it is truly addictive. Think of the hours wasted playing online games, especially while a child is growing up. I have friends whose husbands spend hours playing games. What a loss. I recommend this book to all.



2. I purchased this book because of my concern for my 12-year old son and his future. This book affirmed my strength to resist letting him lose: a zest for real life, social skills, and maturing. It's too easy to turn to a virtual world than to face the real world and build coping skills needed for life. Without being overly dramatic or too technical, the Bruner's provided factual and subjective information while citing other authors, sources, and scholars on video game addition.



3. This book is well written and contains citations for the references used. There are an increasing number of kids and adults who fit the criteria that this book illustrates. It will teach you how to understand and deal with the newest addiction that is destroying families and children all over the world. This is an easy book to read and will give you the references to do your own homework on the issue as well.



4. This book, and the idea it supports, is garbage. Video games are becoming yet another excuse for bad parenting, following in the footsteps of television.
   
   Parents: stop trying to play the victim and raise your damn kids yourselves.



5. I travel and speak about gaming addiction and right now this is the only book on gaming that I sell. I am going through this book for the second time because it is so good. If you are a parent and have a concern about your child's gaming this book is a great investment.
   
   This books only limitation is that it has an over the shoulder point of view of gaming. The Bruner's lack of first hand experience sometimes shows. But what they lack in game experience they more than makeup for in parental expertise. I own several books on this topic and if you are a parent and you only buy one book on this subject you should buy Playstation Nation.

3 comments about Game Programming Gems 6 (Book & CD-ROM) (Game Development Series).

1. Intended for the intermediate to advanced game programmer, this is a book that will literally have something for everyone. It contains fifty-two 'gems' that is, articles on how to some particular aspect of game programming. Sophisticated game programming is probably the most complex programming there is. And this book goes into some pretty sophisticated programming details.
   
   For instance:
   1.2 Using Multicore Processors - New software that facilitates programming to make the most effective use of dual/triple core CPUs.
   2.5 - Exact Buoyancy for Polyhedra - Your game character has built a raft. How does it look like it's floating realistically?
   5.9 - Practical Sky Rendering - The sky is so simple, unless, of course you want it to look real. ==There is no question that the main driving force for faster computers is to make for more realistic gaming. And the faster computers allow more sophisticated programming to be done to make the grass wave realistically.
   
   This is probably not a book you're going to sit down and read from cover to cover. You'll probably scan through and read the ones that are applicable to just what you need to do next. But then in a couple of weeks, in a couple of months....



2. This is the latest volume in the game programming gems series that is now six years old. This book, like the others in the series, is a collection of articles written by industry experts for the advanced game programmer. Because it covers so much ground with little or no background information, I doubt that one reader will be able to appreciate the whole book. The book comes with a CD that has source code for all of the articles, which is very helpful.
   I'm a multimedia programmer rather than a game programmer, and I found quite a few nuggets in this edition. Among them was the article on using OpenCV, which is the open source computer vision library, and also the article on CPPUnit, which can be used for unit testing of any type of software, not just games. The section on math and physics was the least helpful. It either set the bar too low with easy articles like "How to do floating point faster than hardware", or set the bar too high with difficult terse articles such as "Real-Time Particle-Based Fluid Simulation". However, if you are into game physics, this section might be something you really enjoy. In the AI section, it seemed like I had seen most of the material before. The last article though was really unique - "Constructing a Goal-Oriented Robot for UnrealTournament Using Fuzzy Sensors, Finite-state Behaviors and Behavior Networks". This is an outstanding article for those interested in robots in games. The whole section on scripting was worthwhile. I especially enjoyed the Script language survey at the front of the section, since this is a moving target with many languages to choose from. The graphics section is quite advanced, and unless "Realtime Rendering" seems like light bedtime reading to you, most of the articles will probably not make much sense. My favorite section of the book was the one on audio for two reasons. First, most game programming books ignor this subject entirely. Second, it is hard to find readable books or articles on the subject with the effects presented in plain language as this section did in all five articles. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here:
   SECTION 1 GENERAL PROGRAMMING
   Introduction 1.1 Game Object Component System 1.2 Closest- String Matching Algorithm 1.3 Implementing Lock-Free Algorithms 1.4 Computer Vision in Games using the OpenCV library 1.5 Using CPPUnit to implement unit testing 1.6 Visualizing Performance Data 1.7 Faster Loading with Access-Based File Reordering 1.8 Stay in the Game: Asset Hotloading for Fast Iteration 1.9 Geographic Grid Registration of Game Objects 1.10 Real-Time Continuous Profiling 1.11 Fingerprinting Prerelease Builds to Deter and Detect Piracy 1.12 The Dynamic Actor Layer
   
   SECTION 2 MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS
   Introduction 2.1 Efficient Sequence Indexing 2.2 How to do floating point faster than hardware. 2.3 Solving linear systems by using the cross product 2.4 Real-Time Particle-Based Fluid Simulation 2.5 Exact Buoyancy for Polyhedra
   
   SECTION 3 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
   Introduction 3.1 Designing a Multi-layer Pluggable AI Engine Framework 3.2 Smart Scene Load Management using Fuzzy Logic 3.3 Achieving coordination with autonomous NPC's 3.4 Using a Quantified Judgment Model for Engagement Analysis 3.5 Short-term memory using support vector machine (SVM) 3.6 Applying Model-Based Decision-Making Methods to Games 3.7 Constructing a Goal-Oriented Robot for UnrealTournament Using Fuzzy Sensors, Finite-state Behaviors and Behavior Networks
   
   SECTION 4 SCRIPTING SYSTEMS
   Introduction 4.1 A Script language survey 4.2 Managing High-Level Scripts Execution within 4.3 Automatic Function Binding for Game Scripting and Networking 4.4 Programming advanced control mechanisms with Lua coroutines 4.5 Binding C/C++ objects to Lua
   
   SECTION 5 GRAPHICS
   Introduction 5.1 Automatic Realistic Idle Motion Synthesis for Interactive Characters" 5.2 GPU Terrain Rendering 5.3 Rendering Road Signs Sharply 5.4 Interactive Fluid Dynamics and Rendering on the GPU 5.5 Spatial Partitioning using an Adaptive Binary Tree 5.6 Enhanced Object Culling with (Almost) Oriented Bounding Boxes 5.7 Fast per-pixel lighted scenes with a high number of lights 5.8 Efficient Sky Rendering Techniques 5.9 High Dynamic Range Rendering using OpenGL Frame Buffer Objects 5.10 Skin Splitting for Optimal Skin Rendering
   
   SECTION 6 AUDIO
   Introduction 6.1 Real- Time Sound Generation From Deformable Meshes 6.2 Volume Control Through Chained Busses 6.3 Faking Real-time DSP Effects 6.4 A lightweight oscillator for ambient sound generation 6.5 Cheap Doppler effect
   
   SECTION 7 NETWORKING AND MULTIPLAYER
   Introduction 7.1 Complex High-Level Systems 7.2 Reliable Peer-to-Peer Gaming Connection Penetrating Firewall and NAT 7.3 Massively Multiplayer Online Prototype (MMOP): Utilizing Second Life for Game Concept Prototyping 7.4 Dynamically Adaptive Streaming of 3D Data for Animated Characters 7.5 Generating globally unique identifiers for game objects About the CD-ROM
   Index



3. One interesting feature of this book on game programming is how graphics does NOT dominate the discussion. Most books on the subject are chock-a-block with every graphics tip you could imagine. But Dickheiser does not write for the novice. He has gathered a set of papers (chapters) that try to delineate the research boundary. It is a measure of the rising maturity of the field, and the complexity of many games, that graphics is relatively deprecated.
   
   Though I hasten to add that there are still the pretty colour plates of renderings, and several chapters on these methods.
   
   Why is the book symptomatic of the changing trends? In part because graphical methods are starting to saturate. The techniques are now good enough for near-photorealistic impressions. If you look carefully at the non-graphics chapters, you see that they tackle non-trivial problems arising from evermore intricate games. One instance is the use of AI-style decision making methods for how a game proceeds. When well coded, it can give behaviour of characters that is more intelligent, hence yielding a more interesting game. Another chapter looks at the learning process in AI, where a player might change strategies. Here, the research use of Support Vector Machines is suggested as apropos for commercial game development.
   
   Professionally, you should pay attention to the book for the trend it exemplifies. You probably got into game programming because you were attracted by the graphics. But as graphics methods peak, the value added aspect of games is starting to shift towards the story line and how elaborate is the game logic.