5 comments about The gmax Handbook (Game Development Series) (Game Development Series).

1. I had tried doing some work on my own, but the installation instructions for gmax and tutorials that already exist are not very good. This book fixed everything for me!!!!!



2. This book is more on general modding of software than actually using gmax. This book spends too much time showing you how to install and update the games that support gmax, when it could be showing you how to use gmax itself.

   It covers very very basic aspects of gmax, then spends a lot of time talking about the individual games. The topics covered about the individual games are mostly how to install and update the game and whatever additional resources that are provided by the game developers, and are not really valuable.

   This book will not teach you anything about modeling or animating in gmax, it will only expose you to the concept of using gmax to edit various games, and give you some ideas of what can be edited in each game.

   I recommend The gmax Bible, which is a much richer book for learning gmax modeling and animation techniques, and how to use them in modifying games.

   This is a very very basic book, and your time would be better spent reading a few tutorials off the net than purchasing this book. You can't really use it as a printed reference for anything either.




3. I can't believe Discreet put their name on this product. Only to the most novice might this software appear amazing but it is fairly worthless. I have taught 3d animation to high school students for the past 8 years using a varaity of free 3d packages and thought...wow...free from Discreet!!! It's crap!

   I bought the book, its crap! There is no user base for the software, no support, very little feedback from the forums. Don't bother. I had hopes, bought the book, it gives some basics about modeling in the program bit gives no help with integrating the models into a game environment. I was able to get Static Meshes into UT2003 and a few others but that was about it. Sure, you can box model a character and add a bone structure...but then how do you get it into a game? No answer to be found! The only reason I gave it the time of day I did was because the Admin at my school didn't want to cough up the cash for a proper 3d program. Hah, after showing them what the free stuff COULDN'T do, they did!!!!

   If you are starting out, maybe the free version of Softimage that comes with HL2 will be better, it can't be worse.

   I would be emabarassed if I were Discreet.

   Steve




4. This book give a good introduction on game modding for Quake, Flight Simulator using gmax and a very thorough installation procedure. But in many cases, this book only refer to the URL instead of providing the installation file on the CDROM. There are only a few tutorial provided about the gmax itself and there are a lot more and better tutorial found on the net.



5. The author spends too much time inadequately glossing over addons and plugins for specific games, and too little time talking about the title program itself, gMax. As a result, very little of this book is worth a purchase. Much better resources are availble in the gMax help tutorials and on the web through forums and free additional tutorials. I've learned a great deal through gMax's documentation and free tutorials, much more than this book offers.

5 comments about Building Great Flash MX Games.

1. After trying to cope with this chapter on collision detection for over two weeks, I have decided that this book needs to be revised immensely. On page 47 you give a chunk of code to "Define the ball". The chunk of code you give lacks any commenting whatsoever, and worse yet, when I turned to page 48 I was given ONE SENTANCE to explain SEVEN FUNCTIONS. The sentance wasn't even helpful. "The instnace of the ball mocie clip moves down the stage to collide with the rectangle movie clip". Great, I have no idea which one of these functions does each. I know JS and C++ but AS is still new to me so wading through it is a bloody chore. Later on page 48 you have a chunk of code, this time with a comment. More helpful indeed, I understood this chunk, but you told me to insert it into line 19. That did all of nothing. A friend and senior programmer had to look at my code, and implement it much farther down, more like line 39 if I recall, plus change some of the code. That is rediculous. 48 goes on more. Defining boundries. You give me this line of code:

   gBallBaseLoc[200,300];
   gGameRect = [0,0,400,500];
   gHMax = pGameRect[2] - 5;

   You then explain gGameRect, the easies of all the variables to figure out, and omit to tell me the other two descriptions. I assume that BallBaseLoc is where the ball starts on screen and gHMax is the ceiling, but assuming isn't much good for me. Once again this code doens't work at the place you indstructed to put it in either.

   What I'm trying to say is I got burned badly by this book. I am a college student, paying my tuition, transportation, and books on my own minimum wage part time job. I parted with my FIFTY DOLLARS [which is a LOT of money to me] for your book, and it hads caused me nothing but headaches. If this is only chapter four, I can't imagine what else lies in wait for me.

   I'd think that I could solve my problems by looking at your downloadable source, but the truth is that this particular movie isnt even in your source. There are several games like pacman that you don't even mention in this chapter, but somehow the source is included, yet not this. I am upset.

   The purpose of this email is to let you know that your integrity is comming into question from the poor work you have released. I recommend you revise this book ASAP, because your work is a reflection of you, and it isn't looking great to me. You did not respond to my earlier email, which is fine. I wanted to let you know that I am copying this email and putting it in every review of your book online that I can find, just to warn off other people in my situation. I hope you seriously consider the points I have brought up. Thanks,

   -Zach Atkinson




2. A must not buy. Perfect example of juggling between poor dictating and bad spelling. Combined, it makes it almost impossible to understand what he means or figure out where you misspelled the non working scripts provided by the book.
   Went halfway through it and knew I couldn't return it because of it's discount.
   257 pages, binding included. Weights about 300 grams. It's printing process must have been way more exciting then it's content is.

   0 ou of 10
   #1 Hall of Shame




3. There's not much to say. This book sucks! Many code-errors and bad explanation. I think that the writer of this book searched for popular flash-words and made a book out of these words.
   There's a whole chapter on 3d... But not one sentense in the chapter is about making 3d. Well.. The author tells you what programs you make 3d with.
   
   It's the same with the website to the book. A nice un-updated site!
   
   But I'm impressed that such a book actually can be printed.



4. I assume that's what happened anyway.
   I am a decent flash coder - and this book confounds me.
   Not because its too complex because the authors just try and make everything harder than it really is.
   
   Multiple code errors - and often you just get snippets followed by plain language.
   
   
   I never use this book.



5. There are so many problems with this book it defies understanding how it made it onto the shelves in it's current form. While I do not claim to be any sort of Actionscript guru, I have done an appreciable amount of work in Flash MX and with actionscript. Still, now 3/4 through the book I have found myself frequently frustrated and disappointed.
   
   First, there are numerous code errors. As an example, in discussing server side includes, the author states 'note that the file name is enclosed by parenthesis'. Then he presents the finished code as '#include "file.as"'. In other places, variable names suddenly change. For example, in one place you are instructed to enter a line using the variable 'content'. Then a short time later when he presents the complete code, he has replaced that name with 'i'.
   
   In addition to the errors are confusing omissions. In the section where preloaders are discussed, he gives instructions for creating the preloader graphics. Then finishes by saying the preloader is complete. Yet there is no actionscript to make it work - only the graphics are done.
   
   I also feel there is not enough commentary on much of the most important code. Largish chunks are thrown out to the user to be used with little or no explaination. Any comments there are are so general that while you may know what the code does, you have no explainantion as to how it is doing it. In one section on databases, the reader is presented with two solid pages of asp code and no explaination whatsoever of why or how it works. I realize this is not an asp book, but at the same time, what good is a huge slab of code, which while it may work, you have no true idea how it works?
   
   Overall, I feel the book was rushed and not well edited. It reads as though it was written quickly and shipped out with no real attention to making sure the information was accurate or well presented. Too much of the book talks about pleasant generalities, how great sound is in a game, how wonderful 3D is, etc., and not enough focused on actually creating the components or making it work.
   
   Also, I strongly feel that there is too large a chunk of the book given over to "[X] in games is really great, but Flash can't do [X], so you need to buy [some third party software]". This sort of thing can be covered in 3 pages, max. I'd rather skip the 15 page ad for another software package (albeit which may be a great package) and hear more about actually working in Flash.
   
   In the end I believe this book will be nearly useless to anyone with a general knowledge of Actionscript and Flash, telling them not much more than they probably already knew or suspected. If the reader has little or no experience, it will undoubtedly leave them more confused than before, and may even do them a disservice with the botched code they will be led to believe is accurate.
   
   I'm not normally given to taking the time to write a bad review. However the obvious lack of care taken with this book coupled with the price was more than enough motivation.

5 comments about The Animation Master Handbook, Second Edition.

1. This is more for the beginners. If you've read and understood the manual, then you don't need this book. It's just the same again more in depth and with more tutorials. The special features not mentioned in the manual (like flocking..) are kept very short in here. The online help of the software should often be enough. If you didn't catch the idea with the manuals explenations then.. buy it!



2. The only reason I bought this book was to learn how to use Animation Master. I have the Book that came with the software which is about a "2 ½ star" book. After much research and review of other animation programs, I have concluded that Animation Master is a "5 star" program with "2 ½ star support".

   Here is a simple analogy. A person needs to get to a street called "E street" and in order to get there they must know that there is an A,B,C,D, street. In comparison the author of this book constantly gives directions like take A,B,D, or A,C,D leaving out essential details thus leaving the student of this excellent animation program frustrated and confused. Basically the author of this book is probably an excellent animator and story teller. As a writer myself I remind the author that if the details of a story are left out a percentage of the audience will bail thus creating inappropriate and negative views about the potential of becoming animators and I believe that the author is trying to help people to become animation enthusiast not discourage them.

   If you want to be as good in writing your tutorials as you are hopfully an animator then please take the time to avoid assumptions about your readers. If on the other hand you have written the book to get quick cash because of very little competition. Then I will ask that someone who has more tolerance of beginners and understands the essential nature of including all of the steps A,B,C,D,E please take the challenge.

   In conclusion I believe that this is a program well worth the price of admission . I only ask for a larger group of us who are newer and can learn well with a more detailed tutorial book that someone please take on this needed to be done task.

   P.S. to Jeff Paries I an not trying to insult you. I'm simply asking for a more complete and linear set of tutorials from you or anyone else. There is a business need at this graphic revolutionary time even if you write two books. Beginning to Intermediate book one followed by Intermediate to Advance. Then we are happier to give the writer more money that they deserve and word of mouth advertising is expanded to a higher level.

   Thank you for your time. renzai@pdai.com




3. Its not a question whether I can recommend this book or not. Why do I say this? Its because the original manual that comes with Animation Master is so awful that you have to buy this book to make sense of it all.

   Now in the case of reviewing the book, there is some good things to say and some bad things to say:

   First of all, Jeff Paries is extremely knowledgable on the subject matter. The book is packed with so much information (600 pages worth) so that makes it a valuable tool.

   The biggest complaint is that some of the tutorials need clarification. I went through a lot of them and I find bits of essential information missing. Somethings I have to improvise and experiment (which is not necessarily a bad thing but it can be frustrating). I think the author (and the editors too) should take some test subjects and let them go through the tutorials and point out any inconstancies in the text.





4. I purchased the Animation Master 98 Handbook almost 2 years ago and found it to be very benificial to increasing my skills with Animation Master... to a degree.

   I recently purchased the AM2000 Handbook in hopes that it would cover/correct problems in the first book. Yet the incomplete, vauge, and at times, unreliable instructions that the 98 Handbook had left me with returned in the AM2000 Handbook

   99.9% of all my problems stem from the modeling tutorials, especially the Advanced Modeling section. At times you are left to "figure it out for yourself" instead of being walked through each step in the process. The most disappointing is the modeling tutorial of the female body. Where Mr. Paries spends 10 pages on how to model a simple fish, he spends only 11 pages describing how to model the "intricate" human female.

   If you own the AM98 Handbook, see if you can find this "updated" version at your local library, borrow it from a friend, or just don't worry about it. There's really not much new in this edition and very few problems were fixed from the preceding edition.

   If you are just learning AM, pick it up. It may not be the most complete and/or detailed book that it should be, but it will give you a good idea of some of the things you can do with AM.




5. I had some of the same problems using this aftermarket manual as I did trying to use the original, worthless A:M manual-and then it created some new problems of its own. Example: neither book includes anything resembling a "quick-start" guide, that is, a straightforward no-options approach to get a quick, trouble-free 3D result right off the bat. Oh no. Too simple. The official manual doesn't even reveal how to draw a line onscreen until page 199. The Paries book starts its modeling tutorial earlier, on page 47, but does it by handing the reader a prebuilt model off the included CD-ROM. How does that teach anyone how to design a 3D model?
   If I ever learn how to use this software, I'm going to write my own doggone handbook.

5 comments about Animation:Master 2002: A Complete Guide (Graphics Series) (Graphics Series).

1. The first review on this book wasn't very good. The review complained that the book was not for a beginner. He was very wrong. This book can be used by beginners to Animation Master. It is not designed to be a book for a beginner to Animation in general. The author does use lots of jargon, but to those familar with 3D Art and Animation it is nothing to worry about. The book is a great compliment to anyone's Animation Master skills. This book used in conjunction with the included documentation works great. There were certain techniques I was unsure about, but this book cleared them up. Again, I must stress that the book is not a beginners book to CG Animation , just a book for Animation Master beginners.



2. Given the sparseness of Hash's packaged software manual, I'd say that this book is an essential baseline reference for A:M 2002 or A:M2003. I think the 2 complement each other. Use the Hash manual for some quick start action with the software with lots of pictures and then come back to this text for serious study.

   I'm not sure the book is for pure beginners in 3D. For them I would recommend picking up "3D Graphics & Animation" by Mark Giambruno which provides a good overview of 3D terms and concepts.

   Let's face it, 3D software is among the most challenging types of software one can attempt to learn. I found if I re-read the tutorials in Rogers' book a few times the information is there. Patience is required. Do not expect to get it all in one read. In a few places I would have liked more illustrations and cd-rom videos for some steps, but what is provided is adequate. The style and tone of the writing were in line with my learning needs. Rogers takes time to explain not just the A:M features, but many times also why and how they should be used in your art work like the chapter on lighting.

   The book's scope is wide so if you need a lot of depth on a particular function it may not be covered with enough detail to suit your needs. In all fairness though, that book of details doesn't exist anywhere for A:M. All-in-all I think this is a solid work that deserves to be one of the references in your library when learning this software.




3. I purchased this book but found after receiving it and trying to use it that he types a lot of words but gives very little practicle direction. He supplies very few tutorials on how to use the material. He could take some lessons from the Jeff Paries book. In my opinion this book was not worth the money spent by a long shot.



4. This is a great book. I wouldn't suggest it as your first read if you've never done any 3d animation, though. Do ALL the tutorials in the manual that comes with the software first. By the time you finish them you'll know most of the critical lexicon that seems to get some people so frustrated. 3d animation is complex and hard to learn. It's just less hard with Animation Master and this book at your side. If you get stuck on some detail I'd suggest either posting a question at the Hash forum or just move on to another topic in the book and come back to the problem later. Sometimes when you take a break from a problem and come back to it a few days later it becomes easier to solve. People who study the learning process actually have a name for this phenomenon, but I don't remember it . . . hehehe ;)



5. This book comes with a great index, so that I can find what I am looking for with ease. As I dip in and out of the pages, I have questions answered that I did not even know to ask! AM is frustrating - It is a great program with little or no documentation, and this is a sorely needed resource.

1 comments about Computer Graphics and Animation: History, Careers, Expert Advice (Gardner's Guide Series) (Gardner's Guide series).

1. Computer Graphics And Animation: History, Careers, Expert Advice by computer expert and academician Garth Gardner is an extensive and informatively accessible tour through a variety of different artistic careers related to computers that are available for an aspiring computer graphics experts to pursue. Of special interest is the advice on becoming a CG Artist drawn from interviews with ground breaking experts from such industry powerhouses as Rhythm & Hues, Pixar, and Industrial Light & Magic. From the history of computer animation to practical advice on training and education for this competitive field, Computer Graphics And Animation is an excellent survey and a highly recommended primer for anyone interested in learning more about this exciting vocation.

No comments about Engineering & Computer Graphics Workbook Using SolidWorks 2004.

1 comments about Thailand in Pictures (Visual Geography. Second Series).

1. When a book is entitled "Thailand in Pictures", you expect... well... pictures. Lots of them. Especially when it's a book for children. This book doesn't even provide anything like the good scenic pictures of cities or landscapes that text-based travel guides provide, and they usually have only a few pages of illustration. A very poor picture of a mudslide during monsoon season... why would anyone really be interested in seeing that? Maybe if it was engulfing an entire home or something, but this photo just looks like a lump of wet dirt. I bought this because it looked like the closest thing I could find to a pictoral book on Thailand, and returned it the next day. Don't waste your money on it.

No comments about Output Hardcopy Devices (Computer Graphics, Technology and Applications).

5 comments about DirectX 8 and Visual Basic Development (.Net).

1. This book is fantastic. It's only draw back is that it should have included a CD. I'm not going to fault the author for that, since most publishers don't include them any more. I did find the source code at Sams very well documented and full of good examples. I'm glad someone finally wrote a book on DirectX/VB programming. The title here at Amazon is wrong, but it does include some VB .NET example code.



2. Why is it that developers who copy and paste from MSDN think they're suddenly authors? I see pages after pages of tables with method names and short descriptions that don't contribute to anyone's understanding, but only to fill in the, what else, pages. For example, the 3 chapters on DShow spand 37 pages and they're full of enumerations of interfaces and their methods and oh, here's a bonus, two pages of instructions on how to create a Standard EXE project that references the ActiveMovie control type library.

   If you're looking for a meaningful guide to how DirectX works, this one will disappoint you, but if you're an actuary, it might be mildly familiar.




3. I agree with Paul asarak's comment. This book has a lot of pasted stuff from MSDN and from DX SDK help files, it has no cd, you need to download the examples from sams' website and there are some examples you need to type in the computer in order to test them.

   This book is as if you were ready a tale, tells how everything is supposed to work, but SURPRISE!: the color and gamma controls from DD are not supported by all video cards, but the book doesn't tell you that.

   It has a poor explanation in issues like the parameters that the calls to DX take in the example code. Since it has the same tables of methods and other stuff taken from MSDN, if the explanation of the MSDN didn't clear your doubts the tables in this book won't. I don't know about the others, but I feel a lack of explanation in DD.

   If you've already fought your way through the maze that the many DirectX parameters are, it's behavior and have learned the basis of it, you may feel a little dissapointed. Anyway you must take in account that sometmes you may want to have another source of information when trying to understand DX, besides the MSDN and the internet.




4. This is by far the worst purchase I have ever made. It goes to show that you shouldn't buy a book based on a table of contents alone. The author's code is weak at best. He explains 1/4 of the primitive code he writes and then throws in variables with no acknowledgement. In his discussion of directPlay he fails to mention the need to implement any interfaces. I've been teaching the database side of app developement for years, and if I can read a book and still be no better for it, it stinks.



5. Keith Sink, DirectX8 and Visual Basic Development (Sams, 2002)

   It's 2003, now, and the world is slowly migrating to Microsoft's .NET standard (well, those who aren't using Linux, anyway). Here's a prediction, built on past observation of the process: companies who have been developing apps in Visual Basic for years will get copies of VB.NET, expecting a no-brainer transition from one to the other. Their programmers will import the programs, and immediately die of massive aneurysms at seeing the number of errors (especially the number of seemingly unfixable errors, if you happen to be programming in DirectX or any other API where classes expose other modules, which is verboten in .NET's "managed code" environment). This will leave the companies stranded and unwilling to move to .NET. They will be stuck behind those companies whose programmers have read DirectX8 and Visual Basic Development.

   Keith Sink's book was written at the perfect time, and he often goes step by step through processes both writing code for VB6 and for VB.NET, making the book an invaluable resource for .NET VB programmers who are converting VB6 programs (or who are programming in an area where there are far more VB6 books than .NET books, which is, well, just about every area you can think of). Even if you're not planning on using DirectX, seeing the way things transition from one language to the other in one aspect of the language should give you a clue on how to make the transitions in other areas.

   Sink doesn't mention at any point that there's actually a Microsoft.DirectX library in .NET. But then, neither does Microsoft's documentation. Nor does its upgrade wizard. (I only found about it after asking a random question on a message board.) So it's hard to fault Sink for something that, at the time he was writing, may have not been in the framework, or may have been considered an unsolvable problem. That aside, Sink's book is, for the reasons mentioned above, the best I've read to date about Visual Basic .NET at all. For such a specialized book to be so generally useful puts it in a class by itself. ****

3 comments about Guerrilla Guide to Great Graphics With the Gimp.

1. I've been using GIMP 1.1.9 through 1.1.15 for a long time, and all the books I found dealt with GIMP 1.0.4, which is a couple years old and has fewer features and a different interface. I was really glad to see a book that will be current with version 1.2 when it finally comes out. This one has a great mix of introductory material and more advanced tips. It doesn't try to cover every esoteric feature that no one ever uses. If you want a comprehensive but confusing guide, the Gimp User Manual does that. But if you just want to learn how to use GIMP to get good graphics, this book does the job.



2. As a beginner to the GIMP, I was disappointed with this book. Its almost as if the author were "writing aloud" to you as he skimmed through the menus. It falls short as a tutorial, and it isn't nearly comprehensive enough to be called a reference. I found "GIMP - The Official Handbook" from Coriolis Open Press to be much more useful and detailed, and I suspect there may be other GIMP books which are better still.



3. This is a very good guide to the basics of GIMP. However, it is important to note that this book is severely outdated. GIMP, being part of the GNU, is constantly changing, and many times I found myself struggling to find a button or executable action that was either moved, replaced, or removed in newer versions of the GIMP.
   
   David Bush's style is also quite wordy and may be difficult to follow for many readers. In short, if you are interested in learning the GIMP, I would suggest getting another book unless you are planning to struggle with this book.
   
   GIMP is a great program and I use it instead of Adobe becuase, well, it's free! I highly recommend anyone dissatisfied with Adobe's performance to get a good book along with the GIMP. You will not be disappointed with the GIMP. However, please look for another book becuase this book will not help you unless you are running a very old version of the GIMP.