5 comments about Focus On 2D in Direct3D (Premier Press Game Development Series).

1. Finally a book has been written that contains source code that compiles! I messed with Direct3D for a few months and couldn't figure it out using a few different Direct3D books. Once I purchased 2D in Direct3D I was drawing triangles in 3D space within a day! Lighting, Alpha Blending, Z-Buffering, Rotations, it all in there. It cuts out all the windows [stuff] and gets right to the point. It's a beautiful reference book for intermediate game programmers.

   I wouldn't recommend this book to a beginner that wants to start making games because it does not tell you how to put all the code together to make a game.

   It's a really handy book to have around. Its like an SDK that makes sense.




2. I programmed games for a few years using DirectX 7's directdraw capabilities. I decided to move on to 3D programming so I purchased a few books on 3D. After spending hours reading these books and learning the concepts of 3D I found that the source code crashed! I spent weeks trying to figure out what the authors did wrong.
   I finally bought 2D in Direct3D, a very wise decision. Within the first week I was drawing primitives, using vertex and index buffers, using a z-buffer, alphablending, and loading xfiles! The book is very clear about all definitions and explains every concept in plain english. The book is exactly what it is promised to be. How to do 2D graphics in Direct3D. Therefore, this book will not teach you very much 3D math or show you how to make a 3d engine. But it shows you how to CORRECTLY set everthing up. No more dreaming of making quake while failing to draw a triangle! With this book by your side you can enter the realm of 3D game programming.



3. At first glance this book doesn't look like much. It's fairly small compared to the typical game-programming tome (even with its medium-sized print), and not much less expensive. If you went strictly by the number of words per dollar, you might overlook it.

   If you're planning to write a 2D game with the DirectGraphics API, however, this book is exactly what you need. There may not be a lot of words, but they're the right ones.

   The first 40% of the book explains how to do everything you could do with 2D interfaces, and a little more. Copying rectangles, copying non-rectangular images, and page-flipping are explained. Added to the mix are rotation and scaling effects that were generally not possible (or at least not fast) with DirectDraw.

   The next 40% gets into 3D engine details, explaining just enough to let you take advantage of Z-buffering, anti-aliasing, and lighting effects without needing you to be the Wizard of Polygons. The math review is brief and to the point.

   The last 20% is something of a waste. A long chapter is spent learning how to parse a ".x" file that contains a 3D model, something that is largely uninteresting for people whose focus is on 2D (and unnecessary for everyone else). Another covers particle systems, which is interesting but completely out of place in this book. One might suspect the author was padding it out a bit. A section on text rasterization with Direct3D might have been more appropriate.

   Overall I got exactly what I was hoping for. The author describes the different approaches clearly, points out areas where you can get into trouble, and for the most part stays focused on the subject at hand. The result is a book that will get you up and running with 2D under Direct3D in a few hours.




4. Unlike many of the other books in the Premier Press Game Development Series, this book is a short 270 or so pages. That said, it's information dense and INCREMENTAL. It's also apparent how the book can prepare someone to make the transition from 2D to 3D quickly.

   Some of the topics the author covers in this book that I found particularly useful:

   - Alpha blending for 2D effects
   - Z buffering (this topic is covered extensively elsewhere, admittedly; but this author has explained Z-buffering in the most lucid manner I have seen to date)
   - Lighting for 2D
   - Simple vertex shading for 2D
   - Particle systems for 2D (very useful)

   The later chapters, in particular, were extremely useful. All the code WORKS. This book was written while DirectX 8.0 was the latest and greatest, so there may be some issues with DirectX 9 and higher, but of course that's to be expected.

   All in all, This book has been one of the best investments I've ever made in my game development education. Furthermore, it has been a constant companion and reference during my own commercial game development.




5. this book will not teach you a lot. it will, however, point you into a direction where you should venture into if you want to learn directX 2D or 3D. the matrix lessons are a bit too complicated with the way the author explained it, considering that matrix arithmetic is not too difficult. there are a few pages containg cryptic matrix multiplication examples which could have been explained in a few sentences like in lamothe's tricks of the trade book( lamothe explains math better ). but i give it 3 stars for a decent read. it is a good addition to a game programmers collection

5 comments about Inside Directx (Microsoft Programming Series).

1. I think this book is helpful for me. I read this book because I want to write a programe to record sound and use it on the Internet. I think the third part about Directsound is most suitable for me. But I am not very skilled in C, especially in the fundermental field. And I know there has been a DirectX 7 package in Visual Basic. So I think it will be good if there are more examples written in VB.



2. This book doesn't deserve high ratings. There are NO complete samples -- just code excerpts -- and the ones on CD are confusing. There is 1 sample for every subject, so if you don't understand that, you just don't learn. For example, the joystick sample uses complex dialogs to set attributes, making it impossible to understand. Maybe it's a good reference for _beginners_, or introduction to the concepts, but definately not a learning book. It is hard to quickly find things. Throughout chapters, concepts are unorganized and not step by step -- basically, all incomplete explainations and no solid code. This is obviously thrown together. Try Andre Lamonthe's books.

   PS: Remember, #define INITGUI at the top of code or Sys_ device constants will be unresolved -- the book does not mention this.




3. First and foremost this book was written when directX 5 was the standard. Now we are up to 7/8 and I assume there have been many changes, at least there are some examples in the DirectX 7 SDK which use functions not covered in this book. The lack of complete code examples or exercies means this is definately not a tutorial and there are no tables to indicate it is a reference book. In fact, the book seems to be a collection of ramblings about directX and computer graphics in general. Maybe this was never intended to be a reference or a tutorial, but either would have probably been more useful.



4. First off, i liked reading the book. It was something that was well written and i could follow all the way through. It was an excellent introduction the the basic api and a good primer for some of the basics of directx applications. However, it didn't even touch d3d (i know they tell us this ahead of time) and they didn't go beyond the basics. Also, i had some difficulty using their examples and they didn't always work right out of the book. In conclusion, this is a great into and basics reference for the beginner, but not for someone who is serious enough to be able to just read the info in the sdk without someone holding their hand.



5. When i bought the book i had only the intention of learning directX. That's it. But after buying th book, i got stuck after the first example because it uses MFC and the Win32 API. It throughs you for a loop because it barely describes those concepts. This book is completely USELESS to me untill i learn the Win32 API. That wouldn't be a problem except that I DON'T WANT TO!!! Hope I was able to warn at least ONE person

5 comments about Opengl Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning Opengl, Version 1.1 (OTL).

1. Its a great book for learning OpenGL!!.If you are a programer of Win32 like im, you have to get THIS book and the Super Bible!. if you want program in diferent plataform like linux, THIS is the book! And covers Glut!!.



2. Well, this book is pretty good. It explains some nice math calculations for things if you wish to do them yourself (which i think is a good idea). If you're like me, you've probably downloaded some demo effects done in openGL, and if they're fullscreen... they're usually extremely slow (no openGL ICD). You really shouldn't be discouraged, this book tells you how to do things the easy way, straight openGL. It isn't a bad idea for just learning and whatnot. But you obviously won't reach fast fps by doing so, espically in fullscreen modes. If you program Pure win32api, you'll have to learn on your own how to set the pixel format and establish windows, they're not covered in this book because it's win32 functions, and as they say in the book... they want to be general enough for you to do them in any platform, that's why they cover GLUT in this book... mostly to assign camera angles, windows, ideling..... what have you. The best thing you can do is use CreateWindow() and SetPixelFormat() to do openGL in windows. It's easy after that, get the hDC of the dialog, and establish a HGLRC and start drawing... down forget to releast the DC in the end... Back to the book, it's very good for all ranges of programmers, but use it mostly for reference... unless you wanna overuse GLUT like this book does. And as for GLAUX... it's better to learn 3d geometric object handling on your own... but whatever you think...



3. as a winNT programmer, i broke my teeth trying to understand OpenGL with the use of the MSDN library. although the MSDN library does offer a few tech articles about how to begin using the NT port of OpenGL, it does a poor job at explaining the basics of OpenGL. moreover, in the best of microsoft tradition, the WGL functions (win32 to openGL interface) are cumbersome and very unintuitive and make the learning process almost impossible. this book on the other hand, throws you into the water by releaving you of all the annoying initialization details and technical details that you would only want to know once you have a feel for the OpenGL API. this is done with the use of the GLUT library. while it is true that GLUT is not the most efficient way to write openGL code, it is better to start learning openGL using GLUT then to have to understand each and every detail of openGL architechture before you can draw one vertex. this is an easy escape. I am most pleased with this book and cant wait to finish it... go fetch...



4. This is a wonderful OpenGL book. I especially like the fact that it is specifically written to be platform independant. Other books fail because they try to concentrate on one type of platform, like Win95/98/NT. It does use GLUT but it uses it as a tool to allow the reader to learn the concepts and get right to work with the fun stuff rather than tinkering with the specifics of your OS. This book is especially welcome to Linux programmers because of the fact that it doesn't concentrate on the Windows API and instead uses GLUT to work across all platforms.



5. In my opinion, this is an outstanding reference book for OpenGL, I personally strong recommand who wants to study computer graphic needs to equip this book.

4 comments about How to Do Everything with Macromedia Flash.

1. This book got me animating after the first chapter. I like the way it's organized. It made it very simple to learn Flash. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has never used this program before. It's also not boring. Thumbs up



2. You will be amazed at how quickly you'll be up and running using this book. I had no experience in flash before I picked this book up and now I use it as a dogeared reference and a tutorial. I liked this book because it takes you from absolute novice and shows all of the interface tools and alot of techniques, all in plain english. It reads like a textbook but with no excercises at the end of the chapters. Although actionscripting is introduced and used in about the last 3rd of the book, it doesn't go heavy into that subject matter, and is honest about it. The bent is definitely more on how to use the tools, importing sound, using text, the timeline, and other graphic concerns. Those are important subjects to master before one dives into actionscript. All of the examples actually work (extremely important). You can download the examples from the website since there's no cd. There was probably extensive editing, which I appreciate...I can't find any typos or errors. The only errata I found were some of the keyboard shortcuts didn't work, but that was a relatively minor hiccup. Overall, I found this to be an excellent resource for learning Flash MX. Kudos to Bonnie Blake!



3. This is not a book that deserves a read. You could find all the materials, presented better, from Macromedia site. It is also not a reference book because a lot of topics are not covered, though it is called "do everything".



4. This book got me going right away creating websites in Flash and it's the first book I reach for when I'm having trouble or trying something new. It's an easy read offering enough detail to let you explore a subject without being overly technical.

No comments about Introduction to the Mathematics of Operations Research with Mathematica®, Second Edition (Pure and Applied Mathematics).

1 comments about OpenGL Graphics Through Applications.

1. This is not a terrible book, but there are much better books to learn OpenGL. My favorites are "OpenGL Distilled" and "OpenGL Super Bible".
   
   This book does provide some simple applications of OpenGL that the other books don't. Image Processing, Edge detection, curve fitting, fractals, etc.
   
   There is source code available on the Springer web-site. The examples are mostly C and GLUT. This is not great code, but small simple examples to illustrate the applications from the book. Though much of the code is somewhat Windows centric, I was able to compile and build the projects on my Mac without much difficulty. In the end the results and time spent didn't seem to be worth the effort.

5 comments about Inner Loops: A Sourcebook for Fast 32-bit Software Development.

1. This is the best book I know of when it comes to learning how to optimize code for maximum performance on an Intel Pentium, Pentium MMX, Pentium Pro, or Pentium II processor. It is also great for learning about how the processors work. Rick gives a very easy to understand explanation of several advanced concepts such as branch prediction, stalls, address generation interlocks, L1 and L2 caches, and instruction pairing. Every little idiosyncrasy and quirk of the Pentium that may slow down your code is explained so that that you can avoid them all. In many cases, Rick gives you a lot more information than any of official Intel documentation. He also corrects several of Intel's timing charts that do not accurately reflect the real world performance of the Pentium processor. Most of this information is understandable and useful even if you program in C or C++. In other words, you don't have to be writing in assembly language to be concerned about branch prediction, cache lines and the other topics covered in the book. This book is a must have for anyone writing performance code on an Pentium processor and recommended to anyone curious about how the Pentium processor works from a software perspective.



2. There are so many computer books that have second editions which add little to the original text. This book deserves a second edition by covering;

   MMX (when this book was written only the MMX spec from Intel was available, so the author does his best)

   SSE & 3DNow! & SSE2 Instructions (SIMD FPU rogramming)

   PII, PIII, & Athlon coverage

   Encoding / Decoding of Audio and Video Streams




3. The book is starting to be outdated but I did not find a better book on the subject. Teaches a few assembly tricks to help you get a bit of performance. At least it covers Pentium (only Pentium I and Pentium Pro though). When is the second edition coming out? Unless you are already an advanced assembly programmer, you will learn something in this book.



4. For those who have never before had to worry about source code performance optimization, this is the first book you want to read. It will introduce you to basic, common techniques for performance optimization of your source code.

   The text is programming language independent and can be easily understood by anyone who has taken a basic programming course (which I hope you have done by now, because you can't optimize code if you can't even program it).

   I gave this introductory text three stars because it is just that, an introductory text. If you want advanced performance optimizations -- I'm programming an operating system or compiler kind of depth -- then look elsewhere.




5. This book is divided in 2. The first part describes the theory of assembler optimization for processors from the 486 to the Pentium Pro. 10 years ago, this information was useful but now it is pretty much deprecated as I highly doubt that Pentium optimization techniques do anything good on Athlons or Pentium IV processors. The only chapter that still contains applicable information today is the one providing general advices on optimization such as loop unrolling.
   
   Then the second part named 'Practice' provides concrete examples of assembly optimizations for various problems such as sorting, list and tree traversals. I do not like this section neither because I feel that the presented assembly procedures are thrown at you in the face without showing you the process that the author used to derive them from the original C code. Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book (Special Edition) does a much better job in that area by presenting you 5 versions or more of the same procedure starting from the C version that gets optimized further at each iteration. Also, someone might expect to be able to get the source from the CD-ROM coming with the book and start directly using it. Alas, it is not possible because what the presented code is sorting or searching in binary trees are integers that are directly manipulated in the registers (that is part of the presented optimizations) which has not much reuse value in a world of STL containers holding usually much more complex objects or structures than plain integers. The only value that these examples might have is that they might give you some ideas on where assembly optimization might be applied.
   
   10 years ago, this book would have received a 4 out of 5 stars review but because it is pretty much deprecated except very few pages I am giving it a 2. As I said, a much better book to learn the process of optimizing in assembly is Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book (Special Edition) because it walks you through the optimization process step by step with more than 5 versions of the same procedure that is getting more optimized at each iteration. You will learn how to do it yourself with this book even if it suffers of the same weakness than this book. That is: it presents optimization techniques from the 8088 (that is very very old up!!!) to the Pentium Pro. Another benefit from Abrash book is that, in my opinion, there is a greater chance that you might find its code reusable.
   
   Finally, a very good optimization book that covers optimization techniques for recent processors such as the Athlon and the Pentium IV is: Code Optimization: Effective Memory Usage.

5 comments about Beginning .NET Game Programming in VB .NET.

1. This book may present some theoretical views for beginner level game programming, but do not expect to learn the correct syntax for VB.NET. Actually if you purchase the same authors book for programming in C# you'll find they have the same first chapter (that's as far as I looked). This book was obviously a lazy attempt for these people to make a quick buck. Unfortunately they wait until the end of the book to let you know:
   "Most of the example games leave much room for improvement. Even when we looked back on them after finishing each chapter, we would sometimes look at parts of the code and think, "We can't believe we wrote that." Even worse, some of the things we told you aren't always true." pg 348
   While I was trying to complete the exercises in this book I spent more time with my nose in other books so I could learn the correct way to do it. Do yourself a favor get a different book.



2. Although this book isn't a complete waste of money, don't be fooled. It's not very well written.
   There are countless errors in the code right from the beginning. They also just skip telling you some important pieces about what is going on in every chapter.
   However, you can still squeeze some use from this book. Go to the web site and download all the code from them. For the most part, the code works and can be your reference. You *can* learn from this book and d/l code, but you have to work at it and use a lot of trial and error.
   
   Thank you for reading.



3. My biggest complaint with VB.NET game programming books so far (and I've read a few) has been that they either: A) try to teach elementary VB.NET using game flavored examples (but nothing about actual game development) or B) try to take existing game programming material and shoe-horn it into a VB.NET book. Sadly this book falls squarely into the second category (so far).
   
   It's quite obvious that ALL of the sample code was originally written in C#. No big deal, it's easy enough to convert. However, if you aren't a VB.NET guy, don't you dare write a freaking book with VB.NET in the title. There are more differences between VB.NET and C# than just syntax!! For the love of god, 85% of the code samples (encountered so far) do NOT work as printed in the book. Some have glaring C# syntax still in them, but only in places... often sharing a line with VB.NET syntax. The tech editor should be drawn and quartered, on TV.
   
   To make matters worse, the main author seems somewhat condescending (arrogant?) for someone who's never actually published a game in his/her life, ever (and had to have TWO other people write the book with him... neither of whom have ever published a game either.) This is an actual quote, immediately after some collision detection code that DOES NOT work as printed... If you think this is too much math, this is probably the place where you should take this book back and take up something less mathematically demanding, like nuclear physics! Ok... seriously? That comment would be a lot more impressive if your code ACTUALLY WORKED!
   
   So far I have nothing positive to say about this book, so let me see... ok well, the girl on the back cover is kinda cute (allegedly one of the authors, although I have no idea which sections are written by whom... is that good or bad? You tell me.) Oh yeah, and the price I paid was 40% off, although sadly I still feel ripped off!
   
   FWIW, I did eventually get the collision detection code to work on paper, although NO explanation is made for why the algorithm handles things a certain way, and the reader is told to perform a simple Google search for more info (I kid you not!!). I'm guessing this is because they don't actually know why the code they "borrowed" (from the net?) did things that way either.
   
   At this point, I'm almost considering this book as a possible alternative energy source. I can't believe anyone at one of my favorite publishers actually read this book prior to printing it and selling it for $50 a copy. By the time you rip out the index, table of contents, foreward, introduction, recommended reading and 'about the author' section... it's barely 350 pages. Yes... I know it's not about page count, but when quality is already out the window, what other metric is there?
   
   I'm not going to tell you the name of this book or the publisher (yet), because even though I've managed to work up this much bile and stomach acid over it, I'm only on page 35. God help me, I hope it gets better quickly.
   
   It's funny, every truly good tech book I read makes me less inclined to try writing my own. This book, however, has convinced me that I still have a pretty good chance at getting published.



4. I would hate for people to get the wrong idea about the book from reading the other posts. This really isn't a bad book.
   I am completely new to game programming (although not new to VB), and following along with the examples I was able to get the Tetris, Caterpillar and other games to work.
   This gives a good introduction to game programming, covering both 2D and some 3D graphics.
   
   But the book isn't all about writing the code. It also tells the reader how to plan out a game before coding, and gives good tips on keeping the project on track.
   
   The book isn't perfect though. There are some errors in the code (but only one glaring instance of C# code in the VB code).
   But APress has followed up, and has posted some code corrections on the web-site, and gives the downloadable code which helps a great deal.
   
   I found the text of the book to be very easy to follow. The author has more of a conversational style than lecturing.
   
   I think the book succeeds in being a good introduction to game programming. Getting the Tetris game to work gives you the incentive to keep reading and learning. Plus, it is fun to play your own game!



5. I am halfway through this abomination and only a masochistic bent will force me to continue. I initially thought that I could easily pick up any beginning programming book and breeze through it but I am new to VB.net and have been away from programming for a couple years so the MASSIVE amount of Typo's, random variable names, extraneous nonsense, as well as items that are left as an exercise for the reader -- most of which are anything but trivial -- make this a medication consuming, frustration-fest. I was considering trying to sell it second-hand but I would foist this dead tree turd on my mother-in-law. Not to mention it's poor condition from heaving it out the window numerous times. Don't, I repeat, don't consider this purchase!!! Pitiful, just pitiful!

No comments about The Game Localization Handbook (Game Development Series).

5 comments about Windows Graphics Programming: Win32 GDI and DirectDraw (Hewlett-Packard Professional Books).

1. I tested many code and contents of this book and discovered many misunderstandings and erros.

   While reading and testing, I'd got doubtful of the reliability of this book.

   This book provides many useful information, but don't swallow whatever this book says.




2. I can't speak to the strengths and weaknesses of the entire book as cited by other reviewers, but it's clear that text rendering was the author's primary motivation to explore the depths of GDI. Chapters 14 ("Fonts") and 15 ("Text") deserve to be expanded into a volume of their own. If you're a developer seeking a thorough understanding of the way Windows deals with text, from the low-level details of the TrueType font file format to the undocumented quirks of the higher-level GDI APIs, you simply can't do any better than Yuan's book.



3. After spending several weeks going over the contents of this book, I do not recommend it to the beginning or intermediate readers. Feng Yuan insight into the Visual C++ environment is excellent; however, he does a very poor job with organizing and explaining the topic to the average reader.

   I had a hard time following his technical jargon; it was no different than reading the MSDN help manual, which was really cut and dry. If it was his intent to write this book as a reference manual to demonstrate the features of GDI or for the advance developer (who probably doesn't need it to begin with), then he did a very good job. However, developers, like myself, who is just getting into GDI it just left me chasing the bandwagon.

   The sample code had little or no comments; it was difficult trying to match his explanation to the code sample because he would write the explanation in its entirety and then provide the code sample at the end. Feng, if your reading this, please provide the code explanation in the context that it is being referenced. I had a hard time referring back to your code sample while following your explanations.

   If you are a developer of C++, I recommend Kris Jamsa who does a very good job of organizing and structuring his books. If only Kris wrote a book on GDI, I would have opted for it than this one.




4. This the most extensive, best explained Windows GDI book ever read by me! I hereby highly recommend this book to everyone who is doing GDI intensive work.

   Great job, Yuan!




5. This book is the best of the kind.
   With 1000+ pages, this book is a very broad and deep interview of windows graphics system. This book is for advanced developers. It does not teach you hand by hand how to draw a text, how to draw a window..., instead, this book is for the person who want to know how Microsoft implemented the Win32 graphics system. This book includes many windows internals and undocumented stuff.
   I want to say thanks and show respect to the author 'Feng Yuan', for his kindness to publish the knowledge.
   
   Keep in mind this book was published in 2001, I whish there will be a 2nd version, which include the new changes in Windows XP, and include details of the OpenGL's connection with GRE. And about the new Longhorn graphics engine.