Rating: 
Summary: About the bad reviews
Review: actually it should be known that LaMothe REQUIRES that all books in the series include primers for beginners so that they wouldn't be left out (and so that they'd also be willing to buy the book and put money in his greedy little palms so he can buy and drive more 100K cars, instead of programming....hehe...j/k).
Rating: 
Summary: Yet another DX for Dummies book in disguise.
Review: Amazing...First 400 pages are a waste of paper.
Special Effects Programming??? Please! Better name: Windows Programming for Dummies: Featuring an Introduction to DX8." Not sure if an editor actually opened this text, because all 3D mathematics and formulas are wrong... The author or whoever responsible creates bogus values for all matrices by transposing the vectors and the matrices; doesn't speak well for the experience of the author. I wish a "real" professional game developer would write a book over at Prima/Premier books. You know, someone who actually has experience with advanced topics and has actually published a real game. Judging from the web page for the book's editor, it looks like Mr. Lamothe hasn't quite moved past DX6 in 2D. Bottom line: Waste of money, waste of time... And lastly: Don't let marketing rename your book. If you're writing a DX8 for Dummies Book, call it as such. Also, don't write an "Advanced Neurosurgery" book and introduce a scalpel for 300 pages...
Rating: 
Summary: LaMothe painted himself into the corner
Review: André is a great guy and had a huge and fully legitimate success with his two initial "Game Gurus..." (DOS-based and a Windows rerun) books. The all-inclusive format of those was perfect, because, well, because both books were self-contained, sort of. It's clear that based on that success, they (A. LaMothe in cahoots with his publisher) decided to treat us to a mighty series of something similar -- and it would be good and proper, except they should have changed the books' structure to a more fitting, suitable for a series one. What I'm getting at is this: half of this book is water intended for a newbie -- and I don't mean a games programming newbie, I mean programming newbie. So it's good for a newbie, just as I thought it was appropriate in his first two "Guru..." books to have everything from C programming to graphics chewed on. But I already have at least two books of his that cover all this, and I feel no need to purchase another sheaf of 400 pages of identical introductory material every time I'm looking for something new game-wise. So, there's clearly a conflict between the old, all-inclusive format (appropriate for a stand-alone book) and the new idea with the series of books, each dedicated to a different aspect of game programming. I think it'd be better if he factored out all the intro bs into a separate volume, and limited the rest of books to what the titles say the books are about. Of course they want more money, and thick books look like they should cost more, and so they pad every book with a re-run of literally the same stuff so as to keep the prices up. I don't mean to be wholly negative: overall, it's a good book, but it's so obvious that they padded it up beyond what I feel is tolerable that, just to make a point as a consumer, I won't give it the top rating that the special-effects part _itself_ fully deserves.
Rating: 
Summary: GOOD BOOK!
Review: But!!!
alot of mistakes!
all the code is wrong!
you need to look at the examples on the cd to be able to run even the first program.
this is the ONLY disadvatage...
everything else is GREAT!!!
you should buy the book if you are intrested in RPG.
it explain preety good about almost all you need, except meshes...
but Jim Adams got another new book about meshes and skeletal animation.
buy both of them :)
enjoy
Rating:
Summary: Another PrimaTech Blunder
Review: Every book in the prima tech series, this one included, spends an unnecessary amount of pages on the basics that you learn when you first start programming. I knew all the basics that are talked about for 100s of pages in these prima tech books after reading my very first book on game programming, titled "Windows Game Programming For Dummies" by Andre LaMonthe. Prima Tech has been complained about by a huge percentage of people for not putting enough of what the book title suggests into thier books, while putting way too much about what their book title should imply that the readers already know. Those things include: Win32 API basics (such as making a window, menus, buttons, dialog boxes, and a half a dozen other things), introduction to COM architecture, introduction to DirectDraw, DirectSound, DirectInput, DirectPlay, DirectX Graphics, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.... When someone like me wants to buy a book that focuses on Special Effects programming, why should I have to expect 500 pages of useless information that I learned 25 books ago, and expect only 300+ pages of actual content. And none, and I do mean NONE, of the prima tech books actual "content" goes beyond the classification of BASICS. Most basics can be figured out by the programmer, advanced topics, yeah the ones programmers actually buy the books for, are almost never covered. However, the two best books by far in the Prima Tech series are "Multiplayer Game Programming" by Todd Baren and "Programming Role Playing Games with DirectX" by Jim Adams. If you combine what you learn in those two books, you will have enough knowledge to construct a Direct3D application, like an RPG, that has multiplayer support. Todd Baren's book even covers MMORPGs like EverQuest, Anarchy Online, Ultima Online, & Asheron's Call. MMORPGs are some, if not THE, most popular PC games on the market right now.
Rating:
Summary: Special Effects Game Programming with DirectX 8.0 Review
Review: Excellent book. There is about 100 pages on beginning Direct3D. This section is clear and concise. It explains a lot of the flags that the DirectX SDK Help seems to miss. It also tells you good defaults to use to get it working. The code examples are great because they are straight and to the point. They don't use any wrappers (at least not the ones I've looked at). Also, the book uses D3DX in the samples, which was a plus for me, but that may be a matter of preference. The book content itself explains both D3DX & straight D3D ways of doing things, which is excellent. The downside is that the Direct3D material doesn't step through the examples. However, the example code was clear enough that this was acceptable. There is a lot on special effects, too, using the advanced features of Direct3D. This seems to me to be a good way of learning the features -- by having a purpose for them.
Rating:
Summary: Special Effects Game Programming with DirectX 8.0 Review
Review: Excellent book. There is about 100 pages on beginning Direct3D. This section is clear and concise. It explains a lot of the flags that the DirectX SDK Help seems to miss. It also tells you good defaults to use to get it working. The code examples are great because they are straight and to the point. They don't use any wrappers (at least not the ones I've looked at). Also, the book uses D3DX in the samples, which was a plus for me, but that may be a matter of preference. The book content itself explains both D3DX & straight D3D ways of doing things, which is excellent. The downside is that the Direct3D material doesn't step through the examples. However, the example code was clear enough that this was acceptable. There is a lot on special effects, too, using the advanced features of Direct3D. This seems to me to be a good way of learning the features -- by having a purpose for them.
Rating:
Summary: Great book; lots of stuff you won't find anywhere else!
Review: I heartily agree with the other glowing reviews of this book. I just received it today, so I have lots of reading to do, but I have skimmed the entire book and there's definitely lots of stuff here that I haven't seen in any other book. I really like the format. There's not much code in the book itself, but there's lots of example programs on the CD-ROM. He also provides practical exercises for the reader to enhance his understanding. The text itself provides lots of detailed information on the specific topic of discussion. His explanation of quarternions really is top-notch. And his description of Direct3D is really the best I've seen. Most books I've seen don't offer much more than the DirectX documentation itself. This book explains the principles behind meshes, lighting, materials, etc, in a way that requires no prior knowledge. This book is part of Andre LaMothe's "Game Development Series." I'll finish by saying that until now I have not been a fan of this series. All of the books I've seen to date in this series seem to have little useful content, providing little more than the DirectX documentation and some sample programs. This book, however, could not be more different. It is so much better, I'd really like to give it more than five stars. If, like me, you've been turned off from this series, don't let that stop you from buying this most excellent book! I really can't wait to read this book in detail and work through the sample programs. Oh, and by the way, there seems to be lots of useful utilities on the CD-ROM.
Rating:
Summary: Good but too much chaff
Review: I'm giving this book three stars because it's certainly better than most of the [junk] that litters the game programming section of your local superstore. I generally agree with the other reviewers. That said, here's my rant--
Isn't it about time we got some game programming books that aren't trying to be a bible for an absolute beginner. This book is a good example of what could have been... it could have been a book about special effects. That's a nice well-defined subject, and it could have been a nice thin and concise book. I'm no game programming god or anything but I understand the Win32 API enough that I don't need to be told what a message loop is every time I buy a programming book. The same goes for vector arithmetic, COM basics, and C++ fundamentals. This book is about 900 pages long. If you took out all the chaff, you'd be left with about 450 pages of content that lives up to its title. Why not just gives us that? Could it be that by throwing all the beginner [junk] into every one of these things you get to charge more for them?
Rating:
Summary: Mason hits one out of the park
Review: I've been looking forward to this book for a long time now. I've attended several industry conferences with the author, and he's written numerous articles for our website, so I know him to be both an excellent game programmer and talented writer. I had high expectations for this book, and I'm happy to report that it not only lives up to them, it exceeds them. This book does two things very well: it provides first-rate coverage of DirectX, and it provides the most extensive coverage of special effects ever put in to a game programming book. I'm going to review each of these aspects of the book separately.
The first half of this book is dedicated to covering the basics of Windows programming, 3D math, and DirectX, and it makes the assumption that you're new to all of these areas. He covers all components of the DirectX API, including DirectAudio, DirectInput, DirectPlay, DirectShow, and of course, DirectGraphics (aka Direct3D), which is where the book really shines. Before this book, I had not encountered a single Direct3D book which I could recommend without reservation. He dedicates 5 hefty chapters to DirectGraphics, including two on texture mapping and one on pixel and vertex shaders (and that doesn't count the second half of the book which provides plenty of examples and advanced techniques). Simply put, this is without question the best book currently on the market from which to learn DirectX, and for that reason alone, it's earned a place at the top of my recommendations list. Note that even if you aren't new to DirectX, you'll probably find a lot of useful things in the first half of the book which are generally omitted from or glossed over in (most) other books, such as action mapping, DirectShow, and DirectPlay. Even the 3D math section has something to offer, with the most concise and accessible explanation of quaternions that I've come across. The special effects section of the book is divided into two parts. The first covers 2D effects, including fire, water, image feedback, image warping, clouds, blurs, and transitions. Before you complain about 2D being a thing of the past, note that these effects are intended for use in title screens, or for generating textures to be used in 3D worlds. The second part is, of course, 3D effects, and includes particle systems, explosions, 3D water, guns and projectiles, lens flares, and vertex and pixel shader effects. All of these are presented quite well, but the particle system coverage deserves special mention. It spans almost 100, and takes you all the way from a basic system to a powerful, flexible system controlled through scripts. Each special effect is accompanied by at least one demo program, which is thoroughly explained in the book. The only downside to this is that the author was only able to focus on a single algorithm for each effect, but he at least mentions some of the alternative approaches, as well as suggestions for improving the techniques he presents. Overall, any game programmer should be able to benefit from the special effects portion of the book, even if you've done some of these things before. My only real complaint about this book is that it should have been two books. Experienced game programmers will probably find a lot they can use in the special effects portion of the book, but may find the DirectX portion unnecessary. Beginning programmers will definitely benefit from the DirectX portion, but may want to spend some time working on basic game techniques before diving into the special effects portion. But, it's not two books, and as a single volume, it's still worth the price. Also, you should be aware that some of the effects covered in this book require a newer video card to even be able to run the demo program. To get the most out of the book, you'll need a card that at least supports vertex shaders, and preferably pixel shaders as well. Also, if you're not pretty comfortable with C++, you may find yourself struggling with some of the code. Overall, this book is extremely well-written and easy to read. There's so much that this book has to offer that is difficult, if not impossible, to find elsewhere, I strongly recommend it as a must-have for anyone interested in game programming.
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