Rating: 
Summary: Be careful of some of these "reviews"
Review: Be careful of some of these reviews. Many, though not all, of the 4 and 5 star reviews are from people who hang out on the Gameversity forums and would give Stefan a virtual bj just to get on his good side.
Which isnt to say the book is BAD per say but it isnt GOOD either. I don't know if it's due to the author being German and English is a 2nd language, or if its just bad communication, but his thoughts are NOT well put together or explained. He leaves a terrible amount out and/or unexplained. The code on the CD is broken as you can see below, however to the authors credit he did get very put out about that and worked hard to provide fixes to the community. Apparently a manufcturing glitch was involved. His earnest behaviour aside, the code in the book doesn't match up to the CD and some code is left out of the book altogether making following the author's train of thought difficult at times and downright impossible at other times.
Overall I think that if the author was to produce a "2nd edition" and to go back and fill in some of the missing details and flesh out his explanations better then this book has the potential to be great, this rendition however falls fairly flat.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, with publisher mistakes
Review: First of all - this book isn't for someone, who wants to get started with C++ the first time. You should have known, how to code a DX-Init-Routine or a basic windows application. But you won't start trying to code games, if you don't know, won't you? ;)
The book is a great source for advanced coders and easy to understand. Nearly every small detail is well explained by Mr. Zerbst.
He covers MME, SSE and Shaders, as well as Character Animation and skeletal systems.
The worst thing you could say about this book, is that the CD is crap. It seems that the publisher did not reviewed it or anything like that. But Mr. Zerbst knows about this subject and has a good update page for any problems. So you will get support :) And honestly - you want to code, or? So why do you need a CD?
But after all... it's a great book with well explained details and nice topics.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book, it's perfect
Review: He does have some problems explaining some of the concepts, and does sometimes go off into his own world and show you code that you sometimes write down, when in fact it was just to show you what a function WOULD look like... though you might never use it.
Nonetheless, it's PERFECT. Buy the book, but don't complain like others about the CD. Go to the updates page, and get those patches and fixes. If you want, to remain unconfused, what you will need is Visual C++ 6.0 and get all the files from the CD. Read through those files and understand it that way. It's somewhat easier that way if you're not a C++ guru.
Rating:
Summary: Needs a lot of work
Review: If you are considering buying this book then I suggest that you do not. Instead get the Game Programming Gems 1 through 4. I have ordered each from amazon and even to this day I don't regret ever buying them. Those 4 books are well worth the money (only books so far in game development that have been worth my money) and are full with a lot information on game programming in all areas. 3D Game Engine Programming by Sefan Zerbst is not.The book is not terribly bad but it is missing a lot of topics and information that goes into modern engines. There is no memory managment, no profilers, no scripting system, no journaling system, no real physics engine, no scheduling system, etc. Instead this book is majority about creating a few wrapper classes around DirectX for the Windows OS and calling it a "basic engine". When I brought this book I thought it would have some real "worth reading" topics in it. Instead it only has basic information about topics you should already know and be familiar with if you are actually trying to make an engine. Some of the explanations could have been done better in my opinion but like many other books in this series it is all short explanations and follow "my" code. It would have been nice to have sections on occlusion, an implementation on creating a portal engine, and artificial intelligence but sadly it does not. The book does have a chapter on shaders which goes over topics like dot3 bump mapping, per-pixel lighting, etc. But the problem with this is that things like dot3 bump mapping (which is nothing more than a type of per-pixel lighting) are simple effects to do. You would think in an engine book released in 2004 that if you are going to cover things like per-pixel lighting then after you go over the easy stuff maybe it is worth going over the more recent, harder techniques such as HDR lighting, spherical harmonics, curvature simulation using normal mapping, etc. Instead you are given short explanations of effects (that anyone trying to create a shader system in their engine should already know) that you can easily learn by looking up its definition and some sample code over the internet. I think this book is more for kids that want the illusion that they can be game programmers much like all other primer press game development books. I am glad this book does not have the ridiculous "introduction to win32 programming" section like many of the past priemer press game development books had. I think that if you want to learn (the keyword is learn) about creating a game engine then I don't think you want to read someone else's code on creating wrapper classes around a API such as DirectX. For example the book Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus is a pretty good book because you are learning how a rendering engine works and you are learning how to create one from scratch. In other words you are not learning how to memorize a few existing API function calls (which you can get from reading the API's documentation and not from buying a book). Even though the software renderer in the Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus is not as fast as an hardware renderer, the point is that you are learning how to create one and how it really works underneath. I think this is important in all areas of game development that the books of today seem to ignore. I rather learn how to make my own renderer then it would be helpful to learn how to use Direct3D as a way to speed up my application, not to learn how to use Direct3D or OpenGL as the end all way to rendering. With that said I think this book is a 2 out of 5 star product. If your experience in programming and your skill level in game programming is not that high then I recommend you go to your local book store and flip through this first before you spend money on it. All in all you can get a heck of a lot more information from half of one Game Programming Gems book than in this whole text. If you are a beginner programmer/game programmer then you might find this stuff new and fascinating but to those of us that have already done all of this stuff in our spare time years ago in high school, you might want to use your money on something more useful. If you want a way to increase your skill (assuming you have the time and patience) then I suggest you get the game programming gems 1 through 4, get tricks of the 3D game programming gurus, get a Playstation 2 Linux kit, and create your own games on your PS2. Working with the PS2 is like the GBA where you are programming to the metal and not using API's like OpenGL or DirectX as a crutch. That'll make a man out of you when you have to read documentation and experiment (not by reading short, bad explanations out of an expensive book then copying the code for some wrapper class). If you do get the PS2 kit then get a compatible monitor since using your TV isn't the best thing on your eyes.
Rating:
Summary: Its about tools not games
Review: In my opinion the most important thing to know about this book before purchasing it is that you will not learn much about game programming. This book is about building tools like a big game engine or a level creation tool. That is refreshingly different from most other books out there which only treat game programming and tie all the graphics rendering code directly into their demo programs. This book does always separate the demo projects from the graphics engine, the audio engine, and the network engine. Now I learned how to write reusable code that does not need to be changed for different projects. That is what I wanted from this book.
The broken CD-ROM is of course a bad thing. But with the online updates the problems are fixed. I'm happy with this book and learned a lot from it.
Rating:
Summary: say no to haters
Review: Oh come on, ignore the previous review, he obviously hates all the Course PTR books, so I take his review as null and void. I am fortunate enough to be lectured by Stefan Zerbst and all I can say is that he explains things really well, and knows what he is talking about ! I have also been fortunate enough to have seen screenies from the engine and level editor that you get to develop in this book. The screenies are amazing ! You get to develop a deathmath FPS style game by the end of the book !! I have placed my order, having lots of material by stefan zerbst from gameversity ( ie, his first book ) I know what to expect, and I know this will be a gem ! I give it full marks !!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Basis -- Covers all the bases!
Review: Stefan Zerbst's 3D Game Engine Programming is a 850-paged guide to constructing a modular, functional video game engine. This reference was one of the biggest reasons I became confident that I could complete a project of my own and has helped me tremendously in the design and building of an engine based upon the fundamentals of the ZFX Engine.
Even though the book does not go into detail and provide the code to all the bells and whistles of a commerical engine, it certainly outlines the basics and even provides code for testing. (I personally liked not having everything provided so that I could add my own features with a more personalized touch). Have no fear: all the basics are there to build off of!
In particular, the text guides the reader through the concepts and code needed to construct an engine that has the ability to support both DirectX and OpenGL (though DirectX is the main focus in the text), Vertex and Pixel Shaders (which is a big plus in upcoming game graphics!), and networkable players. In addition, the book brought extra possibilities such as Non-Player Characters, AI, and other various effects to the table for the reader to take note of where they could be added on to the engine. More importantly, he did do an excellent job of keeping these options (and more!) open without forcing his more ambitious readers to reprogram half the engine.
A very important thing I felt was the key to why I liked it some much was the fact that I understood how the components of the engine worked individually and as a whole to construct a functional game when I had finished the book. So many times have I read a programming book cover to cover and then still be lost on how everything fits together outside of the demos provided in the text-- but this book was NOT like that at all. The concepts were presented clearly as well as explicitly outlined within the code.
However, I will note: this book is not for the faint of heart or for the inexperienced programmer. (Hopefully the size scares the aforementioned away in a direction to seek some more practice before coming back to this fantastic reference.) There is a LOT of code and while the text does take care of the graphics, DLL loading, and algorithmic aspects to a FPS game, the book does treat the reader as a programmer and not a novice.
One last, important feature is the Level Editor that is developed along side the engine (that's right! you build a level editor too!). This chapter (14) is certainly one of the most useful parts of the text and is where a lot of key concepts come together.
So, if you are looking for a book that hits the ground running, providing a complete archive of source code and demos in an effort to construct a comprehensive game engine: this book is for you!
Rating: 
Summary: OK, but still needs work
Review: The book does provide a basis for understanding a 3d game engine but it leaves out pieces in its tutorials, which would fine execpt that the book is written in "step-by-step tutorial" style. If you actually follow the book as a tutorial and code along, nothing will compile. If you use your head a little, though, you can figure out the missing features on your own, either by reviewing the material on the cd or by googleing. All in all, I found the book to be OK but i am still looking for someting better.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm sorry, but the CD "Companion" is inexcusable
Review: The CD mistakes are unforgiveable. I would say until they release a completed downloadable examples of entirely workable examples DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!
I did visit the errata site and followed a few of their examples on how to build things. Got a couple of things to build, but when exploring the world in the example of chapter 15, there are bugs and holes in the display or render errors or something. Or maybe this is the way that it was engineered.
I think when they provide proper support for this book I will probably give this book 4 stars, because I think it is well written and goes over the topic of Game Engine programming very well. Too bad they did such a poor job of quality control.
Rating: 
Summary: Problems Fixed
Review: UPDATED REVIEW: The author has addressed the pressing issues in the supplied CD-Rom and has put up an errata site. I cannot stress enough the importance of the demos as they are proof of concept and gives the reader confidence in the material in the book. Some form of quality control really should have been done on the CD-Rom before the book shipped. At any rate, I am changing my review and giving this work a full recommendation as it is probably the most complete guide that an amateur and/or hobbyist programmer can perhaps hope to get on the matter.
|
