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Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus

Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus

List Price: $49.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Bad move on the CD
Review: The book is an excellent summation of Lamothe's previous works and has some excellent new information, but I'm disappointed that the 3D information that was promised was shoved off onto a CD. In fact, I've had problems just getting the CD to work and it seems that I'm not alone on this. I have emailed the publisher on this problem and haven't received a response in several business days. I recommend this book to DirectX newbies but I suggest more advanced programmers to wait until volume II. I would also recommend waiting a few weeks before buying this book so they can work out the problems with the CD.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An excellent book
Review: This book is terrific. I also own Windows Game Programming for dummies, and these book beats it by far. It goes so much more in depth, and covers a ton of stuff that WGPFD didn't. Can't wait for volume II.And,for the reader a couple of comments down, every CD chapter loaded fine for me, so mabye its your COMPUTER that is messed up! Not the CD!

P.S. (I wonder if Andre LaMothe reads these reviews)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The book is good---period!---End of story!!!
Review: This book is the first in the series of two and it provides an excellent starting point for all would-be game developers.

Those of you looking for 3D stuff---please!!!! Andre' is being so detailed that the information required two volumes. Your complaints are unfounded because I'm sure if it was all in one book you'd be complaining that it was too long or too much material. Either get a life or if you want a 3D book so bad, then write one! So many people want to start with 3D. How many of you 3Ders have even published a 2D game? Or have you written a game period (not a demo!)?

Anyway, to those loyal fans and TRUE gamers at heart, this book is a must have. Andre' gives you all of the information you need and this book is a step up from the dummies book in that he gives you more details (ie, Fuzzy Logic, Physics, etc.). Sure you will see repetitive information from dummies, but Andre' builds on that information smoothly.

In short, true gamers buy this book! If you are really advanced then buy this book as a reference because it is that sound.

I've given my 2 cents and my review...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: He's the Man
Review: Well, I think Andre is a wonderfull person. He is not only a very smart person but he's also got a nice personality. He's humble and that's what I like. All his books do well because he takes his time to go through everything in true detail. He's a good friend too, I remember he was willing to take 45 mins of his time to help me get Texture Mapping working right. I think his books should sell more so he could continue writing good books like these. I hope the 2nd part of this book comes out soon because I can hardly wait for the more information that I will obtain from reading his texts.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good Topic, a lot of bad form.
Review: I'm disappointed by the fact that the cover says Fundamentals of 2D and 3D Game Programming...when the 3D will be in a second book. Some of it is on the Disk, but still.... Misleading... Also, it says on the book that it uses the latest DirectX. It covers 6.0 and mentions 7.0. If your're using the latest DirectX you should be using 7.0, not just talking about it. Don't you think? Also, what's with the <BG> all over? Are we on-line chatting? I don't think so. Quit with the silly comments and give me some meat! Anyway, this is a good book if you are beginning programming and want to start programming games. As an experienced Windows Programmer I find a lot of the assumptions about Windows Programming are wrong, but, just my opinion. If you know very little about game programming, then this is a good book to start with. If you know a lot about 2D game programming and want to learn about 3D then wait for book 2.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great book! False advertisement, but still excellent
Review: The 3D articles as well as the code that goes with them can be found on the web sites listed in the front of the book! So you can download those articles that were damaged on the cd!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: good for starters
Review: To sum up this book:

A. If you already own Windows Game programming for dummies, then don't buy it - it's almost the same.

B. If you don't own WGPDUMB, and you understand C (use of structs, pointers, etc), then BUY this book! It's the best intro to programming on the shelf.

C. If you don't know how to program in C, you better take a few months to learn it first, before buying this.

I met a guy who bought all these game programming books in the bookstore one time. I asked him about his game ideas, then I asked him how long he had been programming C. His reply was, "I don't need to know that stuff, I'm just gonna make some cool games." DON'T be like this WEENIE.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perfect!
Review: This is a perfect book! Andre' LaMothe did an excellent job (keep up the good work Andre'). There's also a very good Direct3D book on the CD (written by Matthew Ellis) and a very good general 3D book (written by Sergei Savchenko). Buy this book!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What a letdown
Review: First of all, let me say that I have bought EVERY programming book that Andre has written. This is the only one that I am sorry I bought. The problem isn't that the book is bad... It's probably the best book out there for programmers that want to learn game programming. My problem is that the book is a rehash of Andre's previous books that doesn't live up to its title. Several of the sample programs are nearly identical to those in his other books. The books on the CD are ok, but they are not good enough to justify the purchase. Also, this book definitely doesn't deserve to have "GURUS" in the title. I've known most of the so called "tricks" for a while, and I'm not even a professional game programmer! Another annoying thing is that some of the files on the CD are corrupted. I have checked 2 separate copies of this book and both have problems with a few chapters of the on-line books, and some of the bitmaps in the Outpost demo game are damaged. I was able to fix the bitmaps by deleting a 0 byte at the beginning of the files though. Overall, I am really disappointed by this book and feel like I was duped by the claims it makes. To be fair, this book is definitely awesome for programmers who haven't read Andre's other books and want to learn some game programming. There's a lot of good code, and there's enough coverage to get you on your way to making a simple game. You even get a free compiler that works with the source code! However, for an intermediate game programmer like myself, the "Tricks" in this book are old hat... I'm hoping Volume 2 will actually cover some 3D and introduce some "real" tricks.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A good book in its own right..
Review: but think twice if you already have "Windows Game Programming for Dummies" and "The Black Art of 3D Game Programming".

I ordered this book back in July having enjoyed Mr Lamothe's 'for Dummies book, wanting to get deeper into Windows game programming. In the meantime though I bought 'Black Art and put the knowledge in that book to use in a Windows context. Now I have read as much as I need of this new book to realise that I didn't need to buy it. Volume 2 is what I need, now I know there's a volume 2!

Having said that, it is a very good book in its own right and the price is certainly reasonable for its size. If you already have 'Dummies and are no longer a complete beginner, then save your money and get volume 2. If you are starting out, this is certainly a good place to begin.


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