Rating: Summary: A great book to add to any game programmers library Review: After first purchasing the Black Art of 3d Game Programming byAndre, I realized that he wrote in a casual yet educated manner,making it easy to pick up rather than looking like some clever AI wrote the book. I would have to say that this is an excellent resource for a beginner or an experienced game designer, it is packed full of code, has a cd full of free articles on 3d design and graphics/sound effects, and Andre is even nice enough to throw in refresher courses in basic math and physics for those who need it-all in all it teaches you the framework of what you need to do to go beyond it, and that is what makes any book a best seller.
Rating: Summary: Not for Beginners Review: Game programming is phenominally difficult. Arkanoid (an ancient arcade game) contains more than eight pages of code, full of very difficult math subjects. The book is an excellent resource for anyone with very very solid math and programming experience; but you MUST have this experience or you may as well buy the book in Spanish because it will make that much sense to you. If you can write BASIC, it won't help you here. You need advanced C++ to get through this book!
Rating: Summary: Great book for beginners. Review: This book is great! I'm a beginner at programming games for Windows. Actually, I never wrote a Windows progam in C++. I found everything I needed to make a simple game in less than two weeks. This book made it incredibly easy! The book is well written and very detailed with lots of example code, tools, and articles. I'm aganist reinventing the wheel, so I was glad there was wav and bmp image loader code given. Who else but Andre would mention neural nets, fuzzy logic, and genetic algorithms in a book like this? This is book is a great buy! Kudos, Andre! I'll be looking for Volume II.
Rating: Summary: Really great for beginners! Review: This book is really great for beginners. I am pretty new to programming, first time at trying to program games.. and even though I am only half-way through with the book, I feel like I have learnt so much already. The author clearly explains all the gaming concepts; palettes, blitting and things like that. He also gave a pretty good overview of DirectX and its intereaction with the windows OS.
Rating: Summary: An outstanding introduction to real game programming. Review: The main criticism of Andre` LaMothe's works is that he doesn't cover enough advanced topics. Realize that his books are aimed at beginners who may not know much more than standard C/C++. That's not to say that it's easy. In fact, this will be far more difficult than that "21 Days" you learned C++ with. It is written for intelligent, motivated individuals. On the other hand, his style is very easy-going with plenty off humor, etc., and, despite his 20 hour work day, he never loses sight of the fact that the book is aimed at beginners and fully explains everything in a very straightforward manner. By the end of the book, you will be able to sit down and make a small 2D Windows game in DirectX. Also realize that there should be a Vol. 2, so if you are interested in advanced topics, this book still provides a great reference while you wait.
Rating: Summary: well done! Review: a great book for the right person. if your a game programmer already then there maybe not that much for you in here, but if your reasonable at 'c' and new to games, you can't go wrong! one thing though make sure you know your compiler if you don't, then don't expect much help from andre' or the book!
Rating: Summary: Best book out there! Review: This book is way better than John de Goes 3d Game Programming in C++. This book goes through many different games in each chapter to explain whats going on. There are a few chapters at the beginning so you can understand Windows programming and then you hit chapter 6 and Direct Draw takes off! The final chapter ends up with a full fledged game that uses 3d models for spaceships and asteroids. This book rocks! (chucks his other books out the window)
Rating: Summary: A Great Place To Start Review: The author takes a mysterious topic and makes it easy to understand. Despite the book's flaws, I haven't come across a better source for the programmer who wants to get into game development. An enjoyable read, definitely worth the money.
Rating: Summary: Simply the best ! Review: This book is the BEST source on game programming for C/C++ beginners. DirectX,the Win32 API,AI,Networking,Multithreading,and many others are explained in a clear and pedagogic way! Don't miss it!
Rating: Summary: André has done it again! Review: Once again, André show us lots of great ideas and tricks for our gaming needs. Most of the fundamentals - if not all - to writing a game is included. Everything related to programming a game (2D) is here. However, as stated in earlier reviews, the 3D part is included only as separate papers in the CD. Volume II will be dealing with Direct3D. Still, if you're looking for a great place to start, that might be useful to the beginner or advanced, or even if you already own a copy of André's Dummies book (like I do), it is worth it! This book is much deeper than the Dummies book. Of course, it may have some flaws here and there, but it is nothing that spoils the reading and learning experience. Also, if you are experienced in C/C++, you shouldn't have much trouble with the source codes. And even better, André is always available at his e-mail address, and has been kind enough to answer my questions/doubts since the Dummies book. Highly recommended!
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