Rating: 
Summary: Looked promising, but just came off as confusing
Review: I am extremely fluent in Borland Turbo C++, and wanted to learn DirectX, so I bought this book. I have gone through the book many many times, and I still just can't understand what the author is trying to explain in some parts. In addition, it nowhere says HOW YOU SET UP A PROGRAM. Also, it didn't even attempt to explain over half of the DirectX libraries! In conclusion, this book is NOT FOR BEGINNERS, and possibly won't be helpful for advanced users either.Now, on to a question: what is a good beginning DirectX/VC++/Windows Programming book, that covers most or all of the DirectX libraries? Please tell me if you know of one at Hey_Hey42@hotmail.com
Rating:
Summary: De Goes continues on cheating street
Review: I bought a previous book from the author, when I was intending to buy the black art book and boy was I dissappointed. In that book there was source, but it all(full screen) used ancient Borland graphics addition that was not available anywhere below 500$. There was no mention of this little fact but in the middle of the book. Nothing on the back cover - no. Nothing in 20 first pages - no. Nothing on the cover - no. All was just waste of time other than general 3D bla bla bla that's available everywhere. I remember writing an angry(but decent) email to the author. He never replied.
Rating:
Summary: Defintly not a sequel to his first book
Review: I bought this book because of John De Goes's first book. Found that one very informative and clear to understand. When I saw that this is supposed to be "The Perfect Sequel". I jumped all over it thinking "hey maybe I will finally understand DX." This was not the case at all. The code included? Its just an ecapsulation for the different DX7 components. Which I guess is nice if that is what you are looking for. Nowhere does the book show you how to use DX7. Gives you a couple lines of code saying this how to initialize that component now here is an ecapsulation with only a few hard to understand comments here and there. p 319- 753 (majority of the book) is a reference to DX7. While this is nice and its slightly more in depth in some areas than the help file included with the SDK. The refernce section in the help file is just as useful, if not more useful since you can click your way right where you want to go. In the concept department its a good book. He really covers certain concepts of 3d games well. But the application part of the book is not so good. The tutorials that come with the SDK in my opinion are better explanation of the SDK than the book. I was dissappointed to say the least.
Rating: 
Summary: It's so thick, but so empty
Review: I bought this book before reading the reviews here. It's amazing that one can read a book this size and still be not much further in his quest for knowledge. I'm somewhat glad I have the book on my bookshelf, because there's some things in there I might look back on. It's got a tiny bit of information about physics and AI. I'm still dumbfounded that the book contains not one screenshot, and not one working sample.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Direct 3d Immediate Mode Reference in book form
Review: I developed a 2D sidescrolling shooter Demo with Direct Draw. And now I want to move to D3D Immediate mode, and I think this is pretty much one of the most complete references in book form. Its ideal for looking something up. And I dont really like to search through the DX7 SDK on the monitor, so it comes handy. I have not read the book like you normally would read a book by Lamothe for example. I think it will be a great book that will accompany me for some time. If you want to begin with DX then I suggest the new Teach yourself DX7 in 24 hours is for you. As for game programming in general u can get any Lamothe book, even the old ones still do it if you want to learn techniques. I love 3D Game Proghramming with C++ for what it is, a reference, its title is maybe somewhat misleading, but thats what reviews are for. So as for a reference I give this book 5 stars, as a game programming book it would have gotten just 1 star, but hey its not a beginners book, like its said : for intermediate to advanced user.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Start...
Review: I do have more important things to do than write reviews on books I have purchased; however this book has been such a disappointment that I'd like to keep you from wasting your money as I have. Luckily the book is hefty enough to make a good doorstop, so im not completely out.
Im not trying to say the author doesnt know what he's talking about, nor that you won't get anything out of this book. In fact the first 2 chapters are a phenomenal overview of 3D games, written in a concise manner that is easy to follow, and in fact somewhat entertaining. I just wish the rest of the book followed suit.
Chapter 3 is where the book really begins to fail. To begin with, the text immediately defies it's title. This book should have been called 3D game programming with DirectX, for the third chapter introduces you to the world of Direct3D, and virtually ever portion of code in the book is based upon DirectX. While it is immediately evident that DirectX is a powerful tool, and to program games in Windows environments it will be a necessary tool for you to learn, this text will do little to help you do so.
From the fourth chapter on, the text dives headfirst into DirectX code that is simply a horror to navigate through. The author doesn't make the code any easier to follow; you are bombarded with page after page of code, in fact pages 51-83 contain "a simple DirectDraw Encapsulation that is easy to follow," then leaves a mere 4 pages to explain a few of the function called in the previous 33 pages of code. It would have been nice if the author had used some comments in his code to let you know what is going on, but anything of the sort is sparsely inserted into the multitude of unexplained functions, reserved words and variables that leave you totally in the dark about what you are doing. I bought this book to learn about the fundamentals of programming graphics and game logic, and instead Im given page upon page of directX code that restricts me to programming on windows platforms rather than the C++ the title promised. Any idiot can copy code as the author expects, but learning what the code does, how to improve it and adapt to your specification is certainly more desirable.
This book may serve some use as a reference book, as the appendices in the back contain a massive amount of DirectX function overviews. However, by the time you learn DirectX, newer versions will be released, and will make the apendices covering DirectX 7 less useful, if not useless. The real disappointment here is that the author really knows what he is talking about, but fails to convey it in a manner that makes learning possible. This could have been an excellent book, but without solid explanations of the overwhelming amount of code, the book fails.
Rating:
Summary: This is more of a direct3d dictionary
Review: I found the book to be very helpful without the "reference" section. The "reference" section is just a bonus. Being new to directX, this book single-handedly showed me the way.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!!
Review: I found the book to be very helpful without the "reference" section. The "reference" section is just a bonus. Being new to directX, this book single-handedly showed me the way.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Dissapointing
Review: I had read John's previous book, and was happy with it, so I decided to order this one. It came in the mail today and I stealthed down to the basement couch and immersed myself for an hour. I feel awful giving this book a 1-star review, but it really isn't good at all. More than half the book is a rehash of the DirectX help files, the other half seems like a hurried mess, Only 250 pages or so were given to a topic that could have stretched into 700 or more. Not only that, the time that isn't spent recounting the SDK documentation is erronous! John mis-describes perepsective projection, the transformation pipeline, the set of lights supported by Direct3D, the list goes on and on.
I strongly recommend against purchasing this book. :(
Rating:
Summary: Very Dissapointed Reader
Review: I hate criticizing another mans work. But this book disappointed me so much I can't keep my mouth shut. If you think this book is about 3D Game Programming, you are sadly mistaken. This book is about the DirectX API. Period. Of 773 useful pages (not counting the index), only the first 318 are about DirectX, the last 455 are appendices of which 432 pages are a regurgitation of the DirectX reference (which could have been placed on the CD in the interest of saving some trees). The Game Developer magazine touts this book as having a "full source code game engine." The book, nor the CD, have any such animal. This is a great DirectX book. If the title had been "DirectX - An Introduction and Reference", I would have given it 5 stars! But it isn't. It is called "3D Game Programming with C++." I thought it would teach me how to "program 3D games in C++." Yet the entire book does not have one complete program sample. How about a wire frame spinning cube, or a polygon shaded spinning cube, or a texture mapped spinning cube? Agggggh! There is a forward by Andre LaMothe that does nothing but praise the books coverage of Direct3D. Of course! That is what the book is about! "John's latest book, 3D Programming with C++, is what every Direct3D programmer has been looking for." Mr. LaMothe does not say "... this is what every 3D game programmer is looking for", because that is not what the book is about, and that is what was so disappointing. And finally, it amazes how a book on Game Programming (ergo Graphics) can have a complete absence of graphical examples to reinforce the text (I have seen this to often in graphics programming books). If you want a book about the DirectX API, buy this one! If you want a book about 3D Game Programming With C++, look elsewhere. The book that opened my eyes to 3D Programming, and a wonderfull book for the programmer without a 3D clue, is "Flights of Fantasy : Programming 3d Video Games in C++ by Christopher Lampton." Though this book is 10+ years old, out of print and certainly does not cover new technologies, it was my awakening into the world of 3D graphics (and it even has a complete flight simulator :) )
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