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Summary: A Very good book for poeple who now C and a bit of C++
Review: This book is great. There's no Bull****. I read cover to cover and now i can do whatever i like. There's not limit. This book show you a solid base od DirectX and some good sources for those "visual" guy. Every thing Compile very easy, a lot of comment in the code and exemple. And the author answer you E-Mail very fast...A MUST... For the NewComer in DirectX...
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Summary: Learn how easy Windows game programming with DirectX can be!
Review: Interested in developing your own game software, but have no idea where to begin? "Windows Game Programming For Dummies" takes you straight from mystery to mastery! Based on the latest DirectX technology from Microsoft, the steps and procedures outlined by LaMothe will help you start writing games in no time. Inside, find helpful advice on how to: * Write Windows applications without dealing in the complexities of MFC and C++ * Create lightening-fast 2D games that run in Windows 95, Windows NT, and Windows 98. * Use artificial intelligence to create "thinking" opponents * Sell your game via the shareware market
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Summary: Wanna be a game programmer?
Review: This book reminds me a lot of an earlier book, Spells of Fury. Both books give an introduction to Windows programming using C. If you don't know C programming forget it, you don't have a chance. Go get a C book, and learn it. After the Windows programming introduction, you go on to build your own (simple) 2D engine. The code here is portable enough to use in any game. I would say that LaMothe has a clearer way of explaining difficult issues. Good book. But it.
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Summary: The best way to start Direct X programming
Review: This was the first information I read about Direct X and w/o it I would still be in the dark. This is the best book I've ever bought and would buy the second edition if there was one! Definately the best way to start for several reasons...Andre is the man and knows what he's talking about. All the syntax is explained and really compiles w/o errors. You don't just make one game through out the course of the book but instead two mini games and tons of mini apps. BUY THIS BOOK! Not only is it bad @$$ but it is soooo cheap. I too was reluctant to buy a for dummies books, hehe, until I actual starting reading it at the book store. Now I know better!
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Summary: The best way to learn windows game programming
Review: LaMothe is great at showing you how to use DirectX, and windows. He knows how to explain windows programming without going into details you don't want to know. You do have to know the basics of C and have Windows 95, 98 or NT. LaMothe also gives you a game engine to use, and tips for making games. The book, however, doesn't have any Direct3D stuff in it, so you'll have to be content with a side scroller or something like that, but if this is your first Windows game programming book,(or if you like reading plain English) get it.
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Summary: Best way to start windows programming
Review: If your interested in starting your first DirectX game i suggest this book to anyone! This book has taught me lots of stuff, playing sounds, displaying bitmaps, displaying text, and collision detection. THIS BOOK IS AWESOME!!! i give it 5 stars because it is very easy to understand compared to the other very complex explaining done in the other books. I recommend this book to anyone who's a beginner to directx and to those who are novice programmers.
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Summary: No MFC? Hardly Any C++? C is in the stone age.
Review: The author is a C programmer who doesn't realize the power of C++ and it's reusabilty. The author also does not realize the power of MFC. He has a little column in which he says MFC is to hard so he won't include it in his book. He is actually set in his ways with the old style of Windows programming in the SDK format and in C. It would not be so hard if the author would actually get some practice in MFC and stop knocking what he obviously hasn't had that much practice in. MFC and the VC++ class wizard would make this so much easier. The author is still stuck in the stone age. I wish I hadn't bought this book. I am anxious for the book DirectX Complete With CDROM by James Boer and Michael Root. It won't be available till November 98. From the synopsis it will use the AppWizard in VC++ and use MFC and C++ the way any true Windows program should, game or not,for reusabilty and maintenace.
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Summary: Andre does it again.....
Review: This book displays Andre's usual talent for making tough topics into simple knowledge. I hesitated to buy this book (eventhough it was written by Andre) because it said it was for 'dummies', but it is an excellent book to have in your collection. The examples that Andre put together are easy to follow and modify. His game engine works great with the multiple compilers that I have in my game development environment. I haven't had a single problem with Andre's stuff ever and I always use it without modifications (unless of course I creating my own stuff) Eventhough Andre doesn't cover much about 3D games, I was able to use this book in combination with Andre's other books (that cover 3D game development) and produce results. Like most things in life, you should always combine your past knowledge to get around new obstacles.
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Summary: NOT for Do-It-Yourselfers, Contains Technical Errors
Review: Gives a brief summary of DirectX as a whole and a intro to each subsection of DX. However, throughout the book he keeps telling you "if you want to know more, look at the source code located on the CD." He does this for bitmap loading, sound loading, and other things. This is fine if you want to use HIS dysfunctional library to write your games (I still have not gotten it to work correctly using MSVC++ 5 Pro and Win98). However, if you want to write your own library for your games, and you want to write your own functions for loading bitmaps and sounds etc..., this book is useless. Whenever it gets close to explaining something useful, it tells you to look at the source on the CD and figure it out yourself! How can he do this if loading bitmaps and storing them in DirectDraw Surfaces is one of the most important parts of the game itself! He just shoves the code in a black box and tells you to use it, regardless of how it works. If you are planning on w! riting your own directx functions like bitmap loading, this book is useless. Sprinkled throughout the book were technical errors. One of the more obvious errors was the _RGB16 macro. These shifts are wrong and if you try to display a bitmap in 16 bit color, it will look terrible. I finally fixed it by changing the shifting of the red component of the RGB word and fixing some other shifting in the Load_Bitmap function. Another error that I have not yet fixed is his game library itself. Whenever I use it, nothing in my game works (loading bitmaps, sounds, etc...), then it crashes. I guess the library takes after the book, they both crash horribly.
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Summary: Great book, don't let your ego get in the way!
Review: This is really a good book and it was a pleasure to read from cover to cover. It explains directx in a straight forward manner and also touches on game design, AI and physics. As an experianced programmer I was reluctant at first to get a "for dummies" title but if I would have let my ego control me I would have lost out on a great book.
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