Rating: 
Summary: Author dropped the ball!
Review: I've been waiting for this book for a while and just got it. 3D game engines are complicated and a novice programmer like myself needs to see and play around with working code. I downloaded the code and the major game that you "develop" in the book just flops. The car just sits there and if you look through the code there is a good portion of it that is commented out! The author touts using C# for its rapid application development, but this guy went so rapid he forgot to make the code work. If your going to put a book up like this, at least have the code working!!
Rating:
Summary: Introduction? To what??
Review: Like many of the other readers here, I've been awaiting this book for sometime and was very disapointed when I recieved it. Many reasons.
The title of this book is : "Introduction to 3D Game Engine Design using Directx9 and C#".Well first of all, what exactly is this book introducing? The author jumps right into deatiled coding and by the time you're a few pages in, you're lost - especially if you are a beginner let alone, expert. There is a lot of text and code in the book, but most of it is just randomly placed here and there. There are no pictures or diagrams of anything, which is awfully bad for a beginners book about graphic programming. You basically have no idea where to start or where to end. Each chapter seems to ramble on and on like a dull history teacher leaving you lost in a headache. There is no CD with the book and you have to go online to get the full source code. Apparently enough, I did get the code to compile, but the program hanged when i tried to run it. From what I hear, others weren't quite successful either. If you're looking to program in 3D and DirectX, I definately do not reccommend this book. And if you are a beginner, do not expect much sympathy either. As of right now, there are not many(if any) books that deal with DirectX game programming with C#. I think that is one of the reasons why this book seems rush because the author knew there would be a lot of interested readers. The next awaited 2D Direct X C# game programming book won't be released until 2 months from now. The only current book that deals with any form of GAME PROGRAMMING for C# right now is "C# Programming for the Absolute Beginner". Although it is simple and easy, I recommend that book for the time being.
Rating:
Summary: Awful Book
Review: Like so many other readers, I've been waiting for any book about Managed DX with C# for quite a long time since we definetely can't count on Microsoft's documentation that is only for full-time game programmers out there which I guess won't need it anyway since they're programming in C/C++ so what's the point MS???!!! Anyways, let's go back to the "book"... But I never expected that you could just throw in some notes about some source code and call it a book, not even one single diagram that shows you where you've reached, what are you looking at, etc... I read the first sample chapter online at apress.com and it looked promising, I wish there was any other chapter that was sampled because that's the only chapter that you can read and understand. After you get to Chapter 2, you start wondering what is he talking about?! This is probably the worst technical book I ever got... I don't mind getting the source code online and even that it does not seem to work after reading the forums at forums.apress.com but you don't learn anything useful this way, you might as well just get some source code from gotdotnet or c-sharpcorner... I can't wait for Tom Miller's book that's being released this week I think, the table of contents and sample chapter look very promising (samspublishing.com sample chapter is 3rd chapter so you get a better idea of how the book is written) but hey, I've been fooled once, I hope this doesn't happen again!!! Don't waste your money or your time on this so-called book!
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been better, but not bad for what it is.
Review: Lynn T. Harrison, Introduction to 3D Game Engine Design in C# (Apress, 2003)
The main problem with Lynn Harrison's book is that, well, the code doesn't compile. Which isn't his fault; Microsoft made some changes in the version of the DirectX Software Development Kit that came out just after the book's release that compromised the code. But nine months go by, and no code update? Not a promising sign.
That aside, this is a lucid, easy-to-understand book about, well, 3D Game Engine design. There could have been clearer explanation in some places, and it should have been noted at the start that the book wouldn't be presenting the code in an order the reader could type it in himself (typing in book code will beat downloading it from the website, where learning is concerned, every time). But getting past those minor problems, this is a quite workable piece of writing, and anyone who's been programming in C# for a few months should know enough to get the hang of the basics, and be able to pick up the rest from the book itself. Recommended. *** ½
Rating: 
Summary: nice concept but poor direct X instruction
Review: Obviously Lynn put a lot of work into the application used as the foundation for this book but unfortunate he did not put as much time into the instructional aspect of the application. Perhaps a good book for someone experienced with Direct X programming and who just want to migrate over to C# but not for a Direct X programming novices.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money unless you want a shelf-space filler...
Review: The code in the book (and downloads) was strung out over more pieces than I feel was neccesary (making it conveluded and complicated). When reading a chapter, it just randomly inserts some code, but doesn't tell you where it should go in your code or why (or the code that surrounds it so you could at least find it). Half of the code in the download is comments, but they're not useful, just the default comments that C# uses like: 'Summary of following code goes here'. I do applaud the author for leaving out some of the more advanced topics that could cover a book by themselves (i.e. networking); but with that said, I was dissapointed at the apparent testing of the code and editing of the book (quite a few errors in only the fist chapter). Having worked with RAD programming for years and basic to intermediate experience with DirectX and C#, I was hoping this book would bring all the pieces together...guess I'll look somewhere else...
Rating: 
Summary: Practical and good coverage
Review: This book has given me a good overview of 3D programming with .NET and C#. It was not too easy, and not too hard. Also, it covers some game programming concepts that I would need to know whether or not I was using .NET. This is a must have if you want to get into the brave new world of Managed DX.
Rating: 
Summary: Read the Title Carefully
Review: This book is focused on "Introduction to Game Design" and uses the C# language and DirectX 9 technology to illustrate the samples. This book does not teach C# nor does it provide sufficient DirectX programming concepts. If you are looking for a book that provides a good overview of how a 3D Game Engine works from the developer-perspective then this book is for you. For those looking for a pre-built game engine upon which to learn then I suggest that you look somewhere else.
Rating:
Summary: Read the Title Carefully
Review: This book is focused on "Introduction to Game Design" and uses the C# language and DirectX 9 technology to illustrate the samples. This book does not teach C# nor does it provide sufficient DirectX programming concepts. If you are looking for a book that provides a good overview of how a 3D Game Engine works from the developer-perspective then this book is for you. For those looking for a pre-built game engine upon which to learn then I suggest that you look somewhere else.
Rating:
Summary: OK, if you like to study uncommented code
Review: To make its short :
The code Sample doesnt work !!
No UML diagrams of the "engine"
if you wanna learn about Directx programming and C# you better buy the book : Managed DirectX 9 Graphics and Game Programming . its an excellent book for that subject, but never buy this book you will waste your money.
| 
