Rating: 
Summary: Best Introduction to Direct3D
Review: I read the book page by page and I must say it is the best book on Direct3D so far. Here are the pros:At the beginning of the book, you got an introduction how to configure Visual C/C++ 6 and the DirectX 8 SDK to start immediately. You will be able to get into 3D very fast with the introduction to 3D. The introduction to COM/HAL and Direct3D concentrates on the most important aspects. The chapters on transformations show the complete functionality of transformations. You can learn how to program two independent objects and a camera. This is the starting point for every game and especially space shooters. The chapters on the usage of files to store models give you a very good understanding on the in's and out's of file usage. You will understand the usage of the popular md3 file format used by Quake 3 game titles by examining a md3 viewer. Details of the Direct3D common files framework are covered at the end of the book. So if you like to jump into the details first, read the appendix, although it is easier for starters to start reading the book from the beginning. This is a book for a novice Direct3D programmer and it helps you to understand 3D programming from scratch. .... this book -that covers Direct3D 8- is even better. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Developer from Australia
Review: About time someone wrote a book to cover the brand and spanking new DirectX 8 Graphics. DirectX 8 herald a new era of the API. It was a complete re-write. DirectDraw and Direct3D were combined into a easier and more powerful API called DirectX Graphics. This release also means that you'll be able to take your programming beyond the PC, to the Dreamcast and the X Box. I previously bought a book called "Introduction to Computer Game Programming with DirectX 8.0" by Ian Parberry. Unfortunately even though the material in the book was very good it didn't delve into the new DirectX API whatsoever, and in fact was just a cutdown version of the authors previous work "Learn Computer Game Programming with DirectX 7.0". So if you want a good beginners book look that one up, but if you want to keep up with the latest enhancements in the gaming world check this one out.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waist your time / money
Review: This books is one of the most worthless titles ever to be released by a publishing company! Prima Tech editors should have seen it coming and scrapped this book before it ever hit the shelves. The book "Multiplayer Game Prgramming" by Todd Barren, a book designed to help you understand how to make multiplayer capable games, does a better job explaining DirectXGraphics (Direct3D8) than this trashy book does... This is a terrible waist of time. This book was reviewed by Game Developer Magazine, and explains a ton of mistakes, and complete inaccuracies...like: This book neglects to cover the most "revolutionary" features introduced in the DirectX8 SDK, vertex shaders and pixel shaders, but covers something as advaced as anisotropic reflection. So the shaders weren't left out because they were too complicated, who knows why they were left out! This book is littered with grammatical, technical, and formatting errors. Example: The exponants are left out of almost every equation in the book. Page 475 has 42 missing exponants.
The reviewer also noted that the description of 3d rotation is just plain WRONG!
Also this book contains an introduction to C++, not like many 3D programmers are going to need that.
The entire physics chapter is only 8 pages long, and the first 2 of those 8 focuse only on 3D math. The reviewer was obveously very unhappy with what he found in the book, just as I was. He gave it 1 out of 5 stars. Oh and by the way, the reviewer was Mark Deloura, a programmer who has worked with OpenGL and it's predecessors for more than 10 years now, and very well known / respected. Heed mine and Mark Deloura's warning, don't buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Best book on D3D ever
Review: If you want to learn Direct3D programming. Use this book. It helps you step by step to learn the most important things first to be able understand the more experienced stuff later.
This is the book for starters everyone has waiting for.
Rating:
Summary: A beginner opinion
Review: The book Beginning Direct3D Game Programming is an excellent book that truly accomplishes what it sets out to do. The example programs give you a head start to start your own engine. No other book has such a great chapter on multitexturing. Just read it and you never have a problem with alpha blending or multitexturing.
The best book you can get for the buck ... period.
Rating:
Summary: Not for beginners
Review: This book is not self-explanatory. This is just another one of those books in which authors show off their skills, but not enough skill to explain things like a teacher would.
Rating: 
Summary: HOW TO FIX PROBLEMS WITH CODE! Very Important!
Review: Actually there are no problems with the code. Just problems in setting up the workspaces.
1. If you get errors that you are missing files, they are most likely the common files. They probably werent copied to your harddrive when you installed DX8sdk. You can find them at F:\DirectX\DXF\samples\multimedia\common copy both folders to C:\mssdk\samples\Multimedia\common (if you installed to default directory)
2. When you finally get the program to compile you may get another error during linking, i think, that says it cant access the Debug/basic2.exe Just delete all the files in the Debug folder and try again.
3. Once you get the program to run you will most likely get a runtime error. Error 0xc0000005 is what i got. To fix this you simply need to put in a Lake.bmp file into the folder where your basic.cpp file is. Im not sure if the author mentions this in the book since i havnt bothered reading it yet. But if he does o well, Its my belief that the projects should be in complete and working order before he ships his product. Its a good book though, from what i have read.
Took me all afternoon to figure out these problems, hopefully it wont take you that long.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a paedagogical crime
Review: Bad english is not an excuse for this [book]. The author presents some code and just begins explaining it from one line to the next, never concerned with trying to give his reader an overview of the founding concepts of 3D. This book is poorly presented, difficult to read, and makes an already difficult topic impossible to understand with senseless explanations, without ever going into the deeper concepts.
Rating:
Summary: Beginners unite
Review: Best coverage of texture mapping basics and math basics I have ever seen. Buy it !
Rating:
Summary: Best Book for Direct3D
Review: The Beginning Direct3D Game Programming is an abolutely excellent book. It is a difficult task to explain Game Programming in a way, that everybody can understand it. Wolfgang has done it ! The books only presumptions are that you are able to program in C and know Visual C/C++.
The content of the book leads the reader step-by-step through the most important fields of Direct3D to program games. It starts with a simple introduction how to use textures, then the reader learns how to use the different matrices to map from world to screenspace.
After that the usage of files in Games in shown with an *.x files and a *.md3 viewer. As an additional plus the usage of the collision detection library of Photoneffects is provided with source and a physics primer is given.
This is the best book you can get !
| 
