3D Game Programming with C++: Learn the Insider Secrets of Today's Professional Game Developers [Paperback]

John De Goes (Author), Andre LaMothe (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 1999

Perfect sequel to Coriolis' bestselling Cutting-Edge 3D Game Programming with C++ because it shows developers how to create games for today's state-of-the-art PC platforms and graphics accelerators. All of the examples and source code presented are designed to harness the power of Microsoft's latest version of DirectX-a graphics programming API that greatly enhances the work of developing high performance PC graphics. Currently the only detailed book in print that explains and uses techniques of accurate physics modeling to create highly realistic 3D games.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Written for the intermediate or advanced C++ developer, 3D Game Programming with C++ provides an outstanding tutorial and reference to the essentials of today's DirectX game programming. This book doesn't skimp on the nitty-gritty details of serious 3-D graphics, but it's also approachable for any competent C++ programmer.

This title is remarkable in two ways. First, it covers the essential features of today's 3-D virtual worlds--like textures, lighting and fog, vertices, and transformations--while providing a thorough yet comprehensible introduction to the powerful DirectX game platform. It covers all the visual effects you'll need to create state-of-the-art games with DirectX. A second standout section is the author's reusable, clearly documented C++ classes for simplifying essential APIs involved in DirectX, including DirectDraw (for 2-D graphics) and DirectSound (for sound).

The text focuses on the "serious" 3-D graphics mode of DirectX--Immediate Mode (IM)--which is used on some of today's hottest games. Direct3D IM programming is tough, but this text is one of the best at showing how it's done. Besides DirectX objects and APIs, this book provides some of the "rules" in pseudo-code needed to program successfully with 3-D graphics. This title also serves as a reference with over 400 pages on DirectX classes, including over 150 pages on Direct3D. (Plus, there's material on some of the math required for 3-D graphics). Overall, this book will serve as a valuable resource to any programmer who works with DirectX on a day-to-day basis.

Armed with this remarkably clear and thorough title, any C++ programmer can start learning 3-D game programming on the Microsoft DirectX platform. This book sets a high standard as an introduction for serious game development using DirectX and C++. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: DirectX overview, graphics hardware, 3-D virtual worlds, COM basics, DirectDraw APIs and C++ classes, Direct3D Immediate Mode basics, 3-D transformations, textures, MIP maps, lighting, rendering primitives, optimizing techniques, physics (detecting collisions, DirectSound APIs and C++ classes), DirectInput and joysticks and C++ classes, Artificial Intelligence (AI) basics for game characters, DirectX reference, 3-D graphics math reference.

About the Author

John De Goes (Billings, MT) is a freelance C/C++ programmer who specializes in 3D game and game engine design. He has been developing games for over a decade and is the author of Coriolis' bestselling Cutting-Edge 3D Game Programming with C++. He has also written numerous articles about game development.

Product Details

• Paperback: 816 pages
• Publisher: Coriolis Group Books (November 18, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576104001
• ISBN-13: 978-1576104002
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,154,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pointless, February 18, 2000

By 

James Walley (Maple Valley, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 3D Game Programming with C++: Learn the Insider Secrets of Today's Professional Game Developers (Paperback)

In case people think that all the negative reviews below are from confused novices: I have been programming games for a living for over ten years, and find this book mostly useless.

As other people have noted, about 60% of it is DirectX reference materials. Nice, but not what this book is supposed to be about. Besides, you can download most of them for free from Microsoft.

The coverage of Direct3D Immediate Mode is spotty. The author will go into some areas (texture mapping) in depth, and then blow off even more important areas (use of the DrawPrimitive() functions) with only a few superficial paragraphs. Even more frustrating, since there is no example code, you can't look at sample source to fill in the blanks in the text. Even an experienced 2D game programmer like myself is likely to come away from this with no better idea of how to write a D3D Immediate Mode program than they had coming in.

In some ways, the portions of the book dealing with Direct3D seem more concerned with generic 3D issues than with what can be done with D3D. While some of this information can be useful, there are other generic 3D books (such as Lamothe's "Black Art of 3D Game Programming") that do the same in far more depth.

Unfortunately, there really are no good D3D Immedate Mode books out to recommend (maybe when Lamothe FINALLY gets around to volume 2 of "Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus"...). However, one recommendation I can give is to save yourself $40 and a lot of aggravation by avoiding this title.

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Zero Stars - Can you say SDK re-write?, December 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: 3D Game Programming with C++: Learn the Insider Secrets of Today's Professional Game Developers (Paperback)

This book is a fluffy re-write of the Microsoft SDK documentation - it is 800 pages long - 25 pages of index, 457 pages of DirectX reference (which can be found in the SDK docs), 135 pages of printed code (and I only counted where more than two pages in a row were nothing but code) - no comments, no actual use of the code (because most of it is DirectX lib source! ), two pages of intro by Andre LaMothe (how can you endorse this book? ) - leaving 171 pages for 40 bucks! Look somewhere else.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Dissapointed Reader, January 22, 2000

By 

Robert Smith (Columbia, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 3D Game Programming with C++: Learn the Insider Secrets of Today's Professional Game Developers (Paperback)

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 :) )