Customer Reviews

Beginning Math Concepts for Game Developers (Applied Mathematics)

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The title of the review is extracted from a comment line in a program presented in chapter 4. I hate to start a review complaining about errors, but I don't know why the example program text in the book could not get the ++ operator right (after chapter one it turned into + +). The errors in the book are annoying maybe more is expected from a book that states "...every program is explained in intricate detail, so if you are a beginner, you stand an excellent chance of being able to progress through the book without much difficulty." I don't think it makes a good impression to beginner's to show them programs that will not compile because of the syntax errors (+ + or missing brackets). I have managed to collect several pages of errors in the book. I can't make up my mind which was worse -- text not matching programs being discussed (wrong function arguments, equations), the syntax errors in the book, or programs in the book not matching program on the CD.

The authors even managed to mangle the rule for determining if a graph represents a function.
FROM THE BOOK:
"One way to test a function is to apply the horizontal line rule. This rule involves drawing horizontal lines at any point along the x axis of the Cartesian plane on which you have plotted the values of a function. If the line crosses the line or curve at only one point, then you are dealing with a valid function."

Well, the good news is the author(s) finally get the definition right by Chapter 6 page 25 (after two wrong attempts). They refer to the "vertical line test."

I wondered who was the technical editor for the book that would let so many errors in the text get by them, well it appears it may have been a relative. I wonder if they bothered to actually read the book. There was at least one major error in every chapter. I think the authors should provide an errata sheet...or maybe it would be too embarrassing.

Lastly, the authors were lazy in their examples. Rather than creating one program to demonstrate profit/loss and another for conversion from Fahrenheit degrees to Celsius degrees, they literally re-use the same program using variables for temperature conversion for profit and loss. This is how they compact things...they combine several programs into one....with the reader having to comment out or remove comments to keep up.

The book suffers from poor typesetting (if in fact that accounts for the syntactically incorrect programs and poor references to classes and methods) and poor choice of samples that really belong in a book titled "Don't program like this..."

The title of this review was not accident is a prime example of what you will get with this book.

My final two cents: I purchased this book for consideration as a supplement or recommendation when I teach a game design course. I can safely say ...not this edition.