Customer Reviews

Beginning .NET Game Programming in VB .NET

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My biggest complaint with VB.NET game programming books so far (and I've read a few) has been that they either: A) try to teach elementary VB.NET using game flavored examples (but nothing about actual game development) or B) try to take existing game programming material and shoe-horn it into a VB.NET book. Sadly this book falls squarely into the second category (so far).

It's quite obvious that ALL of the sample code was originally written in C#. No big deal, it's easy enough to convert. However, if you aren't a VB.NET guy, don't you dare write a freaking book with VB.NET in the title. There are more differences between VB.NET and C# than just syntax!! For the love of god, 85% of the code samples (encountered so far) do NOT work as printed in the book. Some have glaring C# syntax still in them, but only in places... often sharing a line with VB.NET syntax. The tech editor should be drawn and quartered, on TV.

To make matters worse, the main author seems somewhat condescending (arrogant?) for someone who's never actually published a game in his/her life, ever (and had to have TWO other people write the book with him... neither of whom have ever published a game either.) This is an actual quote, immediately after some collision detection code that DOES NOT work as printed... If you think this is too much math, this is probably the place where you should take this book back and take up something less mathematically demanding, like nuclear physics! Ok... seriously? That comment would be a lot more impressive if your code ACTUALLY WORKED!

So far I have nothing positive to say about this book, so let me see... ok well, the girl on the back cover is kinda cute (allegedly one of the authors, although I have no idea which sections are written by whom... is that good or bad? You tell me.) Oh yeah, and the price I paid was 40% off, although sadly I still feel ripped off!

FWIW, I did eventually get the collision detection code to work on paper, although NO explanation is made for why the algorithm handles things a certain way, and the reader is told to perform a simple Google search for more info (I kid you not!!). I'm guessing this is because they don't actually know why the code they "borrowed" (from the net?) did things that way either.

At this point, I'm almost considering this book as a possible alternative energy source. I can't believe anyone at one of my favorite publishers actually read this book prior to printing it and selling it for $50 a copy. By the time you rip out the index, table of contents, foreward, introduction, recommended reading and 'about the author' section... it's barely 350 pages. Yes... I know it's not about page count, but when quality is already out the window, what other metric is there?

I'm not going to tell you the name of this book or the publisher (yet), because even though I've managed to work up this much bile and stomach acid over it, I'm only on page 35. God help me, I hope it gets better quickly.

It's funny, every truly good tech book I read makes me less inclined to try writing my own. This book, however, has convinced me that I still have a pretty good chance at getting published.

This book may present some theoretical views for beginner level game programming, but do not expect to learn the correct syntax for VB.NET. Actually if you purchase the same authors book for programming in C# you'll find they have the same first chapter (that's as far as I looked). This book was obviously a lazy attempt for these people to make a quick buck. Unfortunately they wait until the end of the book to let you know:
"Most of the example games leave much room for improvement. Even when we looked back on them after finishing each chapter, we would sometimes look at parts of the code and think, "We can't believe we wrote that." Even worse, some of the things we told you aren't always true." pg 348
While I was trying to complete the exercises in this book I spent more time with my nose in other books so I could learn the correct way to do it. Do yourself a favor get a different book.

This book is an effective game programming theory lesson if you are a capable VB.NET Programmer who can figure out how to correct the numerous coding mistakes made by the authors. There are countless examples where they've accidentally dropped C# code blocks into the mix instead of VB, and many other occasions where they change variable names that should have remained the same. If you aren't well-versed in VB, I'd caution you against buying it...you're probably not going to be able to make it through without encountering errors that end your session in frustration.

The book was still useful to me, as I needed to learn the theory behind game programming more than I needed the actual code, but it was still annoying to have had to figure out why the provided examples weren't functioning properly.

It seems like a decent book, but there is quite a few mistakes in the code in making reference to methods that don't exist and even using C# code mixed with VB.BET.

(this is exactly the text, no typo on my part)
page 34

Public Class GameField
public class GameField {
public Shared Color BackColor as Color;
End Class}

I am just starting the book, but I have found 4 errors already. I guess as long as you are paying attention to what you are reading you should be able to figure them out, so I guess it keeps you on your toes. You just have to be ready to figure out why their code doesn't work when it doesn't.

Other than that I am sure this book is still worth buying though.

Although this book isn't a complete waste of money, don't be fooled. It's not very well written.
There are countless errors in the code right from the beginning. They also just skip telling you some important pieces about what is going on in every chapter.
However, you can still squeeze some use from this book. Go to the web site and download all the code from them. For the most part, the code works and can be your reference. You *can* learn from this book and d/l code, but you have to work at it and use a lot of trial and error.

Thank you for reading.

One of the authors, Weller, recently co-authored a sister book on .NET game programming using C#. Here, Weller and others direct their attention to using VB as a game language. Both books follow a broadly similar approach. Each shows how to access DirectX graphics calls via their chosen languages.

For example, this book starts with a basic program in many games. How to recognise collisions between your objects? It shows how VB can be used to write object oriented code in simple fashion. And how .NET enables the code to use the underlying DirectX. The VB OO code is syntactically simpler than the corresponding C++, Java or C# code, though perhaps more verbose. Those of us who use these other languages now have to face the fact that yes, indeed, you can write decent OO code in VB.

Another chapter shows what it calls Artifical Intelligence usage. I would just say these are more complex coding than earlier chapters. Game programming books often indulge in such puffery, independent of what languages they use.

The book goes on to recapitulate common graphics ideas like textures and meshes, but all in VB. This is not really an algorithms book, so the treatment is more to show how to do it in VB, than a detailed exposition of the methods.

I am halfway through this abomination and only a masochistic bent will force me to continue. I initially thought that I could easily pick up any beginning programming book and breeze through it but I am new to VB.net and have been away from programming for a couple years so the MASSIVE amount of Typo's, random variable names, extraneous nonsense, as well as items that are left as an exercise for the reader -- most of which are anything but trivial -- make this a medication consuming, frustration-fest. I was considering trying to sell it second-hand but I would foist this dead tree turd on my mother-in-law. Not to mention it's poor condition from heaving it out the window numerous times. Don't, I repeat, don't consider this purchase!!! Pitiful, just pitiful!

I would hate for people to get the wrong idea about the book from reading the other posts. This really isn't a bad book.
I am completely new to game programming (although not new to VB), and following along with the examples I was able to get the Tetris, Caterpillar and other games to work.
This gives a good introduction to game programming, covering both 2D and some 3D graphics.

But the book isn't all about writing the code. It also tells the reader how to plan out a game before coding, and gives good tips on keeping the project on track.

The book isn't perfect though. There are some errors in the code (but only one glaring instance of C# code in the VB code).
But APress has followed up, and has posted some code corrections on the web-site, and gives the downloadable code which helps a great deal.

I found the text of the book to be very easy to follow. The author has more of a conversational style than lecturing.

I think the book succeeds in being a good introduction to game programming. Getting the Tetris game to work gives you the incentive to keep reading and learning. Plus, it is fun to play your own game!

I have the C# version of this book and wanted to get into VB .NET. This book is clear and concise. I especially liked the Managed DirectX9 introduction. Very cool!