Customer Reviews

Directdraw Programming

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

About three quarters of the book is pure source code. Alas, this leaves only a very small number of pages for any usefull text. You're better of reading the tutorials in the DirectX SDK and browsing through the examples. The text that's in the book is concise and clear, though. But all in all the depth of the book amounts to zero. You won't be able to do much game programming once you've finished this book. My advise: buy Inside DirectX instead.

This book was worse than a waste of time... I actually knew LESS after reading it. The examples were cryptic, with a lot of errors. This is really hard to deal with when you're a beginner. I've never been so cheated in my life. I couldn't even compile the source included on the CD-Rom, because I was using a Borland instead of Microsoft compiler. I know it's out of print, but I still feel compelled to warn everyone away from it. You can get much better information on the net.

I took a good look at this book in the store, it appeared to have all the information I would need to create a 2 dimensional game like Super Mario Bros but after I got it home I started to read threw the book and was greatly dissapointed. The book was just a bunch of Unexplained Source Code and about 20 pages of actuall text. By the time you reach the back cover you sit dumbfounded with the lack of knowlage gained. The CD came with a few useless examples that could not be compiled with any version of the Direct X SDK that I tried. And for someone trying to create their 1st direct X based game that was the most frustrating thing of all. Too bad we cant use negative stars on here....

I took a good look at this book in the store, it appeared to have all the information I would need to create a 2 dimensional game like Super Mario Bros but after I got it home I started to read threw the book and was greatly dissapointed. The book was just a bunch of Unexplained Source Code and about 20 pages of actuall text. By the time you reach the back cover you sit dumbfounded with the lack of knowlage gained. The CD came with a few useless examples that could not be compiled with any version of the Direct X SDK that I tried. And for someone trying to create their 1st direct X based game that was the most frustrating thing of all. Too bad we cant use negative stars on here....

I found this book a very inductive approach to using Direct Draw, But I found that if the programmer wasn't experienced in C++ Win32 programming it could be very frustrating. This book goes into detail on the DirectDraw API with an exstensive refrence in the back of the book. I personally would like to incorporate Direct 3d (which I am not experienced in yet) into a full screen directdraw application, but this book has slim to nill' refrence on how the two integrate. I think this book was very good for explaining what direct draw is all about and giving in depth explainations on how to use BMP(Bitmaps) files with a directdraw application. It was a very step by step book that could be read and in most parts understood by new programmers.

This book was horrible. For Instance, all of the source code (from the CD) relied on libraries not included on the CD! The source code and the book was riddled with terrible errors that SOMEONE (the author?) should have caught. On top of that, Dear Brett included all sorts of wacked stuff (shortcuts, without explanation or documentation.) He explains the easiest stuff for pages, and then would do magic voodoo code with no explantion at all. Stay away from this book! It will set your programming back months. All in all a very misleading read! (I feel much better now.)

I had mixed reactions. I'm an experienced programmer, so I could work around some of the errors and cryptic code, but a beginner would have problems. It's better than the sdk docs though, but unless you have money to throw away, there's much better info on the WWW.

This book is a waste of paper. The author starts writing a demo program, and for each subject adds to the program, but he reprints the whole thing each time, instead of putting in more description of the subject, and the program is terrible. Very few pictures and not nearly enough explanation of the subject.

The best book on this subject I have read - or even given a cursory examination. If you want to learn how to use the DirectDraw API get this book. If you are familiar with Windows95 programming, you will find this book very easy to understand - if you aren't, learning from this book can be a little rough but you can get through it.

this is a very good introduction book to directdraw concepts, especially for beginners who has no experience with directdraw. however, little knowledge on windows programm ing is a plus. i recommend this book for directdraw beginnners.