Focus On 2D in Direct3D (Premier Press Game Development) [Paperback]

Ernest Pazera (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2002 | ISBN-10: 1931841101 | ISBN-13: 978-1931841108 | Edition: 1

Focus on 2D in Direct3D teaches you all of the tools and tips you'll need to dive right in and begin creating your own games. If you have some knowledge of C or C++ and have been searching for a guide that will take your 2D programming into the third dimension, then search no more! In this book you'll acquire the skills you'll need to move from the 2D API to Direct3D. Written from the point of view of a 2D programmer, Focus on 2D in Direct3D presents the fundamentals of the Direct3D API in an easy-to-use-and-understand format. Get ready to jump into the world of Direct3D!

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Focus on 2D in Direct3D® teaches you all of the tools and tips you'll need to dive right in and begin creating your own games. If you have some knowledge of C or C++ and have been searching for a guide that will take your 2D programming into the third dimension, then search no more! In this book you'll learn the skills you'll need to move from the 2D API to Direct3D. Written from the point of view of a 2D programmer, Focus on 2D in Direct3D presents the fundamentals of the Direct3D API in an easy-to-use-and-understand format. Get ready to jump into the world of Direct3D!

About the Author

Ernest Pazera is a self-taught programmer, starting at age 13 with a TRS-80. Within a month Mr. Pazera was writing video games. By age 15, he realized that he could be happy with nothing less than being a game programmer. He is one of the developers who helped create one of the most popular and respected game development sites on the Web---www.gamedev.net. He is a moderator of an isometric/hexagonal forum on the site and has extensive experience with game development. Ernest is the author of Isometric Game Programming with DirectX 7.0 from Premier Press.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 271 pages
• Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade; 1 edition (March 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931841101
• ISBN-13: 978-1931841108
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,473,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia > DirectX

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Concise, July 15, 2003

By 

A. McFadden - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Focus On 2D in Direct3D (Premier Press Game Development) (Paperback)

At first glance this book doesn't look like much. It's fairly small compared to the typical game-programming tome (even with its medium-sized print), and not much less expensive. If you went strictly by the number of words per dollar, you might overlook it.

If you're planning to write a 2D game with the DirectGraphics API, however, this book is exactly what you need. There may not be a lot of words, but they're the right ones.

The first 40% of the book explains how to do everything you could do with 2D interfaces, and a little more. Copying rectangles, copying non-rectangular images, and page-flipping are explained. Added to the mix are rotation and scaling effects that were generally not possible (or at least not fast) with DirectDraw.

The next 40% gets into 3D engine details, explaining just enough to let you take advantage of Z-buffering, anti-aliasing, and lighting effects without needing you to be the Wizard of Polygons. The math review is brief and to the point.

The last 20% is something of a waste. A long chapter is spent learning how to parse a ".x" file that contains a 3D model, something that is largely uninteresting for people whose focus is on 2D (and unnecessary for everyone else). Another covers particle systems, which is interesting but completely out of place in this book. One might suspect the author was padding it out a bit. A section on text rasterization with Direct3D might have been more appropriate.

Overall I got exactly what I was hoping for. The author describes the different approaches clearly, points out areas where you can get into trouble, and for the most part stays focused on the subject at hand. The result is a book that will get you up and running with 2D under Direct3D in a few hours.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book For Intermediate Programmers, July 12, 2002

By 

ahiru (Princeton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Focus On 2D in Direct3D (Premier Press Game Development) (Paperback)

This book has these features:
1. Just DX8 Code and Theory. Nothing on setting up Windows and the GDI or the history of Windows. The lower price tag is due to this.

2. Codes that actually compile and run. This is "pretty rare" considering that other DX8 books (as of July 2002) have half baked code that does not even compile.

3. Focus is on techniques and not on making a monster library. Unlike most books, there is no monster central library where each project needs to include. Each example in the book has its own source code and does one or two things only, making the relevant code stand out.

Conclusion:
If you are an experienced programmer with DX7, this book is definately a buy. But, if you are a new programmer, stay away from this book. This book purposely leaves out any support for inexperienced programmers.

For those that have his previous(?) book, "Isometric Game Programming With Directx 7.0", this book is basically part 2 of that book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reference Material / Get Up-to-Speed Quickly, August 13, 2002

By 

Shawn Holmes (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Focus On 2D in Direct3D (Premier Press Game Development) (Paperback)

This book is a must-have for all budding game developers who want to make the move from DirectDraw to Direct3D. The material in this book is presented in a simple, straight-forward "no extra fluff" manner. You will be building simple 2D engines using Direct3D in no time. And it will give you a solid basis for expanding your knowledge of Direct3D as you move to building 3D engines, later on.

I especially think the book does well (for its cost) by not having a lot of useless Win32 / Generic C++ content overhead. Yes, you are expected to know a bit of this coming in, but if you don't know the basics already, you should be starting with another book.

"Focus on 2D..." also serves as an excellent reference to be able to fall back on when looking up specific information. You definitely do not need to read it front-to-back; each chapter stands on its own and covers the fundamentals needed, regardless of whether you need information on particle systems, alpha blending, textures, or other Direct3D systems.

I highly recommend added this book to your collection!