3D Game Programming All in One (Course Technology PTR Game Development Series) [Paperback]

Kenneth C(Kenneth C. Finney) Finney (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 159200136X | ISBN-13: 978-1592001361 | Publication Date: April 19, 2004 | Edition: 001

An ever-growing number of gamers want to make the leap from merely playing games to actually creating their own games. This book takes them through the process step-by-step. It provides the instruction, examples, development principles, and, perhaps most importantly, the actual tools needed to create their own 3D game. By experiencing first-hand every aspect of game development, readers will discover which aspect of the game industry is their true passion (for example, music, artistic design, storyboarding, coding, testing, etc.). This is the only book that walks the reader from A to Z covering each aspect of developing a 3D game in a hands-on tutorial style.

Editorial Reviews

Review

1. Introduction to 3D Game Development. 2. Introduction to Programming. 3. Introduction to 3D Concepts. 4. Game Programming. 5. Gameplay. 6. Network. 7. Common Scripts. 8. Introduction to Textures. 9. Skins. 10. Creating GUI Elements. 11. Materials. 12. Terrains and Skyboxes. 13. Introduction to Modeling with Milkshape. 14. Making a player model. 15. Making a Vehicle Model. 16. Making Weapons and Items. 17. Making Structures. 18. Building and Lighting the Game World. 19. Game Sound and Music. 20. Creating the Game Mission. 21. Game Server & Client. 22. Components. 23. The End Game. Appendix A: The Torque3D Reference. Appendix B: Game Development Resources on the Internet. Appendix C: Game Development Tool Reference. Appendix D: GPL License Text. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

This book and the companion CD contain all of the tools and information necessary to create a complete ready-to-play first person shooter game. Functions as a stand-alone book or 'the next step' for readers of Game Programming All in One (1931841233), which takes the reader through each step of the creation of a full 2D game. Provides thorough explanation of 3D game programming, an emerging market within gaming. The CD is a treasure chest of tools and resources for independent game developers, including a fully featured game engine; tools for modeling, sound and text editing, and image manipulation; sound, image, and music libraries.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 848 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 001 edition (April 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159200136X
• ISBN-13: 978-1592001361
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,278,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ken Finney teaches Game Design, Level and GUI Design, Game Development, Programming and Prototyping at the Art Institute of Toronto where he is Lead Faculty Member in the Game Art & Design program, and Graphics Design for Game Artists and XNA programming at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Ken is the creator of the popular TubettiWorld "Online Campaign" Mod and the "QuicknDirty" game management tools for Novalogic's Delta Force 2 game series. In addition to being an Associate Developer of the Torque Game Engine at GarageGames, Ken is the author of several books about game programming including 3D Game Programming All In One, 2nd Edition and Advanced 3D Game Programming All In One. Ken is 50% owner of TubettiWorld Games, Inc. (TWG), an Ontario-based company that is creating a new and unique Action/Adventure game based on the original TubettiWorld design, using Torque Game Engine Advanced. The team that Finney has assembled at TWG was responsible for delivering a 3D action racing game for a major U.S. toy manufacturer in the Spring of 2008. TWG is GarageGames' world-wide provider of Torque training for commercial customers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars 3D Game Programming All in One is a Misleading Title..., June 4, 2004

By 

Maraspin Stefano "steve maraspin" (Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 3D Game Programming All in One (Course Technology PTR Game Development Series) (Paperback)

Book isn't actually written badly. I was completely mislead by its Title, though; It's a book on Torque (and maybe video game "design"), definitely not a book on Game Programming. I was expecting something (much?) more from it ("Look Inside" wasn't available at the time of my purchase, so title mislead me). It turned out as a disappointment.

PROS:
Quick & smooth to read
Comprehensive - from a game design point of view (at the end you can come up with some game)
Easy, even for Beginners

CONS:
Too Specific to the Torque Game Engine (the word Torque is actually repeated infinitely through the book; really, you'll get bored of reading it ...after page 2)
Game programming fundamentals (transformations, math), theory (graphic pipeline) and libraries (DirectX and OpenGL) aren't covered at all.
It's for REAL Beginners (it even teaches you how to use Paint Shop Pro and other tools which can be, in my opinion, easily self-thaught)
Repetitive sometimes


OVERALL:
As the heading says, calling this book 3D Game Programming All in One is misleading, whereas "Creating Games From Scratch w/ the Torque Engine" could have been a much more suitable title. Go ahead and get it if you're a real beginner and you're interested in learning how to make a game from scratch, just from the designer/"product manager" (but NOT the programmer) point of view. You'll be taught some TORQUE, Paint Shop Pro, Ultraedit 32, Milkshape and other tools/game design issues, to make a complete game; even if not in depth, a bit of everything is covered.

It's not the book for you though, if you already know something about programming and especially if you expect to learn (like I did) some real-time rendering and game engine theory. For that matter, I can suggest you to get both "Real Time Rendering" by Akenine-Moller & Haines (more theoretical) and OpenGL Game Programming by Hawkins & Astle (more practical. There also you end up with a working game, but you really get a grasp on how things work under the hood... definitely something you don't with this reviewed book).

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book... but...., October 7, 2005

By 

S. Guthikonda (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 3D Game Programming All in One (Course Technology PTR Game Development Series) (Paperback)

This is an awesome, and essential, book if you plan on doing development with the Torque Game Engine (TGE). I had purchased my Indie Developer license (...) before discovering this book. The codebase for TGE is so huge (hundreds of files, thousands of classes, 100's of thousand lines of code). The online tutorials and Garage Game DOCs weren't really enough, I felt, to get started. So, I bought this book to get me started.

I will admit, the title of this book is a bit misleading. It does cover most aspects of 3d Game Programming (coding, textures, 3d modeling, sound, level design), but it is mostly dependent (except the artsy topics) on the TGE. Someone not expecting to work with TGE will be disappointed as all the code in the book is written in TorqueScript, not C++.

Another thing I will say about this book: The beginner-intermediate rating is a bit untrue. I would gear this book more towards the intermediate level. The 'introduction to programming' chapter is a good start, but really doesn't prepare an unexperienced programmer to the concepts of inheritance, scoping, program flow, among others, covered in the book.

Final Conclusion: Buy this book if you are working with TGE. Even if you're an experience TGE user, the references (function/class listings, etc) are extremely valuable. If you are not a TGE user, you should give a good look at it, as it is a great tool for an indie developer (...). If you're working on making your own engine from scratch, this book probably won't help you too much (there are probably better books on texture creation, 3d model creation, and sound that you could pick up instead... along with an actual 'engine development' book in C++).

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice book on Torque... but, June 24, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 3D Game Programming All in One (Course Technology PTR Game Development Series) (Paperback)

Torque badly needs a book like this, but I hope some of the faults in this work are addressed in a second edition.

First, the good stuff. There is no book to offer a holistic overview of the mighty Torque Game Engine. This book has broken that sad deficiency. The author also writes at a level that will not alienate the experts overly as it offers the neophtes a leg up. The text is playful and fun, but not caked in silliness as I've found similar volumes seeking the same touch. As such, it is a true invitation to explore and learn how to use a complex and capable game engine that has suffered from a "by coders, for coders" darkness in the documentation department for years.

However, as I work through the book, I find a considerable number of errors in the text/code and comments of the sample scripts in the book. There is a threaded post or two on the www.garagegames.com forums where Ken is patiently noting corrections offered by the enthusiastic readers, but one cannot help but feel that the barriers these mistakes will present true newbies are more considerable.

The CD ROM is a misfire, in my opinion. One of Torque's greatest advantages over other game engines is that it support Linux and Mac in addition to Windows machines. But the CD ROM has setup.exe's and such whose function is nothing more involved that to extract compressed data from the CD and place it on your hard disk. This is just a sad mistake which alienates the subset of his audience who would most keenly benefit from having good documentation for such a gem as Torque in that they have so many fewer choices available to them. I strongly urge the publisher to replace such executable archives with plain ZIP files... at least for those containing only chapter "RESOURCES" materials. This would allow Torque to reach its greatest possible audience and put all platforms on a more even footing.

I look forward to finishing the book and walking through its lessons, but the CD ROM has failed to expedite my quest.