Game Programming Gems 3 (Game Programming Gems (W/CD)) (v. 3) [Hardcover]

Dante Treglia (Author)

Book Description

Series: Game Programming Gems (W/CD) | Publication Date: July 25, 2002

The journey continues with this ALL NEW volume in the Game Programming Gems series! As with the first two volumes, a dynamic group of some of the best game programmers in the industry have generously joined together to share their insights and techniques. Their ready-to-use ideas, tips, and solutions, will help save hours of programming time, prevent redundancy, and leave you with more time to add cutting-edge features to your own games. Covering all the key areas of game development, this invaluable resource delves deep into the problems often encountered by programmers, and provides practical, valid solutions. Each section is edited by an expert in the field to ensure that the ideas are original, accurate, and useful for a variety of game development projects. In addition to covering Mathematics, Graphics, General Programming, Audio, and Artificial Intelligence, Game Programming Gems 3 also includes an all new section on Network and Multiplayer games. This is a must-have reference, and series, for every game developer. If you are just getting started, this book offers a true cross-section of the challenges youill face, and provides a variety of additional references to help you find all the resources you need to advance your skills and knowledge. If youire an expert already, youill find new ideas and techniques to help save plenty of valuable programming time.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dante Treglia is the lead software engineer for Nintendo of America's Software Development Support Group where he supports the Nintendo GameCube development community. Mark Deloura, the found editor of the series, is the manager of developer relations for Sony Computer Entertainment America, focusin on the PlayStation 2 and future entertainment products.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 663 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (July 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584502339
• ISBN-13: 978-1584502333
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Normally, I don't write reviews.., August 23, 2002

By 

Another reader (Big Pool, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Game Programming Gems 3 (Game Programming Gems (W/CD)) (v. 3) (Hardcover)

While normally, I don't write reviews, I HAVE to disagree with a previous review on this.. Someone wrote the matrix calculations were wrong on "Real time UI input in 3D games", and its simply not true. I'm using this gem currently and found it to work wonderfully! I found the book to be good overall, with a few minor publishing errors, but still good and worth the investment.

Like Gems 1 and 2, its a must have for any game programmer shelf... I'm finding more and more modern approaches to problems, vertex shading, etc in the newer gems series.. Gems 1 holds a special place in my heart because of how breakthrough it was, but this, which not as staggering in its signficance, is just as important to the modern game programmer.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable resource for those in the trenches, February 16, 2003

By 

James Boer (Kirkland, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Game Programming Gems 3 (Game Programming Gems (W/CD)) (v. 3) (Hardcover)

For anyone who actually works as a game programming professional, I'd highly recommend this book. Those of you looking for general-purpose interesting programming tidbits, try one of Scott Meyer's books instead, which I'd recommend to ANY C++ programmer, not game programmers.

One thing to note: I've heard claims (regarding this and previous books in the series) that these books are simply pre-existing articles pulled from the web and other sources and packed into a collection to be resold. This is nonsense - every article in the book was submitted by programmers, and was exclusively commissioned and paid for by the publisher for use in this series. You won't find these articles floating around on the net. Moreover, because these articles are commissioned, peer-reviewed, and professional edited, the overall quality is much higher than random articles found on the net.

Overall, this book, and the entire series for that matter, gets my highest recommendation. You're naturally not going to find every article or topic useful or relevant, but if you're actually in the trenches, the likelyhood of finding at least one article that really helps you out is likely high. In my experience, simply finding one really valuable article is worth the price of the book alone.

21 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Qualified opinions?, July 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Game Programming Gems 3 (Game Programming Gems (W/CD)) (v. 3) (Hardcover)

I've noticed several scathing reviews from folks who admit in the review that they aren't even game programmers. Am I missing something? How in the world could this book be at all useful or interesting to someone who admittedly has no interest in programming games? Unbelievable.

For anyone specifically interested in actually using this book to develop games, you're going to get your money's worth.