Customer Reviews

Introduction to Computer Game Programming With DirectX 8.0

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

DirectX 8 herald a new era of the API. It was a complete re-write. DirectDraw and Direct3D were combined into a easier and more powerful API called DirectX Graphics. This release also means that you'll be able to take your programming beyond the PC, to the Dreamcast and the X Box.

Unfortunately this book doesn't take advantage of the new API at all. Basically it's just a rehash of the author's previous work Learn Computer Game Programming with DirectX 7.0. Apart from having a few less chapters this book touches on nothing in the significant upgrade. It would of been better if they called this book "Re-released book about DirectDraw 7 with just a few chapters missing".

If you want a real book on DirectX 8 Graphics get "Beginning Direct3D Game Programming" by Wolfgang F. Engel.

I was hoping that some day we would see the demise of the long list of books of the form "Tricks of the Computer Game Experts Written for Dummies and Learnable in 7 Days" (subtitle: You want to be a game programmer; we want your money). Add this book to the end of that list, soon to be followed by other worthless books that also have little content, but apparently catch the eye of aspiring game programmers. The first warning is on the cover page: "Ian Parberry, Ph.D. / Foreward by Melanie Cambron, Game Recruiting Goddess". Be wary when an author must flaunt his degree, as if somehow that makes the book good. And "Game Recruiting Goddess"? Give us a break. Well, the preface is entertaining--ramblings about life in academia with an argument to support why the author is qualified to write a book on game programming. Not convincing. Having experience working for a game company would be more convincing.

The second warning on the cover is the phrase "Condensed and updated version of Learn Computer Game Programming with DirectX 7.0". When you get to Chapter 1 "Read This First", here is where you get your surprise. From the book: "This book is a short, inexpensive version of the author's book Learn Computer Game Programming with DirectX 7.0. If you already own that book, then don't buy this one. (*) This book does not contain Chapters 13-15." The new appendices "Now What", "High Color and Resolution" (new BMP file reader), and "AVI Movies and MIDI Music" (play an AVI, play MIDI music) are not significant. The CD includes DirectX 8.0 SDK (it is downloadable from Microsoft...). Nothing to warrant purchasing the book.

Regarding the content, this book has nothing to do with anything 3D; it is a simple presentation of a few basic DirectDraw concepts. Chapter titles: Read This First, Displaying the Background, Page Flipping, Full-screen Animation, Sprite Animation, Sprite Clipping, Parallax Scrolling, Artificial Intelligence (not even close to what real game programmers call AI), The Game Shell, Sound (play .wav files), The Mouse, The Joystick. The fact that the book has DirectX 8 is irrelevant. There is no discussion of old things such as camera models, lighting, texture effects, etc. There is no discussion of new things such as pixel shaders and state blocks.

Given how well the book appears to be selling, I suspect a lot of aspiring game programmers believe they are getting a good buy; that is a shame. For those who have not yet bought it, save your money and purchase something with real content from a book company with a reputation for delivering quality computer texts.

I bought this book hoping to learn a bit about DirectX and game programming, and I received a complete book about how to BitBlt.

Searching for DirectX 8 stuff.... Not found.

Important points:

1. The book wastes many chapters on how to use a bitmap in DirectX. This matter should occupy one chapter (two at most).

2. There is nothing else beside bitmaps, no graphic methods (2D drawing).

3. He teaches how to use the joystick with API calls, when there is direct input, a god gift for using user controls, and improved (simplified and enhanced) in DirectX 8.

4. Silly algorithms.

5. Although almost every one have a powerfull computer with a lot of memory (since it got so cheap) the auther takes many sentences to explain why to use low-resolution images and (for god sake) MONO 8bit 22khz wave files. This will make you game very very ugly.

I'm not an advance programmer yet most of the information this book provides in intuitive and should not take a complete book.

There are articles all over the Internet on most of this stuff, and bit hard work with the MSDN tutorials and examples (yes there are examples with the DirectX SDK, check them out!).

To all those people that wrote in about palletized graphics, planes and textures, 3D, shadowing, joystick API calls, and what not: what in God's name are you doing with this book anyway?! IT'S FOR BEGINNERS, PEOPLE! Anyone with some common sense will at least read the forward and perhaps browse through the first couple of chapters to get a feel for the book. I agree that the title is misleading - having "with DirectX 8.0" so prominent in the title leads one to think it delves into DirectX 8.0 with some detail. It doesn't. But as I've said, if you take the time and read the first chapter (which you can do in the bookstore - it's short), it says two things. First, he *explicitly* states that if you own the first edition of the book, then don't buy this one because it's not that much different. This should tell the reader that the book probably doesn't go too far into the nuances/differences of DirectX 7.0 and 8.0. Second, the author informs you that you'll be writing a side-scoller game. This should tell even the most junior of game programmers there'll be no 3D development, so you won't be building the next Quake...

With that being said, I bought the book and I'm very happy with it. I wouldn't know the difference between DirectX 7.0 and 8.0 if a nun's life depended on it. Nor do I care. And I've never written a video game before so I don't want to get snowed under with alot of 3D math and algorithms. Just show me the basics of getting images onto the screen, moving them around and perhaps some collision detection, and I'll go from there. This book does just that.

Learn to crawl before you walk.

Well Ian while I admire your effort to write a book in the area, you have not done it justice. Firstly you concentrate ONLY on sprite based arcade games (these days a very small market share). Secondly, I cannot find a DirectX8 call anywhere in the source. This is going to be VERY misleading to an already confused group. People are struggling to get familiar with the DirectX8 characterstics and you have not taken any time to check it out for yourself. This book is DIRECTX 7 and is NOT up to date....

DirectX 8.0 wasnt anywhere to be found. Wonder if the author even knows anything about it besides where to d/l it from. Also once again here we go in 8bit color. Time to teach 16bit graphics dinosaur..One last thought to the author you can't just decide one day to be a game programmer teacher, go work in the industry and put your name on something successful............ PhD!=GameProgrammer ThisBook=FireStarter

This is not a resource for Directx 8 at all. DirectDraw is outdated under DX8 the DX7 version is still available in DX8, but it's not DX8. I was hoping to see the same game from his previous book done in Direct3D using planes and textures. I have yet to find a great DirectX 8 book available.

Let's get one thing clear: this book is excellent for programmers that want to learn how to program games. It is a good starting point.

The problem is that this book does not have a damned thing to do with DirectX 8.0. It teaches you DirectX 7.0, and boy, don't even bother trying DX 8 if all you know is 7... they're completely different in every aspect.

I had hoped that this book would be another primer for using Microsoft's DirectX API for the latest version, like Parberry's first, but instead it is a terrible, terrible waste of time and money since it has nothing to do with DirectX 8. The publisher, and the author, are lying to the consumer. Frankly, I was so disgusted I sent it back and I have no intention of ever purchasing another book by Parberry or this publsiher again.

The thing that the other reviewers didn't comprehend, is that this book is for beginners, notice the word "Introduction", this book isn't meant to be the book for learning all about DirectX 8.0, but it is meant to introduce you to DirectX and get you programming in it. After reading this the reader is ready for doing more advance DirectX programming. One thing for the newbie programmers, do not buy this book unless you have been programming in C++ for at least 6 months. And, you should be programming in OOP with C++ since that is the standard for DirectX programming.

I just got this book and it was big disappointment. This book starts using DirectDraw right off the bat completely failing to mention anything about the recent incorporation of DirectDraw with Direct3D in DirectX 8! What a let down! That was the whole point of getting it in the first place! The title is very misleading. Don't get this book if you're trying to learn DirectX 8 (never mind all the new cool tricks like pixel shading or vertex shading)! The whole idea of starting to learn game programming with DirectX 8 is that it has been greatly simplified so that you don't have to write as much code and initialization stuff as you would in earlier versions! Stay away from this and learn from on line tutorials instead. They are free at least!