Customer Reviews

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 10

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As the title says, this book is an excellent introduction to Direct X 10 programming.

If you are new to DirectX programming, this book is pretty much what you should start with. I have tried several others, but Frank's books seem to still be the best and this third incarnation is no different.

With this in mind, there are some necessary pre-requisites before you read this book.

First, you should have some prior knowledge in matrix algebra. Frank does dedicate a section to this, but you definitely should have taken a course prior.

Secondly, you must be familiar with basic C++ concepts. If you are unfamiliar with classes, structures and pointers this book is not for you. Get a good book on C++ programming before hand.

Finally, although it is not strictly necessary, you should have some knowledge in WIN32 programming.

This is definitely a good beginner book, and I highly recommend it.

Having some experience with DX9, I wanted a text that clearly explained the capabilities of DX10. I previously had purchased and used Wendy Jones' and Peter Walsh's books on DX10. I was disappointed in them because they never bothered to take on the topic of window resizing. Why?

Frank Luna's latest is a welcome treat. I would have liked to have seen it sooner, but better late than never.

Those readers fearful of vector and matrix arithmetic and algebra will undoubtedly stiffen up because Luna starts with these prerequisites. Such readers should try to tough it out. It will be worth it. Luna's treatment is thorough. Get through it, but with thorough understanding.

I've been through Chapters 1-6, and every paragraph and example program has been worthwhile. Good work, Frank.

While I am only halfway through this book, I must say it is superb. I had no previous knowledge on DirectX and it is being a great introduction. The text is clear, the code is neat, and the examples at the end of every chapter are complete and entertaining. What I like the most is the author's verbosity on the maths; he explains how and why everything works, from projection matrices to lighting calculations. This provides a better understanding of the subject and makes coding easier afterward. For those not too used to vector and matrix algebra, the introductory chapters cover just that. Also, even though Win32 programming knowledge is assumed, the author has included a brief tutorial in appendix A which covers the topics he touches during the first chapters.

Another aspect to point out is the way the chapters are laid out. Every chapter so far starts off by shooting you with some theory and providing ad-hoc code snippets. This gives you the chance to put everything together yourself and then compare your work with the author's. In my opinion this is the best approach the author could have taken. By the way, the author's code actually works, so you won't have to spend any time reverse engineering faulty sample code.

In conclusion, this is a must read for anyone getting started on dx10!

From previous attempts to learn DirectX, I was fed up with the API and convinced that OpenGl was far superior. But...

This book is great. It made me realize how powerful DirectX and DirectX shader technology is, despite Microsoft's tendency to write old school complex C-style API's. The author shows a different way of thinking about the API, and how to encapsulate the complexity in C++, yet maintain the possibility of exposing the ultimate flexibility underlying.

The sequence of topics is great, and very aggressive. The example code is very useful. This text is not watered down at all, and you will learn everything you need to know to understand all of the Microsoft SDK examples, and to start building your own shaders.

And yet it reads like an easy introductory text.

Nicely done!!

I like the books with honest titles, this book gives you exactly what it claims: an introduction to DirectX 10 and although it doesn't go very deep into any topic but covers quite enough to get you started and running and you can learn more from MSDN or other web materials.

I've been using this book for the past few weeks to gear up for one of my new projects. It's been extremely helpful continuing my C++ learning, and the material is quite easy to follow.

Thanks Frank!

I haven't read all of it yet but I have worked my way into it pretty far and i have to say, this is a great book. I started learning DirectX10 through a different book and it just threw all the information of 3D programming at you in 300 pages. This book is fantastic, it goes into perfect detail of why you should use that style, or what a specific line of code does instead of saying, like it does so many times in other books ("You don't need to understand what it's doing, you just need to understand that every program has it") or ("Just add it in, the technical information behind it is beyond the scope of this book"). Frank Luna has a way of explaining something so it makes sense but you haven't lost interest midway through the explanation.

The math prerequisite in the first two chapters of the book is pretty strait forward, just make sure you have a graphing calculator handy for some of the vector algebra. It's pretty basic material that goes a long way like COS and SIN. The actual programming aspect and program tutorials are fantastic. He holds your hand through the steps so its very easy to understand, and the end of chapter exercises are great. They really bring everything you were taught through the chapter with a little bit of a challenge. You'll definitely be challenged throughout the book but nothing you won't be able to handle.

Overall, I think if your beginning DirectX 10 or 11 this is the book to get. It covers the math concepts you need to know and walks you through the basics, and intermediate parts of Direct3D. The shipping was fast, it was faster the the estimated shipping date and was packaged very delicately. To be specific it was in a "Medium Flat Rate" box from USPS filled with Packing peanuts and the book was wrapped in plastic.

Frank D. Luna's Direct3D books have been the standard ever since the release of his first in 2003. While his second book was a fairly extensive rewrite focusing on the introduction of shaders, The DirectX 10 book is a fairly direct translation of the DirectX 9 shader approach book. While there is not a great amount of new content focusing on new shader effects, this book does a great job of translating the material to DirectX 10. The geometry shader chapters do provide new content and explains the topics well. The one disappointment is in the removal of some chapters from the last book. There are several that are missing that would provide more value and I do not understand their being missing. While DirectX has been updated to version 11, the DirectX 10 feature set still provides a good basis for DirectX 11. When Luna releases the update for DirectX 11 it will undoubtedly be of the same quality as his previous works.

After dabbling in Ogre, Irrlicht, and such, I've decided to learn a bit more about DirectX and what goes into creating a graphics engine. This book has been a joy to read. It's complex, but still manages to present the material perfectly to the intended audience; an intermediate level C++ programmer who wishes to begin learning DirectX. The 3d Math section is tough, but interesting, at least for me. I'm certain many people may struggle with it, some may even want to run away after the first two chapters. Stick with it, it's honestly worth it, it makes many of the concepts in the book much clearer. With a bit of dedication and knowledge high school algebra, you will be able to comprehend the 3d Math. I'm very satisfied with this book, and I think anyone who wishes to learn the fundamentals of DirectX could scarcely do better than it.

Coming from an intermediate C++ programmer with very basic knowledge of DirectX 9, this was a very helpful book. It explains the DirectX 10 pipeline well and provides clear code that shows the reader how to implement basic terrain, lighting, and effects.