Customer Reviews

Microsoft XNA Unleashed: Graphics and Game Programming for Xbox 360 and Windows

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I own pretty much all of the XNA titles that are currently available and I must say Chad's book is by far the easiest and nicest to read. The author is great at explaining a topic then putting it into source code.. which in my opinion is important with this difficult subject.

Very nice book and I hope the author will write a more advanced follow up :) Perhaps a book on writing a complete game with the XNA Framework 2.0 due to be released in winter?

5/5 from me

This book was a recommended text for my graduate-level game architecture class. Like all good students, I left my assignment to "write an educational children's game" until the last moment, and found myself with five days to get myself up to speed on XNA -- starting from square one.

Thankfully I'd had some C# experience, but when I sat down on Friday night with only this book and my laptop, I knew nothing about how to install or use XNA. After a solid weekend's work, I had an interactive fish tank simulator (ecosystems are educational, right?) complete with sounds and animation. There were enough examples in the book to get me started in all the directions I need to go: animating and scaling a sprite, collision detection, creating a sound bank... Plugging the appropriate code samples together was quite painless.

I did have some trouble running the example code from the book, probably because I was running the relatively new XNA Game Studio 2.0, while the examples were written under the previous version. Nothing some Googling and debugging couldn't work around, however.

Be sure to explicitly follow the instructions (either in the book or on the XNA download site) for installing Visual Studio, .Net, DirectX, and XNA Game Studio. You need precisely the right versions in precisely the right order or you'll be tearing your hair out. The CD that comes with the book contains only the example code - none of the Microsoft products above are included - so if you're on a slow Internet connection, you'd better start downloading now.

Overall, this book is highly recommended for folks who want (or need) to get rolling with XNA quickly.

Each chapter has several code examples illustrating basic concepts and developing simple games. They all work which makes this book a pleasure to use. Code is available on a CD included with the book. The text is clearly written showing how to use XNA(TM) Game Studio to develop either 2D or 3D games. It would be impossible to go into depth on all the background graphics and mathematics that one would need if not using XNA. The book rightly focuses on XNA methods which do most of the work. More information can easily be found online to supplement the text which might be helpful to those new to game programming.

The author starts with performance and integrates performance measuring into the code. He covers both Windows and the Xbox 360 with each project set up for both. The advanced topics are really useful for 3D games. In all it is very enjoyable to use.

At first I was hesitant to get this book since it based on the 1.0 refresh. However, I wanted to get started right away and seeing how this technology will simply continue to grow, there is no better time than the present to start learning.

I have all of the current XNA Books available and this one is by far the best. I love this guy's coding style ... it is nice when an author using .NET is actually using .NET styled code. If there is only one XNA book you can buy -- get this one.

I really enjoyed his perspective on performance. It helped me in my day job as well ... can you say Garbage Collector? I bought this book to do 3D and I have been happy with my results. I am using 2D to supplement my 3D game, but it seems the community is obsessed with 2D games at this point. The physics chapter is great. I also enjoyed the chapter on Artificial Intelligence. Both are short, but to the point and helped me know where I need to look for more information. The particle system is excellent. I liked the force field created by particles ... cool.

I am a programmer by trade and have dabbled in computer graphics in the past, but it was just too much work to get anything valuable. With XNA and this book as a guide, I was able to go so much farther than I ever did with DirectX and the books I bought on that subject. I have created a full 3D game that I plan to put out on Xbox LIVE Community Games when it is available. There is no way I would have a completed game without this book -- sound, game states, input, polish -- it is all in here!

I liked how the author didn't waste time on rendering a single triangle ... he did a rectangle (two triangles) ... and then later used that code to create a skybox. The chapter on the content pipeline was excellent. I enjoyed the advanced topics he has as well like Render Targets, Parallax and Relief Mapping.

In regards to changes with 2.0, he has updated the code on his site and it runs with no issues at all! Fortunately, the code is about identical to what it is in the book even with new code. I guess it just proves that not too much had to change between 1.0 refresh and 2.0.
I would buy this book again. In fact, I will when the author comes out with the 3.0 book.

Get this book ... and don't waste any more time ... make a great game -- it really is within grasp!

well this isnt realy the publishers \ writer fault but this book is written for XNA 1.0, and once 2.0 had been released some of the code in the book needs a bit of tweaking,

i think that if you have some background knowledge about C# and programming, then this is the perfect book to take you into XNA.
it has a much better approach then most, "teach yourself" books,
and i recommand getting it,

it only got a 4 out a 5, but if a new edition with XNA 2.0 will be release i would have givven it a 5.
:)

After deciding to start programming again after many years, I have found this book to not only be a great introduction into XNA, but also help with learning C# and the Visual dev process and environment.

Many times the best way to learn is by doing, and this book provides a well thought out guide to "doing" just that!

Future revisions might include a little more background/depth on concepts/definitions: such as 3D terminology, the math involved, more of an overview of the XNA framework etc.

The author at times makes assumptions (i think appropriate ones) that the user knows how to perform certain tasks without those tasks always being spelled out. This is a good thing.

Also, I think it is great that in order to build the examples the author describes you have to read and follow along with the text, rather than just copying a program listing at the end of the chapter.

Overall i have enjoyed my time with this book and it has been worth every penny!

This is a great book. It assumes you are familiar with C# and OOP but if you are familiar with Java or C++ you can easily catch up since they are very alike.

The author explains in good details without being superficial. If you know how to program and want to get into game development, this is the book for you.

This is my official 2nd book that i am going through (Though i do own 3 XNA books, one of them is way to basic and only covers 2d).

This book is a great book. It just does not give you good code to program by, but gives you the reason why you should program this way, by, well, another example. Teaching about librarys, and DLLs, this book shows why some methods of programming are inefficient. The first GameComponent you create is a FPS which calculates your FPS. But how you create it is amazing, for those who have programming experience, but no XNA experience, and how to implement it is great. So then by showing the different ways of drawing and what they have on your FPS is great. You understand why things are just better. Then we get right into creating a lirbary, with FPS, Camera, and Input handler as the first projects.

Another great thing is this book shows you have to become a Better XNA programmer, not just a good 3D programmer. That way you can take complete control over XNA. I am current only on Chapter 5. But (being a college student for programming in a "REAL" school, not a tech school) i can tell that this knows what he is talking about.

Ill be updating this comment when i get to Chapter 10: 2D Effects (which is great when you wanna create GUI's. not so fun when you are doing 2D games (i dont like 2D games, not mathematically hard enough)) (and yes the double parentheses is a habbit, gotta properly use them) :)


***A SIDE NOTE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE DREAMING/BECOMING A GAME PROGRAMMER***
Ok so you want to become a game programmer. This is great steps to make. First learn all you can about different graphics uitilities. (Learn directX with C++ and then learn OpenGL). Next go to College, not a tech school. Though DigiPen is the greatest, and much harder than regular college, game school around, it does not mean employers will respect you. If you earn a degree from there, or full sail or other game specific colleges, you will not have as much opprotunity as a Tier 1 school. Not only are Tier 1 Abet Schools cheaper than those places, and easier, they give you a real degree. Which means while your waiting to become a game programmer, you can work and earn 55-70k a year. Second off you learn about theory, which i hate theory but none the less, which is a fantastic tool when programming better games.

So for anyone aspiring to be a game programmer, dont go the easy (but harder school wise) way out. It will only bite you in the butt down the road.

When i started to get serious about XNA i started looking for a good book to begin learning. Like most people (IMHO) i learn better through books and then self training than reading everything online.

The Microsoft XNA Unleashed by Chad Carter is a great book as it is not merely a skim through from the top for XNA but is very detailed. I have just started and i dont think i will be done with the book very soon.

I like his presentation style as well as the detail. I read all the reviews and sure some folks think it is a good book whereas some folks think otherwise. For me when i started reading through it i immediately liked the presentation style. I think (IMHO) that a good presentation style with good material leads to better learning.

I will post an update to my blog as and when i complete this book. Based on my initial 80 or so pages, i like it a lot.

See my blog http://ilovethexbox.blogspot.com/2008/06/microsoft-xna-unleashed.html for updates to the review.

This is a very well planned book with game development students in mind. Readers who complain that the writer takes off too quickly should keep in mind that the book is categorized as "Intermediate-Advanced" and quite accurately so.

I'm using this as a recommended text for a module I am teaching to diploma students and it brings them up to speed on programming with XNA.

You should get this if you have programmed in DirectX and/or C++; you'll find it a breeze and be amazed by how many things have been taken care / made much easier by the XNA framework and using a managed language such as C#.

The author, Chad Carter, also actively responds to the questions in the book's discussion forums. This is especially important for a technical book such as this as technology is constantly evolving (we're at XNA 2.0 currently), and it helps to know which parts of the book need to be updated (or not).

The only improvements I can recommend for the next edition (XNA 3.0) are:
1. Consolidated list of errata on the author's website (xnaessentials.com) to make it easier to find and update my own copy / students' copies of the book.
2. Teaching / supporting materials. However, I must admit that going through the exercises in the book will give you a good deal of ideas and inspirations already.

In short, thanks Chad, please keep up the excellent work.