Multiplayer Game Programming w/CD (Prima Tech's Game Development) [Paperback]

Todd Barron (Author), LostLogic (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0761532986 | ISBN-13: 978-0761532989 | Publication Date: June 14, 2001 | Edition: 1

Multiplayer Game Programming is the first technical guide to enable you to write a complete Internet-ready video game using DirectX 8. The first part of the book covers the history of online gaming, the architecture of multiplayer games, basic networking, and an introduction to Visual C++ and Windows programming. After you cover the basics, you'll move on to sockets, DirectPlay, Direct3D, DirectAudio, and DirectInput programming, as well as multiplayer game design. Whether you are new to game programming, or you have extensive game programming experience but want to break into the multiplayer phenomenon, this book is for you. Multiplayer Game Programming teaches you the skills necessary to create interactive, online games!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Todd Barron is a lead software engineer at Acxiom, a billion dollar information company based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Previously Todd was a professional game developer and developed networking systems and created mulitplayer games for the Megatouch arcade line at Merit Industries. In his spare time he operates Lost Logic, a vehicle for his PC game creations. He is currently working on a 3D multiplayer game engine for use in future titles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 850 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (June 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761532986
• ISBN-13: 978-0761532989
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #982,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better than a Lamothe book as far as content goes, September 22, 2001

By 

Michael J. Micai (Hamilton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Multiplayer Game Programming w/CD (Prima Tech's Game Development) (Paperback)

OK well I know many people who are really serious about game programming get turned off by the Lamothe books because they basically go over the same old 2d information over and over again, and never actually seem up to date. This book is up to date, and has good information. It uses DirectX 8.0, and actually goes into 3d programming which is nice. I personally do not care for the DirectPlay information, I like Sockets, but either way they are both there. I will go through the pro's and cons.

Pros:
Easy to read and understand
Has quite a bit of good information and history
Definately good as a reference book
Covers DPlay and Sockets
Covers D3D, which i believe is nice to have even though it doesnt pertain to the multiplayer end.
Great service, I emailed the author and he emailed back. Can be quite a useful thing

Cons:
The code is poorly documented in many spots. While it is explained afterward, it would be nice to have a lot more comments. (which is something that Lamothe does quite nicely in his books)
Not very much ACTUAL GAME SERVER type code.. I've practically read over the book already, and while I have a general idea of how I will get this going, I feel more like i'm adapting chat programs to make my game.
Not enough on sockets... The sockets information was just too vague to me.
The DirectPlay information seemed mostly like pasted information out of the SDK Documentation. Honestly, the reason I bought the book was because I didn't get what was in the documentation very well.
And lastly i'd like to see more information on actually obtaining and setting up your server for a MMORPG. Things like security, what type of connection to get and how to get it etc.

Well, the cons seem bigger than the pros, but its really not like that. Just be warned that there are only about 200 or 400 pages out of this 800 page book that really focus on the issue of writing your server. Really, i'd like to see a sequel that really delved into the advanced issues, and really layed out things like sockets.

OK well finally, i'm glad I bought this book. I enjoyed it, and still am. It's a good book definately, and the perks of it are nice. I just feel like I want more, and there is nowhere to get it as of now. Based on this book, I would buy a sequel if it was put out. If I had it to do again, i'd buy this book again. Enough said, if you want to program games, buy this book. It's one you need on your shelf, as well as "Tricks Of The Windows Programming Gurus", and your most MOST important resource, the DirectX SDK. Because most of these books out today are just people who read and interpret the samples from it, and just print em out in a book. I learned most of the stuff from the SDK.

53 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Big let down but maybe I set myself up for it., July 23, 2001

By 

Leigh McRae (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Multiplayer Game Programming w/CD (Prima Tech's Game Development) (Paperback)

I bought the book online without seeing it first so its likely was my own fault. If I had a chance to browse it I would never have bought it. It wasn't the wasted coin that bothered me it was the let down when it contained almost no useful information. Going by the title, I would expect 50% of the book to be about Multiplayer Game Programming and it wasn't. What was wrong. Basiclly it is a Dummies book that holds your hand through the whole thing. Skims over all the real problems in multiplayer gaming.

1) A history of Multiplayer games is important but it should be shorter and I don't need reminiscing.

2) Its fine to have DirectPlay but skip the whole sockets thing if your not going to explain the important/relevant parts such as UDP.

3) The book has major fill. Redundant code listings fill a lot of the book. Having C and then C++ versions of the same code was a huge filler. If you want to provide that then put it on the CD.

4) I don't need a course on 3D graphics thanks. Thats another book.

5) Skip the C++ course also. The author is likely new to C++. A statement that C++ has shorter compile times is off the wall.

6) Visual C++ course could be left out.

7) Having DirectInput only and since most of the book talks DirectPlay maybe "for Windows" should be in the title?

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Makes a better doorstop than info source!, December 27, 2001

By 

Ross P. Wright (College Station, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Multiplayer Game Programming w/CD (Prima Tech's Game Development) (Paperback)

Talk about false advertising. The title of this book should be "game programming for idiots." I bought this book hoping to find some insight into multi-player game design with an emphasis on massively multi-player applications, and what I got was a phonebook sized stack of paper that does an excellent job of explaining the issues involved without actually giving any solutions! Let me sum up the knowledge contained within...

When implementing a multiplayer game you can use a client-server or peer to peer architecture. Peer to peer results in more connections. And you might look into using sockets or DirectPlay, but you'll need to buy a different book to really understand what is going on...oh and with mmporpg applications you'll have to worry about zones and server boundaries, but how to solve those problems is left as a exercise for the reader!