Visual Basic Game Programming with DirectX (Premier Press Game Development (Software)) [Paperback]

Jonathan S. Harbour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2002 | Series: Premier Press Game Development (Software)

This book dispels the myth that Visual Basic is just too slow to write a decent game, giving readers all of the tricks and techniques that they need to create awesome games using Visual Basic. Offering equal parts theory and hands-on exercises, the chapters in this book begin with a discussion of completing a task using Visual Basic, and then move on to enhancing the code. The final section of the book is devoted to developing complete games, including a 3D arcade game, a multiplayer space combat game, and more. Ideal for readers who are new to game programming or simply new to Visual Basic, this book offers everything readers need to create amazing games by combining the hidden power of Visual Basic with DirectX.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Game programming is without a doubt the most intellectually challenging field of computer science in the world. However, we would be fooling ourselves if we said that we are 'serious' people! Writing (and reading) a game programming book, should be an exciting adventure for both the author and the reader." Andre LaMothe, Series Editor

From the Author

Source code for the projects in this book may be downloaded from these book resource locations:

• jharbour.com/forum (must create a free account first)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1150 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (January 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193184125X
• ISBN-13: 978-1931841252
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,031,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia > DirectX

More About the Author

Jonathan S. Harbour was born in Sacramento, CA, grew up in Redding, and now resides in the Phoenix area with his wife and four children. Now a freelance writer, he recently spent five years developing and facilitating the Bachelor and Master degree programs in game development at UAT (Tempe, AZ). His books cover many languages (C++, C#, VB, Basic, Lua, Python, Java), libraries (DirectX, Allegro, XNA), and hardware (GBA, Xbox, Xbox 360, cell phones).

For fun, he enjoys reading books on physics, cosmology, metaphysics, anthropology, and game development (of course) from authors such as S. Hawking, M. Kaku, H. Ross, A. George, C. Yarbro, with a personal library of over 500 books. He also enjoys bike riding, long hikes, and mind-expanding TV shows and movies of the futurist variety.

On a personal note, I wish there really was a Night Elf Mohawk character class.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I need more stars...., April 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Visual Basic Game Programming with DirectX (Premier Press Game Development (Software)) (Paperback)

I am awestruck! Jonathan Harbor has written the specific book, the manual for how to develop the game I've always wanted to make! I'm only half way through and I've learned more about VB's graphics and programming capabilities than I've learned in all the rest of my experience with the program. And I've even taught MS Visual Basic certified classes!

If you want to know about the graphic muscle that is hidden under the mild-mannered Visual Basic application language, look here. The limitations that I thought were inherent in VB just don't exist. Couple this with VB's superior ability to manipulate databases and you have a terrific platform to deliver high-performance, highly detailed strategy games! Sid Meier could have programmed all of the versions of Civilization in VB with this book!

Most impressively, this author also includes help for the artist that must be involved in the process and for the designer who must decide how things will be done as well as for the programmer. It's a manual for writing games as well as a tutorial on how to use an everyday language to program games competitive with C and C++ games in the market today. He maintains his emphasis on game playability while supplying all the tools to implement your game idea.

For the first time, I wish I had some more stars to award....

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Proof of the game development power of Visual Basic, March 28, 2003

By 

Carlos Santiago (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Visual Basic Game Programming with DirectX (Premier Press Game Development (Software)) (Paperback)

Without this book many people would have been deprived of the very powerful graphic and gaming capabilities of VB6. This book also proves convincingly that game development is not exclusive to C or assembly programmers.

The sometimes very complex topics are attenuated with the addition of some gaming history and fun personal anecdotes, making these topics more enjoyable and digestible for the reader. The author clearly shows his passion for game development and gaming in general and the desire to share his knowledge to the readers.

2d & 3D Bitmap handling, sprites, vertical scrolling, sound effects, background music, basic AI (Artificial Intelligence), control input, even multiplayer network programming using DirectPlay are covered with detail. My primary interest was to create 2d games using sprites, but soon I realized reading further along the wealth of new and interesting concepts I didn't have an idea existed in the first place.

Deep down in more advanced chapters it is apparent that in practice game development is a very complex process. But then again the author effectively provides a means of removing the complexities of DirectX and the Windows Application Programming Interface (API) by devoting an entire chapter for building a solid game library, with a set of classes that make it much easier to code your software.

With the addition of several games developed by the author throughout the book, all the concepts are nicely put into practice. Game projects include Block Attack (a classic "Breakout" arcade game), War birds 1944 (a scrolling game), Stellar War (a multiplayer game), and pong 3d (a 3d classic).

The book is not intended for inexperienced Visual Basic programmers and its scope is not to teach you the language for gaming purposes. It assumes knowledge of the interface and language structure as well as VB class instancing, functions, procedure and variable scoping, which are used extensively throughout the book; object oriented programming style is the focus in every chapter.

Minimum requirements for coding and running the programs in this book:
Visual Basic 5.0
DirectX 8
Direct X 8.0 SDK (available on the bundled CD)
Video accelerator 32MB

It is highly recommend having the following to obtain a better overall benefit from this book and the sample code:
Visual Studio or Visual Basic 6 (any edition), SP5
MSDN Library (highly recommended although not strictly necessary)
PC with 512MB and a 32MB video accelerator or better

Most of the sample code is included in the book for the benefit of readers who prefer learning by typing. Those who are in a hurry have a convenient bundled CD. In addition to all the code from the book, the CD includes trial versions of Jasc's Paint Shop Pro 7 and Syntrillium Cool Edit 2000 as well as demos of Mechwarrior 4, Crimson Skies and Motown/Motocross Madness 11

In summary, a very effective, well written, entertaining textbook and a valuable tool for future game developers and enthusiasts.

5 stars

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely fabulous!, March 7, 2002

By 

"marilla8" (WV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visual Basic Game Programming with DirectX (Premier Press Game Development (Software)) (Paperback)

As an experienced VB programmer who has followed the language since it's inception, I have to say that this is the first time I have ever been so excited at the possibilities of VB; and it's all thanks to this book.

This book presumes a basic knowledge of VB, of course; but beyond that, it will do wonders to get you out of the 'Application' programming mindset, and into GAME programming. And the book makes an excellent case for why Visual Basic is entirely acceptable for programming Windows games.

Unlike any other VB Game programming book I've ever seen, this one goes far beyond card games or a bad remake of an old arcade game. The information in this book will have you pushing the very limits of VB and DirectX together... and it will surprise you with exactly how far out those limits are.

If you are serious about VB, and serious about game programming, this book is an absolute MUST.

Also.. one thing that wasn't too clear to me before I bought this book was what version of VB it applies to. While it does include some info on VB.NET, everything in it is made for VB6.0, so don't feel shy about picking it up if you only have 5.0 or 6.0.

Get it!