Programming an RTS Game with Direct3D [Paperback]

Carl Granberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2006

There are many books that teach the basics of Direct3D, but few of these books teach and apply the more advanced topics needed to program complete applications such as games. Programming an RTS Game with Direct3D is such a reference. The book provides intermediate programmers with a step-by-step implementation guide for programming a complete RTS game. And, unlike other books that teach basic game programming, this book teaches programmers how to implement the more challenging parts of an RTS game, including advanced topics such as Skinned Meshes, Fog-of-war implementation, Team-color pixel shaders, AI, networking, and much more. The game is developed from chapter to chapter, beginning with design and storyboards through the development of a fully implemented RTS game, complete with Multi-Tier AI and Networking. This is a must-have resource for intermediate game programmers who wish to increase their skills and learn the more advanced topics required in todays commercial games.

Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (October 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584504986
• ISBN-13: 978-1584504986
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #736,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia > DirectX

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, November 3, 2006

By 

Adam Larson (Sturgeon Bay, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming an RTS Game with Direct3D (Paperback)

I had been working on a 2D RTS game for about 4 months, once I saw this book I was immediately interested. I've been reading the book for about a week now and all I can say is that it was well worth the money. The examples on the CD are excellent. The terrain rendering is done really well, most of my previous experience with books teaches you how to render a terrain and spread on texture over it. Carl Granberg takes this a lot farther by showing how to break the terrain up into subsets so they can be culled. He also shows several techniques using shaders and textures to create really cool looking terrains. The bad thing is that it is going to take me a long time to fully understand everything that is happening. I am so excited about this book that I just can put it down.

I've been making a goal of typing in the code he has and then modifying it in some way so I really understand what is happening. The main thing this book does is it builds a really good foundation for creating a full RTS game. Not to mention the book comes with prebuilt projects for Visual Studio which is something a lot of books leave out. The code is really well organized, and I've found very few errors in it. I have been working on my own framework for my games for a while, and have created several 2D games, but now it is time to incorporate what this book teaches so I can use it to create 3D games of any type. I am really looking forward to the chapter on creating the minimap.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Code needs work, November 20, 2006

By 

Jaime Moreno (Farmersville,CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming an RTS Game with Direct3D (Paperback)

I agree with the previous post.
Since most of the code is not included in the printed book which is actually pretty small it would be nice if the code actually compiled on a modern compiler like VS2005.
I didn't see anything in the book that actually mentioned what compiler or DX SDK the authors used to compile the code but it must've been VC 6 or earlier since the first problem with the code is using for loops with a variable that goes out of scope because of newer scope rules in VS2003 or higher.
Second problem is that most of the code is linked with directshow which is no longer included with DirectX SDK.
If the authors at least included some sort of contact information or webpage at least we could have a chance of getting this code to work but I wasn't able to find anything.
Maybe they could reply to this post.
The only reason I'm not giving the book less stars is that is actually concludes with a game demo is that is pretty damn good almost like age of empires 1 quality. And I've never seen a game programming book with a better quality demo and I own almost 100 or more!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad book at all!, December 19, 2006

By 

Cody "damda" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Programming an RTS Game with Direct3D (Paperback)

This book covers most of the essentials topics in the RTS development.

Pro:
- the code is clear and easy to understand
- it covers topics such as fog of war, building units, simple AI, networking, and special effects
- the author is helpful and updates his code to reflect the Visual Studio 2005 version.
- a working demo at the end for you to see!

Con:
- the chapter that teaches you how to create a model 3Ds Max could have taken out and uses it for something else like more advanced AI topics.
- With the 470 pages of materials total, some of the explanation were briefly explained.

Overall, I think it's a good read book to show the really simple and basic features of most RTS games have.