Customer Reviews

Programming an RTS Game with Direct3D

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

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I am a computer science professor who reads scores of game dev and C++ books every year. I have a really hard time choosing a textbook for many upper-division game courses, and rarely have time to read them all. I was really upset when the book initially came out with buggy examples that would not build with VS2005 and would crash a lot, so I had to shelve it for a couple years. Now, returning to the book again while perusing the Amazon reviews, I find that the author, Carl Granberg, released an update of the book's sources with new VS2008 projects and bug fixes, and everything works great now. More than great...

This is the single best book on Direct3D 9 I have ever read, and I am using it as the primary resource for two courses--DirectX II and Game Engine Development. Here are the all-important topics you will learn here that are half baked in every other book I've read:

1. 3D heightmap terrain generation, with a progression from simple to complex with over a dozen examples of each step the author took while developing the landscape for his rts example. THIS ALONE is worth the price of the book! No other resource explains dynamic terrain as well as Granberg does here.

2. Mesh file modeling, loading, rendering, and animating. ALSO worth the price of the book. It's so well done that Granberg is writing another book just on this topic. Character Animation with Direct3D.

3. HLSL shader programming: glow effects, fog of war, team colors. ALSO worth the price of the book. Very good practical real-world use of shaders rather than the usual (Engel, et al) over-hyped approach to the topic. Easy to grasp due to Granberg's excellent pacing and well-described techniques.


In summary, I was a fan of this book even with the buggy problems here and there in his sources. But now that the issues are worked out with the author's updated sources, I'm extremely relieved to have found a MASTER guide to all of the most important Direct3D topics in one volume.

Pros:
-Great overview on how most RTS games are written.
-It is by far the best single resource on RTS game development currently on the market as of October 2008.
-The content and quality is good enough to get you started with your own, but needs a lot of work to build a solid quality game.
-Code samples available at http://www.cjgraphic.com/ bring the code examples up to date with the latest DirectX SDK and Visual Studio 2008. Make sure you download these rather than using the code on the included CD-ROM.
Cons:
-There is still a lot of polish and quality that you need to add to make a good RTS. Game Programming Gems and Game Developers Conference session CDs are a good place to fill in the gaps left by this book.

This book was much better than most game programming books out there, because although you do end up with a working, advanced game, each chapter tackles a topic, and visually shows you what is happening. So instead of simply building one game throughout the book, ending finally with something that works, you can see how the concepts progress throughout the book.

Overall the best game programming book I have found so far, the only problem being coding problems between programming environments. Get this if you're having trouble programming a game with other books, or even if you're trying to get the hang of some direct3d concepts- either way it is clear, concise, and definitely recommended.

(7/2/09)Edit: Still one of my most frequently used game programming books. He covers many subjects that aren't exclusive for RTS games. The value in the book is not the end demo, just the process he goes through, and the many common techniques used. The choice to use shaders keeps the book from being dated. Best resource I have found so far for starting a 3d game.

Want to develop an 3D rts in C++, get this book.
Great explanation and implementation of 3D.
I liked the overall framework of the code, it was easy to extend.

The chapter on creating 3D models was basic, and there are a whole lot more tutorials on how to do it elsewhere, but, for the sake of completeness, I understand Carl putting it into the book.

Chapter on Terrain, Fog of War, Effects where excellent.
The chapter on AI was simplistic, but a good starting point for any person interested in getting an RTS up and running.

The best aspect is the operational code, that allowed lots of experimentation and extending to create your own game.
Thanks

I always make sure that when I but a book on game programming that it is less than 3 years old, because technology changes so fast, I don't want to buy something outdated.

Even though this was published in 2006, the author has offered updated VS 2008 source code files on his website that make the book perhaps even more of a classic, and it's place has become solidified in my game programming book shelf.

The book starts out with a basic direct3d primer, as most do, and introduces some key concepts on how it will be using the STL. It then moves on into, well, RTS game programming!

I do recommend, as does the author, that you pick up some experience with direct3d before using this book. Frank Luna's DirectX 9.0c book is probably the best for that job, because it goes in depth on using the caps structure and other helpful math and direct3d stuff that this book assumes you know. You should also be familiar with C++ concepts like advanced usage of classes and the STL. It would be difficult for someone without OOP experience to understand the concepts in this book, but hey, this isn't a primer; it's an honest to goodness classic.

Also, make sure you have a graphics card that supports vertex and pixel shaders versions 2.0 and higher. the author mentions this in the book, but I think it's something that ought to be pre-purchase.

If you're on the fence on whether or not to buy this book, please follow my advice and pick it up. Granberg is an excellent writer and you won't ever feel "lost" during the book. his writing style is very nice and easy to comprehend without leaving you feeling like he's some sort of cheesy camp counselor, explaining to you how "super totally rad" game programming is.

Oh, and did I mention that this book is a classic?

This is a good book that really walks you through the start, middle and end of programming a simple RTS game with Direct 3D. The code base does seem a little dated and some items seemed to be glossed over, but with good purpose.

Overall a good book to begin from.