Programming a Multiplayer FPS in DirectX (Game Development Series) (Paperback)

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Product Description

If you have experience with C++ and DirectX and have always wanted to program your own game, this is the book for you. Programming a Multiplayer FPS in DirectX takes you from the basic game design to a fully functioning game! All of the source code, assets, and tools are included–you just work through the tutorial-based chapters and watch the game come to life as you develop it. And as new features are added, you can begin playing with them to see them in action.

Following a typical game development process, the book is separated into two distinct parts: Part One focuses on the design and development of the game engine, and Part Two concentrates on putting the game together using the engine. The theory has been kept to a minimum, so that you are following a hands-on approach and adding new functionality to your engine as you proceed. In the first part, you'll learn about the many facets of DirectX, C++, and object-oriented programming. You'll also learn how to design the engine and put the infrastructure into place. The next chapters will each add a new module to your engine including input, scripting, 3D rendering, sound, networking, and scene management. The second part covers the final development stages, including everything from game play to player management; it culminates with the complete multiplayer FPS game.

Throughout the book you'll learn key topics that will bring you up to speed with industry proven techniques, while improving your confidence as a developer. And because DirectX is the most prevalent game development tool available, once you master this project, you'll have the skills you need to create a variety of games!

FEATURES * Provides a detailed, step-by-step approach through the creation of a complete multiplayer FPS

* Covers a variety of key topics beyond the basics needed for the game creation, including occlusion culling and scene management

* Prepares users with the skills needed to code using the latest DirectX API

* Includes a companion CD-ROM with all the source code and assets for the complete game, the DirectX SDK, and other useful tools

On the CD! * All of the source code and assets used to create the complete game

* The DirectX SDK 9.0c installation package used to develop the code in the book

* Panda DirectX Exporter (by Andy Tather) to use in conjunction with 3ds max to produce meshes in .x file format

* Paint Shop Pro fullfeatured, trial version– great for creating textures

* Improved Collision Detection Article (by Kasper Fauerby): provides more details about the collision detection algorithm used in the sample game

*************************************** Take your game development to the next level. After reading this book, you’ll know how to program your own FPS game.All submissions must be received by November 4, 2005. Final prizes for the competition include the entire Game Programming Gems Series (Volumes 1 – 5), valued at $350. Others are still being added. ***************************************

About the Author

VAUGHAN YOUNG (Queensland, Australia) is an experienced C++ and DirectX programmer. His degree in IT is complemented by further studies in software development, focusing primarily on game development. Currently, he operates his own software development business, producing and managing software solutions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (December 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584503637
• ISBN-13: 978-1584503637
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #587,275 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This item is part of The Charles River Media Game Development Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction, April 4, 2005

By	P. H. Mason (South Africa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When I first found out about this book I thought it had a snowball's change in hell of being even a half decent book (being a pretty ambitious topic). I've changed my mind after actually reading the book, and found it to be an excellent introduction to writing a FPS game engine. Granted, it's not DOOM3 but the end result is a simple, complete working engine; which is quite an achievement in my opinion.

One caveat though, even though the book is fairly simple and not exactly taxing (a tribute to the author) it is certainly not a beginners book. You should already be fairly comfortable with C++ and DirectX 9 to get the most out of it and be prepared to study the source and MSDN documentation (a good habit to get into anyway).

The book covers most of the major parts of a FPS engine at a reasonable level, resulting in a well designed, modular engine that can be expanded on quite easily. The main value of the book, however, is the design of the engine which should help a lot in developing your own engine (since most books cover the therory in exhausting detail but ignore the overall engine design - if you're looking for detail, this may not be the book for you).

After reading this book, the following books may be useful:

1. Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 (excellent intro to DX9).

2. 3D Game Engine Architecture : Engineering Real-Time Applications with Wild Magic (nice and detailed - I recommend all David Eberly's books).

3. Real-Time Rendering (doesn't get better than this).

4. Game Programming Gems (buy all of them, now).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch Code, February 16, 2005

By	Jason (Canada) - See all my reviews

I'm about half way through the book now and the code that comes with the book is top notch. I even heard the author saying he went through all of the code removing the error checking before releasing as to make it easier to read. Its well maintained, simple and clever. The code is also definitly encapsulated well so you can bring it to other projects easily if you'd like with little dependencies.

Warning to those who are intermediate directx users - the first 2-7 are mostly directx basics and you will most likely skip this to get to the meat.

Although there's nothing incredibly complicated in this book, I think it gave me a healthy dose of not over estimating myself. The author only spends time on the what is required to complete the project and reuses his code a lot (i think the initial linked list was reused about 100 times in total) So if you ever find yourself making projects that always fail half way through - this is a good book for you.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful book, really bad FPS game, February 4, 2007

By	GameMaker (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

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I've enjoyed reading this book. It effectively shows you how to write a very basic first person shooter in directx. Well done. It briefly introduces rendering, a simple scripting system, peer-to-peer networking, handling user input, scene management, collision detection, sound effects, and more. Not bad. The code is fine, I had no problems compiling it in VS2005 (check the authors website for the latest code though) and I learned a lot from reading the book and going through the code. In short, I am glad to have bought and read this book and I do recommend it to others.

The book does have some drawbacks though. I feel that the actual game that is built in this book is embarrasingly bad. The networking system, rendering system, user interface, and everything else about it are bare-bones functional, but certainly not good enough that you'd want to encorporate them into your own game. I suppose that the thought is that you should first learn to build a Yugo before you learn to build a Ferrari, but personally I'd rather just learn to build the ferrari right off the bat :) Oh, and why must the graphics suck so badly? I realize that it doesn't necessarily impact the goal of learning the various topics, but seriously, how hard would it have been to at least provide a decent character model, or some decent textures and lighting and so forth?

One last thing. The book assumes a familiarity with C++ and to a lesser extent with Directx, so if you are brand new to either of those, the book will be pretty challenging to follow.