Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days [Paperback]

Clayton Walnum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2002

The introductory chapters provide a solid basis in using Direct3D and DirectSound in a 2D gaming environment, providing not only the necessary theoretical discussions, but also sample programs that demonstrate the concepts discussed. Once the reader learns these basic DirectX techniques, the book leads the reader through the design and programming of a console-style computer role-playing game. As the reader builds the game piece by piece, he not only applies what he's learned about Direct3D and DirectSound, but also learns the fundamental skills needed to program games. Currently, no other book on the market covers the same material.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The introductory chapters provide a solid basis in using Direct3D and DirectSound in a 2D gaming environment, providing not only the necessary theoretical discussions, but also sample programs that demonstrate the concepts discussed. Once the reader learns these basic DirectX techniques, the book leads the reader through the design and programming of a console-style computer role-playing game. As the reader builds the game piece by piece, he not only applies what he's learned about Direct3D and DirectSound, but also learns the fundamental skills needed to program games. Currently, no other book on the market covers the same material.

About the Author

Award-winning authorClayton Walnum has been writing about computers for two decades. In the 80's, Clay published many computer games in Atari computer magazines and eventually became the Executive Editor of two monthly Atari magazines, ANALOG Computing and ST-Log. Over the course of his career, he has written many books on graphics and game programming, covering such technologies as Visual Basic, C++, OpenGL, and DirectX. Some of these books include Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days, Dungeons of Discovery: Writing Dazzling Windows Games with WinG, 3-D Graphics Programming with OpenGL, and Creating Turbo C++ Games. Clay holds a degree in Computer Science.

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Sams (September 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672324199
• ISBN-13: 978-0672324192
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #595,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia > DirectX

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful, although misleading and slightly annoying at times, February 9, 2003

By 

"randomthoughtvoid" (Amherst, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days (Paperback)

The author definitely sets out what he intends to accomplish, although it may not be what the reader was expecting. Everything in this book is essentially geared toward 2D game development, and covers what used to be called the DirectDraw API. The book is poorly titled, although I'd be more likely to blame the publisher than Walnum himself for that.

The tone of the book is very down-to-earth, and it reads fairly easily. It even borders on being patronizing, and the humor reminds me of how I act when there's a girl around that I really, really like--one just gets the feeling that he's trying too hard.

All in all, Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX is an excellent introduction to the basic features of the former DirectDraw, but anyone wanting to make a remotely modern-looking game will want to look elsewhere, or at least pick up a companion to this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for beginners, November 12, 2003

By 

Lei Tang (Rockville, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days (Paperback)

This book introduces DirectX 8 to beginners in a easy and clear way. I bought this book a year ago without any knowledge of DirectX and had a lot of funs with it. The whole book focuses on DirectX 2D programming and the way the author explains it is very clear. DirectX is not easy but this book definitely will give you the good start.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for beginners, August 31, 2005

By 

softz (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days (Paperback)

I must say that this book is totally for newbies in DirectX. One who has no idea of anything about DirectX is encouraged to read this book. The sample game used in the book is more or less similar to those old classic 2D game (remember zelda? but it's JBookman).

In this book, you learn the basic of setting DirectX application, loading surfaces, textures onto triangles, etc...

Like I said if you're a layman in DirectX, you'll be fascinated from what you learn in this book. But you won't learn 3D games here.