Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book is good for a beginner-intermediate programmer. Don't get it unless you have a solid understanding of C++, Visual C++, and basic Windows programming. The author uses pretty good humour to keep you amused enough to read more. I enjoy reading it.

A programmer that is 11 years old that is not the fat soul who climbs in through the chimney on Christmas Eve, but has a good understanding of C++.

DirectDraw and Direct3D are no longer separate technologies and this combined technology is called DirectX. So today, even if you want to create a 2D game, you need to have some knowledge about Direct3D. In this book the author explains how to create a simple 2D role playing game using DirectX 8. For complete beginners, I think that Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days is a good introduction to game programming and DirectX. But note that this book has nothing to with 3D.

At the time of first publication of this book, the latest DirectX version was 8.1. Hence every code provided in this book works with DirectX 8. However, latest DirectX (currently Microsoft DirectX SDK June 2010) does not include DirectX 8 libraries. So readers should either use a previous version of DirectX or convert the codes so that they work with DirectX 9. But the latter is not simple. First, you need to replace the library names d3d8.h, d3dx8tex.h, dxerr8.h with d3d9.h, d3dx9tex.h, dxerr.h, respectively to use DirectX 9. Moreover, many functions used in the codes will not work with DirectX 9 because some function names are changed and some functions now require more variables to call. So you need to check how these functions are defined in the DirectX 9 library.

This book shows the reader how to create a simple 2D RPG engine. Though it is written in DirectX, the code is easily portable. I actually wrote my own version in SDL with relative ease. Though DirectX is in the title, the book isn't really about DX, it's more about developing 2D RPGs, similar to the classic game Ultima.

While there is some technical stuff relating to DX, it's fairly simple and by no means exhaustive. The majority of the book is about building the RPG engine, not DX.

I had a great deal of fun building the engine as I progressed through the book, and I'm not even that big on RPGs. My only caution is this: The book is a good book, but it's not for everyone. Someone looking to code the next Quake should wake up and smell the coffee--there's no book out there that can teach you how to become a professional game programmer.

Hobbyists should love it, I know I did.

*** First of all Matt Weisbard, I'm afraid that the correct spelling is "grammar", NOT "grammer". ***
I agree with Matt Weisbard, the book doesn't dive into advanced topics. This book is suitable for beginners and intermediates.
Included an RPG game on CD-ROM.

this book does not provide a proper grounding of information for directX. when typing in source code from the book i find that i haven't seen or learned about most of the code yet. i end up having to figure out most of the language by myself through experimentation. if you are a beginner, stay away from this book because it is very confusing and irritating. I have read this book and found i couldn't really program a game. if you are an intermediate level, then you will just get confused from the frequent jumping and going suddenly to an advanced level. if you are an expert, this book won't help you as it doesn't teach you much more that basics-inter. i had to buy a second book to learn directX since this one was pointless. dont waste like $30 on this book. GET A DIFFERENT BOOK.