Windows Game Programming with Visual Basic and DirectX [Paperback]

Wayne S. Freeze (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 21, 2001

Windows Game Programming with Visual Basic and DirectX is the only game programming book on the market that pairs the ease of Visual Basic with the power and flash of DirectX applications. The book is written to teach the skills and thoughts behind game programming, with hands-on examples and a simulation game project that results in a complete application at the end of the book. Topics such as artificial intelligence, animation, sound effects, background music, and multiplayer setups will be covered in detail and put to work in the hands-on game project.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Written for the more knowledgeable Visual Basic programmer or hobbyist, Windows Game Programming with Visual Basic and DirectX presents the fundamentals of game design in Microsoft Windows from start to finish. Based on author Wayne Freeze's easy-to-approach framework and source code for an underwater virtual mall, this book introduces essential game programming concepts and the relevant DirectX APIs you need to get started with custom game development.

Although this book relies on the older VB6 standard and makes no mention of Microsoft's new VB .NET, the text really focuses on the DirectX API, the foundation of graphics and gaming on the Windows platform. The author walks the reader through the steps required to design and code a game, from defining features to designing 2-D and 3-D artwork to implementing a computer simulation in code. There's good coverage of 3-D content design with the Caligari trueSpace design tool, which is used to design virtual scenes. Freeze's sample game for a virtual mall starts out simply with basic 3-D rendering and introduces features like user input, music, and sound in subsequent chapters.

Besides giving a tour of essential DirectX APIs like Direct3D, DirectInput, and DirectSound, the author also provides background material on game design concepts like random numbers, simulations (used extensively in computing today), and finite state machines. The heart of this text shows off the design choices made in the author's own case study. By the end, his virtual mall is enhanced with moving customers, special "cheat codes," and even a popup newsletter that displays game state. Though certainly not the most action-oriented game you're likely to see, the virtual mall shows off the power of computer game simulations (like SimCity) to good effect and also provides an approachable example for getting you started on your own creations.

Game programming is legendarily difficult and extremely challenging. This title fills a useful niche by providing an accessible and entertaining introduction to game development without getting bogged down in extensive math (or gnarly DirectX APIs). It's a worthwhile choice for getting started with games and graphics in Windows and VB. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introduction to game design (including technical features, user interactions, cheat codes, and "Easter eggs"), DirectX services, 2-D and 3-D graphics quick-start tutorial (including rendering basic Direct3D scenes), graphical content design with Caligari trueSpace and Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator, texture mappings, saving and loading game state, 3-D rendering techniques, random-number-generation techniques, programming strategies for computer simulations (including multiple servers and queues), custom VB6 code for a simulation framework, case study for a virtual mall (including simulated stores, customers, and money), user input with DirectInput, adding game commands, background music and sound effects with DirectSound and DirectMusic, editing WAV files, game maps, finite state machines, saving and loading games, and adding features for more playability.

From the Back Cover

Windows Game Programming with Visual Basic and DirectX is the only game programming book on the market that pairs the ease of Visual Basic with the power and flash of DirectX applications. The book is written to teach the skills and thoughts behind game programming, with hands-on examples and a simulation game project that results in a complete application at the end of the book. Topics such as artificial intelligence, animation, sound effects, background music, and multiplayer setups will be covered in detail and put to work in the hands-on game project.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Que (December 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789725924
• ISBN-13: 978-0789725929
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,268,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #54 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia > DirectX

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings, January 19, 2002

By 

Brian (MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Windows Game Programming with Visual Basic and DirectX (Paperback)

I have mixed feelings about this book. I am an intermediate level game programmer but I have relatively little experience with Direct3D. I think it is great to finally see a book that deals with the use of Direct3D for VB. My largest complaint about this book is that it makes extensive use of a $600 3D graphics tool called TrueSpace. It comes with a "Trial" version so I figured I would be able to use it for 30 days or something to see if it was worth buying, but the trial version doesn't even let you save files. Without the ability to save the files to load into my game applications, I can not properly evaluate the software. So the author needs to be more clear that the purchase of some very expensive software is required to fully utilize the book. The book is also a little limited in scope in that it focuses on the development of only one game (an underwater 3D sim mall). I also found the capabilities of the code presented rather week. I have achieved much higher frame rates using my own graphics engine with VB and WIN API calls. I understand that non-optimized code is often used for clarity, but it is simply too inefficient for real game programming. With all that said, I still learned a lot in reading this book, and I would recommend buying it if you are an intermediate level VB game programmer. Just don't expect to write the next Quake any time soon.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written., January 9, 2002

By 

Ian Firth (Aurora, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Windows Game Programming with Visual Basic and DirectX (Paperback)

What a disappointment.

I was expecting a lot more from this book. The chapters have no logical flow based on game development. The author seems to have little or no experience writing or designing a game (before you complain, I have 7 retail titles published), and merely wrote this book to add to his collection of previous works. The whole thing comes across as a business application, masquerading as a game.

Very few of the samples included on the CD-ROM actually work well, and can be crashed easily. Performance of the code is lackluster, with frame rates 1/10th of what is capable with VB and DirectX.

Readers would be better off gaining knowledge from several excellent web sites devoted to DirectX development with Visual Basic.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not even worth the [price]..., January 14, 2002

By 

C. Higgins - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Windows Game Programming with Visual Basic and DirectX (Paperback)

Usually I wait for others to review a book before making my purchase. Well, this time I didn't and wish that I did. I expected a lot more from this book than what was offered. Since there are few VB game programming books available I try to check each one out. I choose this book purely on the authors name. Instead of exploring different aspects of game programming with VB and Direct X, the entire book is about one game, a sim game based on Sim City. If I would have known this from the start I wouldn't have bought it. So if you are looking to learn how to incorporate Direct X into your VB games look elsewhere. If you want to learn how to program a Sim game then check this book out.