Inside Directx (Microsoft Programming Series) (Paperback)

~ Bradley Bargen (Author), Peter Donnelly (Author) "Until recently, the history of computer games for Microsoft Windows has not been an eventful one-successful titles have been largely limited to the multimedia and..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Today, the most popular PC games all run on Windows 95--not DOS. No doubt Microsoft's DirectX gaming platform is the reason. Inside DirectX delivers you to the world of building games on Windows 95 and NT using Microsoft DirectX technology.

Bargen and Donnelly walk beginners through the features of DirectX, beginning with its underlying COM architecture and basic concepts for all DirectX programmers, such as surfaces, double-buffering, and "blting" (or copying) graphics. The rest of the book explores the fundamentals of programming with the various aspects of DirectX. These include DirectDraw (for 2-D graphics), DirectSound (for sound), DirectPlay (for multiplayer gaming) and DirectInput (for mouse and joystick input). Also included are the basics of Internet gaming. Direct3D, the part of DirectX that handles 3-D rendering, is wisely omitted here in the interest of simplicity.

The samples in the text are small and manageable enough for any experienced C programmer to handle; the accompanying CD includes a copy of DirectX 5.2. DirectX has a well-deserved reputation for being tricky, but Inside DirectX has all you need to get started on writing games and other high-performance multimedia applications. --Richard Dragan

Product Description

This is the definitive guide to programming with DirectX, Microsoft's advanced, high-performance multimedia libraries. Written and thoroughly reviewed by members of the DirectX team, this title contains a wealth of previously unpublished information about DirectX and the programming techniques that take advantage of its libraries. INSIDE DIRECTX isn't another rehash of gaming topics. Rather, it delves into programming techniques that help readers grasp the details of properly using DirectX functionality.

Product Details

• Paperback: 545 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Pr (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572316969
• ISBN-13: 978-1572316966
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #283,374 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars By far the best DirectX manual out there, March 4, 2000

By	Donnie DeBoer (Allen, Texas) - See all my reviews

Clear, concise, and detailed enough to get you well on your way. Unless you're looking for Direct3D, this book is nearly flawless. I've been programming in DirectX for years and I still reference this book. It's a perfect mix of a reference and tutorials. To beginners: don't expect to master DirectX from one book. It takes time, experimentation, and a lot of wading through code. (This book will really help you get started, though)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent reference book, June 18, 1999

By	"kaos_advokit" (Hoboken) - See all my reviews

Although the code samples are not the best, it is still a complete and thorough resource. I prefer to write my own code, including all DirectX calls, and this book has shown me what steps have to be taken to initialize them. As I said, the sample code IN THE BOOK is poor (the explanations of each object are great), but the sample code provided on the CD is very good. These samples are straight from the source--Microsoft programmers themselves. The old samples were archaic and impossible to comprehend at best. These samples are clear and concise and have allowed me to write my own DirectDraw object to manage everything. It is written with enough character to be interesting, yet still express its point. I highly reccomend it for anybody that wants to program multimedia apps/games. Some of the DirectDraw commands are also useful in other apps.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ok, but..., September 29, 2000

By	nelix (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This book doesn't deserve high ratings. There are NO complete samples -- just code excerpts -- and the ones on CD are confusing. There is 1 sample for every subject, so if you don't understand that, you just don't learn. For example, the joystick sample uses complex dialogs to set attributes, making it impossible to understand. Maybe it's a good reference for _beginners_, or introduction to the concepts, but definately not a learning book. It is hard to quickly find things. Throughout chapters, concepts are unorganized and not step by step -- basically, all incomplete explainations and no solid code. This is obviously thrown together. Try Andre Lamonthe's books.

PS: Remember, #define INITGUI at the top of code or Sys_ device constants will be unresolved -- the book does not mention this.