Managed DirectX 9 Kick Start: Graphics and Game Programming (Paperback)

Microsoft recently reviled that in the next version of Windows they will replace the Win32 API with the .NET Framework Class Libraries as the OS building blocks. This shift along with the rise of 64-bit processors will push Managed code to the forefront. If you're thinking of making the switch this book would make a good companion to a .NET fundamentals book, it would help make the experience more enjoyable and would provide a real-world example of how writing Managed code is in many regards much simpler than Unmanaged. One word of caution, you must have C# or VB.NET experience to get anything from this book. It makes extensive use of the .NET Framework class libraries, also you'll need Visual Studio.NET 2003 edition to open the sample files (the pervious version of Visual Studio.NET is incompatible with the solution files) although the full Framework SDK is included with command line tools to achieve the task, no make files are included. So if you do not have Visual Studio.NET hopefully you understand how to build and link your source code using the command line tools, again if you're new to .NET/Managed code, this isn't the place to start.

Just the first chapter explains more than practically any other book about Managed DirectX I have read. Sure, it doesn't have all the long and ellaborate explanations some of the other books have. But for some reason, I still felt like a had a better understanding of how to do things the 'right way' after reading this book. This may have to do with the fact that the author of the book is also the author of the API.

The book covers a lot of ground. Most of the chapters deal with Direct3D (which is what I was interested in), although the author does touch on other subjects such as DirectInput. The pace is fast and the author covers the whole range from primitive drawing techniques to using higher level concepts, such as meshes, and eve the HLSL (high level shader language), which many would consider an advanced topic. Well, I do anyway... ;-)

The book doesn't just provide shallow introductions. In fact, the author doesn't even shy away from topics such as skeletal anomation of meshes, or writing pixel and vertex shaders to create specular highlights and per-pixel lighting effects.

Well done! This book will explain a lot, and it does so quickly. However, if you have no experience with 3d graphics at all, you may want to follow up with another book, such as 'Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DX9' by Frank D. Luna, which will give you a good understanding of related topics, such as a lot of the underlying math used for matrix transformation and vector mechanics. This can be done as a second step though, since this book does not require knowledge of these things, as it uses functions provided by the Managed API for practically everything it does.

As we are starting do work more with 3d graphics as a company, I have a need to get team members up to speed on the subject matter. This is the book I recommended they all read...

Miller's book does a great job of covering the *entire* managed DirectX library including graphics, sound, input and networking. He walks through examples, introduces 3d concepts (along with the appropriate utilities in DirectX) and explores why you would take one approach over another. It was absolutely what I was looking for! The book also includes sample code that works right out of the box.

In a nutshell, I would say this book is like having the Managed DirectX team walk you through several tutorials that include commentary and reasons for taking certain approaches. It should also be required reading for anyone that wants to understand what is included in the DirectX SDK samples/tutorials.