Game Programming in C++: Start to Finish (Game Development Series) (Paperback)

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Over the course of the book, you’ll learn the popular techniques and practices behind today’s games. Not only will you add a lot of theory to your game programming toolkit, but you’ll also create a small basic game from scratch – SuperAsteriodArena. While you’ll focus on using the SDL and the OpenGL libraries to learn game programming, you’ll also learn the essential Windows principles that you’ll need to create just about any kind of game with any other API such as DirectX.

This easy-to-follow book takes current game programming information and filters it down to a practical level. Each chapter and subsection builds upon previous chapters and topics in a tutorial format, allowing you to progress at your own pace. As you work through the book, you’ll build the SuperAsteriodArena game, beginning with engine creation and 3D programming with SDL and OpenGL. From there you’ll move on to animation effects, audio, collision detection, networking, and finalizing the game. A variety of tools are used throughout, including Visual Studio and OpenGL, SDL, Autodesk 3ds Max, and the Audacity sound tool.

Features: * Teaches C++ game programming in an easy-to-follow style * Uses the creation of a complete game – SuperAsteriodArena- to teach the entire game development process from concept and design document to finalizing the game * Explains important Windows programming techniques that can apply to any project Uses a variety of popular tools – Visual Studio, SDL, OpenGL, CVS, gDEBugger, Autodesk 3ds Max, and the Audacity sound tool * Includes a CD-ROM with libraries and tools, including the SDL libraries, trial versions of Audacity, 3ds Max 7, gDEBugger, InnoSetup, CVSNT, doxygen, the source code from the book, and the complete game from the book

On the CD! * Demos: gDEBugger (Graphic Remedy) – Tools for finding and isolating problems with OpenGL commands; MoleBox Pro (MoleBox) – Utility for compressing game assets; Autodesk 3ds Max 7 demo

* Tools: SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer); CEGUI (Crazy Eddie’s GUI System); Lua (The Lua Interpreter); OpenAL (The Open Audio Library); PreplicaNet; Tokaak (The Tokamak Physics Library); Audacity; BitmapFontBuilder; CVSNT; Doxygen; InnoSetup

* Game Files and Source code

System Requirements: A PC running Windows NT4.0/95/98/2000 or XP. To compile the source code you will need a PC capable of compiling C++ modules. The sample projects included are compatible with either Visual Studio 6.0 SP6 or Visual Studio .NET 2003 (other compilers are an option but are untested at this time. To run the sample game, you will need any version of Windows (newer than NT4.0) with at least 1 GHz CPU and a minimum of 256MB of RAM. You will need a 3D accelerated video card with at least 32MB of onboard VRAM and the latest drivers from your vendor. For Visual Studio 2005 code, visit the book’s Web page.

About the Author
Author Bio: Erik Yuzwa (Calgary, AB) has been a professional computer programmer for over seven years. He graduated from the University of Calgary in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. In 1995, he founded Wazoo Enterprises Inc. to pursue creating game programming related tutorials and articles. Concurrently, he holds a position at EnCana Corporation allowing him to be a Web Systems Architect, where he uses his Java, ASP/Cold Fusion, C#/C++ and other programming skills to create real solutions with various clients. In 2001, he began instructing on the game development process at the University of Calgary Continuing Education.

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