3D Game Programming All in One 1st Edition
| Kenneth C Finney (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Product details
- Publisher : Cengage Learning PTR; 1st edition (April 19, 2004)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 800 pages
- ISBN-10 : 159200136X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1592001361
- Item Weight : 3.6 pounds
- Dimensions : 2.25 x 7.25 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #7,632,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,812 in Game Programming
- #5,810 in Computer Graphics
- #13,257 in Video & Computer Games
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About the author

Ken Finney teaches Game Design, Level and GUI Design, Game Development, Programming and Prototyping at the Art Institute of Toronto where he is Lead Faculty Member in the Game Art & Design program, and Graphics Design for Game Artists and XNA programming at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Ken is the creator of the popular TubettiWorld "Online Campaign" Mod and the "QuicknDirty" game management tools for Novalogic's Delta Force 2 game series. In addition to being an Associate Developer of the Torque Game Engine at GarageGames, Ken is the author of several books about game programming including 3D Game Programming All In One, 2nd Edition and Advanced 3D Game Programming All In One. Ken is 50% owner of TubettiWorld Games, Inc. (TWG), an Ontario-based company that is creating a new and unique Action/Adventure game based on the original TubettiWorld design, using Torque Game Engine Advanced. The team that Finney has assembled at TWG was responsible for delivering a 3D action racing game for a major U.S. toy manufacturer in the Spring of 2008. TWG is GarageGames' world-wide provider of Torque training for commercial customers.
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If you're looking for a good overall picture of how to create & organize a 3D game engine, then this book will probably work for you. (just don't count on code always working) If you're like me and want a little more comprehension, I would look around for an alternative.
My only gripe is that it's super-specialized to the particular tools on the CD. For example there is 14 pages on "Ultraedit 32", a Windows programmer's editor. And Milkshape is used instead of Blender for character modeling. But, OTO that's one of the nice aspects of the book it's "All in One". Like the swiss-army-knife of game development.
PROS:
Quick & smooth to read
Comprehensive - from a game design point of view (at the end you can come up with some game)
Easy, even for Beginners
CONS:
Too Specific to the Torque Game Engine (the word Torque is actually repeated infinitely through the book; really, you'll get bored of reading it ...after page 2)
Game programming fundamentals (transformations, math), theory (graphic pipeline) and libraries (DirectX and OpenGL) aren't covered at all.
It's for REAL Beginners (it even teaches you how to use Paint Shop Pro and other tools which can be, in my opinion, easily self-thaught)
Repetitive sometimes
OVERALL:
As the heading says, calling this book 3D Game Programming All in One is misleading, whereas "Creating Games From Scratch w/ the Torque Engine" could have been a much more suitable title. Go ahead and get it if you're a real beginner and you're interested in learning how to make a game from scratch, just from the designer/"product manager" (but NOT the programmer) point of view. You'll be taught some TORQUE, Paint Shop Pro, Ultraedit 32, Milkshape and other tools/game design issues, to make a complete game; even if not in depth, a bit of everything is covered.
It's not the book for you though, if you already know something about programming and especially if you expect to learn (like I did) some real-time rendering and game engine theory. For that matter, I can suggest you to get both "Real Time Rendering" by Akenine-Moller & Haines (more theoretical) and OpenGL Game Programming by Hawkins & Astle (more practical. There also you end up with a working game, but you really get a grasp on how things work under the hood... definitely something you don't with this reviewed book).
I will admit, the title of this book is a bit misleading. It does cover most aspects of 3d Game Programming (coding, textures, 3d modeling, sound, level design), but it is mostly dependent (except the artsy topics) on the TGE. Someone not expecting to work with TGE will be disappointed as all the code in the book is written in TorqueScript, not C++.
Another thing I will say about this book: The beginner-intermediate rating is a bit untrue. I would gear this book more towards the intermediate level. The 'introduction to programming' chapter is a good start, but really doesn't prepare an unexperienced programmer to the concepts of inheritance, scoping, program flow, among others, covered in the book.
Final Conclusion: Buy this book if you are working with TGE. Even if you're an experience TGE user, the references (function/class listings, etc) are extremely valuable. If you are not a TGE user, you should give a good look at it, as it is a great tool for an indie developer (...). If you're working on making your own engine from scratch, this book probably won't help you too much (there are probably better books on texture creation, 3d model creation, and sound that you could pick up instead... along with an actual 'engine development' book in C++).
