Introduction To 3D Game Programming With Directx 9.0 (Wordware Game and Graphics Library) 1st Edition

by Frank Luna (Author)

47 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1556229138

ISBN-10: 1556229135

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This book instructs the reader from the beginning by teaching the underlying mathematics and 3D theory necessary to make sense of the DirectX 9 API.

About the Author

Frank Luna is a programmer for Hero Interactive. He has been programming interactive 3D graphics for more than five years, and has been using DirectX since its fifth iteration. He lives in Los Angeles, California. Technical editor Rod Lopez is a senior programmer at Digital Illusions CE and has been developing games full time for more than seven years.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jones & Bartlett Learning; 1st edition (June 9, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1556229135
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1556229138
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.38 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.87 x 9.14 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,493,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #25 in DirectX Software Programming
- #332 in 3D Graphic Design
- #1,938 in Game Programming

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Markus Egger

One of the better DX9 books I've seen

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2004

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I like the way this book is written. It is a good introduction for people who know how to program, but have not done any Direct3D development before. The book is written in a very straightforward and almost scientific manner. This book does not assume the reader to be a complete beginner when it comes to many programming topics like so many other DX9 books do (even though they often claim they don't).
This book simply covers the fundamental Direct3D topics as well as a bit of math, and it does so from the ground up as far as the DX API goes. Most of the samples are done soup to nuts, rather than using helper methods and API sample code that simplifies things a lot, but keeps too many details from the reader (once again: like so many other DX9 books seem to do).
I like the focus of the book: It simply only describes Direct 3D graphics programming. Other DirectX topics, such as DirectPlay or DirectInput are NOT covered. Also, if you do not know what a game-loop is, then you won't learn it here. I think this is one of the things I like most about this book: It focuses on one topic, and it does a great job at that!
But a small warning is in order as well: If you are not an experienced programmer and just want to get started with game development, then this book is NOT for you! Quite simply, many aspects of 3d graphics development are not for the faint of heart! Don't expect this book to read like a novel either. It is very much a DX9 text book.

72 people found this helpful

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AssortedLetters

Best Book to Start with Direct3D

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2004

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This book is a great start for people wanting to learn Direct3D and a great reference for Direct3D programmers. Frank Luna's book covers several important topics for getting started with 3D graphics using DirectX 9.0, and refrains from any off-topic discussions or biased rants.
The book includes a section on basic math concepts for 3d programming. Also includes sections on Direct3D fundamentals (which explains D3D9 initialization, the Direct3D rendering pipeline, and drawing in Direct3D with vertex/index buffers, color, lighting, textures, blending and stenciling) and applied Direct3D concepts (fonts, meshes, .x files, cameras, basic terrain rendering, particle systems, and "picking"). The author devotes the final section to vertex and pixel shaders and effects using HLSL (high-level shading language). He also includes a quick introduction to setting up a skeleton windows application as an appendix (where it should be located in a book on DirectX).
One final thing to note about this book is that it only covers the Direct3D portion of DirectX 9.0, so you'll need to go elsewhere for coverage of DirectPlay, DirectInput, DirectSound, etc. Howver, the fundamentals of Direct3D are covered with the depth necessary to give a completely understanding of how to begin coding 3D graphics with DirectX 9. After reading several books on DirectX and game programming, this is the book I wish had picked to read first.

12 people found this helpful

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Riccardo Audano

The almost perfect intro book to D3D

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2004

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If you know C++ at a reasonable level (meaning pointers , references structures and classes don't scare or confuse you)
this is book is a very good starting point in your directx quest.
It has the advantage of not spending hundreds of pages on windows programming details or even worse on GDI like the many LaMothelian game programming series books...but it gives you a little framework in which to work with and it explains how it works and why.
Subject coverage is very good, and you will get explanations and working code on interesting subjects like terrain renedering and
mesh loading and manipulating and a bonus of a couple chapters on pixel and vertex shaders. Now this is definitely what I would call advanced topics.. but even if you are a beginner it is nice to read about them just to figure out what these mysteriously sounding entities are ;)
My only grudge with this book is that it is quite a little one.
Lenghtier explanations and a few more examples would could really benefit the beginner.. especially since like for many books of this kind the author is more a programmer than a technical author or tutor so the writing style is pretty much like: here are the basic points about the theory and here is the program I wrote to show you how it works. So you won't get much from this book if you don't dig a lot in the code. The difference with many other similar book on the market is that the author gives you at least some good assistance into it.

2 people found this helpful

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P. H. Mason

An Excellent Introduction.

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2004

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Firstly, let me say that this is a beginner book and even though it says "Game Programming" in the title it doesn't have much to do with game programming. That said, it still gives you a better head start in game programming than most books that actually do cover game programming (if that makes any sense).

What I like about the book is that it has almost no coverage of Win32 and COM (there is a good appendix if needed, but you really should get books dedicated to the subject). The math overview is particulary good simply because the author relates it to Direct3D all the way, so you aren't left to figure out how to implement the theory through the DirectX API.

The other topics are all solid introductions to the various parts of Direct3D (setting up, lighting, meshes (very good), vertex/index buffers, v/p shaders etc) and a very usable camera class and a nice simple introduction to terrains.

You certainly aren't going to be able to write an AA title after reading this book but it gives a solid introduction that you can work from, which is sadly lacking in most other books.

6 people found this helpful

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Introduction To 3D Game Programming With Directx 9.0 (Wordware Game and Graphics Library) 1st Edition

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