Data Structures for Game Programmers (Premier Press Game Development) with CD-ROM 1st Edition

by Ron Penton (Author)

18 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1931841948

ISBN-10: 1931841942

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"Data Structures for Game Programmers" replaces endless pages of boring text with exciting gaming technology and eye-catching graphics. The complex subject of data structures is made easy to understand and fun to learn. Start with an explanation of how the most popular data structures and algorithms work. Then you're on your way as you create your own! From simple arrays and bit vectors to intense binary tree graphs and hash tables, this book covers it all. It even tackles the algorithms used for sorting, searching, compression, and recursion. Plus, you will actually see each concept put into practice through interactive graphical demonstrations included on the CD!

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ron Penton is an independent programmer with a primary interest in computer games. He began using GW-BASIC in 1989, moved on to Visual Basic 4 in 1995, QBasic in 1996, and learned C++ in 1997. Ron began working on his degree in 1998 at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and is working on completing his Bachelors in Computer Science at the University of Buffalo. Ron contributed a chapter in the book titled Game Programming All in One published by Premier Press.

Product details

Publisher : Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade; 1st edition (November 25, 2002)
Language : English
ISBN-10 : 1931841942
ISBN-13 : 978-1931841948
Item Weight : 3.43 pounds
Dimensions : 7.25 x 2 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,049,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,571 in Computer Graphics
- #1,588 in Game Programming
- #4,252 in Computer Programming Languages

Customer Reviews:
18 ratings

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2 star		10%
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Anon

It's a good intro to data structures

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2016

Verified Purchase

It's a good intro to data structures, but doesn't go as deep into each type as I would have preferred.

2 people found this helpful

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jmcguire

Don't miss this one!

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2003

The title is scary. Really scary. Data structures ... *shudder* ... it brings up nightmare images of professors who droned for hours while the class snored ... it sounds like one of those books that is so dry you have to soak it in water before you read it. It isn't.
This book is excellent. My husband thinks I'm nuts because it kept me up late reading in bed, but it's that good. The author explains complex concepts very clearly, with some humor to keep it entertaining. He's a game programmer writing for other game programmers, which is a refreshing change from the myriad books that seem to be by academics writing for review committees.
It explains all of the many ways data can be handled, from simple arrays to recursive structures, hashing, and other complex forms. Ok, any good advanced programming book would tell you this -- but they rarely if ever bring up considerations like how memory caching should influence your choice of data structures, or the impact of those choices on game design.
In addition to data structures, the author covers what you can do with them, and why. Topics such as pathfinding are covered and demonstrated. SDL, a cross-platform graphics library, is used for the demos and the coverage of that is almost worth the price of admission. (though I recommend Focus on SDL in addition)
If you're writing a game you need to know this stuff. Read this book.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

I loved this book like a cookie dough sundae.

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2005

Ron Penton, Data Structures for Game Programmers (Premier, 2003)

I don't normally get all googly-moogly over programming books. In fact, I just took a quick look back at my reading log since 1999, and a select few have gotten four stars, but nothing above that. But I picked up Penton's nine-hundred-page tome on Thursday and I finished it on Sunday. Nine hundred pages in four days. I've only been keeping track of page counts over the past year, but the books I've read that have come closest, page-wise, have been Robin Hobb's lovely novels, three of which I read earlier this year hovered around eight hundred pages. I read the shortest of them in eight days. And I love Robin Hobb.

Data Structures for Game Programmers is a wonderful book in no small part because Ron Penton was still an undergrad while writing it. Which is, of course, also the book's main problem, because someone like me who last saw ivy-covered halls well over a decade ago is likely to be sick with envy that some little greenhorn has already found his way into the world of professional computer-book publishing (and by "professional" here I don't mean "published by recognizable press," I mean "the kid's already published three books in three years, and they're ALL monstrous tomes, when does he have time to program?"). But let's face it, you expect something different when you read a book by a young writer, be it the hot new novelist or the new kid on the programming block. And Penton delivers it; Data Structures for Game Programmers is, if you're a programmer, the most readable computer book you've ever come across. Penton seems to have a healthy disrespect for textbooks, which he alludes to a few times in the course of the book, and it shows in his writing; he wants to write something that will teach you more than a textbook by being more accessible. And in this goal, he succeeds. Brilliantly. I learned more about C templates from reading this book than I have in any other three books devoted to nothing but templates, and here they're just referred to a few times in passing. How is this possible? Because Penton explains things in language far easier to understand than that of most programming books; simply put, he hasn't yet been so overwhelmed by jargon that he can't see when he's written something the layperson might not be able to understand, which is a common ailment among programming authors.

Also, there's been some minor grumbling from some critics about the book's insistence on reinventing the wheel. Of course it does. That's how you learn to program-- you bang away at it, doing something that's already been done, until you figure out why it's done that way. There may be five or six people on the planet who can read it in a textbook and immediately figure out why it's the case (and, one assumes, they are the same people as those critics), but the rest of us are much happier seeing it this way.

If any computer book publishers happen to be reading this, you, especially, should be reading Data Structures for Game Programmers. See what it's like. Try to get the rest of your authors to emulate it. You'll have much happier customers that way.

This is one of the handful of books I've read since getting a library card again (a total, in fact, of four since 2003) that, after returning it to the library, went back on my Amazon wish list, because I want a copy for myself.

10 people found this helpful

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WhatAboutBob

I would recommend this book to a non-beginner

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2004

A pre-requisite for any book on Data Stuctures is that the person should be comfortable with the syntax and semantics of programming in a high level language such as C++ or Java. Hence this book assumes that you are comfortable with C++ and OOP. There is no such thing as Data Structures for Absolute Beginners. So discard the review with 2 stars. Overall this is an excellent and interesting book on Data Structures.
Bottom line is this, you can find the information presented in DS4GP in any other good book on data structures but what sets this book apart is the presentation, organization, practical content and the writing style of the author.
It's definetly not for beginners or for a person looking for a very detailed book on data structures that covers AVL trees and red-black trees. But for the other 99% its a must buy.

8 people found this helpful

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mittens

Great Book for Any Programmer

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2003

Data Structures... Those things of legend that, basically, totally suck. They're complicated, their use is cryptic at times, However, Ron Penton, the author of Data Structures for Game Programmers, makes these things of legend not only simple to understand, but also makes the entire learning process... *gasp... *FUN!*
The author goes through every data structure in the book with great detail. No two page explanations here, nor does he want you to just copy and paste the code into your project. No sir, Ron goes through EVERY data structure in the book with great detail, lots of figures and diagrams, and three demos. One demo showing the data structure in-action via a custom GUI, allowing you to play with and "tweak" various settings to see how the algorithm works. Then there's a console mode implementation that simply shows a basic implementation of the algorithm. And finally, there is a demo where the reader sees how the data structure can be applied to game development. It's definately obvious that the author knows his stuff inside and out.
So, if you're a game programmer, you definately owe it to yourself to pick up this book. No matter what. If you're a general programmer having a hard time with college data structure books that make no sense, you also owe it to yourself to pick this book up.
Premier Press and its fellow authors definately seems to be getting the hang of writing and publishing, as each book they put out seems to be getting better and better, let's just hope this trend continues.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

SoulFireMage

they do a fantastic job of explaining stuff a programmer should know in ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 8, 2014

Verified Purchase

I don't program in c++ yet I bought this after reading a few chapters of an electronic version: they do a fantastic job of explaining stuff a programmer should know in the first years of coding. The highlight for me is the distinction I now have between generics and templates, whereas I'd no idea of the latter before at all.

if your doing computer science and need some straight up solid fundamentals with practicality, this book will do it. If you've an ambition to use c++ in general for game coding or other work requiring more than stitching together very high level libraries then you want this.

The level is aimed at turning a relative novice into a solid intermediate coder, in terms of understanding and application. The concepts travel well, allowing for language and compiler differences.

More importantly, it's NOT a boring book, hence why a non c coder is likely to enjoy referring to it to gain conceptual understanding with a practical bent. Nice job.

Richard A

Comprehensive and multi-platform

Reviewed in Germany on February 20, 2003

Verified Purchase

This book is very broad ranging and of excellent quality. The potentially dry and tedious world of data structures is given new life by always relating it back to game development.
The examples use SDL for the graphical representations and has multi-platform libraries on the CD. This means that non-windows developers can also benefit fully from the examples and the code without extensive editing (and you don't lose the first 1/4 of the book to windows specific tutorials on Direct X etc).
Kudos to the author for making the choice to use SDL. Read the terms of the LGPL license on SDL people, and remember, have fun - this book will certainly give you a great start in the extremely important field of data structures and algorithms.
Highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

Albert

More than just one book

Reviewed in Spain on August 26, 2014

Verified Purchase

The author did a great work. There are a lot of programming books that explain many things but this book has the additional value of showing everything in game demonstrations that perfectly works.

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Data Structures for Game Programmers (Premier Press Game Development) with CD-ROM 1st Edition

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