Game Programming Gems 4 (Game Programming Gems Series)

Rating:
Summary: A "must-have" compendium
Review: Featuring contributions from expert, professional game developers, Game Programming Gems 4 is an in-depth and recommended reference and resource filled cover to cover with essays, each covering everything from general programming and debugging to mathematics, physics, aritifical intelligence issues, graphics, network and multiplayer concerns, audio, and so much more. Game Programming Gems 4 is not a standard instructional textbook; rather, it is a supplementary guide packed with the latest cutting-edge insights to creating quality games - most code is written in C++, but some Java and Python are also represented. A "must-have" compendium of insight, discoveries, tips, tricks, and techniques for every serious game programmer's library. An accompanying Windows CD-ROM contains source code, listings, and demos to complement the articles and essays.

Rating:
Summary: Good addition to the series
Review: The latest in this series of highly successful books delivers 60 new articles covering diverse game development topics. Once again, the articles are written by an impressive group of people that collectively represent a substantial amount of game industry experience. The writing style and editing is very good, as usual, with a professional but casual tone, making the articles easy to read.

Although all of the topics are relevant to game development, because they are typically very narrow in scope, your mileage will vary depending on what exactly you're working on. This is true for the entire series. It's likely that you won't be reading the book cover to cover, but rather a handful of chapters here and there as you need them. This fourth volume is particularly useful in that respect because it includes a comprehensive index of the first 4 volumes

Another noteworthy change is the addition of a physics section. Given how important physics has become in game development, this is a welcome addition. It's also interesting to see a couple of chapters that use Python and Java (though only one for each) for the sample code, rather than the C++ used for most of the chapters. DirectX is used for much of the sample code, with OpenGL being used in a few of the graphics chapters.

This volume does have a few shortcomings, which again are typical for the series. Due to the length of the articles (about 5 to 15 pages each), some of them were a bit too short to cover the topic with sufficient depth. This is pretty subjective, since many people may be satisfied with a more high-level explanation, but it seems to me that the series would be better served with a smaller number of slightly longer articles that go into greater depth.

I also think that the price of the book is rather high. True, it's hardbound, but similar books have been published (notably, GPU Gems, which is hardbound, the same length, and printed in full-color) with notably lower prices. Since the book covers such a broad range of topic areas - only a handful of which will be of interest to you - the value of this book is diminished somewhat.

Despite the price, this book is still an important part of any complete game programming library. If you have the previous volumes, you'll want to pick it up for the index if nothing else.

Rating:
Summary: Good book but overpriced
Review: The original games gems was a really good book, but I found Game Gems 2 and 3 to be less cutting edge and common knowledge topics. Games Gems 4 is back to covering cutting edge ideas and topics.

Games Gems is kind of like a recipe book with all kinds of little coding ideas/tricks. I will say that some of them I have not seen anywhere else. I was most impressed with the articles about shadows. My biggest complaint other than price is that I would have like to see more of the articles have both OpenGL and DirectX source code. This book is geared toward intermediate to advanced level programmers. The retail price of $70.00 is really high for a book even if it is a hardcover.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Resource to add to your collection
Review: This book contains a lot of really useful tidbits that are helpful to anyone in the game programming or simulation fields. It should be on everyones shelf as a reference.