Game Programming All in One

Rating:
Summary: This book blows
Review: When I purchased this book a year ago, I thought to myself, "Finally, I will learn how to create games under Windows using DirectX"; I still wish that I had that thought. This book is hefty, and you would think that it would contain information which you can use. The reason why I gave it 2 stars instead of one is because there is some information which I found useful, but it had nothing to do with programming at all.

I know C++ already, and his very brief primer would leave much for the casual gamer to desire. Here is a hint: Pick up a "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days" book and study it before attempting to understand this book. You get to build ConLib, which is a library for making a Console-based game. While this is interesting, you learn absolutely nothing. By nothing, I mean, he throws code at you without explaining why you want to do something, and it's all Object Oriented. The OOP is not bad in itself, that's a very sound technique, but if you did not understand his brief tour of C++ and classes, then you would do well to stop and take my suggestion as stated above.

Leading up to actual windows programming starts smoothly, but then again the author, manages to bungle things. You get code tossed in your face, with barely any explanations as to why you want to do something a certain way. This certainly does not help me learn or teach me anything. Since I already knew the basics about creating a Win32 Application (just not wrapping it in a class), I pushed on to begin to develop "Mirus."

This is a joke if ever I have seen one. The author states that you will build this game engine, and yet, he leaves too much out to understand what you are doing. Again more code explodes before your eyes, and you learn...nothing, at least I did not. The author does not explain anything (yet again, am I repeating myself?) and does not stop for questions or much of a review. You are shown example code; however he does not tell you where to place it in your files, let alone why you want to do a certain thing this way. He defines methods, and then tells you to complete them. I hardly consider this helpful. He provides no guidance. I thought I was going to build "Mirus" step by step, so I might learn how; instead he gives you a few lines, and skips onto the next topic. Thankfully, that inane process of coding comes to an end, but not quite completely.

After finishing "Mirus" (which I never actually made), he talked about (yet again briefly), Nodes, Trees, and Linked Lists, Math, and Physics. This is probably the BEST part of the entire book. Why? It has several useful equations. Even though he uses the same type of presentation as before, you don't need to read his comments to understand the formulas, not too much at least. Most of his explanations are perplexing, and I had to look up things on the web to better understand them. He does at least mention how to do basic Artificial Intelligence for a guard, by giving them a pattern to walk, and then how to "listen" and "see" you and how to react. That part was all very well done.

Near the end of the book (just about) you build some arkanoid/bricks type game using the now finished "Mirus" engine. Of course his method of teaching is still as spotty as ever, and if you have learned anything from my book, then you have my deepest respect.

He does mention how to get into the gaming industry, and how difficult it is. You will have to use the "Try and try again" method. So, there is hope for me yet!

Overall, this book taught me nothing. The only reason I keep it is because there are some formulas in there that I just know will come in handy some day. There are Formulas relating to how to add gravity, and where the center of mass of a given body is. Other functions like Velocity and rotations. My biggest complaint and I probably sound like a broken record by now, is that as many others have said he just gives you code, and expects you to understand it. This entire book feels rushed. I would have waited another year or two for it to have been completed. Everything just feels as if he hurriedly would work on something, and then has to stop that abruptly and work on something else. It feels more like I am reading his notes, than a real book. The typographical errors do not help either, and they also prevent you from learning. Maybe this book is too advanced for me, but I am not unintelligent person when it comes to programming.

Avoid this book if you can help it, if you bought it and like it then I am happy for you, but I cannot like a book that I spent $$$ on and failed to learn a shred of programming. I prefer the "How and Why" method over the "Monkey see, Monkey do". In this world where code is supposed to be reusable, I can understand that, but if you don't understand how or why something works, then you will not understand what happens when something breaks. Simply showing some code and expecting me to learn, does not happen. I have to know why I do something, why do I have to do this. Why is this better than that? How does this work? Those questions were never answered to my satisfaction in this book at least.

The Bottom Line: You are better off finding FREE tutorials on DirectX 8.x/9 from places like Drunken Hyena, and others if you do a Google search.

Rating:
Summary: Book Leaves MUCH to be desired.
Review: When I purchased this book a year ago, I thought to myself, "Finally, I will learn how to create games under Windows using DirectX"; I still wish that I had that thought. This book is hefty, and you would think that it would contain information which you can use. The reason why I gave it 2 stars instead of one is because there is some information which I found useful, but it had nothing to do with programming at all.

I know C++ already, and his very brief primer would leave much for the casual gamer to desire. Here is a hint: Pick up a "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days" book and study it before attempting to understand this book. You get to build ConLib, which is a library for making a Console-based game. While this is interesting, you learn absolutely nothing. By nothing, I mean, he throws code at you without explaining why you want to do something, and it's all Object Oriented. The OOP is not bad in itself, that's a very sound technique, but if you did not understand his brief tour of C++ and classes, then you would do well to stop and take my suggestion as stated above.

Leading up to actual windows programming starts smoothly, but then again the author, manages to bungle things. You get code tossed in your face, with barely any explanations as to why you want to do something a certain way. This certainly does not help me learn or teach me anything. Since I already knew the basics about creating a Win32 Application (just not wrapping it in a class), I pushed on to begin to develop "Mirus."

This is a joke if ever I have seen one. The author states that you will build this game engine, and yet, he leaves too much out to understand what you are doing. Again more code explodes before your eyes, and you learn...nothing, at least I did not. The author does not explain anything (yet again, am I repeating myself?) and does not stop for questions or much of a review. You are shown example code; however he does not tell you where to place it in your files, let alone why you want to do a certain thing this way. He defines methods, and then tells you to complete them. I hardly consider this helpful. He provides no guidance. I thought I was going to build "Mirus" step by step, so I might learn how; instead he gives you a few lines, and skips onto the next topic. Thankfully, that inane process of coding comes to an end, but not quite completely.

After finishing "Mirus" (which I never actually made), he talked about (yet again briefly), Nodes, Trees, and Linked Lists, Math, and Physics. This is probably the BEST part of the entire book. Why? It has several useful equations. Even though he uses the same type of presentation as before, you don't need to read his comments to understand the formulas, not too much at least. Most of his explanations are perplexing, and I had to look up things on the web to better understand them. He does at least mention how to do basic Artificial Intelligence for a guard, by giving them a pattern to walk, and then how to "listen" and "see" you and how to react. That part was all very well done.

Near the end of the book (just about) you build some arkanoid/bricks type game using the now finished "Mirus" engine. Of course his method of teaching is still as spotty as ever, and if you have learned anything from my book, then you have my deepest respect.

He does mention how to get into the gaming industry, and how difficult it is. You will have to use the "Try and try again" method. So, there is hope for me yet!

Overall, this book taught me nothing. The only reason I keep it is because there are some formulas in there that I just know will come in handy some day. There are Formulas relating to how to add gravity, and where the center of mass of a given body is. Other functions like Velocity and rotations. My biggest complaint and I probably sound like a broken record by now, is that as many others have said he just gives you code, and expects you to understand it. This entire book feels rushed. I would have waited another year or two for it to have been completed. Everything just feels as if he hurriedly would work on something, and then has to stop that abruptly and work on something else. It feels more like I am reading his notes, than a real book. The typographical errors do not help either, and they also prevent you from learning. Maybe this book is too advanced for me, but I am not unintelligent person when it comes to programming.

Avoid this book if you can help it, if you bought it and like it then I am happy for you, but I cannot like a book that I spent $$$ on and failed to learn a shred of programming. I prefer the "How and Why" method over the "Monkey see, Monkey do". In this world where code is supposed to be reusable, I can understand that, but if you don't understand how or why something works, then you will not understand what happens when something breaks. Simply showing some code and expecting me to learn, does not happen. I have to know why I do something, why do I have to do this. Why is this better than that? How does this work? Those questions were never answered to my satisfaction in this book at least.

The Bottom Line: You are better off finding FREE tutorials on DirectX 8.x/9 from places like Drunken Hyena, and others if you do a Google search.