Rating: 
Summary: Not Very Good!
Review: Don't waste your money, you should look at the book by Crooks instead. It includes complete samples and also shows you how to use other tools for 3D modelling, etc.
Rating: 
Summary: A Definite Buy
Review: For years, Visual Basic DirectX game programming seems to have been a kind of taboo in the game development industry. I was among the first to pre-order it and I must say I'm not disappointed at all. The book does a great job of explaining everything in detail and explains what every line of code is for. I wish people wouldn't diss this book because it wasn't something it never claimed to be (someone was complaining about it for being VB6 not VB.NET. Whoever wrote that review probably didn't even read the book since every piece of VB6 code has a VB.NET counterpart directly beneath it). This is a must-have for anyone programming games or multimedia in VB.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is not as it seems
Review: I agree with Paul asarak's comment. This book has a lot of pasted stuff from MSDN and from DX SDK help files, it has no cd, you need to download the examples from sams' website and there are some examples you need to type in the computer in order to test them. This book is as if you were ready a tale, tells how everything is supposed to work, but SURPRISE!: the color and gamma controls from DD are not supported by all video cards, but the book doesn't tell you that. It has a poor explanation in issues like the parameters that the calls to DX take in the example code. Since it has the same tables of methods and other stuff taken from MSDN, if the explanation of the MSDN didn't clear your doubts the tables in this book won't. I don't know about the others, but I feel a lack of explanation in DD. If you've already fought your way through the maze that the many DirectX parameters are, it's behavior and have learned the basis of it, you may feel a little dissapointed. Anyway you must take in account that sometmes you may want to have another source of information when trying to understand DX, besides the MSDN and the internet.
Rating:
Summary: Rehash of SDK Documentation
Review: I am disappointed in this book because it is little more than a warmed-over version of the VBSDK for DirectX 8. Here are some specific weaknesses: 1. Much of the sample code is taken directly from the SDK samples with little value-added information.
2. No CD with the book
3. Key concepts are not extended beyond the SDK examples. This is particularly notable for the Direct3D section concerning lights, matrices, and vertices.
4. Many advanced topics are dealt with in an extremely light-weight manner. We are told that matrices are hard to understand and that classes are cool because they make programming easier.
5. Too many lightweight topics are covered. For example, we are told the value of having good error handling and knowing how to debug. I think the book essentially suffers from lack of focus. Authors take note! Write a disclaimer at the beginning saying you must be a VB master to continue and then give us the hard stuff! Books are too short to cover everything, you must pick your audience carefully. There is no way this book can be for developers that do not understand error handling while simultaneously trying to teach advanced multimedia programming.
Rating:
Summary: Covers the SDK, but assumes you've worked with DirectX
Review: I found I was unable to get anywhere with the SDK docs. This book pointed out several errors in the SDK docs as well as a few I was creating. Another thing about this book that differs from the MS SDK, The sample code actually works!!! When a book says something it should be responsable for its content. This book is. Additionally, I liked the .NET sidebars. When is the .NET version of this book comming out?!? I will buy that one too.
One other thing that was key in this book, you can use it as a cover to cover read or a straight reference. A short history of computer graphics is included in ch1. I found this made other things make sense. Maybe other people knew this stuff but I didn't really understand it before this book. Al.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Learning and future reference
Review: I found I was unable to get anywhere with the SDK docs. This book pointed out several errors in the SDK docs as well as a few I was creating. Another thing about this book that differs from the MS SDK, The sample code actually works!!! When a book says something it should be responsable for its content. This book is. Additionally, I liked the .NET sidebars. When is the .NET version of this book comming out?!? I will buy that one too.
One other thing that was key in this book, you can use it as a cover to cover read or a straight reference. A short history of computer graphics is included in ch1. I found this made other things make sense. Maybe other people knew this stuff but I didn't really understand it before this book. Al.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Buy This Book
Review: I just finished this book and not sure if I learned anything that wasn't already in the SDK documentation. I understand that writing a book would be hard, but it seems that they almost copied the information. There is another VB book that deals with DirectX by Crooks [...] that is very good as it helps you to build a complete game including all the 3D models, sound effects and other misc. items. You should buy that book instead -- Just MHO!!!![....]
Rating:
Summary: BEWARE! This is NOT VB.NET!!! It is Visual Basic 6!!
Review: I just want to warn anyone intersted in this book that this is a book about visual basic 6 and not VB.NET. It seems like the site has now been updated but my invoice, order confirmation, and cached pages all display it as VB.NET. Now that I have it in my hand I can see that this is not the case. There is a section at the back of the book that talks about VB.NET a little bit but all the code in the book is VB6. Don't get burned.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a good VB Book
Review: I like this book. I'm new to DirectX and this book was easy to understand and had good solid examples. I wish it had a CD instead of making you go to the net for the source, but it's still really cool. I would recommend it to anyone just getting into DirectX programming.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Introductory Book on VB and DirectX
Review: I liked this book. It had an easy to read manner to it. The examples were well documented and though there was no CD, the Sams web site provides the examples in a downloadable zip. This book is more of an introduction with simple examples. It is by no means a full fledged review of DirectX and VB. I'm recommending this as a starter book to my friends who want to learn more about VB and DirectX.
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