Rating: 
Summary: Covers the SDK, but assumes you've worked with DirectX
Review: The book does cover DirectX, but the examples don't include any explanations or overviews. It simply states the methods and how to declare them, it doesn't tell you WHY you use them, or when you would want to use them. Reads more like a reference than a learning tool.
Rating: 
Summary: Wrong title, but Great Book
Review: This book is fantastic. It's only draw back is that it should have included a CD. I'm not going to fault the author for that, since most publishers don't include them any more. I did find the source code at Sams very well documented and full of good examples. I'm glad someone finally wrote a book on DirectX/VB programming. The title here at Amazon is wrong, but it does include some VB .NET example code.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for Serious Developers
Review: This book is lacking for more descriptive code examples. Let's face it,most of us learn from step by step examples, and this is where the book lacks. Theory seems to be lacking also. After going through the book I was not able to write a 3D graphics program without copying the authors code line for line (by the way they did not work either). It talks about general theory but is severely lacking on the details of what each line of code does. Therefore leaving the reader not understanding the core concepts so closing the book and writing a 3D program is not possible.
Rating:
Summary: one star is too many
Review: This is by far the worst purchase I have ever made. It goes to show that you shouldn't buy a book based on a table of contents alone. The author's code is weak at best. He explains 1/4 of the primitive code he writes and then throws in variables with no acknowledgement. In his discussion of directPlay he fails to mention the need to implement any interfaces. I've been teaching the database side of app developement for years, and if I can read a book and still be no better for it, it stinks.
Rating:
Summary: MSDN in print
Review: Why is it that developers who copy and paste from MSDN think they're suddenly authors? I see pages after pages of tables with method names and short descriptions that don't contribute to anyone's understanding, but only to fill in the, what else, pages. For example, the 3 chapters on DShow spand 37 pages and they're full of enumerations of interfaces and their methods and oh, here's a bonus, two pages of instructions on how to create a Standard EXE project that references the ActiveMovie control type library.If you're looking for a meaningful guide to how DirectX works, this one will disappoint you, but if you're an actuary, it might be mildly familiar.
Rating:
Summary: MSDN in print
Review: Why is it that developers who copy and paste from MSDN think they're suddenly authors? I see pages after pages of tables with method names and short descriptions that don't contribute to anyone's understanding, but only to fill in the, what else, pages. For example, the 3 chapters on DShow spand 37 pages and they're full of enumerations of interfaces and their methods and oh, here's a bonus, two pages of instructions on how to create a Standard EXE project that references the ActiveMovie control type library. If you're looking for a meaningful guide to how DirectX works, this one will disappoint you, but if you're an actuary, it might be mildly familiar.
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