DirectX(R), RDX, RSX, and MMX(TM) Technology: A Jumpstart Guide to High Performance APIs

Rating:
Summary: The examples DO work and the website DOES exist
Review: Although some of the error messages one can get are misleading, the examples do work. After a pleasent exchange with one of the authors, I was able to get my copy of the demos to work. Kudos to Rohan Coelho. I tried the websight recently and I guess Addison Wesley's web people got their act together because it is now working. Hopefully, my issues and any more that other people experience will make their way onto the site. The book is a solid guide to some useful graphics programming techniques.

Rating:
Summary: Bad Book
Review: I got this book becouse of its Directshow chapters. The book says "Jumpstart Guide" and it is true that starts describing frame and interlaced frames concepts. However, a few pages later assumes you know all about DirectX. The book tell you that all explanations about installing and interfacing filters are in the CD, but the CD, that is oriented to VC 5 and DirectX 4, doesn't match the book at all (i.e. the examples are different) and has even empty files. I don't know about the other chapters, but the directshow and filter creation chapters are a waste of time. The Microsoft DSK is a lot less pain, assumes you don't know what they explain you, and it is free.

Rating:
Summary: Bad Book
Review: I got this book becouse of its Directshow chapters. The book says "Jumpstart Guide" and it is true that starts describing frame and interlaced frames concepts. However, a few pages later assumes you know all about DirectX. The book tell you that all explanations about installing and interfacing filters are in the CD, but the CD, that is oriented to VC 5 and DirectX 4, doesn't match the book at all (i.e. the examples are different) and has even empty files. I don't know about the other chapters, but the directshow and filter creation chapters are a waste of time. The Microsoft DSK is a lot less pain, assumes you don't know what they explain you, and it is free.

Rating:
Summary: The author of this book is a TERRORIST! I can't believe it!
Review: Refer to this link for the author Maher (Mike) Hawash. Yes, he is the educated software "genius" who his internal evil Muhammad woke up suddenly and started barking for Jihad! I can't believe what Islam does to brains!
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1195

Rating:
Summary: The BEST for low-level multimedia and Direct3D IM developers
Review: This book is an excellent way to get into the nitty-gritty of low-level API programming. I was very impressed with RSX/RDX, which I hadn't seen yet, and it had one of the best tutorials on Direct3D Immediate Mode I've seen. There examples are well written, and they don't water-down the APIs with un-needed wrapper classes. They also go into detail on how to profile your application to improve performance in critical areas. All-in-all, this is the best book on DirectX I've seen, and an excellent introduction to other multimedia APIs!

NOTE: This is for more experienced developers, but if you have a handle on basic 2D/3D graphic concepts, C/C++, and some assembly language, you can handle anything they throw at you.

Rating:
Summary: Badly written and untested
Review: This is the kind of book I find to be great. It is concise to get you started and provides enough info to get you going on the topic and then ways to get performance out of the technologies. I really like this book. I have been doing DirectX development for about a year now and still found this book to be an excellent reference on multimedia programming topics. My only complaint is that the book is intended more for beginners and not enough advanced discussions (the chapter usually stops at the meaty parts...) but still I recommend this book alot. Good!