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Beginning Game Programming
The fourth edition of Beginning Game Programming has been released to celebrate it's 10th anniversary! First published in 2004, this book has been a mainstay for aspiring DirectX programmers and teachers around the world.This new edition updates the source code to Visual Studio 2013 without losing the reader with advanced techniques in the latest versions of DirectX (version 12 recently announced). Instead, this book sticks to the basics like it always has, covering the mainstay of PC development with strict and reliable lessons in DirectX 9.0c.The beginning reader who is likely new to the C++ language as well as to game programming, will find the advanced topics in the latest versions of DirectX completely indecipherable. For this reason, Beginning Game Programming keeps it simple and understandable, maintaining the high quality of previous editions while updating support for Microsoft's latest development environment."You have to start somewhere", but that somewhere doesn't have to be hard! Teachers will appreciate the consistency of this new edition as well as improvements to the sample projects. Coming up from the 3rd edition, the chapters remain in the same order, but the source code for every project has been updated and verified with several rounds of heavy technical review.The most notable improvement in this edition is the readability! All of the figures have been enlarged to clearly illustrate the tutorials on using Visual Studio, especially when creating and configuring C++ projects--which can be very difficult to the uninitiated.The chapters on 3D rendering have also been greatly improved with more concise explanations and simpler examples showing how to render a stock mesh and loaded model with a simple pixel/vertex shader. Advanced, complex treatment of shaders is strictly avoided in this Beginning title, with suggestions for further reading provided instead.So, you're an aspiring game programmer or designer, perhaps with no prior experience with DirectX, perhaps not with C++ either. Where do you begin? RIGHT HERE!
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Published January 1, 1702
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 25, 2018
Jsjsjsisi
December 6, 2008
Jonathan Harbour, Beginning Game Programming (Thompson, 2005)
Beginning Game Programming has been kind of the holy grail of programming books for me for years. I can't even remember how it got such stature in my head, but over the last year or two it became one of the books at the very top of my wish list. When I found a copy for sale (relatively) cheap earlier this year, then, I jumped on it. Unfortunately, I had hyped it up so much in my head some disappointment was likely inevitable, but I tried to keep as even-keeled as possible when thinking about what to put in this review. After all, it's not a bad book, I've just read a number of intro-to-game-programming books that are better in at least one sense (comprehensiveness, readability, number/length/quality of code samples, or what have you).
One of the oddities of the book, and one which a number of novices will likely appreciate, is that the book focuses on C, rather than one of the more popular languages featured in books of this sort (C++, C#, or VB). For someone experienced in one of the other languages, that can be either a blessing or a curse, so take it into consideration. Aside from that, however, the main thing to note here is that the book dives right into game programming in C and DirectX (which version will depend on which version of the book you're reading; my copy is first edition, not second, and so the book's examples use an older version of DirectX than currently advertised). Code examples and discussions on the theory of game design start right up in the first chapter. Once again, this is something that some readers will find a strong point, while it will be a drawback to others. There's something to be said for some overview and nuts-and-bolts stuff (at least one of the book's reviewers complains about the lack of instructions for installing the software that comes with the book, for example), but if you kick things off from page one, you have room to cover more material in the same number of pages than you otherwise would. Can't call that a bad thing under any circumstances.
The book is also very small for this type of thing, only 337 pages, which limits the amount of space there is to cover material. Once again, something that could be seen by different readers as a good (not as imposing as doorstop-sized tomes) or a bad (not room to go into anything in depth) thing.
So, basically, it's up to you and what you're looking for in an intro-to-game-programming book. This could be it. It might not be. Check it out before shelling out the dough. ***
Beginning Game Programming has been kind of the holy grail of programming books for me for years. I can't even remember how it got such stature in my head, but over the last year or two it became one of the books at the very top of my wish list. When I found a copy for sale (relatively) cheap earlier this year, then, I jumped on it. Unfortunately, I had hyped it up so much in my head some disappointment was likely inevitable, but I tried to keep as even-keeled as possible when thinking about what to put in this review. After all, it's not a bad book, I've just read a number of intro-to-game-programming books that are better in at least one sense (comprehensiveness, readability, number/length/quality of code samples, or what have you).
One of the oddities of the book, and one which a number of novices will likely appreciate, is that the book focuses on C, rather than one of the more popular languages featured in books of this sort (C++, C#, or VB). For someone experienced in one of the other languages, that can be either a blessing or a curse, so take it into consideration. Aside from that, however, the main thing to note here is that the book dives right into game programming in C and DirectX (which version will depend on which version of the book you're reading; my copy is first edition, not second, and so the book's examples use an older version of DirectX than currently advertised). Code examples and discussions on the theory of game design start right up in the first chapter. Once again, this is something that some readers will find a strong point, while it will be a drawback to others. There's something to be said for some overview and nuts-and-bolts stuff (at least one of the book's reviewers complains about the lack of instructions for installing the software that comes with the book, for example), but if you kick things off from page one, you have room to cover more material in the same number of pages than you otherwise would. Can't call that a bad thing under any circumstances.
The book is also very small for this type of thing, only 337 pages, which limits the amount of space there is to cover material. Once again, something that could be seen by different readers as a good (not as imposing as doorstop-sized tomes) or a bad (not room to go into anything in depth) thing.
So, basically, it's up to you and what you're looking for in an intro-to-game-programming book. This could be it. It might not be. Check it out before shelling out the dough. ***
August 27, 2014
As a high school student, I not only enjoy video games but I really want to create them too. But go ahead and google the field and you'll find so much information to the subject you won't know where to begin. It's certainly something that requires a lot of patience and a lot of help to accomplish. This book is really helpful to someone who is just getting into game programming.
I had taken a year of computer programming, getting a 5 on my APCS exam. That was an exam about java. This book will require some knowledge of coding in general, but I also learned C++ while going through this book. The instructions were easy to understand for me, and wasn't too bad of a read either. It was a lot better than usual textbooks. But like any other textbook, it has exercises to help you along and review sections.
If you're interested in computer programming, especially video games, and want some help getting into the field, this is a book you should go out and get. Use it as a textbook or even just a reference book, it helps novice programmers a lot.
I had taken a year of computer programming, getting a 5 on my APCS exam. That was an exam about java. This book will require some knowledge of coding in general, but I also learned C++ while going through this book. The instructions were easy to understand for me, and wasn't too bad of a read either. It was a lot better than usual textbooks. But like any other textbook, it has exercises to help you along and review sections.
If you're interested in computer programming, especially video games, and want some help getting into the field, this is a book you should go out and get. Use it as a textbook or even just a reference book, it helps novice programmers a lot.
September 27, 2011
Great content, with good explanations of everything you're going through. However, there are enough errors and discrepancies in the 3rd edition to cause more than a few moments of confusion. Both the code & the contents need a good editorial pass.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews