.NET game programming with DirectX 9.0

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ThePentiumGuy

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is the book .NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0
any good for beginners. It is for VB.NET and im just wondering if it would be of any use to me because i'm a beginner in DirectX,, it looks good, I've read many reviews saying,

"This book was too easy, I expected them to say something about Direct3d, but they only touched on it":

For me, that sounds good, But for all of you advanced programmers, that makes the book sound bad.

I just need some Opinions/Reviews and how easy is this book: The URL is below

http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=111
 
My Dear Remeber one thing . with in a home user environment games are always developed in very short stetegy. you dont need to access all DX9 Features. I have Boox "Insid Direct X programming " from MSPRESS and thats too much difficult to understand for a new user and the book you have quoted here i lloking file.This book would be very useful for you. but it is also better if you download the DX9 SDK. and other reference meterial. VB.NET also greate to work with DX.
 
ThePentiumGuy: I'm getting this tomorrow and will be posting my first impression on it a a complete newbie to directX.
 
OK....the book..

I've been reading it all day and so far am pleased with my purchase. It is not in the format that I normally like books in, such as the SAMS Teach Yourself series, but nontheless I'm learning.

Whizzing through just to whet my appetite there is plenty of learning ahead. It comes with a CD that has all the source included for the games that the reader will write on the way.

I do like the approach the book takes to teach you how to analyize the game requirements prior to coding, which will also be useful in my other programming as I always code on the fly.

I have also found that it's good to read a bit then sit down and code the examples and break it into bits, modify bits to see the effect and thus learn exactly what is going on.

So my verdict..

I am happy that I bought it and am hopefully confident that I will be able to write a reasonanble game in the future.

I now have the intention to finish my Space Invaders In The Year 24 Billion (see www.elpuerco.co.uk) as a test bed for my .NET game learning.

I don't think you will be dissapointed either, but then we are all different people......

Finally @ £28....whatcha got ta lose?
 
CRAP! You need VS 2003 to make use of the examples on the CD!

Not a real problem for me as I like to following the book and type in the code as I go, get to learn it better than just copying ready made from CD.

Does mean that I cannot see what the end product should look like before I start.

Still 2003 has been ordered so only a matter of time :-)
 
Problems with the book

I grabbed this book they day it came out and have, by and large, been very pleased with it.

However, I do have one note of caution:

For those of us who like to code from scratch rather than modify existing example code--BE WARNED! There a ERRORS in the code listings in the book. All errors I've found have been corrected in the files on the CD but remain in the book.

The most significant one I've found has to do with creating a vertex buffer. The code listing in the book locks the buffer and then assigns it TO A NEW INSTANCE of a buffer array. This doesn't raise any errors but causes the texture to not show up on the screen! The fix involves passing the data ByRef to a function that populates it instead of reassigning it. This allows the original data to be maintained.

There were a couple of other typographical errors that are at least caught by the compiler.

My suggestion: turn Option Strict On. This will cause some code to raise compiler errors (implicit casts, etc.) but these are easily fixed.

Anyway, I thought the book was excellent overall and I really learned a lot from it. Certainly, don't make it your only source (this of course applies to all computer books). Make it a point to read the Microsoft documentation and web tutorials concerning concepts in the book. This ensures a well rounded and thorough understanding of DirectX.

That's all from me :)

-mark
 
...

LOL, sorry for that--I got a little carried away.

The book is great for beginners. Myself, I've been toying with DirectX since version 7, and I've read five books and countless web tutorials--this was literally the first book that made any sense to me.

But, I'd already been softened up a little, so to speak.

-mark
 
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