The Zen of Direct3D Game Programming (Prima Tech's Game Development)

Book Description

Whether you're a professional programmer looking to get up to speed on DirectX® 8.0 or a hobbyist new to game programming, this book will be your ultimate guide to programming amazing 3D computer graphics with Microsoft® Direct3D® 8.0! It provides a solid introduction to interactive entertainment engineering, Windows® programming, and advanced graphical techniques. Inside you'll find deep coverage of 2D graphics, including using double buffering, page flipping, programming a bitmap font engine, and creating a Quake-style programmable console. Read on to learn sophisticated 3D graphics programming techniques such as bilinear filtering, texturing, materials, lights, and how to develop an object-orientated frame based object hierarchy in order to simulate amazingly realistic animation effects. Begin your journey into the world of Direct3D - and great games - here, now!

Customer Reviews:

Not Useless Not Great.......2006-08-08

I got this book dirt cheap at HalfPricedBooks so I can't complain too much, if you can get it cheap why not!

I think it will be a good reference book for beginning directX programmers. What you end up with is a simple working 3d game engine. Most of what you get is functions to simplify the iterface with dx8.

However I found the writing style highly annoying. My english teachers repeated over and over "take out the fluff". And when all you are looking for is information (its a programming book not a novel) this book has way to much fluff. The author actually says his English teachers would never have guessed he would write a book (or if he did it would look like this book).

The examples he shows in the book are not all on the CD and he doesnt always give explicit enough instructions to setup the examples yourself (for me). Which code base am I suppose to use for this example, the final code base? chapter 5 code base?

But hopefully this will serve as a basic (and cheap) introduction which I will supplement with some internet research. My next step will be to code a simple game using the engine from this book, but that will definitely require some additional resources

What's with all the crying?.......2005-11-02

I see that many readers seem to have had problems getting the samples to compile. Having trouble using your compiler and debugging tools? I ran into compile errors, fixed them. Had a few runtime errors, fixed them too. Got every sample up and running with no tears.

Many of the readers who expressed dismay at simple compile errors go on to state that the have "solid" or "sound" or "extensive" C++ experience....

My only real complaint is that EVERY SINGLE VOLUME in the original Premier Press series had that danged C++ primer section that takes up almost a third of the book, rewritten over and over by each successive author. Thankfully, the newer books in the series seem to have dropped this bad habit. The end samples had that "cool" console and background that resized the background image for every frame - thus bad framerates. If you resize the image on load and then render the new image to the buffer instead it eliminates tons of overhead - bringing framerates up to the cap of 60fps on most systems (I have a computer graveyard here and some of them were only able to reach 28fps - p2/400 w/256MB RAM and an old Voodoo 2). Eliminating the background starfield brought the framerate up to 60fps on all of my systems.

Zen Lesson 1: Optimization is all in YOUR head.

And as far as "figuring out what order to call" various functions - a little time with a piece of paper and a little know-how with flowcharts might help you out there.

Some day you should try sitting down with a technical whitepaper on a system and try sorting things out from that. Too many people are apron-string programmers who can't figure out anything for themselves - hand-holding babies without a clue. Stop whining, learn something about the trade you're trying to embrace, and realize that mommy isn't going to code your game for you.

Have a nice day and happy coding.

Richard

Absolutely Atrocious and Useless.......2004-05-08

This book hardly qualifies to use the word Zen in its title if refering to Direct3D. Of the 16 chapters in the book, a mere 5 of them actually deal with things related to Direct3D. The first seven chapters deal only with Windows programming, which anyone who is reading a "Zen" book should already know. There is a lot of time spent talking about using the GDI with DirectGraphics surfaces which, by the author's own admission, is not adequately fast enough to write a game.

The final project of the book is to simulate a solar system with planets and moons revolving around the sun. There is no discussion whatsoever about keyframe or skeletal animation techniques.

Mr. Walsh may be living in a world where all 3D games are space shooters where we only have to be able to rotate planets and spaceships, but maybe he should realize that the rest of us are not. Anyone interested in really programming in 3D needs real animation techniques which do not just include rotation and translation.

This is all beside the fact that you have to recompile all of the code on the CD because the compiled version is the same program copied over and over and over...

Your money is much better spent on a better book. Even Advanced 3-D Game Programming using DirectX 7.0 by Andre Perez is a better but out-of-date choice.

How to run the code examples........2003-11-30

I am not sure how to get the 3d examples to run in full screen, but if you make a few changes, they will run windowed pretty well.

First off you need to change the function InitDirect3DDevice that initializes direct x.
change to: d3dpp.BackBufferFormat = d3ddm.Format;
change to: d3dpp.Windowed = TRUE;
and comment out anything that starts out with d3dpp.FullScreen

then there is something wrong with the printing of the frame rate
comment out FrameCount(); from GameLoop()
comment out PrintFrameRate(); from Render()

it also makes it nice to change the window style to an overlapped window, hope that helped.

Adequate but Careless.......2003-09-13

I am now half way through this book and find it ok in some ways and not ok in other ways.

The CD does not correlate at all well with the examples in the book. This is a serious flaw, imho.

I judge most of the text in the book itself to be adequately written. It could have been better.

The book does seem to cover the important issues, however, so it does have value.

One can learn from this book.

Average customer rating:
The Zen of Direct3d Game Programming-Cd Included
peter walsh
Manufacturer: Prima Tech
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FMIJQA

Book Description

From invisible leadership to project portfolios - cutting edge techniques and tips from the frontiers of project management.

Customer Reviews:

A Good Read!.......2004-03-02

Author Donna Deeprose takes you inside the process of setting up and coordinating a project. Her book, a project in itself, no doubt, is as clear and well-organized as the work plan you'll be able to create when you finish reading it. As befits an author in the hands-on "Smart Things to Know" series, Deeprose provides charts, tables and worksheets for designing project activities, as well as a dandy summary of key points at the end of each chapter. She addresses planning in detail and offers examples of how to organize and present your project's master plan. While she does not skimp on straightforward logistics, the author emphasizes complex projects, where you have to plan for multiple activities and work with a team of people handling tasks of varying intricacy. Some of the general ideas about planning might be fairly familiar and obvious, but We recommend this book for its greatest strength: a solid presentation of specific procedures.

Project Management For Smart People or Those Who Want To Be.......2002-03-19

Project Management is so often deemed to be either so esoteric that only those certified by the Project Management Institute in the skill can do it or so simple that only dummies can't do it. Neither assumption is true. Project Management is a discipline, and good project management skills can be learned. Luckily, Ms. Deeprose is aware of that and has given us a "workbook" on project management that should certainly be in the toolbox of every employee in any organization. What most of us do on a daily basis is manage projects of one sort or another. SMART Things to Know About Managing Projects may not be PIMBOK, the project management bible, but it is definitely THE book to have access to when you are planning to tackle any work that has a goal at the end of it: project management methodology, which is outlined so clearly and completely in Ms. Deeprose's book, will help anyone plan and execute any project that involves accomplishing something within a given timeframe. Everyone should get this book and read it through - and then refer to it over and over when working alone or with others to accomplish anything. If you are planning your class reunion dinner (see pages 60-90) this book will help you; if you are managing a project team charged with designing and building a factory, if you are managing a project to explore deep space - in fact, any project you might be working on or managing can be managed better by using the techniques and skills outlined in this book. This book provides the information and methodologies needed to execute any project in clear, unambiguous, easy to follow terms. Now, with this book, there are no more excuses for failed projects!

Book Description

As the transnational character of banking and finance activities becomes ever more pronounced, there is a clear need for lawyers in the field to become conversant with pertinent legal developments in national jurisdictions other than their own. This book takes a major step towards fulfilling that need. It not only provides essential orientation in the banking law of nine countries in which international financial business is commonly transacted, but also offers experienced, high-quality insights into developments and trends in each of these jurisdictions.

With origins in the discussions of the Banking and Finance Commission of the International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA), this important work examines the main areas of banking and finance law across a broad spectrum of areas of law from project finance to financial services regulation. Most of the chapters were originally presented as papers at a conference on "Managing Banking Risks and Combating Fraud" which was jointly organised by IBC and AIJA in London in March 1998. These papers have been updated for inclusion in this work, with the addition of a General Report and a new paper on the United States which takes into account the new Financial Services and Modernization Act (FSMA).

Each chapter follows a predetermined outline, so the reader can easily make a comparative analysis across the countries covered.

Book Description

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1841 edition by John Weale, London.

Book Description

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, Acquafredda di Maratea, Italy, June 3-15, 1979

Book Description

Principles of Optics is one of the classic science books of the twentieth century, and probably the most influential book in optics published in the past forty years. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated, with new material covering the CAT scan, interference with broad-band light and the so-called Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction theory. This edition also details scattering from inhomogeneous media and presents an account of the principles of diffraction tomography to which Emil Wolf has made a basic contribution. Several new appendices are also included. This new edition will be invaluable to advanced undergraduates, graduate students and researchers working in most areas of optics.

Customer Reviews:

Need modernising.......2007-07-10

Yes - all classical (linear) optical concepts are in here, and yes, it's the 'bible', but it's very dated in its content, style and references, generally, and not very practical to use.

I wish Hecht - or someone like him - would re-write this classic as a more advanced version of his book.

The Bible.......2007-07-05

Amazing book. It's the bible of geometric optics. Have everything you might need.

Needs a little previous knowledge, but which book doesn't?

A Classic in the Science of Optics.......2004-09-26

I read this book in the late sixties, when some of my fellow engineers built and tested an acoustic lens for a developmental company. Born & Wolf were well-acquainted with antenna aperture theory, and were among the first to write that the human eye could resolve 5X better than aperture theory would predict. This they credited to involuntary eye movements called flicks and saccades, which when combined with the brain's ability to do signal processing, was able to produce much better resolution than would have been predicted by the diameter of the retinal rods. In many ways the book gives testimony to God's wonderful gift of vision with color, depth, clarity, and order.

Good book.......2003-03-14

It is just a rare book on physical optics based on Maxwell equations. Rarely a book states the assumptions,the validity of the equations, the principles and how the equations arrived. Certainly, it is a great book for postgraduates and researchers in physical optics not so for undergraduate students who don't want to go through all the mathematics.

A Classic.......2002-12-13

This book is a classic with all problems associated. Half of the reference quoted have been written before the WWII. Very useful if you like to quote original papers. This book cover most topics of the classical optics but hardy cover modern topics.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book For Waveguiding Principles.......2006-03-07

Lee does an excellent job of first introducing readers to electromagnetic wave theory then applying this theory to waveguides. The introduction is one of the best I have ever seen. It is well organized and succinct. He takes nothing for granted and attempts to give the reader a deep understanding of E&M wave theory. There are also good sections on finite width beams and the Goos-Haenchen shift. Electromagnetic wave theory is then applied to various types of optical waveguides. Again, his treatment is succinct, but well explained. It is too bad Lee didn't write another book or add material to this one. I would love to see his treatment of resonators or birefringence. All in all, I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about optical waveguides, or someone who would like a very good explanation of the electromagnetic treatment of optics.

If there's a better EM PIC text, I wana be buried with it.......2005-12-25

Lee's book is old now (1986) and he doesn't appear to have written another, but it's the best treatment of critical, fundamental electromagnetic photonics found by this reader so far. Since physical interactions at the photon level don't change (though new phenomena keep revealing themselves) this book remains highly useful. Newer phenomena like the whispering gallery mode in micro-disks are not treated - but then no one else seems yet to discuss this either except in juried papers. Lee's treatment of prism coupling and the evanescent wave is pure love - with no typographical errors to boot! The book wraps around Maxwell, not the 1920s gang, so we get what Maxwell's equations can give - that is, a wonderful disclosure of EM's handling without the deeper reasons why provided by quantum mechanics, except occasionally in passing. The evanescent wave, for example, results from Maxwell's magic, but how electromagnetic waves can stand still, decaying exponentially in free space is beyond Maxwell. One is left wanting more but Lee tends to avoid quantum descriptions. Oddly enough this exceptional fact of nature tends to be conveyed with a shrug from those in the field though it is widely applied in sensors of various types, particularly in the bio-sciences (now military seekers as well) where molecular imaging is getting a start by virtue of these freaky waves and surface plasmon polaritons (not part of Lee). The pain of quantum reality is also clarified by Lee throughout, that is, things are not continuous in the micro-world, making life harder or impossible for some applications. Great fun! Should be on every readers list.

Chapman's principia, or, Nature's first principles: Theory of universal electro-magnetism, simplified explaining the elements of the important discovery ... force, co-existensively with gravitation

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Chapman's principia, or, Nature's first principles: Theory of universal electro-magnetism, simplified explaining the elements of the important discovery ... force, co-existensively with gravitation
L. L Chapman
Manufacturer: Campbell & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00089GG0Q

The Collected Works of J. Willard Gibbs, Volume 2. Part 1: Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics, & Part 2: Dynamics Vector Analysis and Multiple Algebra Electromagnetic Theory of Light, etc.

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The Collected Works of J. Willard Gibbs, Volume 2. Part 1: Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics, & Part 2: Dynamics Vector Analysis and Multiple Algebra Electromagnetic Theory of Light, etc.
J. Willard Gibbs
Manufacturer: Longmans, Green and Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The asthetic way to learn Electromagnetism

Principles of Electromagnetic Theory
Attay Kovetz
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Waves & Wave Mechanics | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0521399971

Customer Reviews:

The asthetic way to learn Electromagnetism.......2000-04-02

As I am a student of the author, I can't but highly recommend this book... This book is very mathematical and intended for those who already took a course in electromagnetism and are at ease with calculus and vectors. The book develops in a very asthetic way the basic tools and ideas of electromagnetism. After a review of tensor calculus (don't be alarmed - it is very technical and will be used only in the first few chapters), it starts with a detailed formulation of the three principels of electromagnetism in tensorial form, the fundamental quantities and their transformation rules. Using these tools, many subjects are thereafter treated, such as: the motion and radiation of charged particles, polarization and magnetization, methods in electrostatics, dielectrics, steady currents, linear magnets, and even rarely touched subjects such as continuum mechanics & thermodynamics and their relation to electromagnetism, magnetohydrodynamics, and electric and magnetic materials (pyroelectricity, piezoelectricity, ferromagnetism, superconductivity). There are also many solved problems incorporated in the text.(this review is for the 2000 edition of the book)

The Principles of Electromagnetic Theory and Relativity

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The Principles of Electromagnetic Theory and Relativity
M.-A. Tonnelat
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Mathematical Physics | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

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Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 9027701075

$Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light$
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Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light
Max and Emil Wolf Born
Manufacturer: Pergamon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CKEML

Adaptive Array Principles (Ieee Electromagnetic Waves Series)

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Adaptive Array Principles (Ieee Electromagnetic Waves Series)
J. E. Hudson
Manufacturer: Institution of Electrical Engineers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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Engineering | Reference | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0863411436

The Bible for children / by Hamish Swanston

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The Bible for children / by Hamish Swanston
William Thomson
Manufacturer: s.n
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007KDWQ2

The Collected Works of J. Willard Gibbs in Two Volumes. Volume 1: Thermodynamics. Volume 2: Part One: Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics; Part Two: Dynamics Vector Analysis and Mulitiple Algebra Electromagnetic Theory of Light, Etc.

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The Collected Works of J. Willard Gibbs in Two Volumes. Volume 1: Thermodynamics. Volume 2: Part One: Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics; Part Two: Dynamics Vector Analysis and Mulitiple Algebra Electromagnetic Theory of Light, Etc.
J. Willard Gibbs
Manufacturer: Longmans & Green
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000V7FQTW

Book Description

Three decades after its original bestselling publication, Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York is still completely on target as the most achingly funny book-length suicide note ever written by an agonizingly single 30-year-old trying unsuccessfully to straddle two worlds: the one she's been programmed for from birth—marriage first, life later—and the illusive swinging singles scene of liberated New York City.

Meet Sheila Levine, she's smart and funny, and her mother tells her she's beautiful. . . . But her skirt's always a bit wrinkled, she's trying to lose 15—make that 25—pounds, she just turned 30 . . . and she's still single. She tries to date and mate, she really does, but disappointment turns to desperation, and after a flash of insight, Sheila calmly decides to kill herself. So she starts to get her affairs in order and writes a suicide note to her loving parents to explain it all.

Customer Reviews:

Sheila Levine is dead and living in New York.......2007-09-13

Great book. I've bought this book three times in the 80's, lent them out, never got them back, then it went out of publication. I bought three this time and kept two and gave one away.

One of the funniest books ever!.......2007-07-04

I read this book back in the 70's on my first trip to New York City. Sheila has never really left my consciousness and now, some thirty years later, thoughts of the book still make me laugh. ANY Jewish woman will relate to Sheila or Sheila's family, and most women know someone like her. There are parts of the book that are just downright sad, but the book is written so well that you find yourself laughing at the sad parts, as I think the author intended. The author is Gail Parent, who also wrote many episodes of The Golden Girls, so it is filled with her wonderfully warped sense of humor. There are some pop culture books that will never really die such as Valley Of The Dolls, some become great literature, such as Catcher In The Rye, and some just leave a mark on your heart, such as Sheila Levine Is Dead And Living In New York. I promise, it will leave you wanting more!

Quick Read - Funny Book.......2005-10-17

Who ever thought suicide could be so funny! I laughed out loud several times - something I don't usually do!

One Star Says It All...Actually It Doesn't, So Hang On, I Wanna Rant A Minute.......2005-09-28

This is a bad novel. Achingly bad. I mean it. Bad. Disgusting and disgustingly bad. Don't read this. You'll be bored. Bored and wishing you'd not invested four hours on it. This is the dumbest novel I've ever seen get hailed by so many people as great. This is the dumbest novel ever written by someone who didn't later wind up communications minister for the Nazi Party. I didn't like Sheila, her mental mother, or her wild roommate. The doctor character who beds poor, pure Sheila, the nice, conflicted Jewish girl really gave me the willies, as well. I mean it. This book sucks. I'd rather go to the dentist than re-read Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York. To use this hideous thing for cat litter box paper is doing a cat a disservice. If the novelization of a Chucky movie comes out and you have the choice of reading either this supposed 1970's classic or Chucky, go with the doll. At least Chucky doesn't whine for 300 pages about his life. I wish this book would get sent to all terrorists to punish them for their misdeeds. I wish this novel would be shown to all creative writing students to assure them no matter what their own prose won't be THIS bad.

Sheila Levine, I cast thee away, thou foul exercise in empty, brain-pinching fiction! Blaaah! What a terrible book. Yuck! Bores, disgusts, nauseates, angers and peeves, all at the same time. Omigawd is this book hideous! Hiddddddeeeous!

a big let down.......2005-05-20

i was very excited about reading this book, but it was really a let down. The main character, is a [prostitute], she fumbles thru her life, and learns not a thing from her own mistakes. That and the book seems a bit dated for me. Save your coins.... this one is a doozie...

Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living In New York

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Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living In New York
Gail Parent
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000LJO9SE

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Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York
Gail Parent
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0553132814

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Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York
Gail Parent
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000ILIK80

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Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York
Gail Parent
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OB5BO0

Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York signed

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Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York signed
Gail Parent
Manufacturer: OVERLOOK PRESS * PENGUIN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VOAWVW

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