quote:Original post by Myopic Rhino
He''s not funding the XGDX, Premier Press is.

I woulda figured he was funding it or has some huge part in it since his company is xtreme games. isn''t he the founder of it? He founded it, ran it himself for three years, and then decided to drop it, citing a lack of industry support (a lot of people in the game industry don''t have a very high opinion of him). There was no XGDC last year, but then Premier Press decided to buy the rights to it (renaming it in the process) and see if they could make it successful. They''re funding it completely this year.

i figured it was a case like that. thank you for clearing it up for me.

Alright, some things to say.

I think that saying the man lives in the 80s is a bit unfair.
First, regarding "outdated techniques," realize that a good majority of his books right now are at least 5 years old. I''m not talking about things from Prima Tech like Dave''s book; I''m talking about the ones he himself wrote - I just looked at Windows Game Programming for Dummies and it was released in 1998.
Now obviously that doesn''t explain why he uses (mostly) C instead of C++. Some people still have preferences though. I''ve seen professional programmers who are hard pressed to move away from ADA in favor of C++. If you''re writing a book, you''re obviously going to go with what''s familiar. Anyone experienced in C/C++ can, of course, take the code and covert it at his leisure. Also, some may think it''s easier to explain code in C.
Andre also very well explained his motives for having his Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus cover software rasterization instead of hardware. The fact is that, while most of the market does use a 3D API, this isn''t always an option (for instance, the console market). Furthermore, understanding the concepts behind something is far more important than understanding API calls.
Finally, saying that he is stuck in the past because of his new console is simply inane. The guy isn''t rolling in the type of dough (and perhaps experience) it would take to develop a high-end console. Does anyone remember how long it took for the PS2 to come out? The guy is making an ernest attempt to provide something for the community here.

That being said, I enjoy his books to some degree. It is true that he rehashes a LOT of material. From what I heard about his job as an editor (maybe Dave can verify this), he even required that the Prima Tech series include all that basic information in a good number of books. There is understandable to some degree (he wanted to hit a wider audience), but it starts to get ridiculous after a point.
Also, his designs could use a bit of work. I''ve even found blatant errors/inconsistencies in his code - acceptable up to a point.

When it comes to beginner''s books, there isn''t much that compares. I strongly recommend 1 or 2 of his books to people starting out, but after a point you''re no longer a member of his target audience.

Anyhow, that''s just my piece. :-)

--Brian

quote:Original post by Nairb
Alright, some things to say.

I think that saying the man lives in the 80s is a bit unfair.
First, regarding "outdated techniques," realize that a good majority of his books right now are at least 5 years old. I''m not talking about things from Prima Tech like Dave''s book; I''m talking about the ones he himself wrote - I just looked at Windows Game Programming for Dummies and it was released in 1998.
Now obviously that doesn''t explain why he uses (mostly) C instead of C++. Some people still have preferences though. I''ve seen professional programmers who are hard pressed to move away from ADA in favor of C++. If you''re writing a book, you''re obviously going to go with what''s familiar. Anyone experienced in C/C++ can, of course, take the code and covert it at his leisure. Also, some may think it''s easier to explain code in C.
Andre also very well explained his motives for having his Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus cover software rasterization instead of hardware. The fact is that, while most of the market does use a 3D API, this isn''t always an option (for instance, the console market). Furthermore, understanding the concepts behind something is far more important than understanding API calls.
Finally, saying that he is stuck in the past because of his new console is simply inane. The guy isn''t rolling in the type of dough (and perhaps experience) it would take to develop a high-end console. Does anyone remember how long it took for the PS2 to come out? The guy is making an ernest attempt to provide something for the community here.

That being said, I enjoy his books to some degree. It is true that he rehashes a LOT of material. From what I heard about his job as an editor (maybe Dave can verify this), he even required that the Prima Tech series include all that basic information in a good number of books. There is understandable to some degree (he wanted to hit a wider audience), but it starts to get ridiculous after a point.
Also, his designs could use a bit of work. I''ve even found blatant errors/inconsistencies in his code - acceptable up to a point.

When it comes to beginner''s books, there isn''t much that compares. I strongly recommend 1 or 2 of his books to people starting out, but after a point you''re no longer a member of his target audience.

Anyhow, that''s just my piece. :-)

--Brian

I''m wondering,although i know that (to him) its probably easier if he showed noobs how to program games without structuring or optomizing his code (properly to help), wouldn''t that be more beneficial, after all some of you did say that a lot of his optomizations in his books are pretty much ridiculous

no theory`