I have more or less good C++ knowledge and decided to move to next level and start graphic programming with Directx, for a starter I'm thinking about simple 2D game design, 3D would be an overkill at this moment.
Friend of mine has [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus (2nd Edition) which covers Directx 8 if I'm correct. From Amazon reviews it looks good book but my concern is that it's too old for 2011. So my question is is it worth borrowing this book or shall I go directly for a new books? [/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Can you recommend any good Directx book? [/font]
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Another Directx book question
Do you really want to learn DirectDraw to do 2D programming? There are very nice 2D graphics libraries out there that will be easier to program for (SDL, allegro, SFML come to mind). A big issue with that book is that DirectDraw is NOT used anymore. Everyone else uses Direct3D to draw 'textured quads' in 2D which gives full hardware accelleration and more fancy visual effects. If you go with DirectDraw you'll learn a library that won't really help you make 2D games any better. And a lot of the DirectX stuff it does teach besides DirectDraw will also be out-of-date. So there's not a lot to recommend from that book any more.
However, I don't have a better suggestion of which book to get if you are set on learning DirectX to make 2D games. Sorry!
However, I don't have a better suggestion of which book to get if you are set on learning DirectX to make 2D games. Sorry!
[font="Verdana"]An excellent book would "Beginning Game Programming" Third edition by Johnathan S. Harbour. The book covers the typical structure, and processes involved in developing a C++ game using DirectX 9;emphasis on 2D. Some 3D, although cursory, is covered as well.
I'm my opinion, the book is a great introduction and should serve the needs of a beginner venturing into 2D graphics programming very well.
Good luck with your search. Highly recommended!
http://www.amazon.co...16029501&sr=8-2
I would also recommend going through the DirectX SDK samples in parallel. Great information to be had if you exercise the patience
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I'm my opinion, the book is a great introduction and should serve the needs of a beginner venturing into 2D graphics programming very well.
Good luck with your search. Highly recommended!
http://www.amazon.co...16029501&sr=8-2
I would also recommend going through the DirectX SDK samples in parallel. Great information to be had if you exercise the patience
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[font="Verdana"]An excellent book would "Beginning Game Programming" Third edition by Johnathan S. Harbour. [/font]
I'd have to disagree. It's sloppily written and the author's a self-googling egomaniac. Case in point, here's a few of the reviews that weren't submitted by the author himself:
Sloppy, careless and thoughtless
Severely lacking
Confusing and not very well written.
I'd have to disagree. It's sloppily written and the author's a self-googling egomaniac. Case in point, here's a few of the reviews that weren't submitted by the author himself:
...
If you are going to take the time to bash the work of a contributor to the game community, then at least attempt to back up your claims with something more credible than the reviews of other people, or your useless opinion of his character. How old are you?
That aside, how about pointing us to the last book you've written? How about a tutorial you authored? .... How about a suggestion to another book then?
Flippant comments are not helping the OP whatsoever...
EDIT: - Checked your linked reviews - two of them are not even to the correct edition of the book. Secondly, those are typical comments one would expect from a newbie programmer. As programmers, "thinking", "debugging", and "configuring" envrionments/ tools that dont have an EASY button is part of what we do.
If you get fustrated easily because you can't get code to compile, or have no a clue as to what compiler errors are; step back down to the basics of C++ programming and work s-l-o-w-e-r..
If you are going to take the time to bash the work of a contributor to the game community, then at least attempt to back up your claims with something more credible than the reviews of other people, or your useless opinion of his character. How old are you?
Probably older than you. I'm working on a Master's degree. Also, the author's character certainly does matter--you're not going to learn as much reading a book if you find the author completely unbearable. He lost any semblance of credibility for me within a few chapters, after which I felt like I had to start double-checking everything he said for accuracy.
.... How about a suggestion to another book then?[/quote]
Haven't found a decent one yet, honestly. Not on game programming, at least. Just loads of "HEY KIDS, VIDEO GAMES R KOOL, BUY THIS BOOK."
Flippant comments are not helping the OP whatsoever...[/quote]
I'd have been quite grateful if someone had steered me away from Mr. Harbour's books before I wasted money on them.
EDIT: - Checked your linked reviews - two of them are not even to the correct edition of the book.[/quote]
Thanks for pointing that out, as it's something I neglected to mention--the editing job from edition to edition has been extremely sloppy. I found several places where entire paragraphs that clearly didn't fit were floating around amongst otherwise updated text. And yes, the fact that the code doesn't compile as written without digging through a mountain of linker errors is most definitely a valid complaint.
Master's Degree...nice. The way loans are structured nowadays, I wish I could have...opt'd for another B.S. instead.
Anyway, I guess my experience is 180 degrees from yours, personally I thought the materail was very easy to read and there were no issues with compiling the code off the CD. The only thing that requires proper linkage were the DX libs and that worked fine, at least for me. I'm going to go out on a limb and accept the fact that you may be a little beyond the needs addressed from a "beginners" book.
FWIW, I stand behind the fact that I believe the book would assist the OP. Ultimately, it's up to him/her anyway...
I still think what you said about the author was little much...just saying...
I'm a member of his forums, the guy stands behind all of his books, assist readers with any questions and has updated the code for several of his books of which can be downloaded from the forums. It's nice to have access to someone who contributes to the community and attempts to help others especially those new to the game.
A beginner text is not going to be anywhere near the quality expected as of i.e. Game GEMS, or authors like Frank Luna, Wolf Engel, Carl Granberg, David Eberly, etc...just my two cents.
Anyway, I guess my experience is 180 degrees from yours, personally I thought the materail was very easy to read and there were no issues with compiling the code off the CD. The only thing that requires proper linkage were the DX libs and that worked fine, at least for me. I'm going to go out on a limb and accept the fact that you may be a little beyond the needs addressed from a "beginners" book.
FWIW, I stand behind the fact that I believe the book would assist the OP. Ultimately, it's up to him/her anyway...
I still think what you said about the author was little much...just saying...
I'm a member of his forums, the guy stands behind all of his books, assist readers with any questions and has updated the code for several of his books of which can be downloaded from the forums. It's nice to have access to someone who contributes to the community and attempts to help others especially those new to the game.
A beginner text is not going to be anywhere near the quality expected as of i.e. Game GEMS, or authors like Frank Luna, Wolf Engel, Carl Granberg, David Eberly, etc...just my two cents.
Author
Thank you for all your answers.
Nobodyknows - thanks for saving my time. DirectDraw looks dead like a Dodo
Yes I could go and use SDL or other libraries but I decided to learn more stuff, I'm not in a hurry or anything.
I checked Harbour's other book and found [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=2]Advanced 2D Game Development [/font][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=2]promising[/font][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=2]. [/font]http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Game-Development-Jonathan-Harbour/dp/1598633422/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
The book reviews are always a dodgy business. I remember lot of books (not only in IT) that had negative reviews but for me worked well and I liked them, I guess it's all personal.
Nobodyknows - thanks for saving my time. DirectDraw looks dead like a Dodo
Yes I could go and use SDL or other libraries but I decided to learn more stuff, I'm not in a hurry or anything.
I checked Harbour's other book and found [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=2]Advanced 2D Game Development [/font][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=2]promising[/font][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=2]. [/font]http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Game-Development-Jonathan-Harbour/dp/1598633422/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
The book reviews are always a dodgy business. I remember lot of books (not only in IT) that had negative reviews but for me worked well and I liked them, I guess it's all personal.
Thank you for all your answers.
Nobodyknows - thanks for saving my time. DirectDraw looks dead like a Dodo
Yes I could go and use SDL or other libraries but I decided to learn more stuff, I'm not in a hurry or anything.
I checked Harbour's other book and found [font="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"]Advanced 2D Game Development [/font][font="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"]promising[/font][font="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"]. [/font]http://www.amazon.co...pd_bxgy_b_img_b
The book reviews are always a dodgy business. I remember lot of books (not only in IT) that had negative reviews but for me worked well and I liked them, I guess it's all personal.
Advanced 2D Game Development is exactly that. The natural progression is to use the Beg Programming Book-3rd edition first. There is no hand holding in the ADV 2D book. Also, you can find my review of that book under my name "Anthony Hollis".
If you have the cash, buy both...
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