hi all, so i am slowly moving onto to 3D and know at university i will be using directx so i want to get a little headstart learn the basics and be comfortable using the tools needed, i see a few different books for beginners with directx just thought is there any specific ones i should look for that will do me well? thanks

I'd recommend beginning game programming 3rd edition by Jonathan harbour. Some people would say to use Frank Luna's book but I personally think its a graphics programming book instead of a game programming book.

I have copies of both of those books here. It's been a while, but I remember that my opinion of Harbour's book wasn't high. Haven't actually read Luna's book yet (it's up next), but yes, it's all about computer graphics using DirectX (depending upon the edition, DirectX9-11, IIRC) and doesn't really cover anything else (no collision detection, etc.). It has great reviews as a DirectX resource, though, so if that's what you need, it's probably worth checking out.

Frank Luna's books are the best for intro to DirectX. I wouldn't even bother with Harbour's.

If you want to understand the DirectX API the only way in doing it is to learn graphics theory and general DirectX graphics programming. If you don't care about the API and simply wish to make games don't even bother learning DirectX and just teach yourself some game engine.

Your wasting your time learning to write boiler plate code if all you want to do is make a game. To be good you must know both.

ok well seeing as we will be using this at university im guessing ill go get lunas book and then i can read the other also for the things that are missed out of lunas book?

thanks guys/girls