3D Books

I highly recommend this book. Reading through the introduction,
the author states an 'educational slant' to the design and construction of the code within the book. This is important to
keep in mind, as there is a trade off to keep the book more
illustrative of the 3D pipeline design process.

Recommended for anybody who wants to further their knowledge
of not just Linux, but to the entire 3D process on the computer.
An excellent addition to his primer on Linux 3D.

The "Advanced Linux 3D Graphics Programming" is the second volume in the set of books written by author Norman Lin. The title "advanced" is rather crudely portrayed in the examples the author has written. Many of the examples are based off true cross-platform development which adds hundreds of lines of not needed code considering the book was supposed to be for linux.

The "advanced topics" include texture-mapping, lighting, fog, and several other components which sound impressive at first however the examples given are rather long in code-size, and don't get straight to the point of what the example does. I was rather disapointed that the lighting section had no real details on the math behind it all.

From the title of the book, one would assume you would be programming 3d graphics in linux, however the author spends 60% of the book talking about Blender and World Foundry. Those programs should have been in a separate book rather then used as filler so the author could make several extra bucks on a new book.

The examples are all using the GLUT SDK for MesaGL (OpenGL for Linux) which doesn't teach you about true linux X11 initialization.

I think this was a big disapointment, and would not recommend this book.

This is a great book! I think injustice is done if you rate it low! I rate it 5 stars because it is a resourceful book for learning or teaching 3D CAD. I am using it as a textbook in my AutoCad 3D class and both myself and the students appreciate the organization, samples and exercises of the book. The accompanying CD Rom is good: it provides the exercises and samples drawn in the book.
I enjoyed that book a lot!
For a long time I was searching for a good resource book for teaching 3D CAD and I finally got what I wanted with this book.
So far, comparing to other 3D CAD books I have seen in the market this is the best.

PS: I have ordered many issues of this book for my students and so far I have not had any problem with opening the CD from its sealed envelope.

The book is great. The CD, however, is glued into the binding of the book, making it inaccessible. It is in a sealed envelope in the back of the book, and evidently it slipped down and got glued into the binding.

At first I only bought this book as reference material for the world of game design, however, the provides far more valuable information than how to make a design document. The book gives any new developer/designer an insight as to the whole process of producing games. It also shows how to produce a complete game proposal starting with a conver letter and ending with budgets and shcedules.

A MUST have as far as I am concerned.

This is a typical Charles River Media title: It promises a lot upfront (starting with the title), but goes only so far in delivering it.
In particular, it reads like a glorified (if incomplete) manual for 'Genesis 3D,' a free, no-programming game development engine for developing Quake-like games - with a few chapters toward the end about the possibilities of another prototyping tool called 'Reality Factory,' a supposed Genesis 3D enhancement (again free).
The good stuff, however, is in the beginning of the book: the game development (business) process, detailed and put as it is. I liked that, and feel THAT, if nothing else, should be the basis for buying this book. Even the Appendices are moderately useful (Paul Steed's article on Low-poly tricks, anyone?).
It's pretty much a mixed bag, really, when seen as a whole: you like some parts, but are left wanting for more in the 'actual' game development process. The author walks you through the creation of your first level, and you feel - there *could* be more; you *want* to have more; and there *should* have been more. But after reading through the first half about the do's and don'ts of the gaming business, you expect a fairly even treatment toward actually "designing" a complete, playable and likeable (if basic) game that "could" sell, perhaps at the bargain store down the road... That, unfortunately, just isn't there. Just, just isn't there. (Nope, it ain't). Create the first level, look at the features of the given game engines, check these coupla websites, resources, modeling tools, what's on the CD, there's more to come, etc., and that's it, end of story... Good beginning, directionless middle, disappointing end; a typical Charles River Media title from the year 2001. Beginners might benefit from knowing how easy it to develop a game, yet how hard it is to sell it for some real money. Professionals (even semi-professionals), however - I don't think they'd be much interested beyond the business half.
Recommendation: This really is a good book and a bad book rolled into one. A sort of 2 1/2 stars book (though I gave it 3). But if you really want to purchase it despite its deficiencies, you might want to look at getting "Game Programming: All In One" by Bruno Miguel Texeira de Sousa too, which, I feel, covers the technical ("necessary") side of game development in much greater detail than Mr. Ahearn's effort here. In a way, it even complements the information in the latter, and may justify purchasing it for its tips-n-advice value, if nothing else.

Excellent COndition; I would guess brand new, and for about 75% of the cost at my school's bookstore.

Michael Greenfield makes an admirable attempt build to expose the reading public to a new type prose that utilizes many different conflicts and characters while also detailing much technical information regarding the law. However, Greenfield apparently has bit off more than he can chew since his novel simply does not tie his many expository strands together in a satisfying ending.
The reader is exposed to hundreds of characters and businesses that have all been involved in separate disputes regarding their separate consumer transactions, but these individual consumer never unite for love or conversation or play or any other type of meaningful exchange. Greenfield seems to view the world as one where people are atomized and isolated. He shows how they communicate through complex and impersonal legal and commercial systems. The reader is left waiting to see if any particular persons are able to use the human spirit in order to break out of this Foucault-esque prison of a society and interact live together in a deeper way.
However, Greenfield offers now such hope. The novel's ending leaves the characters where Greenfield found them: alone and caught in the tangle of a complex, bureaucratic world. While Greenfield may one day fully articulate the themes he draws on in "Consumer Transactions", he right now offers no more than a cynical, mechanical worldview that leaves both his readers and characters both unfulfilled.

This is not just a collection of pictures for viewers to discover. This is an actual treatment of the Kama Sutra.

A history of the Kama Sutra is given at the start of the book.

Each pair of pages after the introduction has a passage from the Kama Sutra on the left (liberally paraphrased) and a 3D illusion on the right.

The illusions are pretty easy to get but there are a few that require turning the book sideways to see them at the correct angle (only one of these gives a clue that you need to turn it).

Like the Magic Eye books, there is a thumbnail gallery at the end in case you were not able to see all of the images.

The book is hardbound and uses a good paper stock. Color is excellent.

If you like 3D illusions and can handle adult material (which this definitely is), then you might want to take a look at this one.

This is a picture book. It contains no words. It is kinda amusing, but you will not unlock any erotic mysteries with it.

This particular book shows some promise w/ all the illustrations, but really falls short of my expectations. The descriptions of what's going on in each step are REALLY vague, and tend to be more confusing than helpful.

I've got quite a bit of experience over the years w/ Access, but just wanted some sort of refresher. This book MIGHT be ok if you only wanted a really basic reference of some sort, but I'm sure that better ones are out there anyways.

For someone looking for a beginner's book of some sort, stick w/ the Dummies' series, or the 24-hour books.

WOrking with MS Products has a strong visual component. I liked this book because the pictures and explanations are very clear. This allows one to pick up a procedure or skill very quickly. A very good book for beginners to intermediates. So so for advanced, although the coverage of Pivot tables is pretty good

This book can help any beginner to learn how to create a complex game by Virtools, especially it made by a comic author Daniel Liu. The fareast art style characters are very attractive to readers, you can keep your patient to complete whole book courses. Other benefits are following:
1. You can learn how to use and integrate many building blocks detailed step by step in Virtools.
2. You can know more 3D game develping proceedure, and give you many game ideas using Virtools.
3. The DVD rom includes Virtools 4.0 evaluate version and many useful demos, that help readers try Virtools easily.
4. You can do many game or VR projects by Virtools if you can follow and complete all of Chapters.

I found many readers of this book in Taiwan complete some good game prototypes.
[...]

The book covers many aspects in Virtools. A great part of the book is used for explaining different building blocks (how to make an animation etc.). After this the book takes you through a complete example showing how to produce a complete computer game step by step.

I think, the book is missing 2 important features:
- a detailed table of contents, where different keywords can be found
- a sort of quickstart example to get you up and running with a
smaller, working computer game - to get this overview you have to
wait for many chapters, and the game is big and very detailed.

Arndt von Koeningsmarck together with and nine 3D artist/co-authors the create an uneven book. The book consists of short articles from the nine artists/coauthors, followed by workshops on creating virtual character. The focus is on creating attractive women characters but the steps are the same as those for men.

The book is definitely aimed at an artist making the transition to computer generated character design. Design is not approached from a standpoint of creating animations with the characters. Only the first steps of creating the still model of a 3D character is focused on.

The target reader is an experienced artist. A person with high school art training or undergraduate college art training from a few years back is probably the ideal reader for this book.

An appendix of Web links to aids the reader getting started in further tasks. The nine articles from the 3-D artists presenting their work address a wide variety of topics concerning being employed creating computer-generated characters. Their work is quite good.

The virtual character workshop, starting on page 136, proceeds in seven workshops to address topics in shaping a virtual character. Software packages are not addressed in depth.

Actually right after buying this, I thought to myself, "why bother?" well,to my surprise, the book actually has some pretty decent insights into the creativity of different artist, and some of their processes are brought to light, it gives a basic rundown of how to map and model an image, but all in all it's not a bad read, it's well written, not swamped with technical terms, and though it's not the best of learning tools, it does inspire...
so all I can say that it's a good read, quick, inspiring, and DOES give the basic concepts of how to meet your goals, but it's up to the reader to understand his/her program of choice to apply the techniques used in the book (i.e. understanding the individual tools in different programs whether it be Blender, Maya, XSI, Cinema 4d, Zbrush, etc etc)

The problem with many chicklit heroines is that in the need to make these characters light and entertaining, authors have made them a little too one-dimensional. The girls often come out as pre-pubescent girls who never grow up. The hero deserved better and so did the reader. The most interesting characters were the secondary characters,especially Lucinda. She is the only reason this book rated two stars Lastly the writing style was--for lack of a better term--weird. Reading it was a chore. I felt like a middle school teacher grading a less than mediocre paper. Save your money and don't even borrow it.

I got "The Goddess Rules" on an audiobook and just loved it. . . it was funny and romantic. Unfortunately, this book isn't nearly as good. I had no sympathy or empathy for the main character and there were no real plot twists except for the protagonist's deficient character.

There is much better stuff to read - heck even better chick lit out there! This was not even mildly amusing and the protagonist is downright annoying. With the volume of books in this genre, it won't be difficult to find something more interesting.

This book is very bad. My opinion is not a matter of taste; the book has nothing to offer. If you have read this book and liked it. Please try Marian Keyes and Lisa Jewell. Their books are much better. Lisa Jewell especially creates great characters.

I believe chick-lit is composed of 3 main elements: heroine, romance, humor.

Heroine: The heroine in this book is very obnoxious. She is completely self-absorbed. Supposedly, Amy turns around, but the author provides no evidence to that fact. Below is a quote to support my argument.
"Yes, there was no knocking her confidence tonight. In the wake of the Hello! Fiasco, she'd learned that she was not a hallowed babe. She would never be. Elegant? Yes. Well dressed? Yes. Lithe? Yes. She could think of a million adjectives but babe wasn't one... So long, babe. Hello, Amy, she thought, winking in the mirror at herself."
Elegant, well dressed, and lithe is all we learn about Amy. Maybe the author is attempting to create a confident female character in contrast to all the neurotic characters in most chick-lit in an effort at post-post-feminism. However, the character is just boring.

Romance: The book contains very little romance. A few, vividly described sexy scenes, but no swoony, touching, or exciting romantic moments.

Humor: The book is not funny. The author relies on describing situations where the characters think something is funny. These descriptions do the reader no good, especially since you won't even like the main characters.

Chick-lit can be better than this.

This book tends to take the most simple sentence and turn it into a long, winded embellishment that sometimes makes the story hard to follow. The actual plot of the story is ok, a little ridiculous and outlandish, but entertaining.

Amy has a crush on THE most beautiful and popular movie star of the day and it just so happens they meet through mutual friends, become involved and fall madly in love. The ups and downs along with the story are of course paparazzi and an infamous sex tape scandal from a previous relationship. It's all a little little too cliché and expected, but does the trick entertainment-wise.

Although I typically like to refrain from posting negative reviews, I think it is necessary in the case of Adrian Perez' "Advanced 3D Game Programming..." Perez, only a college student, attempts to break down an intricate world into tiny pieces but fails to provide detailed explanations to questions that beginners or even advanced programmers may have. Having had no time actually practicing the trade, Perez does not have a solid enough grounding as to what is relevant for readers looking for a game programming book.

Other reviews have mentioned the absurd title, so I will simply note my agreement on that point. What this book essentially amounts to is a good college level term paper (albeit quite a lengthy one) that I'm sure would receive raves from Perez's professors. However, in terms of a book that people are going to spend substantial money on -- it gets a D- from me.

When I first looked at the Table of Contents, I thought this book was too good to be true! It seemed to include everything I needed to create my own game. However, after reading through less than half of the book, I became bored. There is simply too much information and lack of explanation.

I'm not saying that it is completely useless, just confusing. I did find this book useful alongside MSDN and several other online resources I found. If you're expecting a step-by-step walkthrough of Direct 3D applications, I suggest you look elsewhere.

I think the reviewers on this board are focusing on the authors age / "professional experiance" far too much. The content in the book is what matters.

And in my opinion this book is perfect for those who are beginning 3d programming. If you don't know what a matrix is, or what a texel is then you NEED this book. In fact this book contains the entire subject matter of my college level Real Time 3d class.

The only down side to the book is that it honestly doesn't cover Direct 3d as well as I believe it should. The author spent too much time covering the basic information that 3d game programmers need to know rather than explaining the Direct 3d API.

However this is a good thing! Far too many new programmers think they can purchase a single book and program the next quake with out knowing important information on the basics of 3d, calc, and Linear Algebra. This book exceeds in showing off those basics. Once the reader has completed this book they should be able to pick up the direct x documentation and understand what's going on. Isn't that the whole point?

So if you've just finished tutoring your self on 2d game programming, or wish to start 3d game programming with out any prior experiance this book is a must have!

However if you have completed some 3d game projects, used OpenGL, or another 3d API and are looking to expand your knowledge check out "Real Time Rendering", or "3d Game Engine Design" for they are more suited for your needs.

Several gripes about this terrible book:

1. The author has no professional game programming experience, and, since he was in college when the book was written, probably no professional programming experience of any kind. As such, he was unable to present the material in any meaningful way.

2. Halfway through the book, I still had no idea what Direct 3D actually does. At this point I was well into the Direct3D chapter, and still no idea. See next point.

3. The information is presented mostly at random, with very few examples, diagrams or meaningful sections. INformation is presented as it pops into the writer's head and there is no motivation given for why the information is presented as it is. The 3D math section, for example, is horribly written. He goes through various calculations, NEVER bringing them back to the overall topic of transforming 3d coordinates. He introduces the topic of rendering to the screen with NO explanation. I had to re-read the Foley book just to make sure I DID understand 3d math. Another example is the Direct 3D section. I was expecting after the big chapter on 3d math, he would start by saying "Here's what D3D does for", but instead I was halfway through the chapter and had read about all the constants you can check to see what the video card does (and THAT part of the book was essentially the documentation from MS reproduced in the book).

In short, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.

Granted, that takes a while... but it is worth it. This is basically a book that seems to cater to me exactly: I'm a programmer with a great deal of experience in C/C++, but I've never once tried to do DirectX. As such, I sat down this morning and by the afternoon I had read the first half of the book, and I must say that I am impressed.

I've tried to jump into DirectX before, but no book could explain the theories as well as this one... pared up with the DirectX help files from the microsoft web site, I was able to finally understand what on earth is going on with modern graphical programming. =)

The book does use wrappers, like a great deal of other books, but unlike some other books I've seen it shows you the theory behind the wrappers by slowly creating them over the length of the book... basically, making the wrapper the "tutorial example". Perhaps having a game as the continuative example would be better for some people, but I found the use of the wrapper as the example to be refreshing... perhaps I've been programming in the non-3D world too long though. =)

So, if you're in the same position as I am, where you have a lot of programming experience but until now was too afraid to try DirectX, try out this book. It seems good to me. =) Just be sure to have the Microsoft DirectX SDK instruction web site handy in case you have additional questions (I'd reccomend that no matter what book you're using though).

-Vendal Thornheart