3D Books

I have read Peter Walsh's other book about Direct X 9.0 called "The Zen of Direct X Programming" (or something like that) Anyway, that was way better. Actually the previous book mentioned was awesome, that is why I bought the "Advanced version" except the "Advanced version" is by a different publisher who probably said to Peter... "Don't be funny in your book, be boring, don't explain things, anything you do explain, explain it poorly and don't give any good examples." And that is the book for you.

So, the title of this book is "Advanced 3D Game Programming With DirectX 10.0", which seems to imply that the text is designed for intermediate/experienced programmers who want to up their skills to the next level. This book isn't really "advanced" at all -- it's an introductory DirectX/game programming book. So, keep that in mind if you're looking to buy this.

However, if you're an experienced C++ programmer, but you're a newbie to DirectX game programming, then this book is absolutely perfect. It covers DirectInput -- teaching you the fundamentals for programming input in your game in a very straightforward non-pretentious manner. Direct3D, typically daunting to newbies, is given a very lucid, clear, and succinct treatment. Walsh also covers more advanced topics like scene management (in truth, he glosses over it, so you'll need to do additional reading elsewhere, but it's a good start...), pixel/vertex shaders, and several cool graphics techniques (pre-computed radiosity was especially cool).
Walsh also covers the rudiments of network and sound programming, so your game will be "complete".

I guess what I like most about this book is that while it's not too in-depth with regard to any topic, it goes over the basics of all necessary game programming topics, so that you can start writing basic games immediately (full games, mind you...not just a flyby through a room of cubes). It's a great fundamentals book that, if you read and understand fully, will allow you to transition relatively painlessly to more advanced books/techniques.

While I was tempted to give this book 4 stars for the misleading title, I simply cannot find it within myself to give a book that is so good at what it does lesser than a 5.

Oh, and for those of you wondering, "where do I go next after this book?", here's a list of what I'm using as a hobbyist graphics/game programmer...I hope it helps:

- The ShaderX series (advanced real-time graphics topics)
- GPU Gems series (more advanced, scientific real-time graphics topics)
- "3D Game Engine Design" by David Eberly (great book that teaches you how to design a professional quality game engine)
- Real-Time Rendering, 2nd edition (all the real-time graphics considerations and algorithmic fundamentals are here)
- Game Programming Gems (these are like the ShaderX/GPU Gems, only for general game programming, including math, sound, input, graphics, scene management, etc.)

I hope this review helps anybody interested in becoming a game programmer!

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.

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.

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.

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)

I was disappointed with this book. I'll be honest and say that my intentions were to learn VTK. But I knew going into this book that I would not be learning specifically VTK, rather how to visualize data.
That said, this book seriously lacked in examples. I had hoped to at least gain a basic understanding of VTK from it via examples, but alas, nothing. The book is almost straight theory. While I understand the intentions of this book are not to teach VTK, I don't see you how you can teach Visualization without at least giving the reader some examples, examples which I wrongly assumed would be in VTK.

The theory is all good, but as a reader this book gave me no indication of how to implement any of it.

This is the recently updated version of this classic book on visualization that has some people confused due to its name. Because it is named "Visualization Toolkit" you might believe it to be a tutorial on VTK 5.0. This is not the case. This version is updated to take advantage of VTK 5.0's capabilities, but it also functions as a very accessible textbook on all kinds of visualization algorithms and their implementation using VTK. In my opinion it is better than textbooks on the subject of information visualization because of its practical stance and number of examples. The table of contents is as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Object-Oriented Design
3. Computer Graphics Primer
4. Visualization Pipeline
5. Basic Data Representation
6. Fundamental Algorithms
7. Advanced Computer Graphics
8. Advanced Data Representation
9. Advanced Algorithms
10. Image Processing
11. Visualization on the Web
12. Applications

The sections on object-orientation and basic computer graphics are somewhat abbreviated, so you should already know this material before reading this book and use these sections just as reference and as a refresher. The chapters devoted to algorithms and to visualization are the best chapters. There are programming exercises at the conclusion of each chapter to give you some practice using VTK. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the algorithms of visualization and their implementation using VTK 5.0.