Customer Reviews

dillon_hicks said
Yes, this book is only the basics for those who wish to learn directx 9. When this book was released the directx sdk was version 9.0 b. It has since been updated. I warn you, this book is for programmers that actually have what it takes to be a good programmer, an ability to problem solve. Because of the updates in the sdk, this book will have some uncompilable code, but, as I said earlier, if you have a brain you can fix it. Anyway, to the book.

It has a good overview of all the directx namespaces with code examples, but does not get in to too many applications. It is complete without being too long, but still gives many pointers, no pun intended, to good graphics programming (You make a fully functional game by chapter 6). So by the end of the book you will know how to do 3D Graphics, Keyboard/Mouse input, sound, video, and 2D graphics. The one major downfall to this book is the section on 2D graphics which is done using Direct Draw. While this makes 2D programming MUCH easier, the direct draw is not going to be included in direct x 10 sdk, which is to be released with Windows Vista in the second half of 2006. The better way to do it is with 3D textured quads.

Anywho, this book is a two thumbs up for an intro into programming with directx. You will need further reading to oh say develope your own 3D graphics engine, but it will put you on your way.

Anonymous said
This book was originally released built around an early release of the DirectX 9 SDK.

If you grab the latest DirectX 9 SDK, some of the examples will not compile and run as-is. I attempted to contact the Author through his Blog web site asking for an updated release to the Source Code and never received a reply.

Fortunately, the community has taken the initiative and released updates as needed--however, it took me a while to find the site. You can find updates and more (including links to the Blogs of DirectX team staff) at "http://www.thezbuffer.com/".

I'm only about 60 pages into this book at the moment, and what I have learned has been very insightful and invaluable to my desire to learn more about DirectX.

efalsken said
When this book was written, Managed DirectX was in Beta. The author is the lead developer who was working on Managed DirectX. A year or two later, he wrote another book: "Beginning 3D Game Programming" published by SAMS. This other book is MUCH better. I can't even begin to explain how much better the second book is. All of the samples and explanations make much more sense. Look for it. It's out there.

rdagger2 said
I went into this book with a basic understanding of DirectX that I gained from free tutorials on the Internet. I'm also well versed in C# which is definitely a prerequisite. This book did not really added to my understanding of DirectX, and "Game Programming" really should be removed from the title. In fairness the book is a "Kick start series" and it is not suppose to be anything more than a primer. Also the author is clearly an expert of managed DirectX. Still it is a rather mediocre primer. The short code snippets followed by zero depth explanations are not much better than a help file. I have to agree with the previous post that the book is "par for the course."

mikewhy said
You get what you pay for. For the admission price, you get a quick no-nonsense walkthrough of someone else's exploratory code in Direct3D. You don't get commentary on what, why, and motivations. Maybe I'm a bit jaded, or maybe C# reads almost like English. The shallow explanatory text is a little jarring to read after browsing the code listings. ("Didn't I just read this?")

Polished versions of the book's code ships with the DX9.0c SDK. This is both good and bad. The book was written by a key member of the managed DirectX team. This is a good thing. OTOH, the accompanying text offers very little beyond the SDK samples. There is some compensating value in being able to browse it offline.

The coding style is clear and linear, perhaps just right for illustrating concepts, but not one you want to emulate. Overall, the book lacks the deeper discussion that the SDK samples want for; you won't find that between its covers. While far from a hearty recommendation, it's not at all a condemnation. The book is precisely what it purports to be: a kickstart primer to programming DirectX in C#, teaching by example but not much beyond.