Introduction to 3D Game Programming with Direct X 9.0c: A Shader Approach (Wordware Game and Graphics Library)

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0c: A Shader Approach presents an introduction to programming interactive computer graphics, with an emphasis on game development, using real-time shaders with DirectX 9.0. The book is divided into three parts that explain basic mathematical and 3D concepts, show how to describe 3D worlds and implement fundamental 3D rendering techniques, and demonstrate the application of Direct3D to create a variety of special effects. With this book: Understand basic mathematical tools used in video game creation such as vectors, matrices, and transformations. Discover how to describe and draw interactive 3D scenes using Direct3D and the D3DX library. Learn how to implement lighting, texture mapping, alpha blending, and stenciling using shaders and the high-level shading language (HLSL). Explore a variety of techniques for creating special effects, including vertex blending, character animation, terrain rendering, multi-texturing, particle systems, reflections, shadows, and normal mapping. Find out how to work with meshes, load and render .X files, program terrain/camera collision detection, and implement 3D object picking. Review key ideas, gain programming experience, and explore new topics with the end-of-chapter exercises.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent for anyone wanting to learn Direct X, HLSL and other game concepts

By Jonathan Stichbury - January 1, 2007

Overall this is an exceptionally well written book. The text is easy to read, and concise, though that's not to say you understand everything the first time you read it.

The code framework is also pretty good, the naming conventions are decent and the code is clearly written. The framework is consistent throughout the book, and uses inheritance and minor polymorphism which manages to hide a lot of the Direct3D / Win32 initialization, so once you are past these chapters you needn't concern yourself with this code again, and you can intend focus on the code that Frank is trying to explain.

The design is also very modular, a good example of this is found in Chapter 21: Exercise 4 where it asks you to integrate an Environment Mapped sphere for the sky, and Normal mapped water, into a scene which shows a Castle and trees / grass. This was pretty easy, as it just required shifting a few art / source files and tying some loose ends.

The book contains many... read more

This book is nicely laid out!

By Jeffrey S. Hartman - August 23, 2006

I have been publishing 2-d and flash games for a bit, and now need to hit DirectX for 3d again (stopped at v8) and need to catch up. There were several things I needed for the new game project starting and it was easy to find all of them right off the bat. I checked first in the index. e.g. I need landscape/terrain generation, .x file loading, and concepts described in pure mathematics (not pseudo code) before showing the actual code. Don't be afraid of matrix math/calculus and get this book. It is a total re-write from the ground up of a previous book. I like this guy.

Very good book for learning how to use DirectX9

By Chris Long - December 23, 2006

This is a great book. Mr. Luna provides an incredible amount of information all with good detail and clear wording. He doesn't waste time by teaching you irrelevant or outdated topics that aren't used anymore like other books. The more difficult topics are explained well and example code is abundant. This book is recommended for any aspiring game programmer.