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Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus: Advanced 3D Graphics and Rasterization (Other Sams)
 
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Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus: Advanced 3D Graphics and Rasterization (Other Sams) [Illustrated] (Paperback)

by Andre LaMothe (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus helps its readers make great progress in creating 3D worlds and the action that goes on in them. To be an ordinary programmer is one thing: you need only learn how to interact with the computer on its own terms, creating buttons and combo boxes that have no significance away from the screen. To be a game programmer--particularly one that writes games with environments that appear three-dimensional to their players--is something else entirely. Such work requires that the flat screen simulates the real world, complete with light, shading, texture, gravity and momentum.

That this large, dense book manages to explain how to design and implement a 3-D game while neither glossing over too many details nor swamping the reader with trivia is a credit to author André LaMothe. He opens by showing (and explaining) the C++ source code of a simple but full-fledged 3-D spaceflight shooter game--a real boost to the reader's confidence. From there, he explains the complicated geometric concepts and mathematics that underlie realistic games (always with an eye toward software algorithms) and shows how to use the many APIs and libraries (including Microsoft DirectX 9.0) that make the world-builder's job easier. Make no mistake: designing and building convincing games with 3-D visuals and behaviours that convincingly approximate real-world physics is hard work. In this book, LaMothe helps you get it done and enjoy the process. --David Wall

Topics covered: how to design and build 3-D worlds and the goings-on within them. Aside from mathematics and geometry, this book focuses on wireframe models, shading, rendering and animation. Microsoft DirectX 9.0 gets special attention. --Robert Lawton, Amazon.com

Product Description

Today is the greatest time in history to be in the game business. We now have the technology to create games that look real! Sony's Playstation II, XBOX, and Game Cube are cool! But, all this technology isn't easy or trivial to understand - it takes really hard work and lots of Red Bull. The difficulty level of game programming has definitely been cranked up these days in relation to the skill set needed to make games. Andre LaMothe's follow-up book to Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus is the one to read for the latest in 3D game programming. When readers are finished with Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus-Advanced 3D Graphics and Rasterization, they will be able to create a full 3D texture-mapped, lit video game for the PC with a software rasterizer they can write themselves. Moreover, they will understand the underlying principles of 3D graphics and be able to better understand and utilize 3D hardware today and in the future.



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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The learning experience of the century, 13 Aug 2003
This book doesn't really touch on DirectX or proper games programming, but thats a good thing! Instead the whole book really does take you through the steps of creating your own software rasterizer - learning how something like DX or OpenGL works on the inside. If you want to be amazing at DX then this is information you need - u cant properly use the tool without knowing how it works. Writing style is great, and the author really is creating the engine as he is writing the book, instead of creating the engine and then writing the book! This makes it a lot easier to see what has been going on in the authors head, but can cause some confusion when he changes his mind about something half way through.

Although it covers cameras and 3d math, this info can be found in many other books. However the important bits were as follows:
-rasterizing triangles, i.e. projecting the 3d world onto the 2d screen
-all kinds of interpolation techniques - gouraud shading, perspective texture mapping, z buffering
-a very in depth part about clipping which is a BIG topic
-strong focus on optimisation with lots of little tips to make things faster
-quake II .md2 model format loading/display
Don't get me wrong - there is LOADS of other info in this book on just about every 3d graphics topic, but above is things that I couldn't find anywhere else. It doesn't just tell you HOW to do them, it tells u how they actually work.

My only problem was that he does refer back to his previous book, The Zen of 3D Game Programming, occasionally which I haven't read, but you can easily get by without it.

So, to sum up, dont buy this book expecting to come out the other end with a working game engine or in depth knowledge of a particular 3d accelerator - it is a book about the theory and math of 3d graphics. Buy it because it is the best source of information that you NEED to learn to become an expert, and it is well written, well structured and generally... GREAT!

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars useful, 5 Feb 2004
By A Customer
If you wanna make your own 3D engine and have absolutely no idea how to start, then get this book !

This will give you a much better understanding of how 3D graphics work than any book on OpenGL or DirectX. The book teaches you to build a software-renderer in C from start to finish, including texturing, lighting, animation, scripting, ... , processor optimizations. The lay out is very logical, and all the techniques and concepts are illustrated and explained very well.

The code does look ugly at times, but if you follow it from the start, you won't be lost or confused.

It would have been better if his code was written in C++ and not C, but that's only a minor issue.

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20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, 11 Jun 2003
This book only just arrived a week ago, but already I can see that this is a resource packed with more information on real time 3D graphics than any other book. I own a number of the more theory-heavy graphics books, and while they explain their subjects well, they leave a lot to be desired when it comes to runtime performance. This book, on the other hand, wraps up detailed discussions of theory with what is by far the most sophisticated and complete tour of optimization I've ever seen in a book. The techniques added by each chapter, from rasterization to coloured lighting to transformations, start with theory and end with lightning fast code that's been fully explained. This really is a start-to-finish book, and I must honestly say I'm still feeling "giddy" at the thought of how much I'm going to know when I finish it. This is a book about KNOWING how it works, not just having an idea of how it works.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely money well spent
I'm not going to spend a lot of time identifying and classifying each part of the book, because that's been done by others and doesn't really reflect the book as a... Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2006 by Eddy Deegan

5.0 out of 5 stars Best for 3D Game Programming
This is a must have for anyone wanting to learn 3D Game Programming with DirectX. However, as with all great books you need to do some work - and I would advise that you read the... Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2004 by durba5157

5.0 out of 5 stars 3d Concepts well explained
We all complain that there is too much maths in 3d game programming books but friends who told 3d game programming is easy? Read more
Published on 18 May 2004 by singhk9

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent learning tool
I've always struggled to get into 3D coding, books on DirectX and OpenGL just end up being API references, without giving me what I really need which is a good solid foundation on... Read more
Published on 7 May 2004

2.0 out of 5 stars 3D Software based optimisation
If you DONT want to use DirectX 3D API, then go with this book. As LaMothe says "Math, Math,...etc” in software mode, with C.

The coding is not tidy. Read more

Published on 2 Feb 2004

2.0 out of 5 stars Lamothe is a 2nd rate programmer
if you want to get confused by a trillion optimizations in the parts where understanding is the most important, by all means get this book. Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2004 by Rasputin

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading
This is what is needed to bridge the gap between theoretical books and "hands on" API specific books. Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2003 by marvelsky

1.0 out of 5 stars Obsolete and deceptive
As one of the other (positive) reviews says, this book teaches its builders how to write a software renderer for videogames. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2003

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