3D Game Programming All in One [With CDROM]

This is an awesome, and essential, book if you plan on doing development with the Torque Game Engine (TGE). I had purchased my Indie Developer license (...) before discovering this book. The codebase for TGE is so huge (hundreds of files, thousands of classes, 100's of thousand lines of code). The online tutorials and Garage Game DOCs weren't really enough, I felt, to get started. So, I bought this book to get me started. I will admit, the title of this book is a bit misleading. It does cover most aspects of 3d Game Programming (coding, textures, 3d modeling, sound, level design), but it is mostly dependent (except the artsy topics) on the TGE. Someone not expecting to work with TGE will be disappointed as all the code in the book is written in TorqueScript, not C++. Another thing I will say about this book: The beginner-intermediate rating is a bit untrue. I would gear this book more towards the intermediate level. The 'introduction to programming' chapter is a good start, but really doesn't prepare an unexperienced programmer to the concepts of inheritance, scoping, program flow, among others, covered in the book. Final Conclusion: Buy this book if you are working with TGE. Even if you're an experience TGE user, the references (function/class listings, etc) are extremely valuable. If you are not a TGE user, you should give a good look at it, as it is a great tool for an indie developer (...). If you're working on making your own engine from scratch, this book probably won't help you too much (there are probably better books on texture creation, 3d model creation, and sound that you could pick up instead... along with an actual 'engine development' book in C++).

Ive been working with the Torque engine about a year before i bought this book. This book is great, i easily learned more information just reading this book than i would have ever by learning Torque and game creation through irc/garagegames/other devlopers. Its a MUST have if you are remotely serious about the Torque engine. Im already half way through my first book and have ordered his 2nd book Advanced 3D Game Programming All in One. However if you arent sure what engine you are using this book most likely isnt your style. It does go over a lot of basic concepts such as mapping systems / how rendering works and so on, but you really need to be a torque buff to want this book. However if you seriously think that buying a book will make a game for you and teach you everything there is to the industry then you are sorely mistaken. This book is the bible of the Torque engine so if you want to get your money out of the book, buy a torque liscense.

But was is it? To answer that I will first say what it's not: An all-in-one guide to 3d programming. Far from it. I would, however, say this book is *the* title to pick up if you are serious about making games using Garage Games' "Torque" engine (the engine behind the "Tribes" series). This book *is* the definitive all-in-one beginners guide to creating 3D games with Torque. I I have been making online games professionally for the last 5 years and I can tell you from experience that no single individual has a chance in the proverbial hell to achieve a high production value, AAA Massively Multiplayer title (which seems to be the first thing on many people's mind). MMO's are out of the grasp of 99.9999% of all indie developers. Fun, exciting and *profitable* multi-player games, however are well within the reach of one or few indie developers. The Torque engine gives you to the tools you need to develop a top-end multi-player 3D game. There are a *lot* of issues to be considered in such a game, but most of them are gracefully handled by the Torque engine. In this book you will learn how to harness the various tools within this engine... all in one book. :) I wholeheartedly recommed this book and this engine for anyone with some programming background interested in making a game within a reasonable amount of time. The engine is only $100 bucks (no royalties unless you make over a quarter of a million bucks on the game) with all of the source code, but you get a copy of the engine on the CD included with this book. Definitely pick this one up

My boyfriend bought this book originaly, but I picked it up to read a bit when we brought it on our camping trip. I'm almost finished it now (I'm on the sound and music chapters) and I just have to say how impressed I am with this book. The only previous experience i've had was with VBA, and no game development. Me and my boyfriend are now planning to make a puzzle game together based on things we've learned in Ken's book. For me, the best parts were the model making chapters, but I also worked through the programming chapters. I had a few problems with chapter five and 6, but a visit to the GarageGames board that discusses the book helped me find out where I went wrong. There were some typos in an early chapter, but again, the Garage Games board had the needed corrections. Ken's writing style pulls you in - you feel like he is sitting next to you explaining stuff as you go along without seeming too cute or patronizing. The converstation-style tone he uses is what kept me reading the book while on vacation, and by the time we got home I could not wait to get started with my computer on the tutorial things. There is lots of reference material throughout the book and in the appendixes. As mentioned by someone else, the "Programming" part in the name is a bit of a misnomer, since the book has lots of programming ***and*** many chapters of model-making, sound-editing and recording, texture making and other things. It is so much more than just programming.

Ok, I own several game design books already and all are decent but none has been as thorough and complete as this book. This book covers nearly EVERYTHING that is neccessary to develop a game. Including : scripting, client and server side scripting, modelling(character and vehicle), animation, skinning, tiling, GUI, level building, terrain....and tons more. The only thing that this doesn't cover is actually modification of Torque's C++ code. Not that it matters because this book is more focused on the game design and elements rather than strict coding like other books. The best thing is that all the topics are broken down and easily understandable.The Torque 3D engine is already famous for it's lack of decent tutorials and documentation.....well this is definately what we been waiting for.