Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus [With CDROM]

About time someone wrote a book to cover new topics like the new DirectX 8 Graphics in plain english and AI, among other things.. Lamothe's book helped me take my programming beyond the PC to do the coolest things. I have never seen anyone explain AI in a game book, his coverage is extremely deep, and very practical, eventhough his coverage of esoteric topics like NNs is small, his coverage of fuzzy logic has got me thinking of completely new ways to do things. Great going, Andre Lamothe, keep things great books coming!! Shame on people who want to knock you for making money on a book. You deserve it, I for one would not have the attention span to write a 500+ page book. Finally, whoever the immature boyz that wrote those useless reviews are, its obvious you haven't read the book or looked at the CD, on the CD there are 2 complete 3D ebooks on Direct3D, and general 3D, the general 3D book is Excellent, the Direct3D book is fair, but all in all no where will you find this much information, and this much value.

I recently got this book and am thoroughly impressed with both the writing and the ease with which the technical content is explained and made accessible to a complete newbie to game programming such as myself. The techniques that LaMothe teaches throughout the book are extremely advanced, yet he breaks them down in a way that makes them easy to understand. The other reviews of this book do not AT ALL do it any justice. It seems to me from reading them that they have some sort of vendetta against LaMothe, who in my estimation is beyond brilliant with the amount of work he has published. Since they chose to hide their identities I would venture to guess that they are the minions of rival authors, perhaps even the rival authors themselves! Some sort of professional jealously I guess. (One reviewer asked why 3D appears in the title if no 3D coverage is given...a thorough check of the cover reveals nothing of the sort).At any rate, I will end this review on a positive note because that is the only thing I feel about this book. It is definitely worth the money and I highly recommend it!

Many people have complained about the title, and yes, there is NO coverage of 3D game programming in this book. The articles on the CD don't really do that well, and as such I realize that people SHOULD be upset that this book has the words 3D in the title.However, the book is, hands down, the greatest BEGINNER'S game programming book of all time. Have you gone through C or C++ books, have mastered the syntax, but are completely stumped on where to go now? BUY THIS!!! He starts you on basic Windows programming, teaching you the outer shell of any program and a small sample of Windows GUI drawing to get you up to speed enough to make you own Paint program. Then he spends a short amount of time on COM objects, giving the reader an essential basic understand of what DirectX objects are, and then spends over 600 pages explaining DirectDraw, DirectSound, DirectMusic, DirectInput, and basic physics models. This is the book that gets you from stumped to understand enough of DirectX to plunge into 3D programming, which can be taught by any number of books on the market, not the least of which being Volume 2 of this series, to be published January 1, 2002. This is the essential beginner's book to DirectX, despite the title. All you newbies (and me) need this book! Luckily I have my copy ;)

The main criticism of Andre` LaMothe's works is that he doesn't cover enough advanced topics. Realize that his books are aimed at beginners who may not know much more than standard C/C++. That's not to say that it's easy. In fact, this will be far more difficult than that "21 Days" you learned C++ with. It is written for intelligent, motivated individuals. On the other hand, his style is very easy-going with plenty off humor, etc., and, despite his 20 hour work day, he never loses sight of the fact that the book is aimed at beginners and fully explains everything in a very straightforward manner. By the end of the book, you will be able to sit down and make a small 2D Windows game in DirectX. Also realize that there should be a Vol. 2, so if you are interested in advanced topics, this book still provides a great reference while you wait.

A lot of people are complaining about the lack of 3D info. This is entirely unwarranted because if you do any research at all, they say that there is 3D stuff on the cd and that LaMothe will go over it in Volume II. I have both his original Gurus book and his Windows Dummies book. By the time I got this one I already knew a good deal of game programming, but this book was most definitely not a waste of time! All the stuff that was in Dummies is in here and explained more fully as well as for DirectX 6.0 (Dummies was some strange hybrid of 1.0 and 5.0). For those who haven't seen it in a while, or never quite got there, he also explains basic Linear Algebra in a very straight-forward manner. In addition he has chapters on physics and stae-of-the-art artificial intelligence(Fuzzy Logic and Neural Nets!). The physics chapter is very important because the next time I see a Mario clone where you float to the top of your jump, float back down to the bottom at the same speed, and can change direction in the middle, I'm going to blow chunks all over my computer! Anyone who knows C and some C++ can pick up this book, learn Windows programming, and make a game within a month or two. Face it, as a beginning programmer, or even an advanced lone programmer, you're not going to write the next Quake. This book will make sure your game at least doesn't stink.