swgh

I would just like to suggest two EXCELLENT books for learnining C++ game programming that I have used in the past year:

C++ Programming for the absolute beginner --

Do not be fooled by the title, the book first prog is Hello World, but by chapter 4 you are onto functions, then striaght into OOP and pointers/references then into Namespaces, file reading/ writing then the book finishes with a crash course in Windows programming. And, on top of that, every example is based around game programming.

I cannot reccomend this book enough, the only bad point is the DIRECT X cd that comes with it is Direct X v 8 which is not Windows XP compatable.

The other book is Learn Game Programming by micheal moirison

Another great book, this one is pretty fast paced, and moves through some ideas of game programming that others do not, like vectors, algorithms and even some basic C strings.

Has anyone read either of these, what did you think of them?

joeprogrammer

The book I learned Windows game programming from is Windows Game Programming for Dummies by Andre LaMothe. It does not focus so much on the actual languge itself, but rather teaching basic Windows programming, and then goes right into DirectDraw 7. I read this book a long time ago, so now DirectDraw is no longer supported (although you can still use the DirectX 7 interfaces to make it work). I found this book very useful, except that it is now rendered useless, since I switched to Mac OS X .

psychopath

Three books i've been using for game programming are:

"Beginning OpenGL Game Programming"
"Physics for Game Developers"
"AI Game Engine Programming"

I haven't gotten far into the AI book yet, but I would recommend the first two, although "Physics for Game Developers" is pretty heavy on the math.

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Bubba

DirectX 8 is comptible with XP.

To say DX anything is not compatible with a Microsoft OS is now ludicrous. This was only true a long time ago with Windows NT.

Great game programming books:

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 by Frank Luna
The best primer out there for DirectX 9.0.

Game Coding Complete, 2nd edition by Mike McShaffy.
What can I say other than WOW! Excellent book that takes you way past Andre Lamothe and into some professional coding styles, habits, and patterns. Gels everything together and with the information you could begin to roll your own engine code. Excellent book.

Game Physics by David H. Eberly.
More physics and math than should be allowed to publish in one book.

Mathematics for 3D Game Programming & Computer Graphics, 2nd ed. by Eric Lengyel.
Excellent resource for physics concepts, math, and applications. You must get this book if you are serious about doing physics in your game. Even if you are just going to use Havok or some other 3rd party physics API - a must have book.

Real Time Rendering by Tomas Akennine Moller and Eric Haines.
Often quoted by the pro's and those at Gamasutra as the book to have for 3D rendering. Deservedly so.

Developer's Guide to Multiplayer Games by Andrew Mulholland and Teijo Hakala.
If you want to do multiplayer games, get this book.

Shader X2, Shader Programming Tips and Tricks with DirectX9, edited by Wolfgang F. Engel.
Shaders, shaders, and more shaders. Excellent.
Any of the Shader X(#) books are excellent. I believe they are up to number 4 now.

Learn Vertex and Pixel Shader Programming with DirectX 9 by James C. Leiterman.
Excellent primer on shaders in DirectX9, but also in pure assembly.

Programming Vertex and Pixel Shaders by Wolfgang Engel.
Excellent book on nearly every aspect of shader programming, debugging, implementation, and techniques.

3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development, by Fletcher Dunn and Ian Parberry.
A great primer on the aspects of 3D math for games. Covers quaternions in great detail, better than any other source for quaternions I've come across.

Finally, my fav:

DirectX 9 Audio Exposed, Interactive Audio Development Todd M. Fay, Scott Selfon, and Todor J. Fay.
An awesome book chocked full of info about DirectMusic by some of the most renowned names in the DirectMusic scene. Commented on and edited by one of the people who helped develop DirectMusic.
Simple, straightforward, and an easy read.
This book is never far from my computer.
Contains comments and editorials from the developer's of the score for No One Lives Forever and Halo.

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If you aim at everything you will hit something but you won't know what it is.