Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming in 24 Hours

Has anyone read this book, if so can you tell me if it's good or not. It uses Win32 API which I'm learning right now, since I plan to use DirectX 9 and it's also used with other API's also anyways. It doesn't have to be a really great book, since it doesn't cost much anyways but can anyone tell me it's useful at all.

Can anyone tell me what API Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days. From the table of contents it seems to use Direct3d in 2d but according to the reviews it uses Direct Draw.

Haven't read either, but neither is any good. Nothing by Sams really is.

I'm thinking of getting the DirectX in 21 Days book. I read reviews of it and none of them are bad. Have you even looked at either books?

You might also want to look at Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus ...it covers Direct Draw and some basic 3d stuff at the end...plus it comes with two cds, one with two 3d books and the source code from the book, and the other with MSVC++ 6 "Introductory Edition"

I looked at that book and was going to get it but it uses Direct Draw and I think DirectX 7. Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days
uses 2D which is what I want to program in for a while, and it uses DirectX 8.1 throughout the book. I think it uses Direct3d for the 2D things but I'm not sure.

If you haven't seen any bad reviews, you haven't looked hard enough.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...stomer-reviews
http://www.informit.com/isapi/produc...tent/index.asp the author is a professional JAVA programmer...

SAMS books generally contain numerous errors, and are written by authors that don't really know what they're talking about. True story.

Buy the book if you want, but you'll be wasting your money. Other books are better; like Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus

I already read those reviews and the reason for those bad reviews are already explained and according to some of the other reviews it's also explained in the book. Anyways I'm not going to get that book. I'm going to get the DirectX book. It only have 2 reviews but they aren't bad and I read some comments about it on the web and it seems to be good. Tricks of the Windows game programming also seems to be good, but I heard some bad things about it like the author's programming style and it uses DirectX 7.

Sure it uses DX 7, but why should that matter? As long as you have an up-to-date version of Direct X, you can run it, and I think it is a good place to go before 3d programming...Plus this book does talk about 3d and math you need and pretty much everything else that you use in game programming...So while it may not be the best it does cover a wide variety of topics...and C code isn't that hard to convert to C++ (and if you don't know C it will help you learn)

Eh, let him waste his money. He's already made up his mind.

I dsidn't really make up my mind but I'm most likely going to get Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX. I already spent the last week looking on a game programming books and turorials. I looked up on Tricks of the Windows Game Progamming Gurus. That and Programming Role Playing Games with DirectX 8. I was going to get Programming RPG since it seems to cover a lot of things. But it seems to use a lot of 3D and I don't think I know enough math for it.I just started thinking of actually getting Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX today, it uses 2D which is what I want to program in for a while and Direct3D. From what I looked up, it's better to use Direct3D for 2D things than DirectDraw. If it isn't good I might end up getting Programming RPG with DirectX, since I can get the Sams DirectX book for $10 so if it's bad I can get a new book.

Can I just point out something, the two books mentioned in this thread, 'Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus' and 'Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days' are both from Sams and are both by the same author!!

I am just learning DirectX 8 after just starting to understand DirectX 7, and I own both books, "Tricks Of the Windows Game Programming Guru's" and "Teach Yourself Game programming with DirectX in 21 Days". I read the first, and found it to be about the best book I have read. It was very informative, and it teaches you from pretty much knowing nothing about game programming to actually being able to put a pretty good game together. I would suggest reading this one first. The later is a good book, but I found it only taught the very basics to DirectX 8, and didn't even cover incorporating textures and alpha blending into a tile map. In this book you construct a 2D tile map type game that resembles Ultima 4 kind of play, which is pretty cool. The only crummy thing was that it didn't explain layers, so the game is VERY basic and flat. I think though it is a good intro to 2D with DirectX 8. Seems to go good right after Tricks Of the Guru's. Something would definitely be needed after that one. Boy, it guess it would get pretty expensive to follow my advise. May be stick to tutorials.

Game Programming for Dummies seems to be like Tricks of the WIndows Game Programming Guru's and it's by the same author. DOes it cover things like AI and is it as good as Tricks. I'm getting the book I decide on tomorrow since I always end up changing my mind.

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Originally posted by anonytmouse
Can I just point out something, the two books mentioned in this thread, 'Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus' and 'Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days' are both from Sams and are both by the same author!!

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Hehe...I was about to point that out!


Anyway....you should never judge a book by it's cover ;)

If you are new to programming, and need a place to start...for the price this book is not a bad place to start....sure....yer not gonna make Halo with it....but you can get a good idea of where to begin.......