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The Awesome Power of Direct3D/DirectX Peter J. Kovach 1997 | 840 pages Includes CDROM ISBN: 1884777473 |
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$49.45 | Softbound print book | |
Book Reviews
This is the most detailed book on the market covering Direct3D Retained Mode (RM). In addition, it provides an overview of other DirectX technologies, such as Direct3D Immediate Mode, DirectDraw, DirectInput, and DirectSound. This book is part developer's guide and part reference.
I recently purchased your book and I have been very pleased with its content. Thank you for bringing some real-life application details to an otherwise 'mystical' API.--Reviewed on Clipcode.com
- Adam J. Stokes
Senior programmer
Your book certainly deserves the highest ratings. In the Direct3D newsgroups and mailing lists I participate in anytime someone asks for the name of a book to learn DirectX everyone responds with the title of your book. I just read a message where someone was announcing that it just got in stores in England... Thanks for writing such an informative book.
- Albert Reed
Software developer
Hi, I'm writing you from Germany. I bought your great book on an trip to the states..... Really the first book, that gives detailed information beyond the documentation that comes with the Direct 3D dev-kit anyway. (That's the only stuff that other books usually contain...)
- Markus Rahlf
My name is Pablo de Heras Ciechomski and I'm a computer engineering student at the Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden. I'm a computer hobbyist and former demo graphics programmer. I have been used to doing all the dirty work directly to the video registers and therefore D3D/DX is a real blast. Although I'm used to finding information on the web especially, I find your book to be very filled with much crucial information. DX isn't very well documented but you prove that wrong with this book. Now I don't have to cruise the web for hours on end getting confusing information.
- Pablo de Heras Ciechomski
aka Paulus of Prophets
What I liked most about the book beside the content itself, of course, was the code layout for detailed explanation. At the beginning I wanted to see the complete piece of code for each routine, but afterwards I realize that your approach was better although not standard.
- Elkin Ng Fung
I am especially interested in the chapter on terrain...
It appears as though you went to a lot of work to carry the reader thru the process - in each chapter! Nice.
Do you have another book planned? I hope so. It is hard to find good computer books these days.- Charles W. Howard, Ph.D.
Finally, a book that shows you nothing but the real DirectX/Direct3D! It has a permanent place on my desk next to my monitor.
- Mike Hershberg
Independent shareware author
Well congratulations and many thanks. I was up late last night reading your book, and I think it is an excellent learning tool and reference. Definitely the best I've seen on DirectX.I was most impressed with the collision detection. It was very straighforward and easy to understand.
- Steven Miers
I must say that I am really enjoying it. I think you got the blend just right. . . Hope you will bring more out in the near future. Books like this are a boon to people like myself who have to train students straight out of university, who have no idea about the real world.- Keith Hook, UK
DESCRIPTION
If you are programming real-time 3D applications for siumlations, games, marketing, demonstrations or computer-animated videos using Microsoft's Direct3D Software Development Kit, this book is for you. Unlike other books, The Awesome Power of Direct3D/DirectX shows you how to build a complete working 3D application, including 3D sound, joystick input, animation, textures, shadows, and even collision detection!
It shows you how to write code using both Retained Mode and Immediate Mode. It does not bury the code in "wrappers" that hide the nuances of the SDK. Nothing is hidden.
What's inside:
- Complete step-by-step tutorial for Direct3D retained mode (windowed and full-screen) applications
- All the steps required to create an immediate mode program
- Basics of DirectDraw
- How to integrate all DirectX components into a working program
- Special techniques for shadows and 3D sound
- Integration of direct input devices like joystick and mouse
- Comprehensive library of high-quality, free, reusable 3D objects and textures
- Cross-reference DirectX retained mode library
REVISED PRINTING JUST OUT! Includes 100 new pages covering the new DirectX 5 commands and an expanded CD containing the complete DirectX 5 distribution and all of the demonstration projects. All of the subprojects for the tutorial chapters have been reorganized and rebuilt with MSVC++5.0 and DirectX 5.
CD-ROM contains:
- More tna 140 DirectX .x objects, some with animation (70 megs)
- .3ds originals of the .x objects (58 megs)
- 52 high-quality textures (4 megs)
- Microsoft's DirectX 5 SDK (356 megs)
- All the code from the text
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THIS BOOK...
"I like the style of explaining the code as it is revealed
and not hiding it from the reader."
-Jeff Lander, Darwin 3D
"A great book for the technically proficient-- has an
excellent reference section with lots of technical information."
-Kyle Lussier, author, Power-3D
"The way the book is divided into a how-to section and a
reference section meets the needs ot both less and more
experienced programmers and avoids the necessity of keeping
around multiple manuals."
-Kevin Hamilton, Georgia Tech
"One of the best of the new books... chock full of useful
information and sample code."
-Phil Taylor, Microsoft DRG
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...
An independent developer of 3D graphics applications ane games, Peter J. Kovach has been a vice president with a national developer of virtual reality and arcade systems and CEO of a corporation developing 3D systems for advertising and product development.