Directx9 Graphics: The Definitive Guide To Direct 3d

DirectX 9 Graphics: The Definitive Guide to Direct3D provides a detailed and comprehensive guide to getting started with DirectX, with a specific focus on Direct3D, a technology designed to create interactive multimedia products. This book demystifies DirectX, starting with the basics of setting up a DirectX application and finishing with the intricacies of real-time 3D animation. Learn how to: Create and render 3D worlds. Use index and vertex buffers to represent 3D primitives. Apply 3D mathematical theory to graphic design. Export 3D models from 3D rendering applications and import them into DirectX as meshes. Save and load data using X files. Create snow, rain, fog, and more using point sprites and particle systems. Animate pixel data on textures. Enhance your game world with real-time lighting and texture mapping. Employ skeletal animation to animate meshes.

User review
It's an okay beginner's guide, but by no means the `definitive` guide.
This book is a decent introduction to Direct3D graphics, but it's by no means a definitive guide, nor is it a guide to Direct3D9 graphics. A discussion of the real meat and potatoes of Direct3D9, the facet that makes the API so exciting for developers, pixel and vertex shaders, is completely omitted. So it's essentially a Direct3D7 level text.

The discussion of 3D mathematics was abysmal, a lot of the actual math isn't really shown, but how to use the D3DX helper functions are. Worst of all, Thorn didn't show us how to multiply matrices -- LUDICROUS! If anyone wants to be a professional graphics programmer, implementing and developing new algorithms, they're going to need to get to grips with the, sometimes grueling, mathematics.

The discussion of 3D concepts is okay, but it's all extremely basic. I was able to get a very simple, fixed-function game engine running using this book as a reference for some of the API functions, but if you want to make more cutting edge graphics programs, you need pixel shaders to do that.

If you can get this book used and dirt cheap, then it'll be a decent intro to Direct3D, but I suggest you pick up either Wolfgang Engel's Beginning Direct3D Game Programming and/or Frank Luna's book -- both of which introduce pixel/vertex shaders.

After you read the forementioned, `Programming Vertex And Pixel Shaders` by Wolfgang Engel will be most useful, as well as the ShaderX series (also edited by Engel).

User review
Misleading title
This book is not even close to being the definitive guide to Direct3D. At best it's an introduction, and covers even less material than other introductions (eg Frank Luna's book or Wolfgang Engel's book).

The first 20 pages are given over to installing DirectX SDK. Complete waste of time for anyone who can read the SDK install doc. The chapter on video playback is pure filler - that is not part of Direct3D and shouldn't be in the book. You would learn just as much D3D by following the free SDK tutorials or some of the excellent (free) Internet tutorials.

To make matters worse, he defines his own linked list class, instead of using the STL std::list. That's always a bad sign in my book.

All in all very poor. Stick with the SDK docs and Internet tutorials.





User review
Overview and that's all
Well despite an appealing title, it remains an overview. The
author is only giving a small extract of the programming code
which would be hard for someone to pick up without being more
familiar with DirectX structure. Not very useful unless you
know some DirectX but then, does not give a lot more info ,,,,
especially for $49 ! Don't waste your money.

User review
This is the best direct3d book ?
I got this title because it had the most references and positive
reviews. But this is a seriously flawed book. Important topics
like depth, culling, block bit transfers, and any discussion of
shadows and reflections are completely missing.
The book style is quirky, it starts like a users guide, with
installation instructions for directX, then launches into a
feature by feature discussion with virtually no overview material
about what 3d drawing means, and what we are trying to accomplish.

Further, the author starts with an example of how to write a
message loop that POLLS for messages instead of releases control
to get them `because we need all the time we can get for the
game`. This is an amateur hour stunt that is the reason some
apps bog down the system in Windows. Its totally unecessary,
you can use timers to make sure you get program time from the
system WHEN APPROPRIATE, not continuously WASTING CPU time.
DON'T use this technique !

I'm sorry to say that I have not found a professional, readable
high level book on Direct3d yet. This is in contrast to the
excellent books available for OpenGL. Sad.

User review
good start for direct3d intro
This book starts out with 3D math reviews and goes on to Direct3D fundamentals.

Pro:
- It has pretty good chapters on the X file, camera system, and skeletal animation
- I love the DirectX Q&A on the back of appendix which gives a thorough some of the questions you mgiht have ran into but can't find the answers

Con:
- the chapter on materials and lightning could have been expanded more such as giving more samples
- the samples you can downloaded although there are no error in the code but you have to put a little of work to add those files into a new project and compile

Overall, it's a great start for those who wish to learn DirectX 9. I strongly suggest you to download the DirectX9 SDK and read it along with this book. You should have a solid basic foundation of direct3d at the end of this book.