[.ca] Introduction to 3D Game Engine Design Using DirectX 9 and C# (ISBN 1590590813)

Read the Title Carefully:
This book is focused on "Introduction to Game Design" and uses the C# language and DirectX 9 technology to illustrate the samples. This book does not teach C# nor does it provide sufficient DirectX programming concepts. If you are looking for a book that provides a good overview of how a 3D Game Engine works from the developer-perspective then this book is for you. For those looking for a pre-built game engine upon which to learn then I suggest that you look somewhere else.

nice concept but poor direct X instruction:
Obviously Lynn put a lot of work into the application used as the foundation for this book but unfortunate he did not put as much time into the instructional aspect of the application. Perhaps a good book for someone experienced with Direct X programming and who just want to migrate over to C# but not for a Direct X programming novices.

This book fails to teach C# or Game Programming!:
I had been waiting for this book to come out for months. After multiple delays, it finally arrived. And, I am very disappointed. Clearly a lot has been removed from the book since its initial concept. The "Game Programming" aspect of the book is just one Chapter. There are references to a mysterious Chapter 6 throughout the book, but Chapter 6 does not exist. My guess is that it was removed before publication. This book is not even good if you are new to programming. There are several places that assume you have an understanding of C/C++. Novice programmers will be quite frustrated by this. I originally bought this book as a gift for my young nephew who has not programmed in any language, hoping it was going to teach C# in the context of game programs. Unfortunately it fails to cover C# from a novice perspective, and there is only one chapter on games. Hardly worth putting Game Programming in the title. My recommendation is to find another book. Unfortunately this one does not live up to its promises.

OK, if you like to study uncommented code:
I didn't expect this book to teach me C# or DirectX, so no worries there. The book, along with the code that you have to download from apress, shows how to design & code a game engine. Actually, it's pretty weak on the design, since there are NO diagrams, and very little doc in the code, to help me understand what I'm reading. No explanation of relationships between the various objects & classes. What's especially confusing is trying to find methods that are called by the sample code. Is the method in a base class? Do I need to override it? Is it in another object that I have to write...? If there's one thing that might save this book, it would be more diagrams, such as UML. After reading Chapter 1 and its code (which calls game engine methods but doesn't explain them), I had to download the code and go through it line by line. I wrote out the method calls by hand, and now I finally understand the high-level structure of the engine and the sample game. But that doesn't even include AI, input, lighting, sound, and how game objects are organized inside the engine. I guess I've got my work cut out for me.

Exactly what I want.:
I just browsed the book in a bookstore in California, and decided to order it from Amazon. However, I am very confused over the negative ratings here. I guess, we are all looking for different things, at different levels. I want to model physical objects, like cars, and show how they move in a 3D-world. My idea is that the best way to get a better understanding of cars and the laws of physics in 3 dimensions, is to develop a program for it! I think this is more fun than any other kind of programming. This book will suit me well. Perfect for my level.