[serious]book review needed

[ajames]

I am thinking of buying Visual Basic Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 (or getting my parents to buy it), so i need a review from the experts. Has anyone here used it? It looks good and seems to have high reviews.

[thegreatone]

I am thinking of buying Visual Basic Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 (or getting my parents to buy it), so i need a review from the experts. Has anyone here used it? It looks good and seems to have high reviews.

Author, link to it ? anything more informative than the title ?

[wossname]

Well I've got "Managed DirectX 9.0" by Tom Miller and its excellent. Although its in C# there are sambles in VB.net and C++ too. C# is easy to convert to Vb anyway.

[mendhak]

Amazon will have reviews.

[ajames]

Here is the book , but none of the reviews sound expert.

It is a book about how to program DirectX 9 with VB6

[NoteMe]

- The first 3rd of the book is on API and stuff you really don't need to learn, but can come in handy for other ocassions.
- The second 3rd of the book is on DDraw, and it is really nicely layed out, and thought me much about object orientation in games, and helped me a lot back in the old days.
- The third part 3rd of the book is about D3D, and it is not going to the depths, but you get to learn more then enough to make simple games. And is a good introduction.

Bare in mind that I am a bit confused here, since it doesn't say anywhere that it is the 2nd edition of the book. But when I bought that book a few years ago, it was DX7 and DX8 it went through, and not DX9. If this is a DX9 book, then it is for VB.NET, and not VB6, and the content might have changed a bit. It always do, few chapters in, a few chapters out. If you like VB then at least the version I had of it was the absolutely best book out there for DX. But if you today can read a bit of C#, then there is far better beginner books out there today. Tom Miller is one of the creaters of Managed DX, and he has written 2 books all ready. Planned to write the 3rd, but got bussy, so some of his friends are now writing his 3rd book.

I can also add that I have met Mr. Harbour on an other forum a few times, and he is a very nice lad. Bussy as BEEEP, but nice. And he has also written a few other interesting book, like the DarkBasic book.


- ØØ - (From the only guy that knows what he is talking about around here..)

[john tindell]

Well I've got "Managed DirectX 9.0" by Tom Miller and its excellent. Although its in C# there are sambles in VB.net and C++ too. C# is easy to convert to Vb anyway.

Have to agree with wossy, great book for learning to do 3D stuff with .NET even if you have no experience. Have you tried reading the customer reviews on Amazon of books about Game and Graphics Programming?

[ajames]

err... im using VB6, not .net - Should i buy the DirectX 8 version instead then?