Game Programming Books - Page 7

Beyond Digital Photography: Transforming Photos into Fine Art with Photoshop and Painter

Cher Threinen-Pendarvis, Donal Jolley

Amazon Price: $29.69 List Price: $44.99 Not yet published By: Peachpit Press

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Editorial Review:

Many professional photographers and hobbyists alike want to take their photographs further and create expressive works of art with great results. This book uses time-honored design principles and painting skills, and applies them to digital photographs. Using numerous examples in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step format, authors Cher Threinen-Pendarvis and Donal Jolley teach readers how they can use digital tools like Photoshop and Painter to add a more personal quality to their photos. Beautifully illustrated, this book is sure to inspire photographers, illustrators and hobbyists looking to take their photographs to the next level.

Designing Virtual Worlds (New Riders Games)

Richard Bartle

Amazon Price: $34.99 List Price: $49.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: New Riders Games Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $19.45

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Designing Virtual Worlds is the most comprehensive treatment of virtual world design to-date from one of the true pioneers and most sought-after design consultants. It's a tour de force of VW design, stunning in intellectual scope, spanning the literary, economic, sociological, psychological, physical, technological, and ethical underpinnings of design, while providing the reader with a deep, well-grounded understanding of VW design principles. It covers everything from MUDs to MOOs to MMORPGs, from text-based to graphical VWs.

Designing Virtual Worlds brings a rich, well-developed approach to the design concepts behind virtual worlds. It is grounded in the earliest approaches to such designs, but the examples discussed in the book run the gamut from the earliest MUDs to the present-day MMORPG games mentioned above. It teaches the reader the actual, underlying design principles that many designers do not understand when they borrow or build from previous games. There is no other design book on the market in the area of online games and virtual worlds that provides the rich detail, historical context, and conceptual depth of Designing Virtual Worlds.

Mobile 3D Graphics: with OpenGL ES and M3G (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics)

Kari Pulli, Jani Vaarala, Ville Miettinen, Tomi Aarnio, Kimmo Roimela

Amazon Price: $47.96 List Price: $59.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Morgan Kaufmann Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $43.95

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Graphics and game developers must learn to program for mobility. This book will teach you how.

"This book - written by some of the key technical experts...provides a comprehensive but practical and easily understood introduction for any software engineer seeking to delight the consumer with rich 3D interactive experiences on their phone. Like the OpenGL ES and M3G standards it covers, this book is destined to become an enduring standard for many years to come."
- Lincoln Wallen, CTO, Electronic Arts, Mobile

"This book is an escalator, which takes the field to new levels. This is especially true because the text ensures that the topic is easily accessible to everyone with some background in computer science...The foundations of this book are clear, and the authors are extremely knowledgeable about the subject."
- Tomas Akenine-Möller, bestselling author and Professor of Computer Science at Lund University

"This book is an excellent introduction to M3G. The authors are all experienced M3G users and developers, and they do a great job of conveying that experience, as well as plenty of practical advice that has been proven in the field."
- Sean Ellis, Consultant Graphics Engineer, ARM Ltd

The exploding popularity of mobile computing is undeniable. From cell phones to portable gaming systems, the global demand for multifunctional mobile devices is driving amazing hardware and software developments. 3D graphics are becoming an integral part of these ubiquitous devices, and as a result, Mobile 3D Graphics is arguably the most rapidly advancing area of the computer graphics discipline.

Mobile 3D Graphics is about writing real-time 3D graphics applications for mobile devices. The programming interfaces explained and demonstrated in this must-have reference enable dynamic 3D media on cell phones, GPS systems, portable gaming consoles and media players.

The text begins by providing thorough coverage of background essentials, then presents detailed hands-on examples, including extensive working code in both of the dominant mobile APIs, OpenGL ES and M3G.

C/C++ and Java Developers, graphic artists, students, and enthusiasts would do well to have a programmable mobile phone on hand to try out the techniques described in this book.

The authors, industry experts who helped to develop the OpenGL ES and M3G standards, distill their years of accumulated knowledge within these pages, offering their insights into everything from sound mobile design principles and constraints, to efficient rendering, mixing 2D and 3D, lighting, texture mapping, skinning and morphing.

Along the way, readers will benefit from the hundreds of included tips, tricks and caveats.

*Written by key industry experts who helped develop the standards of the field

*Hands-on code examples are presented throughout the book, and are also offered on the companion website

*Provides examples in the two most popular programing interfaces, OpenGL ES and M3G

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with Direct X 9.0c: A Shader Approach (Wordware Game and Graphics Library)

Frank Luna

Amazon Price: $32.97 List Price: $49.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wordware Publishing, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $22.00

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0c: A Shader Approach presents an introduction to programming interactive computer graphics, with an emphasis on game development, using real-time shaders with DirectX 9.0. The book is divided into three parts that explain basic mathematical and 3D concepts, show how to describe 3D worlds and implement fundamental 3D rendering techniques, and demonstrate the application of Direct3D to create a variety of special effects.

With this book: * Understand basic mathematical tools used in video game creation such as vectors, matrices, and transformations. * Discover how to describe and draw interactive 3D scenes using Direct3D and the D3DX library. * Learn how to implement lighting, texture mapping, alpha blending, and stenciling using shaders and the high-level shading language (HLSL). * Explore a variety of techniques for creating special effects, including vertex blending, character animation, terrain rendering, multi-texturing, particle systems, reflections, shadows, and normal mapping. * Find out how to work with meshes, load and render .X files, program terrain/camera collision detection, and implement 3D object picking. * Review key ideas, gain programming experience, and explore new topics with the end-of-chapter exercises.

Adobe Creative Suite 2 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies(r)

Jennifer Smith, Christopher Smith

Amazon Price: $23.09 List Price: $34.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: For Dummies Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $1.54

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Adobe software has always been highly respected for creative design and development. Its programs allow you to produce amazing designs and creations with ease, and with the release of the Adobe Creative Suite 2, you can design a wide range of productions ranging from illustrations and Web sites to professional documents and photographic manipulations.

Adobe Creative Suite 2 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies is your one-stop guide to creating great graphics with all the cool CS2 tools. Written in a thorough, fun way to show you the basics on how to use each of the programs, you’ll find out just how easy it is to start designing brilliant images and graphics. This guide gives you the tools you need to:

• Draw with InDesign
• Understand page layout and color
• Create colorful images with Illustrator C2
• Use the pen tool, type, and image placing
• Choose the correct Photoshop mode for your creation
• Create images on PhotoShop CS2 for print
• Paint and retouch images
• Create and secure PDF files with Acrobat 7.0
• Edit and extract text and graphics
• Build and publish a Web site with GoLive CS2
• Work with multimedia

Packed with easy-to-follow steps and guidance, you’ll be up to speed with all the features in no time. With these six great reference guides rolled into one, this is the ultimate book for becoming a CS2 pro!

Photoshop CS for Dummies

Deke McClelland, Phyllis Davis

Amazon Price: $16.49 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: For Dummies Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $3.98

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Huh? 1 out of 5 stars.
13 of 41 people found this review helpful.

According to the authors the RAW file format is mainly for use in transferring graphics between Apple and PC computers and loses a great deal of detail. In other words they wrote a book about Photoshop CS but they know little if anything about the subject.

Editorial Review:

* Covers the main features of Photoshop-the industry standard software package for image creation, correction, and enhancement
* Explores the essentials: menu bar, tool palette, modifying images, retouching images, painting and drawing, creating type, adding special effects, creating and managing layers, preparing images for the Web, and much more
* Updated to cover all the new features in both the Mac and Windows versions of the latest Photoshop release
* A ready reference that helps Photoshop novices become productive quickly and introduces experienced Photoshop users to the latest Photoshop tricks and techniques
* Authored by Deke McClelland, a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame, who has published more than sixty books on computer graphics and electronic publishing

Multiplayer Gaming and Engine Coding for the Torque Game Engine

Edward F. Maurina III

Amazon Price: $57.60 List Price: $64.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: A K Peters Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $53.56

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Learn Torque Engine deeply 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This book grate start torque game engine programming. I like it. If you want to learn deeply Torque Game Engine you should buy this book.

Computer libraries strong in gaming will know of Torque - and will value this important guide 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Game programmers receive an in-depth, advanced guide to getting the most out of the Torque Game Engine, and comes from a long-time Torque programmer and trainer who knows his stuff. Discussions and descriptions of the components of the program teach how to make better games - and even how to modify the engine and source code itself. Computer libraries strong in gaming will know of Torque - and will value this important guide.

Editorial Review:

Multiplayer Gaming and Engine Coding for the Torque Game Engine shows game programmers how to get the most out of the Torque Game Engine (TGE), which is an inexpensive professional game engine available from GarageGames. This book allows people to make multiplayer games with TGE and also tells them how to improve their games by modifying the engine source code itself. After reading this book and completing the exercises on the accompanying CD, game programmers will be well prepared to make their own complex, exciting games using the Torque Game Engine.

3D Game Environments: Create Professional 3D Game Worlds

Luke Ahearn

Amazon Price: $32.97 List Price: $49.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Focal Press Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $29.00

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The ultimate resource to help you create triple-A quality art for a variety of game worlds; 3D Game Environments offers detailed tutorials on creating 3D models, applying 2D art to 3D models, and clear concise advice on issues of efficiency and optimization for a 3D game engine. Using Photoshop and 3ds Max as his primary tools, Luke Ahearn explains how to create realistic textures from photo source and uses a variety of techniques to portray dynamic and believable game worlds.

From a modern city to a steamy jungle, learn about the planning and technological considerations for 3D modeling, UV layout, and creating textures that goes into developing a realistic and appealing game environment with:
* The entire game world development process: from planning to modeling and texturing.
* Exercises and projects to practice with: each section includes projects to practice creating different world genres.
* CD with source art to practice with and use in your own projects, program demos, and plug-ins.

AI Game Engine Programming

Brian Schwab

Amazon Price: $34.64 List Price: $54.99 By: Charles River Media Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $34.62

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A fully revised update to the first edition, "AI Game Engine Programming, Second Edition" provides game developers with the tools and information they need to create modern game AI engines. Covering the four principle elements of game artificial intelligence, the book takes you from theory to actual game development, going beyond merely discussing how a technique might be used. Beginning with a clear definition of game AI, you'll learn common terminology, the underlying concepts of AI, and you'll explore the different parts of the game AI engine. You'll then take a look at AI design considerations, solutions, and even common pitfalls genre-by-genre, covering the majority of modern game genres and examining concrete examples of AI used in actual commercial games. Finally, you'll study actual code implementations for each AI technique presented, both in skeletal form and as part of a real-world example, to learn how it works in an actual game engine and how it can be optimized in the future. Written for experienced game developers with a working knowledge of C++, data structures, and object oriented programming, "AI Game Engine Programming, Second Edition" will expand your AI knowledge and skills from start to finish.

Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics, Second Edition (Game Development Series)

Eric Lengyel

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This completely updated second edition illustrates the mathematical concepts that a game programmer would need to develop a professional-quality 3D engine. Although the book is geared toward applications in game development, many of the topics appeal to general interests in 3D graphics. It starts at a fairly basic level in areas such as vector geometry and linear algebra, and then progresses to more advanced topics in 3D game programming such as illumination and visibility determination. Particular attention is given to derivations of key results, ensuring that the reader is not forced to endure gaps in the theory. The book assumes a working knowledge of trigonometry and calculus, but also includes sections that review the important tools used from these disciplines, such as trigonometric identities, differential equations, and Taylor series.

Key Features
* Includes four new chapters: the graphics pipeline, the stencil shadow rendering technique, curves & surfaces, and numerical methods
* Concentrates on key mathematical topics for programming 3D game engines
* Discusses applications in the context of the OpenGL architecture due to its cross-platform nature and long-standing industry acceptance. Sample rendering code is presented using ARB vertex programs and fragment programs
* Selected topics include quaternions, homogeneous coordinates, ray tracing, bump mapping, portal systems, polygonal techniques, shadows, and physics
* Includes exercise sets for use as a textbook

New to This Edition
The following are selected revisions in the second edition:
* A new preliminary chapter that provides a review of the 3D rendering pipeline
* A new chapter containing an advanced discussion of the stencil shadow rendering technique
* A new chapter covering various numerical methods pertinent to 3D graphics programming, including numerical solutions to linear systems, numerical eigenvalue determination, and numerical integration
* A new chapter covering curves and surfaces, including Bézier curves and B-splines
* New discussions of texture filtering, mipmapping, and infinite projection matrices
* Updated lighting method implementations and collision detection techniques
* Additional exercises in all chapters