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 | | Real-Time 3D Terrain Engines Using C++ and DirectX 9 (Game Development Series) (Game Development Series) by Greg Snook ISBN-10: 9781584502043 ISBN-10: 1-58450-204-5 ISBN-13: 9781584502043 ISBN-13: 978-1-58450-204-3 Paperback 2003-06 Charles River Media Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description With recent advancements in programmable 3D rendering hardware, game developers can create engines capable of making complete outdoor landscapes. Many of todayfs popular games include entire outdoor environments, but making these environments realistic and fast is a challenge for even the best programmers. Real-Time 3D Terrain Engines Using C++ and DirectX 9 is written to help make the process more efficient, and to bring new programmers into the field of 3D computer game programming. The book is dedicated to teaching the fundamentals of programming a popular 3D engine type the gReal-Time 3D Terrain Engine.h Throughout the book, the focus is on the essential topics of outdoor terrain rendering. So whether you are new to 3D engine programming or a seasoned veteran, Real-Time 3D Terrain Engines Using C++ and DirectX 9 will teach you how to use the latest advancements in hardware accelerated rendering, and provide all of the tips, tricks, and ideas you need to build your own, complete 3D terrain engine. Skills Needed: It is assumed that you are familiar with C++, Direct X, math, and geometry and that youfre ready to move into 3D engine design and real-time terrain visualization. ON the CD-ROM System Requirements: | ||
Reviews | ||
Excellent on theory, weak progression of examples I spend a LOT of time reading programming books for use in my own courses, gathering tidbits here and there for my exploration of game engine programming and rendering courses. So, I've spent about a month digging through this book off an on, and even was able to chat with the author, Greg Snook. The only problem with this book is that Snook started with a complex, fully-featured engine, and then tried to explain the concepts using the finished engine, which means that even the first terrain example (in chapter 6) includes a quadtree. I wanted to see a simple wireframe example that demonstrates how to create the terrain vertices first, and then learn now to add materials and textures and other effects to the terrain. Since the engine is already fully developed, the author had a hard time (it seems to me) presenting a simple example. I prefer to start with an early, crude example, and build on it. This book starts with the finished product and tries to use that. Unfortunately, since this is Snook's own engine, and it's not explained--just dropped on the reader--the topic of terrain building and rendering takes the back seat to the engine code. The recommended level is Intermediate, but this is clearly a book for an Advanced reader because one must dig through the engine to find the code for creating the vertex data for a terrain system. | ||
Good book but fairly old Although the 3D demo is quite ugly, the ideas inside are pretty interesting. The most interesting part is the engine development, which turns out really useful and its encapsulation allows you to improve your terrain optimization algorithm very easily. | ||
Excellent Book There are a great many terrain rendering white papers and other resources available online. Greg Snook's book helps you to take a lot of that information and put it together into a workable terrain engine. If you just picked up a compiler yesterday, or don't know the difference between an x-axis and a z-axis, this book isn't going to help you. While he does offer some primer material, the focus of the book is on the terrain engine. This isn't a hand-holding book, either. Snook explains the topics at a level that is understandable and digestable. It's not abstract, like white papers, but neither is it paint-by-numbers. If you are the sort of person who requires step-by-step code samples, this book is beyond your level. Snook knows what he is talking about and he explains it well. Each topic is covered in detail. When examining the terrain rendering algorithms, Snook discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each. He spends whole sections explaining error metrics and split levels. Never have I seen a book that covers terrain rendering in such detail. It's well worth the price you pay for it. I know that some people like code they can just copy and paste. Most example code that accompanies a book is just that and, usually, isn't at all optimized. Often error handling is left out "for clarity". Snook takes no short cuts. This terrain engine he developed isn't just a bunch of example code, it's the real deal. Studying some of the support code, such as the resource system, is a lesson itself. There is much to learn from this book and the Gaia engine beyond terrain rendering. | ||
Talented Programmer, Poor Book Approach While I do not doubt that Gregory Snook is a very talented programmer, the code shown in this book and on the accompanying CD are proof enough, I believe that this book is of no use to anyone except for the most experienced professionals who have weeks of time to burn learning about Terrain Engines. I am not the most experienced programmer, having only worked with C++ and DX for 4 years now, but the problem with this book is not in complex concepts, but in content. All of the fundamentals of creating and rendering terrain are covered, but the example code and the engine (Gaia) on the CD are overly complex for any sort of educational book. Possibly every single library that Snook referenced has special wrapper functions and classes around them, making an examination of any code snippet next to useless unless the reader has spent days going through dozens of wrapper classes learning all of Snook's syntax. While I do enjoy owning this book as a conceptual reference, I am afraid that it is next to useless as an aid in practical programming scenarios. | ||
serious problem in writing style. I'm not a native english speaker. But I used to live in US for a while. And also Andre Lamothe's books make big senses to me. With this background, I conclude that the author of this book doesn't know how to explain something. For example, while explaining quadtree, he doesn't talk anything about setting up quadtree for a terrain data. Instead, suddenly he talks about moving objects around quadtree. Even worse, that moving objects around quadtree doesn't make any sense either. Even worse, he says "oh my terrain engine works". I really don't know what he wants to show us. It's almost like "focus on terrain ..." book written by a high school kid. I'd rather dig internet for terrain handling algorithms than buy those two books. | ||