Product Description
B> With this book, authors Watt and Policarpo introduce the theory behind the design of computer games and detail advanced techniques used in the industry, such as: physically based animation; advanced scene management; pre-calculation techniques/image-based rendering; advanced motion capture; and artificial intelligence. Readers will be able to develop their own games within the games "skeletons" accompanying the book, and will learn how to program complex games.The book is divided into six parts: Foundations (which covers the foundations of 3D computer graphics), Classical 3D Graphics, Real-Time Rendering, Control of Objects, 2D Technology, and Software Technology. An appendix on Fly3D SDK Tutorials is also included, and the accompanying CD contains the Fly3D SDK games engine.This books is appropriate for programmers who want to be able to develop their own computer games. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

This ones nothing to brag about...
... I agree with some of the previous negative reviews. I find the flow of the text unpleasant and the book lacked an introduction - where's the pedagogy?It seems as if someone with competence in the field but without alot of forethought just sat down and wrote it, and Addison Wesley didn't bother to have an editor help out in any way. Anyway, this book is in line with the rest of Addison-Wesley's books. Half of the courses that I take require textbooks from Addison Wesley. The courses are always difficult thanks to these second rate books. I recommend Wiley above all publishers but stay away from Addison Wesley if you can. They just dont seem to give a smack about the quality.

excellent book
I almost did not buy this book because of some of the earlier reviews, but since it was the only book I could find that provided a comprehensive theoretical, as well as practical, introdution to 3D games I went ahead and bought it anyway. I found that the book is, indeed, an excellent introduction to computer games. I would like to clear up issues addressed by earlier reviews.

First, this book does contain a lot of theory as well as practical information. It does assume a basic knowledge of calculus, linear algebra, and discrete mathematics--math that any graphics programmer (or any programmer for that matter) should have at least a basic understanding of. It also assumes a basic knowledge of computer graphics. Thus, if you are looking for a cut and paste guide to creating computer games and are not looking to actually understand how interactive 3D applications work, you should not buy this book. If you intend to learn the fundamentals necessary to become a professional game programmer, or serious hobbyist, you definitely should.

Second, although there are a few typos, I am sure that the "spelling errors" that have been cited are actually due to the fact that the book is written in European, not American, english. This means that, while probably 99% of the words are the same, subtle differences in spellings exist (such as colour instead of color and visualisation instead of visualization). This does not, however, detract from the readability of the book.

This an excellent book and, despite some of the negative reviews, it lived up to all of my expectations as a sound theoretical, as well as practical, introduction to 3D game programming.

This is an excelent book
I've been reading game development books for more than 10 years and this is certain one of the best books i've ever read. Policarpo and Watt have created a very good 3D engine that comes in a CD with the book and they explain everything about programming 3D games with this engine and general game programming. It's really Worth Buying!

Nice Source Bad book
The source for this book is for an entry level 3D engine, which is just what I wanted. But a lot of the theory (coll det etc) in the source is not explained in the book. Rather than explaining fundamental aspects they seem to throw in loads of detail about the topics that they dont seem to have covered and taken for lots of articles that you can find on the web (gamasutra for one).

Saying that the source is nice and taught me a lot, bsp trees + a bit about collisions. Im glad I have the source but the book seems thrown together and shabby. I just think they could have done a better job making it readable starting 3D engine book rather than a shabby reference book.

...to those who write reviews and those who read them
I've read reviews on this book by others. If you can't find a better book, why say that it's not worth buying? Instead of bringing up complaints, why not recommend books you think are more useful? Discouraging buying the book, you believe we should wait for improvements? ... Read more

Product Description
Do you have some experience and a reasonable knowledge of C++ and want to write your own computer games? Have you ever looked at a PC or Playstation (R) game with characters running and leaping through an exciting landscape and wondered how it was done? If so then this book will give you all the information you need to achieve this goal, whether you are a hobby programmer, student or even a professional wanting to add that third dimension to your website.

Nik Lever takes you through the journey from the basics of 3D manipulation all the way to morph objects and sub-division surfaces. On the way you get Visual C++ project files to study and software that runs on the Windows desktop. The free CD-ROM gives you a full-featured development environment for 3D character animation, so even if you find some of the maths and the code hard to follow straight away you can still create your own games. The game engine (Toon3DCreator) provided free and fully functional on the CD-ROM, even has an ActiveX control that allows you to distribute your work on the Internet. All source code for Toon3D is included on the CD. You will also get an insight into the artist's problems; learn how to keep the characters interesting while not exhausting the game engine.

Understand the complete picture and make the most of your skills to help you succeed in, or break into the computer gaming industry with this comprehensive guide to programming for real-time 3D character animation.

* Learn how to create and program real-time 3D character animation using the Visual C++ source code on the free CD-ROM
* Get up to speed with compression, vital for distribution of your games across the Internet
* Improve your most marketable skills - see how you can import data from LightWave 3D and 3D Studio Max ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not really what I wanted
It's probably just that I was expecting to much,
but I was hoping that there would be simpler methods
to animate, than I found in this book.

What I actually wanted was something along the line
of a graphical user interface method/explanation for
animation.

Very useful in all aspects.
The language is simple and direct. Nik really touches the subject in depth and keeps the math simple. The sample code is also very useful. I found fairly easy to modify for my custom applications. The book has been teaching me a lot. I've been even learning about GL and MFC with his book. If you need to learn about character animation, Nik's book must be on your collection! Looking forward to the next one.

Useful
The title on the book reads C++.
It is detailed, and concise, Covers the nitty gritty
of all the scary details down to Forward and Reverse Kinematics.
Lightwave, and 3DS ascii file parsing, Motion Capture, and the Author's own Toon3D Engine.
Thoroughly Enriched, Well Researched, and Easy to Read (for as complicated and detailed as this material is).
well laid out. Definitely Hard Core Food for Thought.
Thank You Nik. ... Read more

Product Description
This book proposes a new approach for an important step of volume graphics -- solid voxelization by Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) acceleration in real time. The algorithms introduced in this book not only improve performance and quality, but also are convenient to implement and integrate into a wide range of volume graphics applications, such as volume modeling, collision detection, volume rendering, volume animation, medical simulation, 3D printing, and computer art. Furthermore, the algorithms are slice-independent voxelization processing, which is critical for any parallelization approaches. Two important volume graphics applications based on the core real-time GPU-accelerated solid voxelization, volumetric Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) modeling and volumetric collision detection, are studied in detail. The experimental results, performance analysis, comparison, and case studies demonstrate the effectiveness, flexibility, and diversity of the developed approaches. ... Read more

Product Description
Computer vision is a rapidly developing and highly interdisciplinary field of computer science and engineering in which researchers are attempting to create vision algorithms that can analyze dynamic images at real-time rates.Real-time vision is needed for automated systems to keep pace with real-world activities and thus control or respond appropriately to them.This is the first book devoted to the subject of real-time computer vision, and it includes articles by some of the leading researchers in the world. The focus is on algorithms for interpreting visual input at video rates and on using the gathered information for decision-making and control. Topics covered include: shape recovery; model-based vehicle tracking; active exploration; tracking heads and eyes; controlling robot behavior; visual monitoring; controlling distributed robots. The book will be of interest to students, researchers and engineers involved in the design and programming of visually guided systems. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume constitutes the proceedings of the 5th IEEE International Distributed Simulation and Real-Time Applications (DS-RT 2001). ... Read more

Product Description
The second volume of the 3D Games series concentrates on the areas of advanced real-time rendering and animation. The computer games industry continues to consume techniques from off-line graphics as more and more powerful hardware facilitates this. With the launch of GeForce3 and X-box there is a massive leap forward in the techniques that can be implemented in real-time. The theory behind these techniques is addressed in the book, integrated with practical implementations using the accompanying FLY3D games engine. The game engine that accompanies the text (www.fly3d.com.br) is a second generation advanced engine that includes, for example, facial animation and full facilities for character animation.The book/CD package will appeal to students on computer games courses or on graphics courses with an emphasis on animation. It will also appeal to professional games developers and other games enthusiasts keen to understand the theory behind games development and create their own games. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Big Help
This book is a huge help to game developers. I found it a great read while writing my first game engine. It covers so much stuff it makes you want to try and add it all to your game! I am really happy with this book.

Real Time Rendering & Games Technology
Volume II picks up where Volume I left off by concentrating on more current real time rendering and game engine topics.Where Volume I painted a broad sweeping overview of real time graphics topics, Vol. II extends this and ties in more closely with how many of those ideas affect the actual creation of games in a real 3d games engine called 'fly3d2' included on CD with the text (a more current and improved version of 'fly3dsdk' from Vol. I).All source code is included for the engine and can be kept current via the website through downloads as it is steadily updated. ... the complete source code for all engine modules and utilities requires purchase of the book.
Mr. Policarpo the coauthor maintains the site and regularly contributes to threads so support remains current (a real blessing in a rapidly advancing science such as this).

Some of the topic covered include: Gamespace (BSP, PVS...) management, LightMap creation and challenges, Camera control, Collision Detection and Response, Path Planning and AI, Shader and TexureMapping with various effects, Character Animation, Skeletal Mesh Animation and related issues as well as the fly3d2.0 environment and support and tutorials to play with and to make these ideas real...

The book covers most of the features include in the engine and anticipates extensions that may some day be added as well.The engine design is modular and lends itself to the creation of plugins that can leverage classes already included or that are completely new created by the user.Users can design levels, characters, objects, and control how they interact with the engine.Tutorials are included in the book as well as on the website with new ones being added by members of the community quite regularly. The modular design (in C++) and utilities that adapt Microsoft's Visual Studio and Discreet's 3dsmax (as well as Quake level conveter and a few others) allow seamless integration of these tools into the environment for a wealth of creative possibilities.

The text is clearly and concisely written and Mr. Watt demonstrates a commanding expertise in these topics without a lot of gimmicky embellishments or self-aggrandizement common in other more fly-by-night texts.This is a real hardcover edtion made to last by a quality computer technology publisher.Watt obviously maintains a close relationship with coauthor Policarpo the designer of the fly3d engine so writing ties in well with the fly3d platform but is not limited by or to it.

I cheerfully recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning the sometimes difficult and challenging topics of game creation, expansion and maintenance.It is a demanding subject not for the weak of heart that can be difficult and time consuming to master. I've found there are a lot of other books out there that promise to deliver by tempting the potential buyer with the ease and completeness their books will include; however, I have not come across any others as yet that come close to the coverage and approach this (and the previous) volume supplies.

Before I bought this book I already had tried other approaches to learning this material but found the all the books I'd bought offered poor to none of the support and potential that 3d Games Vol. II together with the fly3d platform delivers.To learn this material one needs to be able to play with the ideas and be excited about the possibilities and have the ability to play with real tools in a real games environment.3d Games Vol. II is concise, helpful, well-written, and enjoys a small but dedicated community available through the website.

....
Mark Carleton Maguire
Boston MA ... Read more

Product Description
Today’s game audiences expect Hollywood-quality cinematography. But to produce this quality in games, programmers need to understand the traditional film principles of lighting, camera positioning, and motion. Unlike movies, games provide non-linear, interactive storytelling, so to use film and T.V. techniques effectively, the techniques need to be modified for games.

Real-Time Cinematography for Games provides this translation by teaching programmers and artists how to incorporate tried-and-true filmmaking techniques into their games. Beginning with an overview of filmmaking and cinematography basics, the book teaches how to tell a compelling story using camera placement based on character and environment. It explains how to handle a camera for panning, zooming, and cradle movement, and it details how to program these techniques into your games through code examples. From there, camera lenses and methods for achieving a variety of effects with software cameras are explored. Hands-on examples illustrate the importance of good lighting and how to handle transitions to new lighting arrangements. The next part of the book covers the essential areas of filters, sound effects, interactive music, movement, and dialog, including coverage of current voice recognition technology. The book wraps up with coverage of directing essentials.

Programmers will find the entire book extremely useful, and designers and artists will find the large amount of creative uses of filmmaking techniques invaluable. Every chapter is written with two major parts: creative and technical. The creative section looks into the techniques and practices of the film industry and teaches how artists and designers can use these techniques in games. The technical sections then explain how to implement these techniques into games through practical code and equations. The technical sections require knowledge of basic programming and computer graphics concepts. This is the one resource programmers and designers need to ensure that they are producing Hollywood-quality graphics that will keep your players coming back for more!

TOPICS COVERED:
* Cinematography—Position
* Cinematography—Motion
* Acting—Dialogue
* Acting—Hitting the Mark
* Cinematography—Lenses
* Foley Artist—Sound Effects
* Lighting—Reality versus Hollywood
* Editing—Filters and Effects
* Composing—Making Music
* Editing—Transitions
* Editing—Selection
* Directing

Key Features
* Presents traditional film techniques adapted for use in games
* Provides practical code examples that can be easily implemented
* Includes an extensive color insert illustrating the techniques covered
* Focuses on the concepts of cinematographic lighting to improve real-time lighting
* Integrates coverage of graphics, editing, sound, and artificial intelligence
* Includes insightful interviews with leading professionals in the film industry
* Includes a companion Web site with all the source code for the examples in the book, new code, videos, and other useful tools covered in the book ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A very disappointing and vague book for the game developer
This book is OK at discussing real-time cinematography techniques in general. It is not good at all at tying it into something that can be incorporated into games. There are no algorithms, no mention of what specific software packages or scripting languages to use for specific techniques, and absolutely no math. Every time the book gets to a point where it would need to get into details, it just refers you to some other book. Usually, it's a different book every time, so to follow the author's directions you would wind up with an armful of books besides this one. Thus, this book is really just an introductory novel on the theme of real-time cinematography with the "for Games" thrown into the title to hook the game programmer/developer into purchasing it. The problem is, there really isn't a great book on this topic, although "Digital Lighting and Rendering" by Birn comes close. For a book on image processing with more of a mathematical touch you could look at "Digital Image Processing with Application to Digital Cinema", although that book doesn't get into real-time issues or games at all.

How to translate programming techniques into effective games
Modern game player expect high-tech cinematography in their games, which demands game programmers understand the basics of lighting, camera positioning, and more. If it's a brush-up on the basics and insights into how programmer translates into high-quality real-time gaming which is needed, then Brian Hawkins' Real-time Cinematography For Games is your ticket. Hawkins is well versed in using scripted character animation and game development routines: his expertise translates to technical discussions which explain how to translate programming techniques into effective games. Programmers who have basic programming and graphics concepts down already will find Real-Time Cinematography takes the next step.
... Read more

Product Description
Guide to teach developers how to create attention grabbing real-time 3D games with Director 8.5/ Shockwave Studio. Partridge shares some of his own experiences in game development. Softcover.Amazon.com Review
Director 8.5 has fully embraced the 3-D online world and Real-Time Interactive 3D Games describes in detail how to build an immersive and exciting world using this rich and powerful tool. More than just an examples-according-to-feature book, it takes us on the journey of building a handful of finished products, from ideas scribbled on napkins through building and testing to marketing and selling a finished game.

This is a large book, with ample technical examples and code snippets to complement the discussion at hand. (Don't worry, it's all on the CD-ROM.) The author presents both a broad view--there are chapters devoted to properly designing the flow of the game and the design of the characters and their traits--as well as specific Director techniques. Screen shots accompany the majority of examples when appropriate, and code snippets are clearly formatted in a different font and are well commented on.

Structured around three main parts, Partridge's book first explores the "dramatic structure of games." This is less about how an interactive 3-D game is built than why one is built the way it is; this first part is worth the price of the book alone. There is insight here that goes far beyond the usual technical how-to guide.

Another section worth noting includes the chapters on 3-D character creation using 3ds max or Maya. Building, texturing, and animating low-resolution polygon characters is an art in itself, but successfully importing that data into Director and using the models would be nearly impossible without the vital insight given in this book.

3-D rendering on the fly? An environment for authoring first-person-shooter games? Low-polygon models with textures rendered dynamically? This is not your father's Macromedia Director. --Mike Caputo ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Never really got into it
I am a technical manual geek... I have ten times more tech manuals than any other type of book.

This one, I never really got into. I know programming, but this seemed a bit out of line for what I was looking for.

Though you might find it helpful, I didn't. (Still a good fundamentals book though)

Not worth it
This is not a book to use if you are trying to learn Director and Lingo.It is more about game design in general with some Director 3D thrown in for good measure.The game he develops is by no means state of the art and doesn't even show the capabilities of the Shockwave engine.I wouldn't recommend buying this book unless you have read everything else on GAME DEVELOPMENT and just want one more lame opinion on it.Do not buy it if you are trying to learn Director for your 3D projects.There are much better books for it.

So So
Okay if you want to learn 3d the fast way in director then this isn't the book for you. The book does in some ways go into detail but then again he also side tracks so this book is not for the new comers. Your suppose to know a few things in director already and also in the lingo area. The whole thing in this book is the lingo part. Its code heavy so you as the reader is suppose to have some sort of back ground in director in order to understand it. Over all its an okay book but not the best.

Poorly written
On the outside, this book looks excellent for those wanting to create 3d games in director. On the inside, the book is shallow and un-engaging. Most concepts are covered poorly and are made hard to understand. One of my biggest gripes about this book is how the author tells you "Now lets learn how to make _____", and instead of explaining things, just dumps 4 pages of lingo code on you. I feel that a good book should break down the code and explain what it is doing. Copying a hundred lines of code form a book does not teach you anything. The book is also very dry and a bore to read. I fell asleep several times while reading, no joke.

If you want a book that touches on some of the same principles, take a look at "shockwave 3d" by Jason Wolf. This book was excellent, explained concepts with sufficient detail, and will give you that "That is exactly what i wanted to do, lets do it!" feeling.

An excellent insight into game conception and design
This is a book of two halves - game programming and game design. At the heart of it is the new Director 3D programming engine, which is a major new addition to the capabilities of the software. Allen Partridge's book is aimed principally at those who are familiar with Director and comfortable with lingo, but may be new to 3D as a whole. The first half of the book goes through the capabilities of the 3d engine in detail, including shaders, lights, textures, physics and vector maths, as well as some insights into using 3D modelling software to its best advantage. The second half looks at the process of creating an actual game, and one of its most valuable features is that the accompanying CD includes the game at many stages of the design process.
If you're looking purely for 'how to program in 3d', you may find that half the book is not what you're looking for: much of it is given over to game storyboarding, character design, marketing etc. But if you're looking for an all-round approach to game design, then this is a great introduction and inspiration. ... Read more

Product Description
A total guide to creating real-time 3D graphics for games and virtual reality.

In this powerful book/CD-ROM package, top computer graphics artist Josh White tells you everything you need to know to create sophisticated real-time 3D graphics for computer games and virtual reality. This book contains the in-depth knowledge of software tools and hands-on modeling techniques that Josh White has learned while creating artwork for over 20 commercial games, including Descent, Zone Raiders, Locus, Legoland, and others.

In this nonprogrammer's guide to 3D graphics, you'll learn how to:

• Design 3D artwork that's optimized for real-time.
• Create realistic 3D objects that render at a high frame rate.
• Master industry-standard tools like 3D Studio and Photoshop.
• Use the three phases of 3D modeling: preparation (sketching out your ideas), design (deciding how to build your model), and implementation (constructing your 3D model).

Here's just some of what you'll find on the CD-ROM:

• A collection of 3D objects and textures you can use immediately.
• Tutorial support: all the 3D models and textures from each step of every tutorial in this book.

JOSH WHITE is founding partner of Vector Graphics and an expert in the area of real-time 3D modeling. He has extensive experience in very diverse areas of 3D modeling, including mechanical engineering simulations, computer game modeling, fluid flow simulations, and virtual world creation. He has contributed artwork to over 20 commercial games, and trains other professional computer game artists in basic and advanced modeling techniques.Amazon.com Review
In Designing 3D Graphics, author Josh White explains ingreat detail the mechanics of creating real-time 3-D artwork onpersonal computers. White targets artists, not programmers orhobbyists, who want to learn about the basics of 3-D modeling andeventually create complex models. The focus is primarily on Kinetix'3D Studio and Adobe Photoshop, and White assumes that you know thesepackages well; just the same, you can apply the book's concepts tosimilar software packages. White explains how to use mappingtechniques, create textures, model objects, and optimize your work forreal-time delivery. He also discusses animations and VRML worlds. ACD-ROM includes sample 3-D models and textures. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

I Hate this book
I hate this book, it stinks.Josh White stinks

Good techniques, a little outdated
There is relatively little literature out there on low-polygon modeling techniques.This is the only book I know of devoted to the subject.It is clear, well-written, with good exercises.The thing is, it needs a goodoverhaul, as the program it deals with is 3D Studio, pre-Max.But many ofthe techniques are still applicable.

Artistic fever
Well this one is for "artists". At least that's what the writer says. I got bored of phrases like "We artists this...", and "We artists that...". Being a computer scientist interested incomputer graphics I wonder where these guys would be without computers. Thebook includes indeed some good tips that can be applied with any graphicspackage or language but the content in general is very 3DS oriented. Thereference on VRML is vague and generic. If you are looking for a scientificcomputer graphics reference look elsewhere.If you consider yourself a"serious artist..." then this may be for you. ... Read more

Product Description

The need for natural and effective Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is increasingly important due to the prevalence of computers in human activities. Computer vision and pattern recognition continue to play a dominant role in the HCI realm. However, computer vision methods often fail to become pervasive in the field due to the lack of real-time, robust algorithms, and novel and convincing applications.

This state-of-the-art contributed volume is comprised of articles by prominent experts in computer vision, pattern recognition and HCI. It is the first published text to capture the latest research in this rapidly advancing field with exclusive focus on real-time algorithms and practical applications in diverse and numerous industries, and it outlines further challenges in these areas.

Real-Time Vision for Human-Computer Interaction is an invaluable reference for HCI researchers in both academia and industry, and a useful supplement for advanced-level courses in HCI and Computer Vision.

Customer Reviews (1)

Yet another core dump
There are thousands of core dumped edited books - no flow nor continuity, fragmented thinking.This is one of them.There a few parts worth reading but certainly not worth the cost of this tome of academic wheel spinning.

One of the editors is very well known but I suspect he did not participate in the editing or quality control. ... Read more

Product Description
With recent advancements in programmable 3D renderinghardware, game developers can create engines capable of makingcomplete outdoor landscapes.Many of todayfs popular gamesinclude entire outdoor environments, but making these environmentsrealistic and fast is a challenge for even the best programmers.Real-Time 3D Terrain Engines Using C++ and DirectX 9 is written tohelp make the process more efficient, and to bring new programmersinto the field of 3D computer game programming.

The book is dedicated to teaching the fundamentals of programming apopular 3D engine type „Ÿ the gReal-Time 3D TerrainEngine.h Throughout the book, the focus is on the essential topicsof outdoor terrain rendering. So whether you are new to 3D engineprogramming or a seasoned veteran, Real-Time 3D Terrain Engines UsingC++ and DirectX 9 will teach you how to use the latest advancements inhardware 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 youfre ready to move into 3D enginedesign and real-time terrain visualization.

ON the CD-ROM
* The complete real-time 3D terrain engine documented in the book
* All model, texture, and effect files
* The Microsoft DirectX 9 SDK
* 3DEM (Visualization Software LLC) and a demo of T2 (Keith Ditchburn) to help you create your own terrain

System Requirements:
Windows 2000/XP,Pentium III Processor 1Ghz+, DirectX 9 compatiblevideo card providing hardware-accelerated, programmable vertex, andpixel shaders (NVIDIA® GeForce™ chipsets (versions 3, 4, FX,or greater) and the ATI® Radeon™ chipset (8500 series andgreater), CD/Hard Drive, 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended), 500 MB offree disk space is required to install the DirectX 9 SDK, the samplesource code, and the tools provided. Sample code was written usingMicrosoft Visual Studio.NET® (Visual Studio 7.0), which is therecommended compiler for working along with this book. Project filesare also provided for Microsoft Visual Studio® version 6.0 forconvenience. Compilers from other vendors might compile these files,but have not been tested.The source code is intended for MicrosoftWindows XP, but might also function under Windows 98, Windows ME, orWindows 2000. However, support for these older versions of MicrosoftWindows is not guaranteed because DirectX 9.0 drivers might not beavailable for all video cards on these older operatingsystems. DirectX is Licensed Software, the use of which is governed byan English language break-the-seal EULA inside the Licensed Software. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

dated and dangerous
Though the final results are dated, this book contains quite a bit of information covering a range of useful techniques. Overall, I enjoy the book as a reference and jumping-off point for further investigation elsewhere.

I had already implemented his interlocking terrain tiles method prior to reading the text, but that was back in 2007, so this was a good refresher for that material. Unfortunately, he even admits that there is no way to smooth out the serious LOD popping that occurs using his method (something I was hoping to resolve). He suggests the chunked method as the best path toward a solution instead, so I can toss out my previous implementation :(

One problem with the book's age is that the text seeks to support older hardware, including "...those using pixel shader version 1.x". It is unlikely you need to do that (be honest, you aren't going to support anything prior to sm3), so some sections can be ignored entirely and many of the self-imposed limits in the methods he employs are no longer useful or informative.

I have never written a review before, but felt compelled to point out a danger lurking on the book's accompanying CD. I have a Dell XPS m1710 laptop with an nVidia GeForce Go 7950GTX. I use WinXP Pro with DirectX 9.0c. I ran the chapter 11 demo, which shows atmospheric effects and sunlight. I advanced the time of day until the sun set on the horizon and - bam - Windows locked up and the BSOD followed. My video card was permanently trashed. Bricked. Destroyed. I *strongly* urge readers not to run the samples! Look at the color screen-shots on the front and back covers of the book, because there isn't anything else to see in the demos anyway and you might destroy your computer trying.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Programming is not for the lazy!!!!
If you don't know what you should know then read it. Just read it. Try to type the code. Of course you don't understand first time. Then come back to this book after spending time with other shallow books on directx programming. Then you will love it. You will remember this book as your first date. I spent 4 months to read it second time. This was awesome. This book gave so much inspiration that my understanding about everything has changed. This book puts in your mind what colleges cannot put in your mind in five years.

grinding code
Ive been grinding thru his source code for more than a month and am getting tired. Havent even got the first example to work yet in VS2005. compilation errors in the source code, and it is poorly documented. No (very few) function header comments to explain the passed in arguments. Also needs more overall class level comments, even though the classes are relatively small.

If you have enough time to study his code maybe it would payoff. But he explains a concept or two in the book, then leaves you hanging with the entire complicated engine.

He does have some good stuff in his code, here and there. Ive only been programming in direct X for several months, I think I am going to try to get another book.

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. ... Read more

Product Description
Computer vision falls short of human vision in two respects: execution time and intelligent interpretation. This book addresses the question of execution time. It is based on a workshop on specialized processors for real-time image analysis, held as part of the activities of an ESPRIT Basic Research Action, the Working Group on Vision. The aim of the book is to examine the state of the art in vision-oriented computers. Two approaches are distinguished: multiprocessor systems and fine-grain massively parallel computers. The development of fine-grain machines has become more important over the last decade, but one of the main conclusions of the workshop is that this does not imply the replacement of multiprocessor machines. The book is divided into four parts. Part 1 introduces different architectures for vision: associative and pyramid processors as examples of fine-grain machines and a workstation with bus-oriented network topology as an example of a multiprocessor system. Parts 2 and 3 deal with the design and development of dedicated and specialized architectures. Part 4 is mainly devoted to applications, including road segmentation, mobile robot guidance and navigation, reconstruction and identification of 3D objects, and motion estimation. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Computer Workstations, published by Worldwide Videotex on May 1, 2002. The length of the article is 655 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: KAYDARA AND BOXX DEBUT REAL-TIME 3D GRAPHICS W/ VIDEO I/O.(Product Announcement)
Publication: Computer Workstations (Newsletter)
Date: May 1, 2002
Publisher: Worldwide Videotex
Volume: 15Issue: 5Page: NA

Article Type: Product Announcement

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Are you looking for a more effective approach to real-time systems development? Real-Time Object-Oriented Modeling The development of real-time distributed systems is one of the most difficult engineering problems ever faced, taxing the capabilities of traditional real-time software development approaches. Real-Time Object-Oriented Modeling is the first book that brings together, in a single harmonious approach, the power of object-oriented concepts tailored specifically for real-time systems, with an iterative and incremental process based on the use of executable models. Developed by practitioners, the proven methodology described here is becoming a leader in the industry. Using a learn-by-example approach, this book offers:
* A single consistent set of graphical modeling concepts, chosen to improve developer effectiveness, which apply uniformly to analysis, design, and implementation. This reduces the learning curve to master the entire method and eliminates expensive discontinuities across different stages of development.
* An approach to the object paradigm that is easy to learn and that applies to the construction of reusable architectural design components, not just low-level language elements. This unleashes the true power of the object paradigm.
* Techniques for constructing executable models to gain early confidence in specifications and design decisions.
* Approaches to project management that deliver the benefits of the object paradigm and executable models. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Good state machine methodology
ROOM is a great methodology, but I rarely encounter it in my work. I do mostly SOA and BPM work, and I think there are aspects of ROOM (particular its state machine language) that are well suited to that domain. I wonder how popular ROOM is these days in the real-time and embedded systems development community?

If you're into state machines, you'll enjoy this book. ROOM is influenced by the work of David Harel, supporting hierachical states, group transitions and transitions to history, choice points, and the ability to associate actions with both transitions and states. In contrast with Harel, ROOM does not support orthogonal states, although its concurrency model is quite powerful. I prefer ROOM to the UML for the modeling of state.

Useful, but mostly as a historical document
First, remember that this book was published in 1994 - it was probably written in the 1992-3 era. The OO design world was still in the "warring states" period before unification under UML. The company that created ROOM tools, if I understand correctly, was absorbed by another company that was absorbed by another company - I'm not sure how much of ROOM in its pure form is still left.

That doesn't matter. In its time, ROOM was wild, innovative, and a topic of heated debate. It created a visual, highly abstracted language (back then, a questionable novelty) around an intensely parallelized model of computing (also a questionable novelty), at a time when "real-time" often meant lots of assembly programming in command-line environments. I was doing embedded development back about then - based on the mind-set of the time, I'm surprised that ROOM had the success and influence that it did.

Surprised but pleased. Lots of the ROOM techniques and notations survive in UML and other development tools. Modern component programming environments, JavaBeans included, show many signs of direct descent from the ROOM techniques. Still, there's a long way to go. ROOM may have been way ahead of its time, and languages still haven't caught up fully to its models of communication and parallelism.

As impressive an achievement as ROOM was (and is), I have some reservations about it. It relies pretty heavily of state machines for modelling the interacting components. State machines are a good tool, but quite unfamiliar to most software developers these days. I'm not sure whether that's a fault of the methodology or of today's programmers. I also have reservations about any methodology that requires me to buy someone's tools. The authors state that the design methodology can be used without their tools - based on ROOM's complexity, I doubt it. Also, I have a serious distrust of any programming environment that takes over so much of the process. Such tool sets tend to leave me feeling cramped, with little way to express my ideas in different terms. Finally, I'm sure it does all it says it does. Even so, the moment always comes when the tool-generated subsystems need to be opened up for debugging, or when the system has to be open to interaction with other development tools. Real-time and embedded systems tend to be so idiosyncratic and demanding that both kinds of openness in an IDE are compulsory. I just don't see the way out of the closed ROOM.

My present interest is not so much in the ROOM methodology itself, although I'm interested in methodology in general. Instead, I'm studying the visual notation it developed for expressing complex computations. Whatever ROOM's faults and whatever its later history, it's still worth attention.

Concepts are incredibly valid and useful
The eminently practical, usable, powerful, elegant and - once understood - simple concepts behind ROOM deserve the broadest audience amongst real-time and even non-real-time developers. It has been a couple of years since I cracked the cover and I recall the reading being dry. Nonetheless, if you are considering a move to Rational Rose RealTime as a development tool (into which ObjecTime evolved), then this book is truly helpful as a reference for the modeling concepts. The example used throughout is simple enough that it is easy to grasp allowing you to dedicate your time to conceptual understanding rather than getting your head around some obtuse example. At the same time, the example is a natural vehicle for the inclusion of advanced concepts as each is intoduced.

The concepts of ROOM are finding/have found their way into the UML and the "it's not UML" darts of years ago are a little tired at this juncture.

ROOM is brilliant.

(from a former ObjecTime/Rational type though with no association for a few years)

Too old
This book doesn't even mention UML. It may be good if you want to use author's modeling.

Excellent Presentation of OO for Embedded Development
I have used ROOM since 1993 - it is a very useful and flexible methodology.The authors present it in a very clear and well thought out manner.The examples also show that this is not a "toy" methodology.ROOM comes out of the author's years of experience in developing real solutions; I can only say that it has been very successful for myself and teams I've been on as well.That it has evolved into the real-time representation of UML only shows that these authors were ahead of their time. ... Read more

Product Description
Learn the basics of what makes a great character model and gain new insights to the many issues facing the character animator. Using the tried and proven methods found in Animating Real-Time Game Characters, youíll quickly bring your character animation to the next level. Find detailed coverage on modeling, rigging, and weighting real-time game characters using 3ds max and character studio. Explore effective keyframing techniques that focus on dramatic poses and proper timing. Discover how to work with and adjust motion capture data as well as what to look for when working with mocap studios. Get an inside glimpse at the process of taking a real-time game character from concept to export into a game technology.

With the popularity of games like Quake III: Arena, Unreal Tournament, and Warcraft III, real-time gaming is here to stay. Whether youíre a working professional or an eager novice, Animating Real-Time Game Characters will absolutely help you improve your character animation skills using 3ds max and character studio.

HIGHLIGHTS
* Step-by-step instruction with hundreds of clear illustrations
* Complete game character models and animation sets
* Detailed info on keyframing and using motion capture data
* Find dozens of ideas and notes on using the most popular game character creation and animation tools, including 3ds max and character studio
* Thousands of frames of animation ready to be plugged into your own game character

ON THE CD-ROM
* All models, images, and motion capture files are included for use with the tutorials, as well as a fun-filled game demo for the new online-only action game sensation, Betty Bad! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Don't be misled
I found this boith annoying and aggrivating, where that, although it does come with a CD to help, it actually does not contain the neccessary software to creat it such as 3Ds Max and Character Studio. So just make sure you have them before you buy it.

Libro un pò vecchiotto ma utile
Il testo presenta animazioni elementari per principianti con metodo di rigging non proprio attuale ma appropriato alle mesh in oggetto. Si poteva dare un pò di più sotto il profilo dello sviluppo creativo personale con eventuali esercitazioni....3 ds max usato è la versione 4, davvero superata. Utile per cominciare...

animation weapon
This is the 2nd character studio book I have read.The other is the Discreet CS courseware manual.I think everyone should read them both if you want full knowledge of Character Studio.Paul's book does not cover many techniques that are implemented in the Discreet manual, but his book does indeed cover what the title implies.Game animation sets, and rigid vertex assignment.Two topics that are lacking from the Discreet manual.Paul's book successfully de-mystifies the process of manual vertex assignment via the Physique modifier.The first half of the book will give you great techniques for rigging a Biped to a mesh.His techniques are easily applied to a potential game sprite, or a straight render.The real power of this book comes from the subsequent animation chapters.The attention to detail that he drills into your head is perhaps the most valuable skill an animator can have.An outstanding chapter on pose-to-pose keyframing techniques is invaluable.It shows how easily and stylish animating in CS can and should be.There is also very valuable motion capture editing instructions that show you how to exploit mocap in combo with keys to realize the creative potential one has.There is also alot of Dope Sheet work that helps one become very comfortable with one of the more intimidating aspects of 3DS Max.If you can, read the discreet CS manual first, and then study this book to polish it all up.

Try real hard to be like Paul
Game programming is a very, very fun and interesting job that anyone could imagine, especially for boys...Sadly, most of the people just know how to play games, beg their parents to buy them X-Box, PS2, Intendo when they are kids... but very few of them (if not none!) will dedicate their hard work and persistensy from playing games to WRITING games.

If you are one of the very few people who can bear with the tough and unbelievable demanding nature of the game programming industry, Paul Steed will be your no.1 instructor.I have read both Paul's books, this one and the other one, "Modeling a Character in 3ds Max 4".To be frank, even with such a fascinating 3d tool like 3ds Max 4, or Maya or Lightwave, it's still very hard for anyone to really develope a professional-like 3ds character, like the one Paul Steed shows you in both books - one is Betty Bad, the other is Callistro.There are a lot of screenshots in this book, "Animating a Real Time Game Character", and Paul put his instructions and professional tips right next to every screenshot, that makes it really easy to follow how to use 3ds Max 4 or Max 5.

The other excellent thing of this book is that, remember, Paul is really one of the best (to be frank, I would call Paul the no.1 in modeling 3ds character) modellator in the game developing industry... just download the Quake2Arena demo game from id software and play it on your own PC, you know what I mean.Paul is just like telling and teaching his readers how to model/create and animate an unbelievable 3ds character in a fascinating game, like Quake... But after reading and practicing the whole book.... I learned how to create and animate a very professional-like 3ds game character, just like one of those in your amazing game "Quake2 Arena"....Paul... you are doing too good to your readers and too bad to yourself.

Frankly, the "Betty Bad" game demo comes with the book worth 40 bucks... So, anyone who read my review and is interested in game programming and in the computing industry, don't hesitate, buy all Paul's books and start working on it... Paul will teach you all the most difficult, useful, stunning skills, you can be a professor in college after reading Paul's books... so why waste time and money and learn nothing in college.... face the truth, face yourself, be a man....accept the challenge in the REAL game developing industry!!!!! You will thank me.

P.S. Paul, I know you are crazy busy with your work... but when will you write your next one???

Get way ahead of people learning to be animators with this!!
Paul, I have to tell you: You rock!!

Thanks to your easy-to-understand-and-follow-book, I'm now way ahead of my character setup & animation class at my school (art institute of portland). Keep in mind, this was just in a matter of days I went from clueless to...well, not so clueless!!

For people wondering if this will indeed improve their character rigging and/or animating skills:

It will. If you're already comfortable in using Max 4 or 5, you can easily take Paul's walkthoughs of rigging your character of any kind with biped and using physique to attach the mesh to the biped and be well on your way to understanding how to rig any future characters you create for excellent and easy animation. Well, easy to a point, anyway. You know how it is. With Paul's excellent methods of key frame animation, as well as using mocap, you'll be able to create convincing animations that no one would scrutinize! Even Paul's short-but-sweet section on things to consider when building a mesh can even improve your modeling techniques and thought process of when designing a character for optimum animating, hence the title of the section, 'built to move.'

The one thing that makes Paul's books so nice is that you don't even have to use the packaged files to understand how to apply his methods of madness, you can just go straight from his examples and apply it to your own work and come away with the same oustanding results. I modeled my first character with Paul's book 'modeling a character in 3ds max' by just using his techniques and came away with a model better than almost everyone in my class that had previous modeling experience.

Like I said, you just plain rock Paul. Hopefully I'll gain the skills you have so graciously bestowed upon us lowly wannabe animators to reach your status in this industry as a top-notch realtime modeler/animator someday. So far, things are looking bright! ... Read more

Product Description
There are many books that describe the theory behindrendering techniques without walking the reader through actual sourcecode. There are also samples available on the internet that supplysource code without explaining how and why the code works. There arevery few resources available that walk the reader all the way from thetheory to the implementation details. Real Time Rendering Tricks andTechniques in DirectX bridges that gap by presenting over 25 renderingtechniques using the latest version of DirectX. The book begins withbasic concepts like matrices, vertices, and textures before moving toadvanced topics such as vertex and pixel shaders.

Most of the rendering techniques are based on vertex and pixel shaders.

Included are three different techniques for generating shadows,reflection and refraction, Bezier surfaces, matrix palette skinning,bump mapping, image processing, and much more. There are also severaltechniques which are not based on shaders. There are chapters thatcover using the stencil buffer, video textures with DirectShow,picking, timing, 2D drawing, and drawing text efficiently. Eachchapter presents the theory behind the technique before walking thereader through the shader and application code that makes eachtechnique possible. Each chapter ends with a short discussion ofperformance considerations, limitations, and ideas forimprovements. After studying a given technique, the reader willunderstand what the technique is, why it works, and how it works.

The CD includes several tools, as well as all of the application code,shader code, and media needed to implement the techniques. It alsoincludes sample applications and technology papers from nVidia andATI. As readers understand each technique, they can go to these thirdparty resources to see how other people have approached similarproblems. The book and CD give the reader a well rounded view of theseexciting rendering tricks and techniques. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Best Direct3D Book I've Seen Thus Far
I picked this book up about a year ago as it seemed to start from the beginning and cover much ground.Little did I know at the time that this would be the best book I'd find on the topic a year later.The coverage on shadow volumes and shadow maps is impressive.The discussion of things such as the depth buffer and stencil buffers is good.Plus having access to the various vertex and pixel shaders code made it easy to learn from just reviewing the code.

Outside of the SDK, this is the only D3D book that I continue to reference, even as I move to DirectX 9.

Good book
This book helped me understand vertex shaders and pixel shaders, which was the point of the book. The only thing I did not like about the book was that some of the code had bad logic. But its very readable code and I must give the guy props, he must have coded this super fast. Plus his chapter on video was werid and hard to understand and the code was akward and to me was out of place in the book. It had way to much source code and no explaination of why it works. His other book on curves was good too ... check it out.

Good book
This book helped me understand vertex shaders and pixel shaders, which was the point of the book. The only thing I did not like about the book was that some of the code had bad logic. But its very readable code and I must give the guy props, he must have coded this super fast. Plus his chapter on video was werid and hard to understand and the code was akward and to me was out of place in the book. It had way to much source code and no explaination of why it works. His other book on curves was good too ... check it out.

Simply Amazing D3D learning book!
Hi! I guess I'll start by saying what do you have to know and have in order to benefit from the material covered in this book. First of all, you must have some experience in win32 programming under windows, because the author does show you the code required for your app to work, but doesn't explain it. Second, you have to have a VC++ 6.0 compiler and Dx8.0 RunTime/SDK to compile and write any sample programs. Third, you have to know some Object Oriented Programming, such as classes and pointers. And the last thing you have to have is the enthusiasm to fuel your work. Now on to the review. The author provides very good and clear examples, as well as very much actual code needed to accompish them. The book teaches D3D from top to bottom, everything from simple polygons to complex model loading and pixel/vertex shaders! I must go ahead and agree with the 1st review that this book has everything the "Special Effects" book lacked. By this I mean it doesn't just give you function prototypes and leaves you stuck by fuguring out what to put in them, it actually provides very good and concise code. So if you really want to start learning power of D3D at its best, for your apps/games/anything you better go ahead and grab this book! This will skyrocket you skills to the next level. I highly recommend this book for beginning gamedevelopers!(like me). With the huge incomes in entertainment industry in the future you will place yourself in a very good position. ... Read more

Product Description
Offers C++ tools and utilities, a C++ animation class library, proven techniques that enable graphics programmers to develop real-time animation, programming animation codes, and an art gallery on the accompanying CD-ROM. Original (Advanced). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Once upon a time it was a great book
This book was a great book before the advent of DirectX, OpenGL and Hardware-Accelaration triangle. Now it's obsolete. It's about 2D sprites, it's about VGA graphic, it's about WinG, it's about color formats,and it'sVERY LITTLE about 3D graphics. Any how if you are interested for clear C++code, or if you're absolutely beginner with game programming it will beusefull. If I would write this review at 1990-1995 it was a five starsbook.

Great Book!
There are not many books concerning computer graphics that go beyond mode 13h.This book covers the VESA extension for the high color and resolution modes.The section dealing with matrix mathematics and how it relates tocomputer graphics was very interesting.The AART utility is built using astep by step approach with plenty of C++ examples and explanations.Foranyone wanting extended knowledge of computer graphics programming beyondmode 13h, this a must buy.

cool c++ Graphics
the book is totaly good except that my cd that comes with the book is damaged and can not put the teqniques in the book to real actions whichfrozen my projects to a dead end i asked for another copy of this cd but no answer or just a site to download it from !!!!!

Super book on PC-graphics
My greatest disappointment with this book was that I had not read it earlier.The book describes VESA and VGA modes and WIN-G (windows) very clearly and provides a CD-ROM with elegant C++ source for graphics primitives. (windows and dos-32)The compiled versions are nearly as fast as METAGRAPHICS and come with full source. Included are C++ sources for 3D animation with texture mapping (and some cool demos).If you know C++ and want to learn about some cool graphics techniques, READ THIS BOOK!! ... Read more

Product Description
Software applications and communication technologies have begun to make it possible for people to work together on one project held in software in real time; this the idea behind groupware. While basic groupware packages are already available co-operative working still has a long way to go. Drawing packages, especially those for designers and engineers are good examples of software which is suited to team working. This book looks at all the possibilities for the design of such systems and which features will allow them to work successfully. ... Read more

Product Description

This book offers a comprehensive explanation of iterated function systems and how to use them in generation of complex objects. Discussion covers the most popular fractal models applied in the field of image synthesis; surveys iterated function system models; explores algorithms for creating and manipulating fractal objects, and techniques for implementing the algorithms, and more. The book includes both descriptive text and pseudo-code samples for the convenience of graphics application programmers.

Product Description
Interactive display and visualization of large geometric and textured models is becoming a fundamental capability. There are numerous application areas, including games, movies, CAD, virtual prototyping, and scientific visualization. One of observations about geometric models used in interactive applications is that their model complexity continues to increase because of fundamental advances in 3D modeling, simulation, and data capture technologies.As computing power increases, users take advantage of the algorithmic advances and generate even more complex models and data sets. Therefore, there are many cases where we are required to visualize massive models that consist of hundreds of millions of triangles and, even, billions of triangles. However, interactive visualization and handling of such massive models still remains a challenge in computer graphics and visualization. In this monograph we discuss various techniques that enable interactive visualization of massive models.These techniques include visibility computation, simplification, levels-of-detail, and cache-coherent data management.We believe that the combinations of these techniques can make it possible to interactively visualize massive models in commodity hardware.Table of Contents: Introduction / Visibility / Simplification and Levels of Detail / Alternative Representations / Cache-Coherent Data Management / Conclusions / Bibliography ... Read more