Beginning C# Game Programming (Game Development)

What you will learn:how to setup your devices (3d, sound, etc)how to use sprites in 3d (albeit you have to convert his sprite implementation to directx9.0c ... which is somewhat complicated, but not impossible)what you won't learn:using 3d meshes, 3d animations, terrain, etc.This really is an introductory book, and i highly recommend it for the beginning C#/MDX programmer. Most of you will find it too novice for your tastes, but even though I gave up trying to convert Ron's sprites to directx 9.0c, i still learned a ton from all of the chapters up until the sprite drawer. (all of which compiled fine until using Direct3DX.dll)Pick up the book if you're new, if you're new to MDX... but you know DX... skip this book.

This is not a bad book. It's a good introduction to C# and Managed DirectX.HOWEVER.Managed DirectX, the entire reason you are getting this book, has been deprecated. Microsoft does not support it. SharpDevelop, the open-source C# IDE recommended by this book, no longer includes Direct3D templates.If you want to do .NET / C# game development, you need to learn XNA. (Unfortunately, XNA seems focused on the XBox 360 and Windows Mobile 7 phone.) The information in this book, while good at the time it was written, is now no longer useful.If for some reason you still want it, know that about 50% of the book is an introduction to C#. It will be beneficial if you already know C++ or Java but it will be of no use to you if you don't. The latter half, despite using Direct3D, revolves around creating a 2D space shooter, and everything it teaches you to do is something you WON'T want to do if you go on to make a 3D game. That being said, it is not a bad introduction when paired with other books on 3D games, or Direct3D.But, again, this book is very outdated and will only provide you with a basic introduction to an SDK that is no longer supported by Microsoft.

After learning basic-moderate level functions in C++ and looking at Java code for a little while, this book was... for the most part, easy to follow.There are two main issues that I found, however.If I had absolutely 0 programming experience, then this book would be incredibly difficult to use, as there are MANY MANY MANY things that get thrown in 2 pages. There's barely any filler text, which is a plus, but for every topic there's 1, MAYBE 2 example texts. When I used my C++ book, I had a full two++ pages of examples per topic. Putting it bluntly, I had to read this with Google open for Chapters 3-5 because of either my misreading, or the brief explanations.The gaming portion of the book is a nice introduction on how to set up your C# files, and what actually happens within a game. The last chapter (making your own game) is a little lackluster because of the time difference between the publication of the book and the year 2012. He was using Sharp v. 0.99 which has a different setup than today's (2.?). I read along with the gaming portion, but couldn't actually do it because I spent hours trying to look for a few links to point me in the right direction going off of what was written.In general, don't hesitate to buy this book IF you need to learn basic C#, want to learn the basics of setting up files / game programming in general, have a little bit of knowledge in programming a different language, and have an open Google homepage on a nearby computer.

This is exactly what you need to start from scratch into game programming and programming in grneral. It is very honest from them stating that no previous knowledge on any programming language is needed although it helps greatly if you kind of do your hw on studying topics deeply. Know that you do not have to expect to follow the technical procedures (configuring the computer and related) to the letter for that would create a lot of headaches with the using of current computers. Get the overall idea and apply yourself and this book will be extremely useful.

This is a great book if you want to read a book. The Hands on experience with SharpDevelop and what you read in the book about SharpDevelop is confusing when trying to learn how to use the program. Might want to read SharpDevelop Help instructions before using SharpDevelop. Also, when compiling code I had errors with every project from Chapter 6 and 7. I am learning about Sprites at Chapter 7 and I have given up programming with SharpDevelop because of the errors I receive when I compile the code. I am unable to get any output. I was able to figure out some of the Errors at Chapter 6 that derived from DirectX3D.dll. With constant updating of DirectX3D changes of been made with the program that caused errors that I was able to fix. Also with the changes that have been made with DirectX3D I was unable to compile the file Sprites that comes from the demos off the disk in the back of the book. I was unable to fix this problem. Finally, Chapter 7 textures would not compile because SharpDevelop was unable to find the file located on my desktop called textures.jpg. Textures.jpg is used as a filler inside of a triangle for brick detail in Chapter 7. To try and solve these errors I installed Windows XP, DirectX 9.0, Framework 1.1 SDK and SharpDevelop 1.1 for windows XP. Then Sharp Develop 1.1 was unable to open the files from Chapter 1-10 Demos on the disk because of errors. I've also tried using Visual Studio to open and compile these files that come from Beginning C# Game Programming disk at the back of the book. I get the same errors when I compile the code. I debug the code and the reason for this is because of compatibility issues. My conclusion is the book is useful for reading and looking at black and white pictures but if you want to input code from the book into a frame to get output you will be unable to do so. This book was a good review of Beginning C++ Game Programming.