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Game Book Buying Advice

 
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Does any one have this recent book?

Practical Java Game Programming (Game Development Series)

I have the book by Brackeen and love it. I've also read the 3d Game Math book, which is also wonderful.

I'm looking for a book that includes Java 1.4 features, minimizes the importance of applets, mentions Java Web Start, and maybe talks about jogl/joal/lwjgl.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Aaron R>
 
Aaron Roberts
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Well here's an update now that I have the book (Practical Java Game Programming).

In a nutshell -

Its crap.

In a bigger nutshell -

It sucks and its crap.


A little more detail -

- Fraught with errors both in the language and code samples.

- The CDROM doesn't contain all the source code (Chapter 4 is missing)

- The code doesn't contain ANT scripts / Eclipse files / or any other easy to use compiling. You can't just pop in the CD, type a line or two and have things ready to run. Some things are precompiled for you, but they don't always run.

- The sample code doesn't follow the Java coding convention or any other one that I can see. Within the same class file you see this type of thing -




At least be consistent with spacing and braces within the same class file!

- The audio chapter was worthless IMO.

- The Chapter on Game Databases and JDBC was more than basic, though more well written than the others, given someone from Sun did it.

- You never really get a good sense of structure when going through the book. It feels like snippets pasted in all over the place.

- The networking chapter (ch 7) was annoying because at the top of every source file is the huge Sun disclaimer. The chapter is well written compared to others, but it was extrememly distracting to wade through a 1/2 page disclaimer every few pages. The other disappointment was that in the first few paragraphs of the chapter, the author says NIO is really complex and won't be convered. ARGGGHHH! Then they just cover lan and state that WAN is more difficult because of latency. So far neither this one or Brackeen's scores any points for a good networking chapter.

I haven't finished the book yet. Two things will improove my current review.

1. An author actually writes me back so I can discuss some of this. I've got several emails out to the various authors and haven't heard anything.

2. The chapters on jogl need to be very good.


More to come . .
 
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What's your take on other books.

Any that you would recommend?
 
Aaron Roberts
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The book by David Brackeen is excellent. It provides a solid foundation for graphics, audio, input systems, etc. Everything on the CD comes with Ant scripts, so you can easily build the code.

The other book, which isn't based on java, is the 3D Game Math book. It does a clear job of teaching both basic and somewhat advanced math for 2d and 3d 'problems'.

I'm still on the hunt for more books. Let me know if you come across any you like in particular.

One of my checks is to see how much a book covers applets. If its is heavy on applet examples, I'm very leary. Applets and stand alone games aren't normally the same beast. If the book covers Java Web Start, I'm much more inclined to at least keep looking at it.

Regards,
Aaron R>
 
Bacon
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David's book gets pretty good reviews on Amazon.

I'll probably purchase that one first.

I also found some good stuff on a Google search.
[ September 30, 2004: Message edited by: Ray Marsh ]
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