summer reading recommendations

[pants_happy]

hello,

 

i'm going to take intro programming classes starting next year, and i wanted to pick up some books for the summer to give me sort of a head start. are there any specific books tailored towards gaming that you think are better than the rest? or any essentials that you think every wanna-be programmer should read before starting out (such as basics or ones that lay a good foundation)? here are some i've been contemplating buying:

 

 

for C++:

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846

 

or

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846

 

 

for open GL:

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846

 

or

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books

 

 

 

and perhaps even a book for dummies on Visual Studio . NET:

 

http://www.bookpool.com/.x/t9j38x78w6/sm/0764516264

 

 

also, with everyone recommending forth, i was thinking of eventually checking this out:

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846

 

 

what do all of you think (besides thinking i'm crazy)? i would be thankful (as always) for any advice you can spare.

 

mr. happy pants

[FrankK]

That first book is pretty expensive...I'm sure you can go to a local book superstore and find something better for less. The second book is on the use of the Standard Library (STL) which is a more advanced topic and no games i've ever worked on use the STL (though they borrow heavily from the concepts in the STL).

 

I'd stick to learning basic C++ for now and don't put the cart ahead of the horse. Both DirectX and OpenGL are free (OpenGL is theoretically more portable across OSes but less so across GPUs).

 

I would strongly advise sitting in a LARGE bookstore and browsing books that will teach you BOTH Visual Studio .net AND C++ in one fell swoop (as that's the most common IDE in game programming). Once you are comfortable, assuming you are using a PC with Windows, some basic books on game programming would be recommended (ones that teach D3D AND game logic are the bestest).

 

I would also take linear algebra and calc courses. If you can survive those, then the concepts of 3D programming should come simpler.

[Chris Jones]

In addition to what Frank said, for learning C++ I would recommend "Thinking in C++ by Bruce Eckel". The first edition seemed like an easier read for the novice for some reason, but that could just be me. The revised second edition is good too, but not as easy a read.

 

Oh, and all of Bruce Eckel's books are available on his web site for free download.

 

For OpenGL, I would skip the books entirely and just go through the tutorials on NeHe's site. There is plenty of material there to get you comfortable with OpenGL.

[pants_happy]

that's just awesome, thank you guys very much. i just spent a day (was it saturday? i can't even remember.) at barnes & noble just looking at and browsing through all the different programming books and such. they had a nice variety of books for C++, but it was too bad that i couldn't just start right in with their examples. your advice and those sites will probably save me a ton of money and maybe even a little frustration. thanks again.

[WSippel]

One really important thing is: never buy the book without browsing it for some minutes!

I've wasted a lot of money on books that didn't fit my style - everybody has a different way to learn, some like a theoretical approach, I prefer a practical way.

 

When I wrote my first C++/ OpenGL piece, I browsed some stuff on NeHe, fired up my IDE and just started. It took me three hours to get a feeling for C++ and OpenGL, but then it was done...

 

Something else: D3D or OpenGL is more than a matter of taste. OpenGL _is_ more portable, as is SDL (a free DirectX equivalent) or OpenAL, and it _is_ harder (if you use extensions), but it's also more flexible.

D3D is nothing but a bunch of functions a GPU needs to have to be D3D compliant. But what do you do if you want to use something D3D doesn't do, because Microsoft decided it's useless or this function simply wasn't available when the last DX version came out? Right, either you have to skip using it and hope MS will add it in the future, or you'll switch to OpenGL and use an OpenGL extension...

To sum it up: OpenGL does everything D3D does, and a lot more (depending on the GPU).

 

Some info about SDL (used for, eg: UT2k3, UT2K4 and most likely Doom 3):

http://www.libsdl.org

 

PS: If you start coding, try to write your code OS/ architecture agnostic (eg use SDL instead of DX where appropriate and OpenGL instead of D3D, and never assume an INT to be exactly 32bit). It's not that much harder, but it makes life much easier... ;-)

[pants_happy]

thanks for the advice. i'll try to keep all of that in mind (that is, if keeping that in mind doesn't push other things out of mind, like with kelly bundy).