Reviews (1)

A great book for design idea
If you are a designer who are seeking for design ideas. This is a book that you shouldn't miss out for your bookshelf. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Desktop Publishing - General    7. Computers / General   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer software    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Development    6. Programming - Software Development    7. Computers / Programming / Software Development    8. Object-oriented programming (OOP)    9. Software engineering   

Reviews (4)

Great book for designers/developers
When i first got this book, I didn't really know what to expect.I didn't know if it was going to be a design book or an animation book for interfaces.I guess what I eventually ended up getting was a little bit of both.
I bought it and finally i was enlightened.
I may be exagerating, but from the moment i bought this book i realized that the "advanced" part was easy for everyone to follow and put into good use.
Broad Yet Applicable
AdvancED Flash Interface Design is the latest installment from Friends of ED. Incidentally, while reading an interview with Chris Mills, I recently learned that the ED in the title is capitalized for a reason. "Friends of Every Designer" is what the company name stands for. Read blogs folks, you'll have many serendipitous moments. Anyway, this book was very practical, filled with an enormous amount of information, all of which is very applicable on a day to day basis. This quote from Chris' blog sums it up quite nicely...
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Flash    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer animation    5. Computers    6. Computers - Other Applications    7. Design    8. Internet - Web Site Design    9. User Interfaces    10. Web sites    11. Internet   

Reviews (13)

A Dissenting Point of View
After reading all the pans of this book, I thought I would put in a dissenting point of view. I am completely new to the Civilization series and need all the help I can get. I think generally the book is doing a good job getting me up to speed. I do agree, though, that the drawbacks of the book are significant and make the book frustrating to use.
Basic
If you have ever played a civ game before, this guide is basic.It does lay out the tech's though and puts you on the fast track.It is a real quick read, with half of the book dedicated to the civilopedia.

Low on content and cheap to boot!
I'll agree with other reviewers that the content doesn't provide much supplemental information, but I confess a preference for hard copy documentation when I'm using software. It's the booklover in me, plus the fact that I like to look at the manual and the game I'm playing at the same time.
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Subjects:  1. Civilization    2. Computer Games    3. Computers - Games    4. Games    5. Games/Puzzles    6. Meier, Sid.    7. Video & Electronic - General    8. Computers / Entertainment & Games / General    9. Games / Video & Electronic   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (2)

Whoa
This is the perfect compilation set of fun, and challenging projects which can easily be manipulated for your own robotic tastes. The sources of this book are the masters in the field, and do an astounding job sharing their wealth of knowledge.

Where do they get these people?
Once again Syngres has put together a top notch team of Lego builders. The robots in here are incredible to say the least. I was amazed to see that CS Soh had a hand in this book as I've been a big fan of his LEGO work on the web for some time. I just finished building all of the robots in the prequel to this book for the Star Wars Dark side lego kit when I saw this become available. These are all top notch robots built by people who know their lego robots. They don't beat around the bush-they give you step by step instructions for buidling these robots. They go one step beyond the first book by giving you alternate building instructions for download. I'm going to use this in my high school robotics class. Top notch. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Automation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Design and construction    4. Games    5. Games/Puzzles    6. LEGO toys    7. Popular works    8. Robotics    9. Robots    10. Technology & Industrial Arts    11. Video & Electronic - General    12. Computers / Computer Engineering    13. Games/Video & Electronic - General    14. Models & model-making    15. Technology & Applied Sciences    16. Technology / Robotics    17. Technology/Automation   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computer Graphics - Illustrator    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Desktop Publishing    7. Microcomputer Graphics    8. Computer graphics software    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design   

Subjects:  1. Computer Games    2. Games    3. Games / Gamebooks / Crosswords    4. Games/Puzzles    5. Video & Electronic - General    6. Games / Video & Electronic   

Reviews (7)

Best of its class
For such difficult topics, this book is surprisingly readable, accessible, and has plenty of source code to get you started. It also has one of the best sections I have ever seen about floating point accuracy and numerical stability. In addition, it has some of the best coverage of BSP trees, KDE trees, and other spatial organization. That alone makes it worth the price of the book.
The essential guide to interactive collision detection
Solid theory coupled with the author's own practical experience makes this book an excellent choice for practitioners in the field. In addition to describing a wide range of relevant algorithms, the author also discusses optimization, numerical precision, robustness, and other topics critical in creating a workable interactive system.
surprising amount of depth in this field
The physics in the book is simple. Elementary kinematics. Something often taught at the first year undergraduate level. But the book goes far further into its specialised need than you are likely to see in a physics text. Many computer games that rely on real time feedback need fast ways to see if two or three dimensional objects collide. Because then, some involved interaction must occur.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Design    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer games    5. Computers    6. Computers - Other Applications    7. Miscellaneous Software    8. Programming    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    10. Software engineering   

Reviews (5)

MMO encyclopedia
Thos book is a collection of wisdom, aimed to provide an overall view of what you need to consider to write your own MMO. There is no code and the articles do not go too deep, which is not a bad thing, because they provide easy to understand contents. So before writing any code, read a related article, avoid pitfalls and only then start writing.I have been reading this book for several months, over and over and I still love it. There is no need to read the articles in any particular order and each reading session can be as short as 30 min. and still provide good knowledge to you. This book is a must have on your bookshelf if you are serious about MMO games and use other people's knowledge to shorten you own development cycle. I like it so much, I just bought the 2nd edition, which looks very promising, too. And dear author(s), if you write a book with a framework, I'll buy that one, too, without any doubt.

interesting read
This book is very interesting to read, since it covers a broad range of information about Multiplayer Gaming. But you shouldn't expect every MM secret to be lighted up in this one book. It is a book with dozends of chapters about many aspects of MM gaming, so it is a good starting point to enter the topic and get a broader knowledge of what MM games are and what aspects you have to think about. In my opinion, you will need more books in addition to this (such as the gem series or MM2).
A thoughtful compendium of wisdom
A fascinating book that compiles an array of essays by professionals in today's MMO industry. Each chapter brings something new and unique to consider: from the database to the game engine, costumer service to the network protocols, AI factions to interface design. However, some of the topics are so broad and complex the authors really have no chance of leaving you with a sense of satisfaction when their time is up- moving from topic to topic each chapter, you often feel the essays are left open and incomplete. Even so, the issues discussed are very important to consider, and rarely have I seen them covered in other books on the subject. Definitely an interesting read. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books And Software    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer games    5. Computers    6. Computers - Other Applications    7. Programming    8. Programming Languages - C++    9. Video & Electronic - General    10. Art / Graphic Arts    11. Computer Programming   

Reviews (2)

Hard Fun!
I will be brief. That's the way you feel when you're engaged in an eLearning Simulation Game. You get swept up in it. You're turned on. You block out life's static in order to reach your goal. Clark's book is like that. BUY THIS BOOK!

excellent
I've known and worked with Clark Quinn for several years. He's written a very good book. Like the e-learning it advocates, Engaging Learning is fun, accessible and, well, engaging. Working from a solid theoretical framework, Clark explains why learning should be "hard fun" and then shows how to create that kind of e-learning. He includes several detailed case studies. As someone who develops e-learning for a living, I appreciated his pragmatic approach and acknowledgement that e-learning can be developed at different levels of engagement, depending on budget, schedule, quality of source material, etc.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Computer-assisted instruction    5. Design and construction    6. Development - Business Development    7. Employee Training And Development    8. Experimental Methods    9. Human Resources & Personnel Management    10. Simulation games in education    11. Training    12. Business & Economics / Human Resources & Personnel Management    13. Computer aided design (CAD)    14. Computer games   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Design    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Computers - Other Applications    7. Computer Software Packages    8. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    9. Mechanical Engineering & Materials   

Reviews (15)

Great for the beginning programmer.
I was excited to get this book, and, after reading it, I am happy to say it was worth every penny!
Well written, but source code in book is wrong.
I love this book, and I feel it is very well written. The author gives pretty good examples and explains the code that he writes line by line. Perfect for the beginner.
Great book!
Even tho this book got some negative reviews, I just knew that a 700+ page book would have to teach something. I will admit that the beginning of the book does make you wonder how so many words can say so little, but after you get past that part, the book is great. I've programmed in Basic on my Commodore computer and used QBasic and Blitz Basic on my PC, and just discovered and purchased DarkBasic and it looks like it's going to be awesome! But the book that comes with the DarkBasic program really only describes the commands. You'd have to download the examples and print them out to learn how to program. Even it you do that, I'd still recomment getting this book, because I like to learn from more than one source.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Programming - General    6. Video & Electronic - General    7. Computer games    8. Computers / Entertainment & Games / General    9. Software engineering   

Reviews (8)

Excellent for all developers.
If you are a software developer this series should be somewhat mandatory reading.While the focus is on games much of the material should be common knowledge for software engineers.I did however like all of the book because it really shows that these authors are "in the trenches" so to say.For the seasoned developer it may be somewhat a waste of time but I would be surprised if everyone did not take something away from this book.The low level compiler examples for instance, using Lex and Yacc was pretty interesting but it left me wanting more and I ended up researching it on the Internet.
Qualified opinions?
I've noticed several scathing reviews from folks who admit in the review that they aren't even game programmers.Am I missing something?How in the world could this book be at all useful or interesting to someone who admittedly has no interest in programming games?Unbelievable. For Beginner Programmers ONLY!
The Game Programming Gems books are fat and full of good ideas. Unfortunately, these ideas are only really useful to beginning programmers; anyone who has programmed seriously for more than two years will know 90% of the material in the book series. Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books And Software    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computer games    4. Computer graphics    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Programming    8. Programming - General    9. Programming - Software Development    10. Programming Languages - C++    11. Video & Electronic - General    12. Art / Graphic Arts    13. Software engineering   

Reviews (5)

True Gems of Programming Wisdom
Intended for the intermediate to advanced game programmer, this is a book that will literally have something for everyone. It contains sixty-two 'gems' that is, articles on how to some particular aspect of game programming. Sophisticated game programming is probably the most complex programming there is. And this book goes into some pretty sophisticated programming details. It is written by a collection of the best in the business today.
A "must-have" compendium
Featuring contributions from expert, professional game developers, Game Programming Gems 4 is an in-depth and recommended reference and resource filled cover to cover with essays, each covering everything from general programming and debugging to mathematics, physics, aritifical intelligence issues, graphics, network and multiplayer concerns, audio, and so much more. Game Programming Gems 4 is not a standard instructional textbook; rather, it is a supplementary guide packed with the latest cutting-edge insights to creating quality games - most code is written in C++, but some Java and Python are also represented. A "must-have" compendium of insight, discoveries, tips, tricks, and techniques for every serious game programmer's library. An accompanying Windows CD-ROM contains source code, listings, and demos to complement the articles and essays.

A Great Resource to add to your collection
This book contains a lot of really useful tidbits that are helpful to anyone in the game programming or simulation fields.It should be on everyones shelf as a reference. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computer games    4. Computers    5. Computers - Games    6. Programming    7. Programming - Algorithms    8. Programming - General    9. Programming Languages - C++    10. Art / Graphic Arts    11. Computer Programming   

Reviews (15)

Fills In The Gaps
I've been reading a lot of books lately that talk about how to create various 3-d art.And also lots of books that talk about programming that assumes that you already have the "art assets", but there is obviously a big gap between those two things!This book fills that gap very well.
Very Helpful
This book was very helpful when it comes to alpha mapping, bump mapping, and light mapping. I found it very informative and very well written. It's a must have for your collection.

Great for begginers
Wow! Great book. Deals with the very basics of Maya, Photoshop, 3Ds Max. Goes step by step through the creative process. Not in a tutorial format, but more of a pipeline explanation. I am a newbie with PS and Maya, and this book totally helped me move forward in terms of what to do, and more importantly, WHY to do. Tutorial books lead you through and show you how. This book tells you WHY. Very important to me. Pics are rad. Writing style is easy to understand. Flew through half of this book in one night. This book is, and will be a great reference tool. I should have bought this book first, before any other tutorial books. I was a little confused on UV mapping and texturing. This book helped clear up that mess. Plus, this guy is a teacher and works in th industry. I am so very grateful he shared his knowledge with us. I don't know if it is, but I think it should be a required text at colleges of game art and design. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer graphics    4. Computers - Games    5. Design    6. Games    7. Games/Puzzles    8. Three-dimensional display syst    9. Three-dimensional display systems    10. Video & Electronic - General    11. Video games    12. Computer games    13. Computers / Computer Graphics / Game Programming   

Reviews (12)

5 stars to the author, not the publisher.
The other reviews here on the author's style are so well done, that I'll just say I agree that this is a book worth going through cover to cover.
Superb Instruction
So often computer instruction books are re-hashes of the User guide.This one is a very well designed course.The author uses real world tasks to introduce all the most important features in a format which is entertaining.Its modular structure permits the learner to pick and choose his lessons.Its the first computer instruction book I've ever used which was fun.

Glad I bought it
It was difficult choosing a book as there is so much out there but I finally bought Jan's because of the overwhelming positive response.Well, I have to agree and am can only say that learning PSE2 through Jans course is a discovery!If you are in any way serious about Digital Photography and want to master the best tool out there than this book takes you through it with great intelligence. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Design    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Desktop Publishing - General    8. Microcomputer Graphics    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    10. Photoshop   

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Other Applications    7. Microcomputer Graphics    8. Computer graphics software    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    10. Image processing: computer animation    11. Multimedia   

Reviews (7)

Why no color?
I currently have three HOT books included this Illustrator CS book. This one is really disappoint one. Why? The book is about graphic, but all the pictures in the book are black and white. However, it comes with cd-rom, so it receives 2 stars otherwise.....

Not as good as other HOT publications
I have used the HOT for Flash and for Dreamweaver and have learned a great deal from both of them.But the Illustrator CS publication is far inferior on many levels, I am afraid (I know that I am in the minority here).The communication and conveyance of information is many times unclear and unfocused and assumes a level of knowledge is already in existence.The structure of the lessons are many times confusing, as is the graphics associated with them.I luckily got mine from the library and did not pay for it.I would not spend the money on this one, and do the same.Or try it out for yourself and then spend the money.Good luck, and keep up the good work with the other HOT publications!

Tells you why, not just how
Jeff Van West has a winnner of an Illustrator tutorial. A lot of other how-to books give you a bunch of steps that lead the user to a "whiz-bang" result, but they lack in explaining why and how that result was achieved. This book goes through the process of explaining the cause and effect of Illustrator's tools and effects _before_ going through the steps, leading to a better understanding of when to use those tools and effects. I've used "Adobe Illustrator CS Hands-On Training" as a textbook in my beginning Illustrator class, and it's been a wonderful teaching tool. My only real complaint (and it's a minor one at that) is that the graphics are not all that pretty (graphic artists are attracted to shiny objects). Still, the book accomplishes what it sets out to do. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Design    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Desktop Publishing    7. Desktop Publishing - General    8. Microcomputer Graphics    9. Computer graphics software    10. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Games    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Games    5. Games / Gamebooks / Crosswords    6. Games/Puzzles    7. Video & Electronic - General    8. Games / Video & Electronic   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (12)

A basic primer on differences between digital and print mediums
DV Filmmaking From Start To Finish by Ian David Aronson's will reach both amateur and professional digital video users with a basic primer on differences between digital and print mediums. Familiarity with Final Cut Pro or Adobe After Effects, the two programs used here, will aid in understanding DV applications in either PC or Mac formats, while the author's background as a teacher of digital media lends a logical progression to his tips and practical applied examples.

A strong reference for digital film making process
DV Filmmaking for Ian David Aronson gives you in 18 chapter a coverage for the production, post-production and distribution process of the digital film making.
Great Resource, Great Job!
DV Filmmaking- Start To Finish has been a great resource for my own first feature film Hot Rod Girls Save The World.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computers    4. Film & Video - Amateur Production    5. Film & Video - Direction & Production    6. Interactive & Multimedia    7. Pop Arts / Pop Culture    8. Computers / Interactive Media    9. Digital Video, filmaking    10. Digital cinematography    11. Editing    12. Image processing: video    13. Motion pictures    14. Performing Arts / Film / General    15. Performing Arts/Film & Video - Direction & Production    16. Production and direction    17. Video photography