OpenLoop

Anyone know of a good book that might help me start on game programming?

So I was working on a values problem with an investment policy the other day when all the sudden I decided that I hate my job. I've always wanted to work in the video game industry, but since things hasn't turned out as I wanted, I figured I'll make game programming a hobby.

Sorry I can't be more specific in my question. As I mentioned, I come from Financial programming background and have no experience with game programming. That's why I need a book to point me in the right direction. I hear a lot of talk about DirectX and OpenGL but I'm not sure which one to start with. I'm familiar with Java but I prefer a book that focus on either C/C++ and C# because I actually have experience in these.

Ooble

I don't do any game development, but when I was looking into it (simpler time, before I had money to worry about) GameDev.net was about as good as you could get. Specifically, this.

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Klarre

Since you got programming experiences from before you should focus on some graphics programming using one of the two major graphics APIs, as you mentioned by yourself, OpenGL or Direct3D (Direct3D is a part of DirectX). I have experiences from both and will recommend you to start out with studying the examples given on this popular site, nehe.gamedev.net, which gives you some examples of basic OpenGL programming. Complement this by buying one of the books on the site Ooble recommended to got the basic understanding of game engine design.

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OpenLoop

That site is quite informative. From the articles I read, it appears that a Tetris clone is the equivalent of a Hello World in the gaming industry. Thanks for the help.

Wizard1988

One thing I want to say is that it is a waste of money to buy one of those Learn (Insert your graphics API) Game programming. Those types of books get outdated really quickly and become pretty much useless. Rather than buying a book on the API download the SDK and browse through the samples.

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JG-Webdesign

Klarre

What Wizard1988 states is not true. Books covering the OpenGL API or Direct3D 9 is not getting outdated very quickly and getting useless, depending on the definition of "very quickly" of course. I am still using my OpenGL book from 1999 which works as an excellent reference for me...

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Wizard1988

I just can't imagine using a book covering DirectX7 being used as a reference for programming with DirectX10. There is too many changes, your sample code would never compile, and just create confusion.

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JG-Webdesign

Klarre

I don't know why you should try using the same reference for two different APIs. Microsoft released their first version of Direct3D 9 year 2002 and it is still used and will be a couple of years more. Buying a DX7 book is waste of money. And there is no reason to buy a book covering an old API, in OpenLoops case.

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Wizard1988

I am just trying to show that APIs do change, I don't think DirectX9 code would really work with DirectX10.

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JG-Webdesign

Ooble

DirectX 10 code doesn't even work on Windows XP, so DirectX 9 is still very relevant today.

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