[java] Books

I recently bought Brackeens book and must say I am very surprised.

Initialy I thought it might be a simplified game dev book similar to WGPFD. But to my absolute pleasure the only thing *simple* is the way the author helps you understand stuff.

This book is now my *must have* for all new- and midbies. It takes you through all stuff you need to know about game programming and it uses everyday language. No endless and cryptic theoretical mathimatical crap. He gives you what you need to know, shows you how to do und use it.

My only problem with the book is the large range of topics which cause the amount of space available for each topic to be a tad to short.
F.i. multiplayer
Even though the book contains very little java-centric stuff I think two books might have been nicer.

My rating: **** 1/2

i have to agree...

brackeens book is one of the finest books in game programming... as it covers a whole lot of topics in game programming some may find it oversized, but i think its just right...

it gives you a whole idea of nearly all important topics of game programming from which you can start to buy maybe an AI book and continue that part... you are also learning by doing because of the examples given, which are very nice and are motivating to do more...

what i liked especially is that brackeen writes in a very normal way... like a friend explaining a complex topic in a simple way... with some funny moments...

he often states some tests he made to see what runs faster in java, and what seems to be the best way... that will show you some more fundamentals in java... for more someone should buy a java book...

to everyone who wants to do game programming in java this is a must have which can be funded by some 2-3 books additional...

i am very fascinated by the book and that man... in all categories of books this is one of the finest, so from me definitly *****!!!

Thanks for that, I'll have to check out prices for it now.

I just got the book today and it looks like i'm going to have to change ide to use the apache ant plugin. I currently use JCreator, but there's no mention of integrating Ant or getting a plugin for my IDE. Does anyone know how to integrate it, or would it be easier getting NetBeans or Eclipse?

Ant is just a tool that helps you to build large projects and should not be needed when doing small porjects. I suppose that it can be helpful when using JCreator as you have to compile everything yourself. However I think that by the time projects become large enough for you to have to use ant you really hsould move on to eclipse as it is a so mcuh better IDE than JCreator. As for an ant plgin to JCreator I haven't got a slightest idea of where to start to look for one, but google is everybodies friend :)

Quote:

Original post by mmca Does anyone know how to integrate it, or would it be easier getting NetBeans or Eclipse?

Pony up for the pro edition.

Thanks

Hi!
I think it should be noted that Brackeen's book is nothing for beginners. One should be familiar with threads, Swing, AWT Events, LinkedLists, and other technologies in order to get something useful out of this book. What is really great is that it does not cover applet but application programming!

Is the Java2 Game Programming book by Thomas Petchel any good and maybe better suited for beginners? Does it cover applet or application programming?
Thank you in advance for all answers!
Alex

For a beginning book on java I would recommend Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel. Also check out his HP for the electronic version of the book and source code.

game programming is nothing for beginners... it may sound hard but that's how it is...
before someone start gameprogramming, the language (doesn't matter if c++ oder java or something else), he ought to know at least the basics... by that i do not mean "Hello World!" i mean allaround basics...

of course brackeens book is nothing for beginners... that book has nearly 1000pages... and there only game programming basics are given... people should be aware of the fact that abook cannot cover all topics at once... there are 1500pages books for java programming, threads, classes etc pp and even those do not cover everything...
for me, i do not like books that cover everything at once, because that is not possible... if you wanna learn basics, buy a good basics book, if you wanna learn graphics, buy a good graphics book... there are books that try to build a bridge over all those deep deep rivers, but basicly make these books pretty hold to a line they do not leave... often written in a very subjektive way...

so, for beginners and german read "Java ist auch eine Insel", other languages "Java in 21Days" or "Thinking in Java", and of course all tutorials and books at java.sun.com...
for beginning game programming in my eyes a must have is brackeens book... that could be widend by nehe's opengl tutorials, which can be found in jogl, lwjgl, and more java capable ways...
for better java understanding do Gooooooogle of course and "Hardcore Java", a book i like... there is one from wesley called "Java Cookbook"... that is not bad at all... it specificlly solve problems... some good advises at all... "Effective Java" is good, too...

ah, its definitly too late in germany to write that much text... and i have a cold too... argh... so, thats it from me for now, i will go to sleep...

night!

Hi!
Well, the reason I wanted to point out that it is not for absolute beginners is the following: I contacted David Brackeen by email, asking whether also a beginner could use it. And he replied that anybody who feels comfortable with writing & compiling simple Java code, and feels comfortable looking up Javadocs, should be fine.

I think what is also important is what exactly is a "beginner".
Ok, I just wanted to point out that I am neither a "I want to learn programming for making my own Quake" nor a "I want a big cool game without writing too much code" -guy.

BTW: it seems there are a lot of german java game programmers. Very cool! Maybe somdeday we could work on a program together?

-Alex