Learning DirectX

Question

I want to learn to do some DirectX 9 and 10 programming in C++. Could anyone suggest me some good books to start with for a beginner in DirectX and at the same time, some reference books for DirectX 9 and 10?

I have a background in standard C++ programming and I want to know what are the prerequisites to be able to program with DirectX.

1. Are there certain books or websites that by your experience could help me get going?
2. What do you believe is the best book on DirectX C++ programming (recent or old)?

Answer 1

I found that Riemers tutorials were a good place to get started with DirectX and XNA in C++ and C#. He also published a book on the same topics covered in the tutorials I believe.

Answer 2

There are plenty at Amazon.

Answer 3

If you're familiar with C++ I would recommend you take at look at the latest DirectX SDK straight away. It contains a lot of samples, ranging from beginner to advanced. Your best starting point would be the tutorial samples (15 of them) which take you from the basics of windows programming, through rendering a triangle over 3d transformations, shader programming, lighting and textures.

You can find the latest DirectX SDK here

There's lots of books about DirectX, but if you're familiar with C++ (or progamming in general) you shouldn't have many problems with diving straight into the SDK. One thing to keep in mind is that there are quite a few changes going from DirectX 9 to 10 (going from a fixed function pipeline to a programmable pipeline and DXUT to name a few), and DirectX 10 is only supported on Vista onwards, so you won't be able to run it on XP. If you're not familiar with windows programming I think DirectX 10 might be a bit easier to learn, since it has removed some of the nitty gritty tedious stuff you had to deal with in DirectX 9.

Answer 4

My suggestion would be to go through the tutorials included with the DirectX SDK for DirectX10 or DirectX9. There are also good tutorials online, that step through the basics a bit more slowly.

The main stumbling block is often learning and understanding the math involved in 3D graphics. 3D Math Primer for Games and Graphics Development is a good book for this, if you don't have a strong mathematics background. There are also many sources online, although it's easy to get confused by reading a website geared towards OpenGL if you're learning DirectX, since many of specifics in the math are different (due to left handed vs. right handed coordinate systems).

Answer 5

Well if you want to start out as a beginner, you get Beginning DirectX 10 Game Programming.

If you want to go more advanced, you get Advanced DirectX 10 Game Programming.

You wanna know more than that? You look in microsoft's available documentation on the API.

Key sites are msdn.microsoft.com (Microsoft Developer Network) , technet.microsoft.com (Microsoft Technical Network). Microsoft has forums on msdn and they can help you there.

Good luck, I'm still learning about DirectX 10 as well, and don't forget OpenGL because it's very important too. OpenGL 3.0 is coming out soon.

You can code in whatever language that will compile under the .NET framework.

Choose from options like VB.NET, C++, C#, Delphi, there are others that I don't know.

Answer 6

In my opinion, the best book to learn DirectX in C++ is Frank Luna's Introduction to 3D Game Programming : I have the DX9.0c edition, but he recently published the DX10 edition. This book was recommended to me by an engine programmer at EA, and it's really stellar.

Here's a summary of the DX9.0c edition:

• Part I - Mathematical Prerequisites
  • Vector Algebra
  • Matrix Algebra
  • Transformation and planes
• Part II - Direct3D foundations
  • Direct3D Initalization
  • Timing, Direct Input, and Animation and Sprites
  • The Rendering Pipeline
  • Drawing in Direct3D - Part I
  • Drawing in Direct3D - Part II
  • Color
  • Lighting
  • Texturing
  • Blending
  • Stenciling
• Part III - Applied Direct3D and the D3DX Library
  • Meshes
  • Meshes Hierarchy Animation - Part I
  • Meshes Hierarchy Animation - Part II
  • Terrain Rendering - Part I
  • Terrain Rendering - Part II
  • Particle Systems
  • Picking
  • Advanced Texturing - Part I
  • Advanced Texturing - Part II
• Appendix A - Introduction to Windows Programming
• Appendix B - High-Level Shading Language Reference

Of course, the SDK samples and tutorials are excellent, but not nearly as thorough as a good book.