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3D Game Programming All in One Review by T. Lilly
Very misleading title but good introduciton to Torque
Pros:
Well written in an informal and easy to follow manner.
Provides a good overview of the game development process with a focus on indies.
Great intro. to the Torque game engine. Far superior to the online documentation from Torque.
Cons:
The title "3D Game Programming All in One" is terriblly inappropriate. This book is packed with 1000+ pages of good information but it should have been called something along the line of Introduction to Torque scripting, emphasis on the Intro part.
Many detailed pages are spent on agonizingly basic tasks while more difficult subjects get glossed over, with the reader left spending a few hours inventing a step B cause the author magically went from A to C.
More then once you'll be following one of his cookbook lessons and you are presented with an options menu with something like 50 options with unintuitive names and he tells you to just accept the defaults then moves on and never looks back. Maybe some tables explaining what those options do would be nice. This is "...All in One" right?
Many many hours will be spent coping code from the book and then executing it in the torque game engine. However, the author has left dozens and dozens of errors in the book code, some of which are grossly inexcusable. Did the author not try his code after he typed it? Come on guy, cut and paste, I know you didn't crank out this tome using a pen.
My biggest issue is that a lot of software, files and code comes with the book. But half the software does not match versions used in the book and many of the game files aren't what they are supposed to be. Code does not say what the book says it does, some image files are none existent and some of the animations are clearly works-in-progress just dumped onto the CD. The animation for an ogre dieing is actually an ogre being bounced across the screen and then dragged under the floor.
I gave the book 3 stars because despite its many flaws I learned a lot and was able to resolve most issues at the expense of a few hours frustration. This book needs editing and lots of it. Also, I'll most likely buy his advanced version.