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Just curious to know if anyone has ever used gametutorials.com products for learning directX. I was debating on whether I should buy it or not. I read online that most of his tutorials were written in the source code. It's nice to heavily comment your code but if most of the tutorial is in his code then I don't think that is necessarily the best way to do a tutorial. But anyhow, I am not sure about that, I am just checking for clarification. and checking to see if it would be a good investment.

numerical25
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    A better investment is always a book. – GManNickG Apr 16 '10 at 21:22
  • I've tried that. The luna books assume you know alot of stuff already. The beginning 3d programming focuses alot on 2d animation and moves into very basic 3d. the code in the book does not follow along with the code provided on the cd. I am probably going to give the beginning to direct10 a try out. I am just trying to find alternate solutions. alot of books assume you know too much. I would like to find a book that goes from very basic to very advanced. I don't think it would be hard to do that if books would do a build as you go along approach. seems authors dont believe in that anymore. – numerical25 Apr 16 '10 at 23:31
  • What do you mean "assume too much"? About DirectX or about C++? – GManNickG Apr 16 '10 at 23:33

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The problem is that the site is trying to teach you C++ and game programming at the same time. I think trying to do both at the same time is a terrible idea. Game programming is tough, and if you don't know C++ you're just setting yourself up to either fail, or get by with sloppy (and sometimes downright awful) code. So don't do both at the same time: you must learn C++ first, then get into making games. And GameTutorials isn't a resource to help you do that.*

If you don't know C++ yet, do not learn it from any online resource. Books are always a better choice here. I recommend C++ Primer or Accelerated C++. There's a more complete list here.

Both of those costs half as much, and give you a full fleshed-out C++ learning experience. The site I can't speak for, but it doesn't appear to give too fleshed out a tutorial, partly because it keeps mixing it with gaming stuff. You're better off getting tried-and-true books.

If you know C++, then you'd be wasting money on stuff you already know. Get a good Direct3D book. I don't have any modern books on me to recommend, but here's a big list. :) The two (one for DX10, one for DX9) by Luna seem to be good looking, but I don't really know. In any case, a bit more research will tell you what Direct3D book to buy.

*I don't like to speak against things that mean well, but I think the site is really just in a poor position. Teaching C++ and Game Programming shouldn't go hand-in-hand.

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GManNickG
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  • well as mentioned before. I was strictly going for the directx tutorials not for the c++ – numerical25 Apr 16 '10 at 23:28
  • @numerical: Oops, didn't see that. Then you don't want the site, you can buy a good big book (maybe 2!) for the same amount. Look for one that's intended for beginners. – GManNickG Apr 16 '10 at 23:35