Beginning Math and Physics for Game Programmers (New Riders Games) | 
 enlarge | Author: Wendy Stahler
Publisher: New Riders Games
Category: Book
List Price: $50.00
Buy New: $12.56
You Save: $37.44 (75%)
New (23) Used (11) from $12.56
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 461104
Media: Paperback
Pages: 504
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0735713901
Dewey Decimal Number: 004.0151
UPC: 752064713906
EAN: 9780735713901
Publication Date: April 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Perfect condition. Satisfaction guaranteed. Inventory subject to prior sale.
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Product Description
Whether you're a hobbyist or a budding game design pro, your objective is probably the same: To create the coolest games possible using today's increasingly sophisticated technology. To do that, however, you need to understand some basic math and physics concepts. Not to worry: You don't need to go to night school if you get this handy guide! Through clear, step-by-step instructions, author Wendy Stahler covers the trigonometry snippets, vector operations, and 1D/2D/3D motion you need to improve your level of game development. Each chapter includes exercises to make the learning stick, and Visualization Experience sections are sprinkled throughout that walk you through a demo of the chapter's content. By the end of the volume, you'll have a thorough understanding of all of the math and physics concepts, principles, and formulas you need to control and enhance your user's gaming experience.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Genius reviewer? May 31, 2004
28 out of 32 found this review helpful
The previous reviewer on this book must be a genius. I meen, he could even read the title, "Advanced C++ and Code Optimization." Oh, wait, that's not what it says, it says "Beginning Math and Physics for Game Programmers." As an AI programmer for the last 10 years who came into the industry without any college level courses, I never studied math and physics in school, and most books that that claim to be physics books for game programmers read like calculas text books. I was very pleased to find this book assumed nothing about a persons level of math in a schooling environment, an explained in very good detail how to start learning a new area of programming. The previous reviewer asks "why would game programmers need a book about basic math and physics?" Well maybee they are'nt game programmers yet? "It's not just the code, her math is just as bad. She uses degrees instead of just sticking to radians." Most people that are just starting out don't understand radians or the need for them. That's why it is simplified using degrees. Again, the key word here is "Beginning." This book is not geared towards people who are industry level programmers. If you want a book where you can steal code out of to use in your game, search the internet, there is plenty of free code out there. By the way, if game programmers don't need beginning physics and math, and you're such an awsome game programmer, why did YOU by the book?
some human errors, but priceless theory review! January 4, 2005
Rolando Gonzalez
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I had read some of the reviews for this book and they focus on parts where almost all books have human errors, code or math examples, but the explaination of the theory is very well reviewed. This book is very well organized and explains very well the topics. This book is a very good book for begginers on games physics and math, its not a book for learning math, physics or programming, and by reading the reviews of the book you'll see what I meant, seems a lot of people misundestood the book title.
 Good for beginners, June 29, 2004
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
Although I'm not a game designer, I picked this up because I think it's important to read books outside my everyday work. I'm glad I did! This excellent book brings together a lot of material in just over 400 pages, and the author deserves a lot of credit for making the subject matter easy to understand without talking down to the reader. The author does a good job covering the subject matter, although the shortness of the book prevents an in-depth treatment of the dense subjects. It is a good primer for any aspiring game programmer.
The book is split largely along subject lines: math first, physics second, it being impossible to program the physics of an object if the math is not understood. One of my favorite things was included in this book: chapter exercises, along with the answers. I get a lot more out of a book when I can do problems and check on my answers. I found the software on the cd useful, despite not being a C++ programmer, it helped me concretely visualize what happens when you use certain techniques.
This book will be useful for a long time to come, because the math and physics discussed are the fundamental building blocks behind realistic game play. I will keep this book on my reference shelf for the math alone, it is a good refresher for basic algebra, trig, and calculus. Word of advice: if you don't understand this book, game programming is not for you.
Average book with nice demos August 24, 2005
Jose Romao (Europe)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The book can't be pointed as bad or good, the title tells everything, like the author says in the Introduction this book isnt the last one you should read for this field, its just a starting point, anyway I found it simple and you need to know some math and physics to get it all clear, besides that you have 6 nice demos with full code you can study and run for better understanding. Who wants to get a simple and clear basic concepts should get the book, others may prefer most complete titles.
Good and Bad August 22, 2004
D. Ku
First on the good points. This book is great for beginner games programmers who lacked the mathematical and physics knowledge. The lessons were simple and easy to understand.
The bad points? Glaring errors everywhere. For example, the question would ask you what A + B in the diagram is when the diagram only shows F + G. Another one, the diagram shows [7,2] and the questions ask you things concerning [7,3]. This was supposedly meant to be for beginners, but with glaring errors such as this all over, it makes it an obstacle such to get down to learning the basics.
It would have been a great book for beginners like me if I hadn't later figure out that those simple problems I was trying to solve were actually printing errors.
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