Second Edition and the new Advanced book.

#1 I don't know, but if the Advanced is edited and written as well as the first, then I can hardly wait!

Michael

#2 There's an Advanced 3DGPAIO coming out?

#3 Yes.
this one.

Jacopo

#4 Wow, great news. If it's anything like the first one, it'll be a hit ;)

Now I'm off to pre-order...

#5 This is a stupid question its gonna be about TGE right?

#6 @ Jason - yep it looks like it

#7 I need to finish reading the first one ready for the next book :(

I saw a game server online ready for one of the book examples... should be pretty cool.

Can't wait :p

#8 I actually got giddy when reading the desc from Amazon :) I wish I could afford it right now. Maybe a mail-in rebate for owners of the first book?

#9 Hi Guys,

The Amazon description is slightly incorrect. There is no "under the hood" section.

Here is the TOC:

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I Advanced Script Programming
Chapter 1 A Target-Rich Environment
Chapter 2 Working with TorqueScript
Chapter 3 Vectors and Matrices
Chapter 4 3D Using Torque Script
Part II Artificial Intelligence
Chapter 5 Easing into Artificial Intelligence
Chapter 6 Using AI in Games
Chapter 7 Artificial Enemies
Chapter 8 Interactive AI
Chapter 9 Group Behaviors
Part III Enhanced Game Programming
Chapter 10 Damage Control
Chapter 11 Making It Real
Chapter 12 Spicing It Up
Chapter 13 Online Game Services Using PHP
Part IV Enhanced Game Modeling
Chapter 14 Structure Modeling
Chapter 15 Shape Modeling
Chapter 16 Variable Skins
Appendix A The Torque Reference
Appendix B Additional Resources





Acknowledgments


I want to thank all you kind people who bought my first book, 3D Game Programming All in One. I hope you find that this book fills the bill as well as it did.

I also want to thank my three main editors, Mitzi Koontz, Jenny Davidson, and especially my wife, Jacquie Finney for their collective patience, guidance, and the occasional kick in my assets. Oh yeah, and for not rolling their eyes at me too many times. Also, I have to thank my two volunteer editors: my sons Indy and Lucas for their biting critiques laced with unabashed boosterism

I also want to acknowledge Ed Maurina and the great work he is doing with his Essential Guide to Torque, and the stuff he has written for the GarageGames (GG) online docs.

Speaking of GarageGames, we all owe a debt of gratitude to Ben Garney for his awesome descriptions of some of the inner workings of Torque. When Ben gets his feathers ruffled, it's a thing of beauty to witness him wreaking order and knowledge upon unsuspecting bystanders, leaving whirlpools of understanding in his wake when he goes on a verbal rampage. Then there's the ever-patient, mentally nimble, and coolly competent Josh Williams, who once had the graciousness to check whether I would mind hearing some advice from a kid (him). Well, duh! Good advice is good advice no matter where it comes from. Now go to your room.

A few other members of the GarageGames community contributed to this book in various ways, knowingly and unknowingly. Paul Scott provided useful information in understanding SimSets. Nelson A. K. Gonsalves has some great ideas about how NPC conversations should take place. Mark Holcomb did some really cool things with sliding doors. The entire GarageGames online forums are an invaluable resource in their own right, providing a ton of added value that would be extremely expensive if you had to go out and buy it. There is a tremendous amount of knowledge, skill and innovation in that group. As I utilized their ideas, I sometimes modified them to suit my own needs, and so any deficiencies are my own.

I would also like to thank the faculty and staff at the Art Institute of Toronto, especially Predrag, Lisa and Paul in particular, for their support. And I thank my students for their forbearance, especially John and Ali, who've ended up as de facto guinea pigs for everything new I want to try out. Hey look, where'd that stick come from?

Regards,
Ken



And here is the Introduction chapter.



The AI part is not quite as extensive as I wanted, but most of the other chapters are things that I wanted to cover in book one, but ran out of room. Ch. 4 has moving doors using scripted .dts shapes, Ch. 11 is about making terrain from DEM, 12 is about water and sun, 14 and 15 cover LOD manipulation and interior lighting control. *Everything* is done with TorqueScript. The Reference was updated from 1.2 to 1.3.


(...and just for the record, I had nothing to do with the title of either this book or the first one. Glad to get that off my chest :-)

#10 @Ken: What title[s] did you want? That's always been the one thing I didn't like about the book... that the title didn't have much to do with the content.

#11 How about "CERDIP's Amazing Torque Tome"? (or CATT for short)

and of course the sequel...

"CERDIP's Amazinger Torque Tome!!!" (or CATT2 just to keep things straight)

:)

#12 First one was proposed as "3D Game Developer's Toolkit".
Second one would have been a variation on that. Like Rodney's idea :-)
It does have, after all, Amazing Exploding Barrels! in it :-)

Final page count is 616. Was s'posed to be around 500 - 550, I think. This time they didn't complain *too much* about the page count.

#13 Thanks for the advance info, Ken. Much appreciated.

#14 Great news on the new book Ken - and the more pages the better IMO. (C;

When does it hit the shelves?

#15 Ken,

I'm teaching a course in Game Development, and have already ordered 3DGPAIO as the text: do the two books overlap much? Would we be better off with this new book (eh, assuming it'll be available by the end of August)?

Thanks,

Michael Rogers

#16 Kirby,

Well, the book "went to bed" 9 minutes ago. It gets its final pass, as galley proofs, with the proofreaders, next week. *I think* that means it hits the printer's plant late next week. A few days for the print run, and then from there to the shelves is from three to four weeks, depending on where you are.

Official release date is Aug 26.

#17 Michael, no overlap at all. I think the first book is where you should start.

#18 OMGWTFBBQH4X, August 26!?!?!?!

Shipping estimate for these items: August 7, 2005
Delivery estimate: August 9, 2005 - August 11, 2005
1 "Advanced 3D Game Programming All in One"
Kenneth C Finney; Paperback; $37.79

Damn Amazon, damn them!!!!!

Oh well...

#19 Great to hear Ken.

I made a mistake about the release time for the advanced book.
I knew it was the 26th but had July on the brain.

August 26th is not far away. Woot.

#20

Quote:Chapter 3 Vectors and Matrices

I could have used that the past 2 weeks ;)