Foreword by Tom Miller

Developer, XNA Game Studio Express, Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft XNA Unleashed provides comprehensive coverage and solid instruction on how to leverage the XNA Framework to create high quality games for Windows and the Xbox 360. The author shows you how to take full advantage of the many features the XNA Framework provides; you will learn the intricacies of important tasks such as adding sound and music to games, as well as creating, loading, and texturing 3D objects. In addition to providing coverage of 2D programming, the author shows you how to create sophisticated 3D games. All the important topics such as physics, artificial intelligence, and special effects are covered in detail. Chad Carter is the CTO at Robertson Marketing Group. Many Fortune 500 companies use the ecommerce system he architected and developed from the ground up for the promotional business sector. He has been creating DirectX applications since 1996 and has developed games using Managed DirectX. Chad created a 3D locomotive simulator for Norfolk Southern that is used to teach children to obey railroad crossings signals. Chad’s website devoted to the XNA Framework can be found at www.xnaessentials.com.

  Learn how to install and use XNA Game Studio Express

  Discover how to build, deploy, and debug games for the Xbox 360 and Windows

  Examine the XNA Framework in depth: 2D, 3D, sound, input, and HLSL

  Learn how to create game components and game services

  Delve into performance tuning techniques

  Discover how to extend the Content Pipeline

  Learn how to use the Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) to add sound and music to games

  Create a full 2D parallax side-scroller game

  Discover how to use sprite batches

  Learn to make the most of sprite fonts

  Create 2D components such as splash screens and progress bars

  Examine the different sprite batch blending modes

  Discover 2D cel animation

  Examine the High Level Shader Language (HLSL) in detail covering basic HLSL as well as vertex deformations and post-processing effects

  Create a full 3D game that includes a 2D radar in the Heads Up Display (HUD), and much, much more

CD-ROM includes

• All C# examples and source code presented in this book.

• Explosion Generator tool for generating explosion animations.

Introduction                 

Part I      Get Up and Running with XNA on Your PC and Xbox 360

1              Introducing XNA and XNA Game Studio Express                       

2              XNA and the Xbox 360              

3              Performance Considerations    

Part II     Understanding XNA Basics

4              Creating 3D Objects                      

5              Input Devices and Cameras     

Part III    Content Pipeline

6              Loading and Texturing 3D Objects             

7              Sound and Music     

8              Extending the Content Pipeline                  

Part IV   2D in XNA

9              2D Basics                       

10           2D Effects                     

11           Creating a 2D Game               

Part V    High Level Shader Language

12           HLSL Basics          

13           Advanced HLSL    

Part VI   Physics and Artificial Intelligence

14           Physics Basics 

15           Finite State Machines and Game State Management  

16           AI Algorithms 

Part VII  3D Effects

17           Advanced Texturing Techniques

18           Special Effects 

19           Particle System

Part VIII Putting It Into Practice

20           Creating a 3D Game 

21           Improving the Game

22           Finishing Touches

Index

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 19 Ratings

"XNA Unleashed" is nothing of the sort - 2008-11-18
Reviewer Rating:
I have two main issues with XNA Unleashed: it has a misleading name, and it provides bad advice on how to program a game. Since I am a professional game developer with 12 years of industry experience making several blockbuster titles, I feel qualified in making my critique.

Despite its name, XNA Unleashed is actually a primer of how to make a very basic game engine and a sample game (using just a few elements from the XNA platform). It does not actually "unleash" XNA in any form. As a reader, you are tied to the author's linear recipe for how to make *his* game engine. By the time you're done reading the book, you won't have any fundamental understanding of XNA, nor will you be provided with a comprehensive survey of its features, and you certainly won't be able to unleash any hidden potential that XNA may have. The author just scratches the surface of XNA. Consequently, much of the power of XNA is still leashed away from the reader.

I read the 2008 first edition of XNA Unleashed. Its content is full of mistakes and bad advice. Strangely, the author often admits in his book that what he just described in many preceding paragraphs of code and text is actually bad for a game's performance and/or it is poor software design. So, if he knew it was bad, why did he bother writing such junk in his book? For example, in chapter 16 he writes a page of code that implements a "chase algorithm", and in the next section he states, "Although that gets the job done effectively, it is a little unrealistic because the enemies are moving in a very precise manner." (by "precise" he means stupid-looking). Then he writes a simple function with 4 lines of code that implements a much better "chase algorithm". So, why didn't the author (or editor) remove that preceeding page of crud? Because without all the crud there'd be very little left of the book.

I would have given this book only one star had it not been for the fact that it does at least provide some worthwhile information relating to frequently used components of XNA, HLSL, and game development in general. But these nuggets of good information could have filled a meager 20 pages, or so. Most of the book is merely muck through which the reader is required to march, until they stumble into the next nugget of goodness. There's no good way to find these worthwhile nuggets just by skimming or searching the contents or index.

Caveat emptor!

Good XNA book. Can't wait for the updated XNA 3.0 version!! - 2008-06-24
Reviewer Rating:
When i started to get serious about XNA i started looking for a good book to begin learning. Like most people (IMHO) i learn better through books and then self training than reading everything online.

The Microsoft XNA Unleashed by Chad Carter is a great book as it is not merely a skim through from the top for XNA but is very detailed. I have just started and i dont think i will be done with the book very soon.

I like his presentation style as well as the detail. I read all the reviews and sure some folks think it is a good book whereas some folks think otherwise. For me when i started reading through it i immediately liked the presentation style. I think (IMHO) that a good presentation style with good material leads to better learning.

I will post an update to my blog as and when i complete this book. Based on my initial 80 or so pages, i like it a lot.

See my blog http://ilovethexbox.blogspot.com/2008/06/microsoft-xna-unleashed.html for updates to the review.

Not even close - 2008-12-26
Reviewer Rating:
The book does not explain the code properly. For example, it will say to make a call to a method, when it actually wants you to create that method. Such writing mistakes make it hard to follow along to.

With the release of XNA 3.0, this book is outdated. The programs do not work.

If you combine the lack of proper code explanation with a large portion of the code being outdated, you get a bad mix of unexplained, useless material.

The author briefly uses classes and then gives a weak explanation without describing what the classes do and what the parameters mean. As I am trying to recreate simple 3d graphics on my own terms, I find myself having to retrace the book entirely too much.

XNA is a simplified version of DirectX. Why then is it so complicated to instruct basic ideas of drawing 3d graphics?

This is a hard subject, but the author needs to use a clearer way of instruction as well as more consistency. You can't just list code for how you drew a 3d shape and call it a book. I want to know how XNA works, not just the author's program.

Too academic not for beginners - 2009-04-23
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book and I'm returning it. It is not for developers who are new to game programming. The ordering of the chapters is out of whack. He starts off with performance, then 3D game programming before 2D game programming. He even recommends that the reader go through each chapter in order. I guess if you done game programming before, this book might be for you - but I can't say because I'm Java developer that is new to game programming. I can image that an existing game programmer would want to think about performance right away because they are skeptical moving from C++ to the managed C#. The tone of the book and code examples seem very academic. This is not want I want to read. I'd rather have fun learning by doing coding game examples. The author's tone is very dry and concept driven. He'll put you to sleep.

More a tutorial than a reference - 2008-06-21
Reviewer Rating:
The book assumes you know C#, and basically takes you through the development of a 2D game and a basic 3D FPS style game. As new functionality is added, the book explains the code pretty much line by line. It therefore shows you two sets of simple game design patterns in some detail.

It also makes the book very linear - as new functions are shown in the context of what has been built already, you can't easily just experiment with the different classes on their own. You really have to follow it through as a sequential tutorial.

What I was more hoping for was a more systematic treatment of the various XNA classes, and more of the underlying theory particularly with respect to using transformations. Matrix and vector maths is barely discussed directly at all.

The linear structure and practical focus also means that I didn't find myself able to "dip into" the book and learn more about XNA whilst watching TV for example.

So if you want an extended tutorial on XNA game programming its fine. If you want to really "get inside" XNA and graphics programming, then its not the right book for you.

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Programming

Sub-Categories:
Programming > Game Programming