Main README.TXT file for "Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus - Advanced 3D Graphics and Rasterization"
Created: 1.1.03
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License Agreement
CD-ROM and software copyright (C) 2003 Sams Publishing & Pearson Education Inc.,
Andre' LaMothe, Xtreme Games LLC, Nurve Networks LLC. All rights reserved.
Individual programs are copyrighted by their respective owners and may require
separate licensing. This CD-ROM may not be redistributed without prior written
permission from the publisher. The right to redistribute the individual programs
on the CD-ROM depends on each program's license. Consult each program for details.
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Table of Contents:
I. INTRODUCTION
II. INSTALLING DIRECTX
III. INSTALLING THE SOURCE CODE FROM THE BOOK
IV. INSTALLING THE TOOLS
V. PROBLEMS YOU MIGHT ENCOUNTER (PLEASE READ!!!!!!)
VI. COMPATIBILITY.
I. INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the wonderful world of Tricks II! On this CD is a
plethora of digital treasures from source code, games, and DirectX, to
applications, and electronic bonus books on 3D, Direct3D, and general topics.
The first thing you might notice is that isn't any kind of main installation
program on the CD. I have found that 9 out of 10 times the best installer is
the reader since only he/she knows what and where to install things, so I'm
going to leave the actuall file copying and installation to you.
However, within each directory there is a README.TXT file that explains what
the files are and what they are for. The CD is set up like this:
T3DIICD
- The main directory/CD root.
|
\DIRECTX - Contains DirectX SDK.
\ARTICLES - Contains 3D articles by other authors.
\TOOLS - Contains all the tools and applications.
\MEDIA - Contains stock art/sound media for your use.
\SOURCE - Contains the entire source code for the book.
\GAMES - Some 3D software based game(s).
\EBOOK - Appendixes A through F in PDF format.
II. INSTALLING DIRECTX
To run the DirectX programs from this book and to create your own, you
must have the DirectX 8.1 (or better) Run-Time system and Software
Development Kit (SDK) loaded. Both the DirectX 9.0 Run-Time files
and the SDK are contained on this CD within the DIRECTX\ directory
which is the newest DirectX version when this book went to print.
The README.TXT within the DIRECTX\ sub-directory will give you more
details on the setup and installation of DirectX, but basically you
must first install the run-time files and then the SDK. The SDK is
needed by your compiler, so it can access the header, and library
files needed to build DirectX applications.
III. INSTALLING THE SOURCE CODE FROM THE BOOK
The source code and data for each chapter of this book are contained
within the SOURCE\ sub-directory. I suggest simply copying the entire
SOURCE\ directory as-is onto your hard drive by "dragging" it from
the this CD or by using XCOPY or other similar technique. You may
need to unzip the contents of each directory, if so make sure to
enable directories.
IV. INSTALLING THE APPLICATIONS
There are a number of awesome applications that are contained on this
CD such as TrueSpace, Paint Shop Pro, WinZip, sound editors, 3D tools,
and Acrobat Reader which you need to read anything in .PDF format.
Each one of these applications installs as a self extracting .EXE and
takes just a couple minutes. Take a look at the README.TXT file for
each application for details.
V. PROBLEMS YOU MIGHT ENCOUNTER
* Read Only Flag *
This is a very important detail, so read on. When creating a CD ROM disk
all the files will be written with the READ-ONLY flag enabled. This is
fine in most cases unless you copy the files to your hard drive (which you will)
and then edit and try to write the files back to disk. You will get a
READ-ONLY protection error.
Fixing this is a snap. You simply need to clear the READ-ONLY flag on any
files that you want to modify. There are 3 ways to do it. First, you can
do it with Windows and simply navigate into the directory with the file
you want to clear the READ-ONLY flag and then select the file, press
the RIGHT mouse button to get the file properties and then clear the
READ-ONLY flag and APPLY you change. You can do this will more than one
file at once by selecting a group of files.
The second way is to use the File Manager and perform a similar set of
operations as in the example above. The third and best way is to the DOS
ATTRIB command with a DOS prompt. Here's how:
Assume you have copied the entire SOURCE directory on your hard drive to the
location C:\SOURCE. To reset all the READ-ONLY attributes in one fell
swoop you can use the ATTRIB command. Here is the syntax:
C:\SOURCE\ATTRIB -r *.* /s
This says to clear the READ-ONLY flag "r" from all files "*.*" and all lower
sub-directories "/s".
* DirectX Driver Problems *
DirectX may not have a driver for your video or sound card. If this is the case,
you will be notified during installation. But don't worry if DirectX doesn't
install a driver, it will still work, just not as good. If this happens you'll
have to go to the manufacturer of your video or sound card and look for DirectX
drivers, or else, keep an eye out at the Microsoft DirectX site for new updates.
* Compilation Problems *
99% of compiler problems are "pilot" errors. So before you think that something
is wrong, make sure that you have all your DirectX library, and header paths
set up in the compiler to point to the DirectX SDK directories as the first in
in the search list. Make sure that you are creating a standard Win32 .EXE
(if you are making a DirectX app). Make sure you have manually included the
DirectX .LIB files in your link list or you have included them in your source
tree. And finally, make sure that you can compile a basic "hello world" program
with Visual C++. Don't jump into DirectX Windows programming without getting
your compiler and environment setup properly.
* Video Problems *
There are some video cards that even with a DirectX driver, still don't work
correctly. This will appear as a sudden flash of black or white video
when you try to run some of the demos. If this happens, try going into the
display properties and reseting your machine's video to the demos desired
resolution and bit depth, for example: 640x480 in 256 colors, or 24-bit mode,
etc. Also, you MUST have your desktop set to 16-bit mode for the 16-bit
windowed mode demos since they can't change video modes and must use the
current desktop mode.
VI. COMPATIBILITY
The contents of this book were tested on Windows 98/ME/XP/2000 Pentium II, III, IV,
and equivalent AMD processors. I highly recommend at least a Pentium III 1.0Ghz or
better since the demos are software accelerated only. Additionally, I suppose most
of the software will work on Windows 95. In general, you need:
Pentium III+ @ 1.0Ghz, Pentium 4 @ 1.5+ Ghz recommended.
64 MB RAM, 128 MB recommended.
500 megs of free disk space.
2D graphics accelerator.
16-bit sound card.
2003 The year of the the MaTriX...
Lord Necron