Main README.TXT file for "Tricks of Windows Game Programming Gurus - Vol. I" ------------ CD-ROM and software copyright (C) 1999 MacMillan Computer Publishing, Andre' LaMothe, Xtreme Games 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. ------------ Table of Contents: I. INTRODUCTION II. THE BONUS ARTICLES and BOOKS on General 3D and Direct3D (PLEASE READ !!!!!!!) III. THE GENESIS 3D ENGINE FROM ECLIPSE SOFTWARE IV. INSTALLING DIRECTX V. INSTALLING THE SOURCE CODE FROM THE BOOK VI. INSTALLING THE APPLICATIONS VII. PLAYING THE GAMES :) VIII. PROBLEMS YOU MIGHT ENCOUNTER (PLEASE READ!!!!!!) I. INTRODUCTION Welcome to the wonderful world of Tricks Next Gen! 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: T3DGAME - The main directory. | \DIRECTX - Contains DirectX and DirectMedia. \APPLICATIONS - Contains the Applications. \ONLINEBOOKS - Contains the On-Line books on 3D. \ARTICLES - Contains the extra articles. \ARTWORK - Contains stock art media for your use. \SOUND - Contains stock sound and MIDI for your use. \SOURCE - Contains the entire source code for the book. \GAMES - A lot of cool games! \GOODIES - It's a surprise! \ENGINES - This directory contains numerous 2D/3D engines including the entire Genesis3D engine from Eclipse Software along with on-line API and usuage manuals written by David Dougher. II. THE BONUS ARTICLES and BOOKS on General 3D and Direct3D Volume II of Tricks will contain chapters on the mathematics and software algorithms on 3D graphics written by me (Andre' LaMothe). However, to get you started on 3D, so you don't have to wait for Volume II, two contributing authors have written complete on-line books on the subject of General 3D and Direct3D. These are really part of the physical book and you should of course read them when you are ready. They cyber-books can each be found in the following directories: T3DGAME\ONLINEBOOKS\DIRECT3D_ONLINE\ - The chapters, source, etc. for the complete on-line D3D Retained\Immediate Mode book by the brilliant young programmer\author -- Matthew Ellis. T3DGAME\ONLINEBOOKS\GENERAL3D_ONLINE\ - The chapters, and support files for the complete on-line general 3D book by Sergei Savchenko, one of the worlds leading 3D engine developers and the developer of the 3DGPL engine. Both books consist of a number of chapters in either .HTML, or .DOC. We put the books on the CD for two reasons: to save you money in the printing of the book and keep the page count down, and since Direct3D is changing so quickly I didn't want to date the internal material inside the book. In addition to the books there are numerous articles, white papers, and a bonus Chapter on game programming on the CD also. They can be found in: T3DGAME\ARTICLES\ III. THE GENESIS 3D ENGINE FROM ECLIPSE SOFTWARE Also contained on the CD is the latest edition of the most advanced 3D engine on the market -- The Genesis 3D engine from Eclipse Software. This engine along with the tools will allow you to create Quake level games without any programming -- or very little. In addition to the engine and its supporting documentation and tools are a number of on-line manuals explaining the Genesis3D engine in detail along with the use of its API written by David Dougher. IV. INSTALLING DIRECTX To run the DirectX programs from this book and to create your own, you must have the DirectX 6.1 (or better) Run-Time system and Software Development Kit (SDK) loaded. Both the Run-Time files and the SDK are contained on this CD within the DIRECTX\ directory. In addition, Microsoft has allowed me to place the latest DirectMedia technology on the CD also (within the same directory) for your enjoyment and experimentaion. 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. Now if you have a later version of DirectX such as DirectX 7.0 then you don't need to install DirectX 6.1. Everything from this book will work with all future versions of DirectX. V. 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. **** BONUS CHAPTER **** Also, make sure to check out Bonus Chapter 15 which is only on the CD. The text of the chapter is in both MS Word and Acrobat format. The Chapter covers "Text Games". VI. 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, MS Word Reader, 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. VII. PLAYING THE GAMES :) Last, but definetely not least are the games!!! I have placed a number of games on the CD for your enjoyment. They are contained within the GAMES\ sub-directory. Take a look at each to see how to install them. VIII. 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. 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. And finally, make sure that you can compile a basic "hello world" program. 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 640x480 in 256 colors. This is the most common mode for the demos and code of the book and may solve your problems. To make the switching quick, there is a little utility called "Quickres" that is part of the "PowerTools" utility suite. Check out the Web for the program. It sits in your system tray and allows you to instantly change video modes without re-booting. * Reading the Articles and On-Line Books Everything on the CD is either in .DOC, .TXT, .PDF, or .HTML. Hence, you will need something that can read .HTML such as Internet Explorer, or Netscape Communicator, Adobe Acrobat Reader for .PDF, and MS WORD 7.0+, or the MS WORD Reader to read the .DOC files. If you don't have a browser then you're own your own, but the Adobe Acrobat Reader and the MS WORD 7.0 Reader are located in the APPLICATIONS\ directory on this CD. Hence, you can install them from there, after which you will be able to read .PDF and .DOC files (if you can't already). What is the MaTriX? Lord Necron - 1999