Contents -- Introduction -- Section 1: Game Programming Development Tricks -- Trick 1: Software Configuration Management in the Game Industry -- Introduction -- What Is Software Configuration Management (SCM)? -- The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) -- SDLC Pitfalls -- The Importance of SCM -- Conclusion: The Future of SCM -- Trick 2: Using the UML in Game Development -- Introduction -- What Will Be Covered? -- The Unified Modeling Language -- Integrating the UML and Game Development -- Summary and Review -- Where to Go from Here -- Conclusion -- Trick 3: Building an Application Framework -- Introduction -- Why Use an Application Framework? -- Why Roll Your Own? -- Identify Your Needs -- Implementation of a Simple Application Framework -- A Sample Program -- How Do We Benefit? -- Summary -- Trick 4: User Interface Hierarchies -- Introduction -- The Role of UI -- UI Design Considerations -- Widget Members -- Widget Member Functions -- Class Definition -- CWidget Implementation -- And Now for the Payoff -- Summary -- Trick 5: Writing Cross-Platform Code -- Introduction -- Why Develop Cross-Platform Code? -- Planning for a Cross-Platform Product -- Problems Between Platforms -- Programming for Multiple Platforms -- What Is an Abstraction Layer? -- In Conclusion -- Section 2: General Game Programming Tricks -- Trick 6: Tips from the Outdoorsman's Journal -- Introduction: Life in the Great Outdoors -- What You Will Learn -- Height Maps 101 -- Making the Base Terrain Class -- Loading and Unloading a Height Map -- The Brute Force of Things -- Getting Dirty with Textures! -- Adding Light to Your Life -- Lost in the Fog -- Fun with Skyboxes -- Going Further: Deeper into the Wilderness -- Conclusion: Back to the Indoors? -- Bibliography -- Trick 7: In the Midst of 3-D, There's Still Text -- Introduction -- What Will Be Learned/Covered.

How Our Adventure Game Works -- Examining the Code -- Summary and Review -- Where to Go from Here -- Conclusion -- Trick 8: Sound and Music: Introducing WAV and MIDI into Your Game -- Introduction -- A Quick Overview of WAV -- A Look at MIDI -- Let's Play: Simply Win 32 -- Playing MIDI Using Win 32 -- Sound in DirectX -- MIDI with Direct Music -- Trick 9: 2-D Sprites -- Introduction -- What You Will Learn -- Basic Collision Detection with Sprites -- Summary -- Chapter Conclusion -- Trick 10: Moving Beyond OpenGL 1.1 for Windows -- Introduction -- The Problem -- OpenGL Extensions -- Using Extensions -- Extensions, OpenGL 1.2 and 1.3, and the Future -- What You Get -- Writing Well-Behaved Programs Using Extensions -- The Demo -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Trick 11: Creating a Particle Engine -- Introduction -- What You Will Learn from This Fun-Filled Particle Adventure -- Sounds Great . . . What's a Particle Engine? -- Billboarding -- Interpolation and Time-Based Movement -- Designing the Particle System API -- Designing the Particle Wrapper -- Summary: Reminiscing About Our Little Particles -- Going Further: How to Get More in Touch with Your Inner Particle -- Conclusion: The End Is Here -- References -- Trick 12: Simple Game Scripting -- Introduction -- Designing the Language -- Building the Compiler -- Implementing the Compiler -- The Runtime Environment -- The Script Runtime Console -- Summary -- Where to Go from Here -- Section 3: Advanced Game Programming Tricks -- Trick 13: High-Speed Image Loading Using Multiple Threads -- Introduction -- Thread Basics -- Introducing CResourceLoader -- The Payoff -- Conclusion (Where to Go from Here) -- Trick 14: Space Partitioning with Octrees -- Introduction -- What Will Be Learned/Covered -- How an Octree Works -- Examining the Code -- Summary and Review -- Where to Go from Here.

Conclusion -- Trick 15: Serialization Using XML Property Bags -- Introduction -- What is XML? -- A Sample Data File -- A Bag is Born -- STL Multimaps -- Implementing the Bag -- Adding Data Elements -- Getting Elements -- Saving and Loading Bags -- Other Operations -- Conclusion: OK, But Is This Really XML? -- Enhancements and Exercises -- Trick 16: Introduction to Fuzzy Logic -- Introduction -- Conclusion = {.1 beginning, .5 middle, .99 end} -- Trick 17: Introduction to Quaternions -- Introduction -- Complex Number Theory -- Hyper Complex Numbers -- Applications of Quaternions -- Building a Simple Quaternion Engine -- Trick 18: Terrain Collision with Quadtrees -- Introduction -- What Will Be Covered -- The Quadtree -- Summary and Review -- Where to Go from Here -- Conclusion -- References -- Trick 19: Rendering Skies -- Introduction -- What You Will Learn -- Skyboxes -- Skydomes -- Skyplanes -- Other Variations -- Improvements -- Generating Skybox Textures -- The Demo -- What You've Learned -- Where to Go Now -- Conclusion -- Trick 20: Game Programming Assembly Style -- Introduction -- Why Assembly Language? -- Win32 ASM Basics -- The Design Document -- Code Framework -- Conclusion -- MASM HL Syntax? -- Getting a Game Loop Running -- Connecting to Direct Draw -- Our Direct Draw Library -- Our Bitmap Library -- A Game . . . Well, Sort Of -- Conclusion -- Direct Input Is a Breeze -- Timing and Windoze -- The Menu System -- Putting the Pieces Together -- Conclusion -- Stepping to the Plate -- Mr. Structure -- The New Shape Maker -- Update Takes a Few Practice Swings -- Let's Get Moving -- Time to Clear the Bases -- The Final Batters -- The Loop and His Team -- Conclusion -- Rotation Solution -- The Sound Module -- One Big Headache -- Screen Transitions -- Putting More Pieces Together -- Conclusion -- Next Piece, Please -- I Can't See It! -- The New Text.

Scoring and Levels -- Conclusion -- Storing Your Life -- Come On, Lucky Number 7 -- Conclusion -- Section 4: Appendices -- Appendix A: Introduction to DevStudio -- Creating a Project and Workspace -- Adding Source-Code Files -- Setting Compiler Options -- Library and Include Search Paths -- Linking in the DirectX Libraries -- Building and Running Programs -- Debugging -- Accessing Help -- Conclusion: DevStudio Wrap-Up -- Appendix B: C/C++ Primer and STL -- Selected C++ Topics -- The Standard Template Library (STL) -- STL Summary -- About the Example Programs -- Exercises -- Appendix C: C++ Keywords -- Appendix D: Resources on the Web -- SCM Sites -- Game Development Sites: Best of the Best -- Downloads, News, and Reviews -- Game Conferences -- Appendix E: ASCII Table -- Appendix F: What's on the CD-ROM -- The CD-ROM GUI -- CD-ROM File Structure -- System Requirements -- Installation -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Z.