CONTENTS -- FOREWORD -- LETTER FROM THE SERIES EDITOR -- INTRODUCTION -- Part One: Understanding the Technology -- CHAPTER 1 SUP, WAIT! IT'S THE HISTORY OF ONLINE GAMING! -- Your Name Will Be MUD -- Let There Be Modems -- Real-Time Strategy Games -- Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games -- The Present and the Future -- Review -- CHAPTER 2 UNDERSTANDING THE MAGIC -- Game Loops -- Inside Online Games -- Graphics, Graphics, Where Are the Graphics? -- Review -- CHAPTER 3 INTRODUCTION TO NETWORK COMMUNICATION -- Network Theory -- Game Communication Hardware -- Packet, Packet, Who's Got the Packet? -- Review -- Part Two: Sockets-Based Network Programming -- CHAPTER 4 WRITING YOUR FIRST NETWORK PROGRAMS -- Overview of the SocketObject Class -- Writing the ConnectionTest Program -- Writing a Program to Send Data -- Writing a Simple Chat Program -- Review -- CHAPTER 5 CREATING A SOCKETS CLASS OBJECT -- C++ Classes in All Their Glory -- Designing the SocketObject Class -- The Bind Functionality -- The Listen Functionality -- The Accept Functionality -- The Connection Functionality -- Sending Data -- Receiving Data -- Review -- CHAPTER 6 INTRODUCTION TO WINDOWS PROGRAMMING -- A Brief History of Time According to Gates -- The Architecture of Windows Programs -- MFC, Insert Favorite Acronym Here -- Creating a Window from Start to Finish -- Basic Theory of Multithreading -- Review -- CHAPTER 7 PRACTICAL WINDOWS PROGRAMMING -- Setting Up the Visual C++ Project -- Creating the Hello World Program -- Adding StaticText to a Window -- Having Fun with Buttons in Windows -- The ListBox Child Class Object -- Accepting Text Input with Edit Fields -- The WinUberClient Program -- Review -- Part Three: It's All About DirectX, Baby! -- CHAPTER 8 WHAT THE HECK IS DIRECTPLAY ANYWAY? -- DirectPlay, the Equalizer -- DirectPlay Addresses.

The DirectPlay Message Handler -- Peer-to-Peer Sessions -- Review -- CHAPTER 9 CHATTING WITH DIRECTPLAY -- Creating the Project Space -- Review -- CHAPTER 10 LIONS AND CLIENTS AND SERVERS, OH MY! -- The Wicked Server of the West -- The IDirectPlay8Client Interface -- Review -- CHAPTER 11 DIRECTX GRAPHICS -- What Is Direct3D? -- How to Use DirectGraphics -- Your First Direct3D Application -- Your Second Direct3D Program -- Review -- CHAPTER 12 INSIDE DIRECT3D RENDERING -- Polygons -- Primitives -- Drawing a Primitive -- Show Me theTextures! -- Lights, Cameras, Action! -- Loading X-Files -- The Living World -- Review -- CHAPTER 13 NOW SHOWING, DIRECTINPUT AND DIRECTAUDIO! -- Using a Keyboard with DirectInput -- Introduction to DirectAudio -- How to Initialize DirectAudio -- Playing Sound with DirectAudio -- Review -- CHAPTER 14 SPACEPIRATES: YOUR FIRST COMPLETE GAME -- SpacePirates:The Game Design -- GameTiming -- Network Synchronization -- The Game Classes -- Space Pirates: The Game Architecture -- Controlling the Game -- The Game Loop -- Updating the Game -- Player Management -- Review -- Part Four: Developing Online Worlds -- CHAPTER 15 MMORPG DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION -- Game Architecture -- Server Architecture -- Client Architecture -- Review -- CHAPTER 16 WRITING THE RPGQUEST GAME SERVER -- The Game Project Space -- The Game-Server Code -- Review -- CHAPTER 17 WRITING THE RPGQUEST GAME CLIENT -- The Project Space -- The Graphics System -- Sound and Input Handling -- Network Handling -- Review -- Part Five: Appendixes -- APPENDIX A: GAME-DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES -- Gaming Sites -- Development Sites -- Product Sites -- Magazines -- APPENDIX B: INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE -- Installing the DirectX 8 SDK -- Configuring the Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler -- APPENDIX C: ASCII CHART -- APPENDIX D: WHAT'S ON THE CD -- 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 -- Y -- Z.