Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus:About the Author

All ITKnowledge Source Code Search Tips Advanced Search |

| Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus by Andre LaMothe Sams, Macmillan Computer Publishing ISBN: 0672313618 Pub Date: 09/27/99

Search this book:

Table of Contents

## About the Author

André LaMothe (a.k.a. Lord Necron) has been programming for over 22 years and holds degrees in mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering. He has written numerous articles on the subjects of graphics, game programming, and artificial intelligence. He is the author of Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus, Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming in 21 Days, The Game Programming Starter Kit, The Black Art of 3D Game Programming, and Windows Game Programming for Dummies, all bestsellers. In addition, he coauthored Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar I and II. Mr. LaMothe has also taught at the University of Santa Cruz Extension Multimedia Department.

Last, but not least, André is the founder and CEO of Xtreme Games LLC, a think tank and the world’s largest virtual game company, composed of over 250+ independent developer studios.

He can be reached at `ceo@xgames3d.com`.

Contributing Authors of Online Books in Digital Form

Location on CD: `T3DGAME\ONLINEBOOKS`

Matthew Ellis, author of Direct3D Primer

Matthew is a teenage 3D game programmer and author. He lives in Las Vegas, NV, and is interested in all aspects of 3D game programming and graphics. He is currently creating a new 3D engine, as well as publishing articles and working on a book of his own.

He can be reached at `matt@magmagames.com`.

Sergei Savchenko, author of General 3D Graphics

Sergei is a graduate student of computer science at McGill University in Montreal. Sergei hails from the city of Kharkov (XAPbKOB), Ukraine, in the former Soviet Union.

In addition to his computer science studies, Sergei also studied aircraft design at the Kharkov Aviation Institute. He also teaches computer science classes and performs active research in automated reasoning.

He can be reached at `savs@cs.mcgill.ca` or at his Web page, http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/∼savs/3dgpl/.

David Dougher, author of Genesis 3D Engine Reference, Tool, and API Function Manuals

David has been programming and gaming for over 25 years, creating his first computer games on paper tape for use on the PDP-8 systems at Syracuse University in 1974. His collection of gaming magazines goes back to Strategic Review, Issue Number 1 (the precursor to Dragon magazine). He is currently employed full-time as a release engineer by Parlance Corp. and loves Babylon 5, Myst, Riven, Obsidian, game design, teaching ballroom dancing, and his wife, although not in that order.

He can be reached at `ddougher@ids.net`.

Contributing Authors of Articles and Papers

Location on CD: `T3DGAME\ARTICLES`

Bernt Habermeier, author of Internet Based Client/Server Network Traffic Reduction. Email: `bert@bolt.com`. Web page: http://www.bolt.com.

Ivan Pocina, author of KD Trees. Email: `ipocina@aol.com`.

Nathan Papke, author of Artificial Intelligence Voice Recognition and Beyond. Email: `nathan.papke@juno.com`.

Semion S.Bezrukov, author of Linking Up with DirectPlay. Email: `deltree@rocketmail.com`.

Michael Tanczos, author of The Art of Modeling Lens Flares. Email: `webmaster@logic-gate.com`.

David Filip, author of Multimedia Musical Content Fundamentals. Email: `grimlock@u.washington.edu`.

Terje Mathisen, author of Pentium Secrets. Email: `terjem@hda.hydro.com`.

Greg Pisanich and Michelle Prevost, authors of Representing Artificial Personalities and Representing Human Characters in Interactive Games. Email: `gp@garlic.com`, `prevost@sgi.com`.

Zach Mortensen, author of Polygon Sorting Algorithms. Email: `mortens1@nersc.gov`.

James P. Abbott, author of Web Games on a Shoestring. Email: `jabbott@longshot.com`. Web page: http://www.longshot.com.

Mike Schmit, author of Optimizing Code with MMX Technology. Email: `mschmit@zoran.com`, `mschmit@ix.netcom.com`.

Alisa J. Baker, author of Into the Grey Zone and Beyond. Email: `abaker@gcounsel.com`.

Dan Royer, author of 3D Technical Article Series. Email: `aggravated@bigfoot.com`. Web page: http://members.home.com/droyer/index.html.

Tom Hammersley, author of Viewing Systems for 3D Engines. Email: `tomh@globalnet.co.uk`.

Bruce Wilcox, author of Applied AI: Chess is Easy. Go is Hard. Email: `brucewilcox@bigfoot.com`.

Nathan Davies, author of Transparency in D3D Immediate Mode. Email: `alamar@cgocable.net`.

Bob Bates, author of Designing the Puzzle. Email: `bbates@legendent.com`.

Marcus Fisher, author of Dynamic 3D Animation Though Traditional Animation Techniques. Email: `mfisher@avalanchesoftware.com`.

Lorenzo Phillips, author of Game Development Methodology for Small Development Teams. Email: `pain19@ix.netcom.com`.

Jason McIntosh, author of Tile Graphics Techniques 1.0..

In addition, the CD contains a number of selected articles from the Game Programming MegaSite at http://www.perplexed.com/. The articles are authored by *Matt Reiferson, *Geoff Howland, Mark Baldwin, John De Goes, *Jeff Weeks, Mirek, *Tom Hammersley, Jesse Aronson, Matthias Holitzer, Chris Palmer, Dominic Filion, JiiQ, Dhonn Lushine, David Brebner, Travis “Razorblade” Bemann, Jonathan Mak, Justin Hust, Steve King, Michael Bacarella II, Seumas McNally, Robin Ward, Dominic Filion, Dragun, Lynch Hung, Martin Weiner, Jon Wise, and Francois Dominic Larame.

> *Contributed more than one article.

Acknowledgments

I always hate writing acknowledgements because there are simply too many people involved in a book to mention everybody and give them proper thanks. However, here goes once again, in no particular order.

I would first like to thank my parents for having me late in life, causing me to have so many genetic mutations that I don’t need to sleep and I can work continuously without a break. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Next, I want to thank all the people at Macmillan Computer Publishing (MCP) for letting me have my way with the book. Making corporate America do anything different is surely a strain, and I am Mr. Nonconformist, but that’s what it takes if you want to break new ground. Particularly, I want to thank the acquisitions editor, Angela Kozlowski, for listening to my artistic/marketing concepts and making them happen; Carol Bowers, the project editor, for making sure that my policy of “less editing is more” was taken seriously; Dan Scherf, the media and permissions manager, for making sure that all the programs made it to the CD; and Erik Dafforn, the development editor, for making sure that the hundreds of figures and thousand-plus pages of manuscript didn’t get mangled.

And of course, thanks to all the other editors and formatters that worked on the book, including Steven Haines, Sean Medlock, Carol Ackerman, Kezia Endsley, and Howard Jones. It seemed like all of you were playing musical chairs during editing, but you all did a fantastic job. Steve and Sean especially caught me making stupid mistakes!

Next I want to thank the DirectX group at Microsoft, especially Kevin Bachus, for helping with the acquisition of the latest DirectX SDK stuff, along with making sure that I was sent to all the major DirectX parties. Very important to send me to parties; that’s a good thing.

The next group I want to thank are all the companies that had something to do with this book in one way or another, whether it was a piece of software or whatever. The major players are Caligari Corporation for the use of TrueSpace, JASC for the use of Paint Shop Pro, and Sonic Foundry for the use of Sound Forge. I would also like to thank Matrox and Diamond Multimedia for demo 3D accelerators, Creative Labs for sound cards, Intel Corporation for VTune, Kinetics for 3D Studio Max, and Microsoft and Borland for their compiler products.

I’d like to thank all of my friends that I made contact with during this hellish production. To all the guys at Gold’s Gym: Armand, Andrew, Paul, and Dave. To Mike Perone, for always getting me that hard-to-find piece of software at a moment’s notice. Oh yes, to my friend Mark Bell—or as I like to think of him, Mr. Happy—you still owe me $180 from that ski trip eight years ago! (And I can’t stand always being right anymore; please try harder, Mark. I can’t keep taking your money.)

Next I want to thank all the contributing editors who allowed me to put their articles on the CD. If it weren’t for you guys, these poor readers would have nothing more then my eccentric prose to read. A special thanks goes to Matthew Ellis, the author of the Direct3D book on the CD, and to Richard Benson (Keebler) for doing the foreword to the book.

And finally, I have to thank the one person who was with me every day and always supported me—my girlfriend Jennifer. I think I have finally met my match.

Thanks to everyone!

Dedication

To my soul mate Jennifer Jane.

Tell Us What You Think!

As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator. We value your opinion and want to know what we’re doing right, what we could do better, what areas you’d like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom you’re willing to pass our way.

As the Publisher for Sams, I welcome your comments. You can fax, email, or write me directly to let me know what you did or didn’t like about this book—as well as what we can do to make our books stronger.

Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this book, and that due to the high volume of mail I receive, I might not be able to reply to every message.

When you write, please be sure to include this book’s title and author as well as your name and phone or fax number. I will carefully review your comments and share them with the author and editors who worked on the book.

Fax: | (317) 581-4770
Email: | `mstephens@mcp.com`
Mail: | Michael Stephens Publisher Sams 201 West 103rd Street Indianapolis, IN 46290 USA

Table of Contents

Copyright © Macmillan Computer Publishing, Inc.

Products | Contact Us | About Us | Privacy | Ad Info | Home
Use of this site is subject to certain Terms & Conditions, Copyright © 1996-2000 EarthWeb Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of EarthWeb is prohibited. Read EarthWeb's privacy statement.