Hi guys, I''m planning to buy a Network Game programming book. I''ve heard that "Multiplayer Game Programming" by Todd Barron and Andre Lamothe is the best. Any of you know about this one or about a better one? Thanx in advance.

I own that book, and it is really bad. The first few chapters contain absolutely no useful information, and the rest does not give much information.



"There is no dark side of the moon really,
As a matter of fact, its all dark."

I agree DarkHamster. I just finished that book and Role Playing Game programming with DirectX had better coverage of DirectPlay in my opinion. Really I would suggest forgoing DirectPlay and just use straight sockets. Get a book on socket programming instead.

-dizzy

[edited by - yzzid on December 11, 2002 11:44:21 AM]

Only get Multiplayer Game Programming if you''ve never programmed before and need an introduction to everything, otherwise you''ll find the book to be fairly useless.

Damn! It seems that all the reviews of books are written by the same publishers of the book for making better advertisment. If you check Amazon everyone says that it''s a marvelous book. Maybe with good links about sockets programming and the DPlay docs will be enough. Do you know any good link about socket''s programming??

Thanks to all of you!

UNIX network programming is a insanely good book.

I''ve been happy with Lewis Napper''s WinSock 2.0 book. The only thing I found it didn''t really cover was I/O completion ports.

You can find the book''s source code here.

The WinSock programmer''s FAQ is decent.

And lastly, you might find some useful code in Microsoft''s Platform SDK samples. Look in /Samples/netds/WinSock.

why bad???
In my opinion, multiplayer game programming with directx8 is quite good especially space pirate which I think is one of the best example for everyone who wanna start network game programming.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Maybe I can clarify things a bit.

My book, Multiplayer Game Programming, is meant for the game programming beginner. That means it gives you a foundation for game development in addition to teaching beginning networking; hence, the "other" chapters.

It is not meant for advanced programmers who already know game programming inside and out. It is also not meant for people who do not want to learn DirectPlay. The book''s main focus is on DirectPlay, not sockets. I do cover TCP/IP but not in-depth since the games I write in the book use DirectPlay.

Hope that helps.


LostLogic
www.lostlogic.com
Author, Multiplayer Game Programming
Author, Strategy Game Programming with Direct X 9 (Not yet released)

Just out of curiosity, LostLogic, what was the extent of Andre''s actual contribution to your Multiplayer Game Programming book?