Based on some of the excellent feedback I''ve been getting from those who have gotten the book, I have been inspired to try to do a Volume II, with more on the topic of using D3D as a 2d renderer. While I have a number of topics already in mind, I was curious as to what other people think I should include or expand further than the scope of the first book.

z-buffer, using x files, animating x files, large objects, texture mapping, lighting, alpha blending, color keying textures. Tiles that are passable only in certain directions. Optimization tricks.

The final project should be a working walk around demo showing off all the source that was discussed in the book.

Ben
http://therabbithole.redback.inficad.com

How to port 3Dstudio Max 4 to C++ would be very useful. I want to use 3d models in my iso 3d engine once I have more experiance with programing the engine its self (waiting for books to arrive...sigh). I only found one demo that talked about porting 3dSmax to a game, but it delt with 3DSMax 2.5!!! which is like 8 years old! Oh, and its also since I am a terrible artist, but a decent 3d modeler (I just can''t skin them worth a flip, but I can enlist a few friends or people on the net to do that probably). I will tell you anything else I find I need to know once I get your book

Velmeran

Well,
There are already a good number of tutorials on using the D3DX sprite class (hell, I''ve got 2 or more floating around on the net) for a 2D engine using DirectGraphics (DX8). I''d like to see less of that than I KNOW I''ll be seeing in books for the next few months.

Some work on Lighting effects (spell/explosion) would be likely useful to most everybody trying this. I think the others who answered so far didn''t notice the 2D engine in D3D part of it. It would be nice if you didn''t simply reiterate what was in your other book. For instance, if you just spent a chapter building a simple tile game (like the Reversii demo, or a simple side scroller) without too much time spent on the basic tile game theory covered in your first book (this IS a volume 2, not simply an update..right?) that would be nice to see.

As I''ve done quite a bit with DX8 and tiles (and already intended to take the ideas from your book and update them into a 3D Sprite Engine), this book will likely come out after I''ll need most of it (though I''ll buy it anyway, one can NEVER have enough reference books).

One more thing. You covered the basics of Sound in your last book. If you covered DirectInput, or DirectPlay, or even DirectMusic in the sequal, that would be something worth picking up. Just about as much as you did with sound. It''s AMAZING how little most people know about those APIs.

Just my 2c
Eboz

nothing i can think to include cause i''m still going through your book... damn good job btw, keep up the good work