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 | | 3D Programming for Windows: Three-Dimensional Graphics Programming for the Windows Presentation Foundation (Pro - Developer) by Charles Petzold ISBN-10: 9780735623941 ISBN-10: 0-7356-2394-5 ISBN-13: 9780735623941 ISBN-13: 978-0-7356-2394-1 Paperback 2007-07-25 Microsoft Press Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Get the practical introduction to programming 3D graphics using the Windows Presentation Foundation--straight from programming legend Charles Petzold. The Windows Presentation Foundation is a key component of .NET Framework 3.0, which is a part of Windows Vista(tm) and available for Windows XP. With the Windows Presentation Foundation, 3D images can be displayed regardless of the video-display hardware on the user's machine. This practical guide is the ideal supplement to Applications = Code + Markup: A Guide to the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation. Focusing on developing user interface objects or simple animations, this book builds on a reader's knowledge of Windows Presentation Foundation essentials to demonstrate how to effectively create 3D graphics for Windows. You get the fundamental information for using the Windows Presentation Foundation 3D application programming interface (API), as well as in-depth coverage of mesh geometries--the key technology that enables 3D graphics. Includes code samples in XAML, with additional code samples in Microsoft Visual C#®. | ||
Reviews | ||
A must have 3D programming reverence The Petzold books are some of the best for C++ and C# and WPF programming. The drawback to the approach Petzold uses is that one must still invest in another book or two by another author to get the full picture. Petzold for good reason works from the basics and does not use the Visual Studio wizards for the most part. It is important to know both however when developing code. But even so, this is an excellent reference book that has helped me immensely in learning and using C#, WPF and XAML. | ||
Great Book Every time I read one of Mr. Petzold's books, I'm impressed and pleased with the experience. Not only do all of his examples work, but the background information is relevant and useful in other areas of my development. I'm particularly pleased with the chapters on matrix transforms and quaternions. He does a great job of explaining this complicated mathematics. | ||
Really good, but so light on animation I really want to give this book a 4 or 5 star rating. Petzold goes into amazing detail about almost all aspects of creating 3D images. You really cant go wrong with this book if all you are doing is building static images. But the books coverage of animation is sadly light. Even though there is a whole chapter on animations, its really light coverage and leaves me wanting for so much more. And the real problem with this book is, who creates static 3D images? You most likely do 3D AND animation together. So if you need the guts details on 3D WPF rendering than this book is for you. I you need guts on animation, not so much. And if you need 3D rendering and animation, than you might as well get this book, but know that you'll need to look elsewhere for animation details. | ||
An excellent and practical introduction to WPF 3D First, maybe it's worth mentioning that unlike most other books on 3D out there, it concentrates solely on WPF 3D, right from the beginning, and it assumes you have enough knowledge of C# .net/WPF. It doesn't "waste" half of the book trying to teach you C#/Visual Studio/XAML etc... it's a very good attitude. If you need to learn WPF/C#, read another book first. Charles Petzold has a great book on WPF, for example. And to the book - It teaches most fundamental elements of 3D and how it's done in WPF. Meshes, models, camera, lights, textures, transforms and some basic 3D math are all there. There's also a chapter about quaternions. Most of the material is well written, and good examples are given throughout the book, just where needed, and all well explained. The examples compile without any problem in Visual Studio 2005/2008 (the Express editions are enough btw). All the examples are in C#. Most of the material tends to be pretty practical and useful for real-world application. And that's particularly true to the last chapter, which try to inspire you with real world usage of WPD 3D and examples. Just note that most of the material isn't very advanced. You'll have to learn more by yourself to write really useful 3D applications. But the book is just what it should be - gives you a very good jump start and leaves the rest for you to explore. I highly recommend this book for anyone with knowledge of WPF who'd like to jump to the WPF 3D wagon. Many WPF books dedicate a chapter or 2 about 3D. Even if you read one - this book have much more material and practical info about WPF 3D than those, so I highly recommend in this case as well. Also, people with knowledge of other more advanced 3D platforms (DirecX/OpenGL) who'd like to know WPF 3D will also find this book useful. | ||
Great intro to 3D Programming This book is a fantastic intro into the world of 3D Programming. It explains the concepts in an easy to understand format and gradually eases you into the more complex aspects of 3D. Also, because it is for WPF it makes it a cinch to get up and running quickly. I've also found that this book is a great way to get acquainted with 3D and these concepts are easily transferrable into the more complex 3D languages (ie: Direct3D and OpenGL). I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to learn 3D or to expand their WPF repetoire! | ||