Customer Rating: 
Summary: longlasting
Comment: Our teacher told us this book was to be used in some of our other classes so saving $$ a plus.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Very misleading title but good introduciton to Torque
Comment: Pros:
Well written in an informal and easy to follow manner.
Provides a good overview of the game development process with a focus on indies.
Great intro. to the Torque game engine. Far superior to the online documentation from Torque.
Cons:
The title "3D Game Programming All in One" is terriblly inappropriate. This book is packed with 1000+ pages of good information but it should have been called something along the line of Introduction to Torque scripting, emphasis on the Intro part.
Many detailed pages are spent on agonizingly basic tasks while more difficult subjects get glossed over, with the reader left spending a few hours inventing a step B cause the author magically went from A to C.
More then once you'll be following one of his cookbook lessons and you are presented with an options menu with something like 50 options with unintuitive names and he tells you to just accept the defaults then moves on and never looks back. Maybe some tables explaining what those options do would be nice. This is "...All in One" right?
Many many hours will be spent coping code from the book and then executing it in the torque game engine. However, the author has left dozens and dozens of errors in the book code, some of which are grossly inexcusable. Did the author not try his code after he typed it? Come on guy, cut and paste, I know you didn't crank out this tome using a pen.
My biggest issue is that a lot of software, files and code comes with the book. But half the software does not match versions used in the book and many of the game files aren't what they are supposed to be. Code does not say what the book says it does, some image files are none existent and some of the animations are clearly works-in-progress just dumped onto the CD. The animation for an ogre dieing is actually an ogre being bounced across the screen and then dragged under the floor.
I gave the book 3 stars because despite its many flaws I learned a lot and was able to resolve most issues at the expense of a few hours frustration. This book needs editing and lots of it. Also, I'll most likely buy his advanced version.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Was the code even reviewed?
Comment: I am ready to give up on this book. I have the second edition, and can't imagine how others are making it work. The code sample for the very first project doesn't work. I eliminated typing errors by using the code provided on the CD, and it still doesn't work.
There does not appear to be an errata website.
Many items seem glossed over without any explanation given as to what they do.
Given the price I paid ($65), and the name of the book, I would have expected more breadth, rather than a straight shot at building a FPS game. Running the final version of the end product, it is bad enough that I am now questioning the $150 that I spent on TGE. The physics of the vehicle are so poor, that it frequently gets into oscillation or total rollover on the smallest of obstacles, for example.
I can't imagine using this tome to attempt to learn TGE. I hope that TGE is better than what is portrayed in this book. At least I didn't blow the $300 for TGEA!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Comment: This book is actually a text book for my school. I saw a lot of complaints from other people on how much it talks about the Torque engine. Personally I think that is a good thing at 150 the Torque engine is something that most people who want to get into creating games could afford. The unreal engine costs thousands so it would be bad if it went into that or another engine like that, because most of us could not afford to get the engine and use what the book is teaching.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The book is comprehensive and easy to follow
Comment: A COMPLAINT.
The book is a treasure of information about the subject matter. However, the included CD if faulty. It doesn't install. T tried to install it on two different machine in vain. I emailed Thomson Course Technology about this matter and I received no response.
THE PREDICAMENT OF OVERSEAS BUYERS.
Althaugh overseas buyers pay the full amount including postage, they are oftern ignored when it comes to faulty products.
AMAZON Authority should consider overseas buyers' helplessness in this situation.
I need the CD badly and I am willing to pay any amount for a sound one.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter.
Regards,
Fawzy Youssef.
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