Books to keep you going
On October 14th, 2007 at 10:47 am, Pernambuco-Brazil said:
In your opinion, what´s the best XNA book?
Hey there!
Short answer:
‘XNA Unleashed‘ by Chad Carter.
Long answer:
It depends on what skill level you are. If you have zero knowledge of C#, start with ‘Learning C#‘ or ‘Programming C#‘ by Jesse Liberty.
‘Learning C#‘ covers the first half of ‘Programming C#‘ in about 50% more pages. If my tutorials are difficult, pick ‘Learning C#‘.
‘Programming C#‘ slightly more advanced. If you are grasping my tutorials without reviewing them several times, pick ‘Programming C#‘.
I’ve only got three books with ‘XNA’ in the title – ‘XNA Creators Guide‘ by Cawood and McGee, ‘XNA Unleashed‘ by Carter, and ‘Professional XNA‘ by Nitschke. I can’t yet review other books on XNA.
If you have a good foundation in game programming, and just want to get into XNA, then Nitschke
If you finished my tutorials, found them very suitable for you, and are looking for the next step, then Carter is by far the best,
Cawood and McGee
Since you are on a tight budget, and you are posting on my site, I think Carter would give you the most bang for your buck.
Cheers,
Joran
on October 15th, 2007 at 7:32 am
He lives!
on October 15th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Hi Michael,
Yes, I live. (c: I’m still swamped with work, and will be until the end of the contract, which is January 2008. I’m making the internal communications system for Minitry of Energy, Thailand. Mostly, its about training the trainers, who will later train the users on how to use the internet. It’s fun, but my XNA itch is developing into a rash, so guess what I will be doing in Februrary… You guessed right, except I’ve decided to switch to 3D. (c:
I’m very impressed with your ability to keep ZiggyWare.com going. It’s the major source for all things XNA during my downtime. Thank you for all you have done!
Cheers,
Joran
on October 17th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Glad to hear you’ll continue your series, it’s been an enormous help while learning XNA. By February they’ll probably have XNA2.0 out, so I hope you’ll consider integrating some of its features, like networking support (which I tried integrating, but honestly haven’t found the right books to learn it from).
Thanks for the book list by the way. I’ve ordered Carter’s book because of it
Good luck at the ministry,
Ragura
on October 21st, 2007 at 7:32 am
i have the Nitschke book, and while very good ive been struggling with a lot of it. i think its for more advanced users
on November 6th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
I personally think Joseph Hall’s book is probably the best XNA book out there at the moment
on November 6th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Kris Athi said: “Joseph Hall’s book*
Yes, I’ll get to that one. It takes a while for books to arrive here in Thailand, and it came out on Amazon.com in September. I’ll have patience. I haven’t finished the first batch of three books yet. I did check Joseph’s videos, and they were good, so I’m looking forward to the book:
http://www.codetopia.com/xnablog/
Cheers,
Joran
on November 7th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Thanks, I was looking for such books yesterday and just stumbled upon this post.
on November 12th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
[…] )While these comments weren’t on my book’s Amazon, BaM, or B&N profile, they are flattering…”I personally think Joseph Hall’s book is probably the best XNA book out there at the moment” — Kris Athi.”It felt more like a transcription of somebody’s poorly though out presentation. I […]
on March 17th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I disagree with you about the quality of Carter’s book. I have it and have to say that he explains very little about how the algorithms work, and just provides example code after example code. This might be ok for some, but the book isn’t worth the $50 pricetag ($30 if you get it from amazon). You can pick up a little from it but don’t expect to understand it very well. For example, he tells you how to make a “Skybox” and provides five pages of code to do geometrical manipulation, but this teaches you very little about XNA itself, only how to solve a very specific problem (and doesn’t even solve it well as the result is a cube-shaped world).
There were also some typos in the book that resulted in compile errors (chapter 3 or 4 somewhere).
I have been programming for 8 years, have read many programming books and know that it is essential to produce material that will enlighten someone in a considerable way. Next time you recommend a book to someone make sure you have facts to back up the recommendation.
By the way, you don’t need to read a C# book just because you haven’t done C# before. If you are smart enough to program and already know a C-style language then you can skip the intro books as they are written for the audience of someone who hasn’t programmed before. A good C# book for the experienced programmer is “Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform, Fourth Edition”. It explains things very well and covers many topics thoroughly.
on March 17th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
R F said:
“I have been programming for 8 years, have read many programming books… Next time you recommend a book to someone make sure you have facts to back up the recommendation.”
Please note the smilies. I’m not upset. (c:
For me, the key word in your statement is ’someone’. That’s vague. You’ve been programming for eight years and read many books on the subject, so what are you doing here at XnaTutorial.com? (c:
When reviewing a book or a movie, you have to pick an audience to review for. On Swedish national TV a few years ago, there was an artsy-type woman who reviewed ‘The Matrix’, and didn’t like the movie. During the course of the review, it became clear that she had not even understood the plot. She had the impression that the Matrix was the real world, and that the characters logged into some apocalytic game-world. (c: Talk about embarrasing yourself on national TV. (c:
My point is, if you like science fiction, review science fiction movies, not sobby chick flicks. (c:
If you follow XnaTutorial.com, buy a beginners book, not Nitschkes book.
If you have been programming for eight years, write a book for us beginners, don’t follow the advice of someone who has been programming for a year in his limited spare time (me). (c:
As a side note, the time stamp of the post is five months ago. As the comments say, I’ve been waiting for Hall’s book to arrive here in Thailand, and now it has. I have to say that I change my mind. Hall’s book is probably the best one _for my intended audience_.
Cheers,
Joran
on April 1st, 2008 at 11:42 pm
R F is totally right… i’ve torrented every xna book in existance… and carter may deal with the most advanced concepts… but he has the rare annoyance of being both unclear to the beginner… and full of incoherant ramblings and terrible organization and typos… and the list goes on. how’’s this… HOW BOUT AN AUTHOR THAT ACTUALLY SHOWS STEP BY STEP WHAT EACH LINE OF THEIR CODE DOES… i give a flying crap about redundancy… tell me what every line does!!! DO A GUI CAMTASIA VIDEO OR SOMETHING ala Lynda.com! They are easier to understand, and i doubt they take much more time. I appreciated Joran’s tutorials (though not covering the 3d realm) more than any of the books trying to sell out there. but i’m not saying i like them, apologies.
if someone made a full supported dts importer that works in xna without the need for Torque, this multimedia designer (that’s me) could fully take the reigns. until then, i guess i’ll settle for codeplex XNA animation library with kw direct x exporter…
on June 1st, 2009 at 12:01 pm
try to read (xna 3.0)
http://www.ziddu.com/download/4961670/LearningXNA3.0.pdf.html
on June 1st, 2009 at 12:02 pm
try to read
http://www.ziddu.com/download/4961670/LearningXNA3.0.pdf.html
on December 29th, 2009 at 2:15 am
my dad bought me this book: ‘XNA Unleashed‘ by Chad Carter.
Its a very very good book!!!!
I am a C# programmer (Desktop Applications for Embedded Systems) and been doing programs for electronics and automotive companies… Which means I am totally new to game development…
I’m currently on chapter 4 and everything is well explained… I was able to absorb all the info from the first page up to the page I am currently reading… I saw some books about XNA, and they are nothing compared to Chad Carter’s book… One instance, I saw some book which implements collision algorithm using lots of math, but Chad used the Rectangle class’ Intersects method! With this, I am convinced that Chad’s book will be able to achieve objective using simpler process!
I believe this book was written in a way where he puts his self in a beginner’s perspective… EVERYTHING IS WELL EXPLAINED! THATS A HUGE PLUS!!!!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by a C# programmer who is totally new to game development…
on February 25th, 2010 at 10:13 am
This is interesting