The book that I could never find was one on game engine design. I wanted an object-oriented, reusable package of software that was not tightly integrated to one particular game. I knew that I wasn’t the only person interested in game engine design. I decided that, as I learned C# and managed DirectX 9 and ported my game engine to this new technology, I would document the process. The fact that you are reading this indicates you share my interest in 3D game engines.
I have kept this book at an introductory level. When I initially began planning the book, I considered including more advanced topics such as animation, networking for multiplayer capability, and the programmable pipeline (shaders). I quickly came to the conclusion that to cover that much material in any depth at all was too much for a single book. I am hoping that at some point in the future I will have the time to do a follow-up volume that includes these and other more advanced areas.
No one book can answer all questions. I encourage you to extend your research to other books and the Internet as you hone your development capabilities. The best resources for getting your questions answered are the Microsoft DirectX newsgroups. There are a number of newsgroups of interest that are prefixed with microsoft.public.win32.programmer.directx. The newsgroup dedicated to Managed DirectX is microsoft.public.win32.programmer.directx.managed. I often monitor this newsgroup, and I will answer any questions that I can.
