Guys ,I think you exaggerated on this.Ok .may be I am not completely unbiased as I love the engine and the team standing behind it (except of Peter ;) kidding) .Yes the book has got some typos and some inconsistent code but the fact is that it is the most detailed ,comprehensive and "mess free" manual on 3d in flash to date (It is going to change in a couple of months though ....;) ) which focuses on 3d in Away and doesn't engage on all kind of complementary stuff that is completely unrelated to book's topic just to produce more page count. .Just for the comparison sake take a look at "Professional Papervision3D" by Mike Lovely.It may be considered as the first book which is totally dedicated to 3d in flash .(Yeah there were 2 books by Keith Peters before but 3d topic was a little part of them )."Professional Papervision3D" is a huge volume ,tons of examples but almost half of them have nothing to do with 3d.The code is in many cases completely unreadable.That books sucks! .Mike Lovely is a genius but he failed to deliver well explained and essential material with clean code.Yes he went for more complex examples but for most people the basics are most important . 3D in flash is the book every Away3D beginner should start with .It brings a lot of core terminology description which is essential for those who have never done 3D stuff.Many of the tips and techniques found in this book are invaluable for the beginner reader who would otherwise spend hours of search in Google for "How do I.." solutions. So guys ,cool down and give respect to the people who wrote the book.Writing a book while working a full time is not an easy task at all .(from my personal experience :)
On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 1:10 PM, Yosun Chang <[email protected]> wrote: > I started to write a review on this months ago, but given the number > of typo's, I couldn't give it a good rating and decided not to post > it. It's a good read if you have some knowledge of Away3D. Anyway, > here's part of the review I started writing: > > > Away3D is one of the “big” 3D engines for Flash, but it’s not the only > one. A more fitting title for this book might be “Away 3D for 3D in > Flash” -- the authors do gloss over how Away3D started as a > Papervision3D fork in the one-page Introduction, but as it stands, the > current title is as misleading as focusing purely on OpenOffice Writer > in a book titled “Word Processing in Ubuntu.” By far, it is not an > “Essential Guide”, but it’s a nice introduction to Away3D (assuming > you’ve got enough patience and code-fu to gloss over the typos). > > > Chapter 1 - Good to have setup directions for several different IDE’s > (Flash Pro, Flex Builder, FDT, FlashDevelop, Flex SDK/Makefiles), but > would have been nice to find out what the developers prefer, listing > of pros/cons. Would also be helpful to know which IDE is being used > for the snippets. (For example, FDT does not give code hints until the > right import’s are listed, and also has instant highlighting for > undefined variables -- source of myriad snippet typo’s.) > > Chapter 2’s source - some errors. Inconsistency with usage of “_view” > vs “view” variable in first and final snippets, as well as “_Sphere” > vs “Sphere” (page 14). Style of listing import libraries after > snippets make it hard to follow along without reading the entire > chapter in advance. Omission of listing the names of needed import > libraries (had to look in the full source on the last page of chapter, > for library names of the “Lighting the scene” section! > > On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 1:01 AM, Craig Murray <[email protected]> > wrote: > > So I just bought The Essential Guide to 3D in Flash (isbn > > 978-1-4302-2541-6) and so far I am extremely disappointed. > > > > Here is a list of problems I've had in my first 30 minutes with the > > book: > > > > 1. Publisher claims source code is available for download at > www.apress.com > > but ISBN is "not found" and book is not listed > > > > 2. The very first piece of source code listed in the book has a typo > > which caused a compile error (var view:View3D then later > > addChild(_view); > > > > 3. That same first piece of code has a runtime error during > > construction of the View3D (using the latest trunk of fp10 code line) > > > > ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable _init is not defined. > > at away3d.core.utils::Init/getBoolean()[C:\_projects\away3d > > \fp10\Away3DLib\src\away3d\core\utils\Init.as:114] > > > > > > > > For a book that was written by a primary developer on the project, I > > expected more. > -- Michael Ivanov ,Programmer Neurotech Solutions Ltd. Flex|Air |3D|Unity| www.neurotechresearch.com http://blog.alladvanced.net Tel:054-4962254 [email protected] [email protected]
