Focus On Mod Programming in Quake III Arena

ioquake3 dev
1

Does anyone recommend this book for learning the Q3 codebase? Or is it too oudated?

2

Maybe I should have bought this instead of struggling during all 2013 … But maybe it’s not very good ! I’m also curious about some feedback on this book if anybody has some :slight_smile:

3

I’m starting a topic in Quake3world to see if anyone has info on it :slight_smile:

4

Source and book review: http://ericjmritz.name/2013/07/28/botw-focus-on-mod-programming-in-quake-iii-arena/

Note: This guy is probably not too familiar with the engine as he states that it’s C++ and not C.

5

I am the author of that review. If you meant that I am not too familiar with the engine—and I readily admit that I am no expert with it—I just want to say that I mention C++ because chapter two of the book discusses C++ heavily, talks about it being the future of id Tech, confuses it (in my opinion) with the Quake 3 code, and instructs the user on using C++ tools exclusively.

Anyways, I added a note to the review pointing out my error in giving the wrong impression about the engine’s language.

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I sincerely apologize if you were offended by my post, it was only a thought that crossed my mind and not meant as criticism. It is an excellent review in general. :slight_smile:

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No worries, wasn’t offended at all. Your post made me realize that I should have pointed out the “C vs. C++” confusion in the book (which shouldn’t be in the book to begin with).

Thanks :smile:

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Here’s some feedback I got at Quake 3 World :

Hi D-Meat, I bought this book ~ 10 years ago and I totally liked the book.
There was a CD included, at least with the edition I bought (not sure if the CD is still included?).
My personal opinion about the book:

  1. It depends heavily how experienced you are already with programming Quake3 code. I was (and I am still) an amateur.
    Nevertheless I learned a lot by this book. If you are familiar with the source code I think there will be nothing new for you.
  1. There are a lot of examples explained well in this book that you can try to implemnet (e.g: chain lightning gun). In the early days there weren’t many tutorials available about
    modding Quake3 so the examples were really helpful. Nowadays you can find every example also on the internet.
  1. Please bear in mind that the book was written when the engine code was not released. Now there is access to the engine. Well, the book is about mods and not engine changes.
    But some parts of the book are a bit outdated because in some chapters Shawn Holmes referes to the ‘closed’ engine code.
  1. The book is written very structured and it is easy to understand. My english isn’t the best and even I could read it with ease. If there is a technical term Shawn Holmes
    explains it with simple words.

Personally I think the CD isn’t really needed nowadays (I think there was some UI code on it and a few more tutorials, can’t remember exactly). The book is only useful if you don’t understand
where to start coding or what are the main parts (entitystate/playerstate structs, pmove, bitflags, game/cgame module etc.) of the idtech3 code.
But hey, don’t forget the ‘immaterial value’ of this book. It’s cool to see the book in your bookcase :slight_smile:

I think the price is okay, so I recommend it, … sometimes it makes more fun to look onto paper than onto a monitor (at least for older people like me)!

However, all this is really my personal opinion, I hope this helps :slight_smile:

So I think I’ll buy it :slight_smile:

9

I just got this one in the mail!