GPGT book: Half way - review.

I wanted to take a moment away from reading /studying: "The Official Guide to the Torque Game Engine: The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque" by Edward F. Maurina III . I am half way through the book now (chapter 7) and wanted to let people know a little about it. First off... this book is awesome! If you have been stumbling around trying to learn TGE or just got TGE... this is the book for you. Edward has put tons of info in this book and the accompanying disk. Its structure flows very well. For those who wonder if the book covers the c++ coding of the engine... no. It does go into depth of Torque scripting. Some things that it covers:

- Torque Core Classes
- Basic Game Classes
- Gameplay Classes
- Mission Objects
- Game Setup Scripting
- Gameplay Scripting
- Special Effects
- Standard Torque Game Engine GUI Controls
- Game Interfaces
- Tons of info in the Appendices
- loaded with lots of examples
- GPGT Lesson Kit <--- I see this becoming a major tool in teaching people on the net and in classrooms

This book is a great reference for all that have TGE. This book covers TGE 1.4 release. For those who ask what the difference between Ken Finney's books and Edward's book?... different ways of teaching. One note on Ken's books is that his first book was on TGE 1.2 and the second was on TGE 1.3 release. Edward's book does go into more depth of TGE classes. If you bought Ken's books and wonder if you should by this book?...I would have to say yes. All three books are a great learning tools.

A little advice on reading this book... take your time and read it! At times I had to stop reading to absorb all the information that was presented in a section before going to the next. Work the examples and experiment with them. Edward has done an awesome job in putting this book together. I highly recommend this book.

Now it's time to dive back into "vehicle and vehicleData" section!