Wihlidal Graham. Game Engine Toolset development

Thomson Course Technology, 2006. - 640 p. ISBN 1-59200-963-8
Toolset development is an extremely broad topic. Game Engine Toolset Development provides you with a core set of skills and a comprehensive insight that will aid you in the development of game engine utilities, significantly reducing the time period associated with the construction phase of a project. The book starts off with topics regarding development methodologies and best practices, and then proceeds into advanced topics like swap chain management and MVC object model automation with CodeDom. An introductory working knowledge of C# and the .NET 2.0 framework is expected, allowing the content of each topic to be directed towards the subject and avoiding trivial and introductory explanations. Readers are not required to have any experience developing game engine tools. Terminology and design fundamentals specific to toolset development are clearly depicted and explained. The companion Web site provides downloads of all source code from the book, as well as several bonus chapters.Part I: Toolset Design Fundamentals
What Is a Tool? What Is a Toolset?
Why Use C#? Why Use .NET?
Examples of Commercial Toolsets
Everything Starts with a Plan
Development Phases of a Tool
Measurement Metrics for Tool Quality
Fundamentals of User Interface Design
Distributed Componential Architecture Design
Solutions to Bridge Domain Gaps
Unit Testing with NUnit
Code Documentation with NDoc and XML
Microsoft Coding Conventions
Enforcing Coding Policies with FxCop
Best Practices for Robust Exception HandlingPart II: Techniques for Arbitrary Tools
Compressing Data to Reduce Memory Footprint
Protecting Sensitive Data with Encryption
Generic Batch File Processing Framework
Ensuring a Single Instance of an Application
Implementing a Checksum to Protect Data Integrity
Using the Property Grid Control with Late Binding
Adding Printing Support for Arbitrary Data
Flexible CommandLine Tokenizer
Layering Windows Forms on Console Applications
Overview of Database Access with ADO.NETPart III: Techniques for Graphical Tools
Using Direct3D Swap Chains with MDI Applications
Constructing an Aesthetic Texture Browser Control
Converting from Screen Space to World Space
Asynchronous Input Device PollingPart IV: Techniques for Network Tools
Downloading Network Files AsynchronouslyPart V: Techniques for Legacy Interoperability
Exchanging Data Between Applications
Interacting with the Clipboard
Using .NET Assemblies as COM Objects
Managing Items in the Recent Documents ListPart VI: Techniques to Improve Performance
Playing Nice with the Garbage Collector
Using Unsafe Code and Pointers
Investigating Managed Code Performance
Responsive UI During Intensive ProcessingPart VII: Techniques to Enhance Usability
Designing an Extensible Plugin-Based Architecture
Persisting Application Settings to Isolated Storage
Designing a Reusable and Versatile Loading Screen
Writing Context Menu Shell ExtensionsPart VIII: Techniques to Increase Productivity
Automating Workflow Using Job Scheduling
MVC Object Model Automation with CodeDomPart IX: Techniques for Deployment and Support
Deployment and Versioning with ClickOnce
Testing for the Availability of the .NET Framework
Building and Customizing an MSI Installer
Determining Binary File DifferencesPart X: Bonus Web Site Chapters