Amazon.com
The OpenGL Programming Guide, now in its third edition, is the definitive volume for programmers using this evolving graphics interface standard. Written by members of the OpenGL Architecture Review Board, this book offers understandable tutorials and lessons on getting up to speed and getting the most out of the latest version of OpenGL, version 1.2.
The guide uses code examples in C and is targeted at programmers who have experience in coding yet are new to coding for OpenGL applications. The opening chapters go into descriptive detail of how OpenGL, the software interface for hardware 3-D chipsets, works and what you can expect from it, which turns out to be much more than you might have thought. Color plates are used, for example, to show how OpenGL handles such effects as motion blur and depth-of-field blur, in addition to shadows and texture mapping.
This is not a beginner's guide to programming computer graphics. Some previous knowledge of both programming in general and computer graphics in particular is required. For example, code snippets are used to describe how to implement these effects, but because OpenGL is platform-independent, some code examples may need to be modified when used with your specific compiler.
Filled with the expertise of those who standardized OpenGL, there is no better reference volume for learning and understanding this system. The examples cited are clear, commented, and explained. The only drawback to the book is that it lacks a companion CD-ROM--all examples must be either typed in or downloaded from an Internet FTP site. (The URL is listed in the preface.) --Mike Caputo
Book Description
OpenGL is a powerful software interface for graphics hardware that allows graphics programmers to produce high-quality color images of 3D objects. The functions in the OpenGL library enable programmers to build geometric models, view models interactively in 3D space, control color and lighting, manipulate images, and perform such tasks as alpha blending, antialiasing, depth cueing, and texture mapping.
The OpenGL Reference Manual, Second Edition, documents all OpenGL functions, including brand new features recently approved by the OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) for inclusion in OpenGL, Version 1.1. The ARB is an industry consortium responsible for defining OpenGL, composed of such industry leaders as Digital Equipment Corporation, Evans & Sutherland, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, Intergraph, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Silicon Graphics.
Each reference page fully describes: C specifications, relevant parameters, the effects of functions, possible errors generated by functions, associated effects, Reference pages for the OpenGL Utility Library (GLU) and the OpenGL extension to the X Window System (GLX) are included in this manual.
Customer Reviews:
By far the best OpenGL resource available.......2007-08-27
If you're a serious OpenGL programmer like I am, this book is basically a bible. Unlike DirectX, there aren't a ton of decent places to find documentation for OpenGL. I've had to do some pretty complex programming and every single time the "Red Book" helped me accomplish the goal.
Honestly though, I think a lot of this material should be online. This is not a book you read cover to cover. It's something you need if you're having trouble with blending operations in your scene and you need to know more about how OpenGL works (not for novices). I would suggest buying the "Blue Book" along with this (The OpenGL reference manual). The blue book goes over each API call in detail (similar to what you would expect from MSDN).
OpenGL programming guide.......2007-07-19
Recently I had my first experience in programming computer graphics with OpenGL. After considering many sources I would recommend the Official Guide to Learning OpenGL the best option for beginner in the computer graphics area with mathematical background. Besides, book is very helpful for use as a reference during the entire programming process with OpenGL.
It provides the necessary level of detail, not going too deep in underlying mathematical concepts explanations unlike many other books. For anyone interested in more detail each subchapter has "Advanced" section providing in depth explanations. It also contains working sample programs written in C/C++ (which could easily be integrated to other programming languages) being really helpful during learning process.
The complete reading of book not required once started, as after having understanding of how main concepts of OpenGL works, it could be used as search convenient reference manual. One can easily find the subject of interest and gain rather complete understanding of topic after reading corresponding section.
Concise and clear. A must to have on your bookshelf.......2007-05-09
When we migrated from DirectX to OpenGL and from Microsoft to Linux this book was a constant reference during those weeks of hard work. It is concise, clear and documents well OpenGL. You have to know what you are looking for, but... that's the purpose of a reference guide, right?.
Great job on compiling the material !!!!
Gabriel
I've recieved my product without problems........2007-01-13
I've recieved my product without problems. Good book, fast ship. I'm satisfied.
Excellent resource for OpenGL.......2007-01-12
OpenGL isn't a beginner's topic. It is a (seemingly) complex world of graphics processing at the lowest levels. It is not for the timid or mathematically illiterate. This book addresses the topic in a very logical manner. When you know and understand OpenGL, it is easy to understand that some elements of a logical progression do not necessarily make the best sense to a newcomer to the technology. When first embracing OpenGL, there is a relatively steep on-ramp for some kinds of thinkers. So what's new? Everyone thinks a bit differently.
This book will point your thinking in the direction of OpenGL. It takes a very steady, but fundamental course toward that objective. It is not full of fluff, nor does it attempt to overwhelm the uninitiated with superfluous content. It does a really good job at combining elements of the nitty-gritty of OpenGL code with the practices and underlying architecture of the OpenGL system as implemented by the standards-conformant graphics hardware/drivers. It has a very comprehensive expose of the OpenGL pipeline and every reasonable aspect of using OpenGL at the fundamental level and with the GLUT.
My copy of this book is well-worn from countless flippings back-n-forth of pages and chapters as I continue to extract useful information about OpenGL from it. Perhaps it deserves 5 stars, but I have no frame of reference nor am I a gift to OpenGL programmers, so I rate it conservatively at 4.5 stars.
The book reads very easily. It is not wordy or overly terse. It does assume that you've had at least fundamental mathematics representative of college-level computer science majors. Even if your math skills are not so well-developed, this book doesn't try to drown you in such things, rather, it directs you toward the practices of accomplishing OpenGL programming assuming that you will learn that math that is necessary for the work you intend to do. It also assumes that you have strong fundamentals in C programming. It also assumes that you're able to read and comprehend English. I don't find any of these to be worthy of a disclaimer as might another reviewer.
The book is presented very well. I can not say enough how straight-forward and logically it proceeds through the topics necessary to get up-to-speed with OpenGL programming. It reads well, too. That is, you don't necessarily need to be sitting at your computer in order to enjoy elements of this book while learning about OpenGL.
The included examples are well-chosen to illustate the points made during the course of the text where they are found. I had absolutely no problem compiling and executing them on my GNU/Linux-based system using Mesa and GCC.
I would suggest that you plan to spend some quality time with this book if you're serious about learning OpenGL. Some of the topics take more than a brief reading to fully sink-in...at least they did for me! There are a few sections that I spent several hours on and re-read several times, which I credit to the technical-aspects of the content rather than reduce to an "issue" with the authors' presentation skills. OpenGL isn't going to be easy if you're relatively new to 2D and 3D programming. It is probably an "advanced" topic for all but the most severe.
The book is thoroughly enjoyable and when completed and you're banging away OpenGL code with style and grace, there is a notable sense of accomplishment. I had a lot of fun dissecting this book until my brain finally decided to learn its contents.
Book Description
Today truly useful and interactive graphics are available on affordable computers. While hardware progress has been impressive, widespread gains in software expertise have come more slowly. Information about advanced techniquesbeyond those learned in introductory computer graphics textsis not as easy to come by as inexpensive hardware.
This book brings the graphics programmer beyond the basics and introduces them to advanced knowledge that is hard to obtain outside of an intensive CG work environment. The book is about graphics techniquesthose that dont require esoteric hardware or custom graphics librariesthat are written in a comprehensive style and do useful things. It covers graphics that are not covered well in your old graphics textbook. But it also goes further, teaching you how to apply those techniques in real world applications, filling real world needs.
* Emphasizes the algorithmic side of computer graphics, with a practical application focus, and provides usable techniques for real world problems.
* Serves as an introduction to the techniques that are hard to obtain outside of an intensive computer graphics work environment.
* Sophisticated and novel programming techniques are implemented in C using the OpenGL library, including coverage of color and lighting; texture mapping; blending and compositing; antialiasing; image processing; special effects; natural phenomena; artistic and non-photorealistic techniques, and many others.
* Code fragments are used in the book, and full blown example programs for virtually every algorithm are available at www.mkp.com/opengl
Customer Reviews:
Take your OpenGL skills to the next level.......2006-04-14
Since its first release in 1992, OpenGL has been rapidly adopted as the graphics API of choice for real-time interactive 3D graphics applications. The OpenGL state machine is easy to understand, but its simplicity and orthogonality enable a multitude of interesting effects that require more room than can be accommodated in the OpenGL "Red Book". The objective of this book is to demonstrate how to generate more satisfying images using OpenGL in general, and how to achieve some sophisticated results in particular. There are three general areas of discussion: basic OpenGL concepts, basic techniques, and advanced techniques.
The first part of the book goes over some of the more basic OpenGL material - 3D transformations, color, shading, and lighting. Although the second part of the book - basic techniques - may look old hat at first, it does cover some interesting subjects such as deferred shading and image processing techniques that you don't normally think of as wedded to computer graphics. The best part of the book, to me, is part 3 on advanced techniques. In particular the chapters on scene realism, natural detail, illustration and artistic techniques, and scientific visualization have very unique material on them that reveal algorithmic details along with enlightening illustrations and pseudocode. The reader of this book should already be familiar with performing computer graphics using OpenGL and also be somewhat mathematically sophisticated considering that mathematics is heavily used in this book. All of the code for the methods and effects used at this book are in a zipfile at the book's website. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has gone through the "OpenGL Programming Guide" and wants to take their computer graphics skills to the next level.
One of the authors of this book does have an extensive tutorial freely available on the web that is an older subset of this book, so you might want to check it out and see if you like his writing style before you purchase. Type "Advanced Graphics Programming Techniques Using OpenGL" into Google and the first address listed should be the author's tutorial. It is no longer on OpenGL.org as far as I can tell.
A new review (again).......2005-06-02
I posted a review before, but I decided again to change it. Everything I said I will repeat more or less.
There is a paper on OpenGL.org written by an author, and much of that paper's info is in the book. It is not a direct reprint though. I was disappointed because I had an immediate impression it was just a total reprint of a free document. Also, the book is not hand-on at all, you really have to know your way around OpenGL to implement the techniques. It's not a quick teach-yourself-OpenGL book.
Now, I came back to update my review, because the first few chapters are crammed full of info that is really, really good. Well worth the money for the book. If you really want to know OpenGL on the inside... this book is it. It's just alot of reading, and very little hands-on. And some info in here you can find on OpenGL.org, but much newer techniques are covered to.
So I bumped it back to 5 stars, and it is an honest review. It is really worth it for these deep chapters, not for code techniques. Don't buy it unless you really already have a good handle on GL you will not be able to figure much out.
Customer Reviews:
Orange Book.......2007-03-09
I definitely recommend this book for anyone working with OpenGL's new Shading Language. I would, however, say that probably the most difficult part of working with GLSL is getting it working in the first place. Especially on Linux, this is somewhat confusing - some cards support GL 2.0, some don't, but still support the GLSL if using the ARB function calls. I would also make sure to point out to new users that GLEW is close to essential when working with the GLSL - you can download it from sourceforge. It might be worth mentioning in future versions of the book, along with ARB functions which are the same as the GLSL standard functions shown in the book.
A little chunky, but a good necessary work.......2006-03-09
I'm not a fan of the 'group of papers' style of book. But this book pulls it off nicely. The text is consistenly good throughout. And the illustrations and formulas are high quality and presented nicely.
I would have liked full color throughout, but I accept that it would have been cost prohibitive on a book of this heft. Speaking of heft, yeah, this is a doorstop of a book. I think some of the text could have been edited down and the formatting tightened up to reduce bulk.
Excellent guide to OpenGL Shading Language.......2006-02-17
The recent trend in graphics hardware has been to replace fixed functionality with programmability in areas that have grown exceedingly complex (e.g., vertex processing and fragment processing). The OpenGL Shading Language has been designed to allow application programmers to express the processing that occurs at those programmable points of the OpenGL pipeline. Independently compilable units that are written in this language are called shaders. A program is a set of shaders that are compiled and linked together. The OpenGL Shading Language is based on ANSI C and many of the features have been retained except when they conflict with performance or ease of implementation. This shading language is without a doubt the most important addition to OpenGL since its inception, and this book provides an excellent guide to programming with it. The author was one of the primary contributors to the development of the language, and he provides a well-written and insightful explanation of the language and its use.
The book begins with a review of OpenGL basics, followed by an introduction to shaders and how they fit into the pipeline. It then covers the language itself, including data types, operators, interaction with the OpenGL state machine and fixed function pipeline, built-in functions, and more. It also introduces and explains the OpenGL APIs needed to use shaders.
The last half of the book focuses on shader development, including general process and workflow, and coverage of many specific techniques, such as procedural textures and GPU-based animation. It even includes a section on implementing the fixed function pipeline using shaders. The book ends with a handy comparison of OpenGL Shading Language with other shading languages, such as Cg, HLSL, and Renderman and a couple of appendices providing a language grammar and API reference.
I particularly liked chapters 6 through 8, which take you from a simple shading example -"brick"- through the specific steps of shader development that you would need to master regardless of the API you are using. Also the chapters on procedural textures and noise and the accompanying code examples helped clear up some matters that were murky when I read "Texturing & Modeling: A Procedural Approach" by Ebert et al. In summary, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in implementing software shading, both from the standpoint of OpenGL and from the standpoint of the design process itself. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents for the second edition, so I do that here:
Chapter 1. REVIEW OF OPENGL BASICS
OpenGL History; OpenGL Evolution; Execution Mode; The Frame Buffer; State; Processing Pipeline; Drawing Geometry; Drawing Images; Coordinate Transforms; Texturing;
Chapter 2. BASICS
Introduction to the OpenGL Shading Language; Why Write Shaders?; OpenGL Programmable Processors; Language Overview; System Overview; Key Benefits;
Chapter 3. LANGUAGE DEFINITION
Example Shader Pair; Data Types; Initializers and Constructors; Type Conversions; Qualifiers and Interface to a Shader; Flow Control; Operations; Preprocessor; Preprocessor Expressions; Error Handling;
Chapter 4. THE OPENGL PROGRAMMABLE PIPELINE
The Vertex Processor; The Fragment Processor; Built-in Uniform Variables; Built-in Constants; Interaction with OpenGL Fixed Functionality;
Chapter 5. BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS
Angle and Trigonometry Functions; Exponential Functions; Common Functions; Geometric Functions; Matrix Functions; Vector Relational Functions; Texture Access Functions; Fragment Processing Functions; Noise Functions;
Chapter 6. SIMPLE SHADING EXAMPLE
Brick Shader Overview; Vertex Shader; Fragment Shader; Observations;
Chapter 7 OPENGL SHADING LANGUAGE API
Obtaining Version Information; Creating Shader Objects; Compiling Shader Objects; Linking and Using Shaders; Cleaning Up; Query Functions; Specifying Vertex Attributes; Specifying Uniform Variables; Samplers; Multiple Render Targets; Development Aids; Implementation-Dependent API Values; Application Code for Brick Shaders;
Chapter 8. SHADER DEVELOPMENT
General Principles; Performance Considerations; Shader Debugging; Shader Development Tools; Scene Graphs;
Chapter 9. EMULATING OPENGL FIXED FUNCTIONALITY
Transformation; Light Sources; Material Properties and Lighting; Two-Sided Lighting; No Lighting; Fog; Texture Coordinate Generation; User Clipping; Texture Application;
Chapter 10. STORED TEXTURE SHADERS
Access to Texture Maps from a Shader; Simple Texturing Example; Multitexturing Example; Cube Mapping Example; Another Environment Mapping Example; Glyph Bombing;
Chapter 11. PROCEDURAL TEXTURE SHADERS
Regular Patterns; Toy Ball; Lattice; Bump Mapping;
Chapter 12. LIGHTING
Hemisphere Lighting; Image-Based Lighting; Lighting with Spherical Harmonics; The *erLight Shader;
Chapter 13. SHADOWS
Ambient Occlusion; Shadow Maps; Deferred Shading for Volume Shadows;
Chapter 14. SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS
Refraction; Diffraction; BRDF Models; Polynomial Texture Mapping with BRDF Data;
Chapter 15. NOISE
Noise Defined; Noise Textures; Trade-offs; A Simple Noise Shader; Turbulence; Granite; Wood;
Chapter 16. ANIMATION
On/Off; Threshold; Translation; Morphing; Other Blending Effects; Vertex Noise; Particle Systems; Wobble;
Chapter 17. ANTIALIASING PROCEDURAL TEXTURES
Sources of Aliasing; Avoiding Aliasing; Increasing Resolution; Antialiased Stripe Example; Frequency Clamping;
Chapter 18. NON-PHOTOREALISTIC SHADERS
Hatching Example; Technical Illustration Example; Mandelbrot Example;
Chapter 19. SHADERS FOR IMAGING
Geometric Image Transforms; Mathematical Mappings; Lookup Table Operations; Color Space Conversions; Image Interpolation and Extrapolation; Blend Modes;
Chapter 20. REALWORLDZ
Features; RealWorldz Internals; Implementation; Atmospheric Effects; Ocean; Clouds;
Chapter 21. LANGUAGE COMPARISON
Chronology of Shading Languages; RenderMan; OpenGL Shader (ISL); HLSL; Cg;
Appendix A. Language Grammar
Appendix B. API Function Reference
do your own shading?!.......2006-02-08
Twenty years ago, I used to program graphics on an Evans and Sutherland PS340. It was then one of the top of the line graphics computers (costing $100k). It could labouriously do shading, but only Phong and Gouraud. Nowadays, many PCs have this ability, and much faster. But a problem still persists, where often the shading methods are restricted to what is implemented on the graphics chips.
In contrast, you have the approach in this definitive book on OpenGL Shading Language. This lets you implement in your code, shading routines of your own devising. To be sure, given the same shading method, one done in this language, and one in the hardware, then the latter will have better performance. But it turns out that today's computers are fast enough, and have enough RAM, that the difference in response might not be appreciable.
The book describes an extensive set of built-in convenience functions that come with the language. And the language's API is explained in detail. The author rightly recommends that you come at it with some experience in the standard OpenGL.
Since the language is still quite new, you are more or less on your own, when looking at development tools. This dearth is expected to be remedied in a few years. But right now, you'll have to rely on your wits. Along with a chapter that gives general principles of how you should develop your own shader. What may be even more use, however, is the second half of the book. Devoted to case studies of many shaders. Understanding these may be more beneficial than any IDE.
Oh, as you might expect from a graphics book, there is a lovely set of colour plates in the middle of the book, showing what custom shaders can do. Treat it as inspiration if you wish.
Joins the OpenGL canon.......2005-04-13
The OpenGL Shading Language is without doubt the most important addition to OpenGL since its inception, and this book provides an excellent guide to programming with it. As one of the primary contributors to the development of the language, Rost provides a clear and well-written explanation of the language and how to use it.
The book begins with a review of OpenGL basics, followed by an introduction to shaders and how they fit into the pipeline. It then covers the language itself, including data types, operators, interaction with the OpenGL state machine and fixed function pipeline, built-in functions, and more. It also introduces and explains the OpenGL APIs needed to use shaders.
The last half of the book focuses on shader development, including general process and workflow, and coverage of many specific techniques, such as procedural textures and GPU-based animation. It even includes a section on implementing the fixed function pipeline using shaders.
The book ends with a handy comparison of GLSL with other shading languages, such as Cg and HLSL, and a couple of appendices providing a language grammar and API reference.
If you're doing shader development with OpenGL, you'll definitely want this book on your desk. My only complaint about it is that it was written before GLSL was officially promoted to the core. When that happened, a number of important things were changed that aren't reflected in the book. However, determining the differences isn't difficult, so don't let that deter you from picking this up.
Book Description
This book provides new game programmers with a complete introduction to 3D game programming using OpenGL. All of the basic elements of OpenGL as it applies to game development are covered. Readers will learn how to apply these elements to games. The material is presented in an easy-to-learn manner, completely accessible to beginning programmers, with complete but concise coverage to ensure the highest value to readers.
Customer Reviews:
Platform DEPENDANT OpenGL.......2007-06-27
If you are interested in cross-platform OpenGL programming then DO NOT buy this book, it is M$ Windows Dependant. The title should have been "Beginning OpenGL Windows Game Programming".
Well explained.......2007-05-16
On comparing this text to other OpenGL textbooks, I would like to point out that the explanations of graphical techniques in this text are very well done. The CD bundled with the book have excellent code examples of things like using height maps and input from DirectX. There are bonus chapters that cover advanced topics like curves and surfaces that obviously weren't in the actual book, and thus kept the final press cost down.
If you are starting out with OpenGL, then this book is the best I have seen to get you up and running.
Great book.......2007-04-05
Overall this book was an excellent resource for getting on your feet with OpenGL.
It covers pretty much every basic topic conceivable along with touching on the some advanced uses of basic concepts. One thing that I found particularly annoying, however, was that the book claims to go into "much greater detail" concerning models later in the book, but after that line I found nary a reference to them. The author just uses the MD2 file format in the concluding "End Game" sample on the CD without ever having mentioned it in the book. Writing any useful graphics application requires using a model format, and it irks me very much that the book didn't cover it.
One other problem with the book is its age - it covers version 1.5 of OpenGL, while 2.0 has been out for a while now. But like I have already stated, it's a great book to jump into GL with.
Great Book for a 3d programming beginner........2007-03-21
The first two chapters of this book are pretty daunting, showing you a lot of stuff at once, but as the book goes on it goes back to the basics and builds up, so the stuff you saw earlier makes more sense. The book uses mainly the windows library for an interface and interaction, but if you search google for "glut tutorials" you can port the examples in the book quite easily. The CD is your best friend, it has introductions to a lot of stuff in the corresponding chapters that were taken out, like matrix operations and principles of 3d, there are more as the book goes on, I suggest you have these chapters on you when you're bored. It also has a great introduction to windows programming, once you learn that then you pretty much have what you need to make windows for your gl programs.
A little misleading.......2007-03-08
Yes it is a beginers guide to OpenGL, but you need to be experienced with C++, and have all the necessary software to do the exercises.
Book Description
Reflecting the rapid expansion of the use of computer graphics and of C++ as a programming language of choice for implementation, this book converts all programming code into the C++ language. This new edition is a complete revision, bringing the text up to date with current advances in computer graphics technology and applications. Assuming readers have no prior familiarity with computer graphics, the authors—both authorities in their field—present basic principles for design, use, and understanding of computer graphics systems using their well-known, and accessible writing style. It includes an exploration of GL, PHIGS, PHIGS+, GKS and other graphics libraries and covers topics such as distributed ray tracing, radiosity, physically based modeling, particle systems, and visualization techniques. For professionals in any area of computer graphics: CAD, Animation, Software Design, etc.
Previously announced in 12/2002 catalog.
Customer Reviews:
From a student.......2007-06-01
I did not read this textbook cover to cover. I read it the way I read most textbooks, which is the same way I assume most students do -- in bits and pieces. The best thing about this book was the code snippets. The book would explain an algorithm and then provide the actual code for the algorithm in C. That was VERY useful (it made writing my own code very easy). Unfortunately, the book did not provide code for the more advanced algorithms (which I assume kept the book at a reasonable size). Some of the images were outdated, but interesting none-the-less. Most of the concepts and algorithms are ageless I assume. I am in a competitive Computer Science program and I think it covers plenty of material and it goes into plenty of detail for an upper-level BS college course. Our class discussed several things in advanced computer graphics that were not covered in detail in the text, but I think finding a book that will cover such things as that (and stay up-to-date) will be very hard to find.
Misleading, confusing and altogether irritating.......2006-05-22
I studied this book as an undergraduate in my junior year. I find it important to mention that the CG course was one of the most enjoyable and motivating courses I have taken. Sadly though, this book was one of the worst I studied (or rather, dealt with) for a number of reasons. I found it to be (and my classmates agree!):
1. Disorganized:
the way it jumps from one topic to the other with no harmonization of ideas, added to that the lack of headings and titles.
2. Misleading and inconsistent:
example: when it explains the mechanism of the shadow-mask CRT, the illustration shows 3 electron guns, each producing an electron beam of a different color, which is not true at all. The color is determined by the mask not the beam. (and this is just one example)
3. Confusing:
when it explains several methods of doing something, it mentions the drawbacks of one method under the title of another method! Confusing and also irritating.
4. Incomplete information
we had to rely almost completely on our professor's lectures and ended up ignoring the book altogether!
It has some good qualities. For example: the appendix was a good reminder of most of the required linear algebra and calculus. The algorithms in the book are very clear.
too much coverage, not even breadth.......2005-10-11
I must agree with J. Davis. After going through about 3-4 different types of CG courses and experimenting with my own seminars I find that this book is just way too wide of a scope. It seems like it tries to cram general computer graphics, interactive computer graphics, and advanced computer graphics in one... and do a bad job at it. Looking through the book I seriously doubt that some topics can be covered in one chapter, especially some of the viewing chapters. How can you cover all aspect of 2D and 3D viewing, even in breadth only and no depth, in one chapter? That's just ridiculous. It almost feels as if they are saying that you need a separate major for CG completely, one course for overview, one for 2d, one for 3d, one for interactive graphics, and a few for advanced topics in computer graphics... but the problem is that that is too narrow of a scope for any 4 year college degree. Plus you can't even start some of the basic discussions without general education in the fundamental math like linear algebra, calculus, discrete math, and so forth. So this book is sort of making a statement that can't be backed in the real world. Though this does offer a good overview for people who are just curious. It touches on a wide variety of things and has very practical approach to having a workable project using openGL.
Now as for Davis's comments on a good book. I think Foley and van Dam has actually a pretty good book for undergrads, especially when you set appropriate prequisits for the course. Keeping in mind that CG should be a junior-senior level undergrad course. I studied CG1 when I was an art major and found the Foley van Dam book to usable, though dry, but usable. I found other books later on to be useful, but they are a bit specialized. A few good ones I must suggest for graphics math is essential mathematics for games by van verth and bishop to be good. I also recommend realtime graphics by akenine-moller and haine for interactive graphics. For some specialized ones you have to look around but I do recommend my professor's (david breen) book on cloth animation. But yeah, to sum it up, stick with Foley van Dam for your intro courses... maybe use this as an added supplement, especially when considering OpenGL for your teaching tool.
Not very complete.......2005-05-02
I teach an intro graphics course. I found that this text didn't cover the full set of things that are usually found in such a course (or covered them too superficially.) I do find its OpenGL examples embedded directly into the text to be useful for my students, but for me that doesn't forgive the lack of sufficient explanation of topics I care about.
I should note that I'm not aware of a 5 star text either. Although Foley-vanDam-et.al. is sufficiently complete its a little hard for some undergrads. I haven't yet checked out Angel or Watt or Shirley but they seem popular alternatives.
Better than most CG books.......2005-04-24
This book was obviously written for students starting a programming course on OpenGL. Almost every page (in full colour) has diagrams, pictures, graphs, formula and code. On first sight, this is a very impressive book with a nice neat layout. Beginners (and intermediate programmers) should get a lot out of this book, and although more advanced users will use this as a reference, it isn't really a book for the advanced CG programmer. If you want to learn OpenGL and you are new to OpenGL and even C/C++ programming, then this book is perfect. As a bonus, there are chapters on GLUT so you can quickly create windows applications with menus, mouse and keyboard input, without having to learn anything specific about Linux/Windows programming. There is no CD and I have not investigated if you can download the code, however, in a book like this, it doesn't seem to matter. The book is enough!
Book Description
Welcome to the latest volume of ShaderX! This all-new collection is packed with insightful new techniques, innovative approaches to common problems, and practical tools and tricks that will help you in all areas of shader programming. All of the articles evolved from the work and experiences of industry pros, and all of the sections were edited by shader programming experts. With the rapid advances in DirectX, OpenGL, and graphics cards, vertex and pixel shaders are becoming more widely used in high-end graphics and game development. The challenges of mastering these techniques can be daunting for new programmers, but with this comprehensive collection of ready-to-use techniques, they'll get up to speed quickly. And for the more experienced programmers, they'll find insights and tricks that will improve their efficiency and prevent redundancy. If you are involved in shader programming, this is a must-have reference for your collection.
Customer Reviews:
Good series.......2007-05-13
Its hard for me to treat the books of this series separately (ShaderX 3, ShaderX 4, ShaderX 5). They are all very good books of GPU-Gems level or higher. In comparison with GPU Gems, they are more academic, i. e. they are rather short and more applicable to wide range of applications then GPU Gems ones (while GPU Gems series is more scientific, state of the art, considering one particular research) and the accompanying CD is much more better (lots of working examples, most with source code).
Sections (Image-Space, Shadows) are also very helpful to figure out what is useful for you.
This series is not for beginners anyway, so please, go Cg Tutorial or DX SDK Tutorial and don't put 2 or 3 marks for these books because you can't cope with them.
a good book for game developers.......2006-11-13
I've bought many other rendering books like GPU Gems series, and I think this book is more practical for game developers compared with the other books. It explains many useful algorithms in good details and covers many aspects that a serious game developer should consider. As a game engine programmer, I think this book is a very good reference for me.
Up To Date View of the State of the Art.......2005-01-20
This book is a collection of forty-seven articles around the common theme of shading images in real time. Many of these effects have been common in the movie world for many years, but in that application the shading can be done on very expensive machines and the time it takes to produce an image is not important because the resulting image is to be shown on screen rather than immediately on a display. Now, with the increasing power in the PC's in widespread use, these techniques are being brought down to the standard desktop.
In this book a wide selection of authors discuss the start of the art in shading. They are, for the most part, active professionally in the graphics display business. A number of them work for ATI, the video card manufacturer, a number work for gaming companies, or for companies producing software used in gaming.
This approach provides for a fast time to print, rather than one author taking a year to write the book. In this industry a year is a lifetime, well, at least a generation in the software.
A comprehensive collection of ready-to-use techniques .......2005-01-04
Shader X3: Advanced Rendering With DirectX And Open GL compiled, organized, and deftly edited by Wolfgang Engle (Senior Special FX Engineer at Wings Simulations) is packed from cover to cover with 630-pages of insightful new techniques, innovative approaches to common problems, as well as practical tools and tricks that will help in all areas of shader programming. All of the articles comprising Shader X3 evolved from the the working experiences of industry professionals, and all of the sections were expertly edited by shader programming experts. This comprehensive collection of ready-to-use techniques will enable even the most novice programmer to get up to speed quickly, and the more experienced programmers will find a wealth of insights and techniques to improve efficiency and avoid redundancies. Shader X3 is an essential, "user friendly", and highly recommended instructional reference for shader programmers.
Book Description
This introduction to 3D computer graphics emphasizes fundamentals and the mathematics underlying computer graphics, while also covering programming techniques using OpenGL, a platform-independent graphics programming environment. The minimal prerequisites make it suitable for self-study or for use as an advanced undergraduate or introductory graduate text as the author leads step-by-step from the basics of transformations to advanced topics such as animations and kinematics. Accompanying software, including source code for a ray tracing software package, is available freely from the book's web site.
Customer Reviews:
So good.......2007-02-03
Great service!!The book is new and the deliver has been so fast!(3 days more or less) :)
Good coverage, clean and clear language.......2004-11-01
I have several graphics books and I find two are indespensible: The OpenGL Programming Guide and Dr. Buss' book. Dr. Buss' book has clear, elucidating language and good coverage for both the classroom and the practicing graphics software developer. Though the OpenGL Programming Guide covers many of the same topics, its coverage of the mathematics is thin. Hence, this text perfectly dovetails with it. Particularly well-written is the chapter covering the Phong and the Cook-Torrance lighting models.
Book Description
Updated throughout for the latest developments and technologies, this book combines the principles and major techniques in computer graphics with state-of-the-art examples.
Updates treatment of graphics hardware and algorithms. Discusses the development of video games through history. Emphasizes interactive graphics more strongly than in previous editions. Relates examples to things readers see everyday on the Internet and in computer-generated movies. Carefully presents each concept, explains the underlying mathematics, shows how to translate the math into program code, and displays the result.
A thorough, useful reference for anyone interested in computer graphics.
Customer Reviews:
a solid introduction, but could be better.......2007-05-13
The title of the book is misleading; It is rather an introduction to computer graphics;
The explanations on the graphics pipeline are really enlightening; The introduction on the curves is also worth reading. I consider it to be also a good introduction to OpenGL.
However, it deserves only 3 stars because of the too many typo errors (and that's the third edition...). Moreover some topics are too superficially treated, particularly extents or bounding volumes (which are of great importance in computer graphics), and surfaces.
The book is verbose, which is acceptable when some notions are hard to grasp, but it is definitely too verbose at the start of each chapters where you will find a "preview" followed by an "Introduction" section. One repeats the other.
In addition, the appendices only contribute to the thickness of the book. An appendix on matrix algebra where you will learn how to add / multiply matrices (...) and an appendix on the turtle drawing, a hot thing in the early 80s...
There is no real bibliography section, and no errata on the author's web site.
I was also not pleased by the exercises; the ones that are trivial are fully developed by the author, and the solution to the thornier ones are not presented.
Excellent computer graphics tutorial.......2007-01-24
This is a good solid introductory text on computer graphics theory and programming. Note that the book uses OpenGL rather than teaching it, so if you are looking for an OpenGL tutorial you will be disappointed. For that consult the classic "Red Book" on the subject. This book does throw in a couple of advanced topics - fractals, virtual realism, and ray tracing, for example. I really liked how the explanations were very detailed, and how pseudocode accompanies the explanation of every algorithm. The pseudocode is C-like and is therefore easily understandable. Also, the author makes excellent and frequent use of very excellent figures to get his points across. I also liked all of the practice problems, because they are good sanity checks on whether or not you really understand the material.
I will add that I was at first hesitant to add this book to my collection, because in the early 90's I used a textbook by this same author in a class I was taking on computer graphics, and it was about the most awful thing I have ever seen in print. There were a couple of good chapters, but most of it was paragraph after paragraph of rambling text without equations, codes, or anything that approached a tutorial. I wasn't a novice to this subject at the time, either, so it wasn't a lack of knowledge on the subject that made me hate that book. I'm saying all of this just in case this was your last experience with this author, don't let it prevent you from getting this book. Hill seems to have learned from his past mistakes, and I highly recommend this text. I notice the table of contents shown is for an older edition. This edition has changed considerably, so I show the new table of contents for the 3rd edition next:
Chapter 1 Introduction to Computer Graphics
1.1 What is Computer Graphics?
1.2 Where Computer Generated pictures are Used
1.3 Elements of Pictures created in Computer Graphics.
1.4 Graphics display devices
1.5 Graphics Input Primitives and Devices
Chapter 2 Getting Started Drawing Figures
2.1 Getting started making pictures
2.2 Drawing Basic Graphics Primitives
2.3 Making Line-drawings
2.4 Simple interaction with mouse and keyboard
Chapter 3 Additional Drawing Tools
3.1. Introduction
3.2. World Windows and Viewports
3.3. Clipping Lines
3.4. Regular Polygons, Circles, and Arcs
3.5. The Parametric Form of a Curve.
Chapter 4 Vector Tools for Graphics
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Review of Vectors
4.3. The Dot Product.
4.4. The Cross Product of Two Vectors.
4.5. Representations of Key Geometric Objects.
4.6. Finding the Intersection of two Line Segments.
4.7. Intersections of Lines with Planes, and Clipping.
4.8. Polygon Intersection Problems.
Chapter 5 Transformations of Objects
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Introduction to Transformations
5.3. 3D Affine Transformations
5.4. How To Change Coordinate Systems
5.5. Affine Transformations used in a Program.
5.6. To Draw 3D Scenes Interactively with OpenGL.
Chapter 6 Modeling Shapes with Polygonal Meshes.
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Introduction to Solid Modeling with Polygonal Meshes.
6.3. Polyhedra.
6.4. Extruded Shapes.
6.5. Mesh Approximations to Smooth Objects.
6.6. Particle Systems and Physically Based Systems
Chapter 7 Three-Dimensional Viewing
7.1 Introduction
7.2. The Camera Revisited.
7.3. To Specify a Camera in a program.
7.4. Perspective Projections of 3D Objects.
7.5. To Produce Stereo Views.
7.6. Taxonomy of Projections.
Chapter 8 Rendering Faces for Visual Realism
8.1. Introduction
8.2. Introduction to Shading Models
8.3. Flat Shading and Smooth Shading.
8.4. Adding Hidden Surface Removal.
8.5. To Add Texture to Faces.
8.6. To Add Shadows of Objects.
8.7. OpenGL 2.0 & The Shading Language (GLSL)
Chapter 9 Tools for Raster Displays
9.1. Introduction
9.2. Manipulating Pixmaps.
9.3. Combining Pixmaps.
9.4. Do It Yourself Line Drawing: Bresenham's Algorithm.
9.5 To Define and Fill Regions of Pixels.
9.6. Manipulating Symbolically-defined Regions.
9.7. Filling Polygon-Defined Regions.
9.8. Aliasing and Anti-Aliasing Techniques.
9.9. Creating More Shades and Colors.
Chapter 10 Curve and Surface Design
10.1. Introduction
10.2. Describing Curves using Polynomials.
10.3. On Interactive Curve Design.
10.4. Bezier Curves for Curve Design.
10.5. Properties of Bezier Curves.
10.6. Finding Better Blending functions.
10.7. The B-Spline Basis Functions.
10.8. Useful Properties of B-Spline Curves for Design.
10.9. Rational Splines and NURBS Curves.
10.10. A Glimpse at Interpolation.
10.11. Modeling Curved Surfaces.
Chapter 11 Color Theory
11.1. Introduction
11.2. Color Description
11.3. The CIE Standard
11.4. Color Spaces
11.5. Indexed Color and the LUT.
11.6. Color Quantization.
Chapter 12 Ray Tracing
12.1. Introduction
12.2. Setting Up the Geometry of Ray Tracing
12.3. Overview of the Ray-Tracing Process
12.4. Intersection of a Ray with an Object.
12.5. Organizing a Ray Tracer Application.
12.6. Intersecting Rays with Other Primitives
12.7. To Draw Shaded Pictures of Scenes
12.8. Adding Surface Texture.
12.9. Anti-aliasing Ray Tracings.
12.10. Using Extents
12.11. Adding Shadows for Greater Realism.
12.12. Reflections and Transparency
12.13. Compound Objects: Boolean Operations on Objects
12.14. Ray Tracing vs. Ray Casting
A1. Graphics Tools - Obtaining OpenGL.
A2. Some Mathematics for Computer Graphics
A2.1 Some Key Definitions for Matrices and their Operations
A2.2. Some Properties of Vectors and their operations.
A2.3. Spherical Coordinates and Direction Cosines.
A3. An Introduction to SDL: Scene Description Language
A3.1. Syntax of SDL
A3.2. Macros in SDL.
A3.3. Extending SDL.
A4. Fractals and The Mandelbrot Set
A4.1. Introduction
A4.2. Fractals and Self-Similarity
A4.3. The Mandelbrot Set
A5. Relative and Turtle Drawing.
A5.1. To Develop moveRel() and lineRel().
A5.2. Turtle Graphics
A5.3. Figures Based on Regular Polygons.
You'll note that the main difference between the second and third editions is that Hidden Surface Removal and Fractals no longer have dedicated chapters, but additional chapters on other subjects have not been added. The HSR material is now part of another chapter, and the Fractal subject matter is part of the appendix. One positive difference is the addition of some good material on the OpenGL Shading Language, which is a hot topic these days. Also, the material in the appendix on Postscript has been eliminated.
Too many typos and errors.......2007-01-19
I just bought this book and up to chapter 3 there are more errors and typos than what I care to recall. You would expect more of a book with a price tag as this one. Furthermore, the writing style is bad. The author begins a paragraph with one idea and finishes with something totally different, which makes it hard to read.
It is a very good book otherwise, but keep this in mind when buying.
Excellent book.......2005-11-25
This is an excellent book. I was coming from a novice OpenGL user and wanted to branch out from OpenGL, to understand more impressive CG techqniques. He uses OpenGL, but it's the underlying techniques that make this book impressive. He goes beyond the API and delves into a number of interesting areas. Good overall introduction, with a fair amount of code examples and discussion of how to modifiy what he gives you. Not perfect, I would have liked another chapter about radiosity, or more ray tracing, but really excellent.
Great Text.......2005-11-04
Like most of the books I buy online, this one was also for a class I'm currently taking. The instructor for this class is fresh out of the box and this is his first semester and class ever. Needless to say, any learning I have to do in this class is taught to me by reading the book. It is more of a teaching book than a techincal reference book, but the good news is, they offer a free online techincal reference book. The best of both worlds. If you're starting off in graphics like me, this is a great investment....
Book Description
Interactive Computer Graphics fourth edition presents introductory computer graphics concepts using a proven top-down, programming-oriented approach and careful integration of OpenGL to teach core concepts. The fourth edition has been revised to more closely follow the OpenGL pipeline architecture and includes a new chapter on programmable hardware topics (vertex shaders).
As with previous editions, readers learn to program three-dimensional applications as soon as possible. The Fourth edition focuses on core theory in graphics. Topics such as light-material interactions, shading, modeling, curves and surfaces, antialiasing, texture mapping, and compositing and hardware issues are covered.
Customer Reviews:
Great for a class.......2007-09-29
This text is great for a class on graphics. The reader may find it challenging to do a self-study however as it assumes a lot of prior mathematics... some of which the reader would not have unless he/she has studied the field of graphics before. While the book does cover most of the math in it either directly or in an appendix in the back, the book's treatment of the material is decidedly utilitarian and lacks the depth or breadth that a true mathematical text would have on such material. It is for this reason that it receives only 4 out of 5 stars. As an aid to lectures in class, this book is very good, provided one's professor covers the requisite math needed in order to understand it.
Great Job.......2007-09-09
Arrived many days early w/ free shipping in perfect condition. New book cheaper than the used book at the University book store! Great job thanks.
lovely colour plates.......2005-09-26
Stop! If you have this book in hand, the first thing you should do is turn to the colour plates in the centre of the book. Slowly (there is no need to hurry) look at each. Don't worry if some of the labels use technical terms that you are unaware of. The book teaches you those.
Admire the beauty of the plates. It gives an overview of much of current computer graphics. Far more inspiring than a page of written synopsis. The idea is to be motivated enough to learn the text. It is a good test of whether you might like the book. Hopefully you are drawn to this field because it interests you. It might sound frivolous to give such emphasis to the plates. In many other fields, this would be true. But here, inherently, the plates represent the goals.
As to the text, it comes well illustrated with numerous diagrams of three dimensional geometry. That's what this is mostly about. And the ray tracing optics that is overlaid on the geometry.
The maths assumes a good familiarity with matrix algebra. And the understanding of how matrices are used in maths and physics to model rotation and translation and scaling. The idea of matrix multiplication representing concatenating of transformations is one of the key elements to grasp. It does get more involved. In 3d, there are surfaces, and often you need to know the tangent plane or the normal to a point on the surface. Partial derivatives are needed for this.
You also get a thorough going over of OpenGL. Chosen because it gives you a powerful graphics language, that lets you learn the concepts quicker. Far quicker than if you had to hand code a lot of the basic operations.
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OpenGL(R) Shading Language (2nd Edition) (OpenGL)
Beginning OpenGL Game Programming (Game Development Series)
GPU Gems 2: Programming Techniques for High-Performance Graphics and General-Purpose Computation (Gpu Gems)
Real-Time Rendering (2nd Edition)
Interactive Computer Graphics: A Top-Down Approach Using OpenGL (4th Edition)
