Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C (2nd Edition) (Systems Programming Series) (Hardcover)

by James D. Foley (Author), Andries van Dam (Author), Steven K. Feiner (Author), John F. Hughes (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice is the most exhaustive overview of computer graphics techniques available. This textbook's 21 chapters cover graphics hardware, user interface software, rendering, and a host of other subjects. Assuming a solid background in computer science or a related field, Computer Graphicsgives example programs in C and provides exercises at the end of each chapter to test your knowledge of the material. The guide has over 100 beautiful, four-color photographs that illustrate important topics and algorithms, such as ray tracing and bump maps, and also inspire you to acquire the skills necessary to produce them. Encyclopedic in its coverage, the book has a good table of contents so that you can immediately turn to information on the z-Buffer algorithm or the chapter on animation.

Product Description
Over 100 full-color plates and over 700 figures illustrate the techniques presented in the book. The authors provide a unique combination of current concepts and practical applications. Important algorithms in 2D and 3D graphics are detailed for easy implementation. Computer graphics are explored from the perspective of the user.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1200 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (August 14, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201848406
• ISBN-13: 978-0201848403
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #101,066 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hardcore, September 26, 1999

By	Michael Henson (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let me reiterate what a few others have said:

"This book is for thinking and researching."

"This is not a book that you can read while sipping a glass of wine..."

"the bible of computer graphics"

This is not a book that you will end up copying source code out of(a good thing). This book was my first step into the hardcore graphics world, and it was great. I don't think that more source code would enhance this book at all, mabye even the opposite. Source code is not what this book is about. If you are planning on implementing some of these algorithms, you must know how to code well, period. This is not a "here's how to code in C" manual, it's a "these are the principles of Computer Graphics." It's everything it claims to be.

I particurally like the excercises at the end of every chapter. Although I don't do them all, it gives me a guide to practice what I learned. The math in this book is not as hard as some make it out to be. It is Matrix/Vector algrebra and some calc. A glossary would have been a nice touch, as some of the vocabulary can be overwhelming at times, especially the acronyms.

"Recommended for the hardcore programming freaks." Hope the authors (I'm going to give credit to more than Foley) plan to write again.

69 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Once the standard text, now badly out of date, April 17, 2003

By	Elan Ruskin "Crash" (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Once upon a time any student interested in computer graphics was referred straight to this book, and indeed what you've got here is an amazing smorgasbord of nearly every technique that was state of the art several years ago. Unfortunately the times have moved on and Foley et al. have not quite been able to keep up with them; entire chapters are still devoted to PHIGS, while modern methods of rotation such as quaternions are covered in only the most cursory way.

Another problem is the book's extremely terse, high-level approach to many important concepts; often a mathematical approach or an algorithm will be mentioned as a solution to a given problem (quadtrees, let's say), but once you try to take that knowledge from the chalkboard to the compiler, you begin to realize that there are some important pieces missing. Of course, no one expects a text like this to be a cookbook of code snippets, but as a primary textbook for an applications programmer this falls short. The tiny print and unhelpful illustrations don't improve matters much for pedagogy.

So, even though this is the Classic Textbook, I've found myself better served by a combination of other, more recent books -- Alan Watt's text on graphics in combination with Eric Lengyel's on 3D Mathematics, specifically. They won't cover *everything* there is to know, but they'll do a better job of getting you started than Foley, and the stuff they don't address can be found in other books or SIGGRAPH papers.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Computer Graphics != Easy to Grasp, August 3, 1999

By A Customer

I don't know why people seem to think they can just pick up a graphics book on theory and grasp concepts without having to wade through mathematical formulas. Computer graphics IS like nuclear physics, it is not a walk through the park. This book, entitled "The Computer Graphics Bible" is your park guide. It has a comprehensive overview of most concepts, and tons of references to more info on those subjects. There isn't much code, but that's a good thing, because the only wy you can learn this stuff is by implementation, and that's how it should be done, not by copying code from a book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.