Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications, Second Edition: A Programmer's Guide [Hardcover]

James M. Van Verth (Author), Lars M. Bishop (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0123742978 | ISBN-13: 978-0123742971 | Edition: 2

Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications, 2nd edition presents the core mathematics necessary for sophisticated 3D graphics and interactive physical simulations. The book begins with linear algebra and matrix multiplication and expands on this foundation to cover such topics as color and lighting, interpolation, animation and basic game physics. Essential Mathematics focuses on the issues of 3D game development important to programmers and includes optimization guidance throughout.

The new edition Windows code will now use Visual Studio.NET. There will also be DirectX support provided, along with OpenGL - due to its cross-platform nature. Programmers will find more concrete examples included in this edition, as well as additional information on tuning, optimization and robustness.

The book has a companion CD-ROM with exercises and a test bank for the academic secondary market, and for main market: code examples built around a shared code base, including a math library covering all the topics presented in the book, a core vector/matrix math engine, and libraries to support basic 3D rendering and interaction.

--Simple game engine with math, rendering, and input libraries on the CD-ROM, so that game developers can immediately start applying the techniques they learn in a basic codebase.
--Exercises on the CD-ROM for educators to use for course material
--Code samples shown throughout the book for real-world application

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It's the book with all the math you need for games." - Neil Kirby, Researcher, Alcatel-Lucent

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1st edition:
"Even though I've worked with these systems for years,this book showed me new ways of looking at several topics that make them easier to remember and use. For someone new to 3D programming, it is extremely useful - it gives them a solid background in pretty much every area they need to understand." - Peter Lipson, Toys for Bob, Inc.
1st edition quote

Book Description

From the authors' popular courses at Game Developers Conferences --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 2 edition (June 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0123742978
• ISBN-13: 978-0123742971
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best game math books, April 28, 2005

By 

Dave Astle (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications: A Programmer's Guide (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3D Technology) (Hardcover)

If only every topic in game and graphics programming were covered as well as math. Over the past several years, a number of exceptionally good books covering math for game and graphics programming have been released, and I've had the opportunity to review most of them. Although, not surprisingly, there is some overlap between them all, each covers unique material and presents information in an original way so that collectively, the books provide an impressive body of work.

Essential Mathematics stands out as one of the best books in the pack, especially in regards to its coverage of the math behind low-level rendering techniques.

The book is broken into 4 parts. The first part, Core Mathematics, covers vectors and matrices, transformations, and number representation. This part will be useful to anyone doing 3D graphics.

Part II, Rendering, covers topics such as lighting and shading, texturing, projection, and rasterization. This part was of particular interest to me because I've been working on a commercial renderer, but it should also be useful to those who want a better understanding of what graphics engines do under the hood.

Part III, Animation, covers curves (very in depth) and representation of orientations (Euler vs. axis-angle vs. quaternions). Finally, Part IV, Simulation, covers intersection testing and rigid body dynamics. There are also a couple of appendices to help you brush up on trig and calculus, if needed.

The book includes many C++ code samples and demos, including a handy math library and a simple rendering/game engine using OpenGL and GLUT. The authors are to be commended for their writing style as well. It's very easy for a book of this nature to get bogged down in an extremely heavy academic tone, but this book manages to avoid that, making for a remarkably easy read.

I'm glad I don't have to choose just one game math book, but if I did, this would probably be the one I'd pick.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A solid guide to beginner and expert alike, January 13, 2009

By 

Christopher Dannemiller (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications, Second Edition: A Programmer's Guide (Hardcover)

I have read many math books for video games and there are two aspects of this book I really like. The first is the book is encyclopedic and terms of the amount of information that it covers. The second reason that I like this book is that it clearly explains where the equations come from not just what the equations are.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, Comprehensive, and Educational., May 8, 2004

By 

Amit Pitaru (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications: A Programmer's Guide (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3D Technology) (Hardcover)

The strength of this book lies in its author's ability to make complex subjects accessible to programmers of various levels. The book covers all necessary subjects of 3D development and algorithmic motion, while providing primers in the relevant Math and Trigonometry. The writing is clear, and the examples combine notation in Math, Pseudo Code, and Open-GL implementation. I could see various uses for this book; from reference guide to required course reading. It explains the most fundamental subjects of Vectors and Matrices, and later capitalizes on this knowledge towards subjects that every professional in the field should know. To make sure the book is right for you, I suggest reading the Introduction, which portrays the book accurately and proceeds to recommend alternative and additional resources.