Fundamentals of Computer Graphics [Hardcover]

Peter Shirley (Author), Michael Ashikhmin (Author), Steve Marschner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568814690 | ISBN-13: 978-1568814698 | Publication Date: July 21, 2009 | Edition: 3rd Revised edition

The broad acceptance and use of this book as one of the leading introductory computer graphics texts has enabled the original author and coauthors to update the chapters and contribute new material involving the most knowledgeable experts in different areas while maintaining a unified approach. This edition of "Fundamentals of Computer Graphics" adds four new contributed chapters and contains substantial reorganizations and improvements to the core material. The new chapters add coverage of implicit modeling and of two important graphics applications: games and information visualization. The fourth new contributed chapter is a major upgrade to the material on color science. As with the chapters added in the second edition, we have chosen the contributors both for their expertise and for their clear way of expressing ideas.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Fundamentals of Computer Graphics appears in its third updated edition to pack in discussions of the basics of computer graphics for college-level students and programmers. Four new chapters on implicit modeling, color, visualization and computer graphics in games have been added along with extensive revisions and updated new material, making this a 'must' for any college-level computer graphics library. 
       -- The Midwest Book Review, December 2009

About the Author

Peter Shirley is a principal research scientist at NVIDIA and an adjunct professor in the School of Computing at the University of Utah. He has held positions at Indiana University and the Program of Computer Graphics at Cornell University.

Steve Marschner is an associate professor in the Computer Science Department and Program of Computer Graphics at Cornell University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 804 pages
• Publisher: A K Peters; 3rd Revised edition edition (July 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568814690
• ISBN-13: 978-1568814698
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Game Programming

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One of CG API-independent Books, January 24, 2005

By 

Zul S. Dharmawan (Jakarta Selatan, Jakarta Indonesia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fundamentals of Computer Graphics (Hardcover)

I use this book as a textbook for 3D Computer Graphics course. Before using this book, I've used Donald Hearns' and Jim Foley's. Compare to those two, I think this book cover the basic material without even touching API. This is what I like about this book.

On every chapter, there is an FAQ about materials covered. It also has an exercises for us to do, unfortunately no answers. It could also be very helpful, if there are Internet links on each chapter for us to ponder or if we would want to go detail into each chapter.

Sadly, this book doen't cover much about animation, which is one of the topic I'm focusing on. It also contains many errors, both in the formula and in the text.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful: errata page, January 24, 2005

By 

René van den Berg (Holland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fundamentals of Computer Graphics (Hardcover)

Though this text provides the reader with a thorough treatment of the basic and advanced topics of today's graphics algorithms and techniques, some errors pop up here and there which might be problematic when trying to program according to the book, or trying out the execution of an algorithm. An errata page has been provided by the writer which might be useful to readers of this text; it can be found at http://www.cs.utah.edu/~shirley/fcg/errata
I hope this helps some people out. I, for one, started sweating when it seemed like I did not understand BSP trees anymore; it took me a couple of minutes to see that a couple of lines were inverted in the accompanying code. However, this book is interesting, fun to read, and useful. I recommend it to anyone who already has a basic understanding of Computer-Graphics-Without-An-API.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great intro to 3D graphics!, August 19, 2002

By 

Bernard VdS - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fundamentals of Computer Graphics (Hardcover)

This is a really good intro to the fundamentals of 3D graphics. The best thing about this book is that it is API-neutral, and so covers the material wihtout making specific references to API's. The material is explained very clearly and is easy to read. I would have liked some more guidance on actual implementation in code (e.g. using C to make it accessible to most readers, or using pseudo-code). Perhaps some canned demo programs would have been nice, to supplement the narrative.

I also bought Hill's book on 3D graphics with OpenGL(2nd Edition), and find the two books work quite well together.

I recommend Shirley's book as a first introduction to graphics theory >before< you start playing with an API!