Customer Reviews

Interactive Computer Graphics: A Top-Down Approach with OpenGL (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

You shouldn't buy this book if ALL you want to do is learn the commands of the OpenGL API. You shouldn't buy this book if you don't have a strong mathematical background. You shouldn't buy this book if you need the author to hold your hand on the exercises or the explanations, because that's not what this book is about. This is a computer graphics book, not an OpenGL API book. It uses the OpenGL API to aid in an in-depth study of Computer Graphics principles, much like Computer Graphics: Principles and Pracitce uses SPHIGS to aid in a more in-depth study of Computer Graphics principles. This book is highly mathematically oriented and the problems and exercises are practical and challenging, much like in the real world. You don't get silly exercises like "Draw a triangle on the screen" (except in maybe the first or second chapter). Instead you get exercises like "Write a program to simulate a bouncing ball taking into account gravity and elastic collisions". I like this book, but your primary goal should be Computer Graphics, not OpenGL. This book does go great, however, with the official opengl programmer's guide (forget the exact name).

Don't let some of the negative reviews fool you- those folks were looking for an in depth discussion of OpenGL, period, which this book doesn't give or promise to give.

What it does do, however, is discuss first rate graphics theory with plenty of mathematical discussion and well-written explanation, something that's very rare these days in most graphics texts.

If you really want to learn computer graphics, this is a great book to go with, all the more so because it uses OpenGL for its examples,thereby giving you hints on which OpenGL functions to use and when.

You don't need a PhD in math to learn from this book, either- really all you need is a semester of Linear Algebra, and the appendix reviews the math needed in a clear, concise fashion.

In short, for those who want to see how computer graphics theory works, they should look closely at this book before buying anything else.

having read many books and articles on 3d graphics, as well as general programming, i believe this book is certainly better than most.
while this books is aimed most certainly at an academic audience, it covers the fundamentals clearly and solidly. and while i still think foley is the standard, this book covers a lot more of the modern issues as well as providing a practical grounding using opengl. (the lack of which was the *major* downside of foley)

there are also some good introductions to more advanced issues in the latter third of the book, which makes for interesting reading.

perhaps my only concern with this book is the obsessive use of mathematics to explain simple concepts. often, the mathematical formulae provided offer no further explanation to the text, and simply serves to distract readers without strong mathematical backgrounds.
to quote one of my 3rd year math profs : "mathematics should be used as mathematicians intended - succinctly!"
(i can only imagine that the authors believed the formulae would "lend credibility" to the text.)

overall, i would recommend!

I'm puzzled by the bad ratings that this book has received. I felt it has been grossly under-rated.

I got this book because I needed two things - computer graphics math and how the computer graphics concepts relate to opengl. I found both in this book.

We can't do non-trivial computer graphics without math. APIs are great, but there will be times when we have to stretch our imaginations and apply our math knowledge to solve tough computer graphics problems.

The author has placed great emphaise on the math to do computer graphics and I applaud his approach. After the math foundation is laid, he would proceed to explain how opengl uses those math to do stuff under the hood. That, I thought, is the right approach to learn computer graphics.

If you can only buy 1 computer graphics book in your entire life, buy the cg bible - "Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice" by Foley and gang. If you can buy 2, then get this one too.

For an amateur UNIX/Linux C programmer like me, this book is a
very good introduction to OpenGL. I have bought several graphics books,
but Angel is the only author I have come across who has
taken the trouble to provide a makefile to ensure his readers
can actually compile any program. Once you can do that, you
should be able to teach yourself with the guidance from the book.
If you have trouble understanding dot products then you cannot
blame this book if you find it hard. Ultimately you will only
learn OpenGL (or any programming) by experimentation. Don't
expect to read any single book and become an expert overnight.

First of all the concept and design of this is perfect: a study of computer graphics covering the fundementals but using a modern full featured easy-to-use API, OpenGL. For the most part the title lives up to this with a few serious exceptions that force me to rate it 3 stars. First of all are the typo's. There are several and unfortunatley they mostly appear in equations, which can make things very confusing, and they aren't totally cataloged on the authors web site. Another very serious problem is with Chapter 4 which covers the math of graphics. Given that this is generaly a junior level CS course, and that matrices were covered in Algerbra 2, which is generaly taken sophomore year in HS, many of us haven't looked at a dot product in 5 years. So the chapter should really contain a few pages to dust off those cobwebs. The author also works through his equations without much commentary on the why. He also makes a point of explicitly defining his notation, and then doesn't stick to it. At one point he begins using a variable without ever having stated what it was supposed to represent. Unfortunately this comes in the key chapter covering the mathmatic principles, so it will have to be supplemented with some other source covering the same material. Not good when your talking about the fundementals, and there is a lack of well written instruction of this topic.

It's got some worth, but it really needs to be reorganized and redone. Get the 4th edition when it releases (it's on the second edition now, if that tells you anything) or a different book.

I'd actually settle with a mere correction in diagrams and typos. You cannot go more than a few pages or follow much of his math without running into a typo.

Even in the equations where there are no errors, he skips steps and claims "obviousness" in cases that make you wonder (due to the typos everywhere else) if it is also in error. You find yourself double-checking all of his math, and that's not something you should have to do to learn with a graphics textbook. This process makes the topic so much more complicated than it needs to be.

As part of this comedy, you can find that after about Chapter 6, none of the mysterious examples he references were included. You can find these examples on his (hard-to-locate) website, but it's very funny that they left about half of the intended examples out of the appendix.

This is a very terrible text book. Don't ever look at this book if you are a newbie in OpenGL, trigonometry, calculus, linear algebra and the mathematic's dot product. I think this book is suitable only for the University which the author is lecturing in. My university is using this book as the core text book of the computer graphic course, the end result is that almost 95% of the student cannot code well using OpenGL by following guidance of this book, where everyone is looking for coding and references from Internet just for the assignment, how annoy it is. Further, the lecturer also cannot understand the book's content, they lecture only by using the powerpoint slaid which is from the author himself, which make the situation worst.

If I am not mistaken, the author has claimed that the book is to help the student to program graphics as soon possible using OpenGL. It is absolutely not the true. This book will lead you to hell if you don't prepare yourself well in C/C++ and of course, OpenGL API. And if your lecturer does not know well in OpenGL API or C/C++ as mentioned, may God bless you. Another thing, if you look at the exercises of each chapter, I wonder if anyone who is beginner in computer graphics and by solely depend on the book can solve the problems.

Anyhow, I rate the book one star do not mean that this book is not a good book. To my opinion, this is absolutely a good book for those who have very strong computer graphic background together with mathematic skills or those who are advance learner in this field.

In fourth edition, I really hope that the author will come out something such as 'International Edition' of this book which the content may vary from the original version. This is because the computer science syllabus may vary from country to country. Bear in mind that the Top-down approach is suitable well in author's University or country does not mean that it is suitable to other University or country. This is what I mean the book is suitable only for the university or college that the author is lecturing in.

Remember, buy this book only if you already well-prepared yourself in C/C++, OpenGL API, trigonometry, linear algebra, geometry and some calculus basic.

I am a college student and had used this book in my graphics class. It was good for a general overview, but i frequently had to consult another text book to do the mathematics and to find the more advanced OpenGL commands.

This book is descent if used with the Official OpenGL Programming Guide. Alone, it is confusing, framented, and leaves the reader constantly asking "How did you do that, please explain!" The excercises are very difficult if you are not already an expert on Computer Graphics. It assumes you know complicated Computer Graphic techniques (although stated otherwised in the prefix) and askes you to implement them in OpenGL without hardly explaining how the technique works? I have to use this for a Computer Graphics course which is suppose to be for Senior Computer Science majors. Most of the exercises are completely beyond what the book has presented!