Customer Reviews

Interactive Computer Graphics: A Top-Down Approach Using OpenGL (4th Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

This is an excellent textbook. I've just completed an undergraduate course in computer graphics using this text and it made the course much easier and more interesting. It clearly explains the content using appropriate examples. However, this book is for an upper level college course and is not suitable for beginners.

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.

I start reading the book as it arrives. In chapter 2, I faced with several problems.

The code to generate 2D recursive Triangle and 3D one does not produce the same result printed in the book. I look up online for source code for the book from Pearson, but they are all private (require login). I google for the source and come to several class website. Their code produce like what the book shows. I start to compare between the code, their vertex and orthographic view parameter are different. I go back to orthographic view => "detail in Chapter 5". Okay sure, no problem. Some material in chapter 1 can be skipped because they are just general knowledge (not even related to computer science).

Also, the text have many error in code. I don't want to list it out. Try the code out and you see.

This is a very good book, it shows a lot of details of Computer
Graphics

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.