Customer Reviews

More OpenGL Game Programming

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

 

 

I'm rating this 2 stars primarily because of the incomplete nature of the project. It's not just that the code samples won't compile, or are so disorganized as to be nearly worthless. Much more irritating are the constant references to code samples that simply don't exist. Time and again the author(s) refer to sample programs that can be 'downloaded from the books web site'. These programs do not exist. The authors lame explanations for the lack of a CD (cost, etc) lose all credibility when one comes to the realization that the likely reason a CD doesn't exist is because the vast majority of the sample programs referred to in the text don't exist, either. Any hope that new code samples my someday appear on the book site seems futile as well - the site hasn't been updated in a year and a half. One is left with the feeling that this is clearly a project that was shipped when only partially completed. I feel ripped off; taken advantage of.

On the plus side, portions of the book are well written and informative. It is, in spite of it's shortcomings, one of the better books I've found for explaining a variety of GL techniques commonly used in games. It's a shame it doesn't live up to it's promise; if the authors had been a little more diligent in completing the project before publishing it, it could have been a world-beater. Instead it's just another slightly below average disappointment.

I also have a real problem with the fact that the author is writing reviews (typically 4 star ratings) for books that his own organisation is involved in publishing. If that isn't a conflict of interest I don't know what is. I feel Amazon compromises their credibility by allowing clearly non-objective 'reviews' to be listed with the books. If the author wants to write a little blurb, thats fine, but don't let them rate products they have a financial interest in.

"More OpenGL Game Programming" takes the basic foundation of "OpenGL Game Programming" and takes it to a professional level. I currently am taking advanced graphics courses in college, and this book has managed to match pound-for-pound the amount of graphics techniques covered in advanced courses. This book is definitely designed with the serious programmer aimed at professional-level work in mind, and it delivers generously.

The book is structured as a series of articles of varying lengths addressing a large number of advanced topics in graphics. It starts with giving better methods to store and pass data around than in the previous volume, which can be applied to all of the techniques thereafter. A few small articles about mildly interesting topics serve as appetizers to the main course: shaders. The author clearly recognizes the importance of shaders and spends a fitting amount of time discussing them. The examples start out simple and demonstrate practical uses of shaders, making sure the reader comes out of these large chapters with a working knowledge of what shaders are for and how to use them.

With shaders mastered, the rest of the book dives into a feast of useful graphics techniques and tricks. It effectively covers the various solutions available to common graphical goals and effectively conveys when they can and can't be used, their costs and benefits, and other important information that not only helps implement but also helps the reader decide when to use each technique for the best effect.

Don't underestimate this book; it is massive as well as meaty. If you are passionate about computer graphics you won't be able to skip a page. If you're a professional, this book is full of valuable reference material and details about implementing the latest innovations in graphics. This book doesn't have a place on my bookshelf; it has a place on my desk.

That said, the only thing that is badly lacking is the source code. The book does not come with a CD, but rather allows the reader to download source code from the author's website. The included examples are fairly well-constructed, but the code base is incomplete. Most depressingly, the source code for the shader wrapper - which the author uses in most of the code examples for shaders - is not available currently. While having the interface design is nice, it does require that the reader implement it in order to directly copy the code examples from the book, which might feel tedious when one is anxious to actually start messing around with shaders. However don't think that the source code is totally useless; there's a good deal of useful source on the web site to sift through.

The complaints out of the way I must reiterate that this is the best graphics book I have seen available and was worth not only every penny but more. I strongly recommend "More OpenGL Game Programming" to to student who's looking to take amateur graphics programming to the professional level or the professional looking for a good resource for the latest graphics techniques used in games today.

There are too many books around about opengl programming or game programming, but there are few about opengl + game programming, but there is one about opengl + game programming + detailed contents, "More Opengl Game Programming". I also read the first version of this chain, "Beginning opengl game programming", it was fast and rich read for me, less but rich contents for me and this one is really cool. Too many specific techniques are covered, sky texturing, terrain rendering, rendering fur etc... They give the main idea under the hood with sufficient manner of telling and examples,I recommend the book.

Some of the stuff in this book is redundant in a sense that language specs and extensions spec are already available online then why put in there.

Second, I found the explanation more like notes+spec form. Not at all for an newbie person and for an expert it does not offer anything new. As it starts with FBO, RenderTarget, PBOs etc. many things have changed over the period, including GLSL specs.

Book structure is also quite confusing to me, it starts with some concepts of advance OpenGL(!) and then it is more like ShaderXn series with appendix and last chapeters full of GLSL and ARB specs.

Buy this book if you know what you are looking for, check appendix first.

This is one of the best books I've ever read about the OpenGL...