Customer Reviews

Open Geometry: OpenGL + Advanced Geometry

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

 

 

I am not here to complain that the book doesn't teach you about OpenGL, that's what Moo's Red Book does, very very well.

I am not pleased with this book since I could only put myself through dealing with the first 1/4 and then I peeked ahead to see if it would give me what I want.

DO NOT get this book if you:

[1] Want a concise, self-contained book on Graphics math: try ISBN: 083113111X by Mortenson who actually focuses on MATH.

[2] Want a book that shows you how to work your code in with OGL, to help OGL do things faster (say like doing your own lighting or culling). I wish I could find such a text, alas you must go cast your net into the see of data called the internet, there's tons of samples and links. Also, general papers like Kenneth Hoff's are a great place to bend your mind.

[3] If you want to avoid spelunking YAAW (Yet Another API Wraper) don't get this book, you get to see OpenGeometry all over, OGL is an also ran.

[4] Good C++? How about correct C++? The comment on how C++ handles arrays of pointers is frighteningly wrong. In addition the code looks like something from an MSJ article on using MFC. This is a direct affect of using such a class library in such a fashion.

[5] He could have used GLUT and made those of us who like the Open aspect of OpenGL happier.

Otherwise, it may be true that this book is one of the few to cover certain topics, however I'll try other roads first.

The book is actually a manual for the authors' geometry library, which is provided in full as source. The example programs are excellent.

Unfortunately I bought the book with the intention of using it as a reference for implementing such features as CSG and kinematics. The book itself is not a particularly good text on the subjects, partly due to the weak English used, and partly due to the majority of the book being devoted to describing the use of the library. The two subjects I was looking for were among the better described in the book.

If you're looking for a completely written "bookware" geometry library you'll probably be completely happy. However, be aware the if you're looking to implement the effects described yourself, the best way to learn is by reading the source (which there is plenty of).

There are plenty of good graphics programming sites with better explanations than here on the web for free. However there are few libraries as complete. The book's price is also reasonable, considering the ammount charged by some bookware authors.

This book is for people who need to learn about advanced geometry, and are not scared to look at some code in the process (not all is explained in detail in the book). The book describes data structures and methods used in the code (which you receive on the accompanying CDROM) to create and manipulate complex geometrical objects. This book is not about OpenGL programming, though the code uses it to display the results.

WARNING: The authors started programming the library in PASCAL. They used the p2c translator to create the C code for some 'older' parts of the code. Also the older parts are written in GERMAN. This is what I find the only flaw in this book, because it makes it harder to read it in some cases.

I'm looking forward to version 2.0 of this book which is probably released somewhere in spring 2001.

It said this book is for C++ with OpenGL,Its not that you think!, I thought was in Ansi C++. This is using MFC. The Library seems its a good wrapper of OpenGL and the book its interesting but im complane that nobody told me is using MFC , also the description of the book and the sypnosis doesnt post that, so i think people think is with ansi C++!. anyway i have no chance to use this book cause i dont use MFC.

An extraordinarily valuable book for any one wanting to create Open-GL scenes. Unlike many Open-GL books that stop after presenting the basic Openg-GL figures, Open Geometry provides numerous complete source code examples of complex and interesting shapes.Want to display the horns of the greater kudu, Moebius strip, Klein bottle, complex mechanical motion? Then this book is for you.

Of the nine Open-GL books I own, this is by far the most useful.

I used this book as a textbook to teach a graduate course in "Geometry and Computer Graphics" at San Jose State University. The course was a success, and the book was crucial to that success.

The book describes, and gives examples of the use of, the Open Geometry programming system, developed by the authors. You get a copy of this system on a CD-ROM with the book. Indeed, perhaps I should say that you get a copy of the book with this CD-ROM. Open Geometry is a collection of C++ classes making it easy to program advanced three-dimensional graphics. For example, one of the sample programs is called "The Blue Planet and its Only Moon", and shows two colored and beautifully shaded spheres, with one in animated motion around the other. The shading changes as the moon orbits. The program to produce this fits on one small screen, and begins with variable declarations like "Sphere Earth;".

The architecture of Open Geometry is based on C++ classes that correspond to geometrical objects. Thus, there are classes for points, vectors, lines, planes, polygons, circles, spheres, parametric surfaces, polyhedra, etc. The actual rendering of these objects is accomplished by OpenGL, a cross-platform graphics library that is implemented on both UNIX and Windows, as well as the Silicon Graphics machines where it originated. We used the Windows version of Open Geometry, which comes with a nice Windows interface. It is distributed as source code, so you get a project to open in Microsoft Visual C++. You can add your own source code to that project (or a copy of it). For most of the class programming projects, a knowledge of Windows programming was optional. The book (and CD-ROM) contains a large number of interesting example programs illustrating the features of Open Geometry, including various kinds of parametrized surfaces and examples from kinematics.

We had no serious difficulties in using the system to write programs in a number of different areas of geometry: minimal surfaces, cartography (did you know there are hundreds of different known projections of the sphere to a plane used for maps?) and regular polyhedra, to mention a few. The final assignment of the semester, which the students accomplished in two weeks, was to program a three-dimensional, manipulable Rubik's cube. By means of toolbar buttons, the cube can be manipulated as you could a real one; but you can also input instructions for a compound sequence of operations on the cube.

I recommend this book to anyone who knows C++ and wants to learn about 3d graphics programming.

This book has great promise. Unfortunately, it was not tested on a variety of platforms for ease of building. I installed it on my NT box, and no executables were provided, just source. I installed it on my Linux box, hoping that building there would be much more straightforward. The makefile and build process is very poor. The ZIP file in the UNIX directory on the CD-ROM all has dos-format files in it (^M on every line) which messes up the EGCS compiler. I'm having to edit a great number of files to get anything to compile. I'm persevering because it has some cool ideas in it. But if they could have taken the time to write better build scripts and makefiles for a variety of platforms, I could rate the book better. This book could have been excellent but fails in its CD-ROM delivery.

There is a lot of math in this book, so be prepared. But you will find insight into areas of graphics that are really very difficult to find elsewhere. Note: For the intermediate to advanced programmer only!

This book provides a computational geometry visualization library, covering topics that I had a hard time finding good resources for. Solid modeling, swept/extruded surfaces, and boolean operations are all explained. Overall, I liked the presentation; my only complaints are that the book reads a little like a translation (the authors are apparently Austrian) and that the sample programs on the CD(and there are a lot of them!) could be a little better documented.

The title of this review says it all. I'm hard pressed to think of any arena in which this boook might server some purpose other than book-end. Too small for a boat anchor...

This book is not about OpenGL programming. It's about the authors highly specific, extremely limited system for rendering a small set of surfaces described by mathematical expressions. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the author has developed a general purpose surface rendering-graphing system. He hasn't. Likewise, don't make the mistake of thinking this is some open-ended system that can be extended to a general-purpose (read 'useful') rendering/graphing system. It is too limited to be a useful graphics/mathematical tool, and it certainly isn't going to teach anyone anything about OpenGL.