Customer Reviews

OpenGL Boxed Set

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The 3rd Edition of the "OpenGL Programming Guide" is an important upgrade to what is the definitive introduction to OpenGL programming. I was pleased to participate in the technical review of this book so I can attest to (and I guess be held indirectly accountable for) the book's completeness and accuracy.

If you are interested in practical 3D programming using the latest in 3D hardware acceleration and you want a straightforward and portable programming interface, OpenGL is definitely the way to go, and this book is what you need to get started.

Since the last update two years ago, OpenGL 1.2 and the OpenGL multitexturing extension have been standardized. This Guide has complete explanations and tutorial coverage on all new OpenGL 1.2 features and the multitexturing extension.

OpenGL 1.2 is packed with new features like volume textures, image processing capabilities, more image formats, etc, etc. The book covers _all_ the new stuff in OpenGL 1.2. OpenGL multitexturing is already widely available. Games such as the much anticipated "Quake III: Arena" use OpenGL multitexturing, and I expect lots of other 3D games will be using multitexturing as well.

Since the book uses the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT), all the examples can be compiled and run on basically all OpenGL implemenetations, independent of operating system (Linux, Windows 95/NT, IRIX, MacOS, etc). The updated book also contains appendices that detail operating system specific OpenGL usage.

If you are a newbie to OpenGL, this is definitely the book to start with.

But I bet most OpenGL programmers already have an earlier edition of this book so the big question is whether the new edition is worth it. If you still have the 1st edition, getting the 3rd is a no-brainer. If you have the 2nd edition, the main benefit of the 3rd edition is the new coverage of OpenGL 1.2 and multitexturing and the improved coverage of operating system support.

- Mark Kilgard, author of the OpenGL Utility Tookit (GLUT) and "Programming OpenGL for the X Window System"

For those graphic programmers who think that Java3D requires that you program at too high a level and want more elementary control over their graphics operations, OpenGL is probably a good choice for a graphics programming API. So, assuming you already have a good grasp of computer graphics programming concepts and can already program in the C language, this guide is probably your best bet. If you don't already know these things, you will be completely lost trying to read this book. The book starts out in chapter one showing the reader exactly what OpenGL can and cannot do. Supporting code and instructive figures are supplied. The next few chapters deal with performing basic graphics tasks by using the OpenGL API. Topics included are viewing, display lists, color, lighting, blending, antialiasing, and fog. Again, if you are not already familiar with how to write pseudocode for these type of graphics tasks, you need to find a good basic computer graphics text and learn the techniques first. The next part of the book moves on to slightly more advanced topics such as texture mapping, tessellators, quadrics, and NURBs all from the standpoint of "How do I do this in OpenGL?". The chapter entitled "Now That You Know" is especially valuable to the experienced graphics programmer. Unlike previous chapters, this chapter presents a collection of examples of higher-level graphics capabilities and some incomplete OpenGL code for those examples. The reader is expected to flesh out the code to get a running graphics program, and the book does point this fact out. Chapter 15, "OpenGL 20 and the OpenGL Shading Language", is the only truly new material in this 5th edition of the OpenGL programming guide. Thus, if you are not interested in using the OpenGL shader, you can probably forge ahead with the 4th edition of the guide if you already have a copy.
For those readers who want to learn OpenGL but have not yet learned computer graphics techniques, I highly recommend "Computer Graphics Using Open GL" (2nd Edition) by Francis Hill. That book has all of the basic graphics techniques explained using OpenGL code. However, note that it is a computer graphics textbook, NOT an OpenGL tutorial. Also, you might want to pick up a copy of Schaum's outline of computer graphics. It is an inexpensive guide to both 2D and 3D computer graphics techniques that is not specifically aimed at any particular language or API, and it has many excellent exercises that help you learn the material.

The Opengl Programming Guide has become a standard to which other 3D programming books are compared. It serves two basic functions: a tutorial of topical 3D concepts inherent in todays 3D graphics hardware/software and an instructional manual offering a precise explanation of the functional calls with supporting attributes/arguments defined by the OpenGL Application Programming Interface. The book is extremely well organized and allows readers to focus on specific topics while still maintaining perspective of the entire rendering pipeline. It is comprehensive, up-to-date and easy to read making it my first choice for clarifying all 3D technical issues. I cannot imagine a serious 3D programmer or software architect not having this book included in their personal library.

This book is a must for those wanting to fully exploit the power of OpenGL. In this 3rd Edition, the authors have included the newest features of OpenGL, Version 1.2. In particular, the discussion about multitexturing and imaging subset deserves a special mention, since they represent the latest rendering techniques available in form of a standard library.

Although all features, from the most basic to the most advanced technique, are covered in this book, it is not an introductory graphics text book. Readers should have a basic knowledge about computer graphics in order to benefit from this book. Also, it is useful to be familiar with 2D/3D geometry and other graphics libraries. As code fragments and samples are written in C, experience with this programming language is also required.

I recommend this book for any serious OpenGL programmer, perhaps complemented with the "OpenGL Reference Manual" and "Programming OpenGL for the X Window System" by Mark Kilgard.

I'm new to graphics programming. I started out by programming in DirectX, using LaMothe's "Windows Game Programming for Dummies". The book was OK, but due to the extreme confusion of DirectX, I wasn't able to understand past chapter 3.

So, if you're confused about DirectX and really need to program in OpenGL, that's the best book to buy. The book takes you step by step from scratch to building up your program. Tons of coding examples are included in the book, and are very well documented. What's good about this book is all the coding examples are based on the C language. So, if you're not a good C++ programmer, or a better C than a C++ programmer, then this is the book to get.

One drawback about the book, is it doesn't include a CD. So, you have to write all the code yourself. That gives you a hands-on experience. The book also doesn't include the GLUT library, and most of the examples in the book use it. So you have to download it. ...

Before I started reading this book, I tried learning from the Direct3D on-line documentation. I had no previous knowledge in polygons at all. I had managed to hack up an unlit polygon, but I still never knew what I was doing. After much frustration (help files are never helpful) I decided to bite the bullet and buy a book on OpenGL. This book has been the best investment I have made so far to my programming career. Even if you want to use a different 3d API, you should start with this book, because OpenGL is EASY to learn. In fact, I can even understand D3D documentation now!

This is the best place to start learning about OpenGL and it has enough depth and scope to keep you refering to it at an advanced level. I am pleased that each edition gets better. Not only by adding the new features of the latest release of OpenGL but also revising the older chapters to improve their clarity. You really can't go that wrong with this book but be aware that there are some vector and matrix calculations here that assume you have prior knowledge of why it works. Overall a good balance of theory, code samples and math. Also, if you are using an earlier version of OpenGL (1.0 or 1.1) can still use this book, just make sure you watch out for the comments as to which features are available in which version.

This is by far the best and most useful OpenGL book that I own. Not only does this book do a great job on teaching OpenGL functions and format, but it delves into the concepts of 2D and 3D graphics theory. The chapters are organized very well and cover their respective topics rather thoroughly. Be weary, however, as this book does assume you have a bit of experience with some graphics concepts, matrix math, and of course, C programming. Overall, if you ever plan on using OpenGL, this book is a must have!

This is an excellent book on OpenGL. This may not be for the absolute beginner in computer graphics (it does assume you understand some concepts of computer generated graphics) but for those that understand the fundamentals of graphics, this is a superb book. Commands are organized nicely into numbers of tables for eacy access along with extensive indexes for reference. Not only does it explain the commands that OpenGL uses, it goes into what happens behind the scenes (what OpenGL does "for you") when you invoke a command. This can make determining if an effect is too taxing on your processor to bother with. For someone that knows a little something about computer graphics (you don't really have to know much) and is learning OpenGL, this is an essential piece of equipment.

OpenGL isn't a beginner's topic. It is a (seemingly) complex world of graphics processing at the lowest levels. It is not for the timid or mathematically illiterate. This book addresses the topic in a very logical manner. When you know and understand OpenGL, it is easy to understand that some elements of a logical progression do not necessarily make the best sense to a newcomer to the technology. When first embracing OpenGL, there is a relatively steep on-ramp for some kinds of thinkers. So what's new? Everyone thinks a bit differently.

This book will point your thinking in the direction of OpenGL. It takes a very steady, but fundamental course toward that objective. It is not full of fluff, nor does it attempt to overwhelm the uninitiated with superfluous content. It does a really good job at combining elements of the nitty-gritty of OpenGL code with the practices and underlying architecture of the OpenGL system as implemented by the standards-conformant graphics hardware/drivers. It has a very comprehensive expose of the OpenGL pipeline and every reasonable aspect of using OpenGL at the fundamental level and with the GLUT.

My copy of this book is well-worn from countless flippings back-n-forth of pages and chapters as I continue to extract useful information about OpenGL from it. Perhaps it deserves 5 stars, but I have no frame of reference nor am I a gift to OpenGL programmers, so I rate it conservatively at 4.5 stars.

The book reads very easily. It is not wordy or overly terse. It does assume that you've had at least fundamental mathematics representative of college-level computer science majors. Even if your math skills are not so well-developed, this book doesn't try to drown you in such things, rather, it directs you toward the practices of accomplishing OpenGL programming assuming that you will learn that math that is necessary for the work you intend to do. It also assumes that you have strong fundamentals in C programming. It also assumes that you're able to read and comprehend English. I don't find any of these to be worthy of a disclaimer as might another reviewer.

The book is presented very well. I can not say enough how straight-forward and logically it proceeds through the topics necessary to get up-to-speed with OpenGL programming. It reads well, too. That is, you don't necessarily need to be sitting at your computer in order to enjoy elements of this book while learning about OpenGL.

The included examples are well-chosen to illustate the points made during the course of the text where they are found. I had absolutely no problem compiling and executing them on my GNU/Linux-based system using Mesa and GCC.

I would suggest that you plan to spend some quality time with this book if you're serious about learning OpenGL. Some of the topics take more than a brief reading to fully sink-in...at least they did for me! There are a few sections that I spent several hours on and re-read several times, which I credit to the technical-aspects of the content rather than reduce to an "issue" with the authors' presentation skills. OpenGL isn't going to be easy if you're relatively new to 2D and 3D programming. It is probably an "advanced" topic for all but the most severe.

The book is thoroughly enjoyable and when completed and you're banging away OpenGL code with style and grace, there is a notable sense of accomplishment. I had a lot of fun dissecting this book until my brain finally decided to learn its contents.