Customer Reviews

OpenGL(R) Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL(R), Version 2.1 (6th Edition)

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

 

 

Don't buy this book. It is simply an accumulation and rehash of all the previous versions lacking the grace of somebody editing out things that have become, to all practical purposes, obsolete.

It will have you believe that certain features of OpenGL are alive and well, when in fact they are archaic, and have been replaced by new facilities in the language. This is not a book that will assist a beginner, it may be of use to a technical historian.

As an example, extensive sample code is provided to illustrate gluBuild2DMipmaps() but no code is provided for the more uptodate GL_GENERATE_MIPMAPS and there is no explanation of it's use with borders...

If you are beginning OpenGL look elsewhere.

Though you can probably find most of the content in this book on the internet, the OpenGL Programmer's Guide is a great reference when programming using opengl. It has easily understandable explanations for every function, as well as many great examples. When I need to use a refernce to see if there are any functions that suit my needs, I can usually find them faster in this book than through google.

Book came in earlier then expected, in what appeared to be absolutely new condition. There wasn't so much as a bent corner.

The book itself was amazing; Many aspects of OpenGL were covered in very thorough sections. Example code was plentiful and very easy to understand. I recommend this book to anyone with a desire to program in OpenGL or any 3d graphics API.

Well written in simple English, but I found a couple of typos / bugs in example 15-2. "glProgramGetInfoLog" should read "glGetProgramInfoLog". The compiler catches this error, so it isn't too bad.

The other error is more difficult because the program will compile and link: "glShaderSource(shader, 1, shaderSrc, NULL);" should read "glShaderSource(shader, 4, shaderSrc, NULL);". Took me a while to find this. Did the authors not test their own code? This seems inexcusable.

Since the core OpenGL libraries haven't been updated in Windows since Open GL 1.1 the present book can be frustrating for Windows programmers in that it provides you with options that can only be pursued if you figure out OpenGL extensions.