Customer Reviews

OpenGL SuperBible, Second Edition (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's hard not to write a review of an OpenGL book without comparing it to the Red Book, so I'll go ahead and do just that. Overall, I think the Superbible is every bit as useful as the Red Book, but in different ways. Although the Red Book has more detailed coverage, the Superbible focuses more on the practical side, covering the things you'll use and how you'll use them. Where the Red Book remains entirely platform-independent, the Superbible has quite a bit of Windows specific information, which is good since that's what a lot of us use. Finally, while the Red Book provides fairly generic OpenGL coverage, the Superbible is geared more toward real-time applications and games, which makes it a bit more appealing to folks like me.

One really nice thing about this book is that it assumes no previous graphics programming experience (unlike the Red Book). It's also written in a more conversational tone. Those two factors combined probably make it a better book for beginners. If your objective is to make games, and you want to use OpenGL for them, then, at the time of writing, this is really the only book available on OpenGL containing any significant amount of game-specific material (though I *cough* have it on good authority that an OpenGL game programming book is on the horizon...)

To sum up, I think that the Superbible's OpenGL coverage is quite good, it's extremely well written, and the code examples are both illustrative and useful. If you choose it as your means of learning OpenGL, you won't be disappointed.

This is my fourth year using the SuperBible to teach OpenGL to University Students. Were having fun: colorcube, adventures of a marble, the animated hand, and numerous other projects. I lecture from the Opengl SuperBible second edition over a fifteen week course. I particular like the number of graphic illustrations combined with concepts. I can progressive build my students through the semister chapter by chapter. I recommend the second edition as valued OpenGL book.

I'm an aspiring video / computer game programmer, so I didn't have much choice on wether or not do buy an OpenGL book or not. And let me tell you, this is one book that will be used for quite some time.

Yes, it is true that it doesen't teach EVERYTHING about OpenGL, but it teaches you plenty to start using it accuratly and even goes into some more advanced features. I use this book so much now that I just sit it on my monitor and when I need it, I just grab it.

If you need to learn OpenGL then this is the best way to go, if you need to get deeper into the subject, then I suggest you get the red book, after this one.

If you are looking to learn OpenGL on Windows, then this is the book for you. Each chapter gives an excellent description of the concepts learned. The authors writing is clear and concise.

The book uses GLUT for most of the programs. This is great as you can spend the time learning on program in 3d as oppossed to OS specific code. GLUT takes about 10 minutes to learn(Window,keyboard,and mouse functions), but you can do A LOT with it. You can make lots of small games and demos with it. Once the code works, remove GLUT and use your OS code.

This is a book on programming 3d graphics. You most likely wont understand it if you've never gone past algebra in school. This is not the authors fault. You need to be able to understand some trig and linear algebra. If your math education is somewhat lacking, you should be able to understand it. He explains it a lot better than most math teachers do.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. The examples are somewhat boring, but this is not a game programming book. It is a graphics book. You should have no problem taking what you learn and apply it to a game. If you are looking for an OpenGL Game Programming book, then buy the book with same title from the guys at Gamedev.net. It's very good.

This book won't tell you much more than the OpenGL Programming Guide Third Edition. I bought this book, but found that I am mostly using the Prog Guide and Ref Guide from Addison Wesley (the official reference). The index is missing quite a few functions making it very hard to find them in the text. There are basic gl calls not even included in the code. And when you are done with the simple examples, there isn't any material on the CD that will stimulate you to explore after Part II. Not even a cool demo to twick and play with. The price is high too.

I have purchase several books on OpenGL. Comparing to all of them, I have to say this is the best books to learn OpenGL. The explaination is simple and to the point. The book only provide the essential information that you need to know, without all the unnecessary details. Compare to the red books, this books explains much better and clearer. The red books does provide some extra information, but the info itself is not very useful if you don't already know the basic of OpenGL. If your goal is to learn OpenGL, I would recommend that you buy this books first. If you want to learn more, then buy the other books.

This book is great for ppl who have little or no 3D experience and who don't know any opengl. It followes a simple writing style and has good sample programs.

If I'm not mistaken, you can use matrix multiplication for translation also, it's just that using the addition operation may be faster.

Though there may be some things which may or may not be so correct, this is one of the better (if not the best) books on OpenGL for both beginner and intermediate levels. In addition, the by using GLUT, you can compile and run the code on both Windows and Linux OS, as well as leave the gory details of window, timing loop, input device management to GLUT.

Personally, if I am forced to choose only one book to learn OpenGL, the this would be the one. Furthermore, it is not a rehash of the first edition, but an much improved version. With the help of this book, I've been able to write a pretty decent graphics engine for a combat flight sim. My only gripe is that conversion of various 3D file formats such as 3DS to OpenGL is not covered, otherwise you would be able to load and view stunning landscapes and scenes.

A very good introduction for the opengl newbie who doesn't want to mess up with 3D theory and math right from the start. The price to pay is some of the explanations end up being rather superficial. I like the practically oriented attitude of the book and the wealth of examples, from basics to more complex. Do not expect this to be a book that will transform you from a complete openGL newbie to a master... but it a very good introduction for somone who needs to make sense of openGL and see it at work. It uses GLUT as a library to interface with OS specific command like showing windows or getting keyboard input to shield you from having to deal with the dreaded windows API or any other OS dependent functions. If this is a good or bad thing , you decide. You will have to "treasure" the CD coming with the book as you will have no chance to download the source code form the web. I find this EXTREMELY annoying! The third edition is coming out so watch out for it!

The authors do an excellent job simplifying the 3D programming concepts. They correctly assume that the reader is novice in 3D programming. All explanations are properly detailed and simplified by supporting figures that aid the reader visualizing the 3D concepts.
This book helped me a lot.