Real-Time Rendering (2nd Edition) [Hardcover]

Tomas Akenine-Moller (Author), Eric Haines (Author), Naty Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568811829 | ISBN-13: 978-1568811826 | Publication Date: July 2002 | Edition: 2

After three years this "wonderful all-around resource" of computer graphics, "indispensable for every serious graphics programmer", is available in a completely revised and updated edition. Nearly doubled in size, the new edition keeps pace with the astonishing developments in hardware and software that have increased the speed and quality of rendering images. The new edition includes information on the latest technology that is being released concurrently with the publication. The book's trademark--blending solid theory and practical advice--remains intact, making it mandatory for every programmer who wants to stay at the cutting edge. The book contains chapters as diverse as: - Transforms - Visual Appearance - Acceleration Algorithms - Advanced Shading Techniques (New Chapter) - Curved Surfaces (New Chapter) With Topics Including: - Pixel shaders - Subdivision surfaces - Intersection algorithms - Pipeline tuning

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric Haines, a graduate of the Cornell program of Computer Graphics, is currently a lead software engineer at Autodesk, Inc. Haines, a member of the editoral board for the jounal of graphics tools, has also published a number of articles, some of which are included in the Graphics Gems series. Tomas Akenine-Moller, a graduate of the Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden, is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology. Akenine-Moller has contributed articles to the Graphics Gems series and to the journal of graphics tools.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpted from Real-Time Rendering by Tomas Akenine-Möller, Eric Haines. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Chapter 1: What follows is a brief overview of the chapters ahead.

Chapter 2: The Graphics Rendering Pipeline. This chapter deals with the heart of real-time rendering, the mechanism that takes a scene description and converts it into something we can see.

Chapter 3: Transforms. Transforms are the basic tools for manipulating the position, orientation, size, and shape of objects and the location and view of the camera.

Chapter 4: Visual appearance. This chapter covers the definition of materials and lights and their use in achieving a realistic surface appearance. Also covered are other appearance-related topics, such as providing higher image quality through antialiasing and gamma correction.

Chapter 5: Texturing. One of the most powerful hardware-accelerated tools for real-time rendering is the ability to display data such as images on surfaces. This chapter discusses the mechanics of this technique, called texturing, and presents a wide variety of methods for applying it.

Chapter 6: Advanced Lighting and Shading. This chapter discusses the theory and practice of correctly represented materials. One focus in on new hardware features such as vertex and pixel shaders. Global illumination algorithms such as ray tracing and radiosity and their relation to real-time rendering is discussed.

Chapter 7: Non-Photorealistic Rendering. Attempting to make a scene look realistic is only one way of rendering it. This chapter discusses other styles, such as cartoon shading.

Chapter 8: Image-Based Rendering. Polygons are not always the fastest or most realistic way to describe objects or phenomena such as lens flares or fire. In this chapter, alternate representations based on using images are discussed.

Chapter 9: Acceleration Algorithms. After you make it go, make it go fast. Various forms of culling and level of detail rendering are covered here.

Chapter 10: Pipeline Optimization. Once an application is running and uses efficient algorithms, it can be made even faster using various optimization techniques. Finding the bottleneck and deciding what to do about it are the topics covered here.

Chapter 11: Polygonal Techniques. Geometric data comes from a wide range of sources, and sometimes requires modification in order to be rendered rapidly and well. This chapter discusses polygonal data and ways to clean it up and simplify it. Also included are more compact representations, such as triangle strips, fans, and meshes.

Chapter 12: Curves and Curved Surfaces. Hardware ultimately deals in points, lines, and polygons for rendering geometry. More complex surfaces offer advantages such as being able to trade off between quality and rendering speed, more compact representation, and smooth surface generation.

Chapter 13: Intersection Test Methods. Intersection testing is important for rendering, user interaction, and collision detection. In-depth coverage is provided here for a wide range of the most efficient algorithms for common geometric intersection tests.

Chapter 14: Collision Detection. Finding out whether two objects touch each other is a key element of many real-time applications. This chapter presents some efficient algorithms in the rapidly evolving field.

Chapter 15: Graphics Hardware. While graphics-hardware-accelerated algorithms have been discussed in the previous chapters, this chapter focuses on components such as color depth, frame buffers, and basic architecture types. Case studies of a few representative graphics accelerators are provided.

Chapter 16: The Future. Take a guess (we do).

We have included appendices on linear algebra and trigonometry.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 900 pages
• Publisher: A K Peters/CRC Press; 2 edition (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568811829
• ISBN-13: 978-1568811826
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #854,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Rendering & Ray Tracing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The second edition is up to date regarding todays technology, November 26, 2002

By 

"cbuchner1" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Real-Time Rendering (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

This book is a great resource and collection of algorithms used in 3D graphics programming. It does make use of an academic style, both in mathematics and in style of writing - but that is something you will appreciate if you have some computer science or engineering background. Plenty of references to further literature and articles are given in order to facilitate in-depth research on particular topics of interest.

The second edition is up to date regarding available graphics technology. It covers the latest additions to current hardware regarding Pixel and Vertex Shaders. It also provides a technical summary of the latest graphics hardware, using the X-Box GPU and the KYRO II architecture as examples.

The book covers a variety of useful algorithms at a level of abstraction that will require some additional work in order to implement in software. So it is definitely not a basic "howto" guide for beginners who just want some sample code to get going.

The color plates in this book are well chosen and illustrate the state of the art in DirectX 8.1 pixel and vertex shaders. One illustration even shows the latest technology demo of NVidia's new NV30 chip which has just been officially introduced at Comdex in November 2002. It is the realtime rendering of a scene from Final Fantasy, the motion picture.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars High level presentation of rendering techniques, January 1, 2006

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Real-Time Rendering (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

This is not a book of algorithms on computer graphics methods. Instead, it is a comprehensive high-level survey of rendering techniques for making the graphics appear to occur in real time. This book has a very academic tone to it, and with the exception of chapter 3 which is on matrix transforms, it has precious few implementation details. Some reviewers have called it a successor to Foley and Van Dam's classic text, but I find this misleading. That book is primarily about computer graphics techniques, and is not that concerned with real-time issues. The bibliography of this book is extensive and impressive, and if you are doing research on the subject it is probably essential, especially if you are interested in the subject of virtual reality where real-time presentation is a must. However, if you are just looking for pseudocode or more "cool effects" to insert into a game or graphics program you are writing/programming you would do best to look elsewhere.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute essential reading for graphics programmers, March 10, 2005

By 

Patrick J. Cozzi (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Real-Time Rendering (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

This is a useful book for anyone writing graphics code regardless of their implementation language and API. It contains a wealth of information on dozens of topics in computer graphics and plenty of sources to find more information. It also reads easy and is organized so it's a breeze to find what you're looking for.

The chapter on acceleration algorithms is worth the price of this book alone. They do a great job motivating the need for culling and presenting several algorithms. I found their quad tree material particularly useful while working on one of my own.

The chapter on intersection test methods provides a handy reference. I find myself referring to it quite often. I also really liked the chapter on graphics hardware as it's hard to find a good source for this type of information at a high level.

This is probably the best computer graphics book out there right now and anyone working in the field or aspiring too should have a copy of it.