Customer Reviews

The Visualization Toolkit: An Object-Oriented Approach to 3-D Graphics (2nd Edition)

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

 

 

This book is poorly titled, because it discusses the algorithms and techniques of visualization much more than the use of the Visualization Toolkit software. However, it is a good introduction to scientific visualization, and the free software included on the CD is an extremely powerful and useful tool. However, if you only wish to learn to use the software, The Visualization Toolkit User's Guide would be much more appropriate for you.

If you're looking for a book to learn to use VTK, this is practically useless. The language is explained only incidentally, and in very little detail. the book mostly concentrates on computer graphics theory (which is done much better in other books) and visualisation, which it treats fairly well.

This book is great for gaining an in-depth understanding of the underlying visualization algorithms used in the Visualization Toolkit.

If you would like understand how to use the VTK software, you should purchase The Visualization Toolkit User's Guide. This companion book is updated for each major release of VTK, and contains many detailed examples.

The book gives you a good overview of the most important modern algorithms in computational geometry and computer graphics. AND: On the CD included you find a professional programming system with implementations of the mentioned algorithms in SourceCode! You can easily extend the system by your own algorithms in C++. Every Researcher who starts to work in this field should read this book and use these implementations.

This is clearly one of the worst books I've ever seen. I do admit there's lots of detail in there on visualization techniques etc. However, buying a book named "The Visualization Toolkit" I expect information about exactly this. Instead, what you get with this book is in-depth coverage of how the marching cubes algorithm works for example. Now let me ask you: Does that information help you using the toolkit? Definitely not. Consequently, if you want a practical guide to using VTK, do NOT consider this one.

I started to use the companion free software "visualization toolkit" back to the first edition of this book. My goal was to write a Windows application called "3D Groundwater Explorer" for the 3D Visualizaiton of data and results from groundwater flow and contaminant transport simulations. It was a tough time, partly because this book focuses on algorithms and does not explain how to use the Toolkit in details (maybe the Toolkit is too "big" to be explained in details). Despite of the rather high learning curve, the Toolkit provides virtually everything that one might need in creating impressive and informative visualization image. The Visualization Toolkit is a real tremendous accomplishment.

The book gives you a good overview of the most important modern algorithms in computational geometry and computer graphics. AND: On the CD included you find a professional programming system with implementations of the mentioned algorithms in SourceCode! You can easily extend the system by your own algorithms in C++. Every Researcher who starts to work in this field should read this book and use these implementations.

Ever wanted to SEE your own ideas... Just go for it and spare this book some time. As for the possıbılıtıes, the sky the lımıts, whether scıentıfıc,educatıonal,presentatıonal reasons thıs book is your awaıted hunt.