OpenGL Game Programming w/CD (Prima Tech's Game Development) (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author), Andre LaMothe (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

OpenGL is an application programming interface (API) that exposes hardware features needed to create computer graphics. Unlike Microsoft's Direct3D, which only works on Windows, OpenGL works across all platforms. OpenGL Game Programming is a complete guide to game development using the OpenGL graphics API. Myriad examples are included to demonstrate various concepts such as coloring, texture mapping, blending, lighting, coordinate transforms, 3D modeling, collision detection, and several other key concepts involved in game development. It also covers how to integrate the non-graphical elements of Microsoft's DirectX into OpenGL games so that users can incorporate sound, music, and networking functions. Teaching users how to use OpenGL to create dynamic 3D environments and effects for use in game development, this book covers all the fundamentals so that users can program OpenGL API to its fullest potential. Anyone interested in game development will find the information in this book invaluable as they begin to create dynamic game graphics. Series editor André LaMothe has published numerous magazine articles and is an international best-selling author with over six game programming and 3D graphics titles to his credit. He has been active in the computing industry for more than twenty years, during which he created one of the world's first commercially available virtual reality games, CyberGate. André is also the founder and CEO of Xtreme Games LLC.

About the Author

Kevin Hawkins received his Master’s degree in Software Engineering and his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Embry-Riddle University. He is currently a software engineer at Raydon Corporation where he is part of the Software Architecture team, developing new software architectures and techniques for the company’s simulation product-line. He is the cofounder of GameDev.net and is also the coauthor of "OpenGL Game Programming" (Premier Press, 0761533303).

Product Details

• Paperback: 808 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761533303
• ISBN-13: 978-0761533306
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #128,769 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #6 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia > OpenGL
  #85 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Game Programming

• This item is part of The Course PTR Game Development Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, June 8, 2001

By	Steve Jordan (Washington) - See all my reviews

I've read several OpenGL books, and this one ranks with the best of them. The best thing about it, though, is that it's not just an OpenGL book, it's a game programming book, so not only will you learn OpenGL essentials, you're learn how to specifically apply them to games.

The book is very easy to read and understand. It's been written in such a way that I think even someone with no experience programming games will be able to pick it up and soon be able to create a simple 3D game.

In addition to the OpenGL coverage, the coverage of DirectInput and DirectSound is some of the best I've ever seen. The chapters on special effects and physics were of particular interest, as were the chapters on engine design and the final creation of a game.

Whether you're just getting interested in game programming, or have been doing it for a while but don't know OpenGL, you need this book.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Accessible, but Sloppy and Rather Windows Specific, January 2, 2003

By	"microtherion" (Sim City, CA (Somewhere in the Bay Area)) - See all my reviews

This book covers a broad range of game programming areas, with specific sample code provided both in print and on a CD.

What the book cover and abstracts fail to emphasize is that despite the "OpenGL" in the title, this is a rather Microsoft Windows specific book in many aspects. A considerable portion of it is spent talking about Windows specific APIs like DirectSound, and most of the examples use Windows event handling. It's probably hard to avoid the former issue, as there are no platform independent APIs for high quality sound, but many of the examples would not have suffered from being written using GLUT event handling.

Overall, the book is written in a sensible style that may be more accessible to some readers than the "official" OpenGL manuals. However, the areas that I had independent knowledge on (Math and Physics), I noticed numerous mistakes and sloppy reasoning, which may or may not extend to the areas that I can't verify independently.

Not overly valuable to me as a non-Windows programmer who has read the "official" tutorial volume, probably quite a bit more valuable to a Windows based programmer with little prior OpenGL experience.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comments from the author of the book's foreword, August 4, 2001

By	Mark J. Kilgard "markkilgard" (Texas) - See all my reviews

Finally, a book on OpenGL programming specifically for games! This book fills an important gap in any OpenGL programmer's bookshelf. Some of the most popular 3D games for the PC, most importantly Id Software's Quake series of games, use OpenGL as their 3D rendering interface. Now programmers that want to learn about OpenGL game programming have a place to begin.

This book explains OpenGL in the context of other PC programming interfaces such as DirectInput and DirectSound. It also explains practical game-oriented programming tasks such as loading animated Quake2 models.

Recent OpenGL features such as multitexturing are also explained. Multitexturing is really important for dynamic game lighting effects and extra realism.

While other books such as the OpenGL Programming Guide and Reference Manual explain the OpenGL API in more detail, this book explains OpenGL in the specific context of game development on the PC.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about PC game programming. While you may be learning about OpenGL for programming games, you should also be aware that OpenGL is the industry-standard 3D graphics API for professional 3D graphics applications and is the only truly multi-platform standard 3D API available. OpenGL is supported on Windows, Apple, Linux, and Unix workstation platforms. This makes knowledge of OpenGL an important asset for any computer programmer.

I am pleased to have been asked to author the foreword of this book.