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3D Math Primer For Graphics and Game Development (Wordware Game Math Library) 1st Edition
There is a newer edition of this item:
- ISBN-101556229119
- ISBN-13978-1556229114
- Edition1st
- PublisherJones & Bartlett Learning
- Publication dateJune 21, 2002
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions7.25 x 1.5 x 9 inches
- Print length476 pages
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Ian Parberry is a professor of computer science at the University of North Texas and is internationally recognized as one of the top academics teaching computer game programming with DirectX. He is also the author of Learn Computer Game Programming with DirectX 7.0 and Introduction to Computer Game Programming with DirectX 8.0.
Product details
- Publisher : Jones & Bartlett Learning; 1st edition (June 21, 2002)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 476 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1556229119
- ISBN-13 : 978-1556229114
- Item Weight : 1.65 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.25 x 1.5 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,507,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #303 in Game Theory (Books)
- #6,634 in Internet & Social Media
- #13,866 in Computer Programming (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Fletcher Dunn has been making video games professionally since 1996. He worked at Terminal Reality in Dallas, where as principal programmer he was one of the architects of the Infernal engine and lead programmer on BloodRayne. He was a technical director for The Walt Disney Company at Wideload Games in Chicago and the lead programmer for Disney Guilty Party, IGN's E3 2010 Family Game of the Year.
He has worked for Valve Software in Bellevue, Washington since 2011 and has contributed to Steam and all of Valve's recent games. He is the primary author of the GameNetworkingSockets networking library and the Steam Datagram Relay service
Oh, but his biggest claim to fame by *far* is as the namesake of Corporal Dunn from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
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I can't even begin to imagine how useful this text would be to high school students. I mean, to be exposed to this material before going to college can only be awesome. They have some basic knowledge of Linear Algebra before even dreaming to taking such a course? Nothing beats that! Well, maybe grabbing a real, fully fledged Lineal Algebra textbook like Grossman's, but nothing beats the fun of knowing you are reading a video game/3D graphics book!!!
Furthermore, I read Frank D. Luna's brilliant Introduction to 3D Game Programming in DirectX 9.0c: A Shader Approach, and had no problem what so ever. I even skipped the "Mathematical Prerequisites" part. THAT's how good this books is!!!
There's Dover Book for Ordinary Differential Equations, Grossman for Linear Algebra, Larson for Calculus, Sears-Zemansky for Physics, and there is Fletcher Dunn & Ian Parberry's for an introduction to 3D Math...
My only disappointment with this book is that it lacks the answers for one third of the exercises. Oh, and there are a few typo's here and there, buy honestly, what book really doesn't? (Most of the errata is published anyways in the book's site: [...]). I also want to leave this clear one more time: the book is basic in kwoledge, where it excells is in the very clear presentation of that knowledge.
3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development was my last hope. By reviewing the table of contents, it appeared to be aimed again towards those that were confident in the rudimentary concepts needed to understand and undertake 3D math. Yet, with nothing to lose, I downloaded the Kindle sample and was relieved that this was not the case. While there is only a short Appendix that reviews trig and related prerequisite concepts, the tone and approach the authors use to guide the reader is so incredibly friendly to those who may lack confidence in math. After completing the sample chapter, which covered the basics of the, 2D and 3D Cartesian system, I couldn't believe how easy it was to read and how well I was retaining the information, actually understanding every word that glowed off my iPad. Finally, it looks like I found a winner. The authors alone write with such confidence that just declares how well they understand the topic matter, and that they know, better than anyone, how to teach this material to virtually anyone of any skill level.
It's probably best if you are confident in at least trigonometry and basic algebra before reading. If you need to go over these concepts quickly, go to [...] and view the trigonometry videos. After you have your trig refreshed, dive into this book and you'll be sure to be ready to tackle any game or graphics related programming problem with confidence.
The book assumes no prior knowledge of linear algebra, and teaches you from the ground up the critical concepts behind 3d engines. At the end of the book, I was able to write my own software engine implementing many of the concepts talked about in the text, having absolutely no prior knowledge of any of the concepts before.
Knowledge of the concepts presented in this book are absolutely critical to you being able to understand and use graphics apis such as direct x. This book will demystify what goes on inside a 3d engine, and will clearly detail to you the steps required to render a scene. Of course, it can't teach you everything, but by the time you have read it you will have a good working knowledge of what it takes to write a decent 3d engine. Definately worth it - you've got to know this material eventually, and this book is a good choice.
Top reviews from other countries

However, in its simplicity it seems to obscure a few things. There seemed to be a few minor mistakes in it, and things which just weren't terribly well defined. As such, it's OK, and I'm sure it can still be helpful for some readers, but I would recommend using it alongside something a bit more solid, such as " Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications: A Programmer's Guide ".


The game programmer has alot of focus on making the material understandable, and the professor has focus on the mathematically correct semantics. Unlike other books, that teaches game programming (of which many have an author with his strength on either field), this book has the right blend of understandable text parred with the right mathematical semantics.
Furthermore the text is supported by code, so if you are shaky on some of the math, you can see the implementation in C++ code.
As a total math newbie, this book helped me alot, and today I understand totally and in detail what is going on in my 3D programming.
An ABSOLUTE MUST, if you want to learn 3D on top level.

