Shaders for Game Programmers and Artists (Premier Press Game Development) 1st Edition

by Sebastien St-Laurent (Author)

14 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1592000920

ISBN-10: 1592000924

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This is the first book approaching the topic of shaders in such an accessible manner. By taking a simple, easy-to-follow approach to the high-level language of this topic and separating itself from 3D API's "Shaders for Game Programmers and Artists" brings the world of real-time shading to a broad audience, ranging from the game programming hobbyist to the seasoned game developer. This unique combination of its simple approach and the wide variety of techniques that are covered makes "Shaders for Game Programmers and Artists" a one-of-a-kind guide that can serve as both a tutorial for the classroom and a reference manual that can be used by developers throughout the development cycle.

Randima Fernando
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From the Author

Programmable shaders are the best and latest in the computer graphic industry. With the latest generations of video cards out there developed by ATI Technologies and nVidia, it is now possible to draw interactive scenes on a computer with an unsurpassed realism. With the current rate of advancement in this field, it is only a matter of years before the quality of graphics generated matches the visuals in some of most recent Hollywood movies such as "I, ROBOT" or "Spider Man 2". Some of the most anticipated video games this year, such as Doom 3, HALO 2 and Half-Life 2, take full advantage these cards and I wanted to show my readers exactly how easily it could be done.

Most books out there which cover the topic of programmable shaders also covered broadly the topic of computer graphics. I wanted to do something different and focus in-depth on the specific topic of programmable shaders. To accomplish this, I have taken advantage of a tool called RenderMonkey, developed by ATI Technologies, to quickly prototype shaders and spend less time worrying about the other aspects of computer graphics.

About the Author

Sebastien St-Laurent holds a degree in Computer Engineering from Sherbrooke University in Québec (Canada) where he graduated at top of his class with a 3.9 GPA in 1999. From 1999 to 2003, he has been working for Z-Axis, LTD (an Activision Studio) and have worked on many video game titles including : Space Invaders (PC), Dave Mira Freestyle BMX (Playstation and PC), Dave Mira Freestyle BMX2 (Xbox), Aggressive Inline (Xbox) and BMX XXX (Xbox). Sebastien was the Xbox lead engineer for the company with tasks ranging from 3D engine development to shader and special effect creation. He is now a graphics engineer for Microsoft Corporation where he works on the next version of the Microsoft Flight Simulator. Sebastien St-Laurent has also recently published "Shaders for Game Programmers and Artists". A complete resume has been included at the end of this proposal for more complete information.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Course Technology PTR; 1st edition (May 13, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 483 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1592000924
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1592000920
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.27 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.25 x 1.75 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,864,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,138 in Game Programming
- #2,182 in Computer Graphics
- #2,406 in Software Design & Engineering

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Cecilia Marcano

This was written on 2004, still great on 2008

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2008

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I really needed to learn Shaders, specially HLSL for XNA programming. So I searched and searched and this book kept on coming, but because of its published date I had my doubts. So at the end I gave it a try, and I am very happy I did.

You will certainly learn about shaders with this book, and will be writing your own shaders very early. By using RenderMonkey as a Shader development platform you will focus on the HLSL instead of your gaming API. But it is very easy to port this samples and your creations to your own games.

As I said, I have used this book to write shaders for my XNA games, even post processing ones. If you are a programmer trying to learn shaders, search no more.

One person found this helpful

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triplesea

In dire need of an edit or rewrite...

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2010

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I won't say that the information in this book isn't any good and I am doing my best to hammer through it, but I have found that the writing is pretty bad, and the direction that it gives for using the included software is only occasionally accurate.

This book does most of it's instruction through an included piece of ATI middle-ware and the format of the software (RenderMonkey) doesn't quite correlate with either hlsl or cgfx, so that adds another layer of confusion. This book is the third thing that I have read on the topic and it was recommended by one of the programmers at my office as having some good reference on screen effects.

I am sure that if you are just trying to get ideas out of it and are not trying to learn from the ground up, then this might be a good text, but If you are just starting out, then I recommend some of the work by Ben Cloward.

I really wanted to give it just one star out of shear frustration, but insomuch as I was eventually able to get the tutorials to work and feel that there is a lot here that I can apply to my work, giving it only one star wold be a bit harsh. However, just the sheer brutality of writing style wont let me give it more than two.

Good luck!

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Kevin M. Smith

Sufficient Info

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2009

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This booked gives me a mixed understanding. It has both good and bad qualities. The author tries to make shaders easy to understand for people who are not programmers. He is successful in this endeavor by outlining how to use Render Monkey. However the author often glosses over details, and it leaves holes in what you are trying unless you open up his accompanied shader. It makes it feel like cheating. Also due to the age of this book, some techniques outlined no longer work.

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Israel

love this book

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2013

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Thanks to the autor I think that if you have any new version you must buy it. This is a good book with many examples.

thanks and sorry my bad english

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Gabriel Santos

Good Book

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2013

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I am satisfied with this book. As a beginner in shader languages it was sufficient and easy to follow. Just wish it had more depth because I learned very quickly and got bored with it towards the end. I recommend this for beginners or people having trouble grasping how shaders work.

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Pierre Grossmann

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2018

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I had some problems with one copy of this order, but Chris did solve the problem.

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James O'Donnell

In dire need of an editor

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2007

This book is fantastic for artists or programmers looking to get started with shader programming. Anyone with a little C++ experience (or similar) ought to be able to get a good grip on the material in this book. Lots of practical techniques are introduced at a introductory level. The other great thing about this book is that it covers the use of ATi's Rendermonkey software for the creation and visualization of shaders. This is a great boon, as some similar books like The Cg Tutorial presume you already have a working real-time 3D engine you can write shaders for, and are already experienced with DirectX or OpenGL programming. Providing and explaining the use of a user-friendly API like Rendermonkey makes this book well-suited for entry-level programmers.

I would have rated this book 5 stars based on these qualities, but much to my chagrin the book is weighed down by an inexcusable amount of typos and errors. The overall effect is that the author never even tested his own code, as MULTIPLE shaders presented in the book simply do not work as described by the author. Furthermore, in some of these cases (two major examples including the motion blur shader and the depth of field depth-impostor shader) the sample/reference code included on the CD does not work either, so the reader is left high and dry, wondering what the problem is. The author's website only includes errata for one error (which is neither of the above cited examples.) I have not yet completed this book, in fact, I'm only a third of the way through; but I can only assume the path ahead will be similarly rocky.

These problems are particularly egregious as the book is ostensibly targeted towards beginners, who will be poorly equipped to solve the author's errors. While it could be said that this is an effective way of learning the language (i.e. learning by doing research and correcting the author,) it sometimes makes the process very discouraging and slow-going. Beyond these errors, the book is a fantastic introduction to learning real-time shaders and is accessible to artists even if they have little programming experience. A second edition of this book, rectifying the many errors in the book, would be a must-have for anyone interested in learning shader programming. Until then, however, the reader will have to be patient and willing to meet the book half-way on a lot of occasions.

11 people found this helpful

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K. Reynolds

Highly focused review of shader programming

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2004

Breaking into the world of shader technologies can be a daunting task and a constructing a library of accurate knowledge is essential. "Shaders for Game Progammers and Artist" is one of the most focused books I have ever purchased. It only covers 'shaders' and does not attempt to present the surrounding technologies of DirectX or OpenGL programming. At fist this tight focus disturbed me, as I did not have a secondary support book like "Programming Vertex and Pixel Shaders". Put these two books together and constantly cross-reference the code and you have the solution to understanding the core of building good shaders. (One other note:) You might want to add "3d Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development".

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Top reviews from other countries

Hampus

Great book for the HLSL language

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2012

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This book have rapidly become my favorite our the past year. It is perfect for one that already know the basics of the language C and C++. The best about this book is the way it describes how to do a specific shader and the learning curve increases for every chapter you complete wish make every chapter interesting a new challenge wish, however, makes you want to learn more. The book is designed for HLSL(High Level Shader Language) in mind wish is the language Microsoft uses with Direct3D. After reading this book it shouldnt be to hard to learn GLSL(OpenGL Shading Language) wish OpenGl uses, the open-source version of shaders.

Dmitry

Very helpful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 10, 2012

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This book is awesome for beginners. There a lot of interesting exercises in the end of each chapter. The only complaint is about DOF. Even the source-code on the CD doesn't work properly. But still 5 stars.

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Shaders for Game Programmers and Artists (Premier Press Game Development) 1st Edition

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