It's hard not to write a review of an OpenGL book without comparing it to the Red Book, so I'll go ahead and do just that. Overall, I think the Superbible is every bit as useful as the Red Book, but in different ways. Although the Red Book has more detailed coverage, the Superbible focuses more on the practical side, covering the things you'll use and how you'll use them. Where the Red Book remains entirely platform-independent, the Superbible has quite a bit of Windows specific information, which is good since that's what a lot of us use. Finally, while the Red Book provides fairly generic OpenGL coverage, the Superbible is geared more toward real-time applications and games, which makes it a bit more appealing to folks like me.
One really nice thing about this book is that it assumes no previous graphics programming experience (unlike the Red Book). It's also written in a more conversational tone. Those two factors combined probably make it a better book for beginners. If your objective is to make games, and you want to use OpenGL for them, then, at the time of writing, this is really the only book available on OpenGL containing any significant amount of game-specific material (though I *cough* have it on good authority that an OpenGL game programming book is on the horizon...)
To sum up, I think that the Superbible's OpenGL coverage is quite good, it's extremely well written, and the code examples are both illustrative and useful. If you choose it as your means of learning OpenGL, you won't be disappointed.
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Opengl Superbible 2nd Edition
by
Jr. Wright, Richard S.
(Author),
Michael Sweet
(Author)
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Purchase options and add-ons
OpenGL SuperBible, Second Edition is a comprehensive, hands-on guide that provides everything you need to program with the new version of OpenGL. Find the necessary guidance in applying complex concepts-such as drawing in space; points, lines, and polygons; moving around in space; color, lighting, and materials; Raster graphics in OpenGL; texture mapping; 3D modeling and object composition; fog and blending visual effects; curves and surfaces; OpenGL pixel format and rendering context; non-Windows rendering; and more.
- ISBN-101571691642
- ISBN-13978-1571691644
- Edition2nd
- PublisherWaite Group Pr
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1999
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions7.5 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches
- Print length696 pages
Customer reviews
3.7 out of 5 stars
3.7 out of 5
22 global ratings
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Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2001
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2001
This book is useful as a quick overview of the OpenGL API, but fails to teach the fundementals of graphics programming necessary to apply the API to real-world problems. Also, it appears that Michael Sweet was brought on board to "write" the second edition. Where Wright stresses OpenGL's platform independence, Sweet ignores this thread of the book and writes code that is tightly linked with the Windows API.
Anyone looking to learn OpenGL should stick to the college texts, such as F.S. Hill's Computer Graphics Using OpenGL. These books are reviewed by CS professors who use the books in their classrooms, and as such only the good ones make it to print.
Anyone looking to learn OpenGL should stick to the college texts, such as F.S. Hill's Computer Graphics Using OpenGL. These books are reviewed by CS professors who use the books in their classrooms, and as such only the good ones make it to print.
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2004
A very good introduction for the opengl newbie who doesn't want to mess up with 3D theory and math right from the start. The price to pay is some of the explanations end up being rather superficial. I like the practically oriented attitude of the book and the wealth of examples, from basics to more complex. Do not expect this to be a book that will transform you from a complete openGL newbie to a master... but it a very good introduction for somone who needs to make sense of openGL and see it at work. It uses GLUT as a library to interface with OS specific command like showing windows or getting keyboard input to shield you from having to deal with the dreaded windows API or any other OS dependent functions. If this is a good or bad thing , you decide. You will have to "treasure" the CD coming with the book as you will have no chance to download the source code form the web. I find this EXTREMELY annoying! The third edition is coming out so watch out for it!
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2003
If you are looking to learn OpenGL on Windows, then this is the book for you. Each chapter gives an excellent description of the concepts learned. The authors writing is clear and concise.
The book uses GLUT for most of the programs. This is great as you can spend the time learning on program in 3d as oppossed to OS specific code. GLUT takes about 10 minutes to learn(Window,keyboard,and mouse functions), but you can do A LOT with it. You can make lots of small games and demos with it. Once the code works, remove GLUT and use your OS code.
This is a book on programming 3d graphics. You most likely wont understand it if you've never gone past algebra in school. This is not the authors fault. You need to be able to understand some trig and linear algebra. If your math education is somewhat lacking, you should be able to understand it. He explains it a lot better than most math teachers do.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. The examples are somewhat boring, but this is not a game programming book. It is a graphics book. You should have no problem taking what you learn and apply it to a game. If you are looking for an OpenGL Game Programming book, then buy the book with same title from the guys at Gamedev.net. It's very good.
The book uses GLUT for most of the programs. This is great as you can spend the time learning on program in 3d as oppossed to OS specific code. GLUT takes about 10 minutes to learn(Window,keyboard,and mouse functions), but you can do A LOT with it. You can make lots of small games and demos with it. Once the code works, remove GLUT and use your OS code.
This is a book on programming 3d graphics. You most likely wont understand it if you've never gone past algebra in school. This is not the authors fault. You need to be able to understand some trig and linear algebra. If your math education is somewhat lacking, you should be able to understand it. He explains it a lot better than most math teachers do.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. The examples are somewhat boring, but this is not a game programming book. It is a graphics book. You should have no problem taking what you learn and apply it to a game. If you are looking for an OpenGL Game Programming book, then buy the book with same title from the guys at Gamedev.net. It's very good.
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2000
Although this book gives a pretty thorough tutorial in OpenGL, and readers may learn something from looking at the examples, the author and editor should have worked out a number of things before releasing the book. First of all, after stating that "Calculating the frames per second... is about as simple as math gets for 3D graphics," he defines fps as "Time in seconds / number of frames," which would be seconds per frame, not frames per second. Second of all, when writing a book on graphics, the illustrations used in the book should at least be geometrically correct. Yet the illustrations in this book there are multiple places where an illustration shows lines that should be parallel, but instead are skewed and intersect. The concepts covered throughout the book are useful, but with all the typos and errors, waiting for the next edition may be the best option.

