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3D Game Engine Design: A Practical Approach to Real-Time Computer Graphics
 
 
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3D Game Engine Design: A Practical Approach to Real-Time Computer Graphics [Hardcover]

David H. Eberly (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
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Aimed at the working C++ game developer, 3D Game Engine Design provides a tour of mathematical techniques for 3-D graphics and the source code used to implement them in state-of-the-art video game engines. If you work in the game industry (or would like to), this book will serve you well because it delivers excellent best practices for algorithms and programming techniques that will help your software keep up with the competition.

This text is a virtual encyclopaedia of expertise, based on the author's own work and research in the gaming industry. It provides the mathematical notation, algorithms, and C++ code (on the accompanying CD-ROM) needed to build fast and maintainable game engines. Early sections start with the basics, with the math used to work with common 3-D objects (like spheres and boxes). Highlights include a high-powered review of quaternion algebra, the preferred way to transform 3-D data in many cases.

The chapters on graphics pipelines explain the math behind representing and rendering a 3-D world in 2-D with intervening effects like lighting, texture mapping and the like. A variety of current algorithms are provided for representing 3-D scenes, efficient picking (which allows a programmer to determine which object in a 3-D world has been selected) and collision detection (where objects collide virtually). In the game software of today, curves--rather than individual triangles or polygons--are often used to represent 3-D objects. Algorithms that are used to turn curves into rendered surfaces are also provided.

Later sections look at current thinking about animation techniques for characters (including key frames, inverse kinematics and skinning--in which digital skin is fitted over digital bone to create more realistic-looking movement). How to represent terrain inside virtual worlds is also explained. The book closes with excellent material on cutting-edge special effects like lens flare and projected shadows, which can add an extra level of realism to a video game. An appendix examines guidelines for designing object-oriented game software in C++.

Filled with mathematical insight and expert code that puts each principle or algorithm to work, 3-D Game Engine Design provides an expert view of what goes into building a state-of-the-art game engine. --Richard Dragan

Review

"I highly recommend David Eberly's "3D Game Engine Design: A Practical Approach to Real-Time Computer Graphics". This is from one of the developers behind the NetImmerse 3D engine, and it's a great book, filled with lots of practical information"
- Tim Sweeney, voodooextreme.com

"3D Game Engine Design....is best described as a reference manual for 3D real-time graphics engine programmers. But oh, what a reference manual it is."
-- Game Developer Magazine
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Computer graphics has been a popular area of computer science for the last few decades. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

52 Reviews
5 star:
 (24)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (9)
2 star:
 (2)
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (52 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars Full of math, gives strong basis. NOT for beginners, April 26 2004
This review is from: 3D Game Engine Design: A Practical Approach to Real-Time Computer Graphics (Hardcover)
Gives the mathematics that build a 3d graphics engine. Some chapters could have gone deeper (like animation), others are really good (curves and terrain generation). But if you are looking for a book that will build your application from vertices to AI, that's not the book you need. For example, 3d collision detection focuses on the mathematics to find where and when a box intersects, let's say, a lozenge but not on organizing the CD procedures.
But definitely a must have if you want to get deeper in CG and game programming.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Many good tips, some non effective, some missing, April 21 2004
By 
Phil (Rennes, FRANCE) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 3D Game Engine Design: A Practical Approach to Real-Time Computer Graphics (Hardcover)
The real stuff a game programmer needs is not seen here : Collision detection, network real time programming, multi platform programming. Indeep investigation of very basic topics, and almost nothing about advanced ones.
The examples and code sample are interesting for tutorial purpose.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Very thorough, Jan 18 2004
This review is from: 3D Game Engine Design: A Practical Approach to Real-Time Computer Graphics (Hardcover)
This book is actually written at two different levels. It has an extremely detailed analysis of the mathematics involved and appears that it would be a good reference for somebody who wants to write a software renderer (or at least understand how a renderer does what it does).

It's organized in such a way that it is easy to skip the math parts (which I did!) and get a good understanding of the higher level engine concepts. It's easy to understand, for instance, how culling works conceptually (or via a library call) without going through the math. I found the chapters on the scene graph and collision detection to be especially valuable.

I wish he would have included a bit about AI though. I find myself wondering 'where in my architecture do I put the AI?'. It seems like it should fit in this discussion somewhere...

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