- Paperback: 896 pages
- Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 5 edition (Aug 11 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0321335732
- ISBN-13: 978-0321335739
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 17.8 x 4.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.3 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#401,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #22 in Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia > OpenGL
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
From Amazon
The OpenGL Programming Guide, now in its third edition, is the definitive volume for programmers using this evolving graphics interface standard. Written by members of the OpenGL Architecture Review Board, this book offers understandable tutorials and lessons on getting up to speed and getting the most out of the latest version of OpenGL, version 1.2.
The guide uses code examples in C and is targeted at programmers who have experience in coding yet are new to coding for OpenGL applications. The opening chapters go into descriptive detail of how OpenGL, the software interface for hardware 3-D chipsets, works and what you can expect from it, which turns out to be much more than you might have thought. Color plates are used, for example, to show how OpenGL handles such effects as motion blur and depth-of-field blur, in addition to shadows and texture mapping.
This is not a beginner's guide to programming computer graphics. Some previous knowledge of both programming in general and computer graphics in particular is required. For example, code snippets are used to describe how to implement these effects, but because OpenGL is platform-independent, some code examples may need to be modified when used with your specific compiler.
Filled with the expertise of those who standardized OpenGL, there is no better reference volume for learning and understanding this system. The examples cited are clear, commented, and explained. The only drawback to the book is that it lacks a companion CD-ROM--all examples must be either typed in or downloaded from an Internet FTP site. (The URL is listed in the preface.) --Mike Caputo --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
OpenGL is a powerful software interface used to produce high-quality, computer-generated images and interactive applications using 2D and 3D objects, bitmaps, and color images. The OpenGLA (R) Programming Guide, Fifth Edition, provides definitive and comprehensive information on OpenGL and the OpenGL Utility Library. The previous edition covered OpenGL through Version 1.4. This fifth edition of the best-selling "red book" describes the latest features of OpenGL Versions 1.5 and 2.0, including the introduction of the OpenGL Shading Language. You will find clear explanations of OpenGL functionality and many basic computer graphics techniques, such as building and rendering 3D models; interactively viewing objects from different perspective points; and using shading, lighting, and texturing effects for greater realism. In addition, this book provides in-depth coverage of advanced techniques, including texture mapping, antialiasing, fog and atmospheric effects, NURBS, image processing, and more. The text also explores other key topics such as enhancing performance, OpenGL extensions, and cross-platform techniques.This fifth edition has been extensively updated to include the newest features of OpenGL Versions 1. 5 and 2.0, including: *Storage of vertex arrays in buffer objects for faster rendering *Occlusion queries for course-grain visibility testing *Non-power-of-two dimensioned texture maps *Point sprites *Separate stencil operations for RGB and alpha *Rendering to multiple color buffers using GLSL Most importantly, this edition discusses the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) and explains the mechanics of using this new language to create complex graphics effects and boost the computational power of OpenGL.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Overrated, but there's barely anything better out there,
By Anthony Chua (LA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: OpenGL(R) Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 1.2 (Paperback)
This is not a good book for beginners at all. The explanations are very hard to follow and are rather boring. However, experienced OpenGL users will want to use this book, interestingly enough, as a kind of reference. Just because there doesn't seem to be any book out there that's better does not mean that this book deserves 5 stars.I ended up learning by looking at people's code (the Nehe tutorials and others) and then referring back to selected sections in the red and blue book as well as asking on newsgroups and mailing lists before I could figure out things. In other words, with this book, you've still got your work cut out for you when learning OpenGL. However, once you start learning more, this book might become more invaluable.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A must for OpenGL programmers,
By A Customer
This review is from: OpenGL(R) Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 1.2 (Paperback)
This book is a must for those wanting to fully exploit the power of OpenGL. In this 3rd Edition, the authors have included the newest features of OpenGL, Version 1.2. In particular, the discussion about multitexturing and imaging subset deserves a special mention, since they represent the latest rendering techniques available in form of a standard library.Although all features, from the most basic to the most advanced technique, are covered in this book, it is not an introductory graphics text book. Readers should have a basic knowledge about computer graphics in order to benefit from this book. Also, it is useful to be familiar with 2D/3D geometry and other graphics libraries. As code fragments and samples are written in C, experience with this programming language is also required. I recommend this book for any serious OpenGL programmer, perhaps complemented with the "OpenGL Reference Manual" and "Programming OpenGL for the X Window System" by Mark Kilgard.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The best OpenGL book on the market ...unfortunately.,
By mathew (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: OpenGL(R) Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 1.2 (Paperback)
If you have a degree in Computer Science or Mathematics, this is the OpenGL book for you; otherwise, you'll want to start with something substantially simpler.Even for those with the requisite pre-education, some parts of the book gloss over details a little too much, leaving you to experiment with the demonstration software to work out what things do. For example, the description of texture blending modes is very skimpy--if you want to know the difference between alpha, luminance and intensity textures, you'll need to look elsewhere. Another problem is that the arrangement of information is sometimes perverse; while it may make sense from a reference point of view, learners will need to skip around in the book to learn things in a logical order. For instance, you're told how to define texture coordinate arrays, and texture mipmap generation is explained in detail, long before the book has gotten around to explaining how to actually paint a texture on a polygon. Finally, with OpenGL at version 1.4, the book is in need of an update. I wish I could recommend a better book, but at the time of writing this really does seem to be the best one available.
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