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OpenGL(R) Reference Manual: The Official Reference Document to OpenGL, Version 1.2 (3rd Edition)

OpenGL(R) Reference Manual: The Official Reference Document to OpenGL, Version 1.2 (3rd Edition)

List Price: $57.99
Your Price: $48.71
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must have
Review: Absolutely necessary if you plan on using OpenGL in any serious fashion. The Third Edition includes OpenGL 1.2 API descriptions and extensions. As the title says, this is not a book to read (that's what the Programming Guide is for), but to reference.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Artistic visions realised!
Review: Admittedly inspired by the classic action game Tomb Raider. I have, since that day, dreamt of a world of three dimensional, hyperrealistic pleasures. Creating such a place became my goal in life, but it soon became obvious that a lack of programming knowledge and oppressive age-restrictive laws were standing firmly in my way. An incomplete middle-high-school mathematical education left me totally clueless, but sheer determination kept me going for far longer than I had imagined I could have. All was to no avail, however. Frustrated with Visual Basic and mspaint.exe. But, fate showed pity, and as I browsed, I was, by some miracle of divine intervention. Making the decision to postpone my alternative purchase was a difficult one, but bo am I glad I did. This book has been an invaluable tool in the realisation of my vision, and although my world is far from complete... the wireframe pleasures I witness are more than enough to keep me going late into the night.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent resource for the OpenGL programmer
Review: An excellent resource for anyone moving to OpenGL or wanting examples and discussions while learning graphics programming with OpenGL. Continues the approach of the second edition and adds coverage of several advanced areas. Not a graphics text in itself, but a very good supplement to a text in any course using OpenGL -- I put my personal copy of the second edition in my lab and it was used heavily.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent place to start learning 3D programming
Review: Before I started reading this book, I tried learning from the Direct3D on-line documentation. I had no previous knowledge in polygons at all. I had managed to hack up an unlit polygon, but I still never knew what I was doing. After much frustration (help files are never helpful) I decided to bite the bullet and buy a book on OpenGL. This book has been the best investment I have made so far to my programming career. Even if you want to use a different 3d API, you should start with this book, because OpenGL is EASY to learn. In fact, I can even understand D3D documentation now!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: this book is so lame
Review: i am a professional game programmer and i think this book sucks. it was so so so out of date and it cost a little to much for a piece of crap. i would suggest getting the Opengl Super Bible.

i write better code.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The book is a must have!
Review: I found this book to be great, from an in depth introduction to shaddows and textures with OpenGL. I also found the refrences for Apple OpenGL (ALG), X-Windows OpenGL (GLX), and Win32 OpenGL (WGL) to be very helpful. The book is a must have for any 3D graphics or game programmer. Even explains advanced topics like shaddows and curved surfaces!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All you need to get started...
Review: I read the OpenGL Superbible before I read the Red book, and I have to say that I like the latter better. It has fewer typo's, its diagrams are clearer, and IMHO the explanations were easier to understand. Look at the diagrams in the Superbible to get what I mean! Many of them are either misleading or plain wrong. Since it's a visual thing, the diagrams ARE important. Thankfully, you won't go wrong with the Red book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must buy ... !!!
Review: I'm new to graphics programming. I started out by programming in DirectX, using LaMothe's "Windows Game Programming for Dummies". The book was OK, but due to the extreme confusion of DirectX, I wasn't able to understand past chapter 3.

So, if you're confused about DirectX and really need to program in OpenGL, that's the best book to buy. The book takes you step by step from scratch to building up your program. Tons of coding examples are included in the book, and are very well documented. What's good about this book is all the coding examples are based on the C language. So, if you're not a good C++ programmer, or a better C than a C++ programmer, then this is the book to get.

One drawback about the book, is it doesn't include a CD. So, you have to write all the code yourself. That gives you a hands-on experience. The book also doesn't include the GLUT library, and most of the examples in the book use it. So you have to download it. ...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best OpenGL book on the market ...unfortunately.
Review: 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.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absoultely Essential
Review: It is vital that you have this book when programming in OpenGL, especially when learning and you have not yet memorized even the more common prototypes. This book is NOT a replacement for the OpenGL Programming Guide, it is meant to acompany it and be a more useful reference once you have read the Programming Guide. Very VERY usefull. Well Organized, imporant infomation jumps right out at you and details are available on the same page. Overall one of the best references I've used for any language or API.


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