Rating: 
Summary: distilled expertise: the place to begin a solution
Review: I think that one of the most valuable characteristics of a software programmer is the ability to research a problem. Many resources for solving 3D graphics problems are time wasters. They are often superficial (many web articles), impractical (many academic papers), overwhelming in variety (many academic papers), have obtuse or untestable code (numerical recipes, GAMS), or just don't work properly.The great value of the book is as a starting point for learning more about a problem. Credible: the author knows what he is writing about. I trust that the algorithms are good, practical solutions. Aposit: the topics are useful. I am surprised by how many of my real-time problems are addressed by the book (I'm a programmer for medical researchers). Trustworthy, neat code: the code is C++ and comes with Visual C++ project files. It is neat and comprehensible.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't believe it...
Review: The title '3D Game Engine Design' is quite misleading. Sure, the book talks about topics such as skinning, texture mapping, etc, but the author has maximum math and minimum code to actually show you how it's done. The author talks about fog, but the closest he comes to showing you how to do it is a long equation that none of us common folk know how to translate into C++. Unless you posess an excessive amount of math degrees, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND ANYTHING. Sure, he gives you a few code examples, but the book just don't pass muster. For [dollar amount], I think I want my money back. On the other hand, though, the few code examples the author presents are halfway decent. Most of them are little snippets of a module that show you how to implement one technique he talked about. When you get this book in the mail, you're going to flip through it and say... What the???!!!
Rating:
Summary: great for reference
Review: I found that this book is very nice as a reference guide. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in game engine design.
Rating:
Summary: An advanced book for those with the time and the math skills
Review: If you have lots of time and are comfortable with lots of math notation then this book will reward you with advanced information you can't get anywhere else. I was frustrated with this book because I bought it while working on a project with a tight schedule and I didn't have the time that it required to follow the rigorous derivations. I wanted a "Gems" book that could help me right away with the tasks I had. But now that I have more time I am much happier with the book. I have been warned that the code in the book contains many bugs but I cannot yet verify that myself.
Rating:
Summary: Shuold be called 3D Math for Game Engines
Review: The title is probably misleadng, since it is not so much game engine design as a compendium of the math used in game engines. But I found it quite rigorous and useful since most game engine books cover either the programming or applied concepts but do not give the necessary math background. Cetrainly not for those who are afraid of math or are put off by formulas.
Rating: 
Summary: Saturated with useful information, but poorly presented
Review: This book provides a rather comprehensive mathematical exposition of the topics that it covers. However, I think the way in which the material is presented is just plain ugly for the following reasons. First, many of the derivations are carried out by inserting all of the formulas needed at each step directly into paragraphs. This is much more difficult to follow than a derivation that is presented as a series of transitions describing at each step how we arrive at key equations *which should be displayed on their own lines*. Second, little explanation is given to why the mathematics works. Sure, we can list a bunch of equations that give us the answer that we need, but this book does a poor job at conveying any level of true understanding. Last, I must absolutely condemn this book for its small number of figures. Many of the topics discussed would be easier to visualize if a figure had been provided, and some of the figures that do appear in the book are completely inadequate. To give credit where it's due, I think this book contains a lot of useful information. Anyone who has a solid math background and already knows how to program a 3D game engine (and I do) will find valuable solutions to common problems here. Beginner, and even intermediate, game programmers, however, should not expect an introductory course that will teach them how to write professional-quality games.
Rating:
Summary: Not perfect but close
Review: I am an avid reader of 3D programming books, and I spend a lot of time looking at them and no book has pinpointed what I wanted to know as specifically as this book. The math is a chore but necessary and the coverage of other topics is basically complete as to what you would be looking for to put in a game. My main beef is ease of use in terms of working with the source. Inclusion of the souce was a great step but perhaps an installation wizard in the future? I use the DiectX SDK quite a bit and perhaps if the demos were structured like those it would be easier to use. However, my main problem in looking at the demos was lack of time. So, building the demos wasn't incredibly difficult, I just didn't have the time to bother unless they were in an obvious place waiting for me. My problem has likely already been fixed in later versions of the book as I have the first printing.
Rating: 
Summary: Remove some dust from your math books...
Review: I have read this book but when I've arrived to te last page I've understood that I need a new "reading pass"... Yes, from my first reading now I can say that I need some algebra & math refresh using some my good old books... I haven't any degrees but I can say that I understand math quite well, but I had some difficult reading those formulae of this book: for example I've seen for the first time a unusual (for me) representation of matrices. Some math passages are skipped during calculations so you have to figure out how he solved the equations... I can say that this book is quite good, don't leave it alone on your shelf! It misses some interesting topics in some well-known scene management techniques like portals and octrees... Pair this book also with the infinite resource on internet. Last but not least I would like to say that I haven seen the code yet: before taking a look on the code I would understand HOW things work... So, if u hate math, this book isn't for u!
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Summary: Important Reference
Review: Anyone who has used the useful newsgroup comp.graphics.algorithms knows David Eberly without having to read this book. David is the one who answers all the hardest math and curved surface questions. Thus, this book is a great reference to have for questions on curves and surfaces and the unexciting but nonetheless critical proofs. I purchased this book in January and it's come in handy in that regard.
I do think that many books use the Game Engine term incorrectly in their title and that some are disappointed who were expecting
this to completely guide them through the engine development process. Others seem disappointed with too much math but that seems silly and they are implying they intend to write a great game without having to understand any math they don't already understand. Math offers an infinite level of detail. If I remember correctly, In Principia Mathematica the author took over 100 pages to prove that 1+1=2 (and subsequently went insane).
Howard Antons Linear Algebra is a good reference too but I don't understand every line.
No book will ever release cutting edge game concepts that impress everyone writing cutting edge games since the publishing process takes years. A books usefulness lies in its ability to age well, and the only books that do so are math intensive, hence I think a title such as Math for Games would be more appropriate and I would have gone with 4 stars versus 3. I also think game engine design is beyond the scope of any one book.
Those who think this is too hard a read obviously haven't tried to read the Gallier curves and surface book. Not many who understand math to the Ph. D. level communicate as well as the author. Neil McLaughlin
Rating: 
Summary: Bad author
Review: The book is mathematically intense and encompassing. If you are REALLY up on mathematics, it could be useful. But despite the author claiming that "It is assumed that the reader's background includes a basic understanding of vector and matrix algebra, linear algebra, multivariate calculus, and data structures"... It actually assumes a whole lot more than just a basic understanding of these things. Furthermore, I would seriously hesitate to pickup the next writing of this book due to the authors lack of concern with the issues that people bring up about his book. For every review that questions the way he explains the mathematical formulas, he has an answer similar to this: 'I worked for 4 years at NDL and produced a real graphics engine that is used by real companies. I wrote this book to show what it took to produce a commercial engine. I formed Magic Software, Inc., a real company that makes real income doing graphics work and writing software for medical image analysis, this for real clients.' That is all well and good, but just because somebody creates a 'real' engine that is 'really' used and that it contains these mathematical formulas, does NOT mean that any programmer who wants to create a mathematically intense game engine needs to be on the same level as this author to do it. There are plenty of books out there that explain the exact same mathematics in alot easier to understand terms, and are still used in 'real' engines by 'real' companies making 'real' income. Given the authors unwillingness to listen to his readers, I seriously doubt the next printing will be much better. Just read what he thinks and you will see here:
http://www.wild-magic.com/3DGEDReviewOfReviews.html Seeya
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