Programming Vertex and Pixel Shaders (Programming Series)

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book!
Review: I have recently completed an online course (www.gameversity.com) organised by Wolfgang Engel, which included identical material to this book.
The material covered is perfectly balanced - I started the course with no working knowledge of shader programming. The initial concepts are clearly explained and unlaboured, despite the inevitable rush of information! Once you learn the ropes, it gives good explanations and implementations of more advanced topics and cutting-edge techniques.
I can now write and develop my own Shader Model 1.x/2.x/3.0/HLSL shaders, applications to implement them, and develop new techniques confidently. What more can you ask for?!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent !!!
Review: The book starts with short introduction and pipeline overview giving an overall picture of how vertex and pixel shaders interact, and how data flows between them and the hardware. Next, it introduces DirectX High-Level Shading Language (HLSL) and Microsoft's Effect Files Framework. Then author starts teaching you how to implement basic lightning models (Lambert, Phong, Blinn-Phong) and advanced ones (Cook-Torrance, Oren-Nayar, Ward, Ashikhmin-Shirley). The book also covers more advanced topics (Environment Cube Mapping, Reflection and Refraction, Projective Texture Mapping, Shadow Mapping, Shadow Volumes, Geometry Images) and cutting-edge techniques like Displacement Mapping, High Dynamic Range Lighting or Parallax Mapping. The author shows common problems arising during implementation of presented techniques and explains how to deal with them. Each chapter comes with a few example programs which are as simple as possible. You will also learn from this book how to optimize your shaders for different shader models.

This book is a must for those who want to learn vertex and pixel shader programming. Also advanced developers will find this book useful.

So, if you want to create cutting-edge shader effects do not hesitate to buy this book and learn how to do it.


Rating:
Summary: Very Good!!
Review: This book is a very good guide for programmers who want to learn shader programming.

It helps me learning a lot of things about shaders. The explanations are very clear and the difficulty is very gradual. First, it introduces DirectX High-Level Shading Language and the most basic lighting models. Next, it goes through a lot of more advanced algorithms. (Advanced Rendering, anisotropic Reflection, Shadow Mapping, Environmental Mapping and so on ...). And, at last, it finishes with some of the latest rendering techniques such as High Dynamic Range Lighting and vertex texturing.

It also includes the first coverage of vs_3_0 and ps_3_0. It explains how to use the latest graphic hardware. Moreover, this chapter helps to understand the relationships between High Level Language and assembly language.

In fact, this is an excellent resource that presents how next generation games will be made.


Rating:
Summary: Has EVERYTHING about DirectX 9 shaders
Review: This is a book that gets straight to the point. It covers a wide variety of rendering topics relevant to vertex and pixel shader programming, all with clear example code. The topics are covered in enough detail for the reader to create their own great 3D effects. The introductory sections are well structured and serve as a valuable reference for HLSL and shader assembly. On top of all of this, the coverage of new shader models vs_3_0 and ps_3_0 is the best I've seen. Five stars!