Opengl Superbible: The Complete Guide to Opengl Programming for Windows Nt and Windows 95

Rating:
Summary: Definately not for beginners
Review: I have had great difficulty trying to get the example programs to run. Code snippets are missing include files, some code produces errors that I cannot resolve. Very frustrating.

Rating:
Summary: OpenGL Superbible
Review: I've used the Opengl superbible to teach a computer graphics course, in the past. My conclusions are: beginner OpenGL programmers really like the examples and easy to understand applications of the many of the opengl functions. Game developers however will prefer the OpenGL Programming Guide. The WSU Virtual Worlds Student site has a theme called "3D space invaders" which received inspiration from the "battle zone game" in the Super Bible Book. Students were required to build a 3D game which allow movement of a camera, multiple control levels of a space ship, falling aliens, firing missiles, scores, and collision detection. The Super Bible more than adequately prepared students to meet the challenge of the project. Additionally, the Super Bible included source code examples for unix, microsoft compilers, and borland compilers. Email me if you need additional help in understanding concepts in the Super Bible, such as NURBS. The Opengl Programming Manual explains NURBS better. Two wish items: I wish the author would explain how to combine 3D Studio Max objects in OpenGL, and I wish the author would explain combining JPG texture maps onto surfaces.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad- not great either!
Review: This book covers a LOT of OpenGL material. The first 3 chapters of the book are great, with a few exceptions. He doesn't explicitely state that you must link OpenGL32.lib and Glaux.lib to your application before you're able to use those libraries in your app. - 1 star! By the 4th chapter, the reader (or at least I was) ready to jump into 3d programming. However, by the 4th chapter, I became discouraged because the author suddenly assumes that you have entry-level windows progamming! I didn't... thus, that's as far in the book I got. Why did I still give it 3 stars? Because it deserves it! It covers a lot of material, and if you already have some experience in windows programming, I'd rate this book higher (to a 4). This is a great book- if you know windows programming to a certain (basic) extent.