Rating: 
Summary: Bugs, Errors, Typos, broken code... doh!
Review: Although the book itself is very promising and states the basic concepts of a 3D grphics library, I still don't recommend this book at all. Why? Because if you buy a book that is built onto a SDK, you also want to USE the SDK (otherwise you buy another book that just tells you about the concepts). If now the authors provide you with tutorials and utilities to convert - let's say - 3D Studio MAX - files into their own level-filetypes things seem to be ok. But if you finally realize that the provided utilities are not working, the MAX-export-plugins have to be (a) installed in a different way they tell you and (b) still cause MAX to crash when you do not work with a simple box (how interesting!), you get really mad. After trying around for several hours I gave up and had a nice christmas-campfire.In the past months a lot of VERY good books were released on this topic, you are better off with one of these.
Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointing Purchase
Review: I had eagerly awaited this book for months. Watts previous '3D Computer Graphics' was one of the best ever written on the subject and I had high expectations. I have several problems with the book :- (a) The books text is made up of (to a major extent) text and diagrams from Watts other books. As I mentioned, I like one of Watts other books but I don't appreciate paying for old information. I can appreciate that there are those that do not have the old texts and it would be necessary to some extent to have it included in this book...but how about some new color plates at some point? Some of these plates and text have now been used in three books! (b) The additional information in the book that isn't based on the older books isn't anything particularly ground breaking. There is very little treatment of new games technologies, even in the field of graphics/rendering. (c) After reading the texts about graphics programming that I mentioned in (a) we get to the game programming side of the book which unfortunately is the worst part of it. The collision detection part of the book is appalling and no where near the size or detail it should have been given the authors backgrounds. The same could be said of the Behavior and AI chapter at around 30 pages. This sort of overview hardly makes the book a bible on software technology. (d) How did chapters 18 and 19 get into this book? This whole section covers '2D technology' but nothing presented here is anything that anyone has ever used in a game. It's possible someone might find something useful here, but also quite a rare chance and such chapters catering for the minority or non games programming reader are taking up pages that might have been better used for something else. (e) The final section of the book is three chapters on 'software technology'. There are an interesting few pages at the start of this on multiplayer technology but it soon changes to a reference about the fly3D sdk. (f) The layout/typesetting of the book is awful. This all started with Watts ghastly 'The Computer Image' and unfortunately was used in the last revision of '3D Computer Graphics' as well as this book. The early 90's versions of '3D Computer Graphics' had a perfect setting - why change? (g) The flySDK is reasonable...but its not wholly up to date in terms of games graphics technology. With Watts knowledge I would expect it to be pushing the envelope and offering a guiding light for games programmers but sadly this is not the case. The cover mentions this as 'volume 1' so I hope the next volume is much more along the lines of what this should be. I have mentioned about my high hopes for this book and hinted on the true genuis of the authors, but if anything this book has proved to me that non games programmers shouldn't attempt to write games programming books. I am sorry to have to say that but I honestly feel that the authors might wish to leave out the unnecessary and undetailed chapters and concentrate on updating their earlier books. I can see a potentially hot title '3D Computer Graphics for Games' based on an update of the earlier book, making considerations to non opengl based rendering systems and console graphics...as well as the definitive text on collision detection covering intersections and collision resolution.
Rating: 
Summary: This is an excelent book
Review: I've been reading game development books for more than 10 years and this is certain one of the best books i've ever read. Policarpo and Watt have created a very good 3D engine that comes in a CD with the book and they explain everything about programming 3D games with this engine and general game programming. It's really Worth Buying!
Rating: 
Summary: ...to those who write reviews and those who read them
Review: I've read reviews on this book by others. If you can't find a better book, why say that it's not worth buying? Instead of bringing up complaints, why not recommend books you think are more useful? Discouraging buying the book, you believe we should wait for improvements?
Rating:
Summary: A good 3d book so far, but not perfect
Review: Some of the criticisms are valid, but lets get it straight right here. This is simply the best 3D book out there from all I've seen. In fact, from what I've seen, its the only 3D book worth buying right now for the intermediate<->advanced programmer. You'll have to do a lot of reading with the source code though--but all good info. The good 1.) No API's are covered. Anyone can learn OpenGL/DirectX, and many tutorials cover those topics quite well. However, this covers the math, algorithms, and 3D side of things (for most part). Some code snippets are included, though--but its not a teach yourself OpenGL in 21 days book (thank god). It also has the best coverage of BSP tree's I've seen aside from dedicated algorithm books. And the coverage on PVS seems a tad brief, but the SDK src code makes up for it. 2.) The src code on the CD is great-- its a load of code to sift through-- not the best code, not the most bug-free--indeed, but good code to learn from. OpenGL stuff is in there, stuff that uses STL and modern C++ techniques, and BSP and PVS code. What more can you ask for in a book? This book comes with a working 3d engine and its source code. I can't think of any book that covers the topics well because the guy implemented what he was writing about. Thats why the book is above average, you get the juicy details along with theory. 3.) Has some cool pictures and visuals of varying effects. Not exactly needed for the professional 3d coder, but sometimes a little eyecandy and visuals doesnt hurt in an otherwise intense book. The ugly 1.) The last 190 pages cover the SDK he wrote. This could have been better left offline, I think - on a CD-ROM. It gives you some insight on how a 3d API *might* look, or how file formats might look, but who cares. I want more 3d stuff in there, next time fool. 2.) The PVS section could have had a tad more detail. I want the most detail on the hardest topics, and the most briviety on the eastest topics. 3.) The collision detection could have had a more detail. I think the coverage was average, and by finding a few references in the back that should complete it. But, I'm willing to bet if you can implement BSP trees, then collision detection should be easy, I mean as far as math goes. Therefore, the higher level overview is sufficient probably for the coder to get the rest working on his own. But still Watts, its important and you should know it gets neglated way too much. Stop negletating the essentials people! 4.) What the heck is that image analysis, DCT and FFT thing about? Seems like a waste of space, doesnt cover it in enough detail dude. Come on, FFT's are discussed in a digital signal processing book. You cant do it justice there, I dont think. 5.) Networking code, umm, waste of space. People can buy a seperate book for that, or leave articles on CD-ROM. Summary 1.) More coverage on PVS and collision detection 2.) More coverage on modern games and the techniques they use 3.) No references or crap on FlySDK, who cares? Leave it on CD-ROM 4.) More math, use extra space to discuss the various 3d topics in detail, and how about some stuff that 3d level editors need? More coverage on CSG, for example. And polygon tesselation, and maybe algorithms necessary to convert models to various formats.
Rating:
Summary: Hardly worth my time
Review: The book is ok if all you want to learn is theory. If you really want something that shows you the ins-and-outs of realtime 3d processing, this book isn't for you. I felt like there were too many topics covered and the important ones were skimmed over. There is a total lack of practical example code as well - don't bother looking at the FlySDK either - it's a waste of time. The final straw was when I had to learn BSP techniques. This book had maybe 10 pages on the topic, no real code, only a sample formula that made no sense. I did some research on the Internet and found supporting information and better formulas (for free, mind you) that helped me to understand and formulate my own BSP algorithm. I went back and looked at the section in the text again and found how much was really left out of the BSP section and it was shameful.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Source Bad book
Review: The source for this book is for an entry level 3D engine, which is just what I wanted. But a lot of the theory (coll det etc) in the source is not explained in the book. Rather than explaining fundamental aspects they seem to throw in loads of detail about the topics that they dont seem to have covered and taken for lots of articles that you can find on the web (gamasutra for one). Saying that the source is nice and taught me a lot, bsp trees + a bit about collisions. Im glad I have the source but the book seems thrown together and shabby. I just think they could have done a better job making it readable starting 3D engine book rather than a shabby reference book.
Rating:
Summary: Tech Info 8, Useful SDK 1
Review: The technical information on 3D provided in the book is good, it's as decent a text as many others out there (not in the top 3 but in the top 20). HOWEVER... the SDK documentation is lacking and some basic information on using the 3DS MAX plugins, etc. is completely missing. With a lot of experimentation I managed to export levels, but such basics as how to create doors, platforms, etc. are not in either the book, the tutorial, or the Web site. Bottom line: if you want tech info on game programming with OpenGL, this is an OK book. If you want to play around with the SDK, you're better off downloading CrystalSpace from SourceForge - it's better documented!
Rating:
Summary: Why you should not buy this book!
Review: This book has many spelling errors for one. Second, after reading this book you would have learned nothing about building your own 3D game engine. This book teaches you how to use the fly3D engine and does a bad job of that. If you want to learn how to make your own 3D games then you are going to want to get OpenGL game programming and both Game Programming Gems books. This is truly a waste of money, don't say I didn't warn you. I don't see how anyone could use this as a reference.
Rating:
Summary: Why you should not buy this book!
Review: This book has many spelling errors for one. Second, after reading this book you would have learned nothing about building your own 3D game engine. This book teaches you how to use the fly3D engine and does a bad job of that. If you want to learn how to make your own 3D games then you are going to want to get OpenGL game programming and both Game Programming Gems books. This is truly a waste of money, don't say I didn't warn you. I don't see how anyone could use this as a reference.
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