3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for Linear Algebra Students In Computer Science
Review: If you are taking Linear Algebra in college, you know that most of the available textbooks are a little short on practical details and examples of how vectors and matrices will matter to you later on in your programming career. This book provides excellent pictures, diagrams and explanations on the basics of how you can put your Linear Algebra knowlege to work. You don't need to be interested in game development to benefit from the clear and very readable presentation that this book provides. Thank you Fletcher Dunn and Ian Parberry - for the outstanding work.

Rating:
Summary: Best bet for getting a solid understanding of 3D math
Review: Our goal in writing this book was not to cover as many topics as possible, like some other books, but rather to hit the most important concepts thoroughly. If you are a beginner, or have some "holes" in your understanding of matrices, Euler angles, left-handed vs. right-handed coordinate spaces, or key graphics concepts like zoom or the lighting equation, this book is for you.

A feature of this book over other books is the extent to which we have tried to develop the reader's geometric intuition, rather than just presenting numbers and equations. We show what the geometric interpretation of each mathematical operation is, why you would ever use that operation, and, in many cases, how the equation was derived in the first place. We do not gloss over "minor details" such as row vectors versus column vectors, or left- versus right-handed coordinate spaces. These "minor details" make all the difference in the world when you are trying to use an equation out of a book.

For the more advanced reader, we offer some of the clearest and complete discussions of some more advanced topics such as quaternions and barycentric coordinates. The book can be used as a reference for many important vector and matrix operations and identities. It also has a toolkit of many important equations for geometric primitives and intersection tests.

Our focus is on theory, so the book is not a big code dump like many books. The code we have provided consists primarily of "utility" classes for vectors, quaternions, and matrices. I think you will find that our code is simpler to read and understand than most code you will find elsewhere. We also offer some unique and thoughtful advice on good class design, specifically targetted to classes for doing 3D math and getting it right the first time, without twiddling minus signs or swapping numbers experimentally until it looks right

Rating:
Summary: Best bet for getting a solid understanding of 3D math
Review: Our goal in writing this book was not to cover as many topics as possible, like some other books, but rather to hit the most important concepts thoroughly. If you are a beginner, or have some "holes" in your understanding of matrices, Euler angles, left-handed vs. right-handed coordinate spaces, or key graphics concepts like zoom or the lighting equation, this book is for you.

A feature of this book over other books is the extent to which we have tried to develop the reader's geometric intuition, rather than just presenting numbers and equations. We show what the geometric interpretation of each mathematical operation is, why you would ever use that operation, and, in many cases, how the equation was derived in the first place. We do not gloss over "minor details" such as row vectors versus column vectors, or left- versus right-handed coordinate spaces. These "minor details" make all the difference in the world when you are trying to use an equation out of a book.

For the more advanced reader, we offer some of the clearest and complete discussions of some more advanced topics such as quaternions and barycentric coordinates. The book can be used as a reference for many important vector and matrix operations and identities. It also has a toolkit of many important equations for geometric primitives and intersection tests.

Our focus is on theory, so the book is not a big code dump like many books. The code we have provided consists primarily of "utility" classes for vectors, quaternions, and matrices. I think you will find that our code is simpler to read and understand than most code you will find elsewhere. We also offer some unique and thoughtful advice on good class design, specifically targetted to classes for doing 3D math and getting it right the first time, without twiddling minus signs or swapping numbers experimentally until it looks right

Rating:
Summary: Very good book to get started with
Review: The authors state early on that this book is intended as the first book an aspiring game programmer should read, and I would agree that for the most part it lives up to that goal. Many 3D game programming books include math primers covering a chapter or two, but really, 3D math is a huge topic deserving an entire volume. This book provides a great service, then, in that it thoroughly covers most of the basic topics that graphics programmers need to know, in a tutorial style that should be accessible to all beginners. Hopefully, we'll start to see more game programming books that focus on their core material and defer coverage of 3D math to books like this one rather than trying to pack unavoidably incomplete coverage into a few dozen pages.

So, what exactly does it cover? It starts off with a couple of chapters on coordinate systems, and then spends three chapters on vectors, followed by another three chapters on matrices and transformations. It then covers orientation, comparing matrix, Euler angle, and quaternion representations (including one of most clear explanations of quaternions that I've encountered), before diving into several chapters covering geometric primitives, including detailed coverage of working with triangle meshes.

The book closes with a chapter applying 3D math to graphics in areas such as lighting, fog, coordinates spaces, LOD, culling and clipping, and so on, and another chapter on visibility determination, touching on things like quad- and octrees, BSP trees, PVS, and portal techniques. The explanations in these chapters are much less complete, taking more of an overview approach. Others have criticized the book for this, but I feel that an overview is appropriate, since it then sets the stage for these topics to be covered in detail in other game programming books.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone just getting started with game and graphics programming.

Rating:
Summary: What a excellent book !
Review: The explaination is simple and easy to understand. Moreover, the author try to let reader to understand how to apply 3D maths in programming. And at the rear of the book, he explains why there is no companion CD : "Rather than a companion CD, this book has a web site, [URL], which features : .... Code presented in the book...". However, if you enter [URL], there is no code but having "The code from the book. Coming soon... " and "Small demo game, which uses the code from the book. Coming soon...". What a responsible author !!!

Rating:
Summary: Returned- Source code incomplete
Review: The source code on the site is incomplete. When they're ready to provide the full source promised in the book, then it may be worth a look. Wrote the author to find out about the missing source. Not surprisingly he didn't respond. Pass.

Rating:
Summary: What could have been....
Review: This book *IS* definitely geered towards the beginner, and only assumes a basic knowledge of trigonometry. Indeed, the first few chapters seems to fulfill this well with its easy-flowing text and background info on graphics. Unfortunately, the later chapters look (Starting from the chapter on Quaternions/Euler angles and going until the end of the book) like they were quite rushed which was disappointing considering the nice flow of the previous chapters.
Also, if you're looking for code snippets, DON'T LOOK HERE! No CD and the website looks thrown together AND INCOMPLETE (without any source-code!) like the later chapters of this book. See for yourself and you decide... I certainly hope Mr. Dunn doesn't release software the way he releases books!
All in all, I gave it 3 stars because it still contains a lot of useful info for a beginner and is a nice review for someone who hasn't seen this stuff in a while.

Rating:
Summary: the best book on math now
Review: this book assume your beginner in that filed .
authors covers alot of topics in math and its application in a clear style with pictures,examples and finally code !.
i recommend this book for beginners in game programming .

Ahmed Saleh , Computer Graphics Programmer .

Rating:
Summary: Very well written, graceful transition to 3D math.
Review: This book does a fantastic job of starting out with the basics. It doesn't assume you already know 3D math. I had to re-read a couple parts to make sure I understood what was being taught, however this was due to the nature of the difficult subject, and not because it was poorly written. The book is very well written.

While this book starts out with the basics, it does move into more advanced topics, but because it does such a good job of giving you a solid foundation at the beginning, you are able keep up.

The code samples are excellent as well. They don't get so complicated that you can't understand it...and they help to reinforce how to actually implement a vector, matrix etc. in C.

Thanks to authors for writing a book that a person with very little 3D math experience can pick up and actually get through. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about 3D math...whether you are a beginner or advanced.

If you are even slightly interested in 3D math and computer graphics or game programming, I would pick this book up for sure. It is the best book I have found yet on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Great in some parts, below average in others.
Review: This book does an excellent job in the first several chapters covering basic Vector and Matrix topics, and does an admirable job and making them simple to understand. For a beginner in Matrix Algebra or 3D game/graphic programmer, this book can really get you started on the right foot.

HOWEVER...Too many of the later chapters do not cover the topics in the detail they deserve, and instead full listings of code are shown. Whilst the code is important to be able to see how things work, the entire listing could have been put on a CD in on the GameMath website (which is also quite poor), and just the function or two being focused on be displayed in the text.

Some explanations were also a little iffy -- In one example, the authors attempt to describe converting from Object to World space -- and give an example of how to do so and what needs to be done. The example is given with a series of graphics and short descriptions. (Rotate to the axis, the translate...) This method of describing the conversion is really more confusion than it needs to be. They may have been attempting to oversimplify, because the straight forward description is really not difficult -- multiply the Object's vertices by the Translation and Rotation matrix.

Overall, a good book to get started in certain topics, and coupled with Real Time Rendering (2nd Ed.) to cover more information and fill in holes, understanding the material is fairly straight forward.