Best Introductory OpenGL Book

[davecom]

My two preferences for the book are:
ï Mac orientation included
ï Up to date with the latest APIs

I don't like any of the Deitel books. I like books that speak in easy to understand language. I am very good with C, Java, and Objective-C.

I'm not so good with C++.

So, what do you'll reccomend?


David

[Iceman]

By far the Open GL programming Guide (Open GL Red book) every 3D Mac programmer has this book. Also it's the only one that makes any sense too :-) . You should be able to find it at any Borders bookstore.

Ice

B.T.W. Open GL works on PC too so the PC code looks just like the Mac code espcially if you're using GLUT.

[davecom]

Is this that book?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201604582/qid=1021145615/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-9700520-6823116

[Jeff Binder]

That's the one.

[davecom]

Looks good, but I'm not sure I have the graphics experience required. What kind of graphics experience are we talking about?

[Johan]

The "OpenGL Programming Guide" is avaliable online at:

http://ask.ii.uib.no/ebt-bin/nph-dweb/dynaweb/SGI_Developer/OpenGL_PG/

It's also avaliable on PDF at gamedev.net:

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/count.asp?LinkID=993

Cheers,
Johan Persson

[Mars_999]

Originally posted by davecom
Looks good, but I'm not sure I have the graphics experience required. What kind of graphics experience are we talking about?

If you know C, your fine. I have the OpenGL Red book also, and its a great book. A good book also, but its more PC game related is OpenGL Game programming. This book covers more of how to use the OpenGL coding for game programming. Most of the code isn't platform specific. Just make sure you have a texture loader and a model loader that will work on the Mac. e.g. Quicktime for images.

[Jeff Binder]

Just keep in mind that the online version isn't up to date, it doesn't cover the new features in OpenGL 1.2. Usually it's the other way around, with online stuff being updated first, but not here :) .

[Carlos Camacho]

Jeff, I have the "OpenGL for Game programming" book, same people who will publish Mark's book. Would you like to review it for us? If so, send me your home address.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761533303/

[Josh]

Originally posted by Camacho
Jeff, I have the "OpenGL for Game programming" book, same people who will publish Mark's book. Would you like to review it for us? If so, send me your home address.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761533303/ I know this is a little off topic but... when is Mark's book due to be out?

[Carlos Camacho]

Very timely question as Mark JUST emailed me. I'm waiting to hear from him to see if it is OK to share with the outside world his news. The short answer is VERY soon.

Cheers,

[geezusfreeek]

What are the differences between 1.1 and 1.2?

[Jeff Binder]

From the OpenGL web site:

ï Three-dimensional texturing for supporting hardware-accelerated volume rendering
ï BGRA pixel formats and packed pixel formats to directly support more external file and hardware frame buffer types
ï Automatic rescaling of vertex normals changed by the modeling matrix; rescaling can, in some cases, replace a more expensive renormalization operation
ï Application of specular highlights after texturing for more realistic lighting effects
ï Texture coordinate edge clamping to avoid blending border and image texels during texturing
ï Level of detail control for mipmap textures to allow loading only a subset of levels; this can save texture memory when high-resolution texture images are not required due to textured objects being far from the viewer
ï Vertex array enhancements to specify a subrange of the array and draw geometry from that subrange in one operation; this allows a variety of optimizations such as pretransforming, caching transformed geometry, and so on

[OneSadCookie]

The GeForce2MX and Rage128 don't support 3D texturing, nor (I think) does the Radeon, so those cards all still report GL 1.1, even though they all support the rest of the features.

[Carlos Camacho]

BTW... I sent Jeff Binder a review copy of an OpenGL book, so if you plan to buy one, wait for his review, so you can read a review from a Mac developer's viewpoint.

[Jeff Binder]

Radeon supports 3D texturing.

[Deland]

If you have a PC at home, this link could be of interest to you. It has a .chm version of the OpenGL Red Book, an introdution to OpenGL, all of NeHe's OpenGL Tutorials and the OpenGL SuperBible.

http://www.impex-world.com/3d/opengl/ebooks/

[GoodDoug]

Definitely, the Red Book is the one to have for reference and all of that. if you want a great introduction to 3D using OpenGL, I recommend Ed Angel's "Interactive Computer Graphics: A Top Down Approach Using OpenGL" as it gets you started doing real work with OpenGL before discussing things like rasterization and the like. It goes in reverse order of most College level graphics texts (which, if you're self taught, usually makes things easier) by showing you how to do something, and then showing you how OpenGL accomplishes it. Others will disagree, but I've found that those who disagree most vehemently tend to be those that learned CG in a college setting (actually, the loudest was a professor that I TA'd for)

Quick edit:
I should also mention that the examples are cross platform (all in GLUT), and that Ed Angel does actually do some Mac programming (or so he told me)

Just my 0b00000010 cents