When to buy The Red Book

[ferum]

I have been using the downloadable version 1.1 of the openGL red book, but I have gotten to the point where it is starting to show its age. I am currently reading about texturing and it makes no mention of 3D textures at all ! This got me wondering whether the information that is included and I am reading is outdated and inaccurate. Is it?

Is it worth buying the latest edition of the book from Amazon, or are the differences not that substantial?

EDIT: ops! I just realized that this is probably not the most appropriate sub forum, sorry!

[Taxxodium]

Learn about texture mapping in OpenGL by going to NeHe (http://nehe.gamedev.org). There's also some sample code at the ADC (http://developer.apple.com) site.

Lastly if you use SDL check this (http://www.libsdl.org/cgi/docwiki.cgi/OpenGL_20Texture_20Example) out.

AFAIK, you won't learn anything of this stuff if you get the Red Book. Which is more of a general guide to using OpenGL.

[OneSadCookie]

Whilst having a paper copy of the Red Book is nice, it's not important. Almost everything added since OpenGL 1.1 is documented online in the OpenGL Extension Registry at http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/registry/ .

If you do buy a version of the Red Book, you should be aware that it will get outdated pretty quickly. That doesn't make it any less useful, it just means that you'll be referring to the extension registry again ;)

[arekkusu]

How about just reading The Spec (http://opengl.org/documentation/specs/version2.1/glspec21.pdf)?

Seriously, about 90% of the OpenGL questions asked on this forum lately could be answered by reading the specification.

[akb825]

But look at it this way, without that traffic the forums would be pretty much dead. ;)

[PowerMacX]

How about just reading The Spec (http://opengl.org/documentation/specs/version2.1/glspec21.pdf)?

Seriously, about 90% of the OpenGL questions asked on this forum lately could be answered by reading the specification.

That's cheating!