6.2 Computer Graphics
Description
This article is from the Amiga Books FAQ, by Marc Atkin with numerous contributions by others.
6.2 Computer Graphics
[for a more complete list, see the comp.graphics FAQ ]
o Leendert Ammeraal: Programming Principles in Computer Graphics (2nd edition) [publisher?], [year?]. [ISBN?]
nate@netcom.com (Nathan Dwyer), 10 Oct 1993: "A REALLY cool book. [...] It sort of skims over the math moves pretty quickly through the material, but covers a lot of ground. Also includes a lot of C++ code, but the text isn't occluded by it."
o J. D. Foley, A. van Dam, S. K. Feiner, and J. F. Hughes: Computer Graphics - Principles and Practice Addison-Wesley , 1990. ISBN 0-201-12110-7
stigove@lise.unit.no (Stig Ove Johnsen), 20 Aug 1993: "It is the book we use in the course 'Computer Graphics I&II' here at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. It goes into depth in describing both 2D raster graphics and 3D modeling (e.g. splines) and raytracing (incl. phong, gourad...). The programming eksamples are done mostly in Pascal. IMHO, it is a very good book. (And lots of nice ray-traced pictures!)"
umking21@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Brian D. King), 10 Oct 1993: "The proclaimed bible in computer graphics algorithms and theory [...]. It covers everything from line-drawing, circles and ellipses, pattern- filling, 2d and 3d vectors including transformations, filled polygons, shading, etc. etc. etc."
bwh@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Hook), 06 Dec 1993: "This is IT. THE bible of computer graphics, period. It covers just about every topic you need to know, however because of its scope it is very generalized and so information on any one specific topic may be lacking. Pascal-like pseudo code is strewn liberally throughout the book, which is a big help. Everything you would expect in three-D graphics is covered, including shading, ray tracing, radiosity, texture mapping, etc. Once again, it's very generalized and serves mostly as a good reference to other material and an overview of individual areas. But at over 1000 pages, it's a must have if you do graphics. If you can afford only ONE book on graphics, get this one."
o Andrew Glassner (ed.): Graphics Gems Academic Press, 1990. ISBN 0-12-286165-5
James Arvo (ed.): Graphics Gems II Academic Press, 1991. ISBN 0-12-64480-0
David Kirk (ed.): Graphics Gems III Academic Press, 1992. ISBN 0-12-409670-0 (with IBM disk) 0-12-409671-9 (with Mac disk)
rhoo1@pinn.nacjack.gen.nz (Robert Hooker), 20 Aug 1993: "These aren't much good to learn from, but once you know your stuff they are an excellent source of ideas."
bwh@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Hook), 06 Dec 1993: "Some people swear by these books. I don't know. They cover a lot of little tricks and tips for a lot of little things, but personally I haven't found much use for them, but I'm looking only at the interactive 3d side of things. Every now and then a friend tells me 'Wow, this one little paragraph in Gems [X] gave me a huge insight into what I needed to do and now my [program] is MUCH faster'. So to be fair, a lot of others have found these books to be invaluable. They cover a bit too much ground for me, so I'm still kind of hesitant on recommending them to others since it's not readily apparent if they will be helpful to you. Your mileage may vary."
o F. S. Hill Jr.: Computer Graphics Macmillan, [year?]. [ISBN?]
rhoo1@pinn.nacjack.gen.nz (Robert Hooker), 20 Aug 1993: "I can recommend "Computer Graphics" [...]. This was a text for my 3rd year Graphics course at University. All the ideas and examples are given in Pascal (which most everyone can understand) and are easy to convert to your prefered language. The book covers everything from simple 3D shapes thru Gouraud/Phong shading and onto the basics of RayTracing."
o Christopher Lampton: Flights of Fantasy Waite Group Press , 1993. ISBN 1-878739-18-2
Richard_Johnson@eaglesnest.albedo.com (Richard Johnson), 6 Oct 1993: "It's very complete and it comes with source code written in C++ for the IBM PC. I didn't have much trouble converting it to SAS/C. You do have to transfer files from the IBM disk to an amiga disk, though. The book comes with the disk. The book is really GREAT because it's very thorough and easy to understand. It teaches you from the ground up. One thing though, is that the source code had a number of minor bugs which I had to fix. Also, I optimized some of the code to make it faster. For one thing, I replaced the 4x4 matrices with 3x3 ones. [...] It's so easy to understand, that if you can't understand it, you have no other recourse than to learn more math."
bwh@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Hook), 06 Dec 1993: "This book is a mixed blessing. On the one hand it gets you up and running with the simple concepts that more advanced text books don't bother explaining. On the other, it could REALLY stand to be improved. Lots of simple algorithms are completely ignored, such as shading. However, a lot of PC specific stuff is thrown in. If you would like a more comprehensive review of the book let me know and I'll mail you one."
o David F. Rogers and J. Alan Adams: Mathematical Elements for Computer Graphics 2nd Ed. McGraw-Hill , 1990. ISBN 0-07-053530-2
bwh@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Hook), 06 Dec 1993: "Excellent book on curves, patches, and a lot of math. Does not cover rendering at all no shading, etc. It does a lot of theory on projections, however don't expect much on object databases or efficiency, though. Not a great reference to a 3d renderer, but for modeling in general and math it's wonderful. HOWEVER, it has an insane amount of stuff on curves, splines, Bezier curves, Coons patches, surfaces, etc. So if you want to do surfaces and things with soft edges in general, get this book. One of the few McGraw-Hill books I've liked (the other is 'An Introduction to Algorithms')."
o Alan Watt: 3-D Computer Graphics 2nd Ed. Addison-Wesley , 1993. ISBN 0-201-63186-5
bwh@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Hook), 06 Dec 1993: "This is also one of those classic texts. The new second edition covers a lot of ground. Watt's style is highly readable, and the same code is in Pascal. A complete rendering system (or two) is supplied in the appendices, along with the data file for the Utah teapot.
"If you do 3d graphics, you MUST have this book. [...] Chapters include: Three-dimensional Geometry in Computer Graphics, Representation of Objects, Viewing systems, Reflection and Illumination Models, Rendering Algorithms, Parametric Representation and Practice, Shadows and Textures, Ray Tracing, Volume Rendering, Radiosity, Anti aliasing, Functionally Based Modeling Methods, Three-dimensional Computer Animation, Colour Spaces and Monitor Considerations, Viewing Transformation from a Simple Four-Parameter Viewing System, A Wireframe System, An Implementation of a Renderer, The Utah Teapot.
"The book has a fairly decent mix of interactive and photorealistic stuff, and it is an excellent supplement to the 3d graphics section of Foley and Van Dam. Between the two you are pretty well set for 3d graphics."
o Alan Watt and Mark Watt: Advanced Animation and Rendering Techniques Addison-Wesley , 1993. ISBN 0-201-54412-1
bwh@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Hook), 06 Dec 1993: "This book is by far one of the best books in the field of 3d graphics. Most of it covers rendering and ray tracing, which means it is not very useful for real-time graphics [...] the stuff it covers is invaluable and very difficult to find elsewhere. We are talking heavy rendering and ray tracing stuff, volume rendering techniques, shading languages, quaternions and Euler angles, radiosity, inverse/forward kinematics, etc. Excellent book, but not very useful if you are looking to write only a game (although the chapters on segmented object animation would be useful for robots/tanks)."
o Andrew Tyler: Amiga Real-Time 3D Graphics Sigma Press (UK), [year?]. ISBN 781850 582755
oz@ozzy.demon.co.uk (Brian Skreeg), 22 Jun 1995: "I've had this book for a while and it's not worth the purchase. The example code is poor and would not run on my 030 A1200 no matter what I did. It also uses obscure algorithms for the simplest of calculations. Get the HowToCode package [from Aminet]. It has a much better explanation of 3d vectors and stuff. The book is punted as an easy way to learn assembly while learning 3d graphics. Not true. If you have had no experience with assembly before, then you've got little chance of learning it from this book. The book is divided into sections for each area of 3d graphics. Line drawing, filling, window clipping, perpective, rotations, depth sorting, etc. [...]"
o [author?] Amiga 3D Graphic Programming Abacus, [year?]. [ISBN?]
Richard_Johnson@eaglesnest.albedo.com (Richard Johnson), 6 Oct 1993: "DO NOT get [this book]. The guy who wrote it should be whipped because this book is impossible to understand and is really just a documentation for the crummy little ray tracing program which takes up half of the pages."
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