OpenGL SuperBible: Comprehensive Tutorial and Reference

by Richard S. Wright Jr., Benjamin Lipchak, Nicholas Haemel

The Barnes & Noble Review
For years, thousands of OpenGL programmers have relied on the OpenGL SuperBible. If you want to leverage OpenGL 2.1's major improvements, you really need the Fourth Edition. It's a comprehensive tutorial, systematic API reference, and massive code library, all in one.

You'll start with the fundamental techniques every graphics programmer needs: transformations, lighting, texture mapping, and so forth. Then, building on those basics, you'll move towards newer capabilities, from advanced buffers to vertex shaders.

Of course, OpenGL's cross-platform availability remains one of its most compelling features. This book's extensive multiplatform coverage has been thoroughly rewritten, and now addresses everything from Windows Vista to OpenGL ES for handhelds. This is stuff you absolutely want the latest edition for.

A small but telling point: This book's recently been invited into Addison-Wesley's OpenGL Series, making it an "official" OpenGL book -- and making a powerful statement about its credibility. Bill Camarda, from the August 2007 href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/newslet... Only

Genres: Computer Science, Programming, Reference, Technical, Nonfiction, Technology, Computers

1205 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1996

Reviews

[Alex Ptakhin]

This is a happy childhood

[رائد الغامدي]

من الكتب المرجعية في مجال الرسم بالحاسب باستخدام OpenGl.
مقسم إلى ثلاثة أجزاء: مبتدئ، متوسط، ومتقدم. الجزء الأول مهم ويشرح قواعد وأساسيات الرسوم ثنائية وثلاثية الأبعاد. مهم قراءته لمن يريد تعلم أصول رسومات الحاسوب حتى ولو لم يستخدم اوبن جي ال.

[Charles H]

The few complaints I have are rather petty:
1.) The fourth edition is out and it is said to be far superior.
2.) The example graphics are mostly hideous.
3.) The example code that comes with the book relies heavily on reused third party libraries. For me, this made translating examples into my own programs difficult.

But the OpenGL SuperBible succeeds at being the absolutely comprehensive reference book on OpenGL. Not only does it cover all conceivable topics, it also covers them in a simple enough way to make it a useful self-teaching book. There is plenty of example code. There is no OS bias. It's an all around super book.

[Shannon]

I can't speak to how easy this book is to digest for a beginner, but "comprehensive" is definitely the correct description. Having a reference and a learning guide in one book is incredibly useful; you can look up a function to refresh your memory on the argument list, or read the section on a topic to figure out how to approach a problem in the first place. I like it better than the Red Book, and having one or the other is a must for an OpenGL programmer.

[Jason]

From what I recall of this book, it's quite well suited to both beginner and intermediate OpenGL programmers alike. Even newcomers to 3D systems should be able to hit the ground running, every concept is covered in detail.

[Nick Black]

Most of its weight, admittedly, is in dopey moves like reprinting reference pages and lengthy code listings, but a surprisingly useful and well-written intro to OpenGL in its third major version otherwise.

[Stirling Westrup]

I can't recommend this as either a reference or a tutorial, but it might serve as a source for tips and tricks. I found the explanations of many features to leave out necessary details or to simply make no sense at all.

[Will]

Great introduction to 3D graphics programming. Clear, understandable, complete.

[Michael]

If/when I ever use OpenGL again, I will purchase another book and not rely on this one. I can't put my finger on much that's overtly wrong, but I just find it hard to learn from this book.

[Marcos Santamaria]

Good OpenGL reference book

[Ling Wang]

It’s a good tutorial. But you want to know “why” find another book.

[Bruno Gallego]

The book is amazing, clear and complete, although i had to look up another book for slashing all the content, due to the fact this topic is big.