3D Game Engine Design: A Practical Approach to Real-Time Computer Graphics

Yes, this book is an invaluable reference. All the mathematical knowledge necessary to building a 3D engine is contained within its pages. Each topic is covered separately, with algorithm examples to support each mathematical discussion. A basic 3D engine is also included to help the reader put the concepts together.You must, however, adapt well to formal mathematical notation to understand this book -- there is no handholding; it assumes the reader is familiar with vector and matrix algebra, linear algebra, multivariate calculus, and data structures. Following the mathematics can become quite tedious if you are lacking in any of these areas. One thing I think Eberly might have improved is "dumbing down" the mathematical notation to appeal to a broader audience, or at least have written the book in a more personal, explanatory manner (Its funny how the smarter a person is, the harder it is for him/her to express ideas in a way understanding to the rest of us).For you college kids, I'd say you need up to Calc 3 and Linear Algebra. It'll help if you've taken a couple graphics courses, covering things like BSP/Oct/Quad trees, rendering pipeline analysis, and intersection testing. I myself AM a college kid, so trust me on this... it'll help if you have a little background. Also note that this book is non-API specific; you must know a 3D API well in order to implement the author's ideas. He uses OpenGL for his CD-ROM examples.What else... Don't buy this book if you just want to implement special effects... check out the 3D Graphics Gems series for that. Concepts such as Lens Flare, Bump/Enviroment Mapping, Shadows, and Particle Systems are discussed, but only slightly within 4 pages of the last chapter -- which is understandable, considering the focus of this book is on the core 3D engine, not the flare surrounding it.That's about it. Buy it if you've got patience, persistence, and are serious about 3D game programming -- and that's the bottom line.

This is an extremely thorough text and covers a wide variety of topics in a fairly detailed manner. The book is sort of a survey or "toolkit" of game and graphics engine techniques. it is unlikely that in writing a single game you will use everything in this book - but having the exposure to the numerous topics he dicsusses is good.As others have noted, he's "heavy on the math." For me, this is a good thing, since I intend to use the book as a reference, not as a primer. While he is "heavy on the math" he is "light on the diagrams," really the only negative about this book at all.I found the coverage of intersection and collision tests, and the section on numerical methods in the end, both to be especially good compared to other books.In general, this book is an excellent reference for experienced readers, not a how-to for beginners. Very thorough, well written. The book feels academic and authoritative - however, the author has the in-the-trenches experience which lends him creditibility. Once you know the basics, this book is a must-have reference book.

I have read the majority of the comments about this book, and I must say that I strongly disagree with some of you.There seem to be an abnormal number of "math haters" buying this book, such that one does wonder as to the type of developer who is reading it.In developing an advanced, or even not so advanced, 3D graphics engine, there is no getting around the Mathematics involved. I feel that Dr. Eberly has done a terrific job of covering the general gamut of what is needed for such an indepth and difficult task.I apologize if I stereotype anyone here, but no serious, professional developer in his right mind is going to whine over needing to learn the Mathematics behind their work. Computer languages are built around the Mathematical principles that bore them, so please, before you blast a book and its author over _your_ inability to understand the material, consider a different job.As a side note, I believe that Dr. Eberly intended his book primarily as a reference guide, not so much a learning tool. And I would also wager that Dr. Eberly himself has such a reference guide on his desk as well.On the subject of reviewing this book, I thoroughly enjoy it, and it has a permanent place on my reference shelf, within easy reach. Even though I myself do not yet posess the knowledge to encompass ALL of the Mathematics in this book, knowing that it is there, and that more remains to be learned, is a great motivation to continue Mathematical study.In closing, I applaud Dr. Eberly for writing a concise, accurate, and excellent Mathematical reference book, he has made a difficult subject significantly simpler.

I do think this is a great book for programmers. The fact that it comes with well written code libraries makes it a very powerful teaching tool. I was very pleased that an updated version of the code was available online that fixed some bugs. Many games use technologies that are discussed in this book. While many games may solve problems in much narrower ways because of the particular focus that their project has, this book covers good general approaches that are definitely valuable knowledge. One standout for me is the section on culling and clipping where different clip and transform sequences are discussed. Games very often use different sequences for clip and transform based on what is being rendered, but many graphics books only address a single traditional method. The appendix discussion and code implementation of c++ persistent storage is a good basis for tools code. Personally, I really like the author's kind of code style which has practical and readable c++ coding techniques similar those used in MFC. To be fair, the book doesn't really talk about a game engine, it talks about the many 3d math and rendering techniques that part of what is needed for a game engine.

This is truly a one of a kind book. While not the Foley/VanDam of game programming books, it is rather comprehensive. What it does cover it does quite well. Although this book will NEVER leave my side it is still wrought with problems. First off is the writing style of the author. David's greatest strength is also his biggest weakness. Since he possesses a PhD in mathematics this book is chock full of math equations. Unfortunately, nearly every line of the book is an equation. This is not a book for the faint hearted and one can not casually "jump into" a random chapter. Perhaps he could have targetted as many lay people as industry techs by cutting back on some of the excessive math. Not a problem for me, but for some..... Additionally, he glosses over some topics as if he were running out of pages. His coverage of Portal technology is cursory at best, taking a meager 5 pages of the book. Some topics such as bump mapping, lens flares, and other special effects are mentioned, but barely. Finally, it seems that there are thing that SHOULD have been covered, but were not. There is absolutely no discussion on Subsivision Surfaces (approximated OR interpolated). There's no discussion at all on iso surfaces (metaballs), cloth animation, toon rendering, etc.. Even with all these problems this is must have book. Just bone up on you matrix math, calculus, and algebra. YOU'LL NEED IT.