OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 2

A lot of people might think that modern online API docs and Google search make technical reference manuals obsolete, but at least for something as evergreen as OpenGL that's simply not the case. This book offers so much more than the online OpenGL API docs and StackOverflow answers about how to do things. It shows you the signature and description of every function and the purpose of every constant in all of OpenGL, yes, but grouped by concept and situated within concise explanations of the relevant context and concepts and beside in-depth explanations of how to use them, how they work, and when to use them. Just open the book to a chapter corresponding to a concept you want to learn about or a section specific to something you want to do and you'll be dropped into a far richer, deeper explanation than any online resource, which is crucial to really understanding the concepts.

It is vital that you have this book when programming in OpenGL, especially when learning and you have not yet memorized even the more common prototypes. This book is NOT a replacement for the OpenGL Programming Guide, it is meant to acompany it and be a more useful reference once you have read the Programming Guide. Very VERY usefull. Well Organized, imporant infomation jumps right out at you and details are available on the same page. Overall one of the best references I've used for any language or API.

This book goes into great detail on OpenGL, with some very helpful examples and lots of code fragments. All the examples from the book can be found on the enclosed CD. A little too complex for people who are new to C++ though. I found myself struggling with this book at first but, when my grasp of the language became better, this became a gold mine of information.

Before I started reading this book, I tried learning from the Direct3D on-line documentation. I had no previous knowledge in polygons at all. I had managed to hack up an unlit polygon, but I still never knew what I was doing. After much frustration (help files are never helpful) I decided to bite the bullet and buy a book on OpenGL. This book has been the best investment I have made so far to my programming career. Even if you want to use a different 3d API, you should start with this book, because OpenGL is EASY to learn. In fact, I can even understand D3D documentation now!

The 3rd Edition of the "OpenGL Programming Guide" is an important upgrade to what is the definitive introduction to OpenGL programming. I was pleased to participate in the technical review of this book so I can attest to (and I guess be held indirectly accountable for) the book's completeness and accuracy.If you are interested in practical 3D programming using the latest in 3D hardware acceleration and you want a straightforward and portable programming interface, OpenGL is definitely the way to go, and this book is what you need to get started.Since the last update two years ago, OpenGL 1.2 and the OpenGL multitexturing extension have been standardized. This Guide has complete explanations and tutorial coverage on all new OpenGL 1.2 features and the multitexturing extension.OpenGL 1.2 is packed with new features like volume textures, image processing capabilities, more image formats, etc, etc. The book covers _all_ the new stuff in OpenGL 1.2. OpenGL multitexturing is already widely available. Games such as the much anticipated "Quake III: Arena" use OpenGL multitexturing, and I expect lots of other 3D games will be using multitexturing as well. Since the book uses the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT), all the examples can be compiled and run on basically all OpenGL implemenetations, independent of operating system (Linux, Windows 95/NT, IRIX, MacOS, etc). The updated book also contains appendices that detail operating system specific OpenGL usage.If you are a newbie to OpenGL, this is definitely the book to start with.But I bet most OpenGL programmers already have an earlier edition of this book so the big question is whether the new edition is worth it. If you still have the 1st edition, getting the 3rd is a no-brainer. If you have the 2nd edition, the main benefit of the 3rd edition is the new coverage of OpenGL 1.2 and multitexturing and the improved coverage of operating system support.- Mark Kilgard, author of the OpenGL Utility Tookit (GLUT) and "Programming OpenGL for the X Window System"

The Opengl Programming Guide has become a standard to which other 3D programming books are compared. It serves two basic functions: a tutorial of topical 3D concepts inherent in todays 3D graphics hardware/software and an instructional manual offering a precise explanation of the functional calls with supporting attributes/arguments defined by the OpenGL Application Programming Interface. The book is extremely well organized and allows readers to focus on specific topics while still maintaining perspective of the entire rendering pipeline. It is comprehensive, up-to-date and easy to read making it my first choice for clarifying all 3D technical issues. I cannot imagine a serious 3D programmer or software architect not having this book included in their personal library.