Features
- Textbook Binding: 1056 pages
- Published by: Morgan Kaufmann September 26, 2002
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1558605940
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1558605947
-
Book Dimensions:
9.5 x 7.4 x 2.1 inches
- Weighs: 4.2 pounds
Product Review
Reinventing the wheel is a terrible waste of time, yet legions of computer programmers do exactly that every day.
Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics gives the working graphics programmer a vast collection of programming examples, complex code snippets explained and ready to use. Each chapter is filled with more than just code examples--the explanations needed to understand why these examples work the way they do are given by authors with experience both in writing and in the field.
There is nothing here for the casual graphics programmer and everything for the serious 2-D and 3-D programmer. Thirteen chapters, three appendices, and a three-column index that spans over thirty pages cover everything about computer-graphic geometry, from the basics of using matrices and linear systems to intersecting 3-D objects.
The appendices alone are worth the price: "Numerical Methods," "Trigonometry," and "Basic Formulas for Geometric Primitives" are treasures filled with hard-core examples of the kind that can be put to use right out of the box. Less experienced programmers will find these to be invaluable references, but then there's the rest of the book--nearly 1,000 pages loaded with examples and theory, page after page of information written in a clear, concise voice.
Any hard-core graphics programmer will appreciate the value of the examples presented here, as well as the discussion of theory. After all, there's no need to waste time experimenting with code once the theory is known.
Geometric Tools represents the best of both worlds: discussion of theory and code examples built on and culled from years of experience.
--Mike Caputo
Product Review
"An hour of a programmer's time often costs more than the price of a book. By this measure, you hold a volume potentially worth thousands of dollars. That it can be purchased for a fraction of this cost I consider a modern miracle. The amount of information crammed into this book is incredible." --Eric Haines
Reader Reviews
This book provides a solid grounding in vectors and matrices, then covers a wide range of 2D and 3D geometric algorithms, such as object/object distance and intersection, boolean operations, BSP trees, convex hulls, and more. It is a comprehensive guide, giving relevant theory, methods, and working code fragments. It's an incredible value for the amount of material it covers. I think it is a must-have for computer graphics professionals (and others in related fields). In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote the Foreword to this book, which I did because I was pleased with how good it is. Visit Dave Eberly's "Magic Software" site for more about the book's contents.
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