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I wanted to learn about rendering and graphics for a while. Almost every modern source however uses engines or big frameworks and skips the parts I actually wa

I wanted to learn about rendering and graphics for a while. Almost every modern source however uses engines or big frameworks and skips the parts I actually want to look into. Compiling a reading list or figuring things out myself of course would have been an option, but I guess others can relate to the problem of having too little time for hobby projects :) Big bonus points also for trying to remain programming language agnostic! I immediately preordered your book and find it hard to express my excitement, can't wait.

garmaine 6y ago
Way back in the day I read either the 1st or 2nd edition of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Graphics-Principles-Practice-3rd/dp/0321399528 https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Graphics-Principles-Practice... It's a classic in the computer graphics field, like Knuth is for algorithms. I'd recommend it alongside the OP's new book. EDIT: But for anyone who is reading this wanting to learn about practical computer graphics, CG:P&P is NOT the resource to use! Learning the low-level rasterization algorithms used in computer graphics is an important thing to learn at some point, just like learning assembly language provides valuable insights even if you never touch a line of assembler again. But if you actually want to write graphics code on modern hardware with GPUs, I'd highly recommend Real Time Rendering instead: https://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Rendering-Fourth-Tomas-Akenine-Möller/dp/1138627003/ref=pd_bxgy_3/135-4503605-4938943 https://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Rendering-Fourth-Tomas-Aken...
- 2pEXgD0fZ5cF 6y ago
  Thanks a lot for the recommendation! What would you say are the prerequisites for this one? Also from the description it sounds as if it also goes a bit more into 2D graphics too, is that correct?
  - garmaine 6y ago
    Again, I read an ancient edition which predated the existence of consumer GPUs. But the edition I read was more than half on the topic of 2D graphics and what you might consider to be mundane things like font rasterization. You might think this has nothing to do with 3D graphics, but in fact there is a big overlap. The graphics driver + GPU takes a description of a 3D scene and projects it into 2D primitives whichs are rasterized onto a bitmap (the display) just as one might render a font glyph. So IIRC the book begins with the basic theory and techniques of 2D graphics, and then shows how projective geometry can be used to render 3D scenes onto 2D displays, and progressively adds various corrections which we take for granted, such as perspective-correct interpolation of texture values, which these days is done automatically by the hardware. I don't think there's any pre-requisites other than a basic understanding of beginner computer science, coding, and algorithms. If you can read Knuth, you can read CG:P&P. Also, see my edit to the grandparent comment.

garmaine 6y ago

Way back in the day I read either the 1st or 2nd edition of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Graphics-Principles-Practice-3rd/dp/0321399528 https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Graphics-Principles-Practice... It's a classic in the computer graphics field, like Knuth is for algorithms. I'd recommend it alongside the OP's new book. EDIT: But for anyone who is reading this wanting to learn about practical computer graphics, CG:P&P is NOT the resource to use! Learning the low-level rasterization algorithms used in computer graphics is an important thing to learn at some point, just like learning assembly language provides valuable insights even if you never touch a line of assembler again. But if you actually want to write graphics code on modern hardware with GPUs, I'd highly recommend Real Time Rendering instead: https://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Rendering-Fourth-Tomas-Akenine-Möller/dp/1138627003/ref=pd_bxgy_3/135-4503605-4938943 https://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Rendering-Fourth-Tomas-Aken...

2pEXgD0fZ5cF 6y ago
Thanks a lot for the recommendation! What would you say are the prerequisites for this one? Also from the description it sounds as if it also goes a bit more into 2D graphics too, is that correct?
- garmaine 6y ago
  Again, I read an ancient edition which predated the existence of consumer GPUs. But the edition I read was more than half on the topic of 2D graphics and what you might consider to be mundane things like font rasterization. You might think this has nothing to do with 3D graphics, but in fact there is a big overlap. The graphics driver + GPU takes a description of a 3D scene and projects it into 2D primitives whichs are rasterized onto a bitmap (the display) just as one might render a font glyph. So IIRC the book begins with the basic theory and techniques of 2D graphics, and then shows how projective geometry can be used to render 3D scenes onto 2D displays, and progressively adds various corrections which we take for granted, such as perspective-correct interpolation of texture values, which these days is done automatically by the hardware. I don't think there's any pre-requisites other than a basic understanding of beginner computer science, coding, and algorithms. If you can read Knuth, you can read CG:P&P. Also, see my edit to the grandparent comment.