Reader reviews

Excellent from start to finish. No filler, no padding.

I came to this book already familiar with the basics, and it still had plenty to offer. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

Solid and well-organised. A couple of chapters dragged a little.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. Good value for the price and worth the time it takes to work through properly.

The clearest explanation of game programming I have come across.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with game programming.

Well worth picking up if you already have the basics.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

Outstanding. I kept finding reasons to come back to it.

This is the third book I have read on graphics this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with graphics.

Strong content, uneven pacing. I would still recommend it.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. Worth picking up if you already have the basics. Set realistic expectations and you will get a lot out of it.