Geometric tools for computer graphics

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1. triggercutAug 2022
   My goto, which has literally saved me weeks of banging my head against a wall, is:

   Schneider, P.J., Eberly, D.H., 2003. Geometric tools for computer graphics, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers

   indispensable

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2. angersockSep 2013
   I've read or owned several of those books at one point or another. Some opinions:

   The Game Programming Gems series has a wonderful variety of articles, and even though many of the graphics tricks are no longer super useful the software engineering and exposure to how other people think about systems is very useful.

   The O'Reily Physics for Game Developers is kind of lacking--it's more a cookbook than anything else; the Eberly books are a much better use of time, and actually explore the math much better.

   Computational Geometry in C by O'Rourke is wonderful, but a bit academic for almost any game development purposes.

   Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics has a permanent place on my desk, and was very useful when doing graphics work as well as CAD software stuff. It actually bothers with some of the rigor of the linear algebra you'll use in graphics. Not listed but An Integrated Introduction to Computer Graphics and Geometric Modeling by Goldman does a superb job of the mathematics behind projective geometry for graphics, and is probably one of the best ways I've ever read for getting the real reason why we do the math we do. He's referenced in the Geometric Tools book.

   Write Portable Code has some great insights, but if you've had to deal with cross-platform code for more than a couple of years you probably won't find too much new. For a beginner it's invaluable.

   CLRS Introduction to Algorithms is very cool and all, but as Johnathon Blow pointed out in a talk the fact is that for game development you are better off using the dumbest, most straight-forward data structures you can. There are a lot of great things in there, but the sort of workhorse stuff you'll use in games (BSPs, quad- or octrees, hash tables, A-star, etc.) is either already made for you or is better covered elsewhere. Looks impressive on the bookshelf though.

   AI Game Development was a very long, very interesting read, but tended to be somewhat academic. Programming Believable Characters For Computer Games is much better from a practical standpoint, surveying a large number of AI techniques and the implementation of examples for each one (very much a sort of "Seven AI Architectures in Seven Weeks" kind of affair).

   ~

   Not on the list, but two I'd really recommend:

   Game Scripting Mastery by Varanese is basically "Compiler and Interpreter Design and Implementation for High Schoolers". It's a massive tome, and covers both Lua integration and then rolling a scripting engine from scratch (lex and yacc and all).

   Game Coding Complete by McShaffry is utterly fantastic. Another tome (just shy of 1000 pages), it goes over how to structure a game, covering a lot of important but banal stuff like resource management and passing Microsoft Windows certifications and project management and the like. It's also written in a very entertaining manner, and has lots of helpful anecdotes about why things should be done a particular way--often by counterexample of what happens when they weren't.

   ~

   In general, the various Gems series are all worth reading. Morgan Kaufmann does a pretty solid job, and tends to have a lot of math (if that's your thing). Charles River Media is mostly good.

   Premier Press Game Development varies widely in quality--some of the books are amazing, many are meh, some are garbage.

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