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Many of computer graphics classes in colleges are focused on real-time rendering
and animation. However, it is not easy to nd an appropriate textbook,
which presents the state of the art in interactive graphics, is balanced between
theory and practicality, and is of a proper length to be covered in a semester.
This book is written for answering the need and presents the must-know in
interactive graphics. This book ts the advanced undergraduate or beginning
graduate classes for `Computer Graphics' and `Game Programming.'
Another primary reader group of this book may be composed of game developers,
who have experience in graphics APIs and shader programming but
have felt lack of theoretical background in 3D graphics. A lot of programming
manual-like books can be found in the bookstore, but they do not provide a
sucient level of mathematical background for the game developers. Assuming
that the readers have minimal understanding of vectors and matrices, this
book provides an opportunity to combine their experiences with the background
theory of computer graphics.
At the core of contemporary interactive graphics is the evolution of GPU.
The content of this book is organized around GPU programming. The GPU
is partitioned into programmable stages and hard-wired stages. This book
presents a variety of algorithms for the programmable stages, and the indispensable
knowledge required to congure the hard-wired stages.
The organization and presentation of this book have been carefully designed
so as to enable the readers to easily understand the key aspects of interactive
graphics. Over the chapters, a lot of 3D presentations are provided in
order to help the readers quickly grasp the complicated topics. An important
organizational feature of this book is that theoretical or technical details
are presented in separate notes (in shaded boxes) and in optional sections
(marked by asterisk). They can be safely skipped without any diculty in
understanding the main stream of the book.
Two well-known graphics APIs are Direct3D and OpenGL. This book is
API-neutral but presents the sample programs bit by bit in many places.
They help the readers understand how the interactive graphics algorithms are
implemented. However, the sample programs are located at the optional part
and can be safely skipped. |
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