OpenGL SuperBible or OpenGL Game Programming?

Hi @ll! Since i realized that direct 3d is too difficult for getting startet in game programming, i decided to learn OpenGL. Which of these books should i buy: OpenGL Super Bible or OpenGL Game Programming??? - Which is the better one? - and a question to the book “OpenGL Game Programming”: Is GLUT used in this book (all the time)??? - i hope not so…

bye

Email me a host where I can upload the super bible and the red book to…

i have read both books. for a start i think that the superbible is slighty nicer.
i think you can get a good understanding about what you can actually do with ogl.
the other book covers some topics which will be quite helpful in your near future, but when you’ve read the superbible, you can learn a lot from tutorials, which you find almost unlimited on the internet.
martin

hi, thank you for your answers!

@martinzwigl: you said you read both, uses one of these books GLUT (i wanna lern all without such a framework)? - or use they both GLUT? - i don’t hope so…

@mancha: i’ll send a mail to you…

bye steven

PS: Gibts hier auch deutsche Leute?/ Are here some german people?

OPENGL GAME PROGRAMMING! I have the Super Bible, and I’m not very happy with it. I’ve only read OpenGL Game Programming in the store, but it looks much, MUCH better. I have older books by Andre Lamothe too, and he is an excellent writer.

And the Super Bible uses GLUT for most of the book, but the last few chapters are devoted to doing OpenGL with the win32 api.
However, this doesnt really matter since you could always choose to use something like SDL and still use either book.

[This message has been edited by ioquan (edited 07-07-2002).]

thank, i’ll by then the book OpenGL Game Programming! but there is one question: contains the book something about culling, BSP and PVS?

bye steven

culling, BSP and PVS. These are methods to draw only the “visable” parts of a scene. These methods are not realy covered in either book “that i am aware of, i have only skimmed through OpenGL Game programming”.

Culling is for a short moment in the bible. Basicaly removal of geometry “before” rendering, is Culling. OpenGL helps a little with something called Back Face culling, basicaly OpenGL will try to draw both sides of a poly, but if an object is a solid, “compleatly incapsulated” the back faces ARE NEVER seen. So you turn on BackFace culling, and that removes “half” of you original data sent to OpenGL to render.

There are many other types of Culling. Using a PVS, or “Potentialy visable set”, simply breaks the map of a “level” into pieces, then each piece is check to see if its visable, if not, its never sent to the video card to render, effectivly cutting out entire blocks.

Last but not least BSP, this is “Bianary space partitioning”. Its a method to check what polygon is in front of what other. This can be used in Colition detection, as well as a faster method to render. It does this because if you draw the polys from back to front, you dont have to waist as much time with the Z buffer.

There are alot more ways to increase performance. I recomend looking through the archives of posts on this sight, as well as commming up with some new ideas. No one ever got anywhere using only some one elses ideas. Well exept Bill Gates. (Dont start a war over this, its simply my opinion)

Hi

I started learning OpenGL with the SuperBible (from a library)1.5 years ago and i bought last winter the Superbible and the Game programming(importing US books to germany cost a lot ) . I think for a basic understanding the SuperBible is better because it lies a base for further reading.

The Game Porgramming covers the base less intensive but gives some pushes towards more advanced technics.

But I recommend the Red Book because after you have read the SuperBible and the Game Programming the RedBook fills the gaps in your knowledge and gives new insights

Bye
ScottManDeath

So I need the SuperBible, The RedBook (which I can get as an E-Book on opengl.org) and OpenGL Game Programming, if I wanna become a good OGL programmer (and… of course, lot’s of practice), not?

ok, bye

[This message has been edited by RaidenMGS2 (edited 07-09-2002).]