OpenGl book

I am taking a course in real-time computer graphics (game programming). The professor recommends The OpenGL Programming Guide (red book). The reviews on Amazon.com suggest that The OpenGL SuperBible is a better purchase. Which would you recommend for someone who is completely new to OpenGL programming? Thanks.

I found the Red Book was a good read (and have a copy), but it did not contain most of the stuff that is relevant to todays OpenGL. With the advent of OpenGL3.0 and the massive reliance we now have on shaders and the new kinds of buffer objects I think The Red Book and even The Open GL SuperBible are sorely out of date… I have all but stopped referring to my copy of The Red Book except for solving problems related to ES1.1 and older OpenGL commands I am not familiar with in legacy code.

Assuming you are going to learn in OpenGL2.x then I would say that although you will most likely end up buying one of those two that The Orange Book is a must buy.

Of course it all depends on your professor and what he is teaching. If it’s simply a theory course and his curriculum is based on OpenGL2.x then those books will be ok. But if OpenGL is something you plan to use professionally in the future then you need to have a better idea of where it’s gong than those books offer IMO.

Do take the time to read through the OpenGL3.0 spec alongside whatever text you buy.

There are a lot of good sources out there on the net too. Personally I really like the LightHouse 3D site.

Thanks for your input.

What is the Orange Book? Do you mean the Red Book?

No. The Orange Book. :slight_smile:

It’s all about shaders and using them with OpenGL, and it’s from the OpenGL2.x era… So a good crossover…

http://www.3dshaders.com/home