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I took the liberty to compile a small list of rendering resources, for anyone
who is interested in the
correct term definitions, actual algorithms, and other usefull resources. While
some of those books
can be a hard reading, they can be really usefull to anyone experimenting with
rendering technologies,
and in a lesser manner , game mod authors. I have all the books listed here, so
the list is not compiled
from hearsay, and I activly visit all the WEB pages listed. If you are not
interested in 3d rengeirng
, please ignore this post.
I felt this list can be beneficial for members of Half Life comunity mods which
at one point or another will
want to broad their knowledge in this area, extremly close related to 3d game
engines. So I do not
look at this post like an *entirely* off-topic one.
Please note that is best to exist a liniar progresion in reading , studying
first the basics. This will ensure that the basic
bricks of knowledge are in place, creating a solid fundation to build upon.
There is of little use for example to read
about Global Illumination problems , if you dont get the basic math and basic
principles of radiometry and
photometry, for example.
A. Math
1. 3D ComputerGraphics, A Mathematical Introduction with OpenGL
Pretty much covers all the basic math used in 3d graphics. If you
have math problems, is a good book.
B. Rendering Algos
1. Real Time Rendering (Second Edition) by Tomas Moller and Eric Haines (2002)
A wonderfull book. Id say is a must have. Sits on my desk all the time.
Read this alone,
and you will never confuse again an algorithm for another, nor use amigous
naming for well defined things,
accepted by the scientific comunity.
2. Advanced Global Ilumination by Philip Dutre, Philippe Bekaert and Kativa Bala
Goes inside global illumination problems. Algorithms like Photon mapping,
Radiosity, Monte Carlo illumination are described.
C. OpenGl
1. OpenGl Programing Guide, forth edition.
The famous red book. Covers OpenGl version 1.4 completly.
2. OpenGl Shading Language, by Randi J Frost
Covers the first specification of the OpengGl high level shading
language. API, language, usage. A good reference.
D. DirectX
1. ShaderX2, by Engel
A collection of shader techniques, by various authors. Many
examples with source code. Some chapters are interesting.
2. GPUGems, Nvidia
A collection of rendering techniques. Usefull ideas inside. Deals
with both OpenGl and DirectX graphic APIs. As a downside,
many of the samples from the book do not run on anything else but
Nvidia GPUs. Not nice :P
3. DirectX9C help file and samples.
Mostly a reference reading. Many of the samples are a good way
to understand techniques which are en-vogue now, like
precomuted radiance transfer, HDR rendering
D. Software Rendering
Advanced 3d graphics and rasterization, by LaMothe
Goes inside a SW renderer with grat detail. Explain basic
building blocks of a rasterizer API. But the book is much more than
this alone.
WEB resources:
http://www.siggraph.org/
http://www.ati.com/developer/
ATI developer web site. Tons of samples, source code, and
documents
http://developer.nvidia.com/page/home
Nvidia developer web site. Again, lot of cool samples and papers.
http://www.realtimerendering.com/
Real time rendering book WEB site. Contains a impresive list of 3D
links. The authors are pretty selective to what they link. You wont find
bullshit article starting from those links.
Also contains a list of other rendering books.
http://research.microsoft.com/
Microsoft research home. A great Deal of inovative 3D rendering
technologies are described. But the WEB contains research in many categories,
with some extremly interesting
articles.
http://www.humus.ca/
Interesting page with DirectX9 and OpenGl samples, for rendering
techniques. Some of them pretty inovative
http://www.frustum.org/
Page with many good OpenGl samples. Some of them inovative as well.
www.opengl.org
OpenGl homepage. needs no more introduction. Good support in forums
and usefull talks.
www.gamedev.net
The forums can be very usefull . Serach especially for posts made by
Yann L, he dabated many interesting problems on the forums.
I particulary found his oclussion culling method interesting.
Ciao, Dan
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