Thread: red & blue books

  1. #1
    opengl_wannabe
    Guest

    red & blue books

    I want to start learning Open GL, and then 3D games programming, I've seen the fixed thread, and found links to the red and blue books, I think those books are a bit outdated (1997 or something) I don't want to buy the books right now, maybe I won't continue after all, I want to try and then decide, so are those books still useful? I don't want to learn something outdated
    I'll use NeHe tuts too
    TIA

  2. #2
    opengl_wannabe
    Guest
    No one???
    Please answer my simple question: are the online versions of the red and blue books in the sticky thread still useful? are they outdated?

  3. #3
    Registered User dalek's Avatar
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    The online version of the Redbook and the Bluebook cover OpenGL version 1.1.

    They are still useful, especially if you are on Windows where the current available version of OpenGL is still version 1.1. Access to later functionality is through OpenGL's extension facility, i.e. provided by your graphics driver vendor. For more info on OpenGL check out OpenGL.org .. but the site is down until tomorrow for maintenance..

    [edit]: You may want to check that the online versions you have cover 1.1 as there is also a version of the Redbook which covers 1.0 which could be considered out of date. I think the current print versions cover 1.2..
    Last edited by dalek; 05-18-2003 at 06:01 AM.

  4. #4
    opengl_wannabe
    Guest
    thank you for your response
    I'm on windows, I just want to learn the basics to decide whether to continue or not, so the information I get from those books will be useful if I get the printed versions later, right?
    The red book version is 1.1 while the blue book version isn't mentioned, could be 1.0??
    thx

  5. #5
    opengl_wannabe
    Guest
    If the blue book is a reference then it doesn't really matter right now, I'll start with the red book and NeHe tuts.
    any recommendations?

  6. #6
    Registered User dalek's Avatar
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    The redbook uses GLUT as the windows management mechanism, I would recommend downloading that as it can make the learning process simpler. (I.e. you don't have to learn Win32 at the same time).

    Also check out Gamedev.net they have plenty of tuts on OpenGL. There are also a few good tuts on gametutorials.com

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