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OpenGL book
I'm going to buy myself a book about OpenGL, but I'm not sure which one to get.
I've read a lot of good reviews on "OpenGL(R) Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 1.2".
My question is;
Is this book to advanced for an OpelGL-newbie?
I have some very basic knwoledge about DDraw, but that's about it...
Any other books i should consider buying?
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The two previous versions of "The Red Book" are available for free online. Version1.1 is very close to ver1.2 as far as I can tell. The book isn't too difficult to understand, but extra tutorials are helpful for some of the parts.
here's the first (ver1)
http://fly.srk.fer.hr/~unreal/theredbook/
and this one has one more chapter (ver1.1)
http://ask.ii.uib.no/ebt-bin/nph-dwe...per/OpenGL_PG/
this website also has the programmer's manual for it too. Just go to the home page and click on the developer's link.
for some good tutorials go to
http://nehe.gamedev.net/
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I would also recommend going to this site if your interested in opengl -> http://www.opengl.org Their message board is great, and there are a few guys from ATI and NVIDIA there to help also. This site also has some good links to opengl things like tutorials and papers.
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I would suggest NeHe's site as well... The tutorials there are awesome. Im not sure if I should recommend buying OpenGL game programming if you considered that. Everything in that book can be learned from NeHe's site. I have no idea about other OpenGL books because, I dont have any!
NeHe's site : nehe.gamedev.net
tHaPuTeR
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The Red Book to OpenGL provides a good reference to how to use OpenGL. But it's more or less a description of the API as opposed to a good book to neccesarily learn from. It's also rather expensive if you buy it ($50). Fortunantly, slightly older version are available online for free.
A good book to start you on the track of learning what Real-time 3D Computer Graphics is about would be Interactive Computer Graphics: A Top Down Approach with OpenGL. This book gives you a good sense of knowing what you are doing and will also help you come more to grips with the OpenGL Api.
The big guide to 3D Computer Graphics though is probably Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice Second Edition . However, this is not the book you want to get if we want to start learning 3d computer graphics or displaying things on the screen. This book is much more theoritical than it is practical. It's more oriented towards an implementor's view and suitable for a college course.