Great topic & nice links (Riemers especially, great stuff!)

I was about to open a similar topic when I saw this one. Like some others, I became somewhat inspired to reactivate my programming knowledge and expand it further

So my question would be: what books would you recommend for someone who wants to dig into graphical programming, game engines etc?

I had some basic knowledge in C, but I only wrote text adventures and the like. At the moment I'm learning C# and am doing Riemers tutorials. One book I ordered was "Introduction to 3D Game Programming with Direct X 9.0c: A Shader Approach" by Frank Luna. Is that something to go by? There is also "C++ How to Program" by Harvey Deitel, I ordered it (gotta love second hand) to not only go the C#, but also the C++ way.

Any other recommendations?

Slight OT: I blame it on Josh that I dig into programming once more when I should concentrate on my MA in History lol

Ascension wrote:Great topic & nice links (Riemers especially, great stuff!)

I was about to open a similar topic when I saw this one. Like some others, I became somewhat inspired to reactivate my programming knowledge and expand it further

So my question would be: what books would you recommend for someone who wants to dig into graphical programming, game engines etc?

I had some basic knowledge in C, but I only wrote text adventures and the like. At the moment I'm learning C# and am doing Riemers tutorials. One book I ordered was "Introduction to 3D Game Programming with Direct X 9.0c: A Shader Approach" by Frank Luna. Is that something to go by? There is also "C++ How to Program" by Harvey Deitel, I ordered it (gotta love second hand) to not only go the C#, but also the C++ way.

Any other recommendations?

Slight OT: I blame it on Josh that I dig into programming once more when I should concentrate on my MA in History lol

Luna's book was one of my first 3D programming books I ever got, and it was fantastic! That was back in my DirectX days. Keep in mind that DirectX 9 in C++ is not exactly the easiest place to start in graphics programming, but it's very much "real" and still very relevant.

I have way too many 3D game/graphics books for my own good, but a few that stand out for when you get past the basics are - Game Engine Architecture (http://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Archi ... 1568814135), it's exactly what it says, and contains lots of juicy details. I always enjoy the game programming gems series (http://www.gameprogramminggems.com/), as they're basically loads of useful little tidbits that "real people" have put to use in "real games" for "real benefit." In other words, they're as practical as you can possibly get, and I'm all about practicality. Have learned lots of useful tricks from that series.

For graphics programming in particular, you'll want GPU Gems, which is available to read online thanks to nVidia!! (http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGem ... art01.html) If you're interested in the hardcore/academic side of graphics, you might be interested in PBRT (http://www.amazon.com/Physically-Based- ... 0123750792), although this is more in-depth that real-time graphics usually goes (still, I occasionally find my theoretical graphics background to be helpful in realtime programming).

But first thing's first, as I said, go with Riemer's and it'll set you on a good track before you dive into anything too complicated

Hope you enjoyed your endeavors in CS

And since you're a history person, why not try making a procedural history generator when you get good enough?

Wow, thanks a lot for your answer!

Great to hear that Luna's book delivers Also, thanks for the other links, they are bookmarked and I will take a look at them again when I finished Riemer's. Speaking of which: holy christ, there is a lot of stuff to do on that site. Really great!

Yeah, C# (CS? Is it CS in English?) is really nice to re-activate programming knowledge. It's a hell of a lot more fun to code OOP. Just finished a simple top-down space arcade shooter using Unity and C#. Nothing big of course, but using Unity really helped me getting into coding again. Nonetheless, I feel like I cheated somehow. So I decided to put working with Unity on a temporary hold and concentrate on the juicy stuff

Concerning a procedural history simulation: that sounds like a great idea, but as you said, first thing's first. I really got no clue, but I'd think that procedural programming isn't a piece of cake

Thanks again for your answer and happy coding!

Well, here I am again.

In the last couple of days, I did almost all of Riemer's XNA Tutorials. Although I will finish them first, I'm not quite sure where to go next, so if anyone of you guys could help me out... that'd really be great! Through Riemer's I gained exceptionally (for me) good insight in 3D graphics, buffers, etc. I really learned a lot and was really happy when I coded my first XNA-application completely by hand and without looking at the tutorials: http://i47.tinypic.com/2ypkxs0.png

It's just Riemer's heightmap transformed to terrain, I played a little bit with colours and added a simple sprite-based HUD

Now, back to the choice I have to make in a few days: DirectX (D3D) or OpenGL? I'm really not sure on that one. Sure, "learn both" would be an advise, but where to start? If I am not mistaken, Limit Theory is based on OpenGL. I also very often read about how deprecated much of OpenGL and OpenGL-tuts and books are. So: should I poke into DirectX9.0 with the help of Frank Luna or should I venture into OpenGL-territory? If so, what books are recommended for that task?

I hope that someone went down the same road as me and can help me out here. Help is really appreciated

I would recommend OpenGL to learn, and not just because it is cross-platform.

After you learn the meat of whichever one you choose, and you decide to go further, OpenGL will be a lot more malleable for that and customizing. I usually prefer OGL due to the flexibility of handling multiple cameras and displays simultaneously.

I've actually worked with both though. I started with DX back in the early days and it wasn't fun. I might be biased because of that though.

Thank you very much for your answer. I decided to check out OpenGL

To do that, I just ordered the OpenGL Super Bible 5th Ed., as it seems one of the best books to teach "modern" OpenGL without all the deprecated functions other books tend to concentrate on. I hope it wasn't a mistake to concentrate on OpenGl 3.3 instead of the older versions

Great book actually!

Man, if I had that when I first started digging into OGL back in the 1.1 days, I would have spent much less time tearing my hair out. I have the 4th edition of that book, and I must say... :thumbsup:

I am a bit late to the party, but since others are referring to this article for learning real-time computer graphics / game programming, I suggest starting with modern, shader-based OpenGL 3+ because it is cross-platform and does not change the API with every major version (unlike DirectX), giving you flexibility and a solid foundation as a game creator. With that goal in mind, I recommind the following tutorials:

• ArcSynthesis tutorials - the best, clearest tutorial for those who are serious
• Modern OpenGL Tutorials - more practicals, less theory than ArcSynthesis
• Space Simulator Tutorials - a seat-of-your-pants introduction to OpenGL and game engines; good for putting eveything together you learned from the above two

Hope these tutorials help someone!