5 comments about OpenGL Programming for Windows 95 and Windows NT (OpenGL).

1. I cannot express how bad this book is. In all fairness, I only got through half the book, but that's because if I continued, I would have wasted my time and tried my patience. This book is incomprehensible, convoluted, and just plain horrible.

   The major problem is that this books gets worse and worse by each chapter. This is because a chapter requires that you know what happened in the previous chapter. Since this book starts off pretty bad, it gradually turns into a foreign language by chapter 7.

   Another problem is that the author also has no fluidity. Compound this with the fact that this book is technical book, it makes reading one page a major chore.

   Finally, the examples are just plain bad. First, it requires the reader to be very familiar with Visual C++. That's not all bad, but the examples presented rely on information that was badly presented, hardly presented, or not presented yet. Also, the examples' explanations barely explain what the code does.

   If you're like me, a programmer that was curious about OpenGL, avoid this book. It's needless to say that my interest in OpenGL dwindled to nothing after trying to read this.




2. Buy the book if you want to know how NOT to design a C++ OpenGL classes for Windows. The book makes a big (and common) mistake of integrating OpenGL rendering context management into CView derived object, as if OpenGL could render to CView window only! You cant find very important Windows specific issues in the book, like rendering to DIB section and using it to integrate OpenGL rendering with Windows and GDI. Full screen rendering issues are also not covered. You also won't find any WindowsNT specific issues (like rendering to enhanced metafile).



3. If you like your code wrapped in C++ classes then this might be your book. For those who prefer to learn the API and have more control, get something else. This book tries to look like the official book for programming OpenGL under MS Windows. But don't let that fool you.
   If you want to do OpenGL and at the same time understand what's going on, then get the "red book"(ISBN 0201604582). Also get a windows specific OpenGL book like the OpenGL SuperBible (Highly recommended).



4. I found the book useful and practically the only book that shows how to use OpenGL with MFC and the Visual C++ programming environment. If you're interested in SDK c style code this is not the book for you. If you're interested in C++ and MFC this book is highly recommended. The book could use additional topics such as printer & memory DC support, however, overall it's a great introduction.



5. It is really old and outdated. Even if it can be used to get a basic knowledge of OpenGL programing in Windows environment it does allow a complete understand of the argument. Moreover, the sources of the examples shown into the book, which should be available to be downloaded from the Web, are missing.
   If you need such kind of book a better choice is "OpenGL Superbible - 3rd Edition".

1 comments about Continuum Mechanics using Mathematica®: Fundamentals, Applications and Scientific Computing (Modeling and Simulation in Science, Engineering and Technology).

1. The mathematics discussed here is quite involved. Including tensor analysis, stress-strain relations and the non-linear Navier Stokes equation. Much of the work involves numerical analysis, as there are no analytic solutions to many problems.
   
   You can treat the book as a standard, advanced text on the subject. But the added filip here is how it shows Mathematica can be used. Most general purpose texts on Mathematica involve simpler maths; high school or undergraduate level. Yet the program is quite powerful.
   
   The book seems aimed at those scientists and engineers who are not primarily programmers. The idea is to let Mathematica offload much of the programming burden. The tradeoff might be that a loss of efficiency vis a vis custom code. But that might be acceptable to you.

4 comments about An Introduction to NURBS: With Historical Perspective (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics).

1. I'm not complete reading this book yet - but from what I read so far - I found this to be a very informative book. It has a nice thorough introduction to most of the basic concepts dealing with curves and curved surfaces. The mathematical examples are easy to understand - it's a very good book for anyone who is starting to work with curved surfaces or needs a quick refresher. Oh yeah - is it me or does the author look kind of like Sean Connery?



2. You don't have to be a graphics guru to appreciate this book. A good high school math student could grasp the exposition in this book. I highly recommend this to teenage prodigies, not only for the exposition, but to read about the accomplishments of the prodigies who made this science. This book really emphasizes understanding and generalization - it will serve you well when you head out on your own. It is not language or platform specific and will remain relevant to the future for this reason. This book will serve as the foundations of a CAD, animation, or gaming background. It won't make you an expert in any of the fields, but your feet will be well grounded. The book progresses from Bernstein Polynomials, parametric Curves through Bezier Curves and on into the more recent developments in Knots and NonUniform Rational B-Splines.

   The author is more than qualified to write an historical perspective: He's been a leading authority on the subject of computer graphics and CAD programming for more than a quarter of a century. He's been a personal acquaintance of many of the principal characters in the unfolding of this exciting and still young branch of mathematics. Characters such as Pierre Bezier, Steven Coons, and Carl de Boor. I should emphasize that the historic perspective doesn't interfere with the flow and development of the text from a purely mathematical point of view. You could read the text and skip the history, but that'd be a shame because the historical accounts and biographies are what set this text apart. In some sense you feel like you're experiencing the thrill of discovery in the same way that the theory developed - only in fast forward.

   For these reasons, this book will also be of interest to anyone who enjoyed James Gleick's Chaos. But unlike Gleick's Chaos, you'll really get to understand the mathematics behind the story - the story of the development of NURBS. It reads like a novel with twists, coincidences and subplots. The men behind NURBS have had a profound influence on the last part of the 20th century and their methods will literally shape the future as the graphic tools of tomorrow's designers. I wish all textbooks could be written in this style. That would also mean all textbooks would have to be written by the founders of their respective fields and that wouldn't be a bad thing.

   If you're a blue-collar Microsoft junkie looking for some sort of certification to let you pretend to be a programmer, perhaps your appetite will be better served by more specific texts. But for anyone who appreciates the art of programming, this book is for you - even if you don't ever touch graphics, it's just a fun book.




3. This is the pooest book I have ever read. You don't know what the author is triing to clarify. All the equatios seem to have jumped out without any derivation. The author lacks stern mathematic fundamentals.



4. For one week after receiving this book I agreed with an earlier very critical review. I changed my mind. The subject is not easy but written by someone who knows his business. Having got used to his notation I find this book more and more useful and refer back to it whenever a problem arises and usually find the answer or some pointer to the answer.

No comments about Computational Photography (Synthesis Lectures on Computer Graphics and Animation).

5 comments about Learn Computer Game Programming with DirectX 7.0.

1. The book does not cover DirectX in a good general ways, like books "DirectX 7.0 in 24 Hours" do. The code is explained, but as soon as you want to make a game which is different from the game explained in the book, you will have to seek a lot of tutorials. The directdraw techniques are the worsed, I could not even get my code to show me good 24 bits graphics instead of the 16 bits used in the book. Others books explain how DirectX functions work, what you can do with it. This book is not a good start for DirectX understanding, there are much better books out there. If you want to learn game programming, use general DirectX books, they will explain what you can need to know. You will understand yourself how to put your DirectX knowledge to game programming use. This book just looks cute on the bookshell. -- Words of some one who is programming DirectX for a few years, and has read the right books on it.



2. Dr. Parberry is a down-to-earth guy. This is why his book and teaching is very good. I can see, by the content of SOME OF the negative reviews, why people had so much trouble with this book.
   
   I had the opportunity to take his Game Programming class (both the 2D and 3D classes), and you won't find a better, or simpler explanation of the topics (in class or in his book(s)). You DO have to know C++ to use this book. HELLO!?, game programming is done in C++ people. If you don't know it, learn it first. Dr. Parberry's code is tight, and his explanations are great. Sure, he may not go into great depth in explaining DirectX details, this is why you should buy a DirectX book for this (or download the documentation). He explains the basic, fundamental concepts that are required to make a 2D game, but it's up to you to use those concepts and/or his code to make whatever you want.



3. This goes for all "game programming" books:
   If you don't know how to program, don't start here.

   None of the code in this book is particularly difficult or obscure, but you will not find a C++ review in its pages. What you do find is a pretty clear and useful step-by-step guide to creating a simple game. Dr. Parberry uses object-oriented programming to make his game easier to follow (again, you need to know about programming *first*), and I found his example to be a great starting point for my projects.

   Another thing about DirectX: it's big, and reasonably well documented. Granted, DirectDraw isn't supported by Microsoft anymore, but you can still download the 7.0a SDK. No book is going to hold your hand for the whole thing. This book gives you enough of a start to get you going, but you'll need to have the documentation handy while you're working.

   Bottom line: if you know how to code in C++ using OOP techniques, and you know a little about bitmapped images and cartesian coordinates, this book will guide you to structured game programming. If not, get up to speed before trying to write games.

   The only complaint that I have is that I found a couple of logic errors in the code. I haven't checked online to see if they are covered in an errata because I was able to figure them out.




4. I am actually quite surprised by the large number of positive reviews for this book. It is actually a poor choice for learning DirectX.

   First, it is worth pointing out that this is an introduction to an older version of DirectX that is no longer being developed by Microsoft. For those who don't know, DirectX is a package of inter-related programs that allow the game programmer to directly access a computer's video monitor, sound card, etc. DirectX has been developed constantly since it was first released back in the 90s. As of this writing (May, 2003), we are now up to DirectX 9, which is *very* different from the version described (poorly) in this book.

   DirectX 7.0 used something called Direct Draw for graphics, which by itself isn't a bad thing because it is a lot easier to learn than the newer 3D technology that DirectX 8 and 9 emphasized. Direct Draw is no longer being developed, but it is still around for backward compatibility, and is a good place to start for beginners.

   Unfortunately, the author does a poor job teaching it. First, as the author makes clear in the book, but may be less obvious to an online buyer not sitting in a bookstore flipping through the pages, you *absolutely* must know C++ and (preferably) have a copy of Microsoft's Visual C++. This is fairly standard stuff, but beginners need to know they should learn C++ first. Plus, you really should learn at least the bare essentials of Windows programming, which you can pick up from a few places - including one of the "Dummies" books, if nothing else.

   True beginners may want to start with simpler packages based on the Basic language that integrate DirectX behind the scenes. Check out Blitz Basic or Dark Basic, both of which are much easier to learn than C++ and DirectX, and may be all you need. If you want to become a professional, however, C++/DirectX is the way to go, but even then these other programs can help you learn the basic concepts in an easy/newbie friendly environment.

   Once you know the basics of C++, BEFORE you buy this book, you should download the DirectX 7 (not 8 or 9) Software Development Kit from Microsoft's web site. Go straight to the help files and read them thoroughly (or at least the Direct Draw stuff), and load and run the sample programs. You should also read some very good tutorials at the GameDev web site, particularly the series of articles by Joseph Farrell called "Game Programming Genesis." All of this (the SDK and GameDev articles) are absolutely free. You should also be able to find a used, out-of-print version of Microsoft's own "Inside DirectX", which is much better than this book.

   Only then, if you are still confused should you even think about buying this particular book. The book itself, however, has many flaws in my opinion, including:

   - little or no discussion of basic Windows GDI programming. Simple stuff like drawing text, lines, boxes -- all come in handy in DirectX.
   - discussion/use of only parts of Direct Draw, with little no discussion of the stuff he leaves out.
   - little or no discussion of Direct Input, which provides fast access to the mouse and the keyboard.
   - the game he makes uses 8 bit graphics and palettes, an older technology that is harder for newbies to learn.
   - over-reliance on C++ classes and object-oriented programming. Yeah, I know some people love this stuff, but most programmers like creating their *own* classes, not trying to figure out or adapt someone else's. In most cases, the ideas he tries to get across could be done more simply.
   - a whole chapter on "AI" that really only discusses the simple AI he decided to include in his game, and says little or nothing about AI more broadly (including pathfinding and all sorts of other game related stuff). There are whole books on this sort of thing, but a few pages that at least introduce them would be worthwhile in a beginners book.

   All in all, if you want a lengthy, somewhat confusing book about how to make a particular game, with little or no discussion of C++, Windows programming, or DirectX as a whole (beyond the parts he uses), this is a worthwhile buy -- but only after you check out the other stuff I mentioned first.




5. The author has obviously spent a good deal of time and effort organizing the material. Concepts are presented clearly and in a logical progression with each chapter building on the next. The sample project provides a visual aid to help the reader understand what code presented in each chapter actually does. The author has done a great job of avoiding binding in the example project. Each class and implementation file is a clearly defined stand-alone unit. I found it very easy to apply what I learned from this book to other game projects.
   
   Before you purchase this book you should consider a couple of things:
   First, Direct Draw is a dated technology. As other reviewers have pointed out, Direct Draw is being phased out by Microsoft. Second, this is not a C++ how-to book. You MUST have at least 2 years of C++ programming experience (or equivalent) to get anything out of this book. If the code samples are not at least 95% clear to you on first reading then you're not ready for this book.

5 comments about Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems.

1. This is unquestionably one of the finest GIS textbooks available today. It covers not only the basic input, data management, and reporting concepts, but includes sufficient depth of spatial analysis issues that anyone not able to take additional geographic analysis courses will come away with enough practical knowledge to truly unleash the power of geographic information systems.



2. I am a GIS novice, and am about 1/3 of the way through the book. There is definitely a lot of useful and current information in this book, so I find it worth reading. However, I feel editorial work on it is needed in several ways. There are numerous examples of sloppy use of English (both in choice of words and in paragraph structure), discussions that are overly abstract, and explanations that are lengthy yet unclear. This was not universal, but occurred annoyingly often. On subjects I knew something about already, I was able to see how the book's accounts were accurate, but only after puzzling over the author's choice of phraseology. I will definitely have to look elsewhere for an understanding of map projections, database structures, raster models, and other topics.

   Too much time is spent early in the book belaboring an abstract conceptual framework, where some concrete examples would serve much better. It was also disconcerting that certain terms are used without being defined (or only defined very abstractly), forcing the reader to guess meaning from the context. Yet other relatively simple terms are defined at length. The discussion questions at the end of each chapter are sometimes too open-ended, not focussed on the chapter material.

   It is difficult to write for neophytes about a subject one knows intimately -- as I'm sure the author does. Important terms and assumptions are embedded in the one's thinking, so one does not realize that some crucial points are unfamiliar to the student, and one tends to skip certain steps. This book has good coverage of GIS issues, but it would benefit from a more severe editor and from more feedback from the undergraduate audience on which areas need clarification.




3. This book needs help, it is verbose. The book could be cut by a third, and would not lose any meaning. Most of the important topics are covered, but the discussions are often difficult to wade through, it takes forever to get to the main point.

   There are better introductory texts out there. The ones by C.P. Lo and A.K Yeung, or by P. Bolstad are both more concise, to the point, easier to read, and just as complete in their coverage of topics.




4. I was privileged to take a class from Dr. Demers, himself, using this textbook. I found it to be a great textbook, and I particularly enjoyed his sense of humor in the book, a welcome addition to what I found to be a somewhat difficult and challenging topic. He has a good understanding of the topic, and a sensitivity to the needs of students that is unparalleled. I recommend it to anyone willing to put the effort into learning a new way of looking at geography and the world.



5. I totally agree with the two negative review above. This book is unnecessarily obtuse. You should look elsewhere if you are a total beginner. The information does not need to be presented in such a dry, academic manner.

4 comments about 3ds max 6 Animation with Character Studio 4 and Plug-Ins.

1. The word "esoteric" comes to mind while composing this review. This is not a book for a beginner and it also won't add much to someone with considerable experience with rigging and animating in Max. For the right person, however, the book will be a nice tool. The authors are from Ariorh studio and their work with Panzar studio is, without doubt, among the best Max work currently being done by a small shop. The CD included with the book has a few short movie clips of their work and I've never seen better use of reactor and ClothFx (Stitch) in Max. Back to my main point: If you are using biped rather than bones to animate your characters, and if you are relatively new at the process (but not an absolute tyro) this book will be useful to you. It's a thin book that hits highlights without extensive discussion but it does have 3D character files to work with on the included CD.
   
   The authors make the point that they almost always animate their own characters with bones and NOT biped, but this book is limited to biped-based animations. Hopefully, at some point they will produce a deeper treatment of character animation based on the extraordinary work they have been doing on their Chaos project.
   
   I give this book 4 stars for the user who meets the criteria stated above. If you're a rank novice or an advanced user I would turn to other resources. However, if you're just beginning to rig your own characters with biped skeletons I think you'll find this to be a nice companion that will point you in the right direction in several areas.



2. There are certain books that you read and you will spend many days going through the examples step by step. And other books that you just read and pick up some ideas.
   
   This book skims over some ideas and leaves it up to you to find more.
   
   So if you already have a couple max books then this one is nice and only if you are intermediate level
   
   To complex for beginners who need to get the BIBLE or max 6 FOUNDATIONS
   
   All advanced users will already know everything in this book



3. I agree with what the other reviewers say, and will add that the content is truely "short and sweet." You'll get some thoughts on modeling and texturing, but the majority of it is on character studio. This book is extremely short weighting in at under 200 pages, but in this author's case it does not much matter. In my opinion, he offers the best 3ds max information available in book form on a routine basis. Good information on skin modifier for character rigging, as well as character studio animation features and methods you might not know all that well. If you have 3ds max 7.5, you can do the cloth fx tutorial, or if you have the cloth fx plugin. In the end, if you have previously read other character studio books, then you should get this one, but if you need to learn character studio, get something else first. There is also some hair generator tutorials that you can work if you have the plug-in. If it was longer, it would get 5 stars.



4. This book is rather short, and quite expensive considering the length. Still, it contains alot of information. It spends the most time covering character studio, which was what i was looking for. Also, it goes over a few plugins, so if you want to use that part of the book, make sure you have the plugins.
   
   Overall, it was a pretty good book.

3 comments about Statistics with Mathematica.

1. Statistics with Mathematica (which I'll refer to as "SwM") is a book for someone who knows something about Mathematica and something about statistics--the more known, the better. SwM is neither a comprehensive tutorial on Mathematica nor on statistics. Rather, SwM illustrates by example how to perform statistical operations and produce graphs using Mathematica. SwM is both a tutorial and a reference book. SwM was written for Version 3 (or later) of Mathematica, although one can purportedly squeak by with Version 2.2.

   A word of advice: Before you buy this book, decide whether you have some compelling reason to perform statistical analyses and make graphs using Mathematica, as opposed to, say, Excel.

   I found the large number of typos, oversights, and the poor integration of the accompanying CD quite annoying. To the reader familiar with Mathematica, many of the typos are glaring and easy to correct. Other typos, such as incorrect page numbers listed in the index, are more problematic.

   Knowledge of Mathematica will also see you through most of the oversights. For example, if you already understand why you must first load a Mathematica Standard Add-on Package before attempting to use one of its functions, you will not need such a reminder in SwM. A reminder is given, but many pages too late.

   SwM's preface promises that all Mathematica input is included on the accompanying CD. That is simply not so--some files referred to in the text are not on the CD. However, if you don't mind typing a few missing files, you can make them yourself. The CD, oddly titled "UNTITLED_CD", contains two folders and a total of 60 files. Most files are cryptically named and are not referenced in the text nor vice versa. That's where the fun begins. The SwM text will refer you to an author-defined procedure, tell you to locate it on the CD, but fail to mention the name of the requisite CD file.

   A redeeming feature of SwM is the collection of ready-to-use author-defined procedures available to the reader. Some are simple and obvious, while others, such the "Box and Whisker" plotters, would require some effort to write from scratch. The authors' procedures help both by extending the use of Mathematica's add-ons and by illustrating how one might write or modify such procedures.

   SwM includes a chapter on data manipulation that illustrates how to transfer data from a text file to Mathematica list variables where the data can be worked upon. SwM, however, does not address how to transfer data from Excel or other commonly used data base applications.

   SwM covers a wide gamut of statistical tools including descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate methods, data smoothing and time series, probability and probability distributions, simulation, inferential procedures, analysis of variance, and regression and correlation, as well as the graphic representation of data and its attributes.

   As far as I know, SwM is the only book of its kind that is devoted to statistical analysis via Mathematica. While sloppy editing does leave SwM frustrating to use, the reader could reorganize and index the CD's Notebook files and eventually find SwM to be a favorite reference.




2. If you¡¯ve studied statistics before, then this is a good reference book to do statistical analysis with mathematica. This book has many examples and considerably decent explanations. I found some errors in data in the accompanying CD. One (census.txt) of them is very bad; others are annoying but can be overcome easily. Also this book has several typos, which are annoying. However, this book helps readers harness the power of mathematica for statistics.



3. This book is slightly useful for people who know a little about Mathematica and more about statistics. The book is moderately useful in gaining some idea about how to go about doing statistics with Mathematica.
   
   However, I hope that the editors involved with the publication of this text from Academic Press have all gone back to work at something that does not require eyesight and an ability to read simple words. Others have mentioned the ubiquitous errors. I have never encountered a published final text that is more rife with errors. I've used Mathematica to actually calculate the number of errors in the text (couldn't do it in my head), and the answer is 1.34252x10^14. There are few pages that do not contain at least one error, some, numerous. For example, on page 83 the output of has 6.43041<10^8, instead of 6.43041x10^8. Again, hardly impenetrable but evidence of extraodinary sloppiness. On page 81, we see Statistics'DataManipulation' which should read Statistics`DataManipulation`. On and on.
   
   The most infuriating thing is that NONE of the text files on the data disk match precisely what is described in the text. Files are referred to by name and they do not exist. Or the data exists in an altered form in some other file. You have to spend your time doing with the editors should have ensured, and that is correctly matching the data with the text.
   In short, the book should be taken off the market and either edited or consigned to the flames.

5 comments about Windows 2000 Graphics API Black Book.

1. This is a mammoth undertaking that was necessary in today's market of Windows-dominated graphics applications. This book may be too much for a beginner. However, for the serious graphics developer, this is a must-have reference and handbook all-in-one. Before seeing this book, my favourite hard-core computer graphics book was "Computer Graphics" by James D. Foley and Andries van Dam. This "black book" does an better job when it comes to the Microsoft Windows-specific approach of doing things. From page one it jumps into a direct explanation of topics. It cuts through the chase when it comes to developing high-performance applications. The examples are in C++ however as a Delphi developer, I used it effectively in a major project that involved both video capturing and image processing in the medical software industry.



2. Frankly amazing to me that in a Win graphics book of this size and, in other respects, scope and excellence, that neither "metafile" nor "enhanced metafile" is in the index, nor is there anywhere else a mention that I could find. Consistent with this, all of the metafile-related GDI functions are missing as well---hardly a "comprehensive treatment of the Windows GDI" as stated in the Introduction. It seems to me that this rather large omission deserves at least a tiny explanation or justification somewhere, but there isn't one...instead it appears we are pretending that metafiles are not part of the Win2K GDI. A bit surreal!

   DLS




3. Need I say more? If so... This book is about 3 to 4 inches thick (~1200 pages) and covers just about anything you want to know about windows graphics from creating a bitmap and putting a dot on the screen to morphing and distorting images. When you get done with this book you could easily write your own Photo Editor. Full of code examples and explanations. Very well written. I own 30+ programming books and this (as well as the other Coriolis Black Books) is one of my favorites. I would say perfect for a Newbie all the way up to a Power User. I have been looking for a book like this since Windows 95 came out. Bottom Line: BUY THIS BOOK!!!



4. if u r a graphx programmer , so u ve to own this book , even if u r not a c++ programmer, this book book is a very important reference.
   it's a mind of graphics information.



5. This book covers in details the GDI API and the DirectDraw API. Even if it was written for Windows 2000, it is safe to assume that these APIs have not changed much in Windows XP. The source code samples contain mistakes but it remains an excellent reference. I recommend this out of print book because you can probably get it for a very cheap price.

1 comments about Multimedia Marketing for Design Firms.

1. The text is outdated and amaturerish. I should have checked the Pub date, 1996. Not focused on 'design' firms or archectitural disciplines. Metods and techniques are now 'old-school' guerilla marketing methods. Save your money and buy good quality business cards.(a former ad agency owner, always looking for ideas, this one was poor) Builder257