Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) 1st Edition by Philip Schneider (PDF)

Description

Do you spend too much time creating the building blocks of your graphics applications or finding and correcting errors? Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics is an extensive, conveniently organized collection of proven solutions to fundamental problems that you’d rather not solve over and over again, including building primitives, distance calculation, approximation, containment, decomposition, intersection determination, separation, and more. If you have a mathematics degree, this book will save you time and trouble. If you don’t, it will help you achieve things you may feel are out of your reach. Inside, each problem is clearly stated and diagrammed, and the fully detailed solutions are presented in easy-to-understand pseudocode. You also get the mathematics and geometry background needed to make optimal use of the solutions, as well as an abundance of reference material contained in a series of appendices. Features Filled with robust, thoroughly tested solutions that will save you time and help you avoid costly errors.Covers problems relevant for both 2D and 3D graphics programming.Presents each problem and solution in stand-alone form allowing you the option of reading only those entries that matter to you.Provides the math and geometry background you need to understand the solutions and put them to work.Clearly diagrams each problem and presents solutions in easy-to-understand pseudocode.Resources associated with the book are available at the companion Web site www.mkp.com/gtcg.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Amazon.com Review Reinventing the wheel is a terrible waste of time, yet legions of computer programmers do exactly that every day. Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics gives the working graphics programmer a vast collection of programming examples, complex code snippets explained and ready to use. Each chapter is filled with more than just code examples–the explanations needed to understand why these examples work the way they do are given by authors with experience both in writing and in the field.There is nothing here for the casual graphics programmer and everything for the serious 2-D and 3-D programmer. Thirteen chapters, three appendices, and a three-column index that spans over 30 pages cover everything about computer-graphic geometry, from the basics of using matrices and linear systems to intersecting 3-D objects.The appendices alone are worth the price: “Numerical Methods,” “Trigonometry,” and “Basic Formulas for Geometric Primitives” are treasures filled with hard-core examples of the kind that can be put to use right out of the box. Less experienced programmers will find these to be invaluable references, but then there’s the rest of the book–nearly 1,000 pages loaded with examples and theory, page after page of information written in a clear, concise voice.Any hard-core graphics programmer will appreciate the value of the examples presented here, as well as the discussion of theory. After all, there’s no need to waste time experimenting with code once the theory is known. Geometric Tools represents the best of both worlds: discussion of theory and code examples built on and culled from years of experience. –Mike Caputo Review “An hour of a programmer’s time often costs more than the price of a book. By this measure, you hold a volume potentially worth thousands of dollars. That it can be purchased for a fraction of this cost I consider a modern miracle. The amount of information crammed into this book is incredible.” –Eric Haines From the Back Cover “An hour of a programmer’s time often costs more than the price of a book. By this measure, you hold a volume potentially worth thousands of dollars. That it can be purchased for a fraction of this cost I consider a modern miracle. The amount of information crammed into this book is incredible.”—Eric HainesDo you spend too much time creating the building blocks of your graphics applications or finding and correcting errors? Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics is an extensive, conveniently organized collection of proven solutions to fundamental problems that you’d rather not solve over and over again, including building primitives, distance calculation, approximation, containment, decomposition, intersection determination, separation, and more.If you have a mathematics degree, this book will save you time and trouble. If you don’t, it will help you achieve things you may feel are out of your reach. Inside, each problem is clearly stated and diagrammed, and the fully detailed solutions are presented in easy-to-understand pseudocode. You also get the mathematics and geometry background needed to make optimal use of the solutions, as well as an abundance of reference material contained in a series of appendices.Features:*Filled with robust, thoroughly tested solutions that will save you time and help you avoid costly errors*Covers problems relevant for both 2D and 3D graphics programming*Presents each problem and solution in stand-alone form allowing you the option of reading only those entries that matter to you*Provides the math and geometry background you need to understand the solutions and put them to work*Clearly diagrams each problem and presents solutions in easy-to-understand pseudocode*Resources associated with the book are available at the companion website www.mkp.com/gtcg About the Author 24 years of professional programming, primarily focused on modeling tools and geometric algorithms. Employers include Digital Equipment Corporation, Apple, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Digital Domain, and Industrial Light + Magic. Formed and lead groups specializing in these areas as well as in physics simulation.Film Credits: Oil & Vinegar, 102 Dalmatians, Disney’s Magic Lamp, Mickey’s Philharmagic, Reign of Fire, Kangaroo Jack, Chicken Little, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.ACM Siggraph, IEEE.M.S. in Computer Science, University of Washington.Dave Eberly is the president of Geometric Tools, Inc. (www.geometrictools.com), a company that specializes in software development for computer graphics, image analysis, and numerical methods. Previously, he was the director of engineering at Numerical Design Ltd. (NDL), the company responsible for the real-time 3D game engine, NetImmerse. He also worked for NDL on Gamebryo, which was the next-generation engine after NetImmerse. His background includes a BA degree in mathematics from Bloomsburg University, MS and PhD degrees in mathematics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and MS and PhD degrees in computer science from the University of North Carolina at ChapelHill. He is the author of 3D Game Engine Design, 2nd Edition (2006), 3D Game Engine Architecture (2005), Game Physics (2004), and coauthor with Philip Schneider of Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics (2003), all published by Morgan Kaufmann. As a mathematician, Dave did research in the mathematics of combustion, signal and image processing, and length-biased distributions in statistics. He was an associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio with an adjunct appointment in radiology at the U.T. Health Science Center at San Antonio. In 1991, he gave up his tenured position to re-train in computer science at the University of North Carolina. After graduating in 1994, he remained for one year as a research associate professor in computer science with a joint appointment in the Department of Neurosurgery, working in medical image analysis. His next stop was the SAS Institute, working for a year on SAS/Insight, a statistical graphics package. Finally, deciding that computer graphics and geometry were his real calling, Dave went to work for NDL (which is now Emergent Game Technologies), then to Magic Software, Inc., which later became Geometric Tools, Inc. Dave’s participation in the newsgroup comp.graphics.algorit Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I have owned this text for some time and I find it very informative as it covers a great deal of subjects. A review of the table of contents will give an indication of the material covered. The book is not only valuable to graphics programmers but engineers in other disciplines looking for a good approach for solving various geometric problems.A previous reviewer complained about the notation being “non-standard”. The book was written for someone with a mathematical background to include a sound background in vector algebra, geometry and matrix operations. The notation used is in explaining the mathematics behind the solution to a problem is standard >mathematical< notation. If you don't have a background in these areas of mathematics, then you may have a problem understanding it. But fortunately, there are many inexpensive books on those subjects available for purchase that can get you quickly up to speed.The code is written in the C language. Typically, code is provided only for a specific algorithm (problem being solved). Complete applications that give examples of using the algorithm implementation aren't provided as this is beyond the scope of the book. The scope of the book is to teach you how to solve specific mathematical problems of interest. Not to teach you the many different ways that mathematical solution may be employed in all genres of programming.The reason that I failed to give this book a 5-star rating is due to the many errors in the text. There was an impressive (to put it kindly) list of errata published on line for the initial printing. The 2nd printing of the text (and how do you know on Amazon if it is a 2nd printing?) is supposed to have most of the errors corrected. However, since the 2nd printing, errors continue to be reported. A complete list of the errata for this book is available at the web site [...].Having experience in writing many complex technical works, I can say that it takes great dilligence and peer review to capture errors in an intense tecnicaly work such as this book. While this book seems to have excessive errors in it, this type of problem is common with most publishers. There simply isn't enough effort/expense put into having a sufficient number of qualified technical people to review the work and look for errors overlooked by the authors. And believe me, quality peer reviews are necessary for complex technical works such as this one with mathematics on virtually every page. So I do agree with a previous reviewer that you should be cautious at taking the solution/implementation of a mathematical problem from this book at "face value" without questioning if it is correct for all possible test cases. Test and verify the solution.Given the above comments, I would still recommend this text as it covers so many different topics and problems encountered in 2D and 3D geometry. This book is valuable to many engineers other that programmers working in graphics or game development.But I would like to see a re-print that has been 100% thoroughly peer reviewed by **mathematicians**, the algorithm implementations analyzed for correctness and an error-free copy printed. ⭐Many of Mr. Eberly's books leave me dazed and confused. His Game Physics book, though quite useful, is so wedded to the Wild Magic framework that I felt like learning that framework became the task at hand rather than trying to learn underlying algorithms.This book is different, because it is organized as a collection of tools. Each tool is pretty much independent of all the others, so you can see via the figures what Mr. Eberly is trying to accomplish, read the accompanying text and equations, and then read his pseudocode to understand what you need to do in whatever programming language you are trying to do it in. You can, in most cases, just lift out the algorithm/tool you need. This is the beauty of the book.The first three or so chapters are dedicated to giving you a quick brush-up in the underlying math, primarily linear algebra. They are useful if you just need to remember something you have already learned at some point, but it is not detailed enough to teach you from scratch.In short, this is an excellent book on the algorithms needed for the implementation of computer graphics tasks in both two and three dimensions if you already have a good big-picture understanding of computer graphics and a detailed understanding of the mathematics commonly used in such tasks. ⭐Pretty decent book and a source for Geometric Tools C++ library. The section on splines, b-splines is pretty decent and easy to follow. ⭐First of all, I commend the authors on a timely and valuable book. However, a word of caution: this book is full of errors. Every couple of pages I am noting in the margin: did they mean A instead of B? Having encountered so many errors, I am reading every formula with scepticism. The errors are serious enough that I have trouble recommending the book without reservations, but I know of no suitable alternative. I can only hope that the errors will be weeded out of future editions. ⭐First, the good: -Once you learn everything in this book, you'll should be ~well~ prepared to start implementing a powerful 3D engine. -The three-chapter introduction to linear algebra is, quite frankly, one of the most intuitive I've ever read. Mind you, I wouldn't suggest that anyone studying linear algebra go out of their way to buy this book (since those three chapters are a small fraction of the book). However, anyone getting their first taste of linear algebra from this book should consider themselves fortunate to have such a lucid, concrete introduction to the subject. (Granted, you'll need some 'mathematical maturity' to understand it, but it should be easier to grasp than your average linear algebra text.)And then, the bad: -Errors galore. Fortunately, you can get a list of corrections from the book's web site, though if you print it out you may be a bit put off by the fact that it's some 25 pages. (To be fair, however, it has all corrections listed chronologically in order they were identified, then listed again by page number, so there's really only about 12 pages of corrections.) If you happen to have the second edition of this book, then you'll only have about 5 pages of corrections. -Some of those corrections pretty much just scrap an explanation from the book and start over....which is fine, aside from having to read things like "Cross(Dot(u,v) * w))" which isn't particularly intuitive, and the fact that some of these new explanations seem to need corrections of their own (like those that appear to confuse w-parallel with w-perp, and so on). -It seems a bit arrogant of the authors to make the occasional appeal to things that the "astute reader" may have noticed. Such appeals seem like a subtle insult to the "less than astute reader," which, in any public forum, will only serve to alienate.All in all, if you're willing to put up with errors and have your "astuteness" challenged, you can learn tremendous things from this book. ⭐The most comprehensive reference book for CG professional. I call this my CG Bible, always on my desk. ⭐Nonostante la mole possa far pensare ad una incontinente strabordanza di parole da parte degli autori in realtà si tratta di un libro abbastanza sintetico e che fornisce ben poco spazio alla didattica. Di fatto si avvicina di più ad un testo di riferimento per chi è alle prese con i più bassi dettagli implementativi riguardo problemi geometrici nella CG ed è curioso di sapere come hanno risolto gli autori.Il ventaglio di argomenti trattati non è ampissimo (si possono ridurre a due: distanza e intersezione in 2D e 3D) ma il numero di casi e argomenti correlati presi in considerazione è sterminato (ecco, quind,i spiegata la mole del libro).Per chi è alla ricerca di un libro dalla vocazione più didattica è meglio che si rivolga altrove: si vedano i testi di Dunn, Lengyel, Van Verth e Bishop, che contengono in appendice un capitolo sulle intersezioni. ⭐

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