software design

I have read the majority of the comments about this book, and I must say that I strongly disagree with some of you.

There seem to be an abnormal number of "math haters" buying this book, such that one does wonder as to the type of developer who is reading it.

In developing an advanced, or even not so advanced, 3D graphics engine, there is no getting around the Mathematics involved. I feel that Dr. Eberly has done a terrific job of covering the general gamut of what is needed for such an indepth and difficult task.

I apologize if I stereotype anyone here, but no serious, professional developer in his right mind is going to whine over needing to learn the Mathematics behind their work. Computer languages are built around the Mathematical principles that bore them, so please, before you blast a book and its author over _your_ inability to understand the material, consider a different job.

As a side note, I believe that Dr. Eberly intended his book primarily as a reference guide, not so much a learning tool. And I would also wager that Dr. Eberly himself has such a reference guide on his desk as well.

On the subject of reviewing this book, I thoroughly enjoy it, and it has a permanent place on my reference shelf, within easy reach. Even though I myself do not yet posess the knowledge to encompass ALL of the Mathematics in this book, knowing that it is there, and that more remains to be learned, is a great motivation to continue Mathematical study.

In closing, I applaud Dr. Eberly for writing a concise, accurate, and excellent Mathematical reference book, he has made a difficult subject significantly simpler.

Gives the mathematics that build a 3d graphics engine. Some chapters could have gone deeper (like animation), others are really good (curves and terrain generation). But if you are looking for a book that will build your application from vertices to AI, that's not the book you need. For example, 3d collision detection focuses on the mathematics to find where and when a box intersects, let's say, a lozenge but not on organizing the CD procedures.
But definitely a must have if you want to get deeper in CG and game programming.

The real stuff a game programmer needs is not seen here : Collision detection, network real time programming, multi platform programming. Indeep investigation of very basic topics, and almost nothing about advanced ones.
The examples and code sample are interesting for tutorial purpose.