Thought I’d write a quick review of ’3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development’ by Dunn and Parberry after one or two peeps on PGD commented on how good it is.

Just in case the title doesn’t give it away , its a book about 3D maths, specifically relating to graphics and games development… as Homer would say… DOH! In all seriousness though, I’m finding it to be a pretty good read, so lets get down to some business.

My maths are more than a little rusty, except for say my basic retail/financial maths (10+ years writing business/cash handling systems will do that to you), so when I wanted to start getting to grips with the thorny subject of 3D maths in preparation for writing our next generation game, I needed a little assistance. After much digging on Amazon, I came across this book, it was getting good reviews, so I took a chance.

It’s broken up into these chapters:-

1. Introduction
2. The Cartesian Coordinate System
3. Multiple Coordinate Spaces
4. Vectors
5. Operations on Vectors
6. A Simple 3D Vector Class
7. Introduction to Matrices
8. Matrices and Linear Transformations
9. More on Matrices
10. Orientation and Angular Displacement in 3D
11. Transformations in C++
12. Geometric Primitives
13. Geometric Tests
14. Triangle Meshes
15. 3D Math for Graphics
16. Visibility Determination
17. Afterword
18. Appendix A – Math Review
19. Appendix B – References

Starting with the basics, each chapter builds on the ones before it, illustrating the theory with lots of diagrams and examples… its not until you hit Chapter 5 does it actually start dropping source code in the mix. The example code is all C++, but its pretty clear and I’m well on the way to writing my own 3D maths library in Delphi based on what I’ve learned so far.

Overall, I’m finding it to be an excellent book. It’s not a basic maths book… if you need to learn about algebra or basic 2D geometry, then buy a maths book… its not a programming book…. if you need to learn about programming, then buy a programming book, but if you have basic maths, trigonometry and programming skills and are looking for a book that will lead you into the world of 3D, then this is a good place to start looking. Its clear, concise and appears to cover all the major topics you need, and based on the comments on PGD, I’m not alone in the view that its an excellent book.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 11:20 pm and is filed under Books, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.