OpenGL Game Development (Wordware Applications Library)

The Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) is the industry standard for high-performance 3D graphics and is widely used to create leading-edge software. OpenGL Game Development shows the beginning computer programmer how to harness the power of OpenGL to create a fully functional map editor and game engine. The book explores the basics of OpenGL and Windows programming, while focusing on the ultimate goal of developing a 3D first-person shooter.

User review
Absolute Garbage
This is the absolute worst Open GL book ever authored. Ignoring the enire premise of the word Open in Open GL the author decides to focus entirely on - not Open GL - but Windows. Not any Windows system, but Win 95/NT. So right away the title is misleading no doubt to generate sales.

We see the first bit of real code at around page 90. Maybe 5% of it is Open GL related. The rest like the entire first chapter focusses on writing a basic Windows program. Recommended compiler Visual Studio C++ 6.0! There is a brief acknowledgment of MFC, .NET is not even on the horizon and the author goes with an SDK app. Yup! Plenty of hDC, hWnd, longwinded explanations as to what these do. The program - this is apparently a homework assignment the author handed in in the early nineties - pretends to be in C++, but is essentially C. There is atrocious use of globals, no dynamic allocation and forget about design patterns. The book was published in 2005!

To top it all of, the code requires DirectX! Some lame explanation as to how it makes things easier is included. All in all the code provided is on the level of assigment #4 out of 20 in any decent Open GL 101 course - and no, definitely not mid-term material. Get the Open GL Programming Guide. It costs about the same.

User review
dissapointed
I've owned this book for quite some time. It has sat around on my shelf for about 6 months. Just the other day I decided to start reading it. First off, I think it would be important to mention, the examples wont work in GCC/MingW, so if you're into that, look someplace else. Secondly if you're using Visual C++ (you pretty much have to) you'll either need the professional version, or PlatformSDK. As I have a copy of pro VCPP, thats not why I give this title such a low rating. The code is good in the book, and you'll definitely learn something if you buy it. It does a great job of covering manual Win32 coding, and touches well on OpenGL programming. The problem is, the end results are of such poor quality, its not worth going through. The engine at the end of the book looks exactly like Doom 1, with the exception, you can use mouse look. Its also meant for older machines, as when I would try to walk, the camera would rocket to who knows where, in less than a millisecond. The editor you spend most of the book creating comes out ok, but is horribly inaccurate when placing objects. All in all, its neat that he gives you an idea of how to make an editor and link it all together with your game engine, all in one book,,. But I'd recommend, Beginning OpenGL Game Programming + Game Engine Tool set Development. Those two together will give you a high quality version of what this one book gives you.

User review
An interesting and instructive reading
This book is a great reading for all those that want to begin or to penetrate into the programming game using OpenGL.
It relies on an easy and progressive reading, with númerosos functional examples explained to the detail.
The authors are real experts in the programaión of games beside having great experience in transmitting your conocimmientos knowledges.

User review
Among the worst in the genre
I came to this book not as an amateur, but as an intermediate game and OpenGL programmer. I think this gives me a perspective that some newcomers might not have.

This book is mediocre at best. It is filled with shallow explanations, and the development methodology espoused by the book is actually harmful. Specifically, Seddon takes the archaic approach of manually coding Win32 controls in his map editor (the construction of which comprises about 75% of the book), a practice that was outdated several years before the publication date.

One startling example of a bad explanation I can recall coming across was that of rotation matrices. Seddon claims that matrices are used to rotate axes, when the reality is that matrices are used to rotate points ABOUT axes. This misconception of the mathematics, along with the lack of elucidating figures (not just here, but throughout) illustrates a deep lack on the author's part of knowledge of the fundamentals, or at least the ability to convey these fundamentals.

As a replacement to this book, I heartily recommend OpenGL Game Programming by Astle and Hawkins, or anything by Andre Lamothe if you'd rather get your start with DirectX.

I gave this book more than one star because it does a fair job of explaining very basic Win32 programming, and because I was able to obtain it very cheaply.

User review
semi-disgruntled
First, I must admit a few things. I have not finished the book (I'm at the end of Chapter 7, roughly halfway through the book). Second, I bought this book to learn primarily about Win32 applications stuff and basic openGL topics (I know other books are better for each respective topic, but this is the only one I could find locally on either topic). I do not know much about (nor care) about game development.

Ok, with that disclaimer out of the way, I believe others have done a fair job describing what the book does and doesn't do. I'd like to point out why it makes me think others new to Applications/openGL programming should find a different book.

Throughout the chapter, the author discusses the module you'll be working on and shows the source code. Then at the end of each chapter, there is a `complete` source file with all the bits and pieces in it. Also, the author has downloadable code available from a website on the book.

I opted not to download the source code, because I had never done anything like this and I wanted to physically enter all the code, in hopes that it would help me understand everything. (I think this has worked very well, FYI).

So here is my issue: the code embedded in the chapters does not always match the code at the end of the chapter, which doesn't always match the source code availble online (which is the source code that actually compiles). What this equates to is the following: you have to debug code that you don't understand (because you're supposed to be learning it!) on a subject that you are unfamiliar with. However, I feel that doing all this extra work has helped me understand the concepts and `ins and outs` of applications programming and some basic openGL.

If you like puzzles, you'll like this book. If you don't like digging through broken instructional code for hours at a time, find a different book.

Oh, and worst of all, I bought this book at a local bookstore for $46 when its available here for like $13,,. maybe thats why I have such an unfavorable opinion of this book.