Computer Graphics with OpenGL (3rd Edition) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Donald Hearn, M. Pauline Baker
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Category: Book
List Price: $122.00
Buy New: $60.00
You Save: $62.00 (51%)
New (23) Used (20) from $56.40
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 294609
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 3
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 880
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.9
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 8.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 0130153907
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.6
EAN: 9780130153906
ASIN: 0130153907
Publication Date: September 22, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
For junior- to graduate-level courses in computer graphics. Assuming no background in computer graphics, this junior- to graduate-level course presents basic principles for the design, use, and understanding of computer graphics systems and applications. The authors, authorities in their field, offer an integrated approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics topics. A comprehensive explanation of the popular OpenGL programming package, along with C++ programming examples illustrates applications of the various functions in the OpenGL basic library and the related GLU and GLUT packages.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Computer Graphics with OpenGL (3rd Edition) August 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Very good book for my University course in computer graphics, hard to find at bookstores
 Only usable as a college textbook (if you have a good instructor) February 28, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Source code is downloadable only if you are an instructor.
Can you prenhall guys get more stupid than this?
 From a student May 31, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I did not read this textbook cover to cover. I read it the way I read most textbooks, which is the same way I assume most students do -- in bits and pieces. The best thing about this book was the code snippets. The book would explain an algorithm and then provide the actual code for the algorithm in C. That was VERY useful (it made writing my own code very easy). Unfortunately, the book did not provide code for the more advanced algorithms (which I assume kept the book at a reasonable size). Some of the images were outdated, but interesting none-the-less. Most of the concepts and algorithms are ageless I assume. I am in a competitive Computer Science program and I think it covers plenty of material and it goes into plenty of detail for an upper-level BS college course. Our class discussed several things in advanced computer graphics that were not covered in detail in the text, but I think finding a book that will cover such things as that (and stay up-to-date) will be very hard to find.
 Misleading, confusing and altogether irritating May 22, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I studied this book as an undergraduate in my junior year. I find it important to mention that the CG course was one of the most enjoyable and motivating courses I have taken. Sadly though, this book was one of the worst I studied (or rather, dealt with) for a number of reasons. I found it to be (and my classmates agree!):
1.Disorganized:
the way it jumps from one topic to the other with no harmonization of ideas, added to that the lack of headings and titles.
2.Misleading and inconsistent:
example: when it explains the mechanism of the shadow-mask CRT, the illustration shows 3 electron guns, each producing an electron beam of a different color, which is not true at all. The color is determined by the mask not the beam. (and this is just one example)
3.Confusing:
when it explains several methods of doing something, it mentions the drawbacks of one method under the title of another method! Confusing and also irritating.
4.Incomplete information
we had to rely almost completely on our professor's lectures and ended up ignoring the book altogether!
It has some good qualities. For example: the appendix was a good reminder of most of the required linear algebra and calculus. The algorithms in the book are very clear.
too much coverage, not even breadth October 11, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I must agree with J. Davis. After going through about 3-4 different types of CG courses and experimenting with my own seminars I find that this book is just way too wide of a scope. It seems like it tries to cram general computer graphics, interactive computer graphics, and advanced computer graphics in one... and do a bad job at it. Looking through the book I seriously doubt that some topics can be covered in one chapter, especially some of the viewing chapters. How can you cover all aspect of 2D and 3D viewing, even in breadth only and no depth, in one chapter? That's just ridiculous. It almost feels as if they are saying that you need a separate major for CG completely, one course for overview, one for 2d, one for 3d, one for interactive graphics, and a few for advanced topics in computer graphics... but the problem is that that is too narrow of a scope for any 4 year college degree. Plus you can't even start some of the basic discussions without general education in the fundamental math like linear algebra, calculus, discrete math, and so forth. So this book is sort of making a statement that can't be backed in the real world. Though this does offer a good overview for people who are just curious. It touches on a wide variety of things and has very practical approach to having a workable project using openGL.
Now as for Davis's comments on a good book. I think Foley and van Dam has actually a pretty good book for undergrads, especially when you set appropriate prequisits for the course. Keeping in mind that CG should be a junior-senior level undergrad course. I studied CG1 when I was an art major and found the Foley van Dam book to usable, though dry, but usable. I found other books later on to be useful, but they are a bit specialized. A few good ones I must suggest for graphics math is essential mathematics for games by van verth and bishop to be good. I also recommend realtime graphics by akenine-moller and haine for interactive graphics. For some specialized ones you have to look around but I do recommend my professor's (david breen) book on cloth animation. But yeah, to sum it up, stick with Foley van Dam for your intro courses... maybe use this as an added supplement, especially when considering OpenGL for your teaching tool.
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