It got me programming

I've had several false starts at 3d programming. I've tried using the code from several other books but quickly gave up after getting a short distance into the concepts. Making the sample programs work with Windows XP and Visual Studio just isn't that easy in most cases. These programs worked as indicated with Visual Studio. I was quite happy.

None the less the code could use more documentation and clarity. For instance in the simple drawmesh program the LoadBmp24 routine returns Hight and Width as a side-effect of the call. I tried my own odd shaped bitmap and the routine kept failing. These two comment lines would have been really helpful:

// OpenGL prior to 2.1 requires textures be in 2d arrays
// whose dimensions are multples of 2.

After spending hours tracking that down it was easy to adjust the routines to actually work with arbitrary bitmaps and triangle meshes.

Other Reviews

• Yes, gives a good start to 3D graphics development
• It got me programming
• Good software engineering book
• Acceptable book with some significant failings
• 3d Game Engine Architecture