Rating: 
Summary: A Basic OpenGL Primer and a Little More
Review: In writing about such a complex subject as OpenGL, an author has two choices: start at the beginning and develop the basics, or assume the basics and show how to do the more complex but common usage. Delphi, a combination of Object Pascal and an IDE, is a wonderful development arena. Most developers are single users and not teams. Thus its is important to have a book that deals with the basics of OpenGL, one that assumes very little about graphics. This is such a book.Moreover, Jon Jacobs choose to document every line of code in his examples. With this there is a danger of losing concept in the details. He, however, does not because he has a knack of knowing and explaining the important parts of the code. This style is also means that the book builds upon the previous chapters; it becomes difficult to jump into the middle and try to understand what is going on. Thus this is a book to read from cover to cover, perhaps skimming parts, but not one to use as reference until one has read it. The author does a nice job on an advanced chapter on how to use the mouse to pick up objects and how to move them. This alone is worth the price of the book. There are two things missing from this book, the first is there is no explanation of pixel rendering, which is used to draw untextured images; and second, almost nothing on fonts. The latter is strange as one could easily encapsulate the basic text operations in a component and have a major addition to the book at little cost. If you are a Delphi Developer and interested in graphics for games or show, this book is an excellent place to start. -John_Mertus@Brown.EDU
Rating: 
Summary: A missed opportunity
Review: Now I'm really in two minds about this one... On the one hand, it's by no means a bad book. After all, it does its job of teaching the basics of OpenGL reasonably well. Besides, as far as I know, it's the only book on this subject written specially for Delphi programmers. This book deserves four stars just for its uniqueness. On the other hand... I've just finished reading "Delphi COM Programming" by Eric Harmon, and it's so superior in terms of style, content and presentation that rating the OpenGL book equally or closely would simply be unfair to Mr. Harmon. So, two stars then. There you go. Now down to explanations. Doesn't a glance at the book's beautiful cover make you sweat with excitement? Do the words "Delphi" and "OpenGL" in its title raise the images of an award-winning Quake-clone in your mind, a ground-breaking game written entirely with your favorite programming language? Well, forget it. Usually, when I buy a book with a cover CD on it, the first thing I do is to insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive and to try some advanced examples to see what I'll be able to do after reading the book. OK, I thought, let's try the same with this OpenGL tome. Double-click on "Source," double-click on "Chapter 14" (last chapter in the book), find an executable, run it... Wow! A green triangle on light-blue background! Not very motivating, really. Try Chapter 13... not much better. Maybe I am looking in a wrong place? A quick browse though the CD revealed, apart from the source code, an HTML file with Web links, a few ugly textures and the entire book's text in ASCII, plus all the screenshots. How very exciting! OK, another beer-mat, then. Back to the book. Well, as other reviewers have rightly pointed out, it's quite well written. The author uses an informal, conversational style - so conversational in fact, that while reading one can almost imagine a university professor standing next to a blackboard. The author's idea was to make you read the book while simultaneously writing the example programs. This intention is not much helped by the fact that due to the binding used for this book, you cannot make it stay open unless you place something heavy on it. Besides, the try-and-see approach, while certainly useful in, say, a classroom (when there is a direct contact between the instructor and the student), requires that you do lots of wrong things before doing something right. In a written text, I would rather like to see the opposite: correct solution in the beginning of a chapter, followed by the explanation and the list of potential pitfalls. Of course, this is just a matter of taste. In a few places, I found the flow of the explanations a bit illogical and a few jokes rather dull (and unnecessary) - but again, some readers may like them. When it comes down to the code, however, I see some problems. First, the code for later chapters is based on the code written for earlier chapters, and it gets updated, corrected and changed back many times within a chapter. The full text of programs is given, unfortunately, very rarely. As a result, unless you are following the book very carefully, you soon lose track of what your program should look like. Of course, it is always possible to copy the files from the CD - but in a way this destroys the purpose of the step-by-step approach to the explanations. At another extreme, a lot of listings contain nothing but "form as text" - you know, this list of on-screen objects together with some of their properties. I don't know anyone in his right mind who would type these listings by hand! Come on, if a Delphi programmer does not know how to place components on a form to make the form look more or less like the one shown on the picture, this guy should not be programming at all! Perhaps I am too cynical, but I think the sole purpose of all this was to make the book thicker. By the way, the oversized typeface used for the text also adds to my suspicion. And then the graphics... Sure, in a book like this you would expect if not full-color figures then at least a colorful insert in the middle. Wrong. All the figures are presented in glorious black-and-white and - since the print is too dark - are essentially useless. And, having tried a few programs, you almost understand it's for better! OK, this is not a book for graphics designers, but ugly is not the right word to describe the choice of colors and textures. OpenGL is supposed to help creating beautiful scenes! Red and green cubes on blue background, anyone? Come on... I hate criticizing this book so much - it's not that bad, really, and the author's attention to detail is exceptional - it's just that it could have been so much better. If this text were a series of articles in a magazine (with downloadable code), I would heartly recommend it. As a book, it is a disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: It is a very necessary book!
Review: sdfasfa
Rating:
Summary: Step by step learning, most essentials
Review: The book covers most of the essential points about OpenGL. Step by step examples and developing techniques makes it more readable and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a graphics book for all levels.
Review: The book uses easy to understand sample applications that make learning a new function or process much easier. Jon has done a good job of covering a multitude of topics that are commonly used in game and graphics development. I believe that any OpenGL developer's library is not complete with out Jon's book. Now the down side. Their are a few topics that I had hoped to see in the book that where not covered, tings like transparent Textures and using shinny surfaces with Textures. In talking with Jon (Another good part, he is allways willing to help), though I have found the answers to the questions that I had.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a graphics book for all levels.
Review: The book uses easy to understand sample applications that make learning a new function or process much easier. Jon has done a good job of covering a multitude of topics that are commonly used in game and graphics development. I believe that any OpenGL developer's library is not complete with out Jon's book. Now the down side. Their are a few topics that I had hoped to see in the book that where not covered, tings like transparent Textures and using shinny surfaces with Textures. In talking with Jon (Another good part, he is allways willing to help), though I have found the answers to the questions that I had.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect book for a developer that understands how to use
Review: The perfect book for a developer that understands how to use Win API and Delphi but knows nothing about OpenGL or graphics.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect book for a developer that understands how to use
Review: The perfect book for a developer that understands how to use Win API and Delphi but knows nothing about OpenGL or graphics.
Rating:
Summary: A missed opportunity
Review: The thing I like about this book is its attention to detail. I purchased it at the same time as I bought John Ayres book on graphics programming. This book puts Ayres' book to shame. It covers the essential topics thoroughly -- no stone is left unturned. Ayres' book, OTOH, covers 2D sprite games only -- what a waste of time! Also, this book is written quite well, if I may say so. The Ayres book isn't. Jacobs' explanations are lucid and to the point. I really liked this one and highly recommend it to anyone who's already familiar with the Win32 API but wants to learn graphics programming. I'd also recommend this book to Mr. Ayres. He could learn alot from it.
Rating:
Summary: The best Delphi graphics book available
Review: The thing I like about this book is its attention to detail. I purchased it at the same time as I bought John Ayres book on graphics programming. This book puts Ayres' book to shame. It covers the essential topics thoroughly -- no stone is left unturned. Ayres' book, OTOH, covers 2D sprite games only -- what a waste of time! Also, this book is written quite well, if I may say so. The Ayres book isn't. Jacobs' explanations are lucid and to the point. I really liked this one and highly recommend it to anyone who's already familiar with the Win32 API but wants to learn graphics programming. I'd also recommend this book to Mr. Ayres. He could learn alot from it.
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