Rating: 
Summary: riddled with errors
Review:
It's got some worth, but it really needs to be reorganized and redone. Get the 4th edition when it releases (it's on the second edition now, if that tells you anything) or a different book.I'd actually settle with a mere correction in diagrams and typos. You cannot go more than a few pages or follow much of his math without running into a typo. Even in the equations where there are no errors, he skips steps and claims "obviousness" in cases that make you wonder (due to the typos everywhere else) if it is also in error. You find yourself double-checking all of his math, and that's not something you should have to do to learn with a graphics textbook. This process makes the topic so much more complicated than it needs to be. As part of this comedy, you can find that after about Chapter 6, none of the mysterious examples he references were included. You can find these examples on his (hard-to-locate) website, but it's very funny that they left about half of the intended examples out of the appendix.
Rating: 
Summary: Depends upon what you want.
Review: As other reviewers have already cited, this is not a OpenGL programming tutorial, but rather a computer graphics tutorial. As a computer graphics tutorial it is perhaps worth a 5 STAR rating. As a OpenGL programming tutorial it is worth a 1 STAR rating. The explanation of computer graphic concepts is very well presented with ample linear algebra oriented math. There are problems at the end of each chapter of which a significant number seem to come out of nowhere. That's just standard academia mentality for an upper lever/graduate level textbook.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the dim witted
Review: Do not be put off by the negative reviews of this text. You can plainly see the pattern of the bad reviews. Those who gave those reviews probably are not ready for it or never will be. The preface plainly states that it IS NOT an OpenGL API guide, so why bash it for not holding your hand through OpenGL?
Rating: 
Summary: Confusing, Sketchy explainations, bad wording of exercises
Review: Do not get this book. The explainations are Ok until you get to the exercises when you realize that much of the subject was not explain. The exercises are worded poorly. I spent more time trying to find out the problem asks than actually doing the problem. Poor grammatical usage...author uses personal pronouns (she, her, ect.) rather than using gender neutral sentences. This is very anoying to read.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book on Graphics theory
Review: Don't let some of the negative reviews fool you- those folks were looking for an in depth discussion of OpenGL, period, which this book doesn't give or promise to give. What it does do, however, is discuss first rate graphics theory with plenty of mathematical discussion and well-written explanation, something that's very rare these days in most graphics texts. If you really want to learn computer graphics, this is a great book to go with, all the more so because it uses OpenGL for its examples,thereby giving you hints on which OpenGL functions to use and when. You don't need a PhD in math to learn from this book, either- really all you need is a semester of Linear Algebra, and the appendix reviews the math needed in a clear, concise fashion. In short, for those who want to see how computer graphics theory works, they should look closely at this book before buying anything else.
Rating:
Summary: Why this book is used for an Intro Class is beyond me.
Review: Dont buy this book if you are wanting to lern how to program openGL. Buy it if you know openGL and want to learn how it works. It is not a book of the openGL newbie. Why so many teachers use it for an intro to Graphics Programing class boggles the mind. Angel explantions are hard to follow at best. He spends an whole section explaning the theory behide a lighting model then says that openGl does not use this method. So why cover it in an openGl book??
Rating:
Summary: Excellent design with a few serious problems.
Review: First of all the concept and design of this is perfect: a study of computer graphics covering the fundementals but using a modern full featured easy-to-use API, OpenGL. For the most part the title lives up to this with a few serious exceptions that force me to rate it 3 stars. First of all are the typo's. There are several and unfortunatley they mostly appear in equations, which can make things very confusing, and they aren't totally cataloged on the authors web site. Another very serious problem is with Chapter 4 which covers the math of graphics. Given that this is generaly a junior level CS course, and that matrices were covered in Algerbra 2, which is generaly taken sophomore year in HS, many of us haven't looked at a dot product in 5 years. So the chapter should really contain a few pages to dust off those cobwebs. The author also works through his equations without much commentary on the why. He also makes a point of explicitly defining his notation, and then doesn't stick to it. At one point he begins using a variable without ever having stated what it was supposed to represent. Unfortunately this comes in the key chapter covering the mathmatic principles, so it will have to be supplemented with some other source covering the same material. Not good when your talking about the fundementals, and there is a lack of well written instruction of this topic.
Rating: 
Summary: In depth look at computer graphics from a low level view
Review: First off, this book is a text book, not a teach yourself book. Do not buy to teach yourself unless you are have some background in 3D graphics and would just like to get a look at the math behind it. That was the main reason i got it and it provided explnations for the 3D math used in computer graphics. Not very user friendly, I found myself having to re-read pages to fully understand the concept.
Rating:
Summary: Ideal for me
Review: For an amateur UNIX/Linux C programmer like me, this book is a
very good introduction to OpenGL. I have bought several graphics books,
but Angel is the only author I have come across who has
taken the trouble to provide a makefile to ensure his readers
can actually compile any program. Once you can do that, you
should be able to teach yourself with the guidance from the book.
If you have trouble understanding dot products then you cannot
blame this book if you find it hard. Ultimately you will only
learn OpenGL (or any programming) by experimentation. Don't
expect to read any single book and become an expert overnight.
Rating:
Summary: decent starting point to 3d graphics programming
Review: having read many books and articles on 3d graphics, as well as general programming, i believe this book is certainly better than most.
while this books is aimed most certainly at an academic audience, it covers the fundamentals clearly and solidly. and while i still think foley is the standard, this book covers a lot more of the modern issues as well as providing a practical grounding using opengl. (the lack of which was the *major* downside of foley) there are also some good introductions to more advanced issues in the latter third of the book, which makes for interesting reading. perhaps my only concern with this book is the obsessive use of mathematics to explain simple concepts. often, the mathematical formulae provided offer no further explanation to the text, and simply serves to distract readers without strong mathematical backgrounds.
to quote one of my 3rd year math profs : "mathematics should be used as mathematicians intended - succinctly!"
(i can only imagine that the authors believed the formulae would "lend credibility" to the text.) overall, i would recommend!
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