Graphics Gems IV IBM

Rating:
Summary: Fourth in the classic series
Review: I'm the archivist for the free Graphics Gems code base on the web. I do it for free, because this code is so valuable. Others think so, too: there is an average of 100 hits a day on the site. Go look at the online list of what's in this volume to see if it's for you.

Highlights (for me) include point in polygon testing (yeah, I wrote it), the arcball, matrix decomposition, an implicit surface polygonizer, a fast alternate Phong lighting model, and fast embossing.

Rating:
Summary: Essential if you can't find it in a library!
Review: This contains my favorite "Graphics Gem", an algorithm for testing whether a polyhedron intersects with a 3-D box or many boxes.

The full set of Graphics Gems is so expensive that I can't bring myself to buy it. Instead, I've looked up gems like that intersection test in a library copy of the book. If you don't have convenient access to it in a library, then you might as well dig up your credit card.