Ebook: 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development

I was looking for a book that covered all of the 3-D vector math basics for game programmers, and came across this one. I mentioned it to a co-worker, and his response was "Great book!". After ordering and reading about half, I have to agree. The book explains the concepts very well and takes you through the math required to derive some of the core concepts (like transformations). My favorite part thus far is that each vector or matrix concept includes the math behind the concept and also the geometric interpretation for each of the concepts. For example, I had never seen a geometric interpretation of matrix determinants and found that very interesting. The diagrams overall are very helpful for the more visual person, although there could be even more of them. I liked the descriptions of mathematical properties that may not be immediately obvious and how they could be used, such as the table of dot product values and what they mean. My negatives on the book are minor: (a) The book could have used more practical examples explaining scenarios on WHY certain concepts are used. The text does a decent job of explaning usages, but more examples would have been nice. (b) I was not too interested in the "C" code given the numerous libraries out there that already do the math. This was wasted space in the book, in my opinion, although may be interesting to some. (c) There are no answers to the exercises in the book. Would have been nice to have included that in an appendix. The answers MAY be on the web site - I have not checked. All in all, I strongly recommend this book for those wanting the basics of 3-D vector and matrix math with applications.

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I was looking for a book that covered all of the 3-D vector math basics for game programmers, and came across this one. I mentioned it to a co-worker, and his response was "Great book!". After ordering and reading about half, I have to agree. The book explains the concepts very well and takes you through the math required to derive some of the core concepts (like transformations). My favorite part thus far is that each vector or matrix concept includes the math behind the concept and also the geometric interpretation for each of the concepts. For example, I had never seen a geometric interpretation of matrix determinants and found that very interesting. The diagrams overall are very helpful for the more visual person, although there could be even more of them. I liked the descriptions of mathematical properties that may not be immediately obvious and how they could be used, such as the table of dot product values and what they mean. My negatives on the book are minor: (a) The book could have used more practical examples explaining scenarios on WHY certain concepts are used. The text does a decent job of explaning usages, but more examples would have been nice. (b) I was not too interested in the "C" code given the numerous libraries out there that already do the math. This was wasted space in the book, in my opinion, although may be interesting to some. (c) There are no answers to the exercises in the book. Would have been nice to have included that in an appendix. The answers MAY be on the web site - I have not checked. All in all, I strongly recommend this book for those wanting the basics of 3-D vector and matrix math with applications.