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SeriousBusiness
01-25-2010, 05:50 PM
Hello everybody,

I'm currently interesting in starting a project with some friends. Basically, the project is about making a computer game :)

My job will be to deal with shaders, but the problem is, I don't know much about shaders. I do have decent skills in C++ and mathematics, but I've never before worked with computer graphics.

I've googled around [and checked the link here at CG!] and there's tons and tons of learning material, but my problem is I'm not sure where to start.

Could you recommend some books, etc? Books that explain to detail shaders from the basics and preferable aren't afraid to involve some math in the process. I plan to take my time on learning shaders, so I'm not looking for books like 'Learning shaders for Dummies' or similar 'instant learnnig books'.

Thanks in advance,
SeriousBusiness
rendermaniac
01-25-2010, 11:05 PM
If you will be using cg, then this is one of the better books to start with - the Cg Tutorial:

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cg_tutorial_home.html

Nvidia also has a lot of information in it's GPU Gems series which you can read online here:

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/gpu_gems_home.html

I don't know as much about GLSL, but I'd guess the best book to start with would be the Orange book:

http://www.3dshaders.com/home/

I don't know enough about HLSL to comment, but it seems to be extremely similar to Cg.

Simon
HornBerger
01-26-2010, 07:53 AM
i would recommend the book
- Super OpenGL Bible 4th edition by Richard S. Wright
it explains programming in Opengl using the glut framework (in dev c++) also teaches about Shaders and how you could use it with opengl to make games theres an entire part on it Part 2 : the new testament ... anyways check it out on amazon or thers a site for the book as well... google it

hope this helps! :)
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