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Real-Time Rendering, Fourth Edition

Tomas Akenine-Möller, Eric Haines, Naty Hoffman · 3 HN comments
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Amazon Summary
Thoroughly updated, this fourth edition focuses on modern techniques used to generate synthetic three-dimensional images in a fraction of a second. With the advent of programmable shaders, a wide variety of new algorithms have arisen and evolved over the past few years. This edition discusses current, practical rendering methods used in games and other applications. It also presents a solid theoretical framework and relevant mathematics for the field of interactive computer graphics, all in an approachable style. New to this edition: new chapter on VR and AR as well as expanded coverage of Visual Appearance, Advanced Shading, Global Illumination, and Curves and Curved Surfaces. Key Features Covers topics from essential mathematical foundations to advanced techniques used by today’s cutting edge games Case studies are grounded in specific real-time rendering technologies Revised and revamped for its updated fourth edition, which focuses on modern techniques and used to generate three-dimensional images in a fraction of time old processes took Covers practical rendering for games to math and details for better interactive applications. Reviews "This is the book I recommend to everyone starting out in the industry. Not only is it a great reference on so many topics, each topic is covered in impressive depth with great references for further exploration." ― Alex Vlachos, Valve " Real-Time Rendering condenses literally thousands of cutting-edge papers, talks, and blogs into a single, easy-to-read volume presenting today's best practices, open problems, and promising state-of-the-art research. A key reference for beginners and experts!" ― Chris Wyman, Principal Research Scientist, NVIDIA "Since it was first published, Real-Time Rendering has been an invaluable companion to anyone who wants to keep up with this dynamic field. It combines rigorous coverage of the fundamentals with up-to-date discussion of the latest techniques. The fourth edition is required reading for anyone serious about computer graphics." ― Matt Pharr, co-author of Physically Based Rendering: From Theory to Implementation "I built our rendering engine and my career on what I learned in previous editions of Real-Time Rendering. This new edition is carefully updated to represent the current state of our field, and will remain the first resource I check when tackling a new challenge." ― Patrick Cozzi, Principal Graphics Architect, Cesium, and co-editor of OpenGL Insights " Real-Time Rendering is the first book I recommend reading to anyone who wants to learn real-time graphics. All the relevant knowledge in one place, and a joy to read, too!" ― Aras Pranckevičius, Unity Technologies About the Cover : The cover shows an example of advanced real-time rendering technology used in the 2018 Star Wars ™ short Reflections, which includes real-time ray tracing of reflections and area light shadows computed on the GPU. The short was produced by Epic Games and built in Unreal Engine in collaboration with ILMxLAB and NVIDIA.
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Jun 21, 2021 · fsloth on Fluid Paint
"Real-time Rendering" by Akenine-Tomas Möller et all is one of the standard references here.

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Rendering-Fourth-Tomas-Aken...

Peter Shirley's free Ray Tracing series is incredibly good as well: https://raytracing.github.io/books/RayTracingInOneWeekend.ht...

And the outstanding piece in rendering is the Physically Based Rendering book by Pharr et all (which won an Oscar): https://www.pbrt.org/

None of those are math references as such, but the thing is with graphics it's not based on first principles (well, ray tracing is kinda getting there but still has lots of artistic stuff rather than science stuff), but rather on a bag of tricks. And the math without the "bag of tricks" context may not be that clear.

Way back in the day I read either the 1st or 2nd edition of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Graphics-Principles-Practice...

It's a classic in the computer graphics field, like Knuth is for algorithms. I'd recommend it alongside the OP's new book.

EDIT: But for anyone who is reading this wanting to learn about practical computer graphics, CG:P&P is NOT the resource to use! Learning the low-level rasterization algorithms used in computer graphics is an important thing to learn at some point, just like learning assembly language provides valuable insights even if you never touch a line of assembler again. But if you actually want to write graphics code on modern hardware with GPUs, I'd highly recommend Real Time Rendering instead: https://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Rendering-Fourth-Tomas-Aken...

2pEXgD0fZ5cF
Thanks a lot for the recommendation!

What would you say are the prerequisites for this one?

Also from the description it sounds as if it also goes a bit more into 2D graphics too, is that correct?

garmaine
Again, I read an ancient edition which predated the existence of consumer GPUs. But the edition I read was more than half on the topic of 2D graphics and what you might consider to be mundane things like font rasterization.

You might think this has nothing to do with 3D graphics, but in fact there is a big overlap. The graphics driver + GPU takes a description of a 3D scene and projects it into 2D primitives whichs are rasterized onto a bitmap (the display) just as one might render a font glyph.

So IIRC the book begins with the basic theory and techniques of 2D graphics, and then shows how projective geometry can be used to render 3D scenes onto 2D displays, and progressively adds various corrections which we take for granted, such as perspective-correct interpolation of texture values, which these days is done automatically by the hardware.

I don't think there's any pre-requisites other than a basic understanding of beginner computer science, coding, and algorithms. If you can read Knuth, you can read CG:P&P.

Also, see my edit to the grandparent comment.

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Rendering-Fourth-Tomas-Aken...

try this if you have time

corysama
That book is a highly-recommended intro. The site for the book https://www.realtimerendering.com/ also list tons more great material.
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