Interactive Computer Graphics: A Top-Down Approach with Shader-Based OpenGL

This book is suitable for undergraduate students in computer science and engineering, for students in other disciplines who have good programming skills, and for professionals. Computer animation and graphics–once rare, complicated, and comparatively expensive–are now prevalent in everyday life from the computer screen to the movie screen. Interactive Computer Graphics: A Top-Down Approach with Shader-Based OpenGL, 6e, is the only introduction to computer graphics text for undergraduates that fully integrates OpenGL 3.1 and emphasizes application-based programming. Using C and C++, the top-down, programming-oriented approach allows for coverage of engaging 3D material early in the text so readers immediately begin to create their own 3D graphics. Low-level algorithms (for topics such as line drawing and filling polygons) are presented after readers learn to create graphics.

Edward Angel is a professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and media arts at the University of New Mexico. He holds a PhD from the University of Southern California and a BS in engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He is also the director of Art, Research, Technology, and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) and the Arts Technology Center at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of Interactive Computer Graphics and OpenGL: A Primer .

Dave Shreiner is a computer graphics specialist at ARM, Inc. He's been working with OpenGL since its inception at Silicon Graphics Computer Systems (SGI). During his 15-year tenure at SGI, he authored the first commercial OpenGL training course, co-authored the OpenGL programming guide and reference manuals, and engineered OpenGL drivers for a multitude of different systems.

Dave's been working in the computer graphics industry for the past two decades, where he's authored applications for flight simulators, scientific visualization, production animation, and numerous other disciplines. Also passionate about educating programmers about OpenGL and computer graphics, he's presented lectures and short courses at conference world wide, including SIGGRAPH and the Games Developer Conference.