8 replies to this topic

[DjMaSh]

Hey,

I am just starting out shader programming and I'm looking for a book that can advance my shader programming skills. The two main gpu programming book series seem to be GPU Gems and ShaderX.

What is the main difference between these series? What would you guys recommend I buy?

[karwosts]

GPU Gems is free to read online, though I must say it is a beautiful hardcover full-color book to purchase.

http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems/gpugems_part01.html
http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems2/gpugems2_part01.html
http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems3/gpugems3_part01.html

Don't know about shaderX.

[DjMaSh]

Ah cool! For some reason I thought only the first book was free. Is th web version exactly the same as the hardcopy?

The thing is I have a book voucher I need to use up. And I prefer reading physical books to webpages. Plus it means I can read away from my computer.

Anyone else have opinions on the ShaderX series?

[karwosts]

Is th web version exactly the same as the hardcopy?

From what I can tell, yes. Has the same images, equations, diagrams, and source code.

[Darg]

Well if you want to buy a book then the logical course of action would be to buy the shaderX book(s) and also have the GPU Gems books to read online, best of both worlds. I've read parts from both but not much, mostly read some GPU gems stuff online which seems to go into things a bit more and have more pretty pictures. ShaderX for the tiny bit of it I read so don't take this as gospel, seemed to assume the reader knew a bit more about the subject. The finer details didn't always seem to be explained as fully.

If you find a bookshop near you that sells them then go in and read both, see which suits you best. Or else try and look up snippets of shaderX online. I'm sure there must be some.

[mhagain]

The first few ShaderX books are also free to download from here: http://tog.acm.org/resources/shaderx/

Beware though, they're scanned PDFs so text and image quality is not high, and they're not searchable. But it should be sufficient to help you make a decision.

[PolyVox]

I like GPU Gems because they are in colour :-) But the ShaderX book are also excellent (at least 5-7, I haven't looked much at the older ones). Note that the ShaderX series is now discontinued, and is now replaed by GPU Pro, which also now has colour images :-)

[allingm]

The ShaderX series is old now. Wolfgang moved on to the GPU Pro series. The newest released recently:

http://www.amazon.com/GPU-Pro-2-Wolfgang-Engel/dp/1568817185/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298328885&sr=8-1

I do have one question. Are you looking for an introduction to shader programming or are you looking to learn the latest techniques? It wasn't entirely clear to me from your post.

[Jason Z]

You can also take a look at our D3D10 book, which is also available for free online (see signature below). I'm not sure if you are using D3D or not, but it is certainly full of information that could be used by other APIs too.