I'm looking into buying a book on Game Engine Math/Physics and another on AI. What books would you guys recommend? The two that interest me the most are Mathematics for 3D Game Programing and Computer Graphics and Programming Game AI By Example. Any thoughts?
I'm a senior in high school who has taken AP Physics C (calculus based physics) and up through Calculus III (but no linear algebra), if you need that information for a recommendation.
Thank you in advance!
Edit: I probably shouldn't limit suggestions to those two topics - any recommendation for someone developing their own game engine would be awesome.
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What Books Are Recommended
Started by Elnof, Feb 25 2012 12:02 PM
7 replies to this topic
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#3 Members - Reputation: 116
Posted 25 February 2012 - 04:16 PM
Elnof, on 25 February 2012 - 12:02 PM, said:
I'm a senior in high school who has taken AP Physics C (calculus based physics) and up through Calculus III (but no linear algebra), if you need that information for a recommendation.
While this may not completely benefit you with game programming (since maths never gets taught from a game point of view, then again math doesnt get taught from any point of view) I recommend learning from "Larson Edward, Calculus" book, when I was at uni they foolishly told us to use "James Stewart, Calculus" and omg it was no surprise most of the class failed.
For game maths the above suggestion is overkill, "3D Math Primer For Graphics And Game Development" gets a lot of great reviews but I personally havent read it.
As for Physics, typically any advance applied physics will do and even then its overkill, as for AI, I havent been able to stay awake reading any AI related book, sometimes I think the AI related books are just trying to say "we are going to write an essay on a loop"; honestly some books drag on so much to the point where you start thinking "is AI as simple as 'if A happens do B?'".
#4 Members - Reputation: 166
Posted 25 February 2012 - 11:09 PM
Are James Stewart's books bad for some reason? I have fourth edition Single and Multivariable Calculus and I find them fairly decent, although I only have my school book to compare to which is terrible.
"If highly skilled generalists are rare, though, then highly skilled innovators are priceless." - ApochPiQ
My personal links :)
- Khan Academy - For all your math needs
- Java API Documentation - For all your Java info needs :D
- C++ Standard Library Reference - For some of your C++ needs ^.^
My personal links :)
- Khan Academy - For all your math needs
- Java API Documentation - For all your Java info needs :D
- C++ Standard Library Reference - For some of your C++ needs ^.^
#5 Members - Reputation: 116
Posted 26 February 2012 - 12:00 AM
boogyman19946, on 25 February 2012 - 11:09 PM, said:
Are James Stewart's books bad for some reason? I have fourth edition Single and Multivariable Calculus and I find them fairly decent, although I only have my school book to compare to which is terrible.
I personally never work with one book for any topic, I usually have this '3 book' rule (or in this case 2 since they are so expensive), the problem I found with James Stewart, Calculus was the examples / questions, they were retardedly complicated and were not explained well at all, as a result you would have an already confusing topic get even more confusing. Saying that, if you want to improve / advance your calculus knowledge "James Stewart, Calculus" isnt a bad way to go. Oh and there was a major area missing in the James Stewart book too, something I believe todo with parametric equations, either untouched or just not covered at all, I cant really remember.
Saying that, these days with the internet, Microsoft Maths and Wolfram Alpha, you can likely find the answer to any question and the process of finding that answer too
#7 Members - Reputation: 159
Posted 27 February 2012 - 05:22 AM
I have both of those books. Have had the maths one for years and year and it's a great reference.
The AI book I bought recently and it's very good. As you'd expect from a book with "by example" in the title, there's lots of examples to help you get up and running. The coding style isn't quite to my taste but it's clear and works well. The tone of the book is quite informal too which is nice.
The AI book I bought recently and it's very good. As you'd expect from a book with "by example" in the title, there's lots of examples to help you get up and running. The coding style isn't quite to my taste but it's clear and works well. The tone of the book is quite informal too which is nice.
#8 Members - Reputation: 166
Posted 27 February 2012 - 05:11 PM
Elnof, on 26 February 2012 - 11:00 AM, said:
My Calc III class used Jame's Stewart's Early Transcendentals and did just fine, but to be fair we had a fantastic teacher and didn't often have to read the chapter.
I bought the book for my own reading (not for school), and I've managed to learn both integration and differentiation quite fine. In fact, I think I have it just a slight bit better than the students in my class because I went pretty much chapter by chapter and the book was very thorough about the concepts although I did have a lot of trouble with integration. That being said, knowing all that stuff ahead of time has been a tremendous help. I love the Problem Plus sections in Stewart's books. They consist of extra challenging problems for you to solve after each chapter. Unless you're a math wiz, they do require some thought
"If highly skilled generalists are rare, though, then highly skilled innovators are priceless." - ApochPiQ
My personal links :)
- Khan Academy - For all your math needs
- Java API Documentation - For all your Java info needs :D
- C++ Standard Library Reference - For some of your C++ needs ^.^
My personal links :)
- Khan Academy - For all your math needs
- Java API Documentation - For all your Java info needs :D
- C++ Standard Library Reference - For some of your C++ needs ^.^
