Hey guys,

I've been a lurker here for two years. In that time I've done my share of graphics, I've written my own post processes, done deferred rendering, architecture, implemented shadow maps, and I've done graphics professionally on the 360, PS3, and the WiiU. I have experience programming, is what I'm trying to say.

I say this so that you guys understand this;

You guys make me feel like an idiot toddler. Regularly.

I've read insightful conversations from people like MJP and Hodgman, and I realize I have a lot to do still.

So my question is this; what books are there for me to try and expand my horizons? I just got a kindle today and I was going to get physically based rendering, but after reading some posts on MJP' s blog about signal theory and aliasing, I realize I don't have very strong fundamentals.

Any good suggestions?

Awesome, thanks! Real Time Rendering has popped up a lot in my searches, so I'll get that. Thanks again!

Hey guys,

I've been a lurker here for two years. In that time I've done my share of graphics, I've written my own post processes, done deferred rendering, architecture, implemented shadow maps, and I've done graphics professionally on the 360, PS3, and the WiiU. I have experience programming, is what I'm trying to say.

I say this so that you guys understand this;

You guys make me feel like an idiot toddler. Regularly.

I've read insightful conversations from people like MJP and Hodgman, and I realize I have a lot to do still.

So my question is this; what books are there for me to try and expand my horizons? I just got a kindle today and I was going to get physically based rendering, but after reading some posts on MJP' s blog about signal theory and aliasing, I realize I don't have very strong fundamentals.

Any good suggestions?

You should keep in mind that MJP and Hodgman are probably the top two guys on these forums for graphics related questions, so keep the comparisons in perspective. My personal recommendation is to move up into reading journal papers about new techniques. This is where you have to really understand the theory behind a lot of different areas of mathematics and signal processing, so you will quickly find out what you aren't able to understand.

Once you have a clearer picture of where you need to brush up, then you can search for some books or online references to help explain those topics. Of course I can't speak for everyone, but in general I think the big guns spend lots of time trying things out and keeping up with lots of research. It sounds like you are fortunate enough to have a job in the industry, so hopefully your research can overlap with what you are working on during the day too!

@Jason Z: Thanks for the reply!

I'm definitely going to try and keep up to date on white papers and the like, I just get the impression I have a huge gap in fundamental knowledge at times. So I'm looking for ways to improve on them.

Granted, I'm also only 22, I'm probably missing quite a bit of fundamental knowledge haha.

I've written my own post processes, done deferred rendering, architecture, implemented shadow maps, and I've done graphics professionally on the 360, PS3, and the WiiU. I have experience programming, is what I'm trying to say.
I say this so that you guys understand this; You guys make me feel like an idiot toddler. Regularly.
I've read insightful conversations from people like MJP and Hodgman, and I realize I have a lot to do still.

Don't worry, I feel exactly the same way a lot of the time. If you ever stop feeling that way, then you've stopped learning new topics, which is bad

You can also check out "Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics, Third Edition" or "3D Math Premier for Graphics and Game Development" if want

Thanks, I love getting suggestions from threads like this too, because honestly my math fundamentals are also a bit weak.

One of my favourite sites for finding new research papers is Ke-Sen Huang's Home Page

I have Physically Based Rendering, but I haven't got around to reading much of it (I always tend to order about 4 text books at a time and skim between them). From the bit that I have read, it was very easy to understand and took its time explaining everything. It's written in the "Literate Programming" style, which I'd never heard of before, where the books text and source code are the same thing. They generate the renderer's source code, and the book's LaTeX markup by "compiling" their source prose, which means every single line of their source code is explained in the book.

Lately I've been reading the "Shader X" and "GPU Pro" books, which are basically curated research papers, with more in-depth explanations. Much of their contents isn't really applicable to my work, but is great food for thought nonetheless. Many of the chapters explain actual rendering techniques used by shipping games.

Real-Time Rendering 3rd Edition and Physically Based Rendering are definitely my top two. Principles of Digital Image Synthesis is also fantastic (especially if you want to brush up on signal processing), and it's actually free to download.

Awesome guys, bookmarking this thread. Thank you.

I got Read-Time Rendering 3rd Edition, and it's pretty great so far, so thanks for that suggestion!

I'll start working my way down the list now, and in roughly twenty years I should have read everything haha.