Ok, I think that I''ve got OGL down pretty well. I know C++ very well. I want to get in to making an actual engine now and I was wondering which would be there better book for someone who is pretty strong in math. Would 3d Game Engine Design be better or would Game Programming Gems be better to start learning how to program a 3d engine. I have read the posts in the books section but I was wondering what people thought who have read both of them. Which one is better? Thanks. Mat

I have both books. The engine book will teach you more about engine design, Gems in what I''m currently reading, lots of cool tricks but the way I see it you can''t make an engine with tricks (actually I tried that , it doesn''t work )

If you go with david''s book you''ll have to slog through it, it won''t be as good a resource as the internet for individual topics but it will give you a good example how to put everything together.

If you have the time spend a week on his source code. At first it''ll look crazy and you''ll do it your way anyway, then you''ll hit a problem, go back to his source and find the answer was always there. (Like how to I store the animation state of a wheel that is parented to a car)...

Engine design is structure, Gems is details...

Go on , get ''em both....

Thanks, that answered my question perfectly. I was leaning towards the 3d Game Engine Design book first and then getting Gems. I will eventually get them both but since I''m just a poor college student, the money does not overfloweth. :-)

Try before you but... to a certain extent... Go to www.magic-software.com and download the source code there. That is a public cut back version of the what you get with the book (and the subsequest update release).

At lot of the value of 3D Engine Design is extracted from the source. It''s tough going as he doesn''t comment anywhere near enough.

Also, if you look ard enough many of the articles from Gems are available online at the authors sites. Also look at www.realtimerendering.com lots of interesting stuff there too...

Luck

I''ll check out those sights. Thanks.