webber@aramis.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) (07/11/88)
In article <6188@uwmcsd1.UUCP>, len@csd1.milw.wisc.edu (Leonard P Levine) writes: > From article <11512@ames.arc.nasa.gov>, by eugene@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov.arpa (Eugene N. Miya): < < In article <1359@daisy.UUCP< klee@daisy.UUCP (Ken Lee) writes: < <<The classic intro text is: < << Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics < << by Foley & Van Dam < << published by Addison-Wesley < < < < Funny, I thought Newman and Sproull was THE classic intro text, < < and don't forget Rogers..... < < < < Computer Graphics Vol 22 #2 has an excellent review of the texts used in < computer science courses. Of some 97 colleges reported, 35 use foley and < van dam, 15 use Hern and Baker (prentice hall), 10 use rogers (mcGraw Hill) < and 5 or fewer use each of the next 16 texts listed. It is also worth noting that the various texts have many different orientations and also that there is a difference between what one might want for self-study and what one might use as a text as well as a difference between what is appropriate at the undergraduate and at the graduate levels. To point out a few major examples of these differences: Foley and Van Dam (at least the version available in 1985) is good on aspects of programming and implementing standard graphics packages, but paints with a wider brush on topics of geometric modelling and image synthesis. Mortenson gives a good CAD oriented presentation of computer graphics. The book is basically two parts: (1) curved surfaces and (2) solid modelling. Bartels, Beatty, and Barsky's text gives a good introduction to graphics in terms of curved surface manipulation. Mantyla's text gives a good introduction to graphics as solid modelling. Roger's text gives a good introduction to the algorithmics of implementing rasterization, clipping, hidden surfaces, and ray tracing. Hall has a book on Illumination Models coming out soon which is doubtless headed toward classicdom [anyone seen prepublication version?]. The Thalmanns' have books on Image Synthesis and on Animation which provide good introductions to those areas. There are four IEEE Tutorials relating to Computer Graphics. Both the one by Booth and the one by Freeman reprint a number of classic articles (they don't overlap on individual articles, so together they make an even better collection). I haven't looked at the other two yet: one on VLSI and Graphics and the new one on Computer Graphics Hardware (perhaps someone who has can comment on what appears in them). And, of course, there is a lot to be said for just leaving thru the past Siggraph Proceedings (particularly if you can find a library that has been collecting them for a while as they drift out of print just like all the other ACM conferences). Someone with a general computer science background, solid math background, and casual exposure to physics should be able to follow much of what is going on (and of course the individual articles have bibliographies pointing back to older papers). Anyway, as you can tell, there are many different bases on which to build an introduction to computer graphics. Here (Rutgers' Computer Science Dept, New Brunswick), I run a year-long graduate graphics sequence that in the past used Mortenson in the Fall and Rogers plus Most Recent Siggraph in the Spring. This coming Fall, I will be using Bartels, Beatty, and Barsky along with the Mantyla book for the Geometric material. However, I recommend all of the above listed books highly (although recommendations for the ones that I specifically haven't seen, i.e., Hall and the two hardware IEEE tutorials, should doubtless be taken with a grain of salt) and the ones not mentioned should be attributed to my lack of familiarity with them and not as a disrecommendation. --------- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)
lively@sunybcs.uucp (Richard S. Lively) (07/11/88)
Just got a copy of the IEEE Tutorial on Computer Graphics Hardware,
H. K. Reghbati and A. Y. C. Lee, editors. Here is a summary:
Ch. 1 Introduction to Computer Graphics Systems
Ch. 2 Graphics Processors and Special Function Units
Ch. 3 Frame Buffer Design
Ch. 4 Smart Image Memory
Ch. 5 Real-Time Scan Conversion Hardware
Ch. 6 Hardware for Constructive Solid Geometry and Ray Tracing
Ch. 7 Image Processing Hardware
This is, of course, a collection of papers and is certainly worth adding
to your library.