ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (06/12/87)
Keywords:
[ Warning: Exceptionally naive person ahead. ]
Hello. I've always been fascinated by computer graphics, and a long
time ago went to the trouble of buying a copy of the Newman/Sproull book.
At the time, it told me everything I needed to know.
Now I wish to know more, but it appears that I've fallen way behind,
and have no idea where to look for informative material.
What I'd like is a book or two that fully describes everything I
want to know about CG; namely, hidden line and surface removal, shading, ray
tracing, distributed ray tracing, quadtree and octree subdivision
(used to reduce computation time, from what I've been able to determine),
other tricks to reduce computation time, fractal surfaces (not Mandelbrots),
"camera" motion control (for animation (probably a whole study in itself)).
Further, I'd like the above concepts discussed in a manner that
don't assume you have a PhD in math. I'd also like the book(s) to treat
whatever subject they discuss completely. One of the things I liked about
the Newman/Sproull book was that they showed you step-by-step what you
needed to do to project a thing on the screen: how to rotate it, scale it,
move it around, calculate perspective, etc. But the moment they touched on
something remotely complex, like hidden surface removal, or shading, they
got vague. I wanted a complete treatment; step-by-step instructions for a
particular method, with perhaps references to other methods with their own
advantages.
I have a basic foundation in computer graphics, I just want to build
on it. I'll settle for a complete treatment of hidden surface removal,
shading, and ray tracing for now. Code examples aren't necessary, but I'd
like a good solid procedural definition, or at least the beginnings of one.
Something I can write a program around *now*.
Sorry if this is a little juvenile, but I'd like to move beyond the
little starfield programs I've written so many different versions of over
the years.
Email responses preferred; I don't visit this newsgroup very often.
Thanks for your time.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape ihnp4!ptsfa -\
\_ -_ Bike shrunk by popular demand, dual ---> !{well,unicom}!ewhac
O----^o But it's still the only way to fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack")
"Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Do.e.e.