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Advanced Graphics Programming in C & C++ by Roger T Stevens & C D Watkins

ISBN: 0-13-005497-6       Publisher: Prentice Hall       Pages: 540pp       Price: £22-95

Categories:   graphics

Reviewed by Phil King in C Vu 4-5 (Jul 1992)

Specifically aimed at Borland Turbo C programmers using an IBM Pc or compatible with VGA colour graphics, this book covers 3D graphics and is intended to explore the uses of a graphics library rather than going to deeply into the mathematics and theory involved in 3D programming. You will need 640k of memory, a fast computer and lots of time to run all the demonstration programs. If you have a 256 colour Super VGA display a library of routines is presented for this mode in the final chapters.

Split into four main section the topics covered are Math and General routines, Wire Frame and Solid Modeling, Z-Buffering plus Horizon Rendering techniques and Ray Tracing.

The C source code throughout this book was originally written in Pascal by Christopher Watkins for the book Advanced Graphics Programming in Turbo Pascal and converted to C by Larry Sharp. Unfortunately the original Pascal methods of programming have been followed rather closely and the usual method of creating small multiple source files and linking these together as is usual for C programs has not been followed making debugging rather difficult.

Instead each program consists of one principle source code file with auxiliary files incorporated into the principal source code file by use of the preprocessor's include directive. The C++ of the title is a reference to the compiler used not the programming methodology, the coding is in standard C.

Because of the programming methods used, rather a lot of redundant code has to be typed which, considering the source code covers about two thirds of the book, could have been kept a little tighter. The other big problem with the code is that very little error checking has been incorporated into the programs. Two very good reasons for having the source code disk included with the book.

Roger T Stevens and christopher D Watkins clearly know their subject and although I found the book a little hard to follow in places it was overall a very entertaining and interesting read. If I have any complaints it's that while the source code is abundant the intervening words are not. A little more of an in depth explanation of the graphic techniques would have been welcomed as would a disk containing the source code (available from the USA for a further $20).

Watkins
Photorealism and Ray Tracing in C by Coy & Finlay & Watkins  (Reviewed Jul 1993)
Virtual Reality Excursions with Programs in C by Marenka & Watkins [Recommended]  (Reviewed Jan 1996)