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Book to compliment 3D Math Primer

Started by hellz Aug 24, 2004 at 12:14 PM 3 replies 850+ views
Original Post
hellz
hellz
Hey guys, As I stated in another recent thread, I've been working through 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development, since Sunday. I love it, and I've learnt a lot from it, but my underlying knowledge is preventing me from getting the most out of this book. In particular, I have problems with: a) Deriving equations from the sketches in the book. Say for example, a vector is plotted on 2D Cartesian coordinates, suddenly the author produces an equation to do something, but I can't relate how to get it from the diagram). b) Operating on/solving/cancelling equations. Properties in particular seem to confuse me. c) Practical trigonometry. I can use it to calculate angles and lengths of sides, but from what I've seen, it seems as if there's a much larger application for it. As I said, I'm still following the book pretty well considering. I've got a solid hold on vectors/matrices and the operations that can be carried out on them (dot product, cross product, normalising, etc.). However, I've not really applied maths solidly since taking my GCSEs (8 years ago). So what categories would these problems fall into? Geometry, linear algebra and trig? If so, can anyone recommend a thorough book that covers these topics and Pythagoras theorem? I checked the forum FAQ and I did a search too (which turned up a lot of threads - mainly Physics for Game Programming vs Game Physics, Calculus books). Thanks in advance, -hellz
hellz
hellz
Thank you very much, that's just what I was looking for! I found it on Amazon and checked the related books that other people had purchased, and he's written a self-teaching guide for algebra as well. They both have 5/5 in terms of reviews, so I'll get them both and see how it goes.

Thanks again, that's been very helpful.

-hellz

P.S. Links to the books for those interested:

Practical Algebra (self-teaching guide)
Geometry and Trigonometry for Calculus (self-teaching guide)
sporff
sporff
just to chime in.. that is a pretty decent book. i went through it a while ago. it's somewhat lacking in exercise problems in some spots but just do them all and make sure you understand things. Algebra is only learned [well] by doing lots of problems so just do everything by hand and you'll get great in no time.

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