Right I want a book that will teach me more or less everything I need to know about opengl, well I have been looking on amazon and the is "OpenGL Super Bible" is this book any good? if not what book is a must? Also I found on a few reviews on amazon that alot of people say that the NeHe website is a good site for loads info and help.. Please help me choose.... asap Im gonna order a book tonight Alan IF YA SMELL... WHAT THE BEZZ IS COOKIN''''

get the red book aka opengl programming guide version3 is recently out. it is the standard text. it has everything u need to know about gl in it

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The red book is definitely an excellent source of material, with the third edition covering pretty much all of OpenGL 1.2. It''s used as one of the texts for my university''s computer graphics class.

My recommendation would be to use the red book in conjunction with a site like NeHe''s. While the red book goes into detail about the various pure OpenGL functions and data structures, it''s very skimpy on window systems information (X-windows, Win32, etc.). It lists some of the commands used, but unless you already know how to open up a window and set everything up, it''s not much help.

NeHe''s site gives all the background on actually opening windows, etc, plus it gives coverage of a few more advanced topics. It''s a good springboard into the red book.

As for the blue book, I haven''t looked at it, so I have no idea about it.

The OpenGL Programming Guide (RedBook) is definately a must, and Bluebook can be nice to have around. As mentioned in the above posts, Redbook is currently in its 3rd edition (covering OpenGL 1.2). However, NeHe has links to the second edition of it (OpenGL 1.1) and to a version of Bluebook (though I''m not sure what version of bluebook it is). I would still suggest purchasing Redbook 1.2 however (you just might be able to put it off for a while

As for the OpenGL superbible, its "ok". I bought it before the second edition came out so I can''t comment on the revision. From what I understand it uses glut (correct me if I''m wrong), so it would be easier to follow than the first edition (which is win32 code), but I consider it a supplementary book and not necessary.

After you''re comfortable with Redbook, depending on your math background, you might want to look at some more advanced books.

I suggest Advanced Animation and Rendering Techniques (Alan Watt / Mark Watt, Addison-Wesley). [NOTE : This book is NOT focused directly on OpenGL, but it does cover a lot of useful theory.]

There are a number of other good theory books as well, that I''ll omit for brevity''s sake.

I would purchase both the red book and the blue book. The red book is an excellent book to learn from, and the blue book is a great reference. Together, they are quite expensive, but well worth the money!