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A good OpenGL ES 2.0 book for Android + Java?

Started by Alessio1989 Feb 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM 4 replies 4.9k views

Original Post

Alessio1989

Feb 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

I'm following a Uni course about mobile and tablet programming and I need a good book about OpenGL ES 2.0 for beginners (and maybe a little intermediate topics too).

The book should preferably use Java and Android as Language and OS environment since other languages (like C or C++) and other mobile OS are not covered on the course.

I have a little background on D3D1x programming, so I don't need a book telling me the low-level aspect of general 2D/3D programming (2d/3d matrix, translations, wha't a vertex etc...).

What I'm searching is a book telling me how to use (and how it work) OpenGL ES 2.0 with Java + Android environment (2.2 version and later... I have a lot of freedom to choose the OS version for the project), what are the frameworks (if there are any in the OS, otherwise I will use 3rd part tools... unity?) etc..

The book should have some (little) working project too as example and finally I don't need a 100% reference of the API.

+1 kudos if the book is available on electronic format too (better in PDF)

PS:sorry if I posted in the wrong forum.

MrJoshL

Feb 24, 2013 at 1:56 PM

The OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide. If you don't want to buy the physical version, Amazon sells a PC/Kindle version.

Alessio1989

Feb 24, 2013 at 2:02 PM

Thank you for the suggestion, but that book uses C/C++ :/

MrJoshL

Feb 24, 2013 at 2:06 PM

OpenGL ES 2.0 only works with C/C++ natively. You will have to learn the JNI wrappers provided by Android which are quite different indeed.

Alessio1989

Feb 24, 2013 at 2:22 PM

I see, I appreciate you clarification (I will start the course next week, so I don't have quite any notion on Android OS)...

Are there any good books about that? (I'm talking about Android Java wrappers for Ogl ES)

Second question: is Unity for Android reasonably easy and quick to learn for basic things?

I don't need to do special things or extra-cool stuffs and I don't have the time to learn them (it's only a 6-credit course - European measurement ) , just simple things with a minimal of usage (very small games like tetris or something like it in 3D, or a little more, or just some easy render for other small applications).

Alessio1989

Feb 25, 2013 at 7:32 AM

I found "Beginning Android Games 2nd Edition" (does it worth?), but it seems to cover OGL ES 1.x and not 2.0, and secondly I'm not a big fan of Apress books (maybe 'cause I don't like the C/C++ books they publish... Yes, I prefer more Heckel's and Stroustrup's styles)..

I would like to find an OpenGL ES 2.0 book that uses Java since I could love to "play" with a more programmable pipeline (1.x version should have more fixed function for what I read) and having a book that directly show the API with JAVA and Android will help me a lot since I don't have a lot of time this semester.

Edit: what about "Game and Graphics Programming for IOS and Android with OpenGL ES 2.0" ?

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