This book is concerned with advanced game development using programmable graphics hardware. It is assumed that the reader possesses prior programming experience and some familiarity with three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics. The intended audience for this book includes students of game technology, established game programmers, and developers who wish to upgrade their skills to benefit from the new technology. Readers should possess some knowledge of 3D graphics and programming in C-like languages and be familiar with 3D graphics application programming interfaces (APIs), such as OpenGL or Direct3D. The authors state that, although a textbook on Cg would be needed as a reference, this book may be used as a standalone book by game practitioners with experience in the aforementioned areas. Professionals who wish to progress to graphics processing unit (GPU) programming should benefit from this book. The authors prefer to use the Cg shader langua!ge because of its popularity.

The book comes with a CD that implements most of the techniques described in the book. It includes an advanced library of tools for game development using Cg/C++/OpenGL. The system developed by the authors is stated to have been used in the production of two commercial games. The textbook includes techniques often employed in games and real-time 3D applications. The authors employ a style of presentation wherein the relevant algorithms and techniques are described, followed by pseudocode and perhaps Cg code.

Eleven chapters make up the book. Chapter 1 introduces the subject matter of the book and includes an overview of the Cg programming language. Chapter 2 is about light/object shaders. It introduces basic shaders that implement local reflection models, calculating the light reflected from a vertex or fragment. Deferred shading and the application of GPUs for shading complex scenes with multiple lights are highlighted in this chapt!er. Chapter 3 is on texture mapping technology and its applications. Bump mapping and environment mapping are described, along with the application of texture maps to cache precalculated lighting in games. Chapter 4 is about rendering shadows. Shadows are very important for high-quality rendering (displaying images on devices in a visually satisfactory manner). Stencil shadow volumes and shadow maps are popular algorithms described in this chapter. Chapter 5 is about advanced mapping techniques and ray tracing on GPUs. Parallax mapping and relief texture mapping are discussed in this chapter. The greater power of the GPU, when compared to the central processing unit (CPU), is supposed to help implement algorithms, such as ray tracing, in a more satisfactory manner.

Chapter 6 deals with common game effects. In this chapter, the authors discuss effects implemented by special rendering algorithms, as well as post-processing effects where we operate on the rendered image. !Computer animation may be identified as belonging to one of three categories: off-line animation for film production, precalculated animation played in real-time, and real-time animation. Chapter 7 is about recorded animation, the second category above, while chapter 8focuses on real-time animation. Real-time animation is an animation sequence created in real-time according to the current state of the game, together with a set of predefined rules, which, given the current state of an object, will calculate its state in the next frame. Simulating the behavior of water is presented as an example. Chapter 9 is about character animation using motion capture and skinning. Animation of human-like bodies and skinned game characters are discussed in this chapter because the imitation of human behavior is important in animated games. Chapter 10 is about facial animation--a very challenging field. Facial expressions are very subtle and difficult to simulate. Chapter 11 is the las!t chapter of the book. It describes a system for managing game development. The chapter describes how to bring various elements together in order to build a game system. The authors provide the complete source code for such a system on the accompanying CD.

The references are current and adequate, and the index is handy. The reader should refer to other books for advanced topics. This book is recommended as a textbook and reference guide for the intended audience.