3D programming guide for beginner

[dsman]

Guys,

 

I understand this is bit off-topic . But beginners who are looking to build something using babylon will find it helpful. 

 

Can someone point to book or online-resource for complete beginner to understand fundamentals of 3D programming? (Independent of framework or language  OR  else with reference to babylon.js)

[Samuel Girardin]

Maybe this one :

 

http://www.sitepoint.com/write-3d-soft-engine-scratch-part-1/

[jerome]

If you mean WebGL programming (I started reading books, some in french), you should know that it is far more complex than learning BJS... because BJS just hides this complexity.

 

There is for now no BJS book helas.

 

I personaly read this book : http://www.amazon.fr/Learning-Three-js-JavaScript-Library-WebGL/dp/1782166289 months ago when I didn't know anything about 3D for Web. Well, it's treejs but it exposes the same concepts used by BJS : scene, mesh, material, lights, geometry, sprites, particles, shaders, etc.

It's not, imo, a great book, for it's very accessible and gives the framework basis to beginners.

Migrating then from threejs ot BJS is very easy as BJS is generaly more straight forward than threejs to do things.

This book doesn't explain anything about raw WebGL.

 

I wish the same simple book, a primer,  could exist for BJS 

[Kilombo]

I actually feel that davrous and delta tutorial videos are quite good. they gave you some good knowledge of how 3d works. but if you look for opengl tutorials, you will find stuff related to matrices transformations, and the really basic transformations you need to do in order to translate or rotate a mesh. if you actually learn those theoretical stuff, you will have no problems to get in to bjs, or in some other engines/api's.

[fenomas]

If you're a node-type person you might check out shader-school and webgl-workshop. They're basically node apps you run locally that walk you through a series of lessons and exercises.

[dbawel]

If I had known where to start when I first became interested in what was under the hood of the graphics software I was using to earn a living, I would have picked up one of the plethera of books on the topic of programming for beginners; but also a book on linear algebra, as I was operating on 10% of my capability until I studued this area of math.  It opened up a whole world for understanding and writing code.  And although BJS is fairly straight forward and handles much of the complex math, my hands would be tied if I didn't understand Linear Algebra.

 

For a beginners guide to programming, I personally believe that most any of the books out there will suffice - as it's more an understanding of structure which is not unique in BJS.  A beginners guide to Javascript would be good, and applying this to BJS is farly simple once you understand the basics as well as the language of programming - and by "language", I mean the terms used by developers in speaking and communicating development tools and ideas.

 

To learn linear algebra, I highly recommend "Linear Algebra for Dummies" by Mary Jane Sterling.  I recently downloaded this online, and only took 2 days to read as a refresher to my math studies in the past.  The book is very well written and easy to understand - even for a beginner without any previous exposure to linear algebra.  Although to read this book one must have a basic understanding of algebra, but not on any high level.  I highly recommend this book to even the experienced developer, as it reinforced my math skills and caused me to think of ways I can simplify many of my functions; as it covers all of the relationships between similar and different matricies, and covers the toolbox of math formulas a developer should be using when needed.  I recommend buying the book to support the writer, however, I did find a few digital downloads online for those who are truly starving.

 

The process of "learning to program" would have been allot easier for me if I had picked up two similar books when I first began writing scripts and compiling code.  This is a good topic to post on this forum, and would even consider pinning such a topic for general resources not specific to BJS.

 

Cheers,

 

DB

[dsman]

Hi guys, 

 

Sorry If I sounded bit vauge. But I meant book or resources which is focued on 3D graphic fundamentals. No emphasize on programming language here. A resource or book that is independent of language, framework. something that focuses on basic mathematic fundamentals (co-ordinate systems, view/world/local spaces, transforms,  normals/tangents etc) and basic 3D graphic fundamentals (mesh, vertices, texture, shader, collision , physics) 

 

@dbawel I will check the book. 

 

@Jerome   probably that Threejs book cover some of very basic fundamentals . I will check. 

[dbawel]

I haven't found an existing book which is as comprehensive as you are requesting.  Unless someone else can identify such a book, you might want to consider the 2 or 3 books used together which will provide instruction and insight into such a wide spectrum of topics.

 

It sounds like a book you need to write.  I'm guessing it would do well if released in the next year.

 

Cheers,

 

DB