The 3rd Edition of the "OpenGL Programming Guide" is an important upgrade to what is the definitive introduction to OpenGL programming. I was pleased to participate in the technical review of this book so I can attest to (and I guess be held indirectly accountable for) the book's completeness and accuracy.
If you are interested in practical 3D programming using the latest in 3D hardware acceleration and you want a straightforward and portable programming interface, OpenGL is definitely the way to go, and this book is what you need to get started.
Since the last update two years ago, OpenGL 1.2 and the OpenGL multitexturing extension have been standardized. This Guide has complete explanations and tutorial coverage on all new OpenGL 1.2 features and the multitexturing extension.
OpenGL 1.2 is packed with new features like volume textures, image processing capabilities, more image formats, etc, etc. The book covers _all_ the new stuff in OpenGL 1.2. OpenGL multitexturing is already widely available. Games such as the much anticipated "Quake III: Arena" use OpenGL multitexturing, and I expect lots of other 3D games will be using multitexturing as well.
Since the book uses the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT), all the examples can be compiled and run on basically all OpenGL implemenetations, independent of operating system (Linux, Windows 95/NT, IRIX, MacOS, etc). The updated book also contains appendices that detail operating system specific OpenGL usage.
If you are a newbie to OpenGL, this is definitely the book to start with.
But I bet most OpenGL programmers already have an earlier edition of this book so the big question is whether the new edition is worth it. If you still have the 1st edition, getting the 3rd is a no-brainer. If you have the 2nd edition, the main benefit of the 3rd edition is the new coverage of OpenGL 1.2 and multitexturing and the improved coverage of operating system support.
- Mark Kilgard, author of the OpenGL Utility Tookit (GLUT) and "Programming OpenGL for the X Window System"
