Are there books like GPU Gems?

I am looking for modern shading and rendering books like GPU Gems because GPU Gems series is old and there will be no new versions of book in future.
So are there any modern books that are as good as GPU Gems?

GPU Gems may be old-ish but many the techniques being used are only now being incorporated into realtime graphics. Main reason is because they are (were) cutting edge research papers created using absolute top of the line Nvidia based graphics cards. A few years later and those cards are starting to become more mainstream.

As far as a book goes you will likely not find one with even newer techniques, these are research papers, each one of the chapters in GPU Gems (1, 2 & 3) has enough information crammed together that could fill an entire book. You will have to look into each topic instead of looking for a single book containing them all.

Which areas are you the most interested in? It would be easier to recommend a book based on your answer.

I mentioned before as well, but is a very complex and far reaching topic (creating your own rendering solution). GPU Gems outline small pieces that can be added to a rendering setup (such as UE4), but are not a complete rendering solution, just the “Added Features” you can add to the core renderer.

Books? I recommend you to read articles and presentations from Siggraph and GDC - it’s always “up to date”, techincal and useful

Mainly graphics such as shaders and rendering and lighting.

I know GPU Gems research papers are excellent, newer research papers such as “Microfacet Models for Refraction through Rough Surfaces” are not mentioned in book and I want to know is there any website or presentations,books in which these new techniques and new research papers are there and I can use them with GPU Gems.

What you guys think about GPU Pro 5? - http://www.amazon.ca/GPU-Pro-Advanced-Rendering-Techniques/dp/1482208636

That one looks pretty good, it is similar in format to GPU Gems though, meaning it goes over techniques to add to a rendering solution.

I would also recommend picking up a book such as :

UE4 uses both DirectX 11 & HLSL shaders, so that will be a good one to read along with the GPU Pro book.

Both of these are fairly advanced books though, and may be difficult to comprehend at first. Make sure you have a very good understanding of mathematics, C++, and computational theory as both of these books rely on those heavily. :slight_smile:

Also you can find former GDC / Siggraph presentations online by searching for “siggraph 2014 research” or “gdc 2014 research”, make sure to look through the older years as well, some of the new techniques are based on older research.

@ Thanks

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GDC costs 495 bucks!! to subscribe.

A lot of the research papers and/or presentations are also available online if you search google using the terms I noted before. Best thing to do is if you know what topic you want to learn such as “Microfacet Models for Refraction through Rough Surfaces” is to search for that term along with the word “research” or “presentation” or “paper”.

You don’t need to subscribe to GDC, just search for what you need online and look for PDF files, it will all be there! :slight_smile:

One Last question - In case of GPU Gems there are 3 versions of the book and in case of GPU Pro series there are 5 versions of the book and the 6th one is coming year,my question is which one should I read like I mean should I go for GPU Gems 3 or GPU Pro 5 or should I read all versions of GPU Gems(1 to 3) or GPU Pro series(1 to 5). :slight_smile:

GPU Gems is different in it’s edition format, each year new topics are discussed, so you will want to read all 3 for sure. It is a collection of research papers instead of an actual book.

But the GPU Pro book has had a few revisions (updates) added from the original edition, a later edition will have the same information as a previous edition, with more added to it. For a book like that you want to get the latest edition. GPU Gems is a completely different format. :slight_smile:

GPU gems is a completely different Beast.

How Amazon.com is different from GPU Pro series?

That one is a University textbook going over everything to do with graphics rendering and how it all works. I would highly recommend getting a book like that if you haven’t had much experience with graphics programming, it will teach you all the fundamental aspects and theory behind it all. Definitely a good book to get!

Thanks for the reply :slight_smile:

As book covers everything do I still need to read books like Gpu Gems and Gpu pro series or not?
What I want is the knowledge and skills to create my own rendering equations,shaders and algorithms etc which then can be translated into code?

And Thanks a lot!! Your answers have really helped me :slight_smile:

No problem man, anytime!

book should be the first one you read as it will give you a good understanding of how the core functionality works. GPU Gems and GPU Pro are advanced techniques that build upon the core functionality of a game engine and/or rendering setup.

All 3 of these will help you gain the knowledge to create your own rendering solutions, each one being more advanced than the next. Once you have a good understanding of the core functionality taught in “Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice”, the algorithms and techniques in GPU Gems & GPU Pro will be easier to create and implement into your rendering solutions.

I would personally start with Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice first and read GPU Gems on the side as well since they are free, then get GPU Pro at a later date. They are really expensive books so it might not be easy to buy them both at once. :slight_smile:

One last question - Do you think these books will be helpful?

Should I read them as well?

The more books you read on the subject the better you will understand it of course, so read as much as possible!

With that said I would read the first one you linked for sure, but see if there is a newer edition available since that one is from 2008. Even if there isn’t a newer one, university textbooks are always good to read on a subject like , so I would get it even if there isn’t a newer revision.

The second one is even older, almost 20 years old! That doesn’t mean the information inside won’t help, but the methods used in the book are likely outdated when it comes to modern rendering engines like UE4. So I would pass on it for now. Most of the info in that book should be covered by the first one and the Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice book.

There are probably lot’s more books that are very similar, and may contain the same information. To know what you need to read next requires reading one of them first. :slight_smile:

Am I on right track? If take udacity course( Interactive 3D Graphics | Free Courses | Udacity ) and then start reading Gpu Gems and Gpu Pro series.
Thanks a lot again!