Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 17:32:29 GMT Server: NCSA/1.4.2 Content-type: text/html Graphics Book Reviews

Computer Graphics Book Reviews

As an undergrad at the University of Washington, I came across several text and reference books for computer graphics. As time permits, I will post reviews of these books here. For now, the only book for which I have a review is the first CG book I owned, The C Graphics Handbook.
The C Graphics Handbook by Roger T. Stevens.
ISBN 0-12-668320-4
Academic Press, (c) 1992

I found this book one of the best reads in computer programming and computer graphics. This book came on vacation with me and I read it cover to cover. While it is true that the book is a little old (the high-end SuperVGA cards discussed have long been displaced by much higher performance cards) the basics are still quite valuable (Bresenham's line drawing algorithm, etc.).

The Table of Contents are:

  1. Introduction
  2. How Display Adapter Card Hardware works (monitor, EGA, VGA)
  3. VGA/EGA Display Adapter Card Registers
  4. Extended Registers for Super VGA Cards (pre-1992; see (c) date)
  5. Using Display Modes
  6. Plotting a Point on the Graphics Screen
  7. Lines and Rectangles
  8. Undocumented Display Modes: How to Create and Use Them
  9. Using Extended Super VGA Modes
  10. EGA/VGA BIOS Functions
  11. System and Display Coordinates and How They Interact
  12. Clipping Techniques
  13. Drawing and Filling Circles
  14. Drawing and Filling Ellipses
  15. Drawing and Filling Circular Arcs
  16. Drawing and Fast Filling Polygons
  17. Drawing and Filling Rounded Rectangles
  18. Smooth Curves with Bezier and B-Spline Functions
  19. Displaying Text in the Graphics Modes
  20. Rotating Geometric Figures
  21. The Mathematics of Modeling Solids
  22. Solid Modeling Techniques
  23. Solid Modelling with C++
  24. Saving and Restoring Displays with the .PCX Format
  25. Displaying .IMG Format Files
  26. Saving and Restoring Displays with the .GIF Format

corin@cs.washington.edu

Last updated: June 10, 1996