Real-time shader tutorials/books?

[Dotren]

Greetings all,

Recently, after looking over the Cryengine 2 videos, I've decided I'd like to look into shaders and learn more about them. I've downloaded and installed FX Composer 2 and have played around with it a bit.

What I'm looking for is some tutorials/books for learning real-time shader development. The simple tutorial that came with FX Composer is a start but I'm kind of looking for some more on writing a few different types of shaders basically from start to finish... something that explains why the steps are necessary and what has to be done, etc.

So can anyone recommend some good online tutorials or books? I've noticed the ShaderX series on Amazon but there are around 6 of them and the customer reviews aren't always helpful on which ones are the best to get (assuming they're revisions and not a continuing series).

Thanks!

[xavier]

ShaderX and GPU Gems are the two de facto standard series for this.

[Dotren]

ShaderX and GPU Gems are the two de facto standard series for this.

Thanks for the reply.

Is there a general consensus on which ShaderX book or are they continuations of each other and meant to be read starting at the first?

[jomunoz]

I would recommend 'The Cg Tutorial', since GPU gems assume you already know shaders. 'The Cg Tutorial' will teach you from the very basics.

[xavier]

ShaderX and GPU Gems are the two de facto standard series for this.

Thanks for the reply.

Is there a general consensus on which ShaderX book or are they continuations of each other and meant to be read starting at the first?

They are just collections of articles -- they stand alone from each other. GPU Gems books typically coincide with major changes in nVidia technology (FX series, 6 series, etc). ShaderX books are more just a general compendium, like Game Programming Gems.

[Chris Jones]

so what book would you recommend as a very first book on shaders? given absolutely no previous knowledge, as i want to start learning to write shaders soon

[sinbad]

I think the Cg Tutorial is pretty much alone in this category; a book about nothing but shaders, but from a ground-up perspective. Everything else is either about shaders but assumes you know how to use them, or one of those all-in-one books with just a single chapter on them.

[jjp]

so what book would you recommend as a very first book on shaders? given absolutely no previous knowledge, as i want to start learning to write shaders soon

"The CG Tutorial" is pretty good if you start at zero. It only teaches the basics but after finishing that book you should be on a level to understand shader code enough so you can adapt most things to your needs.

But you don't need a book to learn shaders.

[xavier]

so what book would you recommend as a very first book on shaders? given absolutely no previous knowledge, as i want to start learning to write shaders soon

I actually recommend understanding the lighting physics and mathematics behind lighting if you want to understand the "why" and not just the "how". For that I recommend the Alan Watt book(s) as well as Advanced Lighting and Materials With Shaders.

http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Graphics ... 699&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Lighting ... 675&sr=8-1

Without the theoretical knowledge you will be limited to using recipe shader code without understanding it, and probably a lot of trial and error that leads to stuff that might look right, but not be right in the end.

[Chris Jones]

thanks, i will look into them