WPF: 3D Programming for Windows

I’ve had this book in my work bag for the last few weeks, but only just managed to actually open it up and read it - work has been a little mad recently.  3D Programming for Windows is probably the first 3D book I’ve read for a number of years.  Unlike Petzold’s last WPF book (Application = Code + Markup) this book is actually thin enough to fit in my work bag:) but its still not in colour - in my view a book has to be less than 500 pages, otherwise you just can’t carry it every day to work and read it on you commute or use it at a client site.

Chapter 1 has a nice section on balancing light sources (page 39).  The Magic Box sample on page 122 is pretty cool.  Hit testing on page 128 is worth a read since every 3D visualization we used in front-office trading systems needs to be interactive.  Read page 212 if you are interested in performance of brush’s. I’ve had a lot of success with VisualBrush in a number of front-office applications.

The maths throughout the book are not too complex - page 338 for example.  As long as you can get passed the basic trig questions on page ix you should be fine for the rest of the book - e.g. what is the sine of 90 degrees? the cosine of zero degrees?

The section in Chapter 9, 3D visualization of data (page 379)  hinted at offering some interesting ways of visualizing data.  Unfortunately the state population example did give me much inspiration, since I’d seen something like this before.  The book viewer doesn’t really work in front-office applications.  Given that this book if for general consumption, I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any help in the front-office domain

Overall Petzold has written an informative book, as I said in opening the only downside is that the book isn’t colour - hopefully future WPF books will learn something from Adam Natham WPF book which from a WPF book style perspective still in my view remains No. 1.

~ by mdavey on August 19, 2007.