Books
These are some of the books that I've read and feel are worth recommending to others with similar interests as me. There are not too many books here as I usually prefer to read articles on individual subjects than buying books that often becomes outdated, but once in a while a book stands out from the crowd. For me a common factor for a good book is that it has value even after I've read it, i.e. something that I can come back to more than once when I need to be reminded about something or looking for new ideas. Books are too expensive to buy just to be read once.
STL Tutorial and Reference Guide, Second Edition
C++ Programming with the Standard Template Library
Authors: David R. Musser, Gillmer J. Derge, Atul Saini
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Year published: 2001
Description:
Comments: Very good book, both for finding out how the designers of STL thought when they came up with the library, and as reference when using it. There are plenty of examples showing how to use the template classes and functions, and also an extensive reference section.
Design Patterns
Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
Authors: Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Year published: 1995
Description: This book describes various design patterns with information about what problems they solve, how they are implemented, and gives both advantages and disadvantages. It uses both Smalltalk and C++ to show examples of the implementions. Some of the design patterns mentioned are Singleton, Abstract Factory, Observer, Chain of Command, Iterator, etc.
Comments: I found the book very interesting in that it confirms many of the patterns that I already use, and gives ideas to others that I hadn't thought about. It is also good to finally have a name for the designs that is so commonly used. This book can be read once and put on the shelf, but it is more likely to be used as reference when designing projects thus is something you'll want to have close at hand.
Real-Time Rendering
Authors: Tomas Möller, Eric Haines
Publisher: A K Peters
Year published: 1999
Updates: Second Edition, 2002
Description:
Comments:
Links: Real-Time Rendering Resources
Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design
Authors: Andrew Rollings, Ernest W Adams
Publisher: New Riders
Year published: 2003
Description: This book goes into just about every aspect of game design, e.g. user interface layout, game story, character development, gameplay, etc. It also talks about each of the major genres, e.g. action, strategy, RPG, online games, etc. The book gives advice about what should and shouldn't be done in each of the aspects, it also gives plenty of ideas on how todays games could be improved.
Comments: I like this book for its variety of subjects. It talks about everything you would need to know in game design and a little more. This is a book that I'll use as a refresher when I'm starting a new game project, to make sure I know what the pitfalls are and what can be done to avoid them even before I get too far into the work. It's a book that every game designer should have read at least once.
Links: Ernest W Adams' book page
