The best books about game engine development

Developing game engine is a great learning project. You will learn about linear algebra, computer graphics, programming, physics and collisions. However, books on these topics are not cheap. This article will share with you some of the best books on useful game engines, not only saving you time but also money.

Game engine is a software written to design and develop video games, it is simply a kind of middleware that interconnects the interactions of many applications in the same system (Definition by Wikipedia).

The books on this list are the 'top of the books' books, without them you will not be able to or spend a lot of time writing game engines.

3D math books

1. Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics

All you need to know about 3D math is in this book. It contains mathematical formulas to spin an object, add shadows to the scene, add reality to the object. In addition, it also contains the maths used in the physics engine as well as in collision detection. The advantage of this book is to provide a mathematical overview for readers. In some sections, it also provides the reader with the code.

2. Quaternions for Computer Graphics

To spin a game object, you need the matrix but the problem is that it takes up too much space and is a bit slow. The best solution is to use the Quaternion space rotation. The term seems strange to many programmers but when you read this book you will understand it. John Vince clearly explained how this operation works. And after reading this book, you can write math libraries using Quaternion.

3. Geometry for Computer Graphics

This is a reference book, it contains many useful equations used in 3D mathematics. For example, if you want to know the equation for the intersection of three planes or the angle between a straight line and a plane, you should read this book because the information found on the web is sometimes incomplete. This book has all the 3D math equations you will need.

Books about rendering engine

4. Graphics Shaders Theory & Practice

Many readers are familiar with OpenGL graphics technical standards until reading this book. It explains how the OpenGL Rendering Pipeline works, explaining different types of shaders: Vertex, Fragment, Tessellation and Geometry. The book is very well written and it will make you happy when reading it. If you want to understand OpenGL and OpenShel Shaders, this is the book you need to buy.

5. OpenGL SuperBible

This is another book that explains OpenGL API and OpenGL Superbible. Many reflection readers do not like the 5th edition very much, but the 7th version is more appreciated. This book explains very well the OpenGL API, but it does not talk about OpenGL ES but gives you a complete picture of OpenGL.

Books about the physics engine

6. Physics for Game Developers

You need to develop a physics engine, this is a book to buy. It will teach you about dynamics, dynamics, dynamics, pulses and friction. More importantly, it will show you how to do these things with code. This is a valuable book you should have in your bookcase because it will save you time during the development of the game engine.

7. Real Time Collision Detection

This is the best book on collision detection with full of theories and concepts of collision. In addition, it has tons of code. Therefore there is no better way to develop a collision detection system than this book.

See more:

1. Top 5 free game development software tools
2. 5 free application building platforms do not need code
3. How to become a good software developer?