Learning OpenGL ES for iOS

09/22/2012 · No Responses

Get Started Fast with Modern OpenGL ES Graphics Programming for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

OpenGL ES technology underlies the user interface and graphical capabilities of Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad–as well as devices ranging from video-game consoles and aircraft-cockpit displays to non-Apple smartphones. In this friendly, thorough introduction, Erik M. Buck shows how to make the most of Open GL ES in Apple’s iOS environment.

This highly anticipated title focuses on modern, efficient approaches that use the newest versions of OpenGL ES, helping you avoid the irrelevant, obsolete, and misleading techniques that litter the Internet. Buck embraces Objective-C and Cocoa Touch, showing how to leverage Apple’s powerful, elegant GLKit framework to maximize your productivity, achieve tight platform integration, and deliver exceptionally polished apps.

If you’ve written C or C++ code and know object-oriented programming basics, this title brings together everything you need to fully master OpenGL ES graphics for iOS–including downloadable examples specifically designed to jumpstart your own projects.

Coverage includes

Understanding core OpenGL ES computer graphics concepts and iOS graphics architecture
Integrating Cocoa Touch with OpenGL ES to leverage the power of Apple’s platform
Creating textures from start to finish: opacity, blending, multi-texturing, and compression
Simulating ambient, diffuse, and specular light
Using transformations to render 3D geometric objects from any point of view
Animating scenes by controlling time through application logic
Partitioning data to draw expansive outdoor scenes with rolling terrain
Detecting and handling user interaction with 3D geometry
Implementing special effects ranging from skyboxes to particles and billboards
Systematically optimizing graphics performance
Understanding the essential linear algebra concepts used in computer graphics
Designing and constructing a complete simulation that incorporates everything you’ve learned

Table of Contents
1. Using Modern Mobile Graphics Hardware
2. Making the Hardware Work for You
3. Textures
4. Shedding Some Light
5. Changing Your Point of View
6. Animation
7. Loading and Using Models
8. Special Effects
9. Optimization
10. Terrain and Picking
11. Math Cheat Sheet
12. Putting It All Together