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[JoeHonkie]

Suppose someone is doing fine brushing up on his programming, but is perhaps not so good with vector math and trig (and hasn't really done any for years).  Suppose this person is very bad at these things, and perhaps math in general.  Is there a good site out there with some nice introductory vector math stuff for said idiot that any of you guys might know of/recommend?

This is all very, very hypothetical, of course.  I myself am a genius in every field.

I have difficulty multiplying things.

[Impossible]

http://www.essentialmath.com/

[JoeHonkie]

http://www.essentialmath.com/

[Bad Sector]

Actually searching for "vector math" in Google brings this very good tutorial as the first result. You would be lucky :-P

http://chortle.ccsu.edu/VectorLessons/vectorIndex.html

[JoeHonkie]

Awesome, thanks guys.  I had a vector class in college that I was not prepared for and I learned nothing from it.

It's not to say I'm good at math (specifically arithmetic), but I at least learned something in some calc classes even if my numbers came out fucked up.  The vectors just went over my head, and were then multiplied by other vectors in a way I could not understand.

[raigan]

Here's a great set of tutorials with interactive diagrams: http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/vectors/start.html

[Rob Lach]

I haven't used this source but I've heard good things. Check it out if you are considering venturing deeper into vector math.

http://linear.ups.edu/download.html

[Chris Z]

Most graphics textbooks have a decent math section with everything you'll need for game programming.  Two of my recommendations would be Real Time Rendering and Real Time Collision Detection.

[Rob Lach]

Two of my recommendations would be Real Time Rendering

Excellent book to own.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

From the editorial review:

When Pixar's Toy Story was first released, the computer animation community was all abuzz with how it was done, and someone at Pixar mentioned that over 100 SGI workstations were used for rendering the frames over the course of almost two years. Someone else extrapolated this data and figured out that the same movie could have been rendered on one contemporary PC over the course of about 80 years.

That was 1995, when cpu speeds were around 66mhz or so average. I wonder how many years it'd take on the average PC today? Maybe a year?

[Impossible]

Real Time Rendering and Real Time Collision Detection.

Two of the best (if not the best two) game programming related books ever written. You should own these.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Should we own them even if we don't program in 3D? My impression is that vector math is mainly used for 3D work.

[muku]

My impression is that vector math is mainly used for 3D work.

That's definitely not true, I use my vector (and occasionally matrix) classes in virtually every game I make. It's really convenient. I do agree that a book like one of those is probably overkill if you're just going to do 2d.

[raigan]

RTDC has tons of 2D goodness in it, it's possibly the most useful book we have (and we have a LOT of books). The chapter on different ways to implement grids is itself worth the purchase, so many great ideas.

[Rob Lach]

Should we own them even if we don't program in 3D? My impression is that vector math is mainly used for 3D work.

Vector math all over the place. In 2d you can use vector math to get two objects to face each other or find the proper thrust angles for flying in space and such. There are tons of uses for vector math in the 2d world, especially in collision detection.

RTR and RTCD are both must-haves.

[raigan]

My opinion would be that RTR is maybe not as important if you're not doing 3D. At least, we've managed to survive without it so far. We do have "Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics" though, possibly there's some overlap?

RTCD is really great though.

[David Pittman]

I'll add another recommendation for Real-Time Collision Detection. I've accumulated a massive library of game programming books over the last four years, and there's no question that it's been the most useful one of the bunch. I can't really speak to its vector math content (I'd assume it just has the standard primer that seems to be a requisite for every physics-centric book), but it covers a nice range of collision topics, from high-level spatial partitioning designs to intersection/sweep tests for all the most useful primitives. And it's very much targeted at the needs of commercial games, with lots of pages on robust, optimized, production-quality code. I can't remember how much (if at all) it gets into collision response, though, but that's a minor quibble. Part of the reason it's so good is that it's very focused.

[Impossible]

I can't remember how much (if at all) it gets into collision response, though, but that's a minor quibble.

It doesn't. Although basic collision response tends to be pretty simple. If you want to get into more in-depth stuff you have to pick up a proper physics book anyway, which is way beyond the scope of RTCD.