DirectX+HLSL/Graphics/Compute All-in-One (Paperback)

Mixed feelings. The good parts are genuinely good; the rest is forgettable.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. Three stars feels about right. It will stay on my shelf, but it will not be the first one I reach for.

A superb guide. The examples are small but complete.

I have been working with computer graphics for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Well worth picking up if you already have the basics.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. The examples are small enough to type out and experiment with, which is exactly what I want from a book like this. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.