Deep Space Nine Companion (Star Trek Deep Space Nine)

Book Description

"The challenge of putting together a television show for the first time was especially intimidating because of the traditions and the expectations for Star Trek®."
-- Michael Piller, co-creator, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

It might be hard to believe, but there was a time when launching a new Star Trek series was considered a risky venture. Maybe it was just luck that Star Trek: The Next Generation® had succeeded. Could another show capture the imagination of the viewers?

The creators of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine® built a cast of characters totally different from the more comfortable, familiar ones that had been seen on previous incarnations of Star Trek. One of the writers observed, "You can see right away they're not perfectly engineered humans....They seem more real....They represent a different way to tell a story." The setting for the show was a space station, a dark, almost sinister, alien place -- the diametrical opposite of a bright reassuring starship. This new Star Trek series set every expectation on its head -- and it succeeded. Deep Space Nine created some of the most visionary, emotionally charged and critically acclaimed hours of television ever made, and at the end of seven years it could boast of ranking at the top of the syndicated ratings year after year.

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion is the official guide to all 176 spectacular episodes of this revolutionary series. Detailed synopses, behind-the-scenes information, and in-depth interviews with the cast and crew are provided for each show. Hundreds of photographs and illustrations -- many never before seen -- fill the pages of this book. For the casual reader or the fan who wants to know more, this is the definitive book on this groundbreaking series. From its explosive beginning to the heartrending conclusion, relive it all and see why TV Guide called it "the best acted, written, produced, and altogether finest...Star Trek series."

Customer Reviews:

Indispensible tome; the gold standard for episode guides.......2007-09-05

I'll just add to the heaps of praise for this massive work covering the complete Deep Space Nine series. The plot of every episode is described in detail, as one would expect, but this volume goes much further, devoting a great deal of text on each episode and season, primarily offering points of view from the writers, story editors, producers, directors, and other production staff, and occasionally from the actors. What's especially great, aside from all the detail that fans salivate over, is that everyone involved with the production is generally pretty candid about what does and doesn't work, so the less-inpsired episodes aren't subjected to faux praise for the sake of selling DVDs.

It's not flawless, however. Too much detail is sometimes given about how a story evolved into what finally aired, whereas there are often other questions about plot and character development, or lack thereof, that would've been more compelling to read. Also, there are spoilers in some of the behind-the-scenes info that could've been better disguised; it makes it difficult to share the book with someone who is watching the series for the first time. Those are small nits to pick, though. No other Trek episode guide comes anywhere near the level of depth and quality of this one, and I can't recommend it highly enough to fans of the series, even those who don't consider DS9 their favorite part of the ST franchise.

great product for Trekers, good price.......2007-07-31

Love this in my Star Trek collection. Helps you to remember all of the great episodes of this series.

The companion book I compare all other comapnion books to........2007-05-10

This book really set the standard for me for what a companion book for a TV show should be. A nice essay on the shows creation, lenghy season overviews, detailed synopsis' for each episode, and at least a couple pages (note these are big pages) of behind the scenes information on every single episode. With all due respect to a previous reviewer I don't understand how one could say there isn't enough behind the scenes information. This book is basically everything you could ever want to know about the TV show Star Trek Deep Space Nine. I now only buy companion books that follow a similar format. For anyone who likes DS9 this is the book to own.

Embrace Your Inner Geek.......2007-03-25

This book is just too good for words - I actually was a little stunned to see it existed, and when I received it, I could not have been more pleased with the content. In-depth articles on each episode, illustrated by nice B&W photos and great interviews with cast and crew up and down the list.

Definitely NOT for the casual fan, but for those rare DS9 fans among the Trek fan base, this is the one.

Also, for those of you who enjoy the current "Galactica" series, this is a good window into how Ron Moore learned to write serialized, relevant sci-fi. If anything, this show is superior in many ways to "Galactica," if only by allowing a few rays of light to shine through the perpetual gloom.

Only complaint, and a very minor one: no interviews with either Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat, nose-to-nose the best villain in Trek, along with Khan and Q) or Cirroc Lofton.

Some interesting stuff, though not enough.......2005-07-07

Some of the information is interesting, though I do have to admit that I was somewhat let down by it. I thought there would be more "insider information," so to speak, than there was. All the technical info was great, but I was hoping for more personal information, more about inside jokes/behind the scenes/etc. The sections that begin each season are a bit better in this respect though. After one read through of each episode, though, the book's primary use now is just to remind me what each episode is about so I can decide whether to watch it on DVD for the 6th time, or skip to the next episode. Not exactly the central use I had in mind when I bought it.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (Hybrid)

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (Hybrid)

Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Book Description

2006 FrontLine Award Winner. The ShaderX series provides a complete toolbox of cutting-edge advanced graphics hardware and software techniques for all levels of graphics programmers, from novices to graphics gurus. With the increasing pixel shader power of current graphics cards, techniques that were once done on the CPU or simply avoided due to their expense are now possible, and this latest volume of the ShaderX series is filled with articles that provide methods for performing these techniques. The collection covers state-of-the-art, shader rendering techniques that will bring your graphics to a new level of realism. Throughout the book you'll find a plethora of all new, ready-to-use solutions and tools for the many graphics programming challenges you face everyday. These solutions will save valuable programming time, helping to make you more efficient and productive. Throughout the collection you'll find: How to simulate cloth on the GPU; How to use ambient occlusion efficiently in a game environment; Several global illumination approaches suitable for current hardware platforms; How to do real-time caustics on the GPU; Several ways for how to make your shadow penumbra software for shadow volumes and shadow maps; Tips for using the D3DXEffects framework efficiently and how to integrate post processing; Real-time damage system that uses a damage map to store damage data; Snow rendering; Procedural generation of textures; Tricks, tips, and techniques for super shader, a light map precomputation tool that stores radiosity light maps, and a system for debugging and optimizing applications, and much more. This is an indispensable series that should be on ever graphics programmer's bookshelf!

Customer Reviews:

Good series.......2007-05-13

Its hard for me to treat the books of this series separately (ShaderX 3, ShaderX 4, ShaderX 5). They are all very good books of GPU-Gems level or higher. In comparison with GPU Gems, they are more academic, i. e. they are rather short and more applicable to wide range of applications then GPU Gems ones (while GPU Gems series is more scientific, state of the art, considering one particular research) and the accompanying CD is much more better (lots of working examples, most with source code).
Sections (Image-Space, Shadows) are also very helpful to figure out what is useful for you.
This series is not for beginners anyway, so please, go Cg Tutorial or DX SDK Tutorial and don't put 2 or 3 marks for these books because you can't cope with them.

Perhaps could be better.......2007-03-19

Whilst the content is quite good it probably isn't on par with some other books by say Matt Pharr, books from ACM or Academic Press I think the biggest issue with the book is that the quality of the paper is a bit below par and all images are black and white.

Normally black and white isn't a problem, but when the book is about graphics and there is a statement in the book like (e.g.) "...notice the unique HLSL effect on the blue ball compared to the green..." it makes it a bit difficult. Even a color plate section would have been nice.

showoffs.......2006-06-24

I was disappointed not to find any code - only demos of applications on a few of the chapters (e.g radiosity tool, gpu terrain). IMHO it is better to have fewer topics/chapters and better coverage of each topic, with source code etc. As M. Severino 's review correctly states 'Each article is a source of ideas ', so don't expect to learn how to implement all the techniques in the book.
Some authors have included lots of code, others have included none.
I vote against the "*gems-style" books, more attention to the educational side of these books is needed. Flashy programmers who want to show off please go elsewhere.

Advanced graphics hardware and software techniques.......2006-03-16

Wolfgang Engel edits SHADER X4: ADVANCED RENDERING TECHNIQUES, a toolbox of advanced graphics hardware and software techniques for any student of graphics programming. SHADER X4 especially lends to classroom use, with its articles covering everything from interlaced rendering and fog volume issues to real-time environment mapping and Shader subsystems. While the coverage can help novices, it's especially noted for advanced graphics programmers who will relish the equations, charts, and more technical discussions.

It's a great book.......2006-03-07

This book is the best than previous editions.
Each article is a source of ideas for developing your engine or demo.

If you want to know where the state of art is arrived, buy this book.

Programming Vertex & Pixel Shaders (Programming Series)

Average customer rating:

Great Book if you are ready to implement shaders
CD examples need update
existing knowledge of shader programming IS required
Great book!
Excellent !!!

Programming Vertex & Pixel Shaders (Programming Series)
Wolfgang Engel
Manufacturer: Charles River Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1584503491

Book Description

When newer graphics cards started offering a programming interface to their graphics-processing unit (GPU), there was a fundamental change from fixed-function to programmable graphics hardware. This fundamental change offers a whole new level of opportunities for real-time graphics programmers. using shaders not only allows you to create unique games and graphics, but it allows you to be far more creative. Programming Vertex and Pixel Shaders uses a "cookbook" approach to teach beginning to intermediate graphics and game programmers to program shaders in the High-Level Shading Language (HLSL), the primary real0time shading language used in recent game development. The book uses a wide range of examples (over 60) to teach various techniques, ranging from simple real-time lighting to advanced, cutting-edge rendering. The book is broken into eight parts covering introductory material, shadows, high dynamic range lighting, lighting algorithms, vertex texturing, projective texture mapping, environment cube mapping, and advanced reflectance algorithms (Cook-Torrance, Oren-Nayar, Ward, and Ashikhmin-Shirly). The coverage starts from the beginning, so no existing knowledge of shader programming is required. This book does assume a basic understanding of the math typically used in a game engine and an intermediate understanding of the Direct3D API. This is the one resource developers need to learn practical current techniques for programming shaders for next-generation games and graphics!

Customer Reviews:

Great Book if you are ready to implement shaders.......2007-03-19

Not everyone is ready to implement shaders, I think, and maybe some people do need to see the examples run. I don't. I have Tom Miller's Managed DirectX 9 book which features shading in chapter 11 and for a few chapers thereafter onward, but there isn't enough meat there to really learn shaders in and of themselves, and in order to really get what you want out of DirectX which changes every other month, you must use shaders (because shading language won't change except to expand, while the fixed functions of directX are changing constantly). Anyway, so I went for this book last night and am already making use of it. 1) I know what pixel/vertex shaders are going to do with respect to my program 2) I have already done fixed function programming for OpenGL and DirectX so 3), I'm ready just to focus on the questions you need to be focused on to use this book: "what IS specular highlighting? what IS bumpmapping?" and this book is perfect for that. You must understand the math bdhind it and you can't be lazy in implementing things like you can with fixed function DirectX.
I agree that the programs will not compile, but in essence, all you need to do is look at the main CPP file and see what inputs he's setting up, which are always the same: the projection matrix, eye vector, light vectors, some colors, a texture etc, and then assign those values in the calling program to the effecthandle of the shader (I'm using VB.net and C#), and his stuff works like a Swiss watch.
Excellent book.

CD examples need update.......2007-01-24

CD examples are dependent on the common code for the samples in the DirectX SDK. The examples do not compile with the current Direct X SDK. Check the publishers website for an update with no such luck.

(Edit)
I can't edit my rating. I didn't realize I could install an old version of the SDK side by side with the new version. The book itself is very good.

existing knowledge of shader programming IS required.......2007-01-09

I had great expectations for this book and got very disappointed, I don't agree at all with the other reviews I read before buying it.

There are some parts that are carefully explained, specially those ones people hoping to buy this book would find easy, this is, the introduction, even a installation process. Then, when dealing with the real thing; i.e. important shader concepts or HLSL syntax, things turn out not so well.
Again, some things are neatly explained and others are just there, with no way for the reader (without previous shader knowledge) to imagine where did it come from, or why, or how it is used. There are code examples frequently but not enough to cover what is briefly explained, if explained at all, so the line about "no existing knowledge of shader programming is required" is wrong.

The book comes with examples about a wide range of techniques in a cd that help get your hands dirty fast, although lack in theoric support, as previously stated. It makes it a good reference for shaders programmers to quickly check any technique you need info on.

I got doubly disappointed when I read another books that I'd rather have spent my money on, that cover the same as this book and much more, throughfully explained, and with examples too.

I would describe "Programming Vertex & Pixel Shaders" as an overpriced shader reference book that may serve well as complement to another in-detail shader book, specially due to its examples and shading techniques explained with code. But I specially *don't* recommended for anyone who is not already into the shading bussiness, as will probably have to buy another book to cover this one's holes.

Great book!.......2006-01-17

I use this book as a day-to-day HLSL reference, it's so much quicker and more efficient than finding information online...
I loved the part about optimization, and the foreword to cubemaps with Normalization cubemaps. It was very hard finding information on this on the web, and with this book I had a full C++ sample with comments and a book article. What can I ask more :)
It covers all that's needed to know about basic per-pixel lightning models, and goes to subjects as advanced as HDRI and tone-mapping.
While it's not a completely up-to-date reference on shaders (does not cover 3.0 model, some new techniques were developed and popularized since the book came out), it's still a very comprehensible introduction in the HLSL world, and give strong a basis for future study.

Excellent !!!.......2004-09-19

The book starts with short introduction and pipeline overview giving an overall picture of how vertex and pixel shaders interact, and how data flows between them and the hardware. Next, it introduces DirectX High-Level Shading Language (HLSL) and Microsoft's Effect Files Framework. Then author starts teaching you how to implement basic lightning models (Lambert, Phong, Blinn-Phong) and advanced ones (Cook-Torrance, Oren-Nayar, Ward, Ashikhmin-Shirley). The book also covers more advanced topics (Environment Cube Mapping, Reflection and Refraction, Projective Texture Mapping, Shadow Mapping, Shadow Volumes, Geometry Images) and cutting-edge techniques like Displacement Mapping, High Dynamic Range Lighting or Parallax Mapping. The author shows common problems arising during implementation of presented techniques and explains how to deal with them. Each chapter comes with a few example programs which are as simple as possible. You will also learn from this book how to optimize your shaders for different shader models.

This book is a must for those who want to learn vertex and pixel shader programming. Also advanced developers will find this book useful.

So, if you want to create cutting-edge shader effects do not hesitate to buy this book and learn how to do it.

Programming Vertex, Geometry, and Pixel Shaders, Second Edition (Programming Series)

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Programming Vertex, Geometry, and Pixel Shaders, Second Edition (Programming Series)
Wolfgang Engel
Manufacturer: Charles River Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1584505133

Book Description

The second edition of this popular book has been greatly expanded and updated with new material centered around using DirectX 10. The release of DirectX 10 brings the biggest changes in graphics hardware, runtime, and API design in more than 15 years. This practical reference covers all of the advanced rendering techniques important for graphics programmers in the game and film industries, and will help them implement these techniques efficiently with DirectX 10. Using a "cookbook" approach, this guide teaches beginning to intermediate graphics and game programmers how to program shaders in the High-Level Shading Language (HLSL), the primary real-time shading language used in recent game development.

Learn Vertex & Pixel Shader Programming with DirectX 9

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Learn Vertex & Pixel Shader Programming with DirectX 9
James Leiterman
Manufacturer: Wordware Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1556222874

Book Description

This book covers all the fundamentals of programming vectors using SIMD methodology in conjunction with the Direct3D 9 application interfaces.

Direct3D ShaderX: Vertex and Pixel Shader Tips and Tricks with CDROM

Average customer rating:

old but still relevant
Information With No Application
This book is great for starters and pros!
Very poorly organized
An excellent compilation of useful shaders

Direct3D ShaderX: Vertex and Pixel Shader Tips and Tricks with CDROM
Wolfgang F. Engel
Manufacturer: Wordware Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1556220413

Book Description

Vertex and pixel shader programming allows graphics and game developers to create photorealistic graphics on the personal computer for the first time. And with DirectX, programmers have access to an assembly language interface to the transformation and lighting hardware (vertex shaders) and the pixel pipeline (pixel shaders). Direct3D ShaderX begins with an introduction to vertex and pixel shader programming and moves on to a wide array of specialized shader tricks contributed by 27 experts in game and graphics programming. These range from character animation and lighting to photorealistic faces and non-photorealistic rendering. Special effects shaders are also presented, including those for such effects as bubbles, rippling water, animated grass, and particle flows.

Customer Reviews:

old but still relevant.......2007-05-12

The best part of the book is the article by Dean Calver on vertex compression. Most of the other material are good practial tricks on shaders plus tutorials. Dean's article not only gives a clever way to compress and decompress vertex position - by concating the model view matrix with his decompression matrix. His use of eigen vectors to find the principal axis is refreshing. He also showed us how to extend the method to handle geometry that are larger and cannot be handled within the precision of the basic method.

Information With No Application.......2003-08-27

I'm surprised that this book is ranked so well, I imagine most people simply buy it and never use it (a common problem with game developer books).

The problem with this particular book is that a bunch of ideas are presented, but very rarely are they worked through. For example there is an article on rendering ocean water. The shader is pulled apart (somewhat) in the short article, but that's it. There is no source code on the CD for this or many of the other chapters. The shader is written in an undocumented HLSL. And there is no excerpt showing how the constant registers / vertices are passed! So you end up with explanations like:
// c14 - { waveDirX0, waveDirX1, waveDirX2, waveDirX3 }
Which is 100% useless. There is no explanation of how the wave direction parameters are generated or updated. Certainly one can do further research to solve problems like this, but at that point the book has no use.

The use of a non-standard HLSL is perhaps the most aggravating part of the book. It's bad enough that we have to deal with CG, DX9 FX, VSH, PSH, and all that. But to introduce a fourth-party API, which isn't even very well covered - that's criminal.

I applaud the idea of collecting a bunch of shaders into a book for examples. But the authors should have made the minimal commitment of using the same API and documenting the data flow to the shaders.

A very disappointing purchase.

This book is great for starters and pros!.......2003-04-03

Shaders are the direction of real time graphics programming for games and other applications. They were introduced in their first versions with DX8 hardware like the GeForce3 and the Radeon 8500 and are continouisly extended in further version of hardware and software like in the new DX9 class of hardware.
It is industry wide consensus that shaders are the way to get cool graphics in realtime games. But there has always been a lack of good documentation about what shaders are and their possibilities. This book was made to address it. It is designed to handle the DX8 API way of shaders together with lots of DX8 samples but the principles apply to OpenGL shader programming also.

The book is splittet into two parts.

The first part is a thorough introduction about vertex and pixel shaders written by editor Wolfgang Engel. It explains the reasoning behind the shaders, the definitions of the virtual machines, and all assembler commands available. For each type of shaders there is also an introductionary example section for getting first successful shader programs running. It is well written with lots of information.

The second part is a collection of shader gems - short articles by differenct authors. Among the authors are people from developer relations from nVidia, Matrox and ATI as well as graphics programmers from inside the gaming industry. These authors have lots of experience programming shaders and they show in short sections what's possible and how to get there.

This book is standing in my bookshelf and in the bookshelves of a lot of professional developers worldwide.

I highly recommend buying it.

Very poorly organized.......2003-03-14

This is a very poorly put together book. It's organized as a series of small articles, but the article sizes vary widely and many of them contradict others. ...
It definately has some useful information in there, but it's tough to extract through the poor organization and formatting.

An excellent compilation of useful shaders.......2002-09-14

I found this book to be an excellent reference for state-of-the-art vertex and pixel shaders. It's well organized, and contains many useful solutions for game developers.

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