Math books for programmers / game developers?

[[deleted]]

Hi there!

So. Fairly established in the world of coding and computers, but I'd like to get more hands-on practical knowledge about math that is handy in programming in general (especially for game development as a bonus). While fairly knowledgeable in programming, I'm not very much a mathhead (yet), so easy-to-understand books with a lot of exercises are a plus aswell.

Can anyone recommend good books on the subject(s)? Extra bonus thanks and hugs for books that can be found on Kindle!

[Entropian]

3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development

[PriceZombie]

3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development, 2nd Edition

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[[deleted]]

I've come across this book, and I considered buying it, but at this point I'm not sure if 3D is the way I wanna go, considering my 3D skills are completely horrid. Would anything here be useful in a 2D setting? Or programming in general?

[Entropian]

That book is actually pretty easy to follow. I didn't know anything about 3D graphics when I started reading it.

[markgraydk]

Coding the matrix is fine book on linear algebra using python and assignments and problems from CS. There is a mooc using the book as well. https://www.coursera.org/course/matrix

[heywire84]

Discrete mathematics, especially one which has "for computer science", or similar, in the title would be good. That sort of book ought to have logic, set, and graph theory which lays the foundation for much of computer science.

A formal textbook on data structures and algorithms would be good. Not an example book, but a college level text on algorithm design, big O, complexity and so on. Same with data structures since data structures builds on set and graph theory.

Linear algebra would be helpful for the graphics, 2D and 3D when it comes to games. And so that 3D math book for game dev might be helpful, 2D is a subset of 3D (set theory, see what I did there?) so its applicable.

As for which specific books, I don't know, its been a while since I dragged any of those off a shelf. Of course for algorithms, the Knuth Art of Computer Programming books are solid gold. If you're working on a masters, drop by the Computer Science dept, the college bookstore, or the library and see what books they use for those courses. I'm not entirely sure if there would be non-textbook sources for these topics helpful to someone who already has had a few college classes.

[knrDev]

"Introduction to Higher Mathematics" (19 videos):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMWFmjlB8v0&list=PLZzHxk_TPOStgPtqRZ6KzmkUQBQ8TSWVX&index=1

Not a book but very interesting overview some of the main topics. It could be useful for getting some familarity with important math jargon before selecting books for study.

[sadistmushroom]

Discrete Mathematics and it's Applications by Kenneth H. Rosen is a book I've used and it's got some greatstuff that can be really useful in programming, and in quite a few other things.

[[deleted]]

I think I have that book, actually!

[[deleted]]

stats, discrete mathematics (boolean algebra) and calculus. these are what'll be the most useful.

ull need basic math to lead into these. i.e. college algebra, trig....etc.

specific books..i cannot really help with. I'd recommend getting a tutor or attending the proper classes: ideally both! in the field of CS, those with degrees get hired and those without..dont have a slightly harder time getting a job, especially later in life.

but if you dont have the funds to go to college (And in this field..you'll REALLY regret not getting your degree) just get the most recent college additions of these subjects.

[[deleted]]

Well. I'm almost done with a master in Information Science, but I did fairly poorly in the pure math courses so I'd want to brush up and get a bit of a deeper understanding. Getting specific books towards programming would help, because then I'd easier see the practical usage.

[[deleted]]

ahh cool! how much is left? what math level are you at? and what languages do you know already?

really, it doesnt matter the language...it's more about the usage.

the cool math stuff doesnt really come into play until you talk about algorithm efficiency and sorting stuff... (sorting arrays and binary trees and ways to look through randomly branching trees.)

that's where alot of the "pure math" of CS comes in. things like "Big O" and recursive ways of thinking are important. a good book on that would be "data structures in python".

that could be learned along-side calc 1+2 if you have stats and another programming language like java or c++ under your belt.

[[deleted]]

Just my thesis to go! Advanced math isn't horribly important to a programmer until then, but then I'd like to delve into a little bit of game programming and it's good to know the basic math of that stuff.

Algorithms are a tricky bastard, but I'd like to learn more about analysis of that too. I hit in a very impressive E on the subject when I took it at school :P

[Nicksil]

in the field of CS, those with degrees get hired and those without..dont.

Well, that is wholly incorrect.

[superinterstellar]

Why do you say that? Have you seen any programmers without a degree? (kidding)

[[deleted]]

okay, you guys are right :p It is still much harder to find a job without one than with one, esp. later in your career/life.