Real-Time Rendering

I sort of know this area.... There two separate paths -- realtime or non-real-time. For non-real-time there is: http://www.pbrt.org/ For real-time there is this: http://www.realtimerendering.com/ Neither book gets into the details of the specific API, they are theoretical. Real-time techniques change nearly complete about every 10 years because GPUs get faster and render more techniques possible and obsolete the older less good looking techniques.

- As a starter Realtime Rendering [0] - The siggraph courses on shading [1]. The 2017 course will be on 30th of July [2]. Current techniques from AAA engines. - Papers from JCGT [3]. - Plus the paper collection from Ke-Sen Huang linking all graphics related conferences [4] have fun reading [0] http://www.realtimerendering.com/book.html [1] http://blog.selfshadow.com/publications/s2016-shading-course [2] http://blog.selfshadow.com/publications/s2017-shading-course... (http://blog.selfshadow.com/publications/s2017-shading-course-draft/) [3] http://jcgt.org/read.html?reload=1 [4] http://kesen.realtimerendering.com/

I would not advise anyone to try to get into computer graphics directly with the Vulkan or DX12 APIs. Start with DX11, modern OpenGL and/or WebGL, and work through your computer graphics theory (and a lot of practice) using those. Geometry, illumination, shaders, tools and GPU computation will take a lot of time to master. When you decide you want to go into low level APIs, if you are comfortable with Apple systems, Metal will likely be easier than Vulkan/DX12. A lot of the theory from classic books is still valid, so even a copy of Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice will look fine on your desk. "Real Time Rendering" by Moller/Haines and "Physically Based Rendering" by Pharr are excellent. "Game Engine Architecture" by Gregory and "Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics" by Lengyel will probably prove very useful and relevant to you as well.…