In a vain attempt to forstall flames, I'm posting here rather than in the
'books' newsgroup because I'm not looking for a book about Povray, per se,
I'm looking for books about 3D Computer Graphics and the mathematics behind
them, and it seems to me that the advanced users are the ones most likely
to do their own advanced math.

My fundamental problem is that I'm spending an inordinate amount of time
looking at the trigonometry review in my Calculus book (I don't have a trig
book - I took it in high school, and they took the books back at the end of
the semester. Of course, in college, the books were a horrible expense, but
worth it -now-! ;)), and of course my linear algebra book. Basically, I
enjoy modelling with mathematics and programming techniques, not to mention
fooling around with OpenGL programming, but I'm not sufficiently good at
mathematics to derive everything I need to know from the relevant
information at hand (two chapters of linear algebra are relevant, the trig
section of calculus, the math explanations in the back of the OpenGL
Programming Guide...). I could just beg for help here, but I want to really
learn this stuff so that I can solve -many- problems, not just get through
my current scene or object!

So far, I've identified '3D Computer Graphics' by Alan Watt and 'Mathematics
for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics' by Eric Lengyel as likely
candidates. This is, however, a fair chunk of coin... I've seen several
references to the first in the newsgroups and I think in the PovRay
documentation, so I'm fairly certain it's a good choice, and the amazon
reviews point me towards the second.
Still and all, I'm reluctant to spend a fortune on books for this, so if the
first $100 doesn't get what I'm looking for, I'm going to be pretty
unhappy. What do people here think? Are these what I should be looking at?
Am I missing some 'definitive text' in the field? Am I going to be in deep
trouble by lacking the more basic math texts, or will the appendices in my
calculus text suffice?

There's also the possibility that I'm simply insane and should give in and
use modelling software, but honestly, I don't find that very interesting
and the beauty of turning a textual scene description into a stunning image
is what got me into povray in the first place. ;)

Advise, discuss, set heat to low before flaming... ;)

--Chris

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