ShaderX2: Shader Programming Tips and Tricks with DirectX 9.0

The main sets of Tips'n'Tricks are about what you might expect: planets, suns, iridescence, water, depth of field blur, and so on. There are a few unusual ones, as well - posterization, interesting filters, even ray-tracing and general purpose computation. The disk was a bit disappointing. Almost all of the demos worked, and none of them were come-ons for anyone's products. That's the good news. There were far fewer demos than chapters in the book, though - some of the sections that interested me most did not have support on the CD. At very least, some of that CD space could have been used for a still-picture gallery to supplement the limited color section in the book. Oh, well. If you're an absolutely dedicated graphics programmer, this may offer a few items of interest. As with other tips'n'tricks books, there is no real progression through the material - it's a grab bag, and you may or may not grab an item that meets your needs. //wiredweird