Vulkan Essentials (Paperback)

Genuinely excellent — I finished it in a week and immediately started again.

This is the third book I have read on game programming this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

Three stars feels about right. Useful, but not essential.

I came to this book already familiar with the basics, and it still had plenty to offer. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. Borrow it first if you can, or at least check the table of contents carefully before buying.

Good book. The writing is direct and the author is honest about limits.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. The chapters on game programming are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. Good value for the price and worth the time it takes to work through properly.