Reddit mentions of Practical Linear Algebra: A Geometry Toolbox

This is probably the best advice in this thread.

I am a mathematics graduate student who has spent this semester doing linear algebra help sessions.

I have tried every way I could think of to explain material, and looked into several books to supplement their (ridiculously crappy) textbook.

Farin and Hansford's book was absolutely the best source. In short, if I were to write a Linear Algebra textbook, this is about what I would write.

Let me explain. The book presents the material from a visual point of view, first developing concepts in dimensions 2 and 3. It also covers homogeneous coordinates, had code examples, and gives you intuition about what different things do.

Practical Linear Algebra is an extended version of the previous edition, Linear Algebra: A Geometry Toolbox, which is quite a bit smaller, and hence cheaper (especially if found used). The last edition, though, is better suited for computer graphics, as it has Bezier curves and some basic polygon geometry covered (areas, convexity, inside-outside test).

Having done some 3D graphics, I would say that the only basic topic that is missing from the book that one might stumble into is applications of quaternions; however, one does not need them much.

Additionally, and I cannot recommend this strongly enough, download and install Processing for learning 3D programming. Read their manuals and examples, read their Tutorials.

Realizing that the mathematics of 3D graphics is 95% linear algebra, read the materials above. If insufficient, supplement with Linear Algebra Done Wrong - it's a free e-Book on Linear Algebra which has a good balance of theory and applications, but might be a tough read if you haven't seen much math of that kind before.

Haven't read it myself yet, but it was recommend on reddit before: Practical Linear Algebra.

There is always a lot of ways to get involved. Nobody can hold you back from being successful but yourself. If you have the drive to get involved, you can succeed, regardless of your 'inate programming intelligence'.

Check out gamedev.stackexchange.com. Can you answer the questions people have there? If not, figure out why! Read the answers they get, and learn that stuff. Someday, you'll be able to answer that for somebody else.

Try making some games, too. Start with simple stuff, in whatever language you know (but I always like to recommend C++). Then work your way up. Hangman, Pong, Asteroids, Pacman, Tetris. You can write all of these by yourself, and you can expand on them to make them cool. I wrote a bot that plays Bejeweled 3 that I still use on my resume, because it's cool!

Want to learn some graphics stuff? Check out this opengl tutorial. Need to understand these topics better? Buy some books! I'd recommend Pracitcal Linear Algebra: A Geometry Toolbox, and Frank Luna's DirectX books.

I'd type more but I'm sort of tired. Please feel free to send me a PM if you're interested in more references that could be helpful to you.

I would disagree indeed. Languages can be outdated, but problem solving can not. The book may have been first published in 1994 but many of the patterns are timeless. Some of them aren't perfect, but you don't need to follow them verbatim. However, it is important that you are broadening your knowledge of writing code and have some point of reference when you encounter the common problems that the book solves. When I ask people about design patterns in interviews nearly everyone mentions Singleton. Then my favourite follow up question is "Can you tell me what's wrong with singleton or why it should rarely be used?"

I've seen some other good suggestions in this thread about interviews. Knowing linear algebra is great, and I'm definitely one of those people who likes to ask simple algorithms questions - I haven't ever been too difficult because I have only helped hire intermediate developers.

The website for Real Time Rendering has some great math resources: http://www.realtimerendering.com/

including one of the best written (IMHO) intros to linear algebra, Practical Linear Algebra (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1568812345?tag=realtimerenderin)

I personally really like this book.

It has a much more academic focus than some other game focused books, but it gives you a really good foundation for linear algebra.

(also of course the orange book that /u/dasignint suggests, that book is amazing)