Where do I begin? I thank God for every door of opportunity He has opened for me throughout my life, and for the strength to make it through when I wasn't smart enough to say no. I thank my wife and family for putting up with me during the most insane periods of my life while trying to get this book out yet the third time. LeeAnne, Sara, Stephen, and Alex all were put on hold, promises were broken, weekends lost, voices raised. Daddy went insane for a little while, and when it was all over, they were still there waiting for me. This book should have their names on it, not mine.

The people at Sams have been terrific. I want to thank Loretta Yates for putting up with my missed deadlines, and congratulate her for the birth of her “real” baby just as we were finishing the book. Sean Dixon, the content editor; Nick Haemel, the technical reviewer; Chuck Hutchinson, my copy editor; and Dan Knott, the project editor, all worked hard to make me look like the literary and technical genius that I'm really not.

Special thanks also go to Benjamin Lipchak and ATI Technologies, Inc. Benjamin joined late as a coauthor, and rescued some of the most important additions to the book. Thank you, ATI, for donating some of Benj's work time, the use of sample code, and for early access to OpenGL drivers. Thank you also for your continued commitment to the OpenGL standard.

Finally, many thanks also to Full Sail for their support over the past few years by allowing me the privilege of teaching OpenGL on a part-time basis. I come in for a few hours, I get to talk about what I really love to talk about, and the audience has to act as though they enjoy it and pay attention. I even get paid. How on earth I keep getting away with this is beyond me! Many people at Full Sail have helped me especially, either on the book directly or just by offering general support and making life easier for me. Thanks to Rob Catto for your understanding and support on many issues. Tony Whitaker took several student projects and cleaned them up for the demo directory and helped make sure all our code ran on Linux. Thanks to Bill Galbreath, Richard Levins, and Stephen Carter for demo materials. Finally, thanks to Troy Humphreys and Brad Leffler for being the two best lab specialists I could ask for and filling in with next-to-no notice when I had some emergency or another to take care of.

—Richard S. Wright, Jr.

I'd like to begin by acknowledging my colleagues at ATI who have unselfishly given their valuable time and advice reviewing my chapters, and leaving me to take all the credit. These folks are masters of the OpenGL universe, and I am fortunate to work side by side with (or sometimes hundreds of miles away from) this caliber of individual on a daily basis. In particular, I'd like to thank Dan Ginsburg, Rick Hammerstone, Evan Hart, Bill Licea-Kane, Glenn Ortner, and Jeremy Sandmel. Thanks to technical editor Nick Haemel, also from ATI, for the unique perspective of someone previously unexposed to my chapters' subject matter. What better way to test the material for our readers? Most of all, thanks to manager and friend Kerry Wilkinson, and ATI, for dedicating the time and equipment for me to work on this book. I hope the end product proves to be mutually beneficial.

Richard, thanks for the opportunity to work with you on this project. I'm honored to have my name listed beside your own, and welcome any and all future “Wright & Lipchak” collaborations.

Thanks to the team of editors and other support staff at Sams Publishing for transforming my lowly text into something I'm proud of. Your eagle eyes spared me from sweating the details, making writing hundreds of pages much less strenuous.

Thanks to WPI professors Mike Gennert, Karen Lemone, John Trimbur, Susan Vick, Matt Ward, Norm Wittels, and others for the solid foundation I lean on every day. A shout out to all my friends at GweepNet for distracting me with PC game LAN parties when I was burnt out from too much writing. Special thanks to Ryan Betts for coining the title of Chapter 21. To my entire extended family, including Beth, Tim, Alicia, Matt, and Jen, thanks for tolerating my surgically attached laptop during the winter months. To brother Paul, your success in everything you do provides me with nonstop healthy competition. To sister Maggie, you redefine success in my eyes every time I see you. You both make me proud to have you as siblings. Last but not least, I'd like to thank Jessica for keeping herself so busy that my cross to bear rarely seemed the heaviest. The day we have a moment to breathe will be the day we realize there's time for yet another side project. Maybe next time we'll work on one together!

—Benjamin Lipchak