[dcw303]

I've been doing similar for about a year. My target is to learn the math needed to make 3d games, so basically algebra, geometry, calculus and linear algebra.

I started with brilliant.org, and while I liked the level of polish in the interactive lessons, I found the lesson structure to be out of sequence, often referring to things that haven't been covered yet. They didn't seem to have put as much thought into pedagogy as Math Academy as described in TFA.

So I gave up on that and instead have been shipping several kilograms of dead tree across the pacific in the form of The Art Of Problem Solving series of textbooks. They are great, the lesson structure and building up of complex ideas from first principles is outstanding. They will humble you though, as the exercises are tough. They're also quite expensive but IMHO worth it.

Math Academy does look interesting, If I was not halfway through my series I would probably take a look. But I do enjoy having reference books on hand. Many times I've jumped back to brush up on a topic that has slipped from memory.

I solve my exercises with the most low tech solution possible, but I like the freedom it gives me to try new approaches, and nothing beats the latency between idea to ink on paper.

edit: also wanted to add that I've enrolled Chat GPT4 as my tutor. Contrary to many other's experiences that I've read, I find it to generally be very good at reasoning in this level of mathematics. It's helped me many times when I've gotten stuck. And on the occasions where it bullshitted its way to an incorrect answer, I always challenge it if I don't understand, and we ultimately find out if it hallucinated something (rare, can usually be fixed by restating the problem), or I gave it the wrong input to start with (unfortunately more common than I'd like)

[juunpp]

I'm in that camp and can suggest a few recommendations in order of:

https://d3dcoder.net/ -- The DX12 book is the latest edition. The books have several chapters at the beginning covering 3d transformations.

https://foundationsofgameenginedev.com/ -- The first installation, Mathematics. This will cover a lot more ground and derive things from first principles while not being overly formal.

https://www.mathfor3dgameprogramming.com/ -- A lot more formal than most game/graphics math books, and goes into more depth, particularly on the linear algebra.

[pvg]

Are you using any of the stuff you're learning for whatever practical 3d game-making things you're working on? Just curious how it's working out, you've picked a pretty broad foundation as a starting point.

[dcw303]

I took a brief detour late last year to study "Linear Algebra: Theory, Intuition, Code", and to my surprise it stuck pretty well. The author said the pre-reqs were just "basic high school math", but I'm glad I had recently done lots of algebra and geometry, as the difference between that and some vague memories of stuff I did 30 years ago in school is pretty wide.

I haven't started any 3d game projects yet. For that, my plan is to do the webgpufundamentals.org course first. Scanning the TOC, I think I would be able to attempt it from what I learned from the linear algebra book.

That said, I'm doing AOPS Intermediate Algebra at the moment, and the Precalc text covers more advanced trig and matrix stuff, so I'm thinking it would be good to finish at least to there before starting to apply the knowledge.

[AlchemistCamp]

I totally agree with you on the value in using Chat GTP when stuck.

What's the scope of The Art of Problem Solving? How far does the series go?

[dcw303]

AOPS audience is gifted high school kids, so it doesn't get up to the college level. The core texts are:

- Prealgebra

- Intro to Algebra

- Intro to Counting & Probability

- Intro to Geometry

- Intro to Number Theory

- Intermediate Algebra

- Intermediate Counting & Probability

- Precalculus

- Calculus

[globalnode]

i was motivated by the exact reasons you are but after a few years of maths i started to like that more than the 3d games and programming :(