   How can you turn math in papers to code?
  Hello Fellow Programmer   Right now I'm trying to learn graphics programming, but every time I look at some papers the math just loses me. SO how can I turn a paper into some shader or regular code so I can make demos with them? An example is this:http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2009/Habel_09_PGT/orhttp://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2010/Habel-2010-EIN/Habel-2010-EIN-Efficient%20Irradiance%20Normal%20Mapping.pdf
  I know what you are saying and get frustrated at the same thing sometimes, but unfortunately the only options are...1) Find someone who understands the math and can explain it to you2) Learn the math3) Keep googling variations of what you are looking at and hope someone else has some source code examplesSorry there's no simple solution   ;  In order to turn anything in to code, you need to fully understand that something.  If the math in the paper is losing you, then by definition it's impossible for you to turn it into code.  So learn more math.Graphics is particularly maths intensive.  So if that's your dream pursuit, time to break open the maths books and/or enroll in some higher maths classes.-me   ;  This one'll get you started. Sigma is a for/next loop. :)   ;  Funnily enough, I've been going the opposite way around over the past few weeks: turning code into math (for verification and proof purposes; wanting/needing to write code thats proven to be correct is.. a lot of effort).I'd suggest taking a look at a list of math symbols (eg on wikipedia), a lot of them translate to code fairly easily (sigma is summation - a for loop with adds each iteration to a running total; pi is product - a for loop which multiplies the running total; upside-down A is "for every" and so on).   ;  The way that math is written is more formal and condensed than code, and in my opinion it's much more pleasant to read someone else's math than it is to read their code. Basically, if your serious about understanding the code then you have to understand the math, but if it's way over your head you might want to start simpler or just elsewhere. Sometimes I'll read a paper and not really get it, and then when I'm working on something related later it'll suddenly hit me. Usually that's a good thing, but it really sucks when I can't remember where I read it.   ;  What types of ath would I have to learn?   ;  Take a look here and then read the sample chapter from here.   ;Quote:Right now I'm trying to learn graphics programming...If you're rather new to the topic, I consider papers not suitable for you then. Papers are written by specialists who likely have a university level degree and seldom go into implementation details. The two papers you listed are rather advanced IMHO.Get a good book about graphics and/or programming and maybe start with 2D first.   ;Quote:Original post by Freeman2430What types of ath would I have to learn?For the papers you presented, uni level intro courses on calculus, linear algebra (including numerical linear algebra) and numerical differential equations (both ordinary and partial) seems like it would be a good start.Of course you could self study these things, but it may be hard depending on how easy you find math.   