Contacts and Constraints (Paperback)

Outstanding. I kept finding reasons to come back to it.

I was looking for something that would bridge the gap between tutorials and proper reference material, and this does that well. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

This is the one to get if you are serious about physics simulation.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. The chapters on physics simulation are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Decent, but uneven. Some chapters are much stronger than others.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. Fine, but there are stronger books on the same subject if you look around.