Pixel perfect Book

Well, I received this books along with tens of other graphic books, as I was very committed to learn real-time rendering at the time. While it didn't initially help me out, it has won a permanent place on my desk as my first reference on theory. While it might seem from the outset it would be highly specialized towards physically based rendering, the vast majority of the book is useful to all graphics programmers, raytracers especially. Highlights include two chapters on sampling theory and two on montecarlo methods. It's hard to fault it on any subject, perhaps from the fact there's a curious absence of animation, and some of the chapters can feel a bit too introductory. But it's already quite a quite heavy volume.

Important to note that all pictures are nice, glossy, full-color and there's loads of them. Typography and writing are equally excellent.

So, if you're a raytracer, or an OpenGL/DirectX programmer looking for some information on fundamental theory, I suggest you look no further.