Brad Davis – författare

Plants in Design emerged from Brad E. Davis’s and David Nichols’s love for plants and well-designed landscapes and a previous frustration with landscape design guidebooks. While most landscape and garden design resources focus either on design principles or on plant materials, the unique strategy of Plants in Design provides a palette of options organized by mature size and scale, covering many genres of plants from grasses to herbaceous perennials, woody shrubs and trees, and even annuals and interior plants—all of which are necessary for consideration when composing a well-designed landscape.Plants in Design combines two fundamental components of landscape and garden design: (1) principles and uses of plant material (e.g., color, line, texture), and (2) resource information for analyzing and selecting a broad range of plant materials, from annuals and ground covers to shrubs and trees, for southern landscapes (USDA hardiness zones 6 to 9). Introductory chapters discuss plants and their uses in creating outdoor landscapes in settings ranging from small-scale applications (e.g., courtyards, walkways) to medium- and large-scale projects (e.g., streetscapes, parks). Richly illustrated with approximately 1,750 color photographs, Plants in Design depicts plant shape, form, characteristics, and landscape use, both to aid identification and to envision how individual plants might appear in a composition. The authors promote the use of native species to benefit native wildlife and point out the dangers of many nonnative plants widely used in the past and now threatening natural ecosystems. Featuring five hundred southern landscape plants organized into fifteen categories, ranging from large trees to ferns and flowering annuals, plant accounts include scientific and common names, hardiness zones, flowers and fruit, growing conditions, and pests and diseases. The guide also includes drawings, a hardiness zone map, glossary, bibliography, index, and design-use tables for quick reference.

The human experience is an intimate, tough, and, at times, hilarious conversation with what is familiar and what is mystery. Poetry at its best turns this conversation into art and teaches by example how to employ language creatively and courageously--even coyly--in exploring the full range of human response to whatever life may deliver. Certainly the biblical Psalms set the highest of standards in this regard. In Opening King David, Davis takes aim at making contemporary poems in conversation with the Psalms; his personal, cultural, and natural surroundings; and the wonder and mess of his own soul. As a painter with all colors at his disposal, Davis writes with the full spectrum of his available vocabulary, sometimes reaching for the glorious ineffable, at other times bluntly telling it like it--darkly--is. Neither devotional nor inspirational nor religious, these human poems take God seriously and honor our common struggle toward what Saint Paul calls the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

In various voices and with a range of strategies, these poems speak of and into the collisions we experience day in and day out--collisions with nature, art, language, religion, family, imagination, new and old ways of seeing and navigating the world--collisions that result in loss and sadness, confusion and laughter, gratitude and amazement. Still Working It Out, a collection that moves freely between memory and invention, embodies a faithful struggle to attend to and engage life with all senses on high alert for what may crush or sustain or gloriously transfigure.

SummaryOculus Rift in Action introduces the powerful Oculus Rift headset and teaches you how to integrate its many features into 3D games and other virtual reality experiences. You''ll start by understanding the capabilities of the Rift hardware. Then you''ll follow interesting and instantly-relevant examples that walk you through programming real applications using the Oculus SDK. Examples are provided for both using the Oculus C API directly and for using Unity, a popular development and 3D graphics engine, with the Oculus Unity integration package.Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.About the BookVirtual reality has long been the domain of researchers and developers with access to specialized hardware and proprietary tools. With the appearance of the Oculus Rift VR headset, the game has changed. Using standard programming tools and the intuitive Oculus SDKs, you can deliver powerful immersive games, simulations, and other virtual experiences that finally nail the feeling of being in the middle of the action.Oculus Rift in Action teaches you how to create 3D games and other virtual reality experiences for the Oculus Rift. You''ll explore the Rift hardware through examples of real applications using the Oculus SDK and both the Oculus C API and the Unity 3D graphics engine. Along the way, you''ll get practical guidance on how to use the Rift''s sensors to produce fluid VR experiences.Experience with C++, C#, or another OO language is assumed.What''s InsideCreating immersive VRIntegrating the Rift with the Unity 3D SDKImplementing the mathematics of 3DAvoiding motion-sickness triggersAbout the AuthorsBrad Davis is an active VR developer who maintains a great set of example Rift applications on Github. Karen Bryla is a freelance developer and writer. Alex Benton is a lecturer in 3D graphics at the University of Cambridge and a software engineer at Google.Table of Contents

PART 1 GETTING STARTED

Meet the Oculus Rift

PART 2 USING THE OCULUS C API

Creating your first Rift interactionsPulling data out of the Rift: working with the head trackerSending output to the Rift: working with the displayPutting it all together: integrating head tracking and 3D renderingPerformance and quality

PART 3 USING UNITY

Unity: creating applications that run on the RiftUnity: tailoring your application for the Rift

PART 4 THE VR USER EXPERIENCE

UI design for VRReducing motion sickness and discomfortPART 5 ADVANCED RIFT INTEGRATIONSUsing the Rift with Java and PythonCase study: a VR shader editorAugmenting virtual reality

These poems explore freely the familiar ground of the Gospels in the New Testament, often from an odd angle or unexpected point of view. Some are grounded in the author's sense of the biblical present, others in the author's or an imagined speaker's present; all are accompanied by a triggering Scripture reference to provide background for the curious or a focus for further reflection. As stated in the author's preface, "e;These are poems, not doctrinal or evangelistic treatises. Their task . . . is to work and wear well as poems."e;