I was trying to decide how to parcel my money out amongst the five Gems until I found this. I might still buy IV and V, but not until I've read the first three.
The Acrobat PDF files are VERY easy to use. The diagrams are all legible, and some of the books include full color photos.
The Gems are the real gems here. They have complete, point-and-click indices, and nothing in the hard-cover versions cannot be found on the CD. The software is here, but you can find that on the web.
The other books are far less valuable.
* The VR book is worthless.
* Radiosity is fairly mathematical and interesting, and its material is not completely out of date. Its photos, in vivid high resolution, are the most elucidating part.
* The Quick Reference is much less useful than I'd hoped because its definitions are all just a little too short to provide practical information, but almost anything you can think of is listed. It lacks an index. It would have been more useful if words in the Gems were cross-referenced into it, but it's still worth having along with the Gems.
The Acrobat reader is included, but I already had the latest version, free to download from Adobe, which works just fine.
