To understand basic 3D computer graphics, you need some linear algebra, matrices, some analytic geometry, and some trigonometry, but not much calculus. Once you learn what a 4x4 matrix multiply can do, you have most of the key ideas. You need that to use OpenGL effectively. Actually, you only need about 10% of each of those areas of math, but you do need that 10%. "Graphics Gems" has some good background.
(Physics engines, though... I used to work on that, and struggled through two-volume books on nonlinear differential equations.)
To understand basic 3D computer graphics, you need some linear algebra, matrices, some analytic geometry, and some trigonometry, but not much calculus. Once you learn what a 4x4 matrix multiply can do, you have most of the key ideas. You need that to use OpenGL effectively. Actually, you only need about 10% of each of those areas of math, but you do need that 10%. "Graphics Gems" has some good background.
(Physics engines, though... I used to work on that, and struggled through two-volume books on nonlinear differential equations.)