Soft shadow maps for linear lights (original) (raw)
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Soft Shadows From Extended Light Sources With Penumbra Deep Shadow Maps
Proceedings of Graphics …, 2005
This paper presents a new method of precomputing high-quality soft shadows that can be cast on a static scene as well as on dynamic objects added to that scene. The method efficiently merges the visibility computed from many shadow maps into a penumbra deep shadow ...
Shadow generation has been subject to serious investigation in computer graphics, and many clever algorithms have been suggested. However, previous algorithms cannot render high quality soft shadows onto arbitrary, animated objects in real time. Pursuing this goal, we present a new soft shadow algorithm that extends the standard shadow volume algorithm by replacing each shadow quadrilateral with a new primitive, called the penumbra wedge. For each silhouette edge as seen from the light source, a penumbra wedge is created that approximately models the penumbra volume that this edge gives rise to. Together the penumbra wedges can render images that often are remarkably close to more precisely rendered soft shadows. Furthermore, our new primitive is designed so that it can be rasterized efficiently. Many real-time algorithms can only use planes as shadow receivers, while ours can handle arbitrary shadow receivers. The proposed algorithm can be of great value to, e.g., 3D computer games...