GPU PRO 3

IV

Shadows

In this section, we explore algorithms for generating shadow data. Shadows are

the dark companions of lights and although they can each exist on their own, in

games they should always be together. Achieving good visual results in rendering

shadows is considered a particularly difficult task for graphics programmers.

The first chapter in this section is “Efficient Online Visibility for Shadow

Maps” by Oliver Mattausch, Jiri Bittner, Ari Silvennoinen, Daniel Scherzer, and

Michael Wimmer. The authors introduce an algorithm that makes shadow-map

rendering efficient, and that is particularly useful for shadow mapping in large-

scale outdoor scenes. This ...