Shadow mapping

Scene with shadow mapping
Scene with no shadows

Shadow mapping or shadowing projection is a process by which shadows are added to 3D computer graphics. This concept was introduced by Lance Williams in 1978, in a paper entitled "Casting curved shadows on curved surfaces."[1] Since then, it has been used both in pre-rendered and realtime scenes in many console and PC games.

Shadows are created by testing whether a pixel is visible from the light source, by comparing the pixel to a z-buffer[2] or depth image of the light source's view, stored in the form of a texture.

  1. ^ Lance Williams. "Casting curved shadows on curved surfaces" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-12-22. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Akenine-Mo ̈ller, Tomas; Haines, Eric; Hoffman, Naty (2018-08-06). Real-Time Rendering, Fourth Edition. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-351-81615-1.