Softshadows

In this project we tested an idea to create smooth soft shadows for tube like lights. The basic outline of the algorithm is as followed:

• Render a shadowmap from the leftmost and rightmost point of the tube light
• Compare both and use hardware occlusion queries to check if there is to much difference
• If theres to much difference, generate in the middle of those a new shadowmap

The algorithm recursively generates shadowmaps (the next one is between left/middle and middle/right) according to an error threshold. To get better results the shadowmaps are projected back to camera view so that the real visible difference is taken into account.
This application was developted on top of the Jungle Rumble Engine. You can download a demo here.

Project Members:

• Michael Schwärzler: Programming
• Martin Knecht: Programming