How Shadows Work in Games

In this video I explain a lot of topics related to shadows and shadow mapping in games. They are: basic shadow mapping, percentage closer filtering (PCF), cascaded shadow mapping (CSM), variance shadow mapping (VSM). I provide intuitive examples to help you understand underlying algorithms better. I hope you'll enjoy!

Poisson Disk Sampling

Hi everyone! My name is Dima and I'm an Indie Game Developer. I started to code and create games in 2013. I have a huge experience in GameDev, such as 3D modeling, animation, programming, game design. I create these videos to help you know more about creating games and to show that we can create a lot of beautiful things with coding. Thank you!

[JuanGamer]

In Half Life from 1998, i remember that Valve wanted to add real time shadows to the game, these where actualy a copy of the 3D moddel of the object that is casting it with a transparence effect, but personal computers back in the day could not handle it. Still pretty cool

[NoVIcE_Source]

dmn this is a very well explained explanation, why doesnt it have more views??

[manaskale]

Great video! I also recognized Thinmatrix's music in the background :P

[alexismandelias]

Nice informative video with cool animations!

[dGvvqAagQJn]

5:00 Shadow Acne
Одна из главных проблем практически всех игр

[Skeffles]

Great explanation! Shadows definitely can make or break some scenes.

[tauheedgamedev]

I didn't know shadows were so complicated.

[Wonders_of_Reality]

6:00 — Знал бы Чебышёв, что его неравенство пригодится для обсчёта карты теней в играх...

[negativeplayer]

Can I ask?

Would it be possible to just render a 2D model of the subject as a shadow? Like... take the shape of the 3D model and render it in 2D as the shadow of the subject.

Idk how to explain this, but....
To put it simply.

Visualize a cube with a lightsource hitting it from one of its corners in any degree. We trace the edge of the cube to make an outline where the shadow will be. The way the shadow would be rendered is by converting the 3D form in the lightsource's perspective into 2D as the shadow. The resulting shape will be distorted through the help of points along the outline, basically fitting the converted shape into the outline.

Idk if this would be more practical, let alone, possible. But, I think with this, the shadow would automatically render at the same res as the subject (in 2D based on the lightsource's pov) as the shadow will be taken from the 2D silhouette of the lightsource's perspective on the subject. Basically, what it sees is what the shadow will be.

If the subject is in low res, the shadow too will be low res.


Or maybe, this is how Shadows work in game and I could just be realizing it.

[youssefdarwish]

i've been looking for this, my GTA V is always crashing when i turn shadows and reflections off.

[pablolecce]

What language do you use to program these shadows man? Thanks

[excitedjellyfish]

But like why use rtx when it worked bevor?