GPU Gems 3

Chapter 11. Efficient and Robust Shadow Volumes Using Hierarchical Occlusion Culling and Geometry Shaders

Martin Stich mental images

Carsten Wächter Ulm University

Alexander Keller Ulm University

Introduction

RealityServer is a mental images platform for creating and deploying 3D Web services and other applications (mental images 2007). The hardware renderer in RealityServer needs to be able to display a large variety of scenes with high performance and quality. An important aspect of achieving these kinds of convincing images is realistic shadow rendering.

RealityServer supports the two most common shadow-rendering techniques: shadow mapping and shadow volumes. Each method has its own advantages and drawbacks. It’s relatively easy to create soft shadows ...