Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I was more puzzled as to how you compute shadows.

  That's actually one of the limitation of lightmaps: You can create superb
shadows for *static* scenery, but you can't use them to calculate shadows
for moving objects. This ends up in the situation with most older 3D games
(and many of the modern ones as well) where you have great-looking shadows
for everything except moving objects.

  There are two techniques to calculate shadows: Shadow volumes, which are
based on shadow polygons (used, for example, by Doom3 and games using the
same engine) and shadow mapping (used, for example, in the Splinter Cell
games).

  Both have their advantages and disadvantages, which is why neither one
is overwhelmingly popular (although shadow mapping might be a bit more
popular because it's a bit easier to implement and has its own advantages).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_volume
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_mapping

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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