Real-Time Shadows

Shadows are crucial for enhancing realism and providing important visual cues, and in recent years there have been conspicuous improvements in visual quality and speed for both hard and soft shadows, making high quality real-time shadows a reachable goal. Progress has often been possible because of the tremendous increase in computational power and capabilities of graphics hardware. But with the growing wealth of available choices, assessing the trade-offs associated with various options and choosing the right solution becomes more difficult.
Currently there is no best approach and consequently, algorithms need to be selected in accordance to the context in which shadows are produced. Real-Time Shadows is a guide that will help the reader understand which algorithms are best for different application scenarios and the advantages and disadvantages of each. The focus is on real-time to interactive solutions, but offline approaches are also discussed for contexts that need it.