Light Space Cascaded Shadow Maps Algorithm for Real Time Rendering

Owing to its generality and efficiency, Cascaded Shadow Maps （CSMs） has an important role in real-time shadow rendering in large scale and complex virtual environments. However, CSMs suffers from redundant rendering problem -- objects are rendered undesirably to different shadow map textures when view direction and light direction are not perpendicular. In this paper, we present a light space cascaded shadow maps algorithm. The algorithm splits a scene into non-intersecting layers in light space, and generates one shadow map for each layer through irregular frustum clipping and scene organization, ensuring that any shadow sample point never appears in multiple shadow maps. A succinct shadow determination method is given to choose the optimal shadow map when rendering scenes. We also combine the algorithm with stable cascaded shadow maps and soft shadow algorithm to avoid shadow flicking and produce soft shadows. The results show that the algorithm effectively improves the efficiency and shadow quality of CSMs by avoiding redundant rendering, and can produce high-quality shadow rendering in large scale dynamic environments with real-time performance.

Overlapping Shadow Rendering for Outdoor Augmented Reality

Realism rendering methods of outdoor augmented reality(AR)is an interesting topic.Realism items in outdoor AR need advanced impacts like shadows,sunshine,and relations between unreal items.A few realistic rendering approaches were built to overcome this issue.Several of these approaches are not dealt with real-time rendering.However,the issue remains an active research topic,especially in outdoor rendering.This paper introduces a new approach to accomplish reality real-time outdoor rendering by considering the relation between items in AR regarding shadows in any place during daylight.The proposed method includes three principal stages that cover various outdoor AR rendering challenges.First,real shadow recognition was generated considering the sun’s location and the intensity of the shadow.The second step involves real shadow protection.Finally,we introduced a shadow production algorithm technique and shades through its impacts on unreal items in the AR.The selected approach’s target is providing a fast shadow recognition technique without affecting the system’s accuracy.It achieved an average accuracy of 95.1%and an area under the curve(AUC)of 92.5%.The outputs demonstrated that the proposed approach had enhanced the reality of outside AR rendering.The results of the proposed method outperformed other state-of-the-art rendering shadow techniques’outcomes.

Parallel algorithm for viewshed analysis on a modern GPU

Spatial analysis,including viewshed analysis,is an important aspect of the Digital Earth system.Viewshed analysis is usually performed on a large scale,so efficiency is important in any Digital Earth application making these calculations.In this paper,a real-time algorithm for viewshed analysis in 3D scenes is presented by using the parallel computing capabilities of a graphics processing unit(GPU).In contrast to traditional algorithms based on line-of-sight,this algorithm runs completely within the programmable 3D visualization pipeline to render 3D terrains with viewshed analysis.The most important difference is its integration of the viewshed calculation with the rendering module.Invisible areas are rendered as shadows in the 3D scene.The algorithm process is paralleled by rasterizer units in the graphics card and by vertex and pixel shaders executed on the GPU.We have implemented this method in our 3D Digital Earth system with the DirectX 9.0c API and tested on some consumer-level PC platforms with interactive framerates and high image quality.Our algorithm has been widely used in related systems based on Digital Earth.