Abstract

Rendering soft shadows cast by dynamic objects in real time with few visual artifacts is challenging to achieve. We introduce a new algorithm for local light sources that exhibits fewer artifacts than fast single-view approximations and is faster than high-quality multiview solutions. Inspired by layered depth images, image warping, and point-based rendering, our algorithm traverses complex occluder geometry once and creates an optimized multiview point cloud as a proxy. We then render many depth maps simultaneously on graphics hardware using GPU Compute. By significantly reducing the time spent producing depth maps, our solution presents a new alternative for applications that cannot yet afford the most accurate methods, but that strive for higher quality shadows than possible with common approximations.