"can you think of a neat way of getting shadows to fade out the further they are from the casting object (using your existing system)?"
Of course. I could do that. Nobody ever asked for it though, so I never bothered to implement it.
You wouldn't want to fade the farther it was from the casting object, you would want it to fade the farther it was from the light source.
I can do that per vertex even. So a long shadow would fade out if it stretched a long way from the light source. Or I could do it per shadow which would be a little bit faster, but not much.
It should be really simple to add.
Of course. I could do that. Nobody ever asked for it though, so I never bothered to implement it.
You wouldn't want to fade the farther it was from the casting object, you would want it to fade the farther it was from the light source.
I can do that per vertex even. So a long shadow would fade out if it stretched a long way from the light source. Or I could do it per shadow which would be a little bit faster, but not much.
It should be really simple to add.