Sswift,
I will start soon once again messing around with your shadowsystem... but first few questions since we are talking about your shadowsystem here...
I don't have my game code here (I'm at work) but I think that you could set the shadowmap size for every object - which is good. But it would be much better IMO if you could set the RESOLUTION (texel/m [1 blitz unit]) for the shadows instead; I have cases like where "shuttle", "player" and "cargobox" are next to each other in the level and the result is that bigger object have very jagged (shadowmap) edges compared to the smaller objects.
I could of course use bigger maps (and do) for bigger objects but the mapsize (128, 256, 512 etc) rarely corresponds the dimensions/scale of the models... so they are not looking very good in some cases. I know that you try to ooze every pixel out of the space the shadowmap has, but I would like to have an option to use "consistent texels/meter" shadowmap resolution - I know that it would lead to cases where you have to create map with lots of wasted space on it but the result would be neater?
Also one additional question: would it speed things up if the system could use "shadow objects" ie low-res meshes instead of the "real" ones when it's doing the shadowmap?
I will start soon once again messing around with your shadowsystem... but first few questions since we are talking about your shadowsystem here...
I don't have my game code here (I'm at work) but I think that you could set the shadowmap size for every object - which is good. But it would be much better IMO if you could set the RESOLUTION (texel/m [1 blitz unit]) for the shadows instead; I have cases like where "shuttle", "player" and "cargobox" are next to each other in the level and the result is that bigger object have very jagged (shadowmap) edges compared to the smaller objects.
I could of course use bigger maps (and do) for bigger objects but the mapsize (128, 256, 512 etc) rarely corresponds the dimensions/scale of the models... so they are not looking very good in some cases. I know that you try to ooze every pixel out of the space the shadowmap has, but I would like to have an option to use "consistent texels/meter" shadowmap resolution - I know that it would lead to cases where you have to create map with lots of wasted space on it but the result would be neater?
Also one additional question: would it speed things up if the system could use "shadow objects" ie low-res meshes instead of the "real" ones when it's doing the shadowmap?