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mapping:cawe:lighting [2008-04-24 13:36] Carsten Minor revision |
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| One of the key questions that mappers frequently raise is how to define and place light sources. | One of the key questions that mappers frequently raise is how to define and place light sources. | ||
| - | While placing light sources is generally easy, this section explains the types of available lighting techniques in Ca3DE and the options to create light sources for each. | + | While placing light sources is generally easy, this section explains the types of available lighting techniques in Cafu and the options to create light sources for each. |
| - | The Ca3D-Engine implements two different types of lighting techniques: | + | The Cafu engine implements two different types of lighting techniques: |
| * Radiosity-based lighting and | * Radiosity-based lighting and | ||
| * dynamic lighting. | * dynamic lighting. | ||
| - | The two lighting techniques are quite distinct from each other, and each comes with a set of feature of its own. Nonetheless, both techniques peacefully coexist in the Ca3D-Engine and mappers frequently employ both in a single map. | + | The two lighting techniques are quite distinct from each other, and each comes with a set of feature of its own. Nonetheless, both techniques peacefully coexist in the Cafu engine and mappers frequently employ both in a single map. |
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| This is contrary to dynamic lighting, where lights are only points in space, soft shadows are always the result of some kind of trick, diffuse reflections are not possible at all, and a physical model is never involved. | This is contrary to dynamic lighting, where lights are only points in space, soft shadows are always the result of some kind of trick, diffuse reflections are not possible at all, and a physical model is never involved. | ||
| - | For these reasons, Radiosity was the first lighting technique implemented in Ca3DE. | + | For these reasons, Radiosity was the first lighting technique implemented in Cafu. |
| Here is an overview of the available Radiosity light sources and how they are created in a map: | Here is an overview of the available Radiosity light sources and how they are created in a map: | ||
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| ==== Area Light Sources ==== | ==== Area Light Sources ==== | ||
| - | Any primitive (brush or Bezier patch) surface that you place in a Ca3DE map can be turned into an //area light source//. The key point here is that a surfaces characteristic of being an area light source is //not// :!: directly set in the Ca3DE World Editor CaWE. Rather, being an area light source is a //material// property. | + | Any primitive (brush or Bezier patch) surface that you place in a Cafu map can be turned into an //area light source//. The key point here is that a surfaces characteristic of being an area light source is //not// :!: directly set in the Cafu World Editor CaWE. Rather, being an area light source is a //material// property. |
| That means that a surface becomes an area light source when it has a material applied to it which in turn is defined to emit Radiosity light. | That means that a surface becomes an area light source when it has a material applied to it which in turn is defined to emit Radiosity light. | ||
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| Dynamic lighting is fast, flexible, dynamic, instantaneous, yields good results and is well supported and accelerated in hardware. | Dynamic lighting is fast, flexible, dynamic, instantaneous, yields good results and is well supported and accelerated in hardware. | ||
| - | Even though dynamic lighting looks not quite as real as the Radiosity method, this is often not a problem, because lighting that looks dramatically good is often preferred over the "boring natural". Moreover, dynamic lighting avoids the computational complexity that comes with the Radiosity method. Therefore, dynamic lighting is an important component of the Ca3D-Engine. | + | Even though dynamic lighting looks not quite as real as the Radiosity method, this is often not a problem, because lighting that looks dramatically good is often preferred over the "boring natural". Moreover, dynamic lighting avoids the computational complexity that comes with the Radiosity method. Therefore, dynamic lighting is an important component in Cafu. |
| ==== Point light sources ==== | ==== Point light sources ==== | ||
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| Lighting with [[wp>Spherical_harmonics|Spherical Harmonics]] ("SHL") is an area of active research in computer science. Its goal is to combine the merits of Radiosity-based lighting with light sources that can move, especially when the light sources are very far away from the scene, like for example the sun or the moon. | Lighting with [[wp>Spherical_harmonics|Spherical Harmonics]] ("SHL") is an area of active research in computer science. Its goal is to combine the merits of Radiosity-based lighting with light sources that can move, especially when the light sources are very far away from the scene, like for example the sun or the moon. | ||
| - | SHL has been implemented in the scope of my diploma thesis in the Ca3D-Engine, but is currently not supported by the public releases. You may refer to the thesis linked below for more information. | + | SHL has been implemented in the scope of my diploma thesis in the Cafu engine, but is currently not supported by the public releases. You may refer to the thesis linked below for more information. |
| ===== See Also ===== | ===== See Also ===== | ||
| - | * [[http://www.ca3d-engine.de/e107/download.php?view.5|Methods for Real-Time Lighting]] -- Diploma Thesis by Carsten Fuchs. | + | * [[http://www.cafu.de/files/Uni-DA-RealTimeLighting.pdf|Methods for Real-Time Lighting]] -- Diploma (Masters) Thesis by Carsten Fuchs. |
mapping/cawe/lighting.1209036976.txt.gz ยท Last modified: 2013-01-07 12:07 (external edit)