A comparison of three shadow volume algorithms

Abstract

This paper describes and compares three different approaches to computing shadows. Each is based on the idea of shadow volumes: basic algorithm, Shadow Volume BSP Tree algorithm, and Shadow Tiling, based on 2D space subdivision. Binary Space Partition trees are used to organise the polygons in the scene in a front-toback order from the point of view of the light source, and then shadows on a polygon are computed by clipping the polygon to the shadow volumes of polygons closer to the light source. The three algorithms differ in their approach to minimising the number of comparisons of a polygon with the shadow volumes of its predecessors, and one of the algorithms represents the total shadow volume itelf by a BSP tree. The algorithms are compared analytically and statistically.