System and method for creating real-time shadows of transparent objects

摘要

A system and method for creating real-time shadows of complex transparent objects includes a processor and a main memory that stores a transparent blocker object and a receiver object. A light source in a three-dimensional game environment determines an origin of a light coordinate system. A unit vector from the light source to the blocker object defines a z-axis of the light coordinate system and defines a light vector. The processor converts vertices of the blocker object from world coordinates into light coordinates. A graphics processor then calculates a shadow map by taking the dot-product of the light vector and each vertex of the blocker object. The shadow map is then stored in a memory of a graphics processor and is applied as a texture map to the receiver object by the graphics processor.