Real-time shadow rendering in scene system of marine simulator

In the large-scale scene system based on scene management software, an efficient method was presented to render shadow with shadow volume algorithm. Approaches were discussed to convert scene model from openflight file to 3ds file. The data used to determine silhouette edge was obtained by accessing the simplest LOD of model. A new method that reduced silhouette edge by removing redundant internal edge was provided. A new strategy of shadow rendering was presented: depending on model's position, shadows were rendered with z-pass algorithm utilizing CPU or z-fail algorithm within vertex shader. The method and strategy presented in this paper can be integrated directly into the large-scale scene system based on scene management software. The effect of shadow rendering meets the real-time and reality requirements of scene system.