Shadow-Mapped shadows are created how?

Shadow-Mapped shadows are created how?

• A. Ray-traced shadows only.
• B. Shadow-mapped uses bitmaps generated in a pre-render pass; can produce soft-edged shadows.
• C. Shadow-mapped cannot produce soft shadows.
• D. Shadow-mapped and ray-traced shadows are identical in quality.

Answer: (B)

Shadow mapping creates shadows by first rendering the scene from the light’s point of view into a depth bitmap (a shadow map) during a pre-pass. This bitmap records how far surfaces are from the light. Then, during the final render, each pixel compares its distance to the light with the depth value in the shadow map to decide if it’s in shadow. Because the shadow map is a bitmap, you can apply filtering or multiple samples (PCF) to soften the shadow edges, producing soft-edged shadows. This approach is distinct from ray tracing, which follows individual light paths; shadow mapping uses a precomputed bitmap and can vary in edge softness depending on filtering.

Shadow mapping creates shadows by first rendering the scene from the light’s point of view into a depth bitmap (a shadow map) during a pre-pass. This bitmap records how far surfaces are from the light. Then, during the final render, each pixel compares its distance to the light with the depth value in the shadow map to decide if it’s in shadow. Because the shadow map is a bitmap, you can apply filtering or multiple samples (PCF) to soften the shadow edges, producing soft-edged shadows. This approach is distinct from ray tracing, which follows individual light paths; shadow mapping uses a precomputed bitmap and can vary in edge softness depending on filtering.