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Virtual Dictionary

Shadow Pass

A shadow pass is one possible layer of a multi-layered render pass. It is a specialised pass, intended to heighten an earlier pass, and so is never the first pass of the sequence.

The point of a shadow pass, is the exact opposite of a lighting pass. It casts and attaches shadows to various oobjects in the scene, darkening them as necessary to show overlaps and distortions. It is a far more specialised type of render than a lighting pass, and far simpler to calculate. Shadow passes often do make the grade for the demands of real-time rendering, and add considerably to the realism of the virtual environment.

There are many ways to cheat with a shadow pass, and avoid having to trace the rays of light as is done with a lighting pass. The shadow is often an outline of the original object, suitably blurred, and pasted onto the textures below as a mask layer on the alpha channel. As such it is all smoke and mirrors, but still produces a realistic effect.

See Also: Smoke and Mirrors, Raycasting, Raytracing, Frame Rate, Render Pass, Beauty Pass, Specular Pass, Depth Pass, Lighting Pass, Depth Pass, LOD, Attached Shadow, Cast Shadow, Reflection Pass

Below, we offer a selection of links from our resource databases which may match this term.



Related Dictionary Entries for Shadow Pass:

Attached Shadow

Beauty Pass

Cast Shadow

Colour Pass

Diffuse Pass

Highlight Pass

Reflection Pass

Shadow Pass

Specular Pass



 

Resources in our database matching the Term Shadow Pass:

Results by page [1]   [2]   

Linked resource
Soft-Edged Shadows
A coder?s article about creating realistic, dynamic soft shadow in real-time interactive, and complex scenes.



Locally Hosted resource
Immersive Newscasting versus Actuality
A quote from "Otherland: City of golden shadow", talking about the probable confusion that could result from a realistic enough, surround news feed versus actual physical experience of a disaster.



Locally Hosted resource
Otherland: Is this a real place?
A lengthy quote from the book "Otherland: City of Golden Shadow", by Tad Williams, which sums up the dialectic between physical reality and virtual reality, in one of the most succinct and apt ways we have encountered.



Linked resource
Six ways to build robots that do humans no harm
NewScientist reports on six hypothetical ways to make robotic beings that will not harm humans. Not that any of them are likely to come to pass.



Read this series for the twisting, evolving, many diverse threaded storyline, or read them for the wonderful imagery, and enchanting ideas for VR of the future. Whichever reason makes you pick up one of these, you are in for one hell of a ride!





Locally Hosted resource
Large Image Display: Toy Story: 1995's Cutting Edge
A look at the 1995 milestone movie Toy Story, and an interesting question is asked: Why are modern mainstream VRs only just coming out from the shadow of that world-quality, 14 years later?



Linked resource
AI researchers believe 'Rascals' can pass Turing test
Passing the Turing test -the holy grail of artificial intelligence, whereby a human conversing with a computer can't tell it's not human- may now be possible via VR with a Blue Gene supercomputer, according to AI experts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.



Linked resource
What's in a name? ...a demotion for the darling concept of the real
Virtual always suggests unreal, or imaginary. A virtual entity can pass for, a real thing but is less than the real thing itself. Sounds like a nice statement. Are we really so sure its true?



Locally Hosted resource
Cranial Nerves
There are twelve cranial nerve pairings (making 24 nerves in total) which split out from the brain, and move to cover the needs of the cranium and face, rather than make their way down through the central spinal cord. These nerves are important to consider, as most are of critical importance to sensory data, yet do not pass through the central cord, and so cannot be intercepted at the same juncture.



Locally Hosted resource
A Sterile World
Smell is a sense often overlooked in a virtual world. Developers discount its importance, as a minor sense, when in truth we rely on it as an input channel to flesh out the world around us. Scents carry on the breeze, and they are with us all the time: from the perfumed odours of pollen blowing in the wind, to the pong as you pass a full dustbin, to the aroma of freshly cooked food wafting out of a pub.



 

Industry News containing the Term Shadow Pass:

Results by page

(23/12/2008)
In the lab of UCLA electrical engineering professor Aydogan Ozcan, a prototype cell phone has been constructed that is capable of monitoring the condition of HIV and malaria patients, as well as testing water quality in undeveloped areas or...


(04/02/2017)
If a machine were to ‘take the Fifth Amendment’ – that is, exercise the right to remain silent throughout the test – it could, potentially, pass the test and thus be regarded as a thinking entity, authors Kevin Warwick and Huma Shah...


(10/12/2008)
Japan has found a way to harness clean energy from thousands of stamping feet that pass through one of its busiest train stations every day. Panels that generate energy from vibrations have been laid by ticket gates through which up to 80,0...


(19/03/2007)
Research coming out of the University of Saarland in Germany promises to revolutionise the speed of raytracing algorithms, making utterly realistic light and shadow available to even the slowest pcs.

The knock-on implications...


(10/08/2009)
Researchers are developing a new class of tiny mechanical devices containing vibrating, hair-thin structures that could be used to filter electronic signals in cell phones and for other more exotic applications.

Because the d...