three-csm

Cascaded shadow maps (CSMs) implementation for Three.js. This approach provides higher resolution of shadows near the camera and lower resolution far away by using several shadow maps. CSMs are usually used for shadows cast by the sun over a large terrain.

Examples

• Basic

Installation

<script src="/build/three-csm.js"></script>

Using CommonJS:

npm i three-csm

const THREE = require('three');
THREE.CSM = require('three-csm');

Using ES6 modules:

import * as THREE from 'three';
import CSM from 'three-csm';
THREE.CSM = CSM;

Basic usage

let camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(70, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 0.1, 1000);
let renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();

renderer.shadowMap.enabled = true;
renderer.shadowMap.type = THREE.PCFSoftShadowMap; // or any other type of shadowmap
	
let csm = new THREE.CSM({
	maxFar: camera.far,
	cascades: 4,
	shadowMapSize: 1024,
	lightDirection: new THREE.Vector3(1, -1, 1).normalize(),
	camera: camera,
	parent: scene
});

let material = new THREE.MeshPhongMaterial(); // works with Phong and Standard materials
csm.setupMaterial(material); // must be called to pass all CSM-related uniforms to the shader

let mesh = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.BoxBufferGeometry(), material);
mesh.castShadow = true;
mesh.receiveShadow = true;

scene.add(mesh);

Finally, in your update loop, call the update function before rendering:

csm.update(camera.matrix);

API

CSM

constructor(settings: CSMParams)

Parameters

• settings — Object which contains all setting for CSMs.

  • settings.camera — Instance of THREE.PerspectiveCamera which is currently used for rendering.

  • settings.parent — Instance of THREE.Object3D that will contain all directional lights.

  • settings.cascades — Number of shadow cascades. Optional.

  • settings.maxCascades — Maximum number of shadow cascades. Should be greater or equal to cascades. Important if you want to change the number of shadow cascades at runtime using CSM.updateCascades() method. Optional.

  • settings.maxFar — Frustum far plane distance (i.e. shadows are not visible farther this distance from camera). May be smaller than camera.far value. Optional.

  • settings.mode — Defines a split scheme (how large frustum is splitted into smaller ones). Can be uniform (linear), logarithmic, practical or custom. For most cases practical may be the best choice. Equations used for each scheme can be found in GPU Gems 3. Chapter 10. If mode is set to custom, you'll need to define your own customSplitsCallback. Optional.

  • settings.practicalModeLambda — Lambda parameter for practical mode. Optional.`

  • settings.customSplitsCallback — A callback to compute custom cascade splits when mode is set to custom. Callback should accept three number parameters: cascadeCount, nearDistance, farDistance and return an array of split distances ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 is equal to nearDistance and 1 is equal to farDistance. Check out the official modes in CSM.js to learn how they work.

  • settings.shadowMapSize — Resolution of shadow maps (one per cascade). Optional.

  • settings.shadowBias — Serves the same purpose as THREE.LightShadow.bias. Gets multiplied by the size of a shadow frustum. Optional.

  • settings.shadowNormalBias — Serves the same purpose as THREE.LightShadow.normalBias. Gets multiplied by the size of a shadow frustum. Optional.

  • settings.lightIntensity — Same as THREE.DirectionalLight.intensity. Optional.

  • settings.lightColor — Same as THREE.DirectionalLight.color. Optional.

  • settings.lightDirection — Normalized THREE.Vector3(). Optional.

  • settings.lightDirectionUp — Up vector used for settings.lightDirection. Optional, defaults to THREE.Object3D.DEFAULT_UP.

  • settings.lightMargin — Defines how far shadow camera is moved along z axis in cascade frustum space. The larger is the value the more space LightShadow will be able to cover. Should be set to high values for scenes with large or tall shadow casters. Optional.

  • settings.fade — If true, enables smooth transition between cascades. Optional.

setupMaterial(material: THREE.Material)

Updates defines and uniforms of passed material. Should be called for every material which must use CSMs.

Parameters

• material — Material to add uniforms and defines to.

update()

Updates positions of frustum splits in world space. Should be called before every frame before rendering.

updateFrustums()

Recalculates frustums for shadow cascades. Must be called after changing the camera projection matrix, split mode, maxFar or shadowBias settings.

updateCascades(cascades: number)

Updates number of shadow cascades, automatically recompiles all materials previously passed to setupMaterial().

Parameters

• cascades — New number of shadow cascades.

updateShadowMapSize(size: number)

Updates shadow map size for all directional lights used by CSM instance.

Parameters

• size — New shadow map size.

dispose()

Removes and disposes all directional lights used by CSM instance.

Contributing

Feel free to contribute. Use npm run dev to run a dev server.

References

1. Rouslan Dimitrov. Cascaded ShadowMaps
2. Cascaded Shadow Maps on Windows Dev Center
3. 3D Game Development with LWJGL 3. Cascaded Shadow Maps
4. GPU Gems 3. Chapter 10