Skip to main content

bevy_light/
cascade.rs

1//! Provides shadow cascade configuration and construction helpers.
2
3use bevy_camera::{Camera, Projection};
4use bevy_ecs::{entity::EntityHashMap, prelude::*};
5use bevy_math::{ops, Mat4, Vec3A, Vec4};
6use bevy_reflect::prelude::*;
7use bevy_transform::components::GlobalTransform;
8
9use crate::{DirectionalLight, DirectionalLightShadowMap};
10
11/// Controls how cascaded shadow mapping works.
12/// Prefer using [`CascadeShadowConfigBuilder`] to construct an instance.
13///
14/// ```
15/// # use bevy_light::CascadeShadowConfig;
16/// # use bevy_light::CascadeShadowConfigBuilder;
17/// # use bevy_utils::default;
18/// #
19/// let config: CascadeShadowConfig = CascadeShadowConfigBuilder {
20///   maximum_distance: 100.0,
21///   ..default()
22/// }.into();
23/// ```
24#[derive(Component, Clone, Debug, Reflect)]
25#[reflect(Component, Default, Debug, Clone)]
26pub struct CascadeShadowConfig {
27    /// The (positive) distance to the far boundary of each cascade.
28    pub bounds: Vec<f32>,
29    /// The proportion of overlap each cascade has with the previous cascade.
30    pub overlap_proportion: f32,
31    /// The (positive) distance to the near boundary of the first cascade.
32    pub minimum_distance: f32,
33}
34
35impl Default for CascadeShadowConfig {
36    fn default() -> Self {
37        CascadeShadowConfigBuilder::default().into()
38    }
39}
40
41fn calculate_cascade_bounds(
42    num_cascades: usize,
43    nearest_bound: f32,
44    shadow_maximum_distance: f32,
45) -> Vec<f32> {
46    if num_cascades == 1 {
47        return vec![shadow_maximum_distance];
48    }
49    let base = ops::powf(
50        shadow_maximum_distance / nearest_bound,
51        1.0 / (num_cascades - 1) as f32,
52    );
53    (0..num_cascades)
54        .map(|i| nearest_bound * ops::powf(base, i as f32))
55        .collect()
56}
57
58/// Builder for [`CascadeShadowConfig`].
59#[derive(Clone)]
60pub struct CascadeShadowConfigBuilder {
61    /// The number of shadow cascades.
62    /// More cascades increases shadow quality by mitigating perspective aliasing - a phenomenon where areas
63    /// nearer the camera are covered by fewer shadow map texels than areas further from the camera, causing
64    /// blocky looking shadows.
65    ///
66    /// This does come at the cost increased rendering overhead, however this overhead is still less
67    /// than if you were to use fewer cascades and much larger shadow map textures to achieve the
68    /// same quality level.
69    ///
70    /// In case rendered geometry covers a relatively narrow and static depth relative to camera, it may
71    /// make more sense to use fewer cascades and a higher resolution shadow map texture as perspective aliasing
72    /// is not as much an issue. Be sure to adjust `minimum_distance` and `maximum_distance` appropriately.
73    pub num_cascades: usize,
74    /// The minimum shadow distance, which can help improve the texel resolution of the first cascade.
75    /// Areas nearer to the camera than this will likely receive no shadows.
76    ///
77    /// NOTE: Due to implementation details, this usually does not impact shadow quality as much as
78    /// `first_cascade_far_bound` and `maximum_distance`. At many view frustum field-of-views, the
79    /// texel resolution of the first cascade is dominated by the width / height of the view frustum plane
80    /// at `first_cascade_far_bound` rather than the depth of the frustum from `minimum_distance` to
81    /// `first_cascade_far_bound`.
82    pub minimum_distance: f32,
83    /// The maximum shadow distance.
84    /// Areas further from the camera than this will likely receive no shadows.
85    pub maximum_distance: f32,
86    /// Sets the far bound of the first cascade, relative to the view origin.
87    /// In-between cascades will be exponentially spaced relative to the maximum shadow distance.
88    /// NOTE: This is ignored if there is only one cascade, the maximum distance takes precedence.
89    pub first_cascade_far_bound: f32,
90    /// Sets the overlap proportion between cascades.
91    /// The overlap is used to make the transition from one cascade's shadow map to the next
92    /// less abrupt by blending between both shadow maps.
93    pub overlap_proportion: f32,
94}
95
96impl CascadeShadowConfigBuilder {
97    /// Returns the cascade config as specified by this builder.
98    pub fn build(&self) -> CascadeShadowConfig {
99        assert!(
100            self.num_cascades > 0,
101            "num_cascades must be positive, but was {}",
102            self.num_cascades
103        );
104        assert!(
105            self.minimum_distance >= 0.0,
106            "maximum_distance must be non-negative, but was {}",
107            self.minimum_distance
108        );
109        assert!(
110            self.num_cascades == 1 || self.minimum_distance < self.first_cascade_far_bound,
111            "minimum_distance must be less than first_cascade_far_bound, but was {}",
112            self.minimum_distance
113        );
114        assert!(
115            self.maximum_distance > self.minimum_distance,
116            "maximum_distance must be greater than minimum_distance, but was {}",
117            self.maximum_distance
118        );
119        assert!(
120            (0.0..1.0).contains(&self.overlap_proportion),
121            "overlap_proportion must be in [0.0, 1.0) but was {}",
122            self.overlap_proportion
123        );
124        CascadeShadowConfig {
125            bounds: calculate_cascade_bounds(
126                self.num_cascades,
127                self.first_cascade_far_bound,
128                self.maximum_distance,
129            ),
130            overlap_proportion: self.overlap_proportion,
131            minimum_distance: self.minimum_distance,
132        }
133    }
134}
135
136impl Default for CascadeShadowConfigBuilder {
137    fn default() -> Self {
138        // The defaults are chosen to be similar to be Unity, Unreal, and Godot.
139        // Unity: first cascade far bound = 10.05, maximum distance = 150.0
140        // Unreal Engine 5: maximum distance = 200.0
141        // Godot: first cascade far bound = 10.0, maximum distance = 100.0
142        Self {
143            // Currently only support one cascade in WebGL 2.
144            num_cascades: if cfg!(all(
145                feature = "webgl",
146                target_arch = "wasm32",
147                not(feature = "webgpu")
148            )) {
149                1
150            } else {
151                4
152            },
153            minimum_distance: 0.1,
154            maximum_distance: 150.0,
155            first_cascade_far_bound: 10.0,
156            overlap_proportion: 0.2,
157        }
158    }
159}
160
161impl From<CascadeShadowConfigBuilder> for CascadeShadowConfig {
162    fn from(builder: CascadeShadowConfigBuilder) -> Self {
163        builder.build()
164    }
165}
166
167/// A [`DirectionalLight`]'s per-view list of [`Cascade`]s.
168#[derive(Component, Clone, Debug, Default, Reflect)]
169#[reflect(Component, Debug, Default, Clone)]
170pub struct Cascades {
171    /// Map from a view to the configuration of each of its [`Cascade`]s.
172    pub cascades: EntityHashMap<Vec<Cascade>>,
173}
174
175/// A single cascade of a view's shadow map cascade. Several of these are
176/// used to cover most of the view to ensure most geometry gets shadows, with
177/// some overlap for blending at cascade transitions. Farther away cascades
178/// are larger and have a lower effective shadowmap texel per world unit
179/// resolution. All cascades have the same pixel dimensions however.
180#[derive(Clone, Debug, Default, Reflect)]
181#[reflect(Clone, Default)]
182pub struct Cascade {
183    /// The transform of the light, i.e. the view to world matrix.
184    pub world_from_cascade: Mat4,
185    /// The orthographic projection for this cascade.
186    pub clip_from_cascade: Mat4,
187    /// The view-projection matrix for this cascade, converting world space into light clip space.
188    /// Importantly, this is derived and stored separately from `view_transform` and `projection` to
189    /// ensure shadow stability.
190    pub clip_from_world: Mat4,
191    /// Size of each shadow map texel in world units.
192    pub texel_size: f32,
193}
194
195/// Sets up [`Cascades`] for all shadow mapped [`DirectionalLight`]s.
196pub fn build_directional_light_cascades(
197    directional_light_shadow_map: Res<DirectionalLightShadowMap>,
198    views: Query<(Entity, &GlobalTransform, &Projection, &Camera)>,
199    mut lights: Query<(
200        &GlobalTransform,
201        &DirectionalLight,
202        &CascadeShadowConfig,
203        &mut Cascades,
204    )>,
205) {
206    let views = views
207        .iter()
208        .filter_map(|(entity, transform, projection, camera)| {
209            if camera.is_active {
210                Some((entity, projection, transform.to_matrix()))
211            } else {
212                None
213            }
214        })
215        .collect::<Vec<_>>();
216
217    for (transform, directional_light, cascades_config, mut cascades) in &mut lights {
218        if !directional_light.shadow_maps_enabled {
219            continue;
220        }
221        cascades.cascades.clear();
222
223        // It is very important to the numerical and thus visual stability of shadows that
224        // `world_from_light` has orthogonal upper-left 3x3 and zero translation.
225        // Even though only the direction (i.e. rotation) of the light matters, we don't constrain
226        // users to not change any other aspects of the transform - there's no guarantee
227        // `transform.to_matrix()` will give us a matrix with our desired properties.
228        // Instead, we directly create a good matrix from just the rotation.
229        let world_from_light = Mat4::from_quat(transform.rotation());
230        // The transpose is the inverse for orthogonal matrices.
231        let light_from_world = world_from_light.transpose();
232
233        for (view_entity, projection, world_from_view) in views.iter().copied() {
234            let light_view_from_camera = light_from_world * world_from_view;
235            let overlap_factor = 1.0 - cascades_config.overlap_proportion;
236            let far_bounds = cascades_config.bounds.iter();
237            let near_bounds = [cascades_config.minimum_distance]
238                .into_iter()
239                .chain(far_bounds.clone().map(|bound| overlap_factor * bound));
240            let view_cascades = near_bounds
241                .zip(far_bounds)
242                .map(|(near_bound, far_bound)| {
243                    // Negate bounds as -z is camera forward direction.
244                    let corners = projection.get_frustum_corners(-near_bound, -far_bound);
245                    calculate_cascade(
246                        corners,
247                        directional_light_shadow_map.size as f32,
248                        world_from_light,
249                        light_view_from_camera,
250                    )
251                })
252                .collect();
253            cascades.cascades.insert(view_entity, view_cascades);
254        }
255    }
256}
257
258/// Returns a [`Cascade`] for the frustum defined by `frustum_corners`.
259///
260/// The corner vertices should be specified in the following order:
261/// first the bottom right, top right, top left, bottom left for the near plane, then similar for the far plane.
262///
263/// See this [reference](https://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/10.5/opengl/src/cascaded_shadow_maps/doc/cascaded_shadow_maps.pdf) for more details.
264fn calculate_cascade(
265    frustum_corners: [Vec3A; 8],
266    cascade_texture_size: f32,
267    world_from_light: Mat4,
268    light_from_camera: Mat4,
269) -> Cascade {
270    let mut min = Vec3A::splat(f32::MAX);
271    let mut max = Vec3A::splat(f32::MIN);
272    for corner_camera_view in frustum_corners {
273        let corner_light_view = light_from_camera.transform_point3a(corner_camera_view);
274        min = min.min(corner_light_view);
275        max = max.max(corner_light_view);
276    }
277
278    // NOTE: Use the larger of the frustum slice far plane diagonal and body diagonal lengths as this
279    //       will be the maximum possible projection size. Use the ceiling to get an integer which is
280    //       very important for floating point stability later. It is also important that these are
281    //       calculated using the original camera space corner positions for floating point precision
282    //       as even though the lengths using corner_light_view above should be the same, precision can
283    //       introduce small but significant differences.
284    // NOTE: The size remains the same unless the view frustum or cascade configuration is modified.
285    let body_diagonal = (frustum_corners[0] - frustum_corners[6]).length_squared();
286    let far_plane_diagonal = (frustum_corners[4] - frustum_corners[6]).length_squared();
287    let cascade_diameter = body_diagonal.max(far_plane_diagonal).sqrt().ceil();
288
289    // NOTE: If we ensure that cascade_texture_size is a power of 2, then as we made cascade_diameter an
290    //       integer, cascade_texel_size is then an integer multiple of a power of 2 and can be
291    //       exactly represented in a floating point value.
292    let cascade_texel_size = cascade_diameter / cascade_texture_size;
293    // NOTE: For shadow stability it is very important that the near_plane_center is at integer
294    //       multiples of the texel size to be exactly representable in a floating point value.
295    let near_plane_center = Vec3A::new(
296        (0.5 * (min.x + max.x) / cascade_texel_size).floor() * cascade_texel_size,
297        (0.5 * (min.y + max.y) / cascade_texel_size).floor() * cascade_texel_size,
298        // NOTE: max.z is the near plane for right-handed y-up
299        max.z,
300    );
301
302    // It is critical for `cascade_from_world` to be stable. So rather than forming `world_from_cascade`
303    // and inverting it, which risks instability due to numerical precision, we directly form
304    // `cascade_from_world` as the reference material suggests.
305    let world_from_light_transpose = world_from_light.transpose();
306    let cascade_from_world = Mat4::from_cols(
307        world_from_light_transpose.x_axis,
308        world_from_light_transpose.y_axis,
309        world_from_light_transpose.z_axis,
310        (-near_plane_center).extend(1.0),
311    );
312    let world_from_cascade = Mat4::from_cols(
313        world_from_light.x_axis,
314        world_from_light.y_axis,
315        world_from_light.z_axis,
316        world_from_light * near_plane_center.extend(1.0),
317    );
318
319    // Right-handed orthographic projection, centered at `near_plane_center`.
320    // NOTE: This is different from the reference material, as we use reverse Z.
321    let r = (max.z - min.z).recip();
322    let clip_from_cascade = Mat4::from_cols(
323        Vec4::new(2.0 / cascade_diameter, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
324        Vec4::new(0.0, 2.0 / cascade_diameter, 0.0, 0.0),
325        Vec4::new(0.0, 0.0, r, 0.0),
326        Vec4::new(0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0),
327    );
328
329    let clip_from_world = clip_from_cascade * cascade_from_world;
330    Cascade {
331        world_from_cascade,
332        clip_from_cascade,
333        clip_from_world,
334        texel_size: cascade_texel_size,
335    }
336}