Challenge your understanding of essential lighting and shadow principles in game visual effects, focusing on techniques, terminology, and practical applications. This quiz covers key concepts such as shadow types, lighting methods in game environments, and their effect on visual realism for optimized game visuals.
Which type of shadow is mainly created by a small, intense light source and results in a sharply defined edge, such as the shadow from a streetlamp at night?
Explanation: A hard shadow is produced by a small or intense light source and suggests a distinct, sharp boundary, like a streetlamp casting shadows at night. Soft shadows occur when light is diffused, often by larger or multiple sources, making the edges blurrier. Fake shadow is a term for simplified shadow techniques and often lacks accurate edge definition. Volumetric shadow refers to shadow effects in volumes like fog but not directly to sharp-edged shadows from small light sources.
In a 3D game scene, what is the primary purpose of ambient lighting, for example, providing subtle illumination in areas not directly lit by light sources?
Explanation: Ambient lighting fills shadowed or unlit areas with soft light, ensuring scenes do not have unnaturally dark regions and objects remain visible. It does not eliminate shadows completely, but instead softens them. Direct control of light source colors is handled through other means, not ambient light. Ambient light also does not create moving patterns, which are usually achieved via dynamic or animated lighting.
When using dynamic lighting in games, why are real-time shadows generally more performance-intensive compared to baked shadows?
Explanation: Real-time (dynamic) shadows need to be recalculated every frame when objects or lights move, increasing the system's workload. Storing shadows in texture atlases is a technique related to baked (static) shadows, not dynamic ones. The claim that dynamic shadows use no shading is false; shading is integral to shadow calculation. Dynamic shadows can handle a range of tones and are not limited to just black and white.
In the context of game environments, what does the term 'shadow bias' help prevent when rendering shadows?
Explanation: Shadow bias offsets shadow calculations to reduce self-shadowing artifacts known as shadow acne, where surfaces incorrectly cast shadows onto themselves. It doesn't address color banding, which is related to gradients and textures. Shadow bias has no impact on highlights or object scaling, so those options are distractors unrelated to the purpose of bias settings.
Which lighting technique can be used to create the illusion of depth and three-dimensionality in a side-scrolling game by simulating how objects cast and receive shadows from a light above?
Explanation: Drop shadow projection is often used in side-scrolling games to visually separate objects from the background and suggest depth by displaying a shadow below or behind them. Raymarching is a rendering technique for volumetric effects but is less commonly used for standard 2D shadows. Radial blur is a post-process effect for motion or light beams and does not address shadow casting. Subsurface scattering is related to light passing through translucent objects, not shadow projections.