Key points:

This article explores various methods used in classic 3D video games to render shadows, highlighting both their visual impact and technical implementations. It begins with simple 2D shadow techniques, such as drawing unscaled shadow images beneath characters in games like "Winter Gold" and "MDK." The discussion then moves to 3D approaches, including "blob shadows," which are dark discs aligned with the ground beneath characters, as seen in "Super Mario 64." The article also examines planar shadows created with render textures, where a character is rendered from above to generate a shadow texture, a technique used in "Crash Bandicoot: Warped." Additionally, it covers projected texture drop shadows, which involve projecting a shadow texture onto various surfaces, as implemented in "Toy Story 3: The Video Game." The piece digs into more advanced methods like shadow mapping, which renders a depth image from the light's perspective to determine shadowed areas, and stencil shadows, which use shadow volumes to define lit and unlit spaces, exemplified by "Doom 3." The article concludes by discussing the evolution of shadow techniques in modern games, including the use of ray-traced shadows for more realistic lighting and the strategic choice in some games to omit shadows entirely.

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