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  <section id="introduction">
<h1>Introduction<a class="headerlink" href="#introduction" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>Rendering is a core part of any game engine. Crown supports both 3D and 2D
rendering with dynamic lighting and shadows, and exposes high-level objects
and modern post-processing features to achieve good visual results.</p>
<section id="lights">
<h2>Lights<a class="headerlink" href="#lights" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Crown provides three light types: directional, omni, and spot. Lights are
regular <a class="reference internal" href="../units/introduction.html#units"><span class="std std-ref">Units</span></a> with a Light Component attached; the component’s
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Type</span></code> property selects the light type. Add a light to the level using
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Spawn</span></code> -&gt; <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Light</span></code> in the <a class="reference internal" href="../level_editor/level_editor.html#editor-overview"><span class="std std-ref">Menubar</span></a>.</p>
<section id="directional-light">
<h3>Directional light<a class="headerlink" href="#directional-light" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>A directional light illuminates objects from a uniform direction; The
brightest directional light in a Level (the one with the highest
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Intensity</span></code>) is considered the sun. The sun typically renders shadows for
the entire level using Cascaded Shadow Maps.</p>
<figure class="align-center" id="id1">
<a class="reference internal image-reference" href="../_images/lights_directional.png"><img alt="../_images/lights_directional.png" src="../_images/lights_directional.png" style="width: 564.0px; height: 474.40000000000003px;" /></a>
<figcaption>
<p><span class="caption-text">A directional light illuminating objects in the Level Viewport.</span><a class="headerlink" href="#id1" title="Permalink to this image">¶</a></p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</section>
<section id="local-lights">
<h3>Local lights<a class="headerlink" href="#local-lights" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Local lights affect only nearby objects. They expose a maximum range property
to limit their influence. Keep ranges reasonably small to reduce performance
cost and to avoid shadowing artifacts; very large ranges can make shadows and
lighting harder to tune.</p>
<section id="omni-light">
<h4>Omni light<a class="headerlink" href="#omni-light" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<p>Omni lights emit in all directions and are suitable for simulating point light
sources such as light bulbs, fireplaces and so on.</p>
<figure class="align-center" id="id2">
<a class="reference internal image-reference" href="../_images/lights_omni.png"><img alt="../_images/lights_omni.png" src="../_images/lights_omni.png" style="width: 564.0px; height: 552.0px;" /></a>
<figcaption>
<p><span class="caption-text">An omni light illuminating objects in the Level Viewport.</span><a class="headerlink" href="#id2" title="Permalink to this image">¶</a></p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</section>
<section id="spot-light">
<h4>Spot light<a class="headerlink" href="#spot-light" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<p>Spot lights emit light inside a cone. Use the Light Component’s <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Spot</span> <span class="pre">Angle</span></code>
and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Range</span></code> to shape the cone. Spot lights are appropriate for torches,
street lights and similar sources.</p>
<figure class="align-center" id="id3">
<a class="reference internal image-reference" href="../_images/lights_spot.png"><img alt="../_images/lights_spot.png" src="../_images/lights_spot.png" style="width: 564.0px; height: 509.6px;" /></a>
<figcaption>
<p><span class="caption-text">A spot light illuminating objects in the Level Viewport.</span><a class="headerlink" href="#id3" title="Permalink to this image">¶</a></p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<section id="shadows">
<h2>Shadows<a class="headerlink" href="#shadows" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Crown uses different shadow mapping approaches depending on the light type.
Directional light shadows are rendered with Cascaded Shadow Maps (4 splits).
Local lights combine tetrahedron mapping and regular shadow maps inside a
single shadow atlas. Use the <span class="xref std std-ref">Render Config</span> to tune shadow-map
resolution and related parameters.</p>
<p>Rendering convincing shadows require careful tuning. Two common shadow mapping
artifacts are shadow acne and peter-panning. Use the Light Component’s
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Shadow</span> <span class="pre">Bias</span></code> property to reduce these issues.</p>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Shadow</span> <span class="pre">Bias</span></code> offsets depth comparisons to compensate for shadow map
precision limits. Lower bias values reduce peter-panning but can expose
shadow acne; higher bias values reduce acne but can cause noticeable
separation between casting objects and their shadows (peter-panning). Adjust
bias incrementally to find the best compromise for your Level.</p>
<figure class="align-center" id="id4">
<a class="reference internal image-reference" href="../_images/shadow_artifacts.png"><img alt="../_images/shadow_artifacts.png" src="../_images/shadow_artifacts.png" style="width: 2844.0px; height: 1132.0px;" /></a>
<figcaption>
<p><span class="caption-text">Left: shadow acne (low bias). Right: peter-panning (high bias).</span><a class="headerlink" href="#id4" title="Permalink to this image">¶</a></p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</section>
</section>


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