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Soft Shadows

Description

Soft shadows can be quickly implemented by editing the shadow parameters of radius and blurSamples. See the LightShadow base class of the shadow classes.

Depending on the shadowMap.type used by your renderer, you will get different quality blurring. You can also edit the mapSize used by your shadow.

In my example below, I am using the VSMShadowMap filter in the renderer and a relatively small mapSize of 256x256. This is a good compromise between quality and speed of rendering.

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Example Script

./src/client/client.ts

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import * as THREE from 'three'
import { OrbitControls } from 'three/examples/jsm/controls/OrbitControls'
import Stats from 'three/examples/jsm/libs/stats.module'
import { GUI } from 'dat.gui'

const scene = new THREE.Scene()

const light = new THREE.DirectionalLight(0xffffff, 5)
light.position.set(10, 5, 2)
light.castShadow = true
light.shadow.mapSize.width = 256
light.shadow.mapSize.height = 256
light.shadow.camera.near = 0.5
light.shadow.camera.far = 25
light.shadow.camera.left = -10
light.shadow.camera.right = 10
light.shadow.camera.top = 10
light.shadow.camera.bottom = -10
light.shadow.radius = 5
light.shadow.blurSamples = 25

scene.add(light)

const helper = new THREE.CameraHelper(light.shadow.camera)
scene.add(helper)

const camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(
    75,
    window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight,
    0.1,
    1000
)
camera.position.set(9, 0.75, 3)

const renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer()
renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight)
renderer.shadowMap.enabled = true
renderer.shadowMap.type = THREE.VSMShadowMap
//renderer.shadowMap.type = THREE.PCFShadowMap
//renderer.shadowMap.type = THREE.PCFSoftShadowMap
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement)

new OrbitControls(camera, renderer.domElement)

const planeGeometry = new THREE.PlaneGeometry(100, 20)
const plane = new THREE.Mesh(planeGeometry, new THREE.MeshPhongMaterial())
plane.rotateX(-Math.PI / 2)
plane.position.y = -1.75
plane.receiveShadow = true
scene.add(plane)

const torusGeometry = [
    new THREE.TorusGeometry(),
    new THREE.TorusGeometry(),
    new THREE.TorusGeometry(),
    new THREE.TorusGeometry(),
    new THREE.TorusGeometry(),
]

const material = [
    new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial(),
    new THREE.MeshLambertMaterial(),
    new THREE.MeshPhongMaterial(),
    new THREE.MeshPhysicalMaterial({}),
    new THREE.MeshToonMaterial(),
]

const torus = [
    new THREE.Mesh(torusGeometry[0], material[0]),
    new THREE.Mesh(torusGeometry[1], material[1]),
    new THREE.Mesh(torusGeometry[2], material[2]),
    new THREE.Mesh(torusGeometry[3], material[3]),
    new THREE.Mesh(torusGeometry[4], material[4]),
]

const texture = new THREE.TextureLoader().load('img/grid.png')
material[0].map = texture
material[1].map = texture
material[2].map = texture
material[3].map = texture
material[4].map = texture

torus[0].position.x = -8
torus[1].position.x = -4
torus[2].position.x = 0
torus[3].position.x = 4
torus[4].position.x = 8

torus[0].castShadow = true
torus[1].castShadow = true
torus[2].castShadow = true
torus[3].castShadow = true
torus[4].castShadow = true

torus[0].receiveShadow = true
torus[1].receiveShadow = true
torus[2].receiveShadow = true
torus[3].receiveShadow = true
torus[4].receiveShadow = true

scene.add(torus[0])
scene.add(torus[1])
scene.add(torus[2])
scene.add(torus[3])
scene.add(torus[4])

camera.lookAt(torus[3].position)

window.addEventListener('resize', onWindowResize, false)
function onWindowResize() {
    camera.aspect = window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight
    camera.updateProjectionMatrix()
    renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight)
    render()
}

const stats = new Stats()
document.body.appendChild(stats.dom)

const data = {
    color: light.color.getHex(),
    mapsEnabled: true,
    shadowMapSizeWidth: 512,
    shadowMapSizeHeight: 512,
}

const gui = new GUI()
const lightFolder = gui.addFolder('THREE.Light')
lightFolder.addColor(data, 'color').onChange(() => {
    light.color.setHex(Number(data.color.toString().replace('#', '0x')))
})
lightFolder.add(light, 'intensity', 0, 10, 0.01)

const directionalLightFolder = gui.addFolder('THREE.DirectionalLight')
directionalLightFolder.add(light.shadow, 'radius', 0, 25, 1)
directionalLightFolder.add(light.shadow, 'blurSamples', 1, 25, 1)
directionalLightFolder.open()

function animate() {
    requestAnimationFrame(animate)

    helper.update()

    torus.forEach((t) => {
        t.rotation.y += 0.01
    })

    render()

    stats.update()
}

function render() {
    renderer.render(scene, camera)
}

animate()

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