The open-source game engine and graphics engine for multiplayer, cross-platform, real-time 3D action

These images were made for my diploma thesis in computer science: "Methods for Real-Time Lighting".

Thesis abstract:

This thesis presents three individual methods for real-time lighting: radiosity-based light-maps, dynamic Phong shading combined with stenciled shadow volumes implemented in programmable graphics hardware, and lighting with spherical harmonics. Each method is introduced and presented both from a theoretical and practical point of view. All methods have been implemented in the framework of the Ca3D-Engine. Wherever applicable, interesting algorithms and implementation details (such as optimizations) are pointed out and discussed in depth.
New aspects elaborated in this thesis include optimizations of shadow volumes for meshes that are organized in BSP trees and the presentation of the conceptual and algorithmic parallels between Spherical Harmonic Lighting and traditional light-maps with radiosity: Bounce-transfer SH light coefficients are precomputed in a way that is analogous to a typical radiosity algorithm, and the storage of the results is achieved similarly to that of regular light-maps. Moreover, algorithmic enhancements are presented, including per-pixel evaluation of SHL, the combination of SHL with normal-mapping, compression of SH coefficients, and filtering of SH rendering.