This allows to draw shadows for small objects near the observer (such as stones, grass, etc.) and for giant mountains and rocks in the distance, complementing and improving the classic shadow rendering technique, as well as saving computer resources (for example, we don’t need to prepare additional information on the CPU because the data about the depth of the scene is enough). In the case of contact shadows, the ray is launched in the direction of the light source for a very short distance near the camera, and for many tens of meters on the horizon. And, as a result, It turns into some kind of ray tracing! Both effects work according to similar principles - we launch a ray for each pixel in the screen space and try to find its intersection with objects in the frame, which are described by the “depth” of the scene. In addition to updating the global illumination system, the mechanism for rendering shadows and reflections was also improved, and SSCS (Screen Space Contact Shadows) and SSLR (Screen Space Local Reflections) techniques were implemented. Such an improvement noticeably improves the quality of the image in poorly lit and completely shadow-covered areas - it will become more voluminous and textured, and reflected incident light (reflex) from surrounding objects will also appear. Now the indirect propagation of light is simulated taking into account the surrounding geometry, so that in addition to direct light, reflected and scattered light from various surfaces and extended light sources (sky, surfaces that emit and reflect light, shading from massive objects and buildings, etc.) will appear. Thanks to the refinement and implementation of the “Scalable Global illumination” technology from the Dagor Engine, which is used by our publisher Gaijin Entertainment, it has become possible to simulate indirect lighting much more accurately. They accurately took into account direct light from light sources, and indirect light was modeled approximately using a pre-calculated diffuse cubemap on the level. Up to this point, simplified lighting algorithms from the environment were used in our render.

We have added to the lighting model the calculation of indirect, or in other words - Global Illumination. In the Crossout “Supercharged” update, which will be released on October 25, 2022, a significant improvement will appear in our render.

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