world42-shadow-mapping

name

world42-shadow-mapping

description

Tune and debug World42 terrain shadow mapping across near/far directional cascades, TerrainShadowContext wiring, terrain shader sampling, and chunk caster registration. Use when shadows flicker, acne or peter-panning appears, cascade seams are visible, shadows drift during camera motion, or when editing src/app/setup_lod_and_shadows.ts, src/game_objects/planets/rocky_planet/terrains_shader.ts, src/assets/shaders/terrain/terrainFragmentShader.glsl, and src/systems/lod/chunks/chunk_forge.ts.

World42 Shadow Mapping

Keep shadow logic consistent with the current World42 pipeline: two directional shadow maps (near and far), blended in the terrain fragment shader.

Core Space Contract

• Use WorldDouble for absolute star, planet, and camera positions.
• Convert to render-space before shadow projection/sampling.
• Keep all values in one space per formula.

Rule of thumb:

• Distances and planet/star selection: camera.doublepos (WorldDouble).
• Shadow projection and sampling: render-space (vWorldPosRender, camera.position).

Workflow

1) Audit before editing

Run:

./.codex/skills/world42-shadow-mapping/scripts/check-shadow-mapping-usage.ps1

Scan for contract breaks:

• Missing near/far context updates.
• Uniform mismatch between TypeScript and GLSL.
• Missing shadow caster registration on terrain chunks.

2) Preserve producer and consumer contracts

Producer (src/app/setup_lod_and_shadows.ts):

• Build two ShadowGenerators (near/far).
• Update light direction from star to planet in render-space.
• Update near/far orthographic ranges and texel snapping each frame.
• Push matrices and blend window into TerrainShadowContext.

Consumer (src/game_objects/planets/rocky_planet/terrains_shader.ts):

• Bind shadowSamplerNear/Far, lightMatrixNear/Far, texel sizes, bias values, blend range, and depth flags on each bind.

Shader (src/assets/shaders/terrain/terrainFragmentShader.glsl):

• Compute slope-aware receiver bias.
• Sample near and far shadow maps with Poisson PCF.
• Blend near/far visibility by camera distance.

Mesh lifecycle (src/systems/lod/chunks/chunk_forge.ts):

• Register each terrain chunk as caster in both generators.
• Remove casters on mesh dispose.

3) Tune by symptom

• Acne: increase shadowBias and/or shadowNormalBias slightly.
• Peter-panning: reduce bias terms or depth-generator bias.
• Flicker/shimmer: verify texel snapping in cascade placement and avoid unstable blend ranges.
• Hard cascade seam: widen shadowBlendStart/shadowBlendEnd transition.
• Wrong light direction: validate star/planet vector conversion path before normalization.

4) Apply safe change protocol

When adding or renaming shadow uniforms:

1. Update uniforms list in TerrainShader.create(...).
2. Update setter calls in onBindObservable.
3. Update GLSL uniform declarations and usage.
4. Verify both near and far paths are still symmetric.

When changing cascade behavior:

1. Keep near and far ranges monotonic (far >= near * factor).
2. Keep blend interval valid (blendEnd > blendStart).

Validation

Run:

./.codex/skills/world42-shadow-mapping/scripts/check-shadow-mapping-usage.ps1
npm run pw:validate

Report:

• command: npm run pw:validate
• status: pass or fail
• tested URL
• artifacts directory (output/playwright/<runId>)

Resources

• Script: scripts/check-shadow-mapping-usage.ps1
• Reference: references/shadow-mapping-world42.md