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How to create basic shadows in OpenGL using stencil buffer
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This OpenGL tutorial will show you how to use the stencil buffer to select a plane to be drawn to, then use the stencil buffer to draw a basic shadow to that plane.

To achieve the effect of shadows that remain on a plane
the best method is to use the stencil buffer. With this
we can set the plane that the shadow is to be drawn on
and any part that is not drawn within the selected plane
is then clipped from the view.

Now the stencil buffer basically just draws the shape
again and changes is accordingly, setting it to the
selected part of the scene.

To do this we have to set up the stencil buffer by changing the
code in the main function to:
glutInitDisplayMode (GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_RGBA | GLUT_STENCIL);
notice that we are adding GLUT_STENCIL.

That then leads to another call in the display function
so that just like clearing the depth and color buffers,
we clear the stencil buffer with:
glClearStencil(0);
And change the clear line to:
glClear (GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT | GL_STENCIL_BUFFER_BIT);

After that we need to set the plane for the stencil buffer
to draw to.
So we clear the color and depth masks, then we enable the stencil
test with:
glColorMask(GL_FALSE, GL_FALSE, GL_FALSE, GL_FALSE);
glDepthMask(GL_FALSE);
glEnable(GL_STENCIL_TEST);

Then we set the stencil function to replace the data in our
selected plane with whatever we choose to. We set it to
replace with:
glStencilFunc(GL_ALWAYS, 1, 0xFFFFFFFF);
glStencilOp(GL_REPLACE, GL_REPLACE, GL_REPLACE);

Next we set the plane that we want the stencil buffer to
draw to. I have used my bench function for this with:
bench();
So it will take the coordinates for my bench and use
that as the plane to draw to.

Then we turn on the color mask, the depth mask and
set the stencil function to keep whatever we say next.
So it is replacing what we had before, with what we are
about to add. We do this with:
glColorMask(GL_TRUE, GL_TRUE, GL_TRUE, GL_TRUE);
glDepthMask(GL_TRUE);
glStencilFunc(GL_EQUAL, 1, 0xFFFFFFFF);
glStencilOp(GL_KEEP, GL_KEEP, GL_KEEP);

Now it is time to draw the shadow.
I first disable texturing so our shadow appears plain.
I then disable the depth testing so that the shadow will
appear behind our bench.
I then draw the square flipped upside down, and translated
into the drawing plane.
I then set the rotation as the squares rotation and
color it black.
Then I re-enable the depth testing and the texturing.
This is all done with:
glDisable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);
glDisable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);
glPushMatrix();
glScalef(1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f);
glTranslatef(0,2,0);
glRotatef(angle,0,1,0);
glColor4f(0,0,0,1);
square();
glPopMatrix();
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);
glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);

Next I simply disable the stencil test with:
glDisable(GL_STENCIL_TEST);

After that I just draw the scene as usual with
the bench set to an alpha blend so that the
shadow appears transparent.

Now that should give you an idea of how to use the stencil
buffer to create basic shadows.

Keep visiting the site as I am working on
shadows that change shape in accordance with the light
position.

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  #include <GL/gl.h>
#include <GL/glut.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <iostream.h>

float angle = 0;

GLuint texture[40];

void freetexture (GLuint texture) {
    glDeleteTextures( 1, &texture );
}

loadtextures (const char *filename, float width, float 
height) {
  GLuint texture;

  unsigned char *data;
  FILE *file;

  file = fopen( filename, "rb" );
  if ( file == NULL ) return 0;

  data = (unsigned char *)malloc( width * height * 3 );
  fread( data, width * height * 3, 1, file );

  fclose( file );

  glGenTextures( 1, &texture );
  glBindTexture( GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture );
  glTexEnvf( GL_TEXTURE_ENV, GL_TEXTURE_ENV_MODE, 
GL_MODULATE );
  glTexParameterf( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER,
 GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST );
  glTexParameterf( GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER,
 GL_LINEAR );
  gluBuild2DMipmaps( GL_TEXTURE_2D, 3, width, height, 
GL_RGB, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, data );
    
  data = NULL;

  return texture;
}

void square (void) {
    glPushMatrix();
    glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D,texture[0]);
    glTranslatef(0,2.5,0);
    glScalef(2,2,2);
    glBegin(GL_QUADS);
        glTexCoord2f(1,0);
    glVertex3f(-1,-1,0);
        glTexCoord2f(1,1);
    glVertex3f(-1,1,0);
        glTexCoord2f(0,1);
    glVertex3f(1,1,0);
        glTexCoord2f(0,0);
    glVertex3f(1,-1,0);
    glEnd();
    glPopMatrix();
}

void bench (void) {
    glPushMatrix();
    glColor4f(1,1,1,0.7);
    glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D,texture[1]);
    glTranslatef(0,-2.5,0);
    glScalef(4,2,4);
    glBegin(GL_QUADS);
        glTexCoord2f(1,0);
    glVertex3f(-1,-1,1);
        glTexCoord2f(1,1);
    glVertex3f(-1,1,-0.5);
        glTexCoord2f(0,1);
    glVertex3f(1,1,-0.5);
        glTexCoord2f(0,0);
    glVertex3f(1,-1,1);
    glEnd();
    glPopMatrix();
}

void display (void) {
    glClearStencil(0); //clear the stencil buffer
    glClearDepth(1.0f);
    glClearColor (1.0,1.0,1.0,1);
    glClear (GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT |
GL_STENCIL_BUFFER_BIT); //clear the buffers
    glLoadIdentity();

    glTranslatef(0, 0, -10);

//start
    glColorMask(GL_FALSE, GL_FALSE, GL_FALSE, GL_FALSE); /
/disable the color mask
    glDepthMask(GL_FALSE); //disable the depth mask

    glEnable(GL_STENCIL_TEST); //enable the stencil testing


    glStencilFunc(GL_ALWAYS, 1, 0xFFFFFFFF);
    glStencilOp(GL_REPLACE, GL_REPLACE, GL_REPLACE); //set
 the stencil buffer to replace our next lot of data

    bench(); //set the data plane to be replaced

    glColorMask(GL_TRUE, GL_TRUE, GL_TRUE, GL_TRUE); //enable
 the color mask
    glDepthMask(GL_TRUE); //enable the depth mask

    glStencilFunc(GL_EQUAL, 1, 0xFFFFFFFF);
    glStencilOp(GL_KEEP, GL_KEEP, GL_KEEP); //set the stencil
 buffer to keep our next lot of data

    glDisable(GL_TEXTURE_2D); //disable texturing of the 
shadow
    glDisable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); //disable depth testing of the
 shadow
    glPushMatrix();
    glScalef(1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f); //flip the shadow vertically

    glTranslatef(0,2,0); //translate the shadow onto our 
drawing plane
    glRotatef(angle,0,1,0); //rotate the shadow accordingly

    glColor4f(0,0,0,1); //color the shadow black
    square(); //draw our square as the shadow
    glPopMatrix();
    glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); //enable depth testing
    glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D); //enable texturing

    glDisable(GL_STENCIL_TEST); //disable the stencil testing

//end

    glEnable(GL_BLEND); //enable alpha blending
    glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA); /
/set teh alpha blending
    
    bench(); //draw our bench

    glDisable(GL_BLEND); //disable alpha blending

    glRotatef(angle,0,1,0); //rotate the square
    square(); //draw the square

    glutSwapBuffers();
    angle++;
}

void init (void) {
    glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);
    glDepthFunc(GL_LEQUAL);    
    glShadeModel (GL_SMOOTH);
    glHint(GL_PERSPECTIVE_CORRECTION_HINT, GL_NICEST);
    glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);

    texture[0] = loadtextures("texture.raw", 256,256);
    texture[1] = loadtextures("water.raw", 256,256);
}

void reshape (int w, int h) {
    glViewport (0, 0, (GLsizei)w, (GLsizei)h);
    glMatrixMode (GL_PROJECTION);
    glLoadIdentity ();
    gluPerspective (60, (GLfloat)w / (GLfloat)h, 0.1, 1000.0
);
    glMatrixMode (GL_MODELVIEW);
}

int main (int argc, char **argv) {
    glutInit (&argc, argv);
    glutInitDisplayMode (GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_RGBA | GLUT_STENCIL); //add a stencil buffer to the window
    glutInitWindowSize (500, 500);
    glutInitWindowPosition (100, 100);
    glutCreateWindow ("A basic OpenGL Window");
    init();
    glutDisplayFunc (display);
    glutIdleFunc (display);
    glutReshapeFunc (reshape);
    glutMainLoop ();
    return 0;
}

Download C++ Source Code for this Tutorial

Comments:

Name: Alberto
Date: 2010-02-19 00:50:09
Comment:
Hi,
thanks for your code. Anyway i have some advice on it.

0. Headers:

As glut tutorials says glut.h already contains all stuff for recognize o.s. so it's unuseful add window.h. You forget to add:
#include
for malloc and you added iosteam.h that is not needed.

1. Choose between c++ and c:

You should choose what language use. I mean you wrote all your examples are written in c++ and infact your source is written into a .cpp file, but reading your code i find a lot of c headers(all those that ends with .h extension) and c commands (like malloc instead of new) and your code is not object oriented. So why use a c++ compiler? As far as i know, there is no c++ opengl porting(i mean headers, and libraries) so
it's a bit unuseful write the code as you done and use a c++ compiler.
You're code is a "perfect" c code...this is not something bad ;)

2. Loadtextures return value:

Loadtextures should return a GLuint, so change function prototype as follow:

GLuint loadtextures (const char *filename, float width, float height)

3. Segmentation fault:

Running your application i get a Segmentation fault. This is for several reason:

a) you does not provided us textures file(texture.raw, water.raw)
I found texture.raw in "How to load and use textures in OpenGL" tutorial
and then i copied it on water.raw (for test).

b) you forget to add GLUT_DEPTH in glutInitDisplayMode call.

4. Compilation command:

on GNU/Linux minimal compilation command is: gcc basic_shadows.cpp -lglut

this could be useful for beginners


I hope this could help you and your readers.
Bye
Alberto

Name: Baby Stuey
Date: 2010-03-07 14:11:40
Comment:
Links to missing texture files:

http://www.swiftless.com/tutorials/opengl/cplusplus/texture.zip
http://www.swiftless.com/tutorials/opengl/cplusplus/water.zip
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