Shadow Softness Slider in Eevee Scene Properties-- instead of checkbox to toggle softness on and off
While doodling with Eevee, I wanted shadows that were blurrier than with Shadow Softness turned off, but less blurry than with Shadow Softness turned on. Since both shadow systems are relatively quick to render, and the checkbox tooltip says it works by "randomiz(ing) shadowmaps origin," I figured it would be relatively trivial, computationally speaking, to calculate vectors for both styles of shadowmap origins, and simply lerp between them before baking the shadowmaps.
In theory, this should make it possible to adjust overall shadow smoothness with a slider, anywhere from 0.00 (completely matching light sources) to 1.00 (completely random,) simply by adjusting the lerp value. The benefit to the end-user would be almost infinitely granular possibilities between fully smooth and fully crisp shadows in Eevee.
3 Comments
Eevee being primarily a PBR renderer, lets you control shadow softness via lamp size.
* @tochezpab * I wonder if maybe this feature could be used as a multiplier with the lamps' radius? Might be useful.
* @tochezpab * Interesting. I was told lamp size controls how light "wraps around" the model, not shadow softness per sey. I had scaled my key light up to 90 degree angle as a substitute for half-fresnel lighting like Half-Life had.
I still think it would be an interesting feature, but you're right. Adjusting the size/angle per light source is literally this feature, only adjustable per-light.