Important Note: Prior to replacing any original shaders with the custom versions available here, it is a good idea to create backup copies of the originals to prevent any unintended loss of data. - THIS IS NOT A REPLACEMENT OF LIGHTMAPPING
Enhanced Shadow Mapping and Dynamic Lighting for Halo 2 to significantly improve the shadow mapping and dynamic lighting within Halo 2. This shader employs advanced techniques to deliver more realistic and visually pleasing result.
Shadow Mapping: Description: This advanced HLSL shader combines two prominent techniques for shadow mapping: Percentage-Closer Filtering (PCF) and Poisson Disk Sampling. PCF is used to smooth out the hard edges often found in basic shadow mapping, making the shadows look more natural. Poisson Disk Sampling adds a randomization aspect to the shadow edges, making them appear softer and more realistic. The shader includes a bias term to minimize self-shadowing artifacts and uses a 5-tap kernel for the PCF combined with 12 Poisson Disk samples, ensuring a balanced compromise between performance and visual quality:
