How 3D Game Rendering Works: Lighting and Shadows

The vast majority of visual effects you see in games today depend on the clever use of lighting and shadows – without them, games would be dull and lifeless. In this fourth part of our deep look at 3D game rendering, we'll focus on what happens to a 3D world alongside processing vertices and applying textures. It once again involves a lot of math and a sound grasp of the fundamentals of optics.

We'll dive right in to see how this all works. If this is your first time checking out our 3D rendering series, we'd recommend starting at the beginning with our 3D Game Rendering 101 which is a basic guide to how one frame of gaming goodness is made. From there we've been working every aspect of rendering in the articles below...