Dawn of the Geeks

Real time software rendering in Java is nearly completed. I’m currently tweaking the lighting calculations to make sure they’re correct. It is possible to have the lights cause walls to cast shadows but it kills the framerate. Global illumination (walls ignored) barely causes a hit to the framerate. The lighting class allows for both since not everyone is using an old system and it will allow for more advanced lighting when the code is more optimized, Java becomes faster, and/or the code is run on a faster system.

Currently there is a restriction so only 256 light sources can be defined per level. That’s completely arbitrary and will probably be removed before the tutorial is posted. The reason for the restriction is that a simple array is being used rather than a linked list.

I’m also planning on allowing lights to move in a circle of a defined radius. That will allow the level to look a little more alive. Historically lights have been precalculated because systems were too slow. If you don’t move the lights around and run time they might as well be.