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WebGLRenderer: Optimize VSM shadow code#32181

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mrdoob merged 1 commit into
devfrom
vsm
Nov 6, 2025
Merged

WebGLRenderer: Optimize VSM shadow code#32181
mrdoob merged 1 commit into
devfrom
vsm

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@mrdoob

@mrdoob mrdoob commented Nov 4, 2025

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Description

Changes

  • Better variable names (mean, variance, d, p_max) for clarity
  • Removed redundant outer clamp() - result is already guaranteed to be in [0,1]
  • Pre-computed constant (0.65 instead of 0.95 - 0.3)
  • Early return optimization for fully lit pixels
  • Fixed variance epsilon from 0.00000 to 0.0000001 to actually prevent division by zero

Benefits

  • Slightly better performance: Fewer operations per pixel
  • Improved numerical stability: Proper epsilon prevents division by zero and NaN issues
  • More maintainable: Clearer variable names and better code structure
  • Identical visual output: All changes are mathematically equivalent to the original

@mrdoob mrdoob added this to the r182 milestone Nov 4, 2025
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github-actions Bot commented Nov 4, 2025

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📦 Bundle size

Full ESM build, minified and gzipped.

Before After Diff
WebGL 355.14
86.33
355.01
86.3
-136 B
-26 B
WebGPU 609.62
170.99
609.62
170.99
+0 B
+0 B
WebGPU Nodes 608.23
170.72
608.23
170.72
+0 B
+0 B

🌳 Bundle size after tree-shaking

Minimal build including a renderer, camera, empty scene, and dependencies.

Before After Diff
WebGL 486.77
121.07
486.63
121.05
-136 B
-26 B
WebGPU 678.47
186.28
678.47
186.28
+0 B
+0 B
WebGPU Nodes 620.47
169.54
620.47
169.54
+0 B
+0 B

@mrdoob

mrdoob commented Nov 4, 2025

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Maybe #32180 makes VSM shadows redundant too...

@Mugen87

Mugen87 commented Nov 4, 2025

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VSM can blur the shadow map as a whole which a great quality advantage over PCF. Also in #32180, you see the noise structure especially with larger radii at the shadow edges because there is no denoise or temporal filtering in place. Depending on the scene and how closely you look at the shadows, that could be considered as a quality issue (and a reason for using VSM).

@mrdoob

mrdoob commented Nov 6, 2025

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That's true yeah. Okay, lets keep VSM 👌

@mrdoob mrdoob merged commit 46961fb into dev Nov 6, 2025
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@mrdoob mrdoob deleted the vsm branch November 7, 2025 05:09
mrdoob pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Nov 7, 2025
Port optimizations from PR #32181 to the WebGPU renderer:
- Extract mean variable for clarity
- Add early return optimization for fully lit pixels
- Improve variable naming (d, p_max)
- Correct variance epsilon from 0 to 0.0000001
- Pre-compute constant (0.65 instead of 0.95 - 0.3)
- Remove redundant outer clamp
- Add clarifying comments

These changes improve performance by reducing operations per pixel
while maintaining identical visual output.
mrdoob added a commit that referenced this pull request Nov 7, 2025
Port optimizations from PR #32181 to the WebGPU renderer:
- Extract mean variable for clarity
- Add early return optimization for fully lit pixels
- Improve variable naming (d, p_max)
- Correct variance epsilon from 0 to 0.0000001
- Pre-compute constant (0.65 instead of 0.95 - 0.3)
- Remove redundant outer clamp
- Add clarifying comments

These changes improve performance by reducing operations per pixel
while maintaining identical visual output.

Co-authored-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
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2 participants