threejs-lighting

To configure Three.js shadows, you must enable shadow maps, tune the shadow camera frustum, adjust the bias, and set appropriate shadow map sizes. This ensures accurate light targeting and balances visual fidelity with rendering performance.

Image-based lighting in Three.js requires PMREM-ready environment maps applied to physically based materials. This provides realistic ambient reflections and global illumination for your 3D scene without relying solely on direct light sources.

Hemisphere lights simulate outdoor sky-to-ground gradients, while ambient lights provide flat, uniform illumination across the entire scene. Choose hemisphere lighting for natural outdoor environments and ambient for basic base-level scene brightness.

Adding a directional key light involves instantiating a DirectionalLight, positioning it, and setting its target property. You must also configure the shadow camera frustum limits to ensure the illuminated object casts correct shadows.

Three.js supports rectangular area lights for indoor studio lighting setups. These lights emit light uniformly across a flat plane, providing realistic soft shadows when used with physically based materials and proper shadow tuning.

Shadow artifacts in Three.js typically occur due to incorrect shadow bias or low shadow map resolution. You can resolve these rendering issues by tuning the bias property and increasing the shadow map size for higher fidelity.