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Shadows

Gaussian Splats can cast shadows onto meshes and other surfaces in your scene.

View Live Example - See splat shadows in action.

Splat Shadows

Enabling Shadow Casting​

To enable shadow casting on a GSplat component, set the castShadows property:

entity.gsplat.castShadows = true;

Or when creating the component:

entity.addComponent('gsplat', {
    asset: splatAsset,
    castShadows: true
});

You'll also need a light with shadow casting enabled:

entity.light.castShadows = true;

Shadow Quality​

For better shadow quality, you can adjust the alpha clip threshold on the global GSplat material. This controls how transparent splats contribute to shadows:

app.scene.gsplat.material.setParameter('alphaClip', 0.4);
app.scene.gsplat.material.update();

Lower values include more semi-transparent splats in the shadow, while higher values create sharper but potentially incomplete shadows.

note

The alphaClip parameter is a temporary measure. A more official API for controlling shadow quality is planned for a future release.

Receiving Shadows​

Splats cannot directly receive shadows from other objects. However, you can work around this limitation by using a shadow catcher - an invisible mesh that approximates the splat's shape and writes to the depth buffer to receive shadows.

See 3DGS with Physics and Relighting for an example of this technique in action.