Shadow Depths MS vs Occlusion Culling?

[Blue669]

Hi!

I have a very large level that is made of dynamic level pieces (like buildings). I have a skylight and movable directional lights above these pieces in the level. When I increase the amount of level pieces, performance starts to go down significantly (Shadow Depth MS increase a lot), even if the majority of these objects should not be rendered because of Occlusion Culling.

I can stare point blank at a wall and when the level is behind it, it still shows a huge MS count on Shadow Depths. Is there any way I can increase the performance of these Shadow Depths even with large amounts of these level piece objects?

[Deathrey (DeathreyCG)]

What you are observing, is generally expected and intended. The objects, that are outside of your camera view, can still cast shadow on whatever you see through the camera. In an unlikely case, where a directional light is shining the same way, as the camera, you would need to render shadow depth of whole world behind the camera, to get correct shadows in view. Considering that you mentioned directional lights in plural, whole your setup might be quite expensive.