Avatar Shadows

Ported from Microsoft's XNA 4.0 Avatar Shadows Sample for Xbox 360.

Opens in a new tab. Click the game canvas to focus the keyboard. CNA supplies its own avatars and preset motions; their appearance and timing differ from Xbox avatars. The original requests an Alpha8 shadow target; CNA uses its general preferred-format fallback to Color while preserving the visible alpha-mask result. Keyboard emulation is enabled alongside gamepad input. Documented differences ↗

About this sample

This sample places 16 independently animated avatars on textured ground. Each avatar receives a random appearance, animation preset and world rotation.

It uses Matrix.CreateShadow to flatten the avatars onto a plane, renders that pass into a full-screen shadow texture, then samples the texture in a custom ground effect to darken shadowed pixels. The avatars are drawn normally in a second pass.

Controls

Action	Keyboard	Gamepad
Rotate camera	A / D	Left stick
Rotate light	Left / Right arrow	Right stick
Stop the sample	Escape	Back