Shadow Mapping is faint - opengl

Question

I am trying to do OpenGL GLSL based shadow mapping. The trouble is that after I have finished rendering the shadow map, I am rendering the map to the screen to test whether the rendering works correctly or not i.e I am simply using the newly generated texture as a texture which I am mapping on to the screen. The expected result is that I will see the new texture. But instead, what i am seeing is a white area with the texture drawn but extremely faint. That is, if I tilt the screen at a certain angle only then I can see the faint outlines of the shadow map.
Can anyone tell me if I am doing anything wrong?
Here is relevant parts of my code :
void Init_FBO()
{
//glActiveTexture(GL_TEXTURE3);
GLfloat border[] = {1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f};
glGenTextures(1, &depthTex);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, depthTex);
glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT24,900,900, 0, GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT, GL_FLOAT, NULL);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_NEAREST);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_NEAREST);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, GL_CLAMP_TO_BORDER);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, GL_CLAMP_TO_BORDER);
glTexParameterfv(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_BORDER_COLOR, border);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_COMPARE_MODE, GL_COMPARE_REF_TO_TEXTURE);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_COMPARE_FUNC, GL_LESS);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D,0);
glGenFramebuffers(1, &shadowFBO);
glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, shadowFBO);
glDrawBuffer(GL_NONE);
glReadBuffer(GL_NONE);
glFramebufferTexture2D(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, GL_DEPTH_ATTACHMENT, GL_TEXTURE_2D, depthTex, 0);
glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, 0); // go back to the default framebuffer
// check FBO status
GLenum FBOstatus = glCheckFramebufferStatusEXT(GL_FRAMEBUFFER);
if(FBOstatus != GL_FRAMEBUFFER_COMPLETE)
{
printf("GL_FRAMEBUFFER_COMPLETE failed, CANNOT use FBO\n");
}
else
{
printf("Frame Buffer Done Succesfully\n");
}
}
void generateShadowTex()
{
//Calculate final ligting properties
glm::vec4 a_f=light_ambient*mat_ambient;
glm::vec4 d_f=light_diffuse*mat_diffuse;
glm::vec4 s_f=light_specular*mat_specular;
int counter=0;
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); // need depth test to correctly draw 3D objects
glClearColor(0,0,0,1);
//glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT|GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
glClear(GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
glCullFace(GL_FRONT);
if(wframe)
glPolygonMode(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK,GL_LINE);
else
glPolygonMode(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK,GL_FILL);
glUseProgram(programObject);
//Draw the stuff using Light Position as camera
//glutSwapBuffers();
glActiveTexture(GL_TEXTURE3);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D,depthTex);
glUseProgram(0);
}
void generateScene()
{
//Calculate final ligting properties
glm::vec4 a_f=light_ambient*mat_ambient;
glm::vec4 d_f=light_diffuse*mat_diffuse;
glm::vec4 s_f=light_specular*mat_specular;
int counter=0;
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); // need depth test to correctly draw 3D objects
glClearColor(0,0,0,1);
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT|GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
//Draw the stuff using camera as camera position
}
glutSwapBuffers();
glUseProgram(0);
}
void display()
{
glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, shadowFBO);
generateShadowTex();
glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, 0);
generateScene();
}

Answer 1

your depth texture is looking normally, depth covers range from near to far clip planes, you can set some reasonable clipping planes using glFrustumf(...)