Baking Ambient Occlusion Maps - 3DS Max

[@rickgrossenbacher479]

Very helpful video! Thanks so much for making that!

[@bl44st]

At 6:00 you picked AO, I dont have that option. Where do i get this from?

[@nalunui]

My guess would be that you don't have the Mental Ray renderer assigned in your render setup (F10) on the general tab, scroll all the way to the bottom and make sure it doesn't say Default Scanline Renderer, but Nvidia Mental Ray. Other renderers like V-Ray will have their own versions as well, but with the Default Scanline you would only be able to choose something like a Complete map, rather than just an AO map.

[@KoudelkaX]

I had this same problem. In the Render to Texture window itself, the very top tab 'General settings' has a 'Render Settings' section. I chose mental.ray.daylighting one and it gave me the AO (MR) option described in the tutorial; Is this still a good option?

[@nalunui]

KoudelkaX That is a "preset" which is bunch of render settings, one of these settings will automatically switch your renderer to Mental Ray, yes. Presets are not always the best way to go, in this case it gave you the option for the AO map because part of the preset defines Mental Ray to be your Renderer. You can manually switch renderers by pressing F10, on the General Tab of your regular Render Settings window Go all the way to the bottom and open the rollout titled "Assign Renderer" there will be 3 choices each with an elipses button "..." click the top ... button and set it to Mental Ray. It will change your Renderer but allow you to decide on your own settings for the mental ray rather than a preset group of settings.

[@KoudelkaX]

Clint DiClementi I went back and applied the change as you described! Thanks so much for the advice. :)

[@RFC3514]

You should probably set the viewports to "shaded" (instead of "realistic") when showing the ambient occlusion maps, because "realistic" mode adds its own AO.

[@nalunui]

+RFC3514 very true, and a great suggestion! thanks

[@RFC3514]

Clint DiClementi - Another thing that might be worth mentioning (or even showing) is that, if your diffuse UVW map reuses some parts of the texture for different faces (ex., same texture coordinates for the top and bottom of a crate, or for the inside and outside of a tent, etc.) and you use that as the basis for the AO UVW, you might end up with AO "shadows" in the wrong place. Here it wasn't an issue because you had a full unwrap, but it happens a lot, especially in assets for games, etc., where people try to reuse textures as much as possible. So, if there's any overlap in the diffuse map, you'll generally want to make a separate UVW for the AO. It keeps happening to -me- some careless 3D modellers I know. ;-)

[@rayunited2010foryou]

+RFC3514 How do we use Ambient Occlusion when one is creating game level building using modular textures?

[@adamc3607]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! great video!!!!!

[@AtomicToyRobot]

my textures even though they are packed properly still stack weird and dont show the textures right for some reason

[@mecha_shadow]

i cant set the target map slot as diffuse, since the dropdown list is blank

[@Tac_3D]

How do I apply the Ambient Occlusion Map if I'm also using the SSS Material? Thanks

[@wanderstudi]

Thanks, very helpful

[@infotreetv1379]

very nice video great :)

[@piovouilloz3611]

there is no "Ambient Occlusion (MR)" in Add Texture Element, is that a plugg in ? in that case pleace tell me how to get it plz

[@nalunui]

+Pio Vouilloz You have to make sure you are using Mental Ray as your renderer if you want to use the MR elements.

[@BecauseYNotYT]

Thanks it was that in my case!

[@l2011fan]

Where can I get your preset? :-)

[@Quarther]

Thanks!

[@stephaniemclean2451]

Thank youuu!

[@sipsi6207]

I havent AO elements in 3ds max :( pls ı need your help