3ds max viewport AO minimum radius

Joost

Does anyone know of a way to decrease the radius further? It looks fine in orthographic mode but in perspective mode and camera views it's way too big.

(Using 2012)

Ott

Did you try rescaling your objects?

Joost

It's all in (approximately) real world scale so I can't really mess with the scale.

Ott

Try saving. Scaling. Rebaking AO. Reopening.

You don't have to keep the size forever - only to get the maps.

It's easier to help with screenshots of the results as well.

Amsterdam Hilton Hotel

i kinda think you should change your system/display units so you can work at a non-microscopic scale. the default for this setting is like, 15. but if you can't do that then you can still instance your model and scale it up just for screenshots

Joost

Sorry I should have been a bit more clear. I meant viewport SSAO.

It's a very minor issue but It's been bugging me at work. Won't be able to change the unit scale but instancing and scaling up should be alright, thanks!

monster

The lower limit is imposed on the spinner on the UI. You can set a lower radius with MaxScript.

To make the code re-usable, paste the following into a new MaxScript editor window. Then select the text and drag it to your toolbar. It'll make a button for you. Then you can right click on the button and edit the appearance.

aViewport = NitrousGraphicsManager.GetActiveViewportSetting()
aViewport.AmbientOcclusionRadius = 0.001

Joost

Thanks Monster, that's exactly what I was after!
For future reference, where/how did you find that command?

It's a pretty pointless script but I made a rollout for it if anyone's interested.

(
Rollout ChangeAORadius "SSAO"

(
spinner AORadius "AO Radius" range:[0.001,10,0.05] type:#float scale:0.005

	on AORadius changed val do
	(
	aViewport = NitrousGraphicsManager.GetActiveViewportSetting()
	aViewport.AmbientOcclusionRadius = val
	)
	
spinner AOIntensity "AO Intensity" range:[0,10,1] type:#float 

	on AOIntensity changed val do
	(
	aViewport = NitrousGraphicsManager.GetActiveViewportSetting()
	aViewport.AmbientOcclusionIntensity = val
	)
)

CreateDIalog ChangeAORadius
)

monster

Honestly, I've just been MaxScripting for 15+ years. When new versions of Max come out I study the What's New page for MaxScript and the SDK.

From there, I was made aware of the NitrousGraphicsManager, so I did the following command to find the active viewport settings.

showInterface NitrousGraphicsManager

Finally, the flollwing command to get the ambient occlusion setting:

aViewport = NitrousGraphicsManager.GetActiveViewportSetting()
showInterfaces aViewport

Note showInterface and showInterfaceS are different commands.

Joost

Bit beyond my limited scripting skills, but thanks a lot for the explanation!