3DS Max - RTT HP Foliage with Shadows - Quickest Way?

ekul

Hi, I've made some high poly foliage that I am baking down. I'm having trouble baking even shadows across the object. I've tried using a photometric spotlight which gave me shadows but they weren't even; I rendered with a skylight and shadows turned on but render times went through the roof, even with MR renderer turned on. So that leaves me wondering what the quickest way to do this is?

This is an image saved from the render display and has even shadows like I'm trying to achieve:


This is with the Default Scanline renderer and a photometric light:

ekul

It was a bit of an odd question, but you know how it is when something is confusing and you just can't figure it out.

I've got the great result I wanted by simply RTT as usual with the Default Scanline with Lighting and Shadows checked and then multiplying an AO over the diffuse in Photoshop.