Question about the AO node and AmbientOcclusion in general

Finnn

Hey everyone,

I have a question about the Ambient Occlusion (HBAO) node in Substance Designer. Whenever I want to use it, I have to run the output of the node through an 0 opacity blend node. Otherwise I cannot plug it into anyother output, not even the final output for AO.
I have the same thing appearing with the Emboss node.
Why is that happening?

My first guess would be, that AO is a more complex map than grayscale. Am I on the wrong path here`?

Some clarification would be very appreciated,

thank you!

Finn

poopipe

What version are you on?  I vaguely remember some weirdness a year or so back when they first replaced the old AO with HBAO

Jerc

Switch from material mode to regular mode in the toolbar above your graph view.

Finnn

poopipe said:

What version are you on?  I vaguely remember some weirdness a year or so back when they first replaced the old AO with HBAO

I work in the 2018.1.2!
I don't know the difference between AO and HBAO, gonna look that up now ^^

Jerc said:

Switch from material mode to regular mode in the toolbar above your graph view.

Oh wow, yeah you are right.
Can you explain to me, why this happens?
With most of the other nodes, material mode works perfectly fine.

Does the AO have a different kind of output than other greyscale nodes?

Jerc

Material mode only allows you to plug outputs in coresponding outputs. Most nodes don't have a specific usage attached tot them, so it's not an issue, but the AO node has an AO usage to it, so it will only plug itself in an AO input or output node.
On the bright side, that allows you to right-click drag and drop the node in your 3d view and that will plug the AO automatically without the need to go through an output node.

Finnn

Okay  Thanks alot for the clarifcation!