Baking AO to Vertex Colors in Max?

Tumerboy

So I was playing with vertex paint in max, and I found that there's a whole panel about illumination, and you can set up radiosity in there and then assign that to the vertex colors. Is there a way to use this to bake some basic AO into the vertex colors?
I guess I'm too dumb to figure it out myself, but if anyone has any tips or tricks with it, let me know.

Thanks
-Nick

EarthQuake

Xnormal has tools specificly for this if you cant figure it out in max.

Eric Chadwick

IIRC, create a Skylight, add a Vertex Paint modifier to your mesh, bake the lighting in that modifier.

Eric Chadwick

Yeah, it's that simple. Or pretty close.

1. Add a Skylight to the scene.
2. Add a VertexPaint modifier to your mesh. In the floater, choose the top-left colored box button (to see your vert colors).
3. In the modifier choose: Lighting Only, Color by Vertex.
4. Click on Radiosity Setup... change that drop down to Radiosity.
5. Back in VertexPaint choose "Radiosity, Render Direct Illum."
6. Back in the Radiosity panel click the Start button.
7. Back in VertexPaint click on Assign.
8. Collapse the stack if you want.

Tumerboy

Ah very good Eric, thanks!

I was missing a step or two in there.
Thanks a ton.

Eric Chadwick

Hey sure man. Also check out EQ's suggestion, Xnormal is pretty hot. Let us know how it turns out.