Indoor AO Map Bake

Revel

Hi guys, I have a question regarding baking an AO map of a corridor (closed, indoor scene) in Max. here is the scene that I'm trying to bake an AO map using Max's MR AO baking process..



Note that I have 3 omni lights in the scene.
And here is the result..



It's pretty much like what I expected to happen, all black, and it really did like that . So what is the correct way to do this?..if I explode the mash first, I think it'll gonna be the inverse of this, all white. Without AO Map it's gonna be hard to get start making diffuse texture.
I never done any indoor scene before, so any help will be much appreciated!

_Revel

JordanW

Whatever you're baking the AO map with you need to set a max distance for the rays. That way they only cast out a foot or so before returning white.

ivars

Lights are not used in an AO-bake. So it doesn't matter how many ambient lights you throw in there. Do as JordanW says

Revel

AH!..I see, did a quick test with Max Dist. setting, and it works OK now..thanks guys!..and especially for a VERY fast response!

Only god knows how much I love Polycount! haha..back to work!

_Revel

Mark Dygert

Yep, what Jordon and ivars said.

Alternatively you can apply a white material to your scene objects, add lights and bake a diffuse texture with lights and shadows turned on in RTT.

Acumen

While, you guys are on it. I had this so many times before, what would be the place to look for the Max Distance feature in "normal" Light Tracer rendering ?
Or would this only work within the realms of MentalRay ?