I know you're supposed to use mental ray for rendering ambient occlusion maps. But do you use mental ray for rendering normal maps, or do you use the default scanline renderer?
+1 to Glynn with exception to the AO maps. MR does very nice AO. it may take a little longer but you get much finer control over the final map. With MR's ambient occlusion you can set a maximum distance value which essentially lets you control the distance at which a ray hit wont cause occlusion. this is great when using floaters. you simply set the max distance and ensure that your floaters are above that height. Max distance is also really important if you want to create a cavity map as you can just restrict the shading to small crevices
Hmmm. Can you guys give some examples of settings, for me to try out? I do like the idea of using Mental Ray, but I find the simplicity and quickness of the scanline to trump it.
I've written a couple tutorials on how to set it up, depending on which version of 3dsMax you are using. In 2011 it's extremely simple and only requires a couple clicks:
I've actually noticed that with 2011 it seems to be a lot smarter about having overlapped or inverted faces than it used to be. Whether baking normals or AO, 2011 seems to let you have inverted or overlapped faces without error so long as they are symmetrical UV sets without the need to move them outside of the 0,1 space.
I have a second tutorial listed there for Mental Ray AO for previous versions other than 2011. I updated the post because the features are slightly different, and that is the version I am teaching in my class
Let me know if I miss a step, over-complicate anything, or anything is "wrong", because its the same methods I have used for years as well
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I use the scanline renderer for both normals and AO. It's quicker for me to set up, it's quicker at rendering, and it usually yields better results.
I used both, but then I switched to xNormal.
http://wiki.polycount.com/AmbientOcclusionMap
But it'll all be in the settings, no doubt.
http://www.laurenscorijn.com/articles/ambient-occlusion-baking
http://donott-lcad.blogspot.com/2009/09/mental-ray-ambient-occlusion.html
I've actually noticed that with 2011 it seems to be a lot smarter about having overlapped or inverted faces than it used to be. Whether baking normals or AO, 2011 seems to let you have inverted or overlapped faces without error so long as they are symmetrical UV sets without the need to move them outside of the 0,1 space.
OTT, I'm a Max 2009 user, so I'm not sure if it'll translate all that well, if it's more geared to 2011. But I shall have a look. Cheers
Let me know if I miss a step, over-complicate anything, or anything is "wrong", because its the same methods I have used for years as well