If your output engine has fully support for SSAO and proper shadows, then I maybe can see going without AO, but AO isn't the same as shadows. AO just handles where two objects meet. When are you using lighting harsh enough and powerful enough that it would cancel out the occlusion effect on any object? You'd be hard pressed to find a good lighting model that makes AO look incorrect...
is there difference between an AO map and normal map? I know normals add details to a less detailed object but you said an AO also adds depth. Is there a big difference between the two?
n88tr, i took a couple of minutes and made a compilation with some variations of diffuse, AO and normal maps. I hope it helps you to see and understand the difference of the map itself and the see those maps in combination.
yeah, a Ao map supports the effect of a normal map and the other way around.
I'm not a fan of crazybump .. in my opinion, it seduces to be lazy. Compute a specular and normal map out of your diffuse isn't the right way. The best thing would be, see for you self and experiment.
As mentioned earlier, i use xnormal to bake down the HighRes info in my LowPoly. And sometimes i use in ndo2 as a supportive AO layer.
AO is drawing shading where objects meet one another. That's all, it's just a grayscale map that computes shading. Normal maps are RGB maps that are referring to XYZ coordinates of higher detail modeling; derived from Zbrush, for example. We use normal maps to add edge and surface detail to objects without actually needing to calculate all that high res poly information in-game.
thanks, i'm glad you like it.
i divided the texture in three different ones (1x M249 [2048²], 1x EOTech Scope [512²] and 1x AmmoPouch with Ammo [512²])
Really nice asset. The only crit i have is that the ammo could use a little more spec, the gun would get wear and tear from use, but ammo is kept in boxes until it's loaded into a gun, so would stay relatively shiny and new looking.
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famous last words lol
How do you make an AO?
I am getting crazybump soon and was hoping it would help me with that. It seems like a good product to use.
I'm not a fan of crazybump .. in my opinion, it seduces to be lazy. Compute a specular and normal map out of your diffuse isn't the right way. The best thing would be, see for you self and experiment.
As mentioned earlier, i use xnormal to bake down the HighRes info in my LowPoly. And sometimes i use in ndo2 as a supportive AO layer.
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can i call it finished? What do you guys think?
Any chance you could show the different maps?
Also what textures size did you work on?
i divided the texture in three different ones (1x M249 [2048²], 1x EOTech Scope [512²] and 1x AmmoPouch with Ammo [512²])