Ambient Occlusion and Normal Maps?

C86G

I don´t remember where, but there was an article abput baking ambient occlusion maps right into the normal maps. I just cannot find good info about that.

So, what is the best way to use ambient occlusion on lowpoly models?
I usually combine it with my diffuse maps but there seems to be a better way.

Could you please tell me what´s about AO+normals?


Thanks : )

cryrid

http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap#Ambient_Occlusion_into_a_Normal_Map perhaps

C86G

Oh man.... thats exactly what I was looking for and i even DID search on the polycount wiki...

Thank you!


edit: Ok, tried it and works really nice.
But I am not sure about "adjust the levels of the AO layer first so the darks only go as low as 128 gray". How to do this? I painted some 128 gray as reference and adjusted the AO via levels.