How to set best occlusion in xnormal?
polycounter lvl 14
Hi I have found nor many tuts and are either old or nt corresponding precisely to the actual xnormal interface , so could someone tell me how to correctly setup the occlusion in order to get an even one? most of the times I get just a washed out white texture rather than a detailed occlusion map 
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thanks for any answer...
...thanks for any answer...
Replies
From xNormal site. Some cool info there.
I find i have much more control using maya Transfer maps,with a custom dome GI setup script.
I dont know if there are people here that use the Occlusion in Xnormal,it would be nice to see a workflow on this.
Some stuff may help you though. Main xNormals advantage for me is speed. Just set low ray count and resolution. Change things and test. People usually use curvature/cavity map with ao for 'detailed' occlusion.
Iuse the cavity map makign for later but I wanted to have a better general AO that I never was able to get so far ...
I hope someone will be able to give you more specific info.
Last time I wrote it down I was using this :
Rays : 256
Distribution : Uniform
Bias : 0.000010
Spread Angle : 175
Limit ray distance : off
Attenuation : 1 ; 0 ; 0
Jitter, Ignore backface hits, Allow 100% occlusion : off
Now this was a little while ago so things might have changed since then... I'd have to double check.
Also remember to post the results of your best efforts and your own values when posting such a question, as it always makes it easier for everybody to follow.
http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/xnormal/3d_cg_vfx_ambient_occlusion_map_texturing_lighting_xnormal_rendering_baking/
To be honest, I have spent maybe something like 15 minutes one time to test all the parameters on one of my characters. From this I was able to find what was working well or not. (Printscreen each time you change a setting, then compare from this).
Sometimes people should try before asking help. :poly116:
^this or use your modeling application, though time will vary.
Froyok:
It's easier to just get others to do the work for us then we can clone them instead and look as leet.:poly136:
What works for me:
Increase model size (hi and low) to 3-5 (unless your model is very large/you want it to bake in the size it was made)
256 rays, rarely more
Distribution - uniform
Bias 0.08
Angle can be anywhere between 160 to 179, really depends on the model. I always change this value.
Attenuation will be default: 1/0/0. Though if you get banding in your bakes, changing the 2 "zeros" very very slightly might give you nicer results, I found.
Turn off 100% occlusion as well.
What will mainly control your occlusion result is the attenuation values. Changing them, even very slightly, will make a lot of difference on the result.
I'm no tech guru when it comes to why these things get me the best results, there are way too many software we come across these days for me to remember how each one calculates rays... but experimentation, which is the best way to get results, has lead me to these stats.
You are right, why learn how to eat when your mother can do it for you ?
I'm kidding, learning a bit of independence doesn't mean learning all by yourself.
no... it means everyone would have their own car.
Just step outside your comfort, those people that got there results had to trial and error, it didnt come straight away yes its frustrating when things dont go according to plan, but that then makes me want to solve it and understand why i am not getting it correct.
In your first post you could have at least shown an image of what you get with the settings you use, then people may be able to steer you in the right direction.
Doesn't work that way, you can't punch someone on the face and go "Aha!, kidding!". It's immature and to be fair, parents do teach their children how to eat, so do animals. So while I agree with what you are saying, it could be less crude.
I was being sarcastic but it has sparked conversation:thumbup:.:poly136:
So when you want another look from your AO bake, you don't have to start another thread asking for it.
Things like mesh detail, texture resolution, etc may effect the end result, so there really isn't any shortcut to simply testing it yourself. Though I usually use a high ray number like 1024 to avoid banding artifacts. Depending on how slow/fast yout computer is you'll want to try various values.
no free lunch etc