NDO2 normal to ao blue or greyscale

reedweinstock · Oct 2013

So when you convert a normal map to AO it makes it look like its blueish. I noticed in the options you can set to grey scale. my question is when i overlay this over my AO bake should do the greyscale or blue?

Thanks
Reed

passerby · Oct 2013

i dont know why it does this, but i always make it greyscale, since bakes from xn come out that way

Popol · Oct 2013

Why don't you make the comparison yourself? Duplicate the same model with finished textures, one with a grey scale AO and one with tinted AO. And see what looks better to you.

In my opinion the blue AO looks better.

underfox · Oct 2013

I often keep the blue AO for metalic part, in my opinion it helps getting a metalic effect.

BARDLER · Oct 2013

I would recommend using Knald to get an AO instead of doing it in nDo2. Knald uses real geometry and gives you a much higher quality result, while nDo2 just does a bunch of photoshop tricks to guess at the AO.

underfox · Oct 2013

Everyday is a school day. This software seems really nice. I'm going to check it out :P

cccprobot · Oct 2013

I really do not like nDo2's AO conversion from normal map. The only AO I use anymore is baked from xNormal.

That said, I LOVE nDo's Cavity, Specular and "Diffuse" conversions from Normal for diffuse map creation....

passerby · Oct 2013

@BARDLER but if your detials are made in ndo2, you kinda have to use it;s cavity and AO generation since there is no geo to bake from.

BARDLER · Oct 2013

passerby wrote: »

@BARDLER but if your detials are made in ndo2, you kinda have to use it;s cavity and AO generation since there is no geo to bake from.

Knald isn't a baking program. It uses your normal map to create a height map, and then uses that geometry to bake from. Here is a quick demo I did to show what I mean.

note, the nDo AO was a combination of of the highpoly AO and the details.

peanut · Oct 2013

I can't believe its not butter

NDO2 normal to ao blue or greyscale

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