this, basically. nb.: in xnormal, enable 'ignore backface hits' within the AO properties, not just in the general baking settings. In max i assume you'd set FG to pass through the floater objects, and disable shadow casting (least that's how i manage my HP clay renders with floaters). Don't bake AO in max though, so just a…
Yea I was going to say that exploding isnt really going to help with the floater issue. Well I dont own max and never used it, mainly maya/modo. I have ndo 2(trial version) and have tried the normal to AO a while back but yea it didnt look correct at all. Im going to try to bake the pieces that are using floaters in…
Xnormal has an option to ignore backfaces, this prevents shadows from floating geometry. Max can do something similar I think, but even if you're using max/maya, you can use the SBM exporter and render just AO in xnormal. You can also disable shadow cast in the object properties on your floater meshes in max? Explode…