NancyGormezano

I would not have guessed that originally, but now I understand why the right side is SSAO. What are your other lighting settings? eg ambiance. I don't see any evidence of lights, or ground plane?

I would like to have the opportunity to set the random amplitudes. Or understand where to insert a such counter. I just noticed that in 18a there is a new function AtTime(time, n) - perhaps that can be used? along with maybe If, gettime, trunc, round functions ? Is there a place somewhere, where there is a description of each (all) of these functions and what they do (along with maybe units?). I haven't used expressions - so I know nuthin'.

Great! and it would be even GREATer if we could see your results! Would love to see it.

Um..not sure I understand question. Do you mean the basics of SSAO? Do you want my SSAO settings for this chor? I suspect each chor will have to be handled differently, depending on your model's sizes, their amount of modeling detail, the final render resolution, maybe camera angle, and currently (until fixed) the number of passes. I found that for my stuff, I just had to play with the radius (how far out the occlusion/shadowing effect would spread), and up it from default 16 to 50 or 100. There is some addtional descriptions starting here earlier on in this thread which describes/shows some effects of changing SSAO settings (as well as render times). Post your results/settings and maybe we can suggest what to do? In this particular chor, I was going for a late afternoonish/twilightish typish lookish. This chor also has a 100 foot width, 50% white overhead Sun type light (with 1 ray trace shadows, 100% dark), and 3 kliegs with z buffered shadows (25% soft, 80% dark, 1 with flare on), uses 50% white Global Ambiance, front projected ground plane. I can post those settings as well if you'd like? I found that I particularly like how SSAO fills in the interior crevices with shadows on the model's detail, hair, displacements, but prefer the shadows from lights that get projected from a direction. EDIT: added the SSAO only render (2 pass) to show what SSAO contributes to scene. All other shadowing comes from the lights. The full render with SSAO was 3 pass.

Ah yes...The artifacts get disguised somewhat when combined with the color render. I also notice that number of black spots on lion's hair (in this 2 frame movie) is also less when go to 3 pass, but overall, fringes hanging off lions feet are gone. Unfortunately I like the interior ssao better on lion with 2 pass. But more than likely this will be addressed (differences in #passes). 2 frame movie - 2 pass (1st frame) versus 3 pass (2nd frame) - both radius 50, all other ssao settings default. 01Lion2pass3passcompare.mov

For my case, 1280 x 900 ver 18a/32: I left distance (25), gamma (1), blur (off), softness (50%) - all at defaults. I rendered mostly at 2 pass, and tried 5 pass for one case. Did see some difference with the 5 pass, but couldn't say which was better, for my taste. Probably the 5 pass. I varied samples (default =16, 32), radius (default =16, 100), density (default = 50%, 100%). The rendering times shown are for Cpu SSAO computation only (last pass). The other computations consumed 12-13 secs/pass Biggest bang for buck for this scene was increasing the radius from 16 to 100, IMO. Render time went from 20 secs to 41 secs, and looked better (for my taste). Least bang for buck was increasing the density to 100% and render time went to over 5 mins! Not worth it. Use keyboard arrow keys (forward, back) to see the differences. There are 5 frames. (hope that works on forum, it works on my qt player) 00.mov

Nice! Plenty good enough for me.

Thanks Robert. And I can't believe I missed that 1st radius property! I kept thinking you were refering to the radius associated with the Blur. Duh on me. But still, I have no idea what the distance property means or what units it is (after the first radius), but I do notice if I decrease the distance (leaving radius constant, default), effect gets lighter. Is it a falloff? I haven't yet seen any effect from changing Luminance influence (goes from 0 to 1) Back to the experimenting.

Werry Intewesting. I shall have to experiment more. What is the scale of your models? Mine are about 3 feet high (90 cm). Focal length for camera? Mine is default 70. Don't know if that has anything to do with anything, it did with FAKEAO. Do you know what the units are for distance? is it pixels? cm? What were your SSAO settings for that movie?

Interesting - I usually am using only 2 passes or 5 passes and have not noticed a difference in SSAO (same chor) - but I will go back and reinvestigate. (18a/32) I like that it is only figured once on the last pass, as my normal passes for a particular chor takes maybe 12 secs, and the SSAO adds an additional 20 secs to the last pass. I also found that the resolution of the image influences the SSAO look (larger is darker effect). See images in my post above - looks different for 1280 x 900 versus 640 x 450. (compare 1st image and the top result of the 2nd image) I have been using distance = 25 (default) and have found it plenty dark enough (1280 x 900). In fact, for this chor, I found ALL the default settings to be good. Maybe the version 64 bit you are using makes different results than 18a/32?

Very interesting. Neat effect. Can you explain in more detail what you are doing, please? Onion skinning? Does this only work with screen capturing?

Nice set of buildings! I am wondering about your rendering times and settings. What are your plans for rendering this animation?

Nice Robert! I am going to guess this is done with a very large sun type light (100 feet-ish?, small fall-off), overhead pointed straight down, with multiple/lots of rays (not sure how many), distributed in passes?, (not sure how many passes - 9 or more?) Has encouraged me to play more with sun type light!

Ooooo...I like that!...might be a bit better if the stars were not all the same size

Happy happy birthday birthday!

Thanks again! - more great, helpful and new information. And best of all, from those whose opinions and knowledge I respect highly!

Thanks mucho Fuchur & Robert - I am digesting and investigating what both of you have suggested - Very helpful! But I am a little concerned about nvidia now? Did Steffen have a problem with his system and nvidia gtx660? He used this system to run the teapot benchmark test shown in this link to summarize he said: my system will be only 16gb, and comes with the gtx650 The only bloatware that I think (and hope) will be coming is 12 month subscription to McCrappy virus software - I prefer Norton, and will probably replace. When you get a DELL thru their business systems oriented pages - they don't load them up on dumb software luckily. Not so, when you get it via their "home/consumer" user pages. At least that's the theory, and seemed to be the case on my current last Dell system (2007?).

Okey dokey folkey - The scaredy-cat Luddites have FINALLLY jumped a little further into the early part of the 21st century. (caution: Bragging alert - since this is a close setup to what I believe Steffen is using) We just ordered 2 new compootahs (both the same so we won't fight): i7-4770, 16GB, nvidia, GTX650 - 1 GB, 24" Ultrasharp monitor, win7 pro 64. All parts should be here late April (monitor is the hangup, computers arrive next week from DELL) 1) Any sage advice how to transition "easily" ? (from win xp pro 32, nvidia GTS 8600, 256MB...um...uh...Viewsonic 18" CRT) I'm looking at Zinstall XP7, to transfer all programs! (yes programs! not just data), since I probably have legacy software that won't run, and I'm wanting to be up and running as fast as possible, least hassle, and take my time, re-installing everything (even that which will run in 64). ZINSTALL looks like you can then do it at your leisure reinstalling in the 64 environment? or am I mis-understanding? Anyone have any experience with ZINSTALL? 2) Any advice on replacing my 19 year old wacom tablet (bought at time with win95)...so I believe Wacom no longer makes/supports drivers (still have to check) - it's a UD-0608-R - about 8.5 x 6 inch working space, still using original pen, nib...pressure sensitivity maybe 256 levels? 3) Partitioning? Ghosting software? - Currently I have most of my A:M resource libraries on drive D, but projects are spread between C, D. I am most concerned with relinking of old A:M projects. On new system, I would like to keep a partition C, for programs/software only, and put all data on partition D...am I creating problems (for relinking A:M projects)? Is this necessary? IE, If I partition and keep things the same as old system (a random mishmash), can I selectively ghost certain things (like programs only) - or will it do the whole partition? 4) any other gotchas?

terrific looking!

Good hint. So yes, there are some funny patches on the irises (but those patches aren't meant to be seen). But weird thing is that both eyes have the same funny patches and all the models have the same eyes. I would expect to see same problem on all eyes? However, it's a good idea to try and fix, but I also notice in 18a/32 when I try to isolate the irises, to do anything with them, that A:M stops responding. Models were developed in 16b. I will go back to 16b to try and modify and see if that makes difference (wouldn't hurt)

Of course! Evil jelly beans contaminated with alien viruses! Oh wait...I forgot what season this is....never mind.

Cute! (but no popping of bunny balloons as they land on broken glass shards? I thought for sure they were filled with flammable gases that would result in a scorched earth)

Yay! - Good effects (sound, cameras)!

I have found that the results are not only based on distance, gamma values (haven't tried other variables), but also the resolution rendered, how much modeled detail as well as bumps, displacement, hair, and probably model sizes. Everything rendered multipass (2 pass), cpu SSAO, 18a/32 the SSAO effect in first image 1280 x 900 with all defaults looks quite different from the top render in 2nd image (640 x 450) - all defaults bigger distances = darker smaller gammas = darker EDIT: I was wrong. SSAO does not reflect bump maps. And I have no idea why one eye isn't getting the SSAO effect on some models, as they are all the same. EDIT: more findings: I see no effect from changing radius only (changed from 1 default to 1000 and to .1). BLUR must be ON (duh) to see any effect with changing radius. Bigger radius = Bigger blur Could not see any effect from changing Luminence Influence from 0 (default, and minimum) to 1 (maximum) Changing density from 50% (default) to 100% increased render times (twice?) but had a slight darkening effect (not worth it) And final images are without SSAO (2 pass - 23 secs) and with default settings SSAO applied by A:M (43 secs)

Well you can use both bump & displacement on same surface if you are looking for different results. And using the same image, for both, is probably a wash. Here is example of the using different images for bump & displacement and neither are gray scale, but have enough contrast to have an effect. For the stuff that I do, I rarely use a gray scale image for either bump or displacement. BUT if I were wanting to be accurate or more precise for creating hills and valleys then I would use a gray scale image where white is raised, black is indented, and grey (127, 127, 127) represents no change.