2008

Ambient Occlusion (MR) Map
Use an ambient occlusion map when you want the surface information to
describe how much ambient light the surface can receive. The ambient
occlusion map considers the obstruction of the light by surface contours and
surrounding objects. By using the ambient occlusion map when rendering,
you do not need to set up special lighting, replace materials on the objects,
or use with global overrides because the ambient occlusion map already
accounts for these settings.
You can use ambient occlusion maps with or without a Projection modifier
and for many different purposes. Use them to mask layers in Adobe Photoshop,
for items such as painted edits and texture maps. Also use them as dirt maps,
or as masks for reflections or specular light.
NOTE By default, the shader used by the Ambient Occlusion bake element excludes
the low-resolution object from the ambient occlusion calculations whenever
performing projection-mapped texture baking. However, if the Projection Mapping
option
Include Working Model on page 6217 is enabled, then the occlusion rays
will include the working model. In this case, projection rays also include the working
model. No undesired blank areas appear on the map, because there are no cases
where a projection ray passes though the lo-res model to hit a point on the high-res
model that is completely occluded by the low res.
NOTE This map is available only when the mental ray renderer is active.
Baked Texture Elements | 6179