Question about ambient occlusion

rpm45

Is there any way to get ambient occlusion using only Daz Studio's built-in surfaces, lights, and cameras? Some sort of 3delight render script, maybe, or a setting I missed on a camera? I'm very new to DS so I'll be surprised if I'm not just missing something. :)

So far the only ways I've found to get AO in a scene involve changing object surfaces, or using lights that support AO. Yes, the (excellent) included UberSurface and UberEnvironment from OmniFreaker do this, so that's one option. But I really like being able to see (at least approximately) what I'm doing when I adjust lights and such, and the UberStuff is pure software-render only. And I don't really want to go through and re-surface every object and figure I use in a scene.

(I don't expect to see AO live in the workspace; I'm just talking about the basic lighting intensity, colour, etc.)

Thanks for your help!
-R.

Joe Cotter

rpm45 said:

...Some sort of 3delight render script...

Render script, ie during render, as in not in workspace. To answer the original question, afaik no, aoc is render only.

rpm45

Thanks, but that's not quite what I'm looking for. I figured AO would only be done at render time. I'm asking whether it's possible to have a scene rendered with ambient occlusion when I'm only using DS-standard lights and surfaces (no UberStuff).

Bejaymac

No, the default surface shader & lights don't have AO, the only way is 3rd party shaders like Omnifreakers or with the built in Shader Mixer

Joe Cotter

rpm45 said:

... But I really like being able to see (at least approximately) what I'm doing when I adjust lights and such, and the UberStuff is pure software-render only. -R.

This is where you are contradicting yourself... but I like to see... means in the workspace, software render... means when rendering... either you can see while you are adjusting, ie are in the workspace, or you can't see the ao while you are adjusting because it is render only....

Having said that, technically you can see while rendering if you are rendering to something like LUX (Reality or externally) or Oxygen. But with default out of the box DS your statements were self contradictory.

rpm45

Bejaymac: Okay, thanks. That's what I figured.

Gedd: I meant that in the workspace I like to see the lighting setup -- how well lit different parts of the scene are, light colours, that sort of thing. I never expected to see AO effects without the render. But (as far as I can tell) OmniFreaker's lights don't show up at all in the workspace, so I have to keep re-rendering every time I make an adjustment.

Thanks for the heads-up about Oxygen and Lux/Reality. I hadn't heard about either before. They look pretty amazing!

Richard Haseltine

Assuming you have a standard consumer video card you will see previews of only the first seven lights - most cards support eight, and the first is used by the default "headlamp" in DS.

rpm45

Yeah, I've found that out. Frustrating, but I'm sure it's necessary to keep the workspace reasonably responsive. I've found that when I want to adjust a light, I turn off all but a few others so I can see what I'm doing, then turn them back on for rendering. Works reasonably well.

So that's a video card limitation, eh? Darn. I was hoping it was something I could change with a software setting. Thanks!

Joe Cotter

rpm45 said:

... But (as far as I can tell) OmniFreaker's lights don't show up at all in the workspace, so I have to keep re-rendering every time I make an adjustment...

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification :)

Yes actually I've had some issues about this myself using UberEnvironment now that you mention it.