AO mapping

[Sunbleached 66]

Hello. Please help! I'm trying to create ao map for the house. But inside I get darkness. Is it necessary to place a light source inside? And most importantly - can I get ao map of a house without a light source at all? Thank you very much for any help!

Edited October 5, 2017 by Sunbleached

[Lindal Kidd 11,315]

I think maybe you mean a "UV map".

If you have shadows enabled in your viewer preferences, interiors of buildings will be darker than the exteriors simply because the walls block the light.  You can fix this by adding a light source to the interior, disabling shadows, or setting the interior wall textures to Full Bright.

[Chic Aeon 10,490]

It depends in part whether you are using Cycles Render or Blender Render as the steps to get an AO is different in each of them.   In Cycles you do indeed use a light source (or several) inside OR you can back sections separately (like the roof without the walls, walls without windows and doors etc.). Different projects might be attacked from different directions. 

In Blender Render there is something about "gathering" maybe in the WORLD tab?  It has been almost three years since I used Blender Render so I really can't remember. No doubt someone will let you know.  Best to let the folks on the thread know which engine you are using though.

And good luck.

If you haven't tried uploading your "whole house" you might want to do that before worrying about your baking as uploading a house in one piece often comes with issues. And you may need to backtrack some. Just a suggestion. 
 

[Chic Aeon 10,490]

What "I" would do --- and again, I would never upload this in one piece but that's me -- is select all the roof parts (with ceiling and drag them UP quite a ways (along Z)  Then add lighting inside and bake at the same time. Again there is a better way in Blender Render -- I just don't remember it. A search of forums including "baking" "too dark" would probably find your answer. 

Also it is very unlikely that you will be happy with the results baking the WHOLE house on one texture like this. Not enough pixels. So you may want to make things at least two textures :D.  Again, personal taste.

Good luck. Glad the tutorials were helpful.  

[Aquila Kytori 452]

Hi

7 hours ago, Sunbleached said:

I added pictures of my house bunker. as you can see inside is really quite dark. And I tried both engines and both results give such a picture. I'm already thinking about doing ao map without a roof in parts. Can you still something to advise?

 

 

3 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

Again there is a better way in Blender Render -- I just don't remember it. A search of forums including "baking" "too dark" would probably find your answer.

I'm guessing this is the thread Chic is thinking of :

 

No lights needed when baking AO's taxtures.

 

And I found another one that survived the change to the new forum format :

I'm planning on getting a new PC soon with an up todate graphics card  that will be able to handle Cycles, so if you have a few hours Chic ........... some of us will be looking for Cycles AO bake Tutorials  

[Chic Aeon 10,490]

14 minutes ago, Aquila Kytori said:

I'm planning on getting a new PC soon with an up todate graphics card  that will be able to handle Cycles, so if you have a few hours Chic ........... some of us will be looking for Cycles AO bake Tutorials

 

 

LOL. Who would have though?  Actually I don't ever bake AOs in Cycles since I bake the textures in there (one BIG reason for loving it) but I 'have' done it once just to see and pretty sure I can remember. All the rules are basically the same.  Just a different button. Will look into that. And congrats on the new machine. I think you will be VERY HAPPY with Cycles. Much more realistic IMHO.

 

Cheers

[Chic Aeon 10,490]

@Aquila Kytori

Well I am not sure this is going to be very HELPFUL but I just did a test for an AO map and all I did differently from my tutorials was choose Ambient Occlusion in the BAKE menu - LOL.

Here is what I got. Seemed to work fine. You obviously wouldn't need to work hard on your materials set up as that is all ignored. Here is the screenshot.

 

Remember in Cycles LIGHTING IS THE KEY!!!!!  Big time. 

 

And YES this is going in some space leftover in another baked texture of the set -- hence its odd layout 

 

[Sunbleached 66]

@Chic Aeon @Lindal Kidd

Hi guys! thanks for answers!
Chic Aeon - thanks for the great tutorial videos! I watched them all - very useful!

I added pictures of my house bunker. as you can see inside is really quite dark. And I tried both engines and both results give such a picture. I'm already thinking about doing ao map without a roof in parts. Can you still something to advise? Thanks again!

[Sunbleached 66]

@Chic Aeon  @Aquila Kytori  

Thank you all for your help! I got this kind of bunker house and I'm very happy with the result (the house was built mainly for myself). Used the recommended settings in the Blender Render engine. You gave me a lot of priceless information. Without your help, I would not have managed.

 

Edited October 7, 2017 by Sunbleached

[Yamataca 1]

It might be too late for my answer, but maybe this helps someone else struggling with dark rooms.

Took some time to find this out trough long experiments..that 'Attenuation distance' is to fault.

Less number it has, lighter the walls become inside building.

Here are my example for Ambient Occlusion bake. Not using any lights, lamps etc.

House has roof on.

 

Edited November 1, 2017 by Yamataca